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Obnazhennaya i napugannaya

Starlight’s eyes opened up weakly as her consciousness returned. There was a ringing in her ear that caused her to wince and grunt. She turned her head about trying to get it to stop, but to no avail it persisted. She went to cradle her head, but quickly found her arm unable to move. Blinking a few more times she looked at her arms, now gaining her vision back properly, only to find both of them suspended above her head. Her wrists were bound together by cold metal rings on a chain. The chain was interlocked with a metal bed frame, a bed frame that supported a mattress that she had been laid on. The metal on metal clanged and jingled against each other as she frantically tried to break either the cuffs, or the frame in order to gain freedom, as panic now set in. She wasn’t even sure where she was, it was dark now and there was no light, but she could tell by the lack of echo and contained sounds she was making, that she was in a room.

“Ladno, ty zhiv. Zdes' ya podumal, chto budu vyglyadet' glupo, spasaya trup.” Starlight suddenly curled up into herself as she let out a muffled gasp, now finding out her mouth too had been gagged. She looked at where the voice had come from, it sounded quiet and deep like the left end of a piano key being struck. In the darkness, after her eyes had adjusted, Starlight saw a broad bulky figure sitting in what she could only assume was the corner of the room. She could only see the upper half of its body but she knew that whatever this thing was, it was big, much bigger than her. More panic began to set in as she tried to scream and cry out for help as this creature did not bode well for her. And the worst part about it, was she didn’t understand what it was saying!

“Rasslablyat'sya. Ne borites' naruchnikami, vy tol'ko ustanete.” Starlight heard the voice again, it sounded male, a very large foreboding male in fact. Starlight coiled her legs close to her and sunk her head into her shoulders. She still had no clue what this man or man thing was saying to her, so she just stared at it with terrified eyes. She wanted to be anywhere but here, she felt so exposed to this thing, and it was probably this creature who tied her here and gagged her to begin with, what did it want with her. Starlight saw the creature turn it’s head to the side. It looked at her as if it was confused.

“Vy ne mozhete menya ponyat', ne tak li?” The creature spoke as if it was a question. It then turned its head back and sat there, as if waiting for her to respond. Starlight wasn’t sure how to respond, so she just stared at the creature and shook her head in protest and out of fear for her life. The creature seeing this nodded back.

“Maybe I, use English instead?” Starlight's ears and head quickly perked up as she suddenly understood this person, albeit it still had a thick accent. This seemed to garner the right response for the figure, for he spoke again. “Ah, so you are foreigner? This complicate things. How strange…” The figure then grew bigger before her, blocking out the windows behind him that she saw his figure in front of. The massive black shadow rose up from where it was sitting, and stood there for a second. She watched it’s head turn to the side, appearing to listen for something in the darkness, looking out the windows behind and beside it. Starlight, still scared of this person's intent, listened too, she tried to hear what it was hearing. However, all she heard was the sound of gentle gusts of wind, muffled cricket chirping, and her own breathing. The figure must have heard the same thing, as it turned back towards her and approached. It looked like it had grabbed something next to it with an arm, something wooden that scraped the floor beneath it briefly before it left the ground completely. Starlight assumed this was the chair it was sitting on. As it got closer to her it spoke again, it made heavy foot falls, it’s legs thumping hard on the floor of the room.

“What I say before is, I’m glad you are alive, as I would look silly, rescuing a corpse.” The chair the person had carried with him, landed firmly beside the bed she lay upon. Knowing that this man was about to sit beside her, Starlight pulled herself away as best she could to keep this massive brute away from her body. But as the chair creaked as the man sat down, instead of reaching out towards her, he spoke again.

“You are lucky to be alive. I find you, in wheat field north of here. Naked.” The word naked resonated with Starlight. This beast of a man has seen her naked, the utter and utmost indignity she had ever felt in her whole life! The fact that she was exposed to this man, and he had touched her, carried her, made her want to scream. But she couldn’t. Normally back in Equestria this usually isn’t that big a deal as most ponies don’t wear anything to begin with. But there she had fur, here she had none of that! Just exposed skin!

However, looking down as her eyes adjusted, she found herself in clothing that she didn’t recognize. She wasn’t naked… Looking back up that the man she listened to what he had to say.

“I pick you up, take you back into village, give you change of clothing, and put heater pads into your pockets, hoping that you would warm up. Also hoping that you are not dead. Was tense there for a little while. But feeling your pulse come back stronger I figure you would wake eventually. So I go and sit in corner, over there, and wait for you.” The man before her spoke with honesty, Starlight could tell this. With twenty years in the teaching profession she could tell a truth and a lie apart after dealing with many students who try and pull fast one’s on her all the time. She may be older, but she was much wiser. In fact she was so confident in her abilities, she didn’t even need to see this man's face to know he was telling her the truth.

“While sitting in corner I try and figure out how you end up in wheat field, naked, freezing to death.” The chair creeks slightly as the man leans back in it, a pause as he turns his head to look out the window again comes, before he continues talking in this hushed voice. “First I think you are survivor of plane crash. Y’know, aircraft stray into South Zagorian air space, get shot down by surface to air missile, crash into forest, and you wander from wreckage badly wounded and end up passing out in field. Then I think no, if was plane was shot down then, where is plane crash? Right? I saw no smoke trail, no explosion overhead, surely I would have seen something, Da?” Starlight cautiously shakes her head yes, not entirely understanding what he was talking about.

“Plus you would have cuts and bruises on you from impact and, I saw none. It would also still not explain your naked… ness… So I think again, maybe you… Victim of the Bandity-toporiki the Bandity from the cities. Maybe they, find you outside your apartment and, hold you up at gunpoint. Maybe they steal your stuff and, tear off your clothes for… y’know… to have their way with you, uuuh… rape. Then once you done satisfying their animalish, piggish desires they render you unconscious, dump you in field and leave you for dead.” Starlight was shocked and completely aghast at what this man was saying. How could this person be speaking of such terrible things like this with practically no filter or censor to her. It was… jarring to say the least.

“Then I think a bit and say no, it can’t be, Topori don’t come out this far, y’know in land and I could not smell any of their, influence on you.” The man leans forward again with another couple creaks from the chair. “Then finally I think that maybe it is Chernarussian Soldats coming from north western airfield or the towns around it. Like to ambush people who walk alone and hold them at gunpoint. Take what they want and kill people who try to stop them. Brutes you see. This was most likely case for you being left in field naked, and freezing.” The man then rubs his hands together and sighs in a defeated manner.

“But, you are not a native Chernarussian. No speak Russian. You are foreigner, a tourist delight. Which while, confuses me greatly, in end it not matter. What do matter is that you are in very much danger.” He sat back up straight and looked at Starlight, who of which had actually relaxed on the bed once he had explained the alternative circumstances to what she could have been in, compared to right now.

“I will assume that, you have no clue what is happening to you, yes? I mean you show up naked out of nowhere, you can’t speak Russian so you are most likely not from here, so chances you of knowing what happening here is low. Am I correct?” The man asked her as he leaned in slightly. Starlight thought about what he said, judging on if he was actually about to help her or not. Reluctantly she nodded.

“Yes, that… that is what I was afraid of. So, I will make this brief as we are probably running out of time as we speak.” Starlight paid attention as best she could. “You are in the town of Pustoshka, a town just outside of Gil'diya vyzhivshikh, or Gilda territory. Is my town, is my home, I lived here with family, up until the outbreak. Now I live here alone. Pustoshka is a far eastern town in South Zagorian District, of Republic of Chernarus. Home to uh… three million, eight hundred thousand people, of course that number is much lower as of year ago.” The man spoke with a defeated tone in his voice, Starlight could tell he was grimacing. “See, South Zagorian district is dying, virus outbreak kill many people very fast. Local government not able to contain lawlessness in region call for national guard. Once troops show up, they find area infested with, zombies, the… walking dead. Situation is effectively hopeless and food is running out, fast.” The man then suddenly let out a dry chuckle, something that caught Starlight off guard. “Ah yes, you are lucky woman, the luckiest lucky woman in the world.” The man exhales sharply and leans back into his chair again, Starlight still unable to say anything.

“Look, I want apologize for gagging and binding you. I am not like Topori Bandity, I will not indulge myself upon you or anyone, like they would. I have much self respect for me and others. While some may say that will get me killed,” The man thumped his hand against his chest, or at least that’s what Starlight thought he did, “I still live, so I stick to my guns. Reason I do this is to keep you from screaming… or running back outside before I speak to you. Because out there, are beasts, zombies. They will tear you limb, from limb. If not that you might get lost in dark, freeze to death before I find you again. This would hurt.” The man stood up from his chair as his presence now loomed over Starlight. She wanted to move, run away from this stranger yet, while his face and his body have been cloaked in shadow, she could feel he was… kind.

Starlight felt his hands rub against the sides of her face. He was ice cold, which made her jump. He spoke as his finger wrapped around the rag that was gagging her.

“If I take rag from your mouth, you promise not to scream? The man whispered to her, as his face and her own had now gotten much closer, she could feel his hot breath against her hair. She nodded almost instantly, wanting the rag away from her as fast as possible. But before he did anything to her. he spoke again.

“I hope so, because if you scream… I will not hesitate to kill you,” Starlights blood ran cold again, “There are those things outside, they hear you scream, they will come running. They will knock down that door, and smash through windows to get to you and I. They will tear us apart, limb by limb, with no remorse. So, if you scream, I will kill you to save myself, you must understand this. I don’t want to kill you, but I will if I must.” Starlight, frozen up for a moment at the bluntness of this man's words, nodded again, this time slowly.

Feeling her head move beneath his hands the man tugged at her rag, and untied it from her mouth. Starlight felt a bit relieved as the man pulled the cloth from her lips. Starlight took in and exhaled many deep breaths before doing anything else as breathing through her nose was becoming quite restrictive. As her chest fell still again, she spoke the only words she could muster at the moment, given everything that had happened to her or could have happened, and taking in everything he had said to her and told her.

“Th-... thank you. You really saved me, I’m sure I would have frozen to death out there if you hadn’t come along. Given the circumstances and the problems that you faced, I think you acted accordingly to the problems you were faced with. While I may not be happy with you, gagging and binding me, I understand why you did it.” Starlight, ever the more level headed and smart thinker of the bunch was able to reason with her friendly captor, seeing him as the best out of a very dire situation.

“Wow, you really are a foreigner. Uh- Yes. You are welcome. Glad you were actually able to survive frigid cold. Not many people do that.” The man said in return. “I think people the many people who die of cold, are as many people who die of gunshot wounds or zombies. It is, what you might say a, re-... reeeality check yes? Yes.” Starlight cuts in.

“So, Zombies they… Are real?” The man nodded his head.

“Yes. They are real. It was surprise to all of us, but when dead start to walk and eat people. You believe quickly.” The man said sadly. Starlight was at a loss of words.

The mirror had truly sent her to a place unlike anything she had imagined. This place wasn’t like Equestria at all, or the human world she had come to know about and visit in the past. This place was a nightmare, and she had only been here for a couple hours. In those couple hours however, Starlight had already succumbed to the fact that she had zero confidence left in her at this point, if anything she was at the mercy of whoever this man was. Speaking of which, who was this man?

“Uh- W-Who are you?” Starlight nervously asked, looking over at him. In the darkness of the night, the man responded bluntly.

“Alexi. My name is Alexi Konstantinovich Popov, son of Konstantin Popov. You?” The name rolled off his whispering tongue and into Starlight's ears like steam off a hot bath. It was such a long and exotic sounding name. Starlight liked the way it sounded, and so she responded rightfully.

“My name is Starlight Glimmer, pleasure to meet you Mister Popov.”