Freedom, At Last

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."