Fires in Severyana

Maxim stood there, behind a line of foals about his age, holding firelocks, guarding the entrance. He didn't know what to do. The large crowd of fifty or more foals slowly began to become more riotous as time went on. Some even began throwing stones. A few picked up sticks and began threatening to attack the stallions.

"Please! For your sake, calm down!" Maxim cried to the crowd of angry children. The reply was quick and bitter. A pony, one he knew personally, yelled "Traitor!" as he threw a rock at him. It hit him on his temple, causing a small cut.

With that, the crowd began slowly pressing forward. As they were pressed towards the entrance, Maxim yelled, "Fire a warning shot! Above the crowd!"

A loud 'Bang!' went off. Many of the children backed off. It was dangerous shooting into a coal mine, but he couldn't risk having him and his fellow stallions trampled.

Unfortunately, the crowd gathered itself back together quicker than Maxim thought, and they started pressing forward before his stallions could reload. One colt on the older side rushed forward and hit one of the ponies in his line of troops on the head, who quickly collapsed from the hit.
In a flurry of emotions for his strike-breaker, Maxim pulled out his pistol and fired at the attacker. The bullet’s aim was true, and the colt collapsed to the floor, bleeding heavily from his neck.

Maxim's hoof trembled and his pistol slackened in his hoof. He had just murdered somepony... He... He didn't want to... But he did! He had explicitly aimed at the colt. His mind started racing as guilt overcame him. He swayed heavily as he began to feel faint.

One of his strike-breakers yelled, "Reloaded!" and the rest of them quickly followed. It was just in time as the ramifications of his actions began echoing throughout the crowd, who quickly grew angry and substantially more violent. Soon, the older colts had assembled and began pressing forward with makeshift clubs.

Maxim had to bring himself back to reality. His stallions needed orders. But he couldn't think clearly enough to say anything helpful, and his head wouldn't stop spinning. He looked at his hoof that had held the pistol as tears fell from his eyes, "How could I kill somepony?" he murmured to himself.

"Maxim!" One of them cried, "Should we fire?" they awaited his command, although they were becoming more nervous by the second.
Maxim didn’t quite hear what was asked and only responded with a faint, "Yes..." a few seconds later. To his horror, a dozen firelocks fired into the crowd. Those who hadn't been struck by a bullet began screaming and fleeing down the cramped tunnels of the mine.

Maxim fell onto the ground, his mind racing. He was no longer responsible for just one death. He had just ordered that at least twelve other ponies be shot. And in the terrible conditions of the mine, even if they survived, it would surely be a slow death instead. His vision began blurring, and he heard a familiar and repeating "Ca-chunk!" in the air as the world around him began to seemingly liquefy and warp...

Maxim sat up in a heavy sweat, "It was just that dream again," he sighed. It took him a moment to regain his composure. He was in a train car headed towards Princessyn. He wasn't in those horrid mineshafts anymore. Taking a look around, he noted that, although the cabin was still dimly lit, the early sunrise was quickly illuminating everything. Blazin Glory hadn't noticed him wake up, either, and was peacefully snoring on the cushioned seat.

Maxim sighed in relief, "Thank Celestia that he's asleep. I can't be having these nightmares near subordinate troops." He hated those memories, but he was never able to rid himself of them. Laying back down, he closed his eyes, but his mind was too active to fall asleep. All of a sudden, he remembered something Pen said earlier.

Since he had little else to do, he sat back up. He didn't have any writing supplies in his bag, but Blazin Glory had a good few in his. Maxim saw that Glory wasn't resting his head on his bag, instead using a newspaper, probably the one from earlier, as a makeshift pillow. It looked somewhat comfortable. Carefully and quietly, Maxim grabbed Blazin Glory's saddlebag and took a few papers, along with a pen he found. He put the bag back into its original spot, and began looking at the newspaper, picking out words he didn't understand.

Propagate
Deforestation
Intimidate

These three words he kept writing again and again. And once he felt like he could write them proficiently, he moved onto other words. Even if he didn't understand any of them.

one hour later...

As Maxim was using yet another sheet of paper that he had taken from Glory, he accidentally pushed the bag back too far. It leaned hard and then fell. "Buh!" Glory exclaimed as the bag struck his chest.

"Glad to see you're awake Captain," Maxim remarked, with a small grin on his face.

"I ain't too glad 'bout it, but I spose I need to get up anyway," Glory unhappily responded.

Maxim gazed outside. They were quickly moving through a forest. The train whizzed past the trees. All of a sudden, the trees thinned out and vanished as a lake appeared.

"Well ain't that a sight!" Glory said as he looked into the glimmering lake through the window.

"Yes. But it is a Tartarus to fight through," Maxim remarked.

"Not everything needs to be about fighting, Sir!"

You're right. But if we are unprepared for even a moment, the enemy shall take advantage of us!" Maxim responded.

"...Why would that matter here on a train car, sir?" Glory looked at Maxim quizzically, with his head tilted a little bit.

"It's all for planning purposes, Glory." Maxim sighed, "One lake may look like another lake. It's good to have a general plan for such things. On another subject, is there anything else I should be aware of, Glory?"

Glory put a hoof to his chin, "I 'spose that ain't a bad idea... And, yeah, we're done with our briefing."

"If that is the case, then we should, nay, we must get onto planning. Can you bring out that map of Severyana again?"

"Yes sir!" Glory replied as he ruffled around in his saddlebags for a crumpled map, which he laid out on the table.

Maxim slid himself a little closer to the map on his chair, "First, we need to make contact with our troops in the Princessyn garrison. I suspect we will face mild resistance at worst. I do hope, however, they have some sort of organization.

"Second, we need to make contact with any local Forest Brother regiments and any Equestrian units that lost contact with us. Once we accomplish this, we can secure a convoy towards Equestria requesting assistance and resupply."

"But what if the garrison ain't willin to cooperate?" Glory asked, "We can't just assume the best case scenario, sir."

"Hm... You're right. What do you suggest then?"

"Well, fer starters, we don't have the luxury of know whether or not that garrison is going ta be cooperative. Plus, we don't even know where the garrison is. We'll have to ask around. And that brings a whole other list of issues at hoof!"

"You're right. We should be wary of those Severyanians. Especially since they don't trust us." Maxim replied warily, as he gazed outside once again. The lake had disappeared outside, instead, the train was passing through a dense forest.

"The forests are denser up here..." Maxim noted to himself. Before Maxim or Glory could continue talking, the train brake was activated, and the train slowly screeched to a halt. Maxim took a moment to peer outside again. There sat a few wooden buildings in a large clearing. The architecture was quite unfamiliar, since it seemed whomever built this town preferred wooden structures over more traditional and sturdy brick or stone structures. Only the train station was made out of stone.

He turned his head back towards Glory, "We'll need to pick up some food here," he said as he stood up and opened the cabin door. He started walking down the cramped train hallway, with Glory hastily following.

As he slowly moved forward in the crowd of ponies, Maxim heard a shout, "We have thirty minutes here, so don't dawdle!" Maxim could only assume that the conductor had said this. Maxim hurried to get outside, pushing his way through the crowd, a few of which were going outside.

Passing through the door, Maxim squinted his eyes against the sudden brightness. His eyes quickly adjusted to the new light. The train station was clean and orderly, something uncommon in city stations. Otherwise, it was a standard outdoor station.

Outside, a small town awaited. It was the same wooden houses and shops he had seen, which sat upon old cobblestone streets. It looked like a rather pleasant place for somepony to stay for a day or two.

After admiring the small town for a few seconds as he stepped off the train, Maxim began quickly trotting towards the town itself. He was strangely drawn to the town. Perhaps after his contract with the Equestrian military, he would go visit a town like this.

Glory quickly moved up beside Maxim, "What’yda think we should get, sir?"

"Well, depending on what they have, we'll probably just get some oats. I don't have the money for anything expensive. We can supplement our diet with grass from around here, it isn't polluted like it is in the cities." Maxim reasoned.

"That ain't a bad idea. Maybe we could get some apples, though? Fer some flavor."

"No, Glory. We can't. I just said-" Maxim was cut off.

"I'll buy ‘em. I've got a couple of bits anyway." Glory insisted.

Maxim sighed, "Fine. But you'll have to clean up any mess."

"Fine with me!" Glory responded, a bit more chipper.

The two eventually made it to the town market. It was simple. A few stalls outside selling goods and wares, and a general store. Walking up to one of the stalls, Maxim saw a mare selling what seemed to be a colorful rock.

"What's this fer?" Glory asked curiously as he walked up to the mare.

"It's a good ol' Souvenir! To remind you on your pleasant experience here!" the Mare replied in a strange accent.

"And where is here exactly?" Glory asked a little impatiently.

"We're in the lovely town of Marepolis! Last stop before entering Severyanian territory! These rocks are some geodes that our miners here in Marepolis extract from the soil. They're very pretty!" she exclaimed as she pointed out a purple one.

Maxim stepped in, "Ma'am, no matter how... Delightful your rocks are. We simply do not have the time nor the money to afford these."

"Oh! But you haven't even heard the price! They're only three bits each. A steal for such beautiful geodes!" Maxim could tell she was really trying to sell these rocks to him.

"Sorry, but we're not interested." he told her, before swiftly turning away, with Glory following suit.

"Oh okay! Have a lovely day!" she yelled to them as they walked towards the general store.

"Thank ya fer gettin me outta that situation!" Glory exclaimed as they entered the store.

"We can't afford to waste time here." Maxim dismissively replied as they entered the store.

"Welcome to the Marepolis general store!" another shopmare greeted them.

"Thanks. Where are the oats?" Maxim curtly replied.

"They're just right over there, sir." she replied, nodding her head at a small selection of oats.

As Maxim and Glory were looking over the oats, the curious shopmare, while looking at both of them, asked, "Are you Equestrian soldiers?"

"Yes, we are." Maxim replied, not quite paying attention to her as he went to grab oats.

"Oh! What'cha doing out here in the boonies?" She asked quizzically, "We normally don't get soldiers all the way out here! Though, I have seen a couple of Navy folk!" she rambled

Maxim sighed and looked over to her, "Listen, I just want to buy some oats for my trip. Please, leave me alone." he stated firmly and with annoyance.

The shopmare looked surprised and stammered out, "S-sorry sir." before she began fiddling with a pencil she had at the cash register.

Maxim quickly found a cheap brand of oats hidden on the bottom shelf. He grabbed the small bag with his hoof and tossed it into his saddlebags. He walked up to the shopmare at the register. He put his oats on the table near the register, "How much is it?" Maxim asked.

"That will be fifteen bits." The shopmare hesitantly replied

"Did you want anything, Glory?" Maxim asked, looking back towards him.

"Yes, I have it here," Glory replied, moving forward and putting his things on the counter, and looking up at the mare in a polite smile.

"With the," she looked over at the new items, "Apples, salt, cigarettes and sugar, that all rings up to..." she pushed some buttons on the register, "forty-five bits."

Maxim pulled out twenty bits and set them on the counter. Glory followed suit with an additional twenty-five bits. The shopmare gathered the bits and bagged their things. Once everything was bagged, Maxim picked up the bag and walked out. Glory delayed leaving for a moment, waiting until Maxim had fully left before he nervously said to the shopmare, "Sorry about him. He can be a bit of an asshole."

She sighed, "It's alright. Have a good day, sir." Glory turned around, and walked outside, mumbling, "I'll have to find out some way to talk to him about that..."

Glory quickly caught back up with Maxim, who was slowly jogging back to the train, but he sped up significantly when Glory started running beside him. The two ran in silence for a few moments.

Looking around, Maxim counted the amount of mares compared to stallions... As the train station came into view, Maxim asked between breaths, "Are there only mares here?"

Glory replied less steadily, and with a sarcastic tone, "Sir, it's called Marepolis. What did you expect? Stallions?"

They ran in the quiet for a moment before Maxim gave his own reply, "When you think of Manehatten, do you think of a city made out of, or covered in manes?"

"Sir, please, don't be an asshat about it." Glory snapped at him.

Maxim felt quite offended, but he didn't have a response. At least not yet. And so he stayed quiet for the rest of the run.

By that time, the train station was already close enough to read the clock, it was seven minutes till the train was set to depart.

"Thank Celestia we made it back in time." Maxim thought to himself as he ran onto the train.

Glory trailed behind, huffing and puffing as he walked onto the train. By the time the sweaty, and tired Glory had made it back to the cabin, Maxim was already sat down, reading a newspaper.

Maxim was hoping that this minor jest would annoy Glory. And, from Glory's face, which was covered in a poorly masked frown, it seemed Maxim had achieved his goal.

Glory uncomfortably positioned himself in the seat opposite from Maxim. It was easy to tell he was close to an outburst against his Colonel. Just before Glory was about to speak, a loud train horn sounded, interrupting his thoughts.

Glory sighed and stood up abruptly as the train began moving. It was earlier than expected. He walked into the hallway and found the chair he had occupied just a day ago, where he had smoked that cigarette. He was feeling anxious and annoyed, thinking into it, he realized he hadn't smoked since the prior day.

He settled into the chair and lit his lighter, quickly snatching his last cigarette from his old box. He would need to try these, "Yak!" cigarettes soon. "Built for the bold!" it said on front. Glory smiled as he lit his cigarette. He put it to his lips and breathed in, holding it for a few seconds.

"Aaah" he breathed out as his stress melted away. Right after he breathed out, which turned into a short burst of coughing, which caused him to drop his cigarette onto the floor. He quickly scrambled to grab it, fortunately, it didn't leave any marks on the cold metal floor of the train. He tapped the cigarette to get off any dirt or muck that had gotten onto his smoke.

As the cigarette slowly whittled down, he began to think about the inevitable clash between him and his Colonel. It made his stomach drop a little bit to think about.

"It's probably a good idear to apologize." Glory thought to himself as he snuffed out his cigarette on the table and stood up, leaving the burnt cigarette behind. He slowly trotted towards the cabin door, running some lines in his head. None of the lines sounded right.

"I'm sorry, sir for what I said earlier." was the best he could come up with.

He opened the door, and began saying "I'm sorry fer-" but he was cut off.

"Where in the blazes have you been?" Maxim asked with a shout.

"Well, uh, I wus smokin and-" he was cut off again.

"Does smoking take fifteen minutes?" Maxim questioned with an annoyed look upon his face.

Glory blinked, "Uh... Yea, sometimes sir." he said, a bit confused.

Maxim didn't respond, only looking away. It was clear that he was still annoyed from the previous interaction.

"Sir... I'm sorry. I really shouldn't have talked like that to you. It was unprofessional." Glory apologized, still standing in the doorway.

Maxim nodded for him to take a seat, "It's... Fine. Sit down." Maxim commanded.

Glory sat down uneasily, and scooted himself towards the window, "Well sir, uh, what do we need to discuss?"

"Nothing, Glory. All we need to do now is simply await our arrival to Severyana and see how much of a shitshow it really is." Maxim replied with a sigh as he gazed out the window with a bored expression, his annoyance seemingly melting away.

"Yes Sir!" Glory said, as he pulled out some documents and re-read them, just to help time move along quicker. And it did help. He and Maxim sat there in silence, both working on separate projects, mostly to keep themselves occupied.

The day wore on, and as evening dawned, the train neared its next stop, Krupchenko.