The Dark Ones

I ducked below a swipe from my right and, before the nosalis could react, I buried my revolver in its mouth and pulled the trigger. I was rewarded with a satisfying splash of blood, bone and grey matter.

A blood curdling yell came from across the room – one of the nosalises had pinned Kirill down and went straight to his neck. Even if I could get the monster off him and there wasn't another one right in front of my face in place of the one I had felled, there would have been no way to staunch the bleeding in time. We'd lost him already.

I feinted, and the creature fell for it. It overshot its claw swipe, and I took the opportunity – the combat knife in my hand sliced through the sinew of its spine with relative ease, paralyzing the nosalis. With it out of the fight, I took aim at the one voraciously dismembering Kirill, but suddenly, I was tackled to the ground by yet another one. To my advantage, it didn't pin my arms, and it took a blade to the bottom of the jaw for its error, piercing its brain, while my other hand held its snout away from my face. All I could hear was the alarm bells banging repeatedly and the clatter of magazines hitting the floor; the roars and screeches had gone quiet. We'd beaten the nosalises back.

“We're clear!” Hunter yelled as he rolled the snout's corpse off of me and pulled me up to my feet. He made it look so easy it was scary. "Are you okay, Artyom?"

I nodded.

"As silent as ever, I see..."

I shrugged. Everyone knew I didn't like to speak.

While I went to check up on what was left of poor Kirill, Hunter and my father talked in the background. "No Dark Ones here; just the usual tunnel trash,” Hunter commented as he kicked a corpse away.

“They don't have to be present to attack,” my father said as he walked in circles. “They don't rely on tooth and claw: fear is their main weapon. That's what they used to scare the nosalises this far into the station. They're not the usual mutant, Hunter, they are the next step of evolution, the Homo Novus of legend. Have you ever heard of natural selection, of survival of the fittest? Guess what: we lost!”

I wasn't the only one who found the dark cloud over Father's head odd. “What's happened to you, Alex?” Hunter questioned, with a hint of resentment. “You've never been the 'lamb to the slaughter' kind. So, your enemies attack from afar; go after them and show them your appreciation!”

Father did not respond verbally: instead, he opened the door to the hospital and beckoned us in. I'd seen what was inside on the way in: men in the cots, babbling and moaning about not seeing, not reaching or comprehending. “Ten soldiers, Hunter,” Father spat in a whisper. “Ten men, trained and capable of combat. Their minds are gone – no body can resist that! The Dark Ones don't attack physically; they go straight for the head, corrupting the mind until the body can't take the strain!” He turned to one of the patients, the only one who had managed to fall asleep. “You think you can play old movie cowboy against that?”

Whatever Hunter was about to answer with was cut off by the door opening. “Boss, boss, come quick! The Dark Ones, they-they destroyed the outer guard post!”

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The scene was as desolate as the sentry had told us. There was no physical damage coming from the outside. The few men who were still alive were crying like lost children, and the wails chilled me more than the bodies of the dead ones. Father turned one of the deceased over; he'd died from a heart attack.

After he witnessed the aftermath of an attack first hand, Hunter was convinced. He promised he would recon, and left me three things: a mission to find a Ranger named Miller in Polis and explain the situation in case he didn't return, his Ranger tag as a token of confidence, and a phrase that didn't leave my head.

“If we are to survive, this threat must be eliminated! No matter the cost – eliminated. Understand?”

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The chariot ride to Canterlot would have been an uneventful one for the new princess and her closest friends if Pinkie hadn't somehow found a way to get into a water balloon fight with a group of seagulls. The guards weren't surprised when they saw their charge had company; Princess Celestia had requested herself more than the single-seat she and the other established alicorns often used as soon as she received the reply from her student after all, and no one knew better than her that her student would never do anything important without her friends by her side.

It didn’t stop them from staring back at the scuffle between the earth pony and the birds. Where had they come from anyway? The sea wasn’t even that close!

Just like the gate sentries, all the guards the ponies passed by let them through with no questions other than the ones their slightly nervous eyes asked. The tension in the palace's air was palpable, even from outside the throne room. Inside, the two largest ponies in the realm were conversing with each other in hushed words.

"… it has been but a month since her ascension, and she has little to no official political study under her harness. What if she is not prepared for this, sister? What shall thou do?"

Celestia gave Luna a small frown, directing her attention towards Twilight and donning the gentle mask she was so used to wearing. "Twilight Sparkle, my dearest friend. I see you have brought the rest of the Elements as well; that's good. Welcome back, girls."

Twilight bowed briefly. "Yes, Princess. You said in your letter that you needed my advice."

“Exactly.” Celestia bowed as well. “I will ask you a question, not only to you, Twilight, but to all of you too, girls,” she said after getting up, signaling at all the present guests with a wing, “and I must ask you to be perfectly honest with us…”

She lowered her gaze to peer into the eyes of each of the Element bearers. “If your very existence was threatened by another species, would you fight them to the death? Would you have them perish for your kind to flourish?"

Each pony had their own opinion on the subject. Rainbow Dash, along with Applejack, nodded in agreement to the original question. Twilight's consisted of 'only if necessary'. Pinkie mentioned something about hostilities and 'extricating them with nuclear fire'; the rest was incomprehensible. Fluttershy went fetal at the idea of violence. Rarity decided to reserve her judgment for after she knew of the hypothetical differences between the two species.

"Excellent,” Luna continued for her sister. “Now, our little ponies, imagine this scenario: you sent these others to their demise, only to find out that hostility was not their intention at any time... but it was too late to change the outcome."

None of the ponies had a ready answer for the sudden swerve in the line of thinking. After a moment, the response was half a dozen 'no's and a weeping Fluttershy being comforted in a group hug. Her distress saddened the diarchs, but Celestia didn't change her speech to acknowledge it. "I want you all to reflect on what you've first said for a week's time. Then, you will come back and state what your outlook is on how ignorance and understanding of a situation may change both it and its outcome."

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Hunter did not return. It would not be easy to find an excuse to leave the station and travel to Polis, but I had given my word. I learned that the Caravan was heading to Riga the next day, and needed guards. I signed on for the ride.

Sleep never came to me that night. The images of the nosalises, coupled with the mangled corpse that was Kirill once, haunted me whenever I closed my eyes. To pass the time, I distracted myself by cleaning the revolver I'd been given, adjusting my watch and checking on my lighter for fuel and flint. The sooner I got to Polis, the better off I would be.

When the time to go came, I stopped by the armory. Pavel had some gear for me. "Artyom! Come right up! Let's get you suited up. First off; here are some bullets as an advanced pay for the guard work..."

Military grade 5.45mm ammunition was the Metro's currency, worth more than its weight in gold. It was a bit ironic to think of how we bought and sold our lives' worth with something that could take life away with a simple pull of a trigger, and was originally designed to do exactly that.

"Now for your gun, Artyom.” Pavel chuckled as he passed me my haul, a jerry-rigged automatic carbine that looked more like a pile of junk glued together than an actual gun. “Be careful, it overheats and jams often. Hell, I guess it wouldn't be the 'Bastard' if it didn't, huh? Here, three magazines' worth of five-forty-five, five cylinders' worth of .44,” he said without stopping his job of piling everything up on the counter. “Next we have... a couple first aid kits, a gasmask – never leave home without those unless your plan is not to come back, haha! Okay, last but not least, a headlamp and a battery charger."

As I turned to leave, he called me again. "Hey, Artyom. Stay safe, eh?"

I left with a nod for a meeting with my step-father. Ever since Hunter's visit, his temperament had worsened. He still manned the station almost singlehanded and with few complaints, but it was hard not to see a mug and a bottle of vodka on his table.

That was the scenery when I entered, him hunched over a document, a cup on one hand and a pencil on the other. The drink made the room smell, but the writing on the paper was impeccable. "My boy, leaving already?” He got up and hugged me. “Look, I know you promised Hunter to deliver that token, but please, son, do not pursue this. Rangers are brave, but their life expectancy is smaller by decades. I don't want to lose you like that. So please, once you get to Riga, deliver the cargo and come back, okay?"

I nodded without meaning it. I felt bad for lying to him about coming back straight to Exhibition from Riga, but we must play the cards we are dealt, even if the game has been rigged from the start.

As I made my way towards the platform, a familiar voice called to me from the trolley. It was Eugine... Kirill's brother. "Hey, Artyom! Did you sign up for guard duty as well?"

I nodded, taking the seat next to him.

"Wow... With 'Dead Eye Shot' Artyom here, what could go wrong?"

I was about to suggest he keep those four words to himself, but it was too late. "Nosalises, anomalies, bandits, take your pick," said the gruff voice sitting across from Eugine. It was Boris, our other guard.

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It was very clear whenever Twilight Sparkle was particularly nervous. She had reorganized the library on multiple accounts, cleaned out the chimney, and read every last book describing the theorems and formulae for possible interdimensional travel. The main reason for the last one was that the Princesses had ordered her to. The second one was that it took a majority of her attention to comprehend what she was reading. Her comfort zone was desperately necessary right now.

After devouring the words of the tomes, she spent the rest of the day coming to a hypothesis of her own. Every recount required an absurd amount of power from a catalyst, and in her mind, there could only be one thing that could catalyze a reaction that intense... The Elements of Harmony. If Twilight could just recreate the tests held within the tomes...

But even that mental exercise didn't get Celestia's words out of her head. “If your very existence was threatened by another species, would you fight them to the death?”

Why would she have them analyze such a grim prospect in the first place?