Breaking Beans

"...and the Karkand Government has stated to the public that all evacuation operations are to cease next week, following the new operation suggested by the Siberian Military to..."

A wheezing cough came out of Rainbow Dash. She was awake at last, following a bad dream that came to her. She groaned with pain coming from her chest as she tried to get up from a very comfy bed. A blanket had been draped over her.

"Am I in a hospital..." she mumbled, thinking out aloud as she shifted on the bed trying to suppress the pain.

There was a sound of a fridge being opened and glass clinking.

"Ohhh Twilight, you're here..." Dash continued to mumble sub-consciously, "I had such a bad dream...there were...there were zombieponies...and there was a town. Full of them...I was so scared...and somepony shot me with their crossbow...I think I died...or something...."

A calm voice responded back. "No, you're not dead."

"I know, I know Twilight...I just...it felt all too real..."

"Maybe...because it was?"

"What are...you...talking about?"

"Sigh, snap out of it, will you?"

Dash opened her eyes. She was in a dark room. The curtains had been drawn to block the sunshine, leaving thin rays seeping into the room. The walls and furniture was in a poor state. Beside her on a table was a mess of bloodied bandages, strings and medical tools.

She screamed as she moved to the other side of the bed to get away from the table. A hoof stopped her.

"Don't. You'll hurt yourself more by moving."

She turned her head to see who was talking. She was expecting a pony's hoof stopping her; not a white paw. Slowly, her eyes moved up to the white wolf that stared back at her.

Dash gawped and tried to speak. "I...I...w-w-what are you?"

The wolf snorted and smiled. "I was going to ask you the very same question."

Dash continued to stare at the wolf. Her hair covered her right blue eye. A blue bow was tied to her left ear. She was wearing a gray jacket with a fur hood, stained with dark spots and tiny scratches. The wolf's face was scary, but it had a polite expression.

"Just stay still, ok? I'll be back soon."

"Why should I stay stil-" Dash widened her eyes as she lifted the blankets and saw a large set of bandages wrapped around her body, with a very large spot of red in the middle. Putting the 'dreams' and the bandages together, she realised what had happened.

"YOU! You sh-"

The wolf had already disappeared, the absence of her leaving that quietly and that fast made Rainbow Dash stop in mid-sentence. She slumped back on the bed, huffing with rage. She wasn't in a dream; it really did all happen. For what reason did the wolf had to do it?

As the wolf returned with a bottle, Dash pointed at her and exclaimed in anger.

"YOU SHOT ME!"

Dash screamed in pain as she tried to get off from the bed. The injury set her down back on the bed as the wolf calmly placed the bottle on the bedside table and tried to calm down Dash.

"I told you, don't move. You'll open up your injuries if you keep moving about."

Dash wasn't happy, but she calmed down and got comfortable in the bed, not wanting to be in constant pain. Seeing Dash relax, the wolf relaxed herself too as she dragged a chair closer to the bed and sat down. She picked up the bottle and biting the cap off, she took a long sip from it. Silent moments passed by with each sip.

Dash decided to break the ice first. "So...what are you, may...I ask?"

The wolf talked as she sipped her drink. "A lupine. Or a wolf. I really don't care what you could call me."

"Well...do you have a name?"

The lupine paused for a moment. "Whitney. And...your name?"

"I'm erm, Rainbow Dash."

Whitney stopped drinking and raised an eye. "It's not a coincidence you have that name...right?"

Dash looked confused. "Um, what do you mean?"

Whitney shook her head and looked away from Dash's mane. "Never mind, forget I said that." She resumed drinking once more. "What about you...what are you?"

"A pony. You've...never heard of us ponies?"

Whitney stopped sipping and raised her head. She was in deep thought, having heard of the term 'pony' before. Once in her life the word was spoken to her, but she regarded it as a foreign thing...that she would never hear it again or see something that had the definition of the term 'pony'.

"I...don't think I have..." Whitney finally stated, unable to recall that memory.

Dash turned her head so she stated directly away at the ceiling. "Oh...I see..."

There was a moment's silence as she the only thing that could be heard was Whitney slurping her drink.

Dash wondered about what had happened in these last few hours. She had woken up on a beach, without any of her friends. She had no idea how and why she had ended up here, where zombies roamed the lands. She was chased, did things that made more zombie chase her down, almost bitten and attacked, saved by a survivor who then shot her when she tried to get up. And now she finds herself lying in a room with the very same survivor, unable to move until her wounds have healed. She was in a bad state. There were things she didn't understand. Who were the Lupines, and how did they end up having zombiewolves everywhere? How has Whitney survived? Are there other survivors out here?

Why was she here?

Dash jumped to that thought. What in goddesses' name did she do to end up in a place like this? She tried to recall any memories before waking up on the beach. She closed her eyes and drifted off. Seas of memories flashed by. Some with her friends; others when she raced other ponies; the times of saving Equestria from evil...but nothing seemed to relate to how she ended up on this beach. Hang on...

This dull beach, a cloudy sky, very little colours...where was she?

"Where am I?" Dash said as she opened her eyes and raised her head off the pillows, looking at Whitney.

"Hmm?" Whitney looked up from her bottle.

"I want to know, where am I?"

"How can I put this..." Whitney propped her head on a paw as she thought of how to answer the question, "mmmmm, you're...in a magical land of happy things?"

Dash scoffed as Whitney chuckled at her own joke.

"I mean like, you know...what's the name of this land?"

Whitney spoke seriously. "The land of Chernarus. Zombified. Contained by everywolf else."

"Every...wolf else? Who else is here?" Dash now wanted to get as much information as possible.

Whitney finished the bottle before explaining it to her:

"Once upon a time, in this glorious land; the Lupines had discovered the power of industrial production. Together, they worked as one; like a giant unified pack, where each wolf was a cog in the machine that drove towards all the luxuries and essentials that would shape not only the land, but themselves. The Industrial Revolution; we called that period in history. Brought so many things here...

But it was not all good. With production came the tools of power. The tools making weapons. The weapons inevitably making a killing machine. The killing machine making more power. War broke out in separate places. The start of war brought the end to the Industrial Revolution. The unification had died; splitting into multiple packs of wolves that fought endlessly for power.

As quickly as the war began, it soon ended. A small pack of...well - eggheads, I would call them - still believed in the idea of unification and keeping the lupines together. They went to massive...and ballsy lengths to do that. I still find it interesting that they did pull it off...and finally getting the largest packs on the land to sign a declaration of federation...and all was well again, blah blah blah; outbreak happened in Chernarus, and everywolf here is either fucked or zombified."

There was another silent moment.

"And so what's is the place called, unified?"

Whitney smirked. "The Lupine Union. Interesting title, is it not?"

*****

Having checked to see if Dash was recovering well, Whitney left for another scavenging trip. Having told Dash to stay inside and remain alert, Dash had managed to get out of bed and sit on a chair; relocated beside a window so Dash can look over the town while staying out of sight. Beside the chair sat some painkillers and a gun. The gun was...sort of new to Dash. Some griffins she had met in Equestria had guns - mostly made of wood, they were sleek, elegant and had very detailed designs on them. They only fired a single shot, and the rounds used were small metal pellets. The griffins only used their guns when under attack by changelings.

The gun here though was miles away from a griffin's gun. Whitney had said it was a shotgun; capable of firing multiple pellets per each shot. Dash inspected a red and gold canister carrying the pellets with her hooves. She eyeballed it with interest, wanting to know how the weapon fired it. The gun itself was simple (A farmer's friend, Whitney said). The gun had a wooden stock, with two long metal barrels glued together. Putting down the shotgun shell, she took up the shotgun and inspected it. She broke the stock-end, revealing two shells already loaded in the barrels. Clipping it back, she lightly tapped the trigger. Thankfully, she could slip her hoof though the trigger hole and touch and grip it with ease. Whitney had no choice but to leave the gun for Dash to protect herself with. She knew Whitney was still being cautious and wasn't yet to trust her, but Dash wasn't going to betray her trust. She didn't want to kill, let alone shoot someone whom was being friendly to her.

Friendship is a magical thing, after all.

Rubbing her bandages, she watched the world outside her. Ever since she had been told that she was in a land that is not known to Equestria; not even written down in Equestrian History - everything she saw was so foreign to her. The houses were made of brick and stone; each one having a varied colour theme of gray, brown and red. Most of the structures were still standing; but having had no care or maintenance for quite some time, they stood dull; the paint on them peeling off small spaces. The zombies were out - some walking on two legs (which always creeped out Dash) other crawling about and some...hopping around (which also creeped out Dash as well). She observed the area around the town, seeing all the lush green hills and autumn trees and pines mixing with each other. The sun was shining under a patchy sky. Beside the main road leading out of town, there was a large sign, picturing hills, trees and sun rays. The line of text on it was in a different language, but below it was a line readable for Dash. "Sunny Chernarus. A place to be."

Dash smiled. Without the zombies, it would be Sunny Chernarus.

Plans rolled about in Dash's head. Once she healed well enough, she could take off and fly back to Equestria, from there she could gather her friends and contact Princess Celestia, to form a large-scale operation of returning Chernarus back to normal. Dash started writing up a mental list: Find a way back to Equestria. Find Twilight, Applejack and the rest. Form a large group to return to Chernarus. Make it sunny once more.

She smiled, looking over the imaginative list. It would be hard, but nothing she hasn't done in the past wasn't easy either.

*****

It was late afternoon when there was a patterned knock on the bedroom door. Dash had already seen Whitney coming in (and was shocked to see how swiftly she moved about in the town) but listened to the series of knocks she did: Three fast, three slow, two fast. There was a pause as Dash overheard Whitney whispering "Shit. Why did I do that, she doesn't know my code." before speaking loudly "Dash it's Whitney here, open up."

Getting off the chair and trotting slowly across to the door, it took a few tries to grab hold of the very high doorknob with her mouth before she managed it on the sixth try. Whitney poked her head in first, observing whether Dash carried a gun before she fully came into the room, her backpack larger this time. Its was a good day for her.

"I figured you'd might run away already, or something..." Whitney said, opening up her backpack on the bed.

"Well...you're the only...the only lupine I know around here." Dash said meekly. She trotted over to the bed and looked at each item that emerged out of the bag: some more shotgun shells, a few curved rectangle boxes, bottled water, some tin cans with pictures of beans on it, a large yellow tube with some sort of glass in one end and some bandages packed into small green packets.

Whitney began to re-order her equipment while Dash checked her bandaged body. She was healing well enough for her to start moving around without being in too much pain. The injury stung now and then, but Dash found it tolerable. She was a very strong pony, after all. Her wings were also bandaged. She unwrapped a few of the strips to check to see if she could still fly. Step one of the list would be to have good wings.

"Dash...can I ask you a question?" Whitney said quietly, not looking away from her stuff.

"Whuf is it?" Dash's mouth was trying to pull off the strips.

"You can...fly, right?"

"Mmmmf, yuh." Having pulled off the wraps of one wing, she began on the other wing.

"Ok...I would say though...don't try to fly, ok?"

Dash stopped. "Why not?"

Without turning her head, Whitney looked at Dash. "You might get shot. And I don't want that to happen to you."

As Dash continued, her heart had dropped a little. If she couldn't fly out of Chernarus, how could she get out?

She finally removed her bandages off both her wings. Standing up, Whitney watched her as Dash spread out her wings. She could only manage to flutter them before she sprawled down on the bed, moaning from the pain. Her wings hadn't healed that properly.

"Ohhhhh....why can't I fly?" she moaned.

"I don't know. Did you do something to get in here?"

"In where?"

"Here, in Chernarus."

Dash paused before answering the question. "I have no idea how I ended up in here."

Whitney kept silent as she finished loading her backpack. She pulled out her AK, checking and counting the new supply of rounds she had. Dash carefully observed the details of the rifle as Whitney pulled out a dirty cloth to clean it. Dash eyeballing the gun didn't go unnoticed.

Whitney smirked. "I suppose you want a gun like this one?"

Dash nodded. Her interest in Lupine firearms were growing.

"Well...I think we can find you one..." she lowered her voice until it was just a mumble, "maybe trade some BGMs for one at CorditeNation...and try to at least disguise...her body..."

Dash perked up her ears to hear a distant crack. Dash stood up, staring through the bedroom window; her heart beating fast once again as adrenaline and fear kicked in. Even Whitney was on high alert as she slid quickly to the wall below the window and poked her head up. Dash lay still from her position, waiting for Whitney's discovery. Whitney hardly moved, her body almost like a rock with an eye watching the town like a hawk. The only movement Whitney made was to shift her paw right on the trigger of her AK.

This could be very bad, Dash thought.

Minutes passed. Whitney was still like a rock. Dash lay down on the bed again, gripping her shotgun loosely in her mouth. There were distant sounds of doors opening, something running, the gurgling sounds of agitated zombies before muffled gunshots silenced them. It quickly dawned on Dash that there must be other wolves around...and that Whitney can't trust them. Having finally understood why Whitney shot her last night, she now questioned herself as to whether she had the morality to do such a thing - to not trust anything at all. It was easy for Dash to do that before back in Equestria, knowing what was right and wrong. Like differentiating an apple and an orange. The difference between good and evil.

"But nothing is right, and nothing is wrong here in Chernarus." Whitney had said.

As the sun set over the horizon, Whitney finally moved; taking her paw off the AK and moving slowly back onto the bed. Dash released her grip on the shotgun as she asked what was out there before.

"Scavengers, I presume. They got KWM equipment and some crap weapons. I'm glad they skipped this house."

"What w-w-would've you done if they came in?" Dash was afraid of the answer.

Whitney shrugged. "Tell to piss off. Shoot them if they refuse."

Whitney started to pack her remaining stuff around the room.

"What are you doing?" Dash asked.

"Well, I've planned out what we're going to do," Whitney said; slipping on her backpack, "look, we move out to Elektro; nice place...for the experienced really. But I know a Lupine out there who can get you some kit to survive out here."

Dash thought over Whitney's plan, wondering if this was a good idea at all, to be leaving this place. But if other lupines who could've been unfriendly had been here not long ago...

"...that's if you want to come with me."

Dash nodded. She didn't have another choice that left her not being alone.

Putting on her makeshift saddlebags, she also made a Muzzle Trigger; a contraption that had a strap wrapped around the shotgun's trigger, the other end of the strap having a mechanism that allows Dash to pull the trigger with her mouth. The shotgun was strapped to the side of her body. Back in Equestria, there were such things called a "battle saddle", allowing ponies to fire griffin-made guns, but since there wasn't any of that sort in Chernarus, she'd have to make her own. Or at least something that functioned like one.

Whitney had also given Dash some KWM equipment. Dash had learned that there was a neighbouring nation that tried to help Chernarus when the outbreak started. Their military airdropped supplies and uniform that would help identify survivors and would serve as a practical use to them. These boxes of supplies would mostly be a small backpack, painkillers, bandages, a flashlight, a black tactical vest that can carry lots of stuff in its pockets and a black hat. Whitney only had a spare black hat to give to Dash...and she wouldn't have been able to wear the vest anyway since it wasn't designed for ponies...

Supplied with a shotgun and some ammo, some of the essential kit in her saddlebags and a hat to hide her rainbow mane, Dash felt more confident. For once, since she woke up on the shores of Chernarus, she felt happy. Hopping off the bed, She took a step towards Whitney who was waiting for her. A step towards living for another day. Towards survival. Towards making an escape out of Chernarus.

Towards returning to Ponyville.

Checking the surroundings outside before opening the front door, Dash followed Whitney, both trying to use whatever stealth skills they learned. Well, Whitney's skills were from experience; Dash had learned hers from Whitney in a one minute lecture. Walking past the hidden vehicle Whitney had hid beside the house, she decided it wasn't the best idea to take it with her. It was one of those things that had to be left behind. Dash took no notice of this, and trotted forward beside the road, where Whitney turned and followed suit.

As the sky darkened, together they traveled towards Elektrozavodsk. With nothing to be afraid of.

Chernarus

Kamyshovo

Day 1