Freedom, At Last

Chapters

Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five

Chapter One

A room, filled with what most from the outside world would consider junk, and dirty clothes, was occupied by five men, sitting around a small oil-lamp, and plenty of pieces of paper detailing the city they were currently stuck in. Each outer border of the paper had times written, patrol routes either marked 'U.N' or 'Scav.' Each small building was labeled with a color, or letter to signify something.

The men spoke in thick russian accents, but were speaking english. Despite the current affairs of the city, it seemed three of the russians had accepted two 'Western Friends' into their group. They proved to be useful as well, as they had provided plenty of information regarding the U.N's involvement in the dispute in Tarkov. Plus, they had proved countless times they could be trusted in the heat of the battle.

You only trust someone in Tarkov if they're willing to take a bullet for you.

The room smelled of blood, dirt, sweat, and even foul-smelling food. Food, that even if it might've tasted terrible, was the only way that these five men were able to live. It seemed that the room had been picked up though, not as dirty as the others in the rest of the building. There were somewhat cleaned off tables, and even a working computer. Sadly though, they hadn't gotten any equipment to get it connected to the internet.

The internet. Almost magic to people now.

Atleast, the people stuck inside the city.

Each of the five men were assigned a certain role within the group. Boris, the leader of the group, was the best in terms of strategy. If he told you to go somewhere, you knew exactly where to go. Because of this, and of his age, being that of late fifties, he wasn't in the battles as much as he would like to be. This left him with a red coat and blue jeans that he had picked off of a scav's body when they cleared out the building they now called home.

To the right of Boris was Artyom, though as he stated multiple times to his party members, that wasn't his real name. He refused to say his real name and went off of the fictional name he came up with, saying he was inspired by a book that had been released years ago. He was considered the luckiest of the group, as he had survived countless close encounters, and even one time came knocking on deaths door after an almost fatal bullet wound to the throat.

Yet, he pulled through. Outfitted in a sand-colored rig, and a newly made Ghilli Suit, he was ready for sniping training. Training, which his friend Jake was going to teach him. Jake being one of two 'Western Friends' the group had, and had quickly become good friends with Artyom throughout his time in the group. Outfitted in the traditional american military outfit, with a dark green colored rig, a forest-pattern chestplate, and military issued green pants, he was what the group called 'Mr. America.'

Marcus, the other American was the quietest of the group. Yet, this made him an expert in sneaking around, especially eavesdropping on those they needed information from. When they needed someone to go infiltrate a small compound to see if there were any Scavs or other people, he was their man. He was a rare find, considering he was one of the few, if not the only black man in the entire city of Tarkov. Something that would normally be considered normal was considered abnormal during trade-sessions inside the inner city safezones.

The group always stood up for him against those who would judge him.

The last of the group was Dmitri. Dmitri, being in his mid-30's was a fire-arms expert. This made him the go-to person when the group needed repairs, or their weapons modified. Of course, he was happy to do the job, unless one of his party-members would give him a weapon, telling him to put a suppressor on it without providing the materials. This would earn him the nickname of 'Angry Tyrant' as he would demand more resources.

As if he was a dictator, demanding more resources from his people.

Despite this group of five going through their own personal hardships, their own personal backgrounds, and their own personalities, they had stuck together and made the few small moments count. When Marcus would come back with a small tennis ball, Boris would spend his time alone in the compound bouncing it off the wall, smiling to himself. When Artyom would find a nice bottle of Vodka, Jake would thank him constantly before offering it to the others before taking it for himself.

Or, perhaps when Pavel took a bullet for Dmitri, leaving Pavel to be the first party member to be killed in the heat of battle. Pavel was the youngest of the group, being inadequate in combat but still yearning to learn. He was the one that made the group smile with his innocence, which was something the rest of the five men had cherished deeply. It had proven that even in the worst of affairs, even in the heart of Tarkov itself, Innocence could still be preserved.

Yet, the day they finally took him out to go clearing out the mall, a spray of bullets had been thrown towards the group. The group had found cover, except for Pavel and Dmitri. Pavel had ran to Dmitri for help, but instead had accidentally used himself as a shield for Dmitri, taking a bullet through the throat just like Artyom would a month later.

Pavel laid on the floor after Dmitri had thrown him over the barricade the rest of the group was hiding behind. Dmitri stared at Pavel, examining the damage, seeing the clear as day bullet wound in the throat. Pavel grasped at Dmitri's coat while his other hand grasped at his throat, as if pleading for air. Tears welled up in his eyes, staring wildly at everything surrounding himself.

It was clear as day to everyone in the party that it was over. Despite what Artyom might experience a month later, Pavel had the unluckiest draw of the card when he was shot. There was nothing the group could do except watch their innocent little friend pass away in front of them, while a barrage of lead was sprayed over the top of their heads. Anger welled up in Dmitri as Pavel's movements had slowed, his eye's still leaking water and his hand slowly letting go of its grip on his jacket.

"Dmitri- you need to focus-"

"Shut up Boris! Do you see-"

"I see fine! But if you insist on letting your emotions get the better of you we will die beside him! Now let's go-"

"Are you saying we are going to leave him here?!"

Marcus spoke up. "We have no choice!"

"I'm not leav-" Dmitri was cut off when Boris had stood up and grabbed him by the back of his coat, dragging him along the floor while the other four laid down suppressing fire against the oncoming raiders. Dmitri didn't resist the dragging, and instead focused his eyesight on the body of his friend. His eye's welled up, and for the first time in years he cried once they made it back into their compound.

Countless times after that would they forget that Pavel was no longer with them. Dmitri found himself countless times asking where Pavel was when his sleeping bag wasn't occupied, before the group giving him a somber look and sitting in silence, allowing himself to figure it out for himself.

Dmitri, after that event, found himself becoming more and more tired.

Well, that was what the group had thought. It could've been that Dmitri just refused to be awake.

The group, after all those trials and hardships were now surrounding the small oil lamp, as they did so many times before. Their papers, as said before, outlining patrol routes of U.N and Scavs, trying to figure out a way to finally breach outside of the city borders. Jake, with his head now wanting to almost combust from the strategic talking, had got up and stood next to the window they had, watching the sunset rise up. It was ready for a new day to begin, and a new day of unknown circumstances.

Who knew what could've happened. Each of them had come to terms with the fact that they could very easily never come back after an unlucky raid. It was life here in Tarkov, and as terrible as it might seem to those outside the borders, it was unavoidable to those stuck inside. Though, just because it was normalized amongst the people didn't mean it didn't hit them any harder than it would a normal person. They were human, after all.

Humans that have had to deal with tragedies worse than most could comprehend.

According to some documents they had found in U.N bases and on U.N soldiers, there had been plenty of talks about what was going on in Tarkov. Media had gotten tiny bits of coverage, but not nearly enough to show the full extent of things. Politicians were covering up their mess, most likely paid off by special interest groups invested in the corporate landscape, which has now turned into a battlefield for those affected.

The United States hadn't put through any official action, but its people had certainly been up in arms about the situation. Most of them claimed it was a human rights violation, and that they suspected something worse was happening in the Russian city than what the elites would lead others to believe. Yet, they were found with the same response by those elites.

'Where is your proof?'

The few that had gotten inside of Tarkov for journalist reasons had found themselves dead, either by the degenerative scum inside, or by the U.N themselves. According to a document that they had found off a high ranking officer in the Southwest base of the reserve, the U.N was being supplied in funds by a third party corporation, separate from any country. It lined up with the situation easily, as all of this had started because of company warfare.

South Africa was currently dealing with it's own version of Tarkov, though on a much smaller scale, without as much damage. There were multiple failed attempts to cover the tragedy up, and that had resulted in mass riots and political change. The U.N had pledged to get involved and to help the dispute, but as they did years prior in Africa, they had done nothing but waste time.

This provided the elites in Tarkov to point to South Africa as an example. 'If it were true, it would be like that.'

The corporations involved in the South Africa incident were brought to trial, supposedly forced to after the U.N had uncovered 'secret documents' pertaining to what happened. Though, it seemed that whomever made that claim against the corporations had gone missing, and that the new leadership involved in the case would defend the corporations, calling it a misunderstanding.

The people following the orders were the ones charged.

The elites stayed on top.

With all of that news hitting the group of five prisoners of the city, they weren't hopeful with their situation. In fact, the outside news had only made them even more pessimistic in their idea of freedom. What if going out there wasn't worth it? What if, after all this time and bloodshed, it'll be even worse than in here? Yet, they couldn't let those thoughts take them over. There was no way they were going to bank all of their hardships on speculation.

Jake sighed, shaking his head and admiring the destroyed landscape outside. He wondered what the place might've looked like if it hadn't been hit so hard by the terrible circumstances. Being an American, he had the idea that most countries were third-world almost, whether in technology, if not design. He surely didn't believe that America was the best, but he certainly believed it was one of them.

Yet, even with the destroyed landscape as it is now, he never really thought of Russia having beautiful looking tree's and mountains as it does. In fact, the landscape being taken over by nature itself was proving to be a beautiful sight, albeit a sad one as well. A pang ran through his heart, and with another heavy sigh, he looked at his fellow comrades for just a moment.

Yet, a moment was all it took.

A bright flashing light blinded everyone inside the room, and a wave of compressed air blew through the windows, causing anyone standing up to be thrown to the floor. Jake had covered his face luckily before the blast, causing him to be protected from the shards of glass that otherwise would've sliced through him like butter. He instinctively reached for his pistol, and tried to gain his bearings.

The rest of the group were on the floor as well, weapons drawn and looking around confused.

Boris looked over at Jake, the one who had been closest to the window when it happened. He grunted, wiping his eyes quickly before speaking. "Sniper?!"

Jake shook his head. "I don't got a fuckin' clue what that was! Maybe a grenade? Flash? Definitely not star rounds either! It's like a fucking nuke just went off outside!"

That got Artyom to laugh. "Hah, we aren't that lucky!"

Boris shook his head angrily at Artyom. He didn't approve of the humor in such a dire situation, especially when they're dealing with an unknown element. With a sharp turn of his head, he stared at Marcus, giving him a nod. "Marcus, go to the right over there and tell me what you see out there. And, keep your fucking head low. We don't need your head being blown off."

Marcus nodded, slowly crawling over to the right side of the large window. He shook slightly, a little afraid to peer outside, but let his fingers grasp the small ledge where the window was and let his eyes take a look outside. He squinted, the sun seeming as if it got much brighter, yet a couple seconds later and with more squinting eye-searching, his eyes widened.

"Holy shit."

The group looked at him, confused.

"Guys, you need to take a look outside."

One by one, each of them stood up to take a look outside, albeit a little scared to do so, afraid of a sniper popping on of their heads off like a cap on a beer bottle. Yet, once each of them slowly saw what Marcus had a few seconds earlier, their fears were overtaken by confusion.

The area that the border wall had occupied was no longer there. No walls, no outposts, nothing. The far off mountains in the distance were gone. The dark green grass that had occupied the city was gone in the distance as well, replaced with a green vibrant color instead. The bright sun shone back to them with a blinding, godlike ray. The border, the very thing that had been keeping everyone inside this destroyed city, was gone.

There was no explanation needed. Boris turned to the other men. "Get yer' shit and let's get going!"

"B-But-" Artyom tried to counter, but was cut off almost instantly by Boris.

"We ain't got an explanation for that, do we? Why question it when we can capitalize on it! I'm sure our western friends know all about capitalizing on things, hm?" Boris joked, before jogging over to the table as quickly as he could and gathering his gear. The rest of the men followed suit. Their freedom outweighed their need for questions, and their taste of it was almost palpable.

They were almost there, weren't they?

The Coronation.

An event that was extremely rare, and even rarer to be the one being crowned. Twilight, after dealing with the events of three villains threatening to overtake Equestria, had been relaxing after being told by not only her friends, but both current, and soon to be retired, princess'. And as much as she might object, saying that she needed to be studying, or working, she couldn't deny that she was loving it. Her wing's fully extended out whilst floating in her own hot tub in a royal suite was certainly an occasion that she would be participating in more often.

Things had really changed, but it wasn't all terrible.

In fact, most of it was great. Her friends were back to their somewhat normal lives, being with their family and doing what made them happy again without worry of more villains. Spike was becoming more and more friendly with new people, especially hanging out with the Cutie Mark Crusaders, despite the trip from Canterlot and Ponyville. She herself was loving the fact that everything was seeming to fit into place.

Like she had been built from the ground up to do this specific job.

She couldn't have been more ready for anything in her life. Sure, there were current standoffs with other nations regarding trade, but that's why they had their own Tariff and Trade specialists to deal with such problems. In fact, most of these problems that were being presented to her were almost feeling like things were ramping up just to test her. And, yet, none of it even phased her.

A time in her life where she didn't obsess over every small detail. Who could've thought that she would've made it.

Despite however peaceful she felt, she was quickly brought out of it by continuous panicked knocking on the suite door. Pulling herself up and folding her wings, now standing inside the small hot tub, she addressed the knocking. "Come in!" She directed, her eyes staring at the doorway, watching it open to the sight of...

A guard?

"Princess Twilight, both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna require your attention immediately in the castle meeting chamber. This request was addressed with the 'utmost urgency.'" The stallion said, waiting for a reply from the purple Princess standing in the hot tub.

Those words didn't calm Twilight down any. Jumping up onto the tile and with a flash of her horn, she was now dry, and with yet another flash of her horn, she was gone. She didn't even address the guard, but he assumed that she knew where she was going, and ran outside the royal suite, leaving the hot tub to be unoccupied.

A flash occurred in the meeting chamber, and Twilight was plopped right into a seat facing towards Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. Celestia shook her head. "Despite this being of utmost importance, I kindly ask you to not teleport through these private chambers so often. They have confusion spells placed inside these rooms, which means you might just end up in a wall one day."

"Mm, I remember that happening to me once-" Luna said, before getting cut off by a somewhat upset Twilight.

"Now's not the time to be talking so casually! What's wrong? Are we under attack? Is it one of my friends? Is it ALL of my friends?!"

Celestia shook her head. "We are not in danger. Not that we know of. Though, I imagine this set of news will result in you postponing your coronation. It isn't something that we have dealt with ourselves before, and even Discord is confused on the logic of it."

That didn't sound very good. Not in danger that they know of, that basically meant that they could be in danger. Postponing the coronation? Definitely serious. They hadn't dealt with it before? They were thousands of years old! And, Discord was consulted and even he is confused?

Just what has happened?!

Author's Note

As some of you might know, I have plenty of stories in the works at the moment, so you might be asking yourself why I just started a new one!

Each of these stories I write are experimenting with something new. And, one thing that I've struggled to do throughout my other stories is world-building, and with such a complicated world as Tarkov, I thought this would be an excellent way to test myself.

Also, for any of you fans of Tarkov out there, i'm sure you're going to love this. Though, you don't have to play the game to get it. The game is quite cryptic itself.

Chapter Two

The men were already out of the city, past where the border should have been. They didn't ask questions, and instead followed the green grass outward, almost too stunned to believe that what was happening was real. They trusted Boris' words, telling them to capitalize on the situation. Oddly enough, they hadn't come into contact with anyone else on their little journey outside the border lines.

They had spotted a dense forest, and decided to set up inside there. Boris smiled at the men. "How long has it been since we've been in nature? And not that damned forest, i'm talking about real nature. Untouched by the idiocy of man. It shall provide decent cover as well."

The men agree'd in silence, following Boris' lead to the dense forest in the distance.

Twilight, Celestia and Luna were all in a chariot ride to the anomaly that had appeared from thin air. There had been reports almost instantly after it appeared, but none of them were conclusive. Reports of creatures living inside the anomalous zone were confirmed by guards that were nearby, but they hadn't spotted any of them leave the anomaly. Multiple ponies who were travelling along the area that the zone had occupied out of thin air were gone, or inside the anomaly itself.

"What do we do?" Twilight asked Celestia, who was sitting next to her. Celestia didn't have much emotion showing on her face, which usually meant she was in deep thought. Celestia shook her head, breaking herself out of her thought, before looking over at her student with a smile. It didn't seem certain, though.

"We will figure out what to do when we get there. This isn't the worst thing, nor the craziest thing to happen in Equestria in recent times, is it? We'll be fine."

"We're landing outside the zone now!" A Guard called out from the front of the chariot.

Twilight looked out the side of the chariot, seeing just how large this anomaly was. It was what looked like a gigantic city, but definitely not in the best shape that it could have been. It contrasted the green lush colors that surrounded it, itself being this almost grey blob in the middle of color. It didn't seem right. Even from a distance, it made Twilight feel dread. Something she thought she had gotten rid of over the years of trials with her friends.

"It is certainly large." Luna noted, looking out the side of the chariot as well. "Guards are already down there, I presume?"

"Yes," Celestia confirmed. "They haven't stepped past its border. They are waiting on our arrival."

"We're here, Princess'." The Guard in the front said, stepping out of the chariot to open up both sides, allowing the three Princess' to step out of it. When they got out and stepped onto the soft grass, they finally saw the true scale of this anomalous, grey, broken city. It's towers stood tall and intimidating, and the eerie sounds coming from inside wasn't filling any of the Princess' with hope.

"Princess'! We've got a situation over there-" A guard called out, pointing out to the border line of the city. A human, standing with it's hands wrapped around a metallic object, stared at them from just behind the grass. Twilight immediately recognized it as a human from her previous experience, but this one was much different.

It wore a heavy black jacket, with fur coming up on the top end. It had a black balaclava, and dark green gloves to match his pants. Though she couldn't identify the thing it was holding. She didn't remember anything like that from her experiences at Canterlot High.

Celestia was the first to step forward a couple steps, before stopping, allowing considerable distance between them. He stared at them still, his eye's hardly being able to be seen from the face-cover. Luna and Twilight stood behind Celestia. If anyone was going to speak to him, it was going to be her.

First, proper introductions were in order. "I am Princess Celestia. This is my sister, Princess Luna, and my dear student, Princess Twilight Sparkle. What is your name?" Celestia asked with a smile, but there was no response from the man. He kept his stance, his eyes drifting to the gold piece that wrapped around her neck.

"Zoloto..." He muttered under his breath.

"Hm? I didn't quite hear that, could you-"

The man brought the metallic object up to his shoulder, and pulled it's trigger. A deafening crack was heard, before Celestia had faltered and fell to the floor. A magic shield was brought up in front of the three Princess' by a nearby guard. The man standing at the border continued to fire his weapon, slowly realizing he wasn't making any progress.

With a quick turn, he aimed at a nearby guard and fired, striking the guard in the throat. Another guard tried to render immediate aid, but was also caught in the fire, the bullets ripping through his golden armor easily. It took a couple more seconds before a stun spell was forced onto the man, causing him to fall onto the floor, spasming from the spell.

Twilight stared down at her mentor, who was on the floor, blood pooling beneath the hole in her leg.

In a matter of seconds everything had gone wrong. Her hearing had faded out. The only thing that she could even remotely make sense of was Luna's yelling towards the guards, but she couldn't exactly understand what she was telling them. Celestia writhed in pain, and looked down at her leg with a groan, before locking eyes with Twilight. It wasn't a fatal wound, but this had been the very first time she had seen her mentor bleed.

In fact, with the two guards who had been caught in the midst of the action, it was the very first time she had seen real casualty. She looked over to where the two guards were, and multiple other guards were pulling the bodies to cover. The chariot was pulled up immediately behind the Princess', another guard rushing Luna and Twilight in, before using their magic to haul Celestia's hurting body inside it as well.

"Get them the buck out of here, now!" Twilight could make sense of a guard yelling at the chariot pilots, to which they took off without another word. They were in the air. In less than a couple minutes, they had landed, tried to make contact, before everything going horribly wrong before they were now back in the sky.

Twilight felt a little dazed by the situation, but thanked the stars that Celestia wasn't fatally hurt.

But she could've been.

The men sat around a small campfire they had made in the forest. It had been at least five hours since they had left, and they were simply enjoying the silence. They all perked their heads up when they heard distant gunfire, to which Boris shook his head. "Idiot scavs fighting still, and it's been hours. Thankfully, that life is behind us."

"But what if they come here?" Artyom asked.

"Bah- why would they? Idiot scav knows only one thing. Roubles. How would you get roubles in a forest?"

"If there's people to get roubles off of..." Artyom said to himself, looking at the campfire.

"Any of you know any songs? Before getting stuck in that shitty ass city, I used to sit with my family and sing songs with them. Might've not been in key, or the right lyrics most of the time but, hey, it was fun." Jake said with a shrug.

Boris smiled. "I know a song, but you won't know it, dear American."

Jake smiled back. "Let's hear it."

"Just don't tell mom I'm in afghan."

The three russian's sang in unison, whilst the two american's simply listened. They couldn't make out most of the words, but that didn't matter. Seeing the three men happily singing together definitely seemed in tune with their new situation. Jake hoped that this is how things would turn out onwards into their post-tarkov life.

The song ended shortly after they started. It wasn't a long song by any means, and the three russian's laughed, with Boris shaking his head with a smile. "The graveyard of empires. It was a bloodbath. I'd go as far as to say worse than our friend Tarkov over there."

"What's the 'graveyard of empires'?" Marcus asked, breaking his silence.

"Afghanistan." Artyom answered. "We were there first before the American's waged their own pointless war. The only thing you'll get from those sands is the stories of the damned."

Jake nodded. "Had a brother that got deployed there before I got to Tarkov. Never heard back from him before I got there. I understand kuwait- and other such wars, but... Bah, I guess I'll never understand. I wasn't there. I didn't pay attention to the politics of it. No matter what the hell happens, the only people that get hurt is the people fighting the war. Not the damned politicians that wage that shit."

Dmitri nodded in agreement. "Well said. I knew many men that hated you American's, but I knew it was not you who waged the war. It was the men in charge, and the men in charge are not men at all. They refuse to stand up and see the bullet coming. Instead, they pull the next disposable soldier in front of themselves."

Marcus shook his head. "I suppose the world is just fucked. They'll never learn."

"You've got that right." Artyom said with chuckle. "They've never lived what we lived through. But not even I will go as far as to say that I have gone through worse than the comrades in those sands. Two different fates. And, with where we are at right now, on this green grass? I'd wage we're better off. Never take anything for granted."

"Amen to that shit." Jake said with a laugh.

"You ever believe that perhaps the world would be better without humans?" Dmitri asked randomly, causing all the men to look at him. "Think about it. We are like a plague to the earth. We pillage its resources, we force our own kind into certain ways of living. We can't agree on a damned thing, and, name one creature that is better at killing than us."

Boris nodded. "You're right. We are the plague. Yet I wouldn't give my life up any day. I never will. Maybe in some other... universe, we don't exist. Maybe everything is perfectly fine there. Yet, we aren't there my boy. We're here. Where places like Tarkov exist, and where people like us suffer. Welcome to reality."

Marcus shook his head in disagreement. "I don't think we're a plague. Humans have done a lot of bad things, sure, but if we weren't the ones to shape the world, something else would've. We've caused a lot of bloodshed, but we can't say anything else wouldn't have either. Humans are intelligent. And, with Intelligence, comes ignorance. And ignorance catalysts into violence."

Jake chuckled. "You read too much."

"It's true!"

"Whether or not it's true-" Dmitri interrupted. "I'm just glad we're out of there. Whatever god from whatever religion came down to help us, I thank it."

"Amen."

"We got any drinks?" Artyom asked.

Boris chuckled and reached into his bag which laid between his legs. He pulled out a big bottle of vodka, setting it onto the dirt next to him. "How about we make this into a game of sorts? To celebrate our new life. With each shot you take, you must tell the others something embarrassing you've done. Either as a child, or even now!"

"Not a fan of people laughing at me- but I can deal with it if it means we get to breathe this fresh air."

"Then lets get to drinking. Marcus, you're up."

"Huh? Why me? I'm not even a fan of-"

"Did I stutter boy?! You drink!"

Author's Note

Now, I'd really like to not get into any politics consisting of what they talked about in the chapter. Remember, these are characters, they aren't real.

I just thought I should put that out there.

Chapter Three

Artyom awoke to the sound of shuffling feet somewhere in the forest. He jabbed Marcus in the side, to which Marcus grunted and gave him a nasty look. "What the hell, man?" Marcus whispered, trying to be sure that he didn't wake any of the other men up.

"I hear walking. Listen."

There was no sound.

Just as Marcus was going to call him out for being a dumbass, shuffling feet could be heard somewhere near them. It was definitely close enough for whatever it was to see them. Marcus immediately grabbed his rifle, and tapped Boris on the shoulder. Before Boris could say anything, Marcus mouthed 'Movement' to him, to which Boris proceeded to quickly wake the rest of the men up.

As soon as all of the men were armed, Artyom cupped his hands together around his mouth. "Pokazhi sebya!"

The shuffling stopped.

"Don't like this. Not one bit- middle of the fucking night and we don't even have nods." Jake groaned, to which he was elbowed in the rib by Dmitri. As soon as Jake was going to speak, running could be heard just in front of them, before a man jumped out of the bushes wielding a strange looking knife. Jake brought his rifle up to deflect the blade, but it cut the top of his hand. Dmitri pulled his rifle up, and with the man being extremely close, as soon as he pulled the trigger the mans head exploded in a gory mess.

"Fuck- jesus christ!"

"Shut the fuck up- there's more!" Marcus yelled, aiming his rifle up and firing at random in the woods. There were footsteps all around them, but they didn't know exactly where they were. Snickering could be heard every so often. Marcus shook his head. "Distraction tactics- the bastards!"

"Just focus on-" Boris didn't have time to finish his sentence before another man charged out of the woods at him. Luckily, the man had a bullet pierce right through his throat from Jake. Boris looked down at the man as he choked on his own blood, clutching a knife weirdly designed as the first man.

"I thought we got away from this shit! Who the fuck are these guys-"

"CULTISTS!" Boris yelled.

Jake looked down at his hand. If these were cultists, that meant that the tiny little cut on his hand was as deadly as a gun shot. He could barely see the little bits of green sludge inside it. These knives were poisoned! Jake immediately fled for his first aid kit. "Shit- I'm cut!"

"Grab my Salewa!" Artyom yelled.

"I don't got time-"

"Patch yourself up after we get out of this shit! Just pop a painkiller and get on your fucking feet!" Marcus yelled. Jake knew he was right, and immediately retrieved a packet of painkillers, popping one into his mouth and swallowing hard with a shake of his head. He got back up onto his feet, and kept his rifle raised against the outer perimeter.

"Ispugannyy?!" They heard a yell from deep within the forest.

"The fuck did that bastard say?!"

"He think's we're scared!" Boris yelled.

"Hell the fuck we aren't-" Jake yelled, firing a couple rounds blindly. "I'm pissed, that's what!"

A laugh came from the forest again. "Khorosho~!" Another man charged from the forest, but instead of looking like the others, he was wearing layer upon layer of kevlar, with a gigantic helmet covering his entire head except for a small slit. In his hand was a big machete, it's edge curved weirdly, green sludge sliding off of it. He swung it at Marcus first, who jumped back, raising his rifle before having it hit with the machete.

"Fuck- he's got class fiv- shit!" Marcus yelled, tripping over their little fire which had been put out already.

Dmitri fumbled around in his vest, pulling out a frag grenade and pulling its pin. He ran up to the man, grabbing a pocket on the vest he was wearing and shoving the grenade inside. Before the man could react, it was already too late. Dmitri pushed against his chest with all of his might, and a second later, the man exploded in another gory mess.

"That... that had to be the leader, right?" Jake asked, hoping for the fight to be over so he could treat his poisoned wound.

More laughing was heard from the forest.

"Fuck..."

"Luna, you really don't-"

"Nonsense sister! We must do something- eradicate that entire anomaly! They're clearly hostile, sister, your leg is enough to prove that theory. You can't be seriously thinking that we should keep it around." Luna said with a groan, obviously upset from recent events. She had to close down the rest of the day court since Celestia was out of commission, and ever since night had fallen, Celestia and Luna had been conversing about what to do. Twilight was currently somewhere else in the castle- they didn't need what happened to Celestia go public. Even with Twilight being the nervous wreck, she was able to handle it.

"Luna, we have reports that our ponies are inside that anomaly. We're not going to destroy it!"

"Then what if we seal it? What then? Perhaps that would sate you."

"Sealing it? That's almost as bad- trapping our ponies in there with those hostile creatures."

"Then what is the other option, sister? What do you expect to do? You saw how easy it was for that creature to injure your leg, and it's weapon isn't magical at all! It speaks a language we aren't fond of- and even in the dungeon it's showing us that it won't cooperate with us at all. Intelligent, yes, but it's hell bent on killing! We must build a metaphorical dam to stop them from flooding the towns, Celestia."

Celestia shook her head, not liking the situation in the slightest. "There is no easy option for us in this situation, is there?"

"I'm afraid not, sister." Luna said with a shake of her head. "We can't move into the anomaly because we don't know enough of its properties. We can't destroy it because there's ponies inside, and if we seal it we're forcing those ponies to live through such hostility. We don't know how many have escaped, either. Reports have already been telling of nearby towns spotting the creatures. The good news is, not all of them seem to be hostile."

Celestia's ears perked to that news. "Really? How can we be so sure?"

"A few of the creatures spotted just outside the anomaly have shown signs of starvation, and abuse. A couple ponies unknowing of the situation had fed a group of three, in which the three became friendly afterwards. It seems that whatever the anomaly is, anything living inside it hasn't seen much friendship."

"That sounds terrible..."

Luna nodded. "It is."

"Have we made contact with those three?" Celestia asked.

Luna nodded, but gave a sigh. "Yes, but they're very resistant to leaving where they were. Any attempt to remove them from their attachment to the pair of two ponies that fed them resulted in aggression. Both ponies even advocated for them to stay."

"They've found two friendly faces, and are refusing to let go. Hardly a strange reaction, but why are some acting that way and other's are acting out of aggression?" Celestia asked, splaying her front hooves out. "Did we encounter a soldier of their land, and those three are civilians? What even is their structure?"

A knock came from the door behind Luna, to which Celestia answered it. "Come in."

A guard opened the door, shutting it behind himself with a piece of paper in his mouth. Luna extracted it from his mouth and opened it up, the guard beginning to talk while she read. "Princess', we've made contact with a group of five anomalous creatures in the Everfree forest."

Celestia raised a brow. "I'm grateful for the update, but what is it that's important about finding more?"

Luna looked up from the paper, locking eye's with Celestia. "They're different."

"How so?"

"We can understand them."

"I don't give a fuck who you're "Princess'" are, you can't surround us and point spears and expect us to be friendly, you assholes!"

Jake wasn't exactly taking kindly to the situation.

Shortly after the bloody mess of dealing with the Cultists, they were surrounded by a bunch of ponies, each of them dressed in golden armor, and all of them holding spears. They were essentially boxed in, completely surrounded by the guards. As absurd as the situation was, the group didn't seem to care much about the fact that their new 'friends' were talking equines.

They were more concerned about the fact that they were currently holding spears towards them. Sure, they had guns, but they were easily outnumbered.

Jake sat back down next to the campfire, which had been put out, and observed the cut on his hand. It didn't seem like it was infected, which was a good sign. The Poison the cultists use is extremely deadly, and reacts extremely fast too, but he was able to get disinfectant on it along with some bandages and other medical supplies from his Salewa.

"Perhaps we drank too much?" Boris asked with a smile. "I knew we would get something spiked with crazy shit. Though I must say- this is still a nicer welcome than our scav friends inside the border!"

Dmitri chuckled at that. "Not wrong about that."

Artyom smiled to his friends. "How about another song, boys? I've got just the one- I'm not sure if you'll know it though."

"Sure- a little sing-song bullshit might just cheer me up from focusing on the god-damn golden tipped spears aimed at us!" Jake yelled. He made sure to direct that last part towards the guards currently surrounding them. Artyom gave a chuckle, before starting.

"We are wounded in the soul by you, Afghanistan."

The guards gave a questioning look to one another as they listened to the man sing, his voice carrying a sad tone as he sung each of the words. They realized that the men were able to switch from language to language- notably the three men that looked similar to eachother. The other two sitting opposite of the three didn't know the other language. Atleast, from what they were able to tell.

"What do we do?" One guard whispered to another.

"No idea. We were told to stay put and watch them- but it's a little unnerving. These ones are much different than the rest we've had to deal with. They're not exactly friendly though..." The guard said, motioning his muzzle towards Jake who was watching Artyom.

"Yeah, but can we blame them?"

"Yes. They invaded our homeland and injured the Princess- that's literally one of the worst things to do."

"I dunno... They weren't the ones who did it."

The guard shook his head. "But they're apart of the same creatures and the same place. How do we know that they won't be the same?"

The other guard stayed silent, before a third guard spoke up. "Also, why the buck did they assign the day guard? It's the middle of the night- where is the night guard? This doesn't make any sense to me."

"Night guard is on shift at the palace- they're keeping guard there until they figure out what to do with the Anomaly. We're technically 'on call' so that's why we're out here dealing with these five buffoons instead of chilling back at the castle."

"Ugh... We always get the bad jobs, don't we?"

Jake looked over at the guards. "Please, shut the fuck up. You're annoying me."

"Sigh... welp."

Chapter Four

"Princess, it's not advisable to leave the chariot, your leg is still in dire need of care, and they aren't exactly friendly-"

A blue hoof pressed against the guards lips, to which he looked up at Luna, who was wearing a serious face. "My sister has made her point clear. Who are we to deny her of what she wishes to do? With as many guards as there is, I have no doubt fate that we will be safe. Her leg is also being stabilized by her own magic, and she will heal much faster than any normal pony."

The guard sighed in defeat. "As you wish, Princess'."

"When you say that they weren't friendly," Celestia spoke, "What did you mean by that? Have they shown aggression?"

"Aggression, not really, but they're extremely vulgar, and not on the best of terms with any of the guards. They were carrying the same weapon the other creature used to harm you, but made no attempt to reach for them, except when we made ourselves known. Other then that, no, they haven't caused any trouble."

"I'm glad to hear it."

Celestia stepped out of the Chariot, her sister following next to her. There was a line of guards in front of them, ready to escort them into the forest to where the creatures were found. It was quite obvious to why the creatures weren't exactly happy with their predicament, but with how the first encounter went, Celestia knew that it was just the guards playing it safe.

Each step Celestia took she felt a wince of pain, but it was manageable. Luna wasn't lying when she said she would heal faster than normal ponies. Alicorns and their more powerful magic inside of them allowed any injuries to heal almost twice as fast, and for the pain to be dulled exponentially. It was useful in tough situations, and always reminded her that Alicorns used to be leaders in battle, which is why their magic seemed to still focus around that subject.

"The report said that we were able to understand them," Luna began to speak to the guard travelling with them, "but at what level? The report was vague on that aspect. Are they intelligent enough to understand basic words, or can they speak just like we can?"

"See for yourself." The guard said with a gesture in front of themselves, showing what looked like to be a tiny encampment, surrounded by atleast two dozen guards with their spears drawn. Four of the creatures were sitting around a burnt out campfire, whilst one of them was standing, staring at one of the guards.

"I bet that spear tip is the only fucking tip you're able to use. Fuckin' prick."

Well, atleast they knew that the creatures were able to speak, and not just in the most basic of forms.

As Celestia and Luna drew closer, two guards moved out of the way for them to enter inside the little ring that the guards had made. All five creatures looked at them, staring at them in awe, but also a bit on the wary side. One of the creatures put his hand on what looked like to be a smaller version of a weapon.

"Oi oi oi- before you keep walking-" The creature that was standing up said, putting out his hand, "I want you to tell us what the fuck is going on. I'm assuming you're these Princess' these assholes keep talking about, and I want to know just why in the hell you've got us circled like this. Terrible first impression- y'know, for royalty I thought you would've been more... regal, about your first encounters."

"Jake, boy, shut up, and let's listen to them."

"Boris, you can't say that I'm not right-"

"Shut up you idiot!" Boris yelled, spitting a bit towards Jake's direction as he did. When Boris turned to look at the Princess' once again, he realized that Celestia had a wound on her leg, amateurly wrapped in a bandage. He shook his head. "I'm sorry for my friend here- but you can understand how we might be on edge, yes?"

Boris had a much heavier, and different accent compared to Jake. An accent similar to her first encounter.

"While I'm deeply sorry for such a presentation of force, my guards are simply on edge as well. Our first encounter with creatures of your kind has been not so pleasant."

"You were shot." Boris said, pointing to her wound. "With how much gold you're carrying on you, I'm not surprised."

"What do you mean?" Luna asked.

"Gold. Zoloto. Valuable to people where I'm from. And, where I'm from, you don't politely ask for what you want."

"That's what he was after..." Celestia said, looking down at herself. "I take it that you're somehow different?"

"Different?" Another man spoke up. "Of course we're different! We're not dirty scavs! Artyom, by the way." Artyom said with a smile. "Across the five of us, we have atleast one functional brain cell. That's a lot more than any scav combined."

Luna tilted her head. "What is a scav?"

"Scavenger." Another man said, raising his hand. "I'm Dmitri- and we simply call them Scavs. They know how to shoot better than they know how to talk. Not like they're useful at either."

Jake nodded. "Got that right. They can't shoot for shit."

Luna narrowed her eyes. "My sister's wound says otherwise."

"Pft-" Jake shrugged, "Even a blind man can get lucky sometimes. We're not saying they're not dangerous, we're saying they're idiots. I don't think I've ever seen a Scav that didn't pull a gun on me."

Boris shook his head. "Back on topic. Why exactly are you here? If you thought we were dangerous like them, you would've had us killed by now."

Luna nodded. "We would have, but we can understand you. Language has been a barrier with all of the other ones we've encountered."

Jake laughed. "I'm with you on that. Russian is a weird language- can't understand half the shit these three say sometimes!"

"Russian?" Celestia asked.

"The native language of Tarkov." Dmitri said. "We generally speak English, as our two friends here don't know Russian. Few people in Tarkov know English, so it's no doubt why you didn't find anyone but us that can speak it. Still- what does this mean? What do you want?"

Celestia looked back at Boris, who was in her mind the leader. "We need to understand more about where you came from. Having an intelligent conversation with you five would prove most useful in our knowledge of that anomaly."

Jake crossed his arms. "And why should we help you?"

"I'm sure a couple guards here would be happy to polish their spear tip with your face." Luna said with a smirk. Jake looked like he was about to say something, before nodding and giving a little smile.

"My sister is joking. If you help us, we will find out how to help you in return. I'm sure a room with proper bedding would suit your needs much better than the floor here, would it not? If you agree to help us, you'll get your very own rooms."

"Our own rooms?" The final member of the team spoke up. "That seems... dangerous."

"How?" Jake asked, turning to him. "Marcus- do you know how long it's been since we've slept in a separate room from one another? The privacy?"

"Yes- but splitting us up is one way to kill us all in our sleep. It's assassination tactics- split us up and kill us separately." Marcus turned his head towards the two Princess'. "As friendly as you seem, taking kindness so easily has only lead us to be injured or trapped. It's gotten me shot way to many times, and my friends in less than lovable situations."

Celestia nodded. "I understand your concerns. If not the privacy of a separate room, atleast the proper food and-"

"-no food either. How do we know you're not going to poison us?"

Celestia stared back at Marcus. He was definitely untrusting, and Celestia had little reason to doubt that it wasn't from past experience. Jake looked over at Marcus, raising his hands in the air. "Dude- come on! Atleast let us have the food. I'm tired of eating fucking croutons and downing it with vodka."

"...Fine." Marcus said, obviously upset still. "I'm not trying anything, though. You lot can go ahead and get poisoned. You won't be happy when you're on the floor, crawling to me, begging me to save you."

"I will be happy if it means I get to have a full stomach~" Jake said, patting his stomach with his hand.

"Can you idiots hush for a moment?" Boris said with a groan, shaking his head once more before meeting the eye's of both Celestia and Luna. "We'll go with you. Anything, anything, is better than that damned Tarkov! Even if you were to kill us, I'd be much happier to have died here than to have died in such a wreck of a place."

Chapter Five

"That bed won't even hold three of us!"

"Well you can thank Marcus for being the dumbass and convincing the two Princess' to give us a singular room." Jake said with a groan, looking over at Marcus. "Seriously man, we couldn't have atleast enjoyed our stay here? Thank god we got you to shut up about the food."

"Hey!" Marcus yelled, raising his hands up in defense. "From what we've been through i'm surprised none of you are skeptical. Let's see- we're thrown into presumably another world, attacked by cultists, and are being confronted and brought into a castle by an unknown species of horse, which can perform magical abilities, have their own government structure, and can talk. How are none of you skeptical?!"

Boris chuckled, flopping onto the bed. "Marcus, when you are my age, you begin to understand that questioning everything in your life will only lead to headaches. If I die, I die knowing that I am at peace within my mind. These words I tell you are my way of telling you to shut that mouth of yours up sometimes and live within the moment. Otherwise you will live your life in constant pain, reaching for the nearest bottle of vodka like so many other russians!"

"I'm not Russian though!"

"Do you drink?

"Yeah-"

"-then I think you're close enough."

Marcus stared at the ceiling, giving out a groan. The room the men were currently in was a simple royal bedroom, given to other royals from other nations. To any other royal, it was the lowest of the low. It was a common room, with common things inside it. It wasn't anything special- almost civilian like.

Yet to the men, it was paradise.

Dmitri chuckled. "It's been so long since I've seen a bedroom not destroyed. Let alone- without blood smeared across one of the walls or the walls being littered with bullet holes. And did you guys see the city from the ride up here? It's beautiful! I can't believe we're really here."

"Yeah- yeah-" Artyom said, nodding his head. "-but what do they want us for? They've obviously got something planned. They aren't lending us this room and good food later on without something in return. And what the hell could we even give them in return?"

Marcus sighed, shaking his head. "Given how the entirety of Tarkov and the surrounding area was blipped into existence on their world? Probably something dealing with that. We forget that Tarkov is an absolutely huge place- we're talking a whole city, a whole area with nothing but forests, the civilian mall, and even down to the reserve. I could see it when we were in the sky. It's literally all there."

Jake shrugged. "It's whatever man- i'll tell them whatever they want to hear if it means we get to eat good. Come on, can you imagine bacon? Bacon!"

"I don't think so-" Marcus quickly interrupted. "They're horses. They're probably not carnivorous."

"Fuck you Marcus! You ruin everything!"

"Shut up- I'm pointing out fact!"

Artyom giggled. "Is it just me, or is anyone else loving the fact that Marcus has broken his silent streak? This is entertaining." Artyom went to take a look at the books that were on the shelf, before snapping into defense once the door was knocked upon.

All of the men turned to the door, weapons drawn on instinct. It was insane that the Princess' even allowed them to keep it. The men stared at the door in silence for a few seconds, before Jake nodded to it. "Is anyone going to fucking open the damn thing?!" He whispered.

"Fuck- fine- and put your guns down!" Boris groaned, getting up from his comfortable spot on the bed to answer the door. He slowly turned the knob and swung it towards himself, showing the pony on the opposite side. That pony happened to be a guard, dressed in the guards regular golden attire. However, this guard seemed a little different.

She had her golden armor on, but it had white stripes on it. She also had a dark purple color to her, with her mane and tail being dark purple with a darker shade of grey. She took a second to scan the room, before taking a step inside, almost bumping into Boris as she did so. "My name is Aegis, I am a service guard under the Royal Guard Armory. Under the order of both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, I've been assigned to you all as your assistant around the castle, and to inform you of the rules of the castle."

"Ooohh~ We get a bodyguard- and a girl too!" Jake said, raising his eyebrows.

"Holy shit Jake- and it's another species!" Artyom said, shaking his head.

"Shut up- I do what I want!"

"Ahehm." Aegis interrupted. "I'd like to go over some things with you all, if you would please listen."

Boris nodded, closing the door behind her before stepping in front of her, sitting on the bed. "Go ahead."

"What I am about to say are the rules of the castle, specifically designated to you five and you five only. You are held to a different standard of conduct due to the special circumstances you all have found yourselves in. Firstly, you must not go into area's that I, or other guards have said you are not able to enter. Doing so will result in apprehension, and force. Second, you will not use any force or present hostility to those who have not presented either to you. Self defense is allowed. Thirdly, you do not answer to any authority that is not official."

"The fuck does that mean?" Dmitri asked.

"There are plenty of nobles who would be interested in you five. They are not in official capacity, atleast in this situation. Under normal circumstances they would, but under these, no. I'm telling you this because there will inevitably be some public hysteria or other situations that will arise within the nobility. That is a situation for me, the guards, and the Princess' to handle. Is that understood?"

"I uh... Sure." Dmitri said with a nod. "I'm not sure why you're telling us this though. Why don't you tell these... nobles?"

Aegis sighed. "We have."

Jake chuckled. "Sounds like they didn't exactly like that?"

"No, they did not." Aegis said with a shake of her head. "They were quite upset with that news. They will try to intimidate you instead. However, that is only the first thing I've come to tell you."

"Oh?" Boris questioned.

"Princess Celestia and Luna want to arrange a meeting with one of you tomorrow morning. It will be a private meeting, with food presented. The other four will stay inside this room, and have food be directly ordered to this room. Tomorrow morning, I will come to fetch one of you for the meeting. That means that I will need you five to decide who goes."

"Definitely not Jake-" Marcus said.

"-definitely not Marcus!" Jake retaliated.

Artyom threw his hands up. "I'm not exactly the best at discussing shit like this. I'm young and dumb- just not as dumb as Jake."

Dmitri shrugged. "I don't think I'm fit for it. Not yet."

Aegis stared at Boris, who shook his head. "Always letting the old man have to do everything. Yes, miss Aegis, I will meet with the Princess'. I suppose if any of us were to meet with them, it should be the most level headed of the group, and the wisest too!"

"Age doesn't define wisdom!" Marcus yelled.

"Yeah? And those books you read don't make you smart!"

"Wh- yes they do!"

Aegis face-hoofed, turning to the door and opening it with her magic. "I will come back tomorrow morning. Please, get some rest. You will need it tomorrow."

"What? That makes it sound like something other than just the meeting will happen tomorrow." Artyom said, slightly concerned with her words.

"That is what is supposed to happen. However, the elements are coming to the castle, and I'm sure Princess Twilight would like to meet with you, despite Princess Celestia and Princess Luna telling her not to."

Boris sighed.

"Great.."