Sergeant Volkov inspected some makeshift rubble that was blocking an interior wall into their castle.
"It must hold..." he murmured to himself as he tapped the rather thin layer of dirt and broken stones.
This wall was inside a small weapons cache. Unfortunately, before the revolution the curtain walls had been demolished.
They had made due, but the strain was already showing three days into the revolution. He began wishing he had never joined the Forest Brothers.
Shaking off this thought and looking back to his soldiers, he commanded, "We need more dirt, and stone here, bystryy!"
One of the brothers, Corporal Kotov responded, "Yes sergeant!" and he pulled a half dozen ponies with him.
Volkov stepped back into a group of ponies, who were also examining the breach.
"Are we out of concrete yet?" asked one of the engineers.
"Almost. But we can't waste it on less vital breaches like thi-"
BOOM
A loud explosion blasted Volkov back into a wall. His eyes were trying to focus when he heard shouts from outside,
"For Steel Stallion!" as revolutionaries began rushing toward the now scattered rubble.
He darted his blurry eyes around. Fortunately, most of them had been far enough away from the blast that none were critically injured. A few of his engineers had already begun scrambling to grab their rifles.
He quickly stood up. He limped over to his rifle as he barked, "Neighers, get upstairs and warn Kotov!" Positioning himself on a newly formed pile of rubble. Before he began aiming, he quickly darted his eyes around.
He saw some of his combat engineers aiming toward the breach, "Hold your fire until you see the bastards!" he snarled out to his troops. They didn't have enough bullets to fire off in a frenzy against an enemy they couldn't yet see. Once Neighers had scrambled upstairs, an uneasy quiet formed in the small weapons cache, as the rushing of hooves slowly grew in intensity.
Once again, he darted his eyes around the room. The cache had mostly been emptied after the first breach. But, lined on the walls were their saddlebags, each containing one grenade, since that's all that could be spared. He was about to yell again. But, there was a very slim chance that they had the element of surprise. And if they did, it could save their lives, and maybe the entire garrison. He quietly ordered, "Brothers, grab your grenades, one at a time!"
Quickly, a few brothers, one or two at a time, began going to their saddlebags and grabbing their grenades. Volkov counted them, "Only five of us are here," he said. "We must hold this position until reinforcements can arrive." The rushing of hooves had become quite loud, and Volkov was running out of time, "If that means we must sacrifice ourselves for our fellow brothers, it is a sacrifice we must make. For Severyana! Against the Revolutionaries!" he finished quietly, raising his hoof into the air.
A few ponies with red hoofbands clambered through the breach, warily looking around.
Four rifles fired off into the breach, one of which embedded itself into one of the revolutionaries' shoulders.
The Revolutionary was knocked onto the floor, and let out a howl in pain.
To fend off the first wave, Volkov yelled, "Brothers, charge!"
Only three of the five ponies there had their bayonets attached, but it would be enough.
As they charged forward, the revolutionaries began desperately fleeing back through the breach, leaving their fallen comrade behind.
Volkov grabbed the fallen revolutionary while his brothers chased out the remaining Reds.
When he looked up, he saw another wave of Reds outside beginning to rush towards them, "Get back into position, everypony!" he cried, as bullets peppered the hole around them. He and another brother pulled their new prisoner from the breach.
Only the two who had stayed behind had reloaded and had already aimed. The rest of them frantically began reloading their rifles. None of them were skilled rifleponies, and were making many mistakes while loading, slowing them down further.
In a moment, a rush of revolutionaries entered the breach.
Volkov saw one of his brothers throw a grenade and he ducked his head, sheltering his ears just in time. He pulled himself back up after the explosion and quickly reloaded his rifle, firing it into the breach. A revolutionary tripped forward and caused a few others to stumble. But in turn, the revolutionaries began firing their pistols at him. Quickly, his brothers responded, firing their aged Maretini-Neighsay rifles and causing a few more casualties on the revolutionaries' side.
But the weight of enemy numbers began gaining on them. Slowly but surely, minute after minute, more grenades were used, and soon, Volkov was the only one left with a grenade tucked away in his saddlebags. Still, he couldn't run back there now, that would mean death for him...
Then, a miracle happened; a cloud blocked out some of the sun's rays, causing the breach to darken to a point where they could see outside. Outside was an unorganized mass of ponies getting ready to assault the castle. "Cover me!" Volkov yelled to his brothers as he ran towards the wall, which was only a few feet away. A few bullets rang out towards the exterior of the breach, causing many revolutionaries to duck, giving Volkov just enough time to grab his grenade.
He turned to run back to his spot. Suddenly, a sharp pain burned in his shoulder, knocking him to the floor.
pulling himself up, and saw many of the Revolutionaries almost getting close enough for hoof to hoof combat. There wasn't any time left to think. He pulled the pin and quickly threw it with his mouth into the breach.
A loud bang went off, and as he lay on the ground bleeding out, he heard familiar voices and gunshots. Help was here. "The... walls must hold..." he whimpered to his newly arrived brothers before the pain caused him to faint.
Author's Note
Heyo! Glad you read this real short story. I had a really hard time, but it was a ton of fun!
I always thought pre-revolution to revolution stalliongrad didn't have enough lore.
"Why are the names Russian and not MLP based?" you may ask. Well, Severyanian lore dictates that, for whatever reason, Severyana has Russian names.
As always, constructive criticism is welcome in the comments!