Chapter 1: Into the Unknown
Chapter 1: Into the Unknown
"They are coming," Miller shouted, "Artyom man the flamethrower." Artyom did as he was ordered and got up on the trolley and started up the flamethrower letting out a few blasts to make sure it was working properly. "Artyom wait till they get within range before you start burning them, we don't want to waste the fuel," Miller instructed. They started to hear the howls of mutants and the pitter-patter of their paws running towards them.
"The tunnel is too dark I can't see anything," Stepan said.
"Artyom, when they get about five meters close start torching them, it'll be easier to see them then," Vladimir said.
"FIVE METERS!" shouted Ulman, "well, I forgot to bring a change of pants and underwear." Miller smacked Ulman upside the head. The mutants were closing in fast. Artyom was manning the flamethrower. Stepan, Boris, Pavel, Ulman, and Miller were in line behind the trolley below and out of harms way of the flamethrower. Vladimir and Danila were up in front trying to open up a sealed gate that led into the station they were trying to get into.
"Here they come, be ready for anything we don't need people screwing up and dying here," Miller said. The mutants were 10 meters out. Pavel got scared and started firing into the dark causing everyone else to start firing. After about five minutes of them fighting a light came from the other end of the tunnel. It was blue and made zapping sounds. "Anomaly! Vladimir, Danila hurry up with that gate we aren't going to last long." Miller said.
"We're doing the best we can just give us a few more minutes," Vladimir said.
"I don't think we'll have a few more minutes if you don't hurry the hell up and get that gate open!" shouted Stepan yelled. The Anomaly was getting closer driving the mutants even more closer and killing the ones that were too slow. The Anomaly was 20 meters away. The group in back started walking backwards and got back up on the trolley still fighting the mutants.
" Oh god, we're gonna die," Ulman shouted in fright.
"Well, if we're going to die I'm going to die fighting," Boris replied.
"We aren't going to die so shut the hell up," Miller started, "Vladimir how much longer with that gate?"
"Almost there . . . Got it," Vlad responded. The gate started to open but it was too late. The Anomaly stopped right behind the trolley. It started to glow and everything started to go white.
"I . . . don't . . . think . . . this is . . . a normal . . . anomaly." Artyom said.
Several hours later
"Artyom wake up, wake up Artyom we have to wake up the other and leave," A familiar voice said. Artyom was being shook awake by someone but his vision was blurry and he couldn't see well.
"Who are you," Artyom asked rubbing his eyes.
"It is Khan," he replied, " I don't know how I got here all I remember is a bright light and then I'm here."
"Who others?" Artyom asked.
"The rest of the rangers or stalkers you were with," Khan replied. Artyom looked around and saw the bodies of his fellow rangers on the ground what puzzled him was that there was one more body. He then realised that he was on the surface of the earth. They were in a clearing of a lush green forest and the sun was shining but it didn't hurt his eyes. The grass was green and felt nice to the touch. He then felt a cool crisp breeze of spring he had experienced this before as a child but that was long ago. It was very serene and quiet but he still felt though as if something evil was in the forest and it was watching him. A few birds went flying into the sky chirping all the way and he felt calm and safe for the first time in a long time. He got up and proceeded to wake up the rest of the rangers starting with Miller first.
"Ugh, where am I?" Miller asked rubbing his head.
"I don't know, nor does Khan," Artyom replied.
"Wait, Khan wasn't with us when we left," Miller said perplexed.
"Same thing happened to him as to us," He responded.
"This place is beautiful is it not," Khan said walking up to them.
"Yes it is but it doesn't feel right," Miller said looking around.
"Yes it is strange, feels as though something is in there watching us but you don't now where," Khan replied, "hurry we need to wake up the others we cannot linger here for too long something evil is in the forest," The three proceeded to wake everyone else up. After all the rangers were up Artyom went over to see who the other unknown man was. He approached the body cautiously, then crouched down and flipped the body. He jumped back in horror realising who it was. It was Bourbon. He prodded at the body and the man woke up.
"Ugh, what happend?" Bourbon inquired trying to figure out where he was.
"You . . . you. . . died in the tunnels," Artyom said hestitantly.
"Yeah I know that's why i'm asking dumbass so what the hell happend?" Bourbon shouted.
"I guess what happend somehow ressurected you and brought you with us and don't shout this isn't the place to do so," Khan said sternly.
"And who the hell do you think are," Bourbon inquired angirly.
"I am Khan and could you stop using such profanity it is useless and unnecessary where you are at," Khan said rather calmly now unlike before.
"Wait. . . Ah what is this place. . .how are we able to breathe without gas masks?" Bourbon asked freaking out.
"We don't know but we have to leave," Khan replied. They all packed up their stuff and made sure all their stuff was there and that their weapons were ready to be used in case of an emergency and started off.
"Which way are we going?" Vladimir asked.
"North, you always go north," Miller replied. They started going north and entered the forest. As soon as they did it got very dark due to the canopy of the trees but they also got an oppressive feeling of danger, dread, and fear. They turned on their flashlights and kept on walking trying to rid the oppressiveness. They walked on for several minutes and then heard a strange noise behind them.
"What was that?" Pavel said turning around and raised his gun pointing towards the area where the noise came from. They heard more rustling and it was getting closer which made them edgier. Pavel cocked his gun and was about to fire when a chicken came out of the bushes. "Oh, it's just a chicken must've gotten away from its owner," Pavel said relaxing and turning on the safety on his gun.
"Should we kill it?" Danila asked.
"We are in a new place with unknown creatures living here and if they are sentient like us then we shouldn't anger them by killing their livestock," Khan said. Danila shook his head in agreement. They left it alone and continued on moving north as they went through the bush the chicken clucked. Then something popped out and all the chicken could do was make a shrill noise before being eaten. Artyom heard the shrill noise and looked back waiting to hear the sound again. After a few seconds he turned back.
"We've been walking for hours can we take a break my legs feel like they are going to fall of," Ulman complained.
"Shut up and stop complaining," Miller said.
"This is not the place to take a break wait till we are out of here," Khan said. They walked for a bit more and saw light coming through an opening in the trees about twenty-five meters away. They started to run and as they did they heard a howl and a blood curdling scream.
"Come on we have to help who ever is in trouble out there," said Boris running towards the exit of the forest. When they came out of the forest and immediately saw a nosalis trying to get something in a hole that was still screaming. They all opened fire on the nosalis killing it almost instantly with the combined firepower of all their Kalashnikov's.
"Stay here I will try to see if I can get what ever is hiding in the hole to come out of it." Khan said. No one protested against this seeing that he is the most calm and persuasive one in the group. He put away his weapon and moved cautiously to the hole. As he got closer to the hole he could hear whimpering of what sounded like a little girl. He slowly peered into the hole and in the back he saw a yellow creature with a pink mane and pink tail with three butterflies on its back side. On its sides it had wings and it was shaking terribly and it was even more frightened by Khan. He stuck out his hand and said calmly and smoothly, "It's ok you are safe now I won't hurt you come out." She reached out a hoof and he pulled her out.
A few moments earlier in Ponyville
Princess Celestia and Princess Luna had just touched down from their chariots. They came down from Canterlot to spend the day with Twilight Sparkle and her friends. "Hello my faithful student how have you been?" Celestia asked.
"I'm fine how are you doing Princess?" Twilight asked.
"Just fine thank you, so what is planned for today's adventures?" Celestia asked.
"Well we have to wait for everypony else to get here, then we are going to go to Sugarcube Corner and get sweets for today's picnic at Sweet Apple Acres, then we will go for a walk, and after lunch we'll see if we can get people to like Luna more and not be afraid of her," Twilight said. So they waited and then out of nowhere Pinkie Pie jumped out and startled them. "Pinkie you need to stop doing that," Twilight said taking deep breaths.
"Okie Dokie Lokie, I was just so happy to see you guys that I just couldn't contain myself," Pinkie said with a cheerful smile on her face. Over the hill came three more ponies: Rarity, AppleJack, and Rainbow Dash.
"Howdy Princesses," AppleJack said tipping her hat at them.
"Hey Celestia, hey Luna," Rainbow Dash said.
"Have more manners darling, how are you on this fine spring day?" Rarity asked.
"We're doing fine," Celestia said looking over at Luna who was staring into the Evefree. "Something wrong Luna?" Celestia inquired.
"No, it just feels off like something is in there but it isn't supposed to be there," she said. Everypony gave her a strange look. "I'm sure it's nothing though I always get strange feeling from the Everfree don't know why just do," Luna said staring at them.
"Well, now we just have to wait for Fluttershy to get here," Rainbow said.
"Strange she should be here she's never been late," said Twilight. All of a sudden they heard a blood curdling scream. "What was that," said Twilight frightened.
"Sounded like Fluttershy c'mon," Rainbow Dash said. Thought before she could speed off they all heard loud noises that were strange to them. These noises frightened them more so they rushed faster to Fluttershy's place.
When they got there they saw a strange creature crouching in front of a hole. It was talking in their language saying, "It's ok you are safe now, I'm not going to hurt you come out." The little yellow creature reached out its hoof and Khan grasped it and gently and slowly pulled her out of the hole. "What is your name your name, that is it you can talk," Khan said.
"My. . .my. . . name is Fluttershy," she said.
"Fluttershy, hmmm fits, my name is Khan if I or we frightened you we are sorry," Khan said to her.
"You didn't frighten me that thing did," she replied. "What are you?" she asked.
"Me, I'm a man or rather a human and what are you?" Khan said back.
"I'm a pegasus," she responded still nervous around Khan. The other rangers came out of hiding but none of them noticed the approaching group of ponies. They started to introduce themselves one by one and this caused Fluttershy to get more nervous and scared. She had never seen anything like these humans before and she didn't know what they could do to her. Danila was staring at Fluttershy's house and was looking around and noticed chicken coops. Then, he noticed the group of ponies moving towards them. He nudged Miller's arm and pointed in the direction of the ponies.
Twilight was the first to walk up to them and looked down at the dead creature riddled with holes. "What is this thing?" she asked poking the creature with her hoof.
"It's a nosalis, they are mutants they come from moles," Miller said which startled them.
"And what's with the holes?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"Our weapons are called guns Kalashnikov's to be exact they shoot lead projectiles ripping and tearing anything inside the enemy," Ulman answered. This made them cringe, they couldn't believe why anything would need such things.
"What are you?" she asked.
"We are humans and what are you?" Miller asked.
"I'm a pegasus, Twilight and Rarity are unicorns, Pinkie and AppleJack are just normal earth ponies, Princess Celestia and Luna are the only two Alicorns left," Rainbow Dash said.
"Wow, don't even need to know which one is which it's pretty much straight forward, my name is Ulman," Ulman said, "this is Vladimir, Artyom, Boris, Stepan, Miller, Danila, Pavel, Bourbon, and Khan," Ulman finished.
"Are these the only mutants or are there others?" Celestia asked with a serious tone and look on her face.
"There are others some worse some not so bad," Miller said. "There are Lurkers; little small things won't attack large groups but will attack if you're alone, Watchers; look like large slender dogs, weird face, stand up on hind legs and howl to bring the rest of the group, Demons; they're one of the worst hard to kill, fly, like to pick up their prey and drop them from high elevations, Librarians; probably the worst, semi-intelligent, ape-like, big, very strong do not mess with them." he finished.
"Why are they called Librarians?" Twilight asked.
"Well they live only in libraries," Miller said.
"Twilight lives in a library if any came over do you think they would be in there?" Pinkie asked.
"That would be funny and ironic wouldn't it?" Ulman said chuckling.
"Shut up Ulman," Miller said.
"So what is this place?" Artyom asked.
"This is Equestria you are on the outskirts of Ponyville My Sister and I live in the Royal Palace in Canterlot, other known places are Manehatton, Fillydelphia," Celestia said. At this Ulman started laughing, Vladimir then smacked him upside the head. He stopped immediately and asked why he hit him.
"WHY ARE YOU LAUGHING AT OUR TOWNS AND COUNTRY?" Luna asked in the Traditional Royal Canterlot voice. She put her face right up against Ulman's face and was staring him down.
"I'm sorry it just seemed funny to me because you are horses and those are horse references pony, equine, and canter," Ulman said nervously. Luna backed away but still held a scowl on her face. He looked over at Miller who was just shaking his head in dissapointment. Bourbon was laughing under his breath. Pavel patted him on the back and made a smart remark, Ulman pushed him away. After a while Twilight offered to show them around Ponyville, they agreed.
"Wait what will the other ponies think when they see us?" Artyom asked.
"We'll just tell them you're from an isolated part deep in the Everfree Forest," Celestia said. Artyom looked back and they just shrugged in agreement and went on. Luna and Celestia went back to the Palace, Fluttershy stayed home, AppleJack went back to Sweet Apple Acres, Pinkie went to Sugarcube Corner, Rarity went to the Carousel Boutique, Rainbow Dash went to go take a nap on a cloud, while Twilight showed them around town.
They walked into town and all the ponies were giving the rangers strange looks. One of the ponies just walked out of a store and noticed them. When she did dhe jumped for joy and yelled out in excitement, "Humans exist I knew they existed." The unicorn rushed up to Pavel with a deranged smile on her face and her right eye was twitching, "Give me your hands, I want your hands," she said.
"Uh...um... can someone get this thing away from me," Pavel said.
"Lyra please leave our new guests alone they don't want to be bothered," Twilight said. Lyra twisted her head towards Twilight, she still had that deranged smile and twitchy eye, she then rotated her head back towards Pavel. She then asked for his hands, and was beginning to push closer to him. He backed away and tripped. She jumped on top of him and put her face right up against his.
"They told me they didn't exist, but I didn't believe them and now they'll know I was telling the truth," she said.
"My hands are small and weak though his hands are big and strong," Pavel said gesturing towards Ulman. She jumped onto Ulman and knocking him down and asked for his hands.
"Give me your hands or I will take them myself," Lyra said more insistent and threatingly.
"It's strange I'm more afraid of this unicorn than a nosalis," Ulman said trying to push Lyra off. "Aren't any of you going to help me?" he asked struggling harder to fight her off since she was using magic to hold him down.
"I don't see why it seems that she likes you, come on guys lets leave Ulman here with his new friend," Vladimir said. Jokingly they all began to leave though Bourbon thought he was being serious.
"Oh haha, wait you're not just going to leave me here are you?" Ulman asked, "Ok, ok I'll give you my hands when we leave and I never go back on my word." he proposed.
"I'll hold you to it," Lyra said with a smile on her face. She picked up her things and went merrily on her way.
"You guys are bunch of assholes," Ulman said pushing Pavel away and refusing his help. He walked away saying obscenities under his breath.
"Hey c'mon we were just kidding," Danila yelled at him. All Ulman did was flip him the bird and kept walking. Miller looked at Pavel and he took the hint and rushed after Ulman.
"So where to first," Miller asked.
"Well this is town square," Twilight said, "and you've already seen Fluttershy's place so we can cross that off the list now on to my place." It took about a minute or two for them to reach Twilight's home. It was a tall tree that had a balcony with a telescope on it, a door, and some windows. She showed them all in.
"A library inside a tree that is still living," Khan said. Danila started looking around the place and started going through the books.
"May I stay here for the time being?" Danila asked.
"Why?" Twilight asked with a strange look on her face.
"Oh, well I'm not a soldier more of a keeper of knowledge, I love books and reading them." he said still looking through some books. Twilight tossed Miller a glare wandering what he was talking about.
"I don't want to explain it," he said. She turned back towards Danila who was awaiting her approval she nodded her head. She then lead them back out and took them to Sugarcube Corner. The building looked like a giant gingerbread house.
"This is where Pinkie Pie stays," Twilight said pointing towards the building and out came a pink pony holding a tray full of colorful cupcakes.
"Try one I know you'll love them," Pinkie said with a smile on her face. It wasn't like Lyra's smile it was more friendly and happy and not deranged and creepy. They all took a cupcake. Artyom took the first bite and his face lit up and was amazed that something could taste so sweet. The others took a bite out of theirs and they all the same reaction. "I knew you'd like them," Pinkie said cheerfully.
"Don't like them.. love them," Artyom said. Pinkie hugged him hard, this made him feel awkward. After that Twilight led them to Carousel Boutique. "Wait is this a fashion place?" asked Artyom.
"Yes, but it is also where Rarity stays," Twilight answered. She showed them in and they saw her sitting there sewing clothing pieces together.
"Oh, hello there I didn't hear you come in," Rarity said walking up to them. "Oh, how can you wear such disgusting outfits they are just absolutely hideous," Rarity said looking them up down with disgust.
"Well in our world fashion isn't needed survival is," Boris said.
"Let me see if I can make you some clothing," Rarity said.
"If I can I want a suit," Stepan said, "how many want the same?" he asked. They all agreed to it. Rarity began to take measurements, this process took about five minutes. Miller would have to send Pavel, Ulman, and Danila to get measured later on.
"Ok come back tomorrow somewhere around noon and your suits should be ready," Rarity said. Twilight led them lastly to Sweet Apple Acres. The place was huge and open and full of apple trees. When they got closer to the farm house they could see AppleJack bucking trees with another pony but this one was big and red doing the same thing.
"Hello AJ," Twilight said. AppleJack stopped and turned and trotted over to them.
"Well, howdy Twi and other folks," she said tipping her hat at them.
"So who is the big red one?" Khan asked.
"Oh, him that's mah big brother Big Macintosh," she said.
"Howdy," he said.
"May we have some apples?" Stepan asked politely.
"Why sure go ahead." AppleJack said with a smile. They all took an apple from one of the trees and began to eat them. They were amazed still that these things could taste this good. After they ate their apples they stayed and chatted for awhile. They found out that AJ had a little sister named AppleBloom who likes to hang out with two other fillies named Scootaloo and Sweetie Bell. Sweetie Bell was Rarity's little sister. They formed a group called the Cutie Mark Crusaders. She also had a grandmother named Granny Smith.
It soon started to get late. They said their goodbyes and left Sweet Apple Acres. They headed back towards Ponyville. "Where are we going to stay for the time being?" asked Bourbon.
"You can stay at my place for the time being then we'll sort it out in the morning," Twilight answered. She led them back to the library. They walked in and found that Danila was still reading books from Twilight's library. All the others started to unpack their things and unroll their bed rolls. That is when they noticed that Ulman and Pavel had come back and were already asleep. Miller was too tired to do anything and just fell down on to his bed roll and fell asleep.
Chapter 2: More Travellers
Chapter 2: More Travellers
Artyom woke up the next morning to the smell of something sweet. He sat up and rubbed his eyes. He looked around and saw that everyone else was already awake and that Danila was STILL reading books and scrolls, but he had a bowl of mushy substance that he was eating. Inbetween spoonfuls of this substance, he noticed him and pointed into the kitchen. He stood up and walked into the kitchen.
Before he entered the kitchen, he noticed a few scrolls on the floor and one in particular caught his eye. It was at the bottom of a stack, he picked it up and began to read it. The scroll was somewhat of a short ryhme, "well some of it rhymed he thought," Artyom thought to himself. "To live a life that's good and pure, here is what you do: Be honest with your loved ones and be true to yourself too. Remember never turn your back on any needing friend. Stand loyally beside them until the very end. Be generous with simple things that can be bought or sold. It's worth much more to help a friend then lose a little gold. Share the love with all you meet, be helpful, sweet, and kind. Even with those who hate you. Learn to laugh and cast away the daily stress and strife. For when you're lacking laughter you're missing out on life. But I really have to say: The lessons that I value most are the ones I learned today. Of all the magic in my life, friendship comes out on top. I'm learning more as time goes by; I hope I never stop."
"You're finally awake," Miller said, "come, have oatmeal with us."
"What were you reading?" Ulman asked.
"I don't know, just some scroll on the floor and I thought I'd read it," Artyom replied placing it on the counter. Ulman gestured towards a pot of oatmeal and a few bowls stacked on one another. He went over to them and got some oatmeal, then walked back to the table. He sa down inbetween Ulman and Miller and began to eat. After one bite he concurred that just about everything in this world delicious, but coming from where he's been, how could it not.
A few minutes later Twilight and Rainbow Dash walked in. "We have something to tell you guys," Twilight said. "It's very important."
"What is it?" Miller asked.
"When I was flying around above the Everfree, I noticed a camp in an opening, it was full of your kind, but they had red flags with a symbol in them," Rainbow Dash said. She picked a pencil and drew ona scroll that was lying around, and handed it to them. "Do you know what this means?" she asked as Miller looked at the symbol. He threw it into the center of the table for everyone to see.
"Son of a bitch, they are here too." Boris said.
"Yes, this symbol belongs to the Fourth Reich, Nazi's is what they call themselves," Miller started, "they are evil, they kill people because of their race maybe their religion I don't know about that," he finished. After a bit of thinking, "You didn't talk to them, land near them, or try to investigate them did you?" Miller asked.
"No, I stayed away from them, some of them saw me, but they didn't do anything," Rainbow Dash answered with a shrug(She didn't really care much of it).
"We have to find them before they find us, before they get here, they may show no mercy to these ponies," Vladimir said with an urgent tone.
"We have to stop them in the ways of the inhabitants here, with peace, we can't just go killing, spilling blood that doesn't need to be spilled," Khan said.
"No, the only way to stop them is to slaughter them," Bourbon said.
"I agree with Bourbon, though it is bad for me to say that, but I still remember what they did to that boy and old man," Artyom said.
"What did they do to them?" Twilight inquired.
"We were walking through some tunnels, then we came up to their tunnel, they asked who we were and I showed my passport, they waved me on, then the old man showed his, then they asked about the boy, he didn't have a passport, so they killed the boy then the old man, I tried to fight back, but they stopped me, put me in cage, then tried to execute me, but some people saved me," He said. Twilight and Rainbow Dash gave shocked looks while everyone else, except Bourbon, gave sad or angry looks.
"Should we tell the Princesses?" Twilight asked.
"Yes, send a letter telling them to come her urgently and we'll explain more when they get here," Miller said.
"SPIKE!" Twilight screamed.
"Yes Twilight?" Spike asked just waking up.
"I need you to send a letter to the Princesses telling them they need to come here this instant," She said. So Spike wrote the letter and sent it. A few moments later they appeared in a flash of light.
"Yes Twilight, what is it that you need to tell us?" Celestia asked.
"Not me, them," She said gesturing towards Miller and company.
"There is a problem, some.... "other people" have been spotted in the Everfree and they aren't friendly and we have to deal with them in any way possible," Miller started, "some of us think we should try to peacefully take care of them and others think we should kill them, what do you think we should do?" he asked.
"There will be no unneccasary blood shed, we will try to resolve this peacefully first," Celestia said.
"And if we can't resolve it peacefully, how then will we resolve it?" Bourbon asked.
"If they turn hostile then you may fire back, BUT if they surrender you WILL take prisoners, you WILL show mercy," Celestia said, "We will talk to them first." she finished.
"I don't think that would be a good idea, we don't need you getting hurt and it being our fault." Miller said. Celestia nodded.
The Rangers, Bourbon, Khan, and the ponies got ready to leave for the Everfree. Once they were ready and Miller okay'd it, they left. At the start of the Everfree everyone looked over their gear once more. "You're not really going to kill them are you?" Fluttershy asked.
"Well, we are going to try to be peaceful at first, but knowing them they won't want to resolve this peacefully." Miller told her. They walked on into the Everfree with Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash just above the canopy, and the Princesses flying higher almost out of sight following them. A few minutes later they walked up to the opening in the forest where the camp was located.
"You guys should stay back just in case it gets a little hot, we don't want you getting hurt or worse.. killed," Miller said. They nodded and walked back several yards and hid behind a few big, thick trees. "Khan, go out there and see if they are willing to cooperate, make sure you stay near something that you can take cover behind if they don't cooperate." Miller instructed. Khan hid his weapon in his pack, took a deep breath, and walked out there slowly with his hands raised.
"Hey!" Khan yelled out, "are you friendly or not?" he asked. This startled some of the guys sitting around a dying fire. At first they didn't know what to do. One of them stood up.
"Who are you? Are a Red?"
"No, I was just wondering if you knew where we were," Khan replied half truthfully.
"Are there anymore of you?" another asked. Khan thought a little about this, but before he could reply another man started to pull out his weapon. Seeing this Khan's heart started to race and everything slowed down. The man raised his weapon and pointed it at Khan. Khan dived behind a rock to his left, and everything still seemed slow. All was eerily quiet, not a single bird nor grasshopper made a noise. A thick fog rolled in from a lake that wasn't that far away and started covering the men's knees. Behind the rock Khan was sitting readying his weapon and could feel the fresh morning dew on the grass against his ankles, which were partly uncovered. The air was still and the sound of the safety clicks on the guns seemed ten times louder than normal.
When the others in the forest saw this they readied their weapons and started to advance towards cover near Khan. They were out numbered five to one, which meant there were fifty Nazi's and that there would be a small possibility of them getting out alive. "We are out numbered, we may not make it," Ulman yelled over the gunfire.
"We will make it," Miller said. All this had happened in less than two minutes, but it felt like hours to everyone. The Nazi's were pushing harder and were advancing fast on their positions. Khan held up his gun and blind fired over the rock and in the process wounded two men and killed five. Once Khan started to fire, the others started to fire also wounding and killing some of the advancing Nazi's.
"Fall back! Fall back, get to cover!" Screamed a nazi that later turned out to be a Sturmscharführer. When the Rangers heard this they reloaded their weapons, jumped out of cover, and advanced towards the Nazis pushing them farther back. This was a risky idea and Miller knew that, but he was confident that none of them would get seriously hurt. If they did he hoped the ponies' hospital would be able to treat bullet wounds.
While they were pushing forward, they were reloading. They heard a crack that was louder than that of a Kalashnikov's. Someone had an SVD. When the crack sounded Boris fell forward with a hole through his chest.
"Noooooooo!" Stepan yelled. He ran to his friend's body and flipped him over. Boris wasn't dead, he was gasping for breath and grabbed Stepan and said to him.
"Go, if you get back to the metro... tell my wife... and kids.... I loved them and that I didn't die in vain... tell them... tell them.." He died before he could finish. Stepan started to cry for his friend, then fury raged inside him and he got up and started killing more and more Nazis.
The battle raged for about ten minutes. Dead bodies were everywhere. The Rangers had lost only one man, but no one went unscathed physically or emotionally. Miller and Vladimir found the tent where the leader of this group of Nazis, a Sturmbannführer, sitting inside his tent smoking. Miller punched him in the face and dragged him outside the tent and threw him down on the ground. "You will pay for the atrocities that you and your men have done in the Metro," Miller started, "only monsters can do this to their own kind." he finished.
"Go ahead and kill me, I am not afraid to die and I am not ashamed for what I have done." the man said in a monotone voice. While this was going on Bourbon, and other Rangers, was going around and taking ammo, grenades, and other odds and ends worth taking. He came over to a man and saw that he wasn't dead yet. He raised his pistol.
"No, no please don't kill me," the man said.
"Why shouldn't I," Bourbon asked in a cold voice. The man took out a picture and showed it to Bourbon.
"I have a wife and two kids," he said, "I was forced into doing this, I had no choice," he finished. Bourbon looked over the pictre. He flipped it over and saw the names of the children. Vyacheslav was five years old, standing in front of his father and mother, Anzhelika, the daughter, was three years old and was standing next to Vyacheslav. Bourbon handed the picture back to him.
"Ok, give me all your cartridges, grenades, guns, and knives so we know you won't do anything," Bourbon said. The man gave Bourbon all that he asked for and stood up.
"Thank you, I thought you were going to ki--." Bourbon had shot him in the back of the head before he was finished talking.
"And you call us monsters," the Sturmbannführer started, "At least we don't give people a false sense of hope before killing them, we just take a dramatic pauses so they can get their final words in," he finished. Miller thought hard about what just happened and what the Princesses were going to do, but anger got the better of him. He took out his knife and shoved it into the Sturmbannführer's throat and slit his throat and almost beheading him. He didn't make a noise he just fell on his face and died.
The Princesses had seen the whole battle and were enraged that Bourbon and Miller had killed those two men when they were required to take prisoners. They came down from the sky and approached the men scavenging. They came up to Miller, with hiss bloody knife still out, and gave him an angry look. "We will not tolerate what you have done here," Celestia said.
"We had to do it, it was the only way," Bourbon said in a not so polite tone, that wasn't taken so lightly by the two alicorns.
"You will NOT take that tone with me, you were required to take prisoners if the chance arose and it did, but you just slaughtered them," Celestia said angirly, "you will give us ALL your weapons so this will never happen again." The Rangers looked at one another wondering if they should or shouldn't.
"You can have my weapons, over my dead body." Bourbon said raising his weapon to shoot the Princesses.
"Nooooo!" Stepan yelled as he tried to tackle Bourbon. Bourbon fired and Stepan fell to the ground, blood splattered the Princesses, a stray bullet knocked Luna's tiara off. Bourbon scowled and ran off into the forest, some of the other men fired at Bourbon, but he got away. Stepan had taken a lot of bullets, but was still alive though not for long.
Celestia walked up to him and said, "We can save you with magic, you don't have to die." in a softer, sweeter tone.
Inbetween gasps, "No... no... I want this... I want to see... my friends and... and my family again.... ah.... don't deny me this.... let me go," Stepan said before he died. Vladimir and Miller had a few tears running down their cheeks, while the others were still stunned by what happened.
Artyom looked at the ground sullenly and spotted Luna's tiara, he walked over and picked it up. He brushed it off and handed it to her, "Here, I believe this is yours, it has a few dents in it."
"Thank you," she said. She used her magic to get rid of dents in it. Luna looked back at him, and could see sadness fill his eyes. "I know how it feels to lose the ones close to you," she started, "my parents, friends, and I even lost my sister for a time," she finished.
"Yes, but these men lost their lives for me, why should they die for something we hardly know about." he said sitting down on a rock. Luna tried to comfort him, but he shoved her off and walked off. He left all his weapons on the ground next to a tent and went back to Ponyville.
A few hours later they had made two graves for Boris and Stepan on the edge of the Everfree. Danila had written Latin phrases on each headstone. Boris' said: "Plenus annis abiit, plenus honoribus." and Stepan's: "Aeternum vale."
"Will we ever get back home?" Ulman asked.
"I don't know, I honestly don't know," Miller said sadly. They had given all their stuff up to the Royal Guards and walked back to Ponyville. They walked to the Carousel Boutique to get their new clothing.
They stepped inside the store and saw Rarity finishing some things up. She heard them walk in and turned to see who it was. "What you guys did was absolutely horrible," she said.
"Some of it we couldn't help, other things we could've stopped," Miller said with sadness still in his voice. She started giving them their clothing. Each one of them went into a dressing room and tried them on. Miller was the first to go in and came out. "I like it," he said. The next one was Vladimir, when he came out of the dressing room Miller said, "Everyone loves a sharp dressed man." Miller and Vladimir both laughed at this, though everyone else didn't understand what they meant by this.
"What do you mean by that?" asked Danila.
"When we were younger and times were.. fairly better we travelled to America and there was a radio station that played old music and this band called ZZ Top, had a song called Sharp Dressed Man and that is what I was referring to," he said. After a small bit of thinking he scratched his face and said,"Maybe we should shave, clean up a bit." Vladimir agreed.
Celestia and Luna were in the Palace pondering on what to do about Bourbon and trying to find a way to send the humans back from where they came. "How will we find him, most of the guards act tough, but are afraid to step even ONE hoof in the Everfree." Luna said.
"I don't know, maybe we can send in a platoon on with Miller's group and give them some of their weapons back for a while," she stated, "but with Discord locked up we won't have to worry about him getting hold of him," Celestia finished.
"But that isn't what you have to worry about," something said to itself.
"Aren't there other things that could use Bourbon as a pawn to help them take over?" Luna asked.
"Yes, and let us hope that none of them find him, but if it does we have to go into hiding," Celestia said.
"No!" Luna yelled, "I will not turn my back on our subjects." yelling louder. She was looking at her sister with anger and dismay. "I will not show them I am afraid or scared I will fight back with my life." She said.
"No, we cannot allow ourselves to die." Celestia replied.
"I don't care what you think sister, there is a point when you have to stop running and hiding from the inevitable," she said, "everything dies eventually, nothing can live forever." she finished. Celestia was stunned by the way Luna acted towards her. She lowered her head in dissapointment, as a tear ran down her face, and she walked out of the room. Luna still held a scowl on her face as she watched her sister leave. Then she thought to herself, "What have I done."
"Hmmm, maybe I should find this Bourbon fellow and see if he can help me take over this pitiful land," It said as it left the Palace and went into the Everfree.
Bourbon was sitting in a makeshift camp somewhere deep in the Everfree Forest. In the time he had been gone, he had set up a small camp. A tent was set up, a campfire was going, and some other things were set aside leaning against a log. He was drinking some mushroom tea, if you could call it tea, that he had gotten off a dead Nazi. He put the tea aside and checked his ammo and grenades. He had about five hundred cartridges, ten normal grenades, and ten sticky grenades. After putting these things away he heard something behind him. He reached for his gun, but a voice said, "There is no need for that, I am merely here to you and ask you to help me."
"Who are you?" Bourbon asked.
"That doesn't matter right now, but in due time you will find out," it said. Though it wasn't A voice, but a collection of voices, high and low, young and old. Some were sad and some were angry, though it was in a dull whisper that could be mistaken for wind if you weren't paying attention. "What matters is that if you help me I can help you."
"Help you with what?" Bourbon asked.
"I need your help to take over this pitiful land and destroy those two annoying alicorns and that Twilight Sparkle and her friends," It replied.
"And how can you help me?" Bourbon wanted to know.
"I can send you back home with greater power and you can rule over everything," the voices said. Bourbon thought about this for a little bit, then put down his weapon and nodded in agreement.
It was late in the night and Artyom was sitting by a candle and reading a book he had gotten from The Library. It was a chronicle of the 20th century, primarily over the wars of the 20th century. When he found it he was surprised that over the ages and the war that it had lasted so long in such a good condition. He was in 1942 and up to the part where the Nazi's were attacking Stalingrad. At the time of the Soviet counter-offensive the Nazi's outnumbered the Soviets in men, but the Soviets had more artillery, tanks, and aircraft. At the beginning the Nazi's seemed to be winning, but at the end the Soviets surrounded the Nazi's and they later surrenderd. This was the turning point of the war for the Allies.
As he was reading about it, he heard a noise at the door. The door knob rattled as something tried to open it. He got up and slowly walked to the door. As he got up to it, he slowly lifted part of the blind that covered the small window on the door. He looked through, then slowly put it down. He turned his back to the wall and slid down as his heart started to race. Luckily the door was locked, but it wouldn't stop trying to open the door. Then it started to knock on the door, quietly at first then slowly got louder. Artyom was getting more scared by the second thinking it might wake up ponies nearby or break down the door.
"Who could that be at this late hour?" Twilight out loud rubbing her eyes as she walked down the stairs. She noticed Artyom next to the door, his eyes were closed and was very pale and was sweating. She thought he was having a nightmare so she walked up to the door. "Who is it?" she asked. This made Artyom look at Twilight in shock, Twilight noticed him and wondered what was wrong.
"Let me in," something outside the door said in almost the exact voice as Twilight's. Artyom was on the verge of having a heart attack he was so scared. Artyom grabbed Twilight and held her mouth shut and hushed her as the thing outside kept asking to be let in, in Twilight's voice.
"It's a Librarian," Artyom told her in a whisper. The Rangers were starting to wake up. Miller was the first to notice Artyom holding down Twilight and heard the thing outside the door. Artyom noticed him and mouthed the word librarian. Miller started waking the ones that weren't already awake and telling everybody what was outside the door.
Twilight got loose of Artyom's grip and said in a whisper, "We can watch it out on the balcony," Miller got up and slowly went to the balcony, "I really want to see what one looks like."
"No." Miller said sternly, then walked out on the balcony. Twilight wrote a letter to Celestia telling her what was going on. She had Spike send it.
"Hey, do you think we can kill it with a butter knife?" Ulman asked walking out of the kitchen with a butter knife in hand, "maybe we can put some honey on it and lure it away from this place." he started laughing, but no one else was laughing.
"This isn't the time to be horsing around," Pavel said pointing at him. Ulman laughed at because of this and Twilight wasn't amused, Spike also started laughing. Pavel didn't know why they were laughing then he realised what he said, and shook his head. A chest appeared, Twilight opened it and inside found a note and a silenced Kalashnikov. Artyom took the gun, opened the door and emptied the clip.
"Ummm, the note said not to kill it," Twilight said. Artyom looked back at it, he kicked it and confirmed that it was dead.
"Sorry, I get scared sometimes," Artyom said putting the gun back in the chest. "What will they say?" Artyom asked.
"After what happened in the Everfree today they'll be pretty angry, but I don't understand why they sent one of your weapons when they could've sent something less harmful," Twilight said. "Hopefully there aren't anymore of things running around out there." She said.
"Yeah, but there are other things that are worse that we can't explain," Arytom said.
A few minutes before this in a house not so far away, Derpy Hooves was putting Dinky Hooves to bed. "Goodnight," Derpy said to Dinky kissing her on the top of her head. She left Dinky's room and went into hers. She was climbing into bed when she heard a strange noise outside her room, it sounded like scuttling feet or soft hoof pads. She turned around and saw nothing, but the door was a little open. "I thought I closed that," she said. She walked up to the door and was about to close the door when she heard the same noise behind her again.
She swerved around again, but saw nothing. Then the closet door slowly creaked open. She slowly walked up to it and as she got close, it slammed shut. She backed away slowly and turned around. She was trying to forget what happened, but she saw something move in the hallway. "Dinky?" she said. She stepped outside her room and into the hallway cautiously, looked around saw nothing and went over to Dinky's room. She opened the door and saw Dinky lying there.
Dinky woke up, "Something wrong mommy?"
"Were you out in the hallway just now?" She asked her knowing it wasn't her.
"No, why?" Dinky replied hesistantly.
"I...I thought I saw something move in the hallway, but it was probably nothing," She replied. Derpy walked over to Dinky and patted her to reassure her that nothing was wrong. Then another sound came from the kitchen, but it wasn't that of something moving around, but a faint whisper saying something they couldn't understand.
"Mommy, I'm scared," Dinky said trying to get closer to her mother.
"It's alright," she said calmly. They stayed in Dinky's room for a long time while they could hear strange noises and voices coming from outside the door. Then everything went deathly quiet, then the sound of steps of a bi-pedal creature walking up tot the door, then they just stopped.
They both closed their eyes and hold them shut. The door knob started to rattle, then slowly twisted and the door opened a crack. Derpy opened her eyes to see what it was, but it was darker than before, so dark she couldn't even see Dinky. Though this wasn't any normal darkness, it had an evil oppressiveness to it.
"Mommy, I can't see anything," Dinky said.
"It's okay Dinky, but whatever happens don't scream, I love you," as Derpy finished speaking something pulled her away and Dinky was left alone. She could feel that her mother was gone and that something had taken her.
"Mommy?" she called. There was no response. Then a sharp pain passed through her body and she blacked out.
After what had happened Artyom couldn't sleep so he took a lantern and went for a walk. He was walking down a street looking at the houses, and noticed one that had its door open. He stopped at it and looked around outside. He hesistantly walked in and saw nothing. He searched through the kitchen and found nothing so he walked into the living room. As he walked in he could feel that he had stepped in a liquid. He looked down and saw a huge red puddle, it was blood. Though it looked like something was dragged here and he looked around and found the trail of blood coming from a room. He searched some more but found nothing, so he returned to that door.
He was standing in front of the door and looked at it nervously. He gulped and took a deep breath, and slowly walked up tot he door and opened it. Inside he saw blood, and a little meat, everywhere. He gagged at the site of all the gore. He saw a bed and there was a lump under the sheets. He walked up to it and cautiously lifted the blanket to find a small looking pony with wings. He check to see if it was still alive, it was. Artyom picked it up and started to carry it out. He looked some more and found that it had wounds on it, but they weren't anything he'd seen before so he couldn't figure what did it.
He made his way back to Twilight's house and walked in. "Hey, I was out taking a walk and found an open house, went in and there was blood everywhere, but I found this little pony, it's alive," Artyom said panting. Twilight ran over to him to see who it was.
"This is Dinky," Twilight said looking her over. "What happened?" She asked looking at Artyom in worry.
"I don't know, I was just walking down the street and saw the door open and I went inside, I didn't see what did this," Artyom said. Twilight looked through her books for a major healing spell. As soon as she found one, she took Dinky and casted it on her. The wounds started closing and healing up, though the blood was still on her coat, tail, and mane. She woke up slowly and looked around then asked,
"Where... where am I?"
"You're with me, Twilight, where is your mother sweety?" Twilight asked calmly.
"I don't know, we heard strange noises then it got really dark and the last thing she said to me was, 'It's okay Dinky, but whatever happens don't scream, I love you,' then she dissapeared and I felt something hurt me and I passed out." Dinky replied softly before crying, "where is she, what happened?"
"Ummm.. should we tell her?" Twilight asked.
"It'd be better if we did now then later," Miller said, "Dinky, your mother was killed by some strange phenomenon usually no one sees it, but those who do are lucky," Miller said. When she heard this she started crying uncontrollably.Twilight quieted her down and put her to bed.
"I'm going to have to write a letter to the Princesses telling them what happened," Twilight said with a sigh. She began to write a letter:
Dear Princess Celestia and Princess Luna,
I really don't know how to put this, but Derpy Hooves was killed her. It attacked at about the same time that librarian attacked us. Dinky is still alive though. She is very distraught. We need help, we can't let this happen again.
Your faithful student,
Twilight Sparkle
"Spike, send this letter immediately!" Twilight exclaimed. Spike did as he was told and sent the letter.
Celestia was pacing her room, while Luna and a few Royal Guards stood watching her, waiting for another letter from Twilight. Then out of nowhere, a letter appeared and she opened it and read it in an instant. Luna and the guards saw the look of horror on her face. "What's wrong sister?" Luna asked. Celestia showed her the letter and Luna gasped.
Chapter 3: Getting to Know One Another
Chapter 3: Getting to Know One Another
It was a few days after Derpy had died, and most of the ponies in Ponyville couldn't get over it and some were scared it might happen to them or their foals. Miller's men weren't really sad about it, though Artyom and Khan had different feelings. Rainbow Dash was especially hit hard because they were long time friends and had stuck with each other through thick and thin. Everybody knew she was sad, but when confronted she lied about her feelings.
Danila was sitting inside the library reading some books that he brought with him from the metro. He was reading the book Red Star by Alexander Bogdanov. The story is set in Russia during the 1905 revolution and on a socialist Mars. There was a stack of five books sitting next to him, from top to bottom: The Stars Are Cold Toys, Star Shadow (both by Sergey Lukianenko), Death or Glory by Vladimir Vasilyev, The Last of the Immortals by Andrey Livadny, and Master of the Void by Alexander Gromov. He wasn't reading as fast as he usually was, taking five minutes to read a few pages when it usually was half the book. Something was obviously bothering him. "Something wrong Danila?" Vladimir asked.
"Well, ever since that pegasus died I haven't been able to get out of my head, seeing that little one crying," he replied tearing up. He wiped away the tears, "how many of these ponies will die becasue we are here? Shouldn't we just leave here and go stay somewhere else where the ponies won't be in the way?"
"I don't think it would that easy Danila," Vlad said before leaving. As he left Twilight walked in.
"Why are you so interested in us and our history?" She asked.
"I really like history and if we will be here for awhile then I'm going to need to learn more about your kind," Danila replied.
"Well that seems logical," She said.
"Though it seems that there isn't much here and I'd like to learn more," he said.
"Well I can see if you are allowed to be in the Canterlot library and maybe the Archives, but I doubt they will let you in there," Twilight said. She went looking for a scroll, quill, and an inkwell. She gathered these items and wrote a letter to Celestia. A few moments later another letter appeared and she read it. "You're allowed to go into the library, but like I predicted earlier you aren't granted access to the Archives," Twilight said looking at the letter, "she also wants you guys to pack your things because you will be staying at the palace."
"Well don't tell me that, tell it to Miller when he gets back from where ever he went off to, anyways most of the stuff in archives are just boring things," Danila said uninterested, "what kind of books do you like to read?" He asked opening the door and letting Twilight out first.
"All kinds, though I tend to read more nonfiction than fiction, I guess that's why some other ponies think I don't have an imagination, or it's not creative enough," She replied. Danila couldn't hold back a chuckle from what she said. All she did was shake her head.
"Well, I'll read nonfiction, but I mainly like to read adventure, action, horror, some suspense, and lots of science fiction," he said.
"Oh, so have you read the Daring Do books yet?" Twilight asked.
"Yes, it reminds me of something, but I can't quite put my finger on it, eh, I might remember later," He stated. While they were talking, they walked to the train station to get to Canterlot. Twilight bought the tickets and they went to the car in front of the caboose. Twilight was sitting on the bench facing the door to the caboose and Danila across from her. He sat down and saw a newspaper on the bench next to him, so he picked it up and began to read it.
After reading it for awhile he looked up and noticed the same light aquamarine pony that had troubled Ulman on the first day. She was sitting almost like a human, but because of her skeletal structure it wasn't working out so great. She hadn't noticed him yet until some other pony asked about "the thing in the back." She quickly looked at the back and saw Danila sitting there looking at her. A large creepy smile grew on her face, so Danila got up and sat next to Twilight.
"That weird unicorn that attacked Pavel and Ulman the other day is sitting over there, she didn't notice me until someone said something," he said, "now I'm afraid she'll come back here." Twilight chuckled.
"I doubt she'll come back here, and if she does I doubt she'll ask to take your hands or anything," Twilight said. Right as she got finished saying that Lyra walked up to him and said hello.
"Get away from me, you can't have my hands!" Danila yelled back up against the window with his hands behind his back.
"I'm going to take your hands, one of your friends already promised my his so I won't need yours," she started off, "I only came back here to see if you liked Ponyville so far and how the others are treating you."
"Why are you so creepy?" He asked.
"Why aren't you?" She replied. The rest of the trip to Canterlot for Danila was huddling up against the window keeping away from Lyra. When they got off the train station Danila immediately went into hiding, Twilight came over and told Danila that it was okay to come out and that Lyra was not around anymore. Though Lyra seemed a little upset that Danila wouldn't talk to her. They started for the library.
After awhile of walking, and getting strange looks from the locals some of the mares fainted. Danila took this a cliché and just shook his head. He looked at the architecture of all the buildings, some of them looked like they were of European style. "How long till we get to the library?" Danila asked.
"It's not that far only about five more minutes," Twilight said. They walked on further and came upon the library.
"Why is that the ponies here wear clothes, but the ones in Ponyville don't?" he asked, "are you guys like a nudist colony or something."
Twilight snickered and said, "No, we just don't wear clothes that often."
"But, you're so exposed, I mean you have hair to cover your entire bodies, we also have hair, but it isn't like yours, and if a male human was naked his genitals would flop around when he walked, and a woman well just depends on the size of her breasts," Danila said casually.
"I don't think I really needed to know that," she said trying not to laugh.
"Sorry, it's just strange talking to something that isn't human, but is on our planet and no matter what, the question will always be in the back of head,"Danila replied.
"Well, if you guys have ponies on your planet wouldn't you know how they, you know?" Twilight said awkwardly.
"Yes, but they aren't sentient like us, we can do other things we have books that show us different positions on how to have sex, sex is like science it has practical uses, but that's not why we do it," Danila said, "and since we are sentient I was just thinking you ponies have the same kind of books we have."
"Can we change the subject?" Twilight asked. Danila laughed and opened the door to the library and they walked in. Danila looked around and noticed that it was much larger on the inside than it was on the outside. He looked at the directory signs pointing where to go and headed towards the fiction section. When he got there he immediately started looking. He grabbed a few books off the shelf and thumbed through them. He put one back and continued looking. He found some horror stories intrigued him. He lightly scanned some more books and saw one titled "Roadside Picnic". He lept at it, and then noticed that it was actually about a roadside picnic. He sighed and sadly put it away.
"What was that all about?" Twilight asked.
"I thought it was a book I had read before and wanted to read again, but I shoud've known that it wasn't going to be the same book," he replied. After searching through the fiction area they went into the history section and searched through there. After awhile they went to go get their books checked out. While Twilight was getting the books checked out the mare behind the counter was looking at Danila strangely. "What, is there something on my face, is it a spider, is it a blue spider?" he said putting his hands on his face, "GET IT OFF, GET IT OFF, GET IT OFFFFFFFFF!!!!"
"No, sorry," she said and looked down at the counter. They both walked out of the library, and Danila was still touching his face. He had taken off the hat he was wearing and wiped the sweat that was forming in his hair.
"Is there anything wrong with my face?" he asked. Twilight looked around on his face and noticed a black mark on his left temple that she hadn't seen before.
"There is a black mark on the side of your head that looks like books maybe?" Twilight said.
"Oh, that's just my tattoo," Danila said.
"What's a tattoo?" she inquired.
"It's a mark you have placed on you, I'll have Miller explain it better and when we're all around so he doesn't have to repeat himself, he hates that, it's why Ulman gets on his nerves, along with his bad jokes," Danila said. After the library it was about noon so they went somewhere for lunch. Danila didn't care what he got, anything was better than eating shrooms, moss, rat, or even worse nosalis. After lunch they headed for Ponyville.
While Danila was with Twilight; Artyom, Pavel, and Ulman were hanging out with Rainbow Dash. "So what do you ponies do for fun," Pavel asked saying the word ponies strangely because he still comprehend what was going on.
"Well, I like to practice my moves, take naps, play pranks on other ponies with Pinkie Pie, go to a local club, and some other stuff," Rainbow said.
"What kind of dance club is it, rave?" Ulman asked.
"Dark, strobing lights, loud, repetitive electronic music," she replied.
"Yeah, sounds about right, can we go?" he asked.
"Sure," she replied. They had met a little bit ago under Rainbow's cloud home and were still standing there. Artyom was looking up at it admiring it.
"What is it like living on the clouds?"Artyom asked.
"It's kind of lumpy, but you get used to it, though only pegasi can stand on it naturally, though egghead found a way to allow other ponies stand on clouds," she replied. After that she led them to the dance club, it was called Ponyville Dance Club.
"Ho, ho, ho, so creative," Ulman said sarcastically. Rainbow gave him a look and let them in. It was dark with lots of strobing lights. The music was loud to the point where the men had to raise their voice just to speak to one another. In the center was the dance floor where there many ponies of different kinds dancing and head banging. On their right was the bar where a few ponies were getting drinks and talking, the bartender was cleaning glasses. On the left, there was a raised platform where a pony with googles, headphones, and blue colored mane was head banging with a smile on her face. She had a white body with a music note on her rear.
"Can't tell if that's a creepy smile or just a happy smile," Pavel said squinting his eyes and looking at her speculatively.
"She's always smiling, especially while listening to this music," Rainbow said.
"What is her name?" Pavel asked.
"Her real name or her alias?" she asked.
"Both I guess," he replied.
"Her real name is Vinyl Scratch, and her alias is DJ-Pon3," Rainbow stated. "I didn't get to ask what you guys like to do for fun, but knowing where you guys came from, does fun even exist?"
"Just depends, if you are a Nazi, murdering, and torturing the innocent is fun, Bandits, killing and stealing, Polis on the other hand you have to go through schooling for twelve years, then you choose what you wanna do, either being part of the military, Miller, Boris, Stepan, Pavel, and I, or the Brahmins who just want to perserve history they love all books." Ulman started off, "when you are a child they have strict rules you must follow so fun for us never really happened or it was very rare." She looked over at Artyom.
"For me it was easier somewhat, when you are a child there is some schooling, but not much and there are toys to play with, as soon as you turn thirteen you get adult responsibilities, like watching an entrance that's never been used and that nothing comes that way, though under the constant threats of mutant attacks, and the Dark Ones there is time for fun, it is usually fear that takes hold of your lives," Artyom said. "Something I remember doing when I was younger."
"What did you do?" Rainbow asked.
"I don't want to talk about it," he replied.
"At least you had that thrill everyday, ours was just boring," Ulman said.
"Really boring, hopefully you guys don't interrupt other ponies or stop the music with your weirdness," she said. Artyom went out onto the dance floor and tried to have fun to get the bad memories out of his head. Some of the ponies noticed he wasn't a pony, but didn't care for it. The others laughed at his dancing skills, though he didn't care for it. Ulman and Pavel went over to the bar and sat down. Rainbow went over to Vinyl and talked to her about the humans being in her club. Ulman and Pavel ordered a few drinks, when they came they tasted them, then drank them down.
"Do have anything stronger?" Ulman asked.
"Yeah hold on," the bartender said. He came back with a bottle of hard apple cider.
"This is a little better, but do you have anything as strong as this?" Ulman asked producing two bottles of vodka, one made from shrooms and one he had found on the surface. He handed them to him. The bartender filled two shot glasses and sipped them.
"Yeah, though hardly anyone can handle it," he said.
Ulman laughed, "Yeah, vodka kicks everbody's ass." he laughed some more.
"What is your name?" Pavel asked.
"Silver Spirit, fits my job, I even made my own drink, it's very strong, the reason why is because the liquids color is silver, very strong," Spirit replied. He went off to go get the bottles of vodka, though it had a different name, and his very own Silver Spirit. He came back and was about to pour it into a small glass when Ulman stopped him and made pour it into a bigger glass. "How can you guys stand this?" he asked.
"Well, we grew up on it, it was either this or water, hardly anything else," Pavel said. They both drank the whole bottle and went onto the dance floor completely drunk. They tried to dance, but they were so shit faced they weren't dancing just making fools of themselves. They were falling everywhere and on everything, Artyom had to pick them up and force them to sit in chairs at a table a few feet away.
After spending the entire day at the dance club it was closing time, but Ulman wanted to meet Vinyl Scratch before they left. He tried to walk over to her, but he kept stumbling and falling so Artyom had to help him over there. He tried to talk, but the only things coming out of his mouth was gibberish. "I think he is trying to say that he likes your music," Artyom said, "though I think he likes something else too." Artyom laughed and all Ulman did was grunted and tried to push him away and ended up pushing himself away from Artyom and fell.
"Looks like he can't hold his liquor," Vinyl said.
"He usually can, though he does some weird stuff when does get drunk," Artyom said. Ulman tried to flip him off. "Wrong finger idiot." he said laughing. He grunted and rolled around on the floor. "He's embarrasing us all, at least Pavel just went to sleep," Artyom said looking over at Pavel. He was laid back against his chair, arms lying on the floor, and head leaned back snoring, making weird sounds and jerking here and there.
"I don't see you drinking a bottle of vodka," Ulman said, his first understandable sentence.
"Yeah, because I'm not stupid," Artyom replied. Ulman tried to punch him but missed by a mile and fell over the railing onto the dance floor, specifically on his face, and groaned. Rainbow Dash and Vinyl laughed while Artyom just shook his head while face palming.
Khan was spending the day with Fluttershy helping her do chores and talking about their lives. She was feeding her chickens, while Khan was fixing a table that had been broken and then not properly put back together, by a few fillies. "If you are a pegasus, then whydo you live down here and not up there in the clouds?" Khan asked.
"I never really liked them, they're lumpy, and I'd rather live down here with the animals," Fluttershy replied.
"How did you end up down here?" he asked finishing the table and testing to see if it could hold any weight.
"Well, back when I was just a filly Rainbow was having a race with a colt and when they zoomed by me I was knocked off balance and fell, I was never a good flyer and I thought I wasn't going to make it, but a group of butterflies saved me, and I found my calling," she replied.
"Butterflies?" Khan said doubtfully.
"Yes, is there something wrong with that?" she asked giving some fish to ferrets.
"It is strange that butterflies could catch an animal, no offense," Khan responded not trying to be rude. She walked away and got some dried seeds and started feeding the birds. The birds chirpped wildly as they came down from the trees and started eating. Then, along came Angel. He hopped up to her and started poking her foreleg, hoping to get her attention.
"What is it Angel?" she catechized. He pointed towards the sky above the Everfree. She looked to what he was pointing at, and saw a flock of birds flying from trees that were shaking. Something big was moving around and it was very close.
"What is that?" Khan wondered aloud.
"I don't know, but I hope it stays in the Everfree," Fluttershy said with a little fright in her voice.
"Has anything ever attacked Ponyville before?" Khan inquired.
"Yes, but nothing we couldn't handle, and by we I mean Applejack, Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and me, but I'm not that important," she said softly.
"Hey, never say that you're not important, if you weren't important you wouldn't be here, you wouldn't the friends that you have now that care about you, everyone has a special purpose and uniqueness to the world," Khan said. Fluttershy smiled then turned around to see a figure standing at the edge of the Everfree.
She got scared and started to back away. The figure at the edge of the forest was humanoid, though the only difference was that the figure had yellow feral eyes. Khan walked up to the fence to see if he could get a better look. The figure walked into the light and much to Khan's surprise it was a normal man.
"Ho there!" the man yelled.
"Hello, who are you?" Khan asked. The man ran up to the fence where Khan was standing.
"My name is Phillip, you?" he replied.
"My name is Khan, why were your eyes glowing?" he asked.
"Are you by yourself or are there more of you?" Phillip asked.
"More," he replied.
"Then I'll explain later, I don't like to repeat myself," Phillip said. Phillip noticed Fluttershy and she squeaked. He looked at her more intently then noticed it, he grabbed his knife, spun around and stabbed a watcher that pounced at him in the neck. He grabbed his pistol and shot it five times in the head making sure it was dead. He pulled out his knife, cleaned it, then sheathed it. Khan took a close look at Phillip and noticed he was wearing bulky armor, had a rifle of some sort, a big machine gun and a pistol. He had a lot of supplies on him.
"What kind of weapons are those?" Khan asked.
"This is an M249 Squad Automatic Weapon with ACOG, bipod, flash suppressor, and extended mag attachments, an M4A1 carbine with ACOG, foregrip, heavy barrel, and suppressor attachments, an MP-446 Viking with laser sight, and an M320 GLM with high explosive, flechette, and smoke rounds," he said pointing to each weapon and attachment.
"Do you really need that much firepower?" Khan asked.
Phillip laughed and said, "You think this is a lot of firepower, wait till you see what's in my body bag," he said grabbing the bag and putting it on the ground. He opened it showing the contents of the bag. "Bushmaster ACR extended mag, ACOG, and M26 MASS, FN FAL with Flamethrower and extended mag, Robinson Armament XCR with extended mag and red dot, LR-300 assault rifle with M203 grenade launcher, Sig Sauer SG-550 with extended mag and variable zoom, M82A1 and PSG1 with same attachments as the Sig, ten blocks of C4 with detonator, ten claymores, twenty fragmentation grenades, and an RPG-7 with twenty rockets or grenades whichever you prefer," Phillip said, "Oh, yeah I also have a Kalash."
"A few questions, why do you need all this stuff, why are almost all the magazines extended, and where did you even get all of this let alone afford it?" Khan asked.
"Well, I'm from St. Petersburg metro and the Bratva were very prevalent in St. Petersburg, well actually everywhere, and St. Petersburg was a port city so they smuggled a lot of illegal things, but that's not where I got these," he explained. "When I woke up I was in an opening and this bag was next to me with a note that said 'You'll need this' on it," he finished.
"Wait, you're from the St. Petersburg metro," Phillip nodded his head, "what's happening there, so many stations are trying to reach out to other metros, but no one responds why?" Khan asked.
"I'll explain that later, like I said before I don't like to repeat myself," he replied. Phillip had been wearing a balaclava and after their conversation took it off. Fluttershy looked at his face and saw a few claws that came from claws. She also noticed a large butterfly around his right eye and a three under the left one.
"Is that a cutie mark on your face?" she asked very quietly that Khan heard only a whisper, but Phillip heard it loud and clear.
"What these, no they're tattoos, man made markings painful at first but it gos away," Phillip replied. Khan looked at him queerly. "The metro wasn't deep enough to stop all the radiation so there were some mutations good and bad, bad because it caused mutants to be three times the size of a human, stronger, faster, not as smart, but there was intellect in them, for us ability to see in the dark and better hearing, though there were some unlucky ones who turned into weird looking things, still smart enough to talk, etcetera etcetera," Phillip explained.
"You guys wait here and I'll go get the others," Fluttershy said.
And before all this Vladimir was trying to spend the day the day with Pinkie Pie, not a good idea, and was finding it quite difficult to keep up with the lively party pony. She was excited to learn about what they eat and do for fun. She was bouncing up and down all over the place and then started doing it on the ceiling. "Who is that even possible?" he asked looking up at her.
"I don't know," she said and fell to the floor. She continued to bounce around and babble on about baking things. Vladimir was getting dizzy so he lunged and tackled Pinkie and managed to hold her down.
"Pinkie, please calm down I'm an old man and I can't be real active without hurting myself," Vlad lied trying to get her to calm down.
"Okie Dokie Lokie, so what did you guys eat down in the metro?" she asked with a smile on her face. Vlad didn't know how to answer this without scaring or disturbing her.
"Well, rats, pigs, mutants if you were really hungry, moss, very little of fruits, very little vegetables, and other disgusting things," he said. Pinkie had a disgusted look on her face, and she wriggled out of Vladimir's grasp. "Well, after the world has been destroyed there really isn't anything nice to eat," Vlad said. "And just because I ate those things doesn't mean I'll eat you."
"Okay.. You want to help me make cupcakes?" she said with her happy face back on.
"Sure, why not, can't remember the last time I had one, or if I even ever had one," Vladimir said. She squealed with joy and started racing around the room gathering all the things needed for baking cupcakes. Once she got all the items she needed, she went up to Vlad and smiled real wide. She started singing her cupcakes song. Vlad grabbed her snout and said, "no singing."
"But," she squeezed out.
"No, if I was younger I wouldn't care, but I'm old now and I just don't like that stuff anymore, sorry, you can hum if you want to," he said. She got kind of sad at this. So they continued making cupcakes and icing them and they went on baking other things. It started off as a bad day, but got continually better. Vladimir ended up becoming good friends with Pinkie even though he was way older than her.
Miller was spending the day with Rarity, strange yes but Vlad spending time with Pinkie Pie is even stranger, at her boutique. He was helping her make dresses and suits for ponies that had ordered them from her.
"Why do I have to hold all this stuff?" Miller said standing in the middle of the floor holding fabric and a pin cushion.
"Well, Opalescence doesn't like it, and you came over here to talk to me of your own free will so don't complain," Rarity said looking at him.
"Well everyone else already went with the other ponies and it was either you or Twilight, and Danila got Twilight because they both share a love for books, and you are not loud and rowdy, Applejack was doing something with her family so no one could be with her today," he said. Rarity squinted at him harshly and purposely pricked him with a pin from the pin cushion.
"Sorry," she said sarcastically.
"Really, because I didn't choose you first, you prick me, typical," Miller replied.
"What do you mean by that?" Rarity said with a tinge of angry in her voice. Apparently things weren't going well with them.
"That's how most women react when they aren't chosen first and the man says that he'd rather be with someone else, happens all the time, if I offended you in some way, my apologies," Miller replied. She raised her nose, hmphed and turned her head and went back to work making dresses. They didn't speak for a few minutes and Rarity was humming to herself and sewing her dresses while Miller was standing there thinking about things. A few moments later she asked.
"So what did you guys wear before the war?"
"Well, when I lived during the time of the Soviets everyone wore the same thing unless they were in the military, no one was different, see the Communist style of government is probably the BEST form of government, but because the leaders were all corrupt they made seem like communism was a bad thing, so not that many people like it and after the Soviet Union fell nearly all the countries under U.S.S.R. control became a democracy," Miller explained. "Nothing really fashonable in your eye, you'd probably think it was disgusting."
"Sounds absolutely horrible, I could never dress the same as another pony," Rarity said.
"You don't wear anything at all though," Miller said.
"I meant when I go somewhere fancy, other than that I don't normally care, but I do care," she said.
"Well, that's how communism gos everyone gets the same no more no less," he responded. Rarity finished up one of the dresses and showed it to Miller. When he looked at it, he thought it was the same size for a small female child. He nodded his head because he nothing else to say about the dress. He helped Rarity with other tasks around the boutique. Then they went to town.
In town they got a few things for Rarity's boutique and other things for Sweetie Belle and her friends. While Rarity was haggling with Berry Punch over some items, Miller picked up a newspaper and began to read it. He came upon the Gabby Gums column, and it was about Rarity and her boutique specifically about Rarity. He looked over at her then back to the paper and casually put it back.
"What were you reading in the paper?" she asked as he walked over.
"Oh, nothing just some stupid gossip," he said not realising it.
"Was it juicy?" she asked excitedly.
"It was about you and I'm pretty sure it was fake because I spent the whole day with you," he replied. She got angry and trotted over to the newspaper stand, but before she could Miller grabbed her by the neck and dragged her away back to the boutique. She was stronger and heavier than he thought and he struggled getting her back to the boutique. While he was dragging her back he noticed Twilight and Danila were back from Canterlot. "Do you want to be locked up in your boutique or do you want to visit Twilight?"
"Don't treat me like a filly, I'll do what I want," she said. She turned and walked to her boutique. He chuckled and walked towards the others. He was walking past some market stalls and stores, the ponies had grown used to seeing these humans nearly everyday so they just went along with it as long as they were friendly towards them. Then three little fillies trotted up to him.
"Can we ask you a few questins?" an orange colored pegasus asked.
"Sure, I don't see why not as long you tell me your names first," Miller replied.
"I'm Scootaloo, that's Sweetie Belle, Rarity's little sister, and that's Apple Bloom, Applejack's little sister," Scootaloo replied. Miller looked at Scootaloo and was going ask about her family, but decided not to because family could be a touchy subject for some. "This will be going into the newspaper, so what was it like living in the metro or where ever?" He thought about the question and got annoyed with, he was hoping they would ask something less depressing.
"Well, to keep it short, it was hell," Miller started, "but I guess you'll be wanting more, in the metro there was fighting between different factions and mutants for survival and power. Now, the use of flamethrowers were to be only used on mutants and not on humans, though later people didn't care about the rules of engagement and used them on people. I can't get the stench of burning flesh out of nose, and the blood-curdling screams of the victims out my head and I'm constantly having nightmares about everything I've seen there, is there anything else you'd like to ask?" Miller explained. All three of the fillies had a look of horror on there faces.
Th...thank you for your time," Sweetie Belle said as they backed away slowly. Miller smiled as he got them to go away, but it soon faded when he remembered the men lost that day. He sighed and continued walking back to Twilight's place. He came up to the door and knocked on it.
"Come in," Twilight said from inside the library. He opened the door and stepped in.
"So how was your day Miller?" Danila asked.
"Well, not that great, I think I may have offended Rarity and scared the Cutie Mark Crusaders or whatever a little too much when they asked about the metro," he explained.
"Did you tell them about the flamethrowers?" he asked.
"Yes."
"You can't just go around telling people especially little kids without them getting scared or scarred," Danila said.
"Don't tell me what I can and can't do, I'm the leader here," Miller said. Danila laughed and Miller sat down with a small smile. Twilight was worried what happen if Rarity and Applejack might do if they find out about what Miller told their little sisters. "I have a question, does Scootaloo have any family?"
"I don't know, Rainbow Dash," she said.
"How was your day?" Miller asked.
"Well, almost boring got into a strange conversation, oh you need to explain the tattoos on our heads and Celestia wants us to pack up our things we're going to the Palace in the Canterlot," Danila responded.
"Danila has the tattoo of books on his head," Miller said grabbing his head and pointing to the tattoo, "I have a double headed eagle, books for council and teaching, several other things, and eagle stands for all military type stuff," he explained further, "and then there are other tattoos that are just for show or stand for something else," he finished.
"Oh, our cutie marks come in whenever we figure out what we are supposed to do in life, mine is magic, whereas most unicorns have a specific magical talent mine is just all magic in general. I'm more like a jack of all trades," she said. There was another knock at the door. Twilight went over and opened it.
"Twilight you need to find the other Rangers, Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and send Celestia a letter, there is another human here, he seems nicer than all the other ones, and come to my place," Fluttershy said franticly. Danila and Miller got everybody together and headed over to Fluttershy's. Before leaving Twilight sent a letter to Celestia.
Once there and after a few moments of standing around and waiting, Celestia and Luna appeared out of nowhere. Khan and Phillip were waiting in Fluttershy's house and once everyone was outside waiting they came out. "Hello," Phillip said waving to the newcomers.
"MILLER!" Rarity yelled as she cantered up to him, "what did you say to the Cutie Mark Crusaders?" she asked furiously.
"They asked about the life in the metro, so I told them," Miller replied calmly.
"Well, you oughta be ashamed of yourself 'cause it scared Apple Bloom and now she is curled into a ball an cryin, what do ya have to say fer yourself?" Applejack asked
"Can we talk about this later?" he asked.
"You're lucky there's someone new here or else you'd be in a world of trouble right now ruffian," Rarity said. Miller looked back to the man coming towards them.
"Who are you? Where are you from?" Miller asked him.
"My name is Phillip and I'm from the St. Petersburg metro tunnels," he replied.
"You're from the St. Petersburg metro? Tell us why we haven't heard from you guys?" Miller asked.
"Also, tell us what so deadly in there that you need so much firepower?" Khan said in a manner of already knowing the answer, but wanting the others to know.
"Ok, I'll tell you but you can't interrupt me until I finish," Phillip said. They all agreed. "I'll tell you what's down there during my story, though we can recieve your messages we just can't transmit, because something is destroying our antennas. Now, we have sent squads up to the surface to repair the antenna, but they never come back." he explained.
"Now, at the beginning almost all the stations were okay, a few of them collapsed but there wasn't much rubble so we were able to dig them out and save people. Then Prospekt Prosvecheniya lost contact with Parnas, so they sent a squad there to see what happened. When they arrived there was nobody there. A few weeks later," he showed them a map of the metro, "Ozerki lost contact with the Prospekt Prosvecheniya and Grazhdanskiy Prospekt lost contact with Devyatkino samething as last time, deserted, nobody there, just emptiness, like they left everything, even the food was just left there steaming. No spent cartridges, no blood, no nothing. And this kept happening and it went on down the lines starting at the top and then to the bottom," he said pointing at the top of the map and dragging his finger down the map. "Now things were getting worse, not only stations, but squads started missing. And that's what's been going in our metro, and so I shall start my story."
We were in the briefing room. Commander Komoslav was briefing us on our mission. "Okay, now listen up I'm not going to repeat myself you will meet up with the men from Zvyozdnaya and the men from Moskovskaya and then going to Park Pobedy searching it, then to Elektrosila. Any questions?" the Commander explained then asked.
Zakhar raised his hand, "Will we be coming back?"
The Commander looked at him and said, "That's for you to find out for yourself, now go get ready." We all looked at each other, there were ten of us going from each station. From ours it was: Dmitry, Zakhar, Rotislav, Stephano, Rüdiger, Dietrich, Raimond, Matthaüs, Ulf, and me. Most of us only had a few family members to say goodbye to, though a few had significant others.
We were getting on the train, which was just a few motorized trolleys and platforms put together, and setting our stuff in neat piles next to our seats. Everyone was there sitting down, talking and waiting for Ulf to get to the train. A minute later he came running. "Sorry, I had to say goodbye to my fiancé," he said in between breaths, "almost impossible to get away from her, she is so worried I will get hurt." Everyone started laughing and as we quieted down, Ulf's fiancé came running towards him. Ulf turned his head, sighed and got off the train.
She threw herself at him, and hugged tightly, "Ulfy please don't go, I don't want to be here without you!" she exclaimed hugging him tighter.
"Ulfy?" Rotislav, the oldest of the group, questioned. Hearing his nickname everyone started laughing at him.
"Hey shut up!" he yelled scowling at everybody, "Fyedora, please calm down, it is just a simple scavenging mission, we go there, get the supplies, come back and distribute it to the other stations. I will be fine, you just need to stop worrying," Ulf finished and kissed her.
"In all my years telling a woman to calm down and to stop worrying is the worst thing you can do, in one situation telling a woman can calm down will make her angry and telling her to stop worrying will make her worry more," Rotislav said.
"And with all the dissappearences happening, it could happen to "Ulfy", could be the first to go, we don't know," Rüdiger said trying to make Fyedora worry even more. Hearing this made Fyedora cry and hold Ulf even harder. Everyone laughed harder then before and some, including me, started crying from it.
"You guys are a bunch of assholes, you know that," Ulf said patting Fyedora on the head. He got her off and had a few guards escort her back to their quarters. He got down on the train and scowled at everybody making us laugh.
After awhile, about half way to Zvyozdnaya, Rotislav noticed Zakhar's hands shaking and that he was rubbing them together nervously. "Hey, Zakhar, you nervous?" he asked.
"Just a little bit, I'm only sixteen and this is my first time leaving the station," he replied.
"If you're afraid, then why did you sign up for the mission?" I asked.
"I didn't sign up, my father signed me up," He replied. Everyone laughed, except for Ulf who was still pissed for us making Fyedora cry and worry more.
"Rotislav, when you said that telling a woman to calm down will make her angry, is that why that woman a few days ago slapped you and stormed off?" Dietrich asked.
"No, I was drunk and I grabbed her ass without permission," he said laughing.
"Then, she came back apologized, and they had sex," I said flatly.
"Wait, how did you know that?" Rotislav asked.
"I live right next to you, I could hear her," I said. He and everyone else, except Ulf, laughed. They continued on their way to the next station singing a few different songs, telling jokes, and just talking with one another. Ulf finally got over what we had done and tried to get Zakhar to stop being nervous. A few minutes later they arrived at Zvyozdnaya.
They were greeted by the station's leader, Aloyoshenka, and the military leader, Captain Komarov, and the ten men going on the mission. "You have your orders! Hey, Rotislav bring them back safely okay," Aloyoshenka said. He was a very kind and loving leader that cared for his inhabitants and was always sad when he heard that someone had passed away.
"I'll try, but don't be telling that to me, tell that to Segeyeovich or Lt. Mikhalych, they're the ones that wanted to do this mission," he said to him, he turned to the men waiting, "say your name as you step onto the train." Each one did as they were told.
"Andrei."
"Veiamin."
"Vsevolod."
"Vladislav."
"Vyacheslav."
"Aluin."
"Kalle."
"Sten."
"Günther."
"Volkard." They all sat down on the platform we were on or the platform next to us.
"Now, I know there are some French men here so I don't want any of you running off if things go to hell," Rotislav said. Everyone laughed except for the French who just sat there and stared at him.
"Why do you make fun of us, we have done nothing to you?" Aluin asked.
"One: it is easy to make fun of you and your scrawny structure, two: because we like making fun of each other, it is how we keep our morale up, and most of the time we don't mean it," Stephano said. They were still unhappy about the fact that they were going to be made fun of the most just because they were from a different country that had a bad history of military conflicts. There was a few moments of silence, not awkward just normal silence, before someone spoke up.
"Sten, that's Swedish and means stone right?" Dmitry asked.
"Yes," he replied and said nothing else. The men from this station were mostly young or middle-aged and had little to no experience dealing with mutants, though most of the men from Kupchino, the one where the story first started, were middle-aged or older and were very well experienced with fighting mutants, which was funny because they were at the end of the line. All the way there from then on they were singing songs, and laughing. It seemed you could still find peace and happiness even in the darkest of days, you just have to look for it. Twenty minuntes later they arrived at Moskovskaya. They had to wait a little bit while the men were being briefed and getting ready for the mission.
Segeyeovich, the leader of the station, and Lt. Mikhalych, one of the officers, walked up with the men in tow. "Sorry for the wait we had to finish up a few things," Segeyeovich said.
"We have our finest going with you, since we are the border station they will be taking point, I know that most of you know these men, but for sake of time I'll introduce them: Alexi, Vitaly, Grigory, Yegor, Immanuil, Pyotr, Yaroslav, Maksimilian, Geron, and Oswin," Lt. Mikhalych said pointing to each man. As he said their names they sat down on the train.
The train was now half full, the rest of the train was meant specifically for supplies, and any survivors they find, if there were any. As Yaroslav was getting down Rotislav grabbed him, and put him in a choke hold. "How is my little brother doing today?" he asked laughing.
"Weird way to say hello, Rot," Yaroslav said spitefully.
"Hey! I told you not to call me that," he said angirly and shoved him away. He lost his balance and landed on his face causing everyone else to laugh. He got up and sat next to me, and we left for Park Pobedy. The whole time there it was just like the other two, singing songs and telling jokes. Though, the older men who had lived before the nukes fell told stories of their time before living in the metro. The younger ones were fascinated though some of the older men got depressed because they would never see those things again.
The tunnel became very dark and eerie, after about the three hundreth meter mark it went completely dark and some of the younger fellows began to get nervous. A few of the men from Kupchino were playing pranks on them trying to scare them. The pipes through the tunnel were making weird noises, they were saying it was just the wind, though some said it wasn't the wind. A few men noticed my eyes were glowing a sulfur-phosphorus glow. "Why... why are your eye's glowing?" one of them asked.
"Oh, there are a few minor radiation leaks in our station and my mutation was the ability to see in the dark, so I usually don't go anywhere with a flashlight," I replied. He stared at me blankly and then looked back at the floor of the train. Then there were some more strange sounds from the opposite direction, and again it's just they said, we'll be fine they said. At that we heard a blood-curdling scream from the direction we were going. It was a women's scream, and it was very shrill and it echoed through the tunnel.
"What was that?" Zakhar asked getting very scared.
"Well, it was obviously a scream, what made the scream I don't know, though I'd rather not find out, but we have to whether or not we like it," Rotislav said calmly. Zakhar started shaking uncontrollably.
"Hey, it is going to be okay stop shaking," Stephano said. We arrived at the station moments later. It was eeriely quiet, and what was strange was that all the station's lights were still on. We looked around and everything looked like the people just disintegrated into nothing.
The men went searching for supplies. Vitaly and Yegor found a huge container and opened it. The container was full of mass amounts of shotgun shells, pistol ammo, military grade rounds, and dirty rounds. Fortunately they were all in belts, speed loades, and clips. Everyone was able to take some of the ammo and the rest was put on the train.
Vsevolod found the radio room which had a ham radio, a stereo for listening to music jerry-rigged to the ham so they could broadcast pre-recorded messages, and a cv radio. He looked around then flipped the switch on the stereo. It started playing an old song that one would hear if you went to a late night dance club. It played over the PA system startling a few, but they got over it and a few even tried to dance. This raised their spirits as they loaded all the weapons, food, clothing, and other supplies onto the train.
"Okay, we are going to leave five men here, and we will pick them up on the way back, Immanuil, Rüdiger, Andrei, Volkard, Matthaüs will stay, everyone else load up we are leaving," Rotislav said. They got onto the train and left for Elektrosila. It was thirty minutes of pure darkness and eerie noises.
When they were getting close to the station, they noticed that one of the outposts was trashed. They stopped and a few men got down to see what had happened. There were spent cartridges all over the ground, and guns of the men that had be been used were left on the ground blood stained. There was blood everywhere, but no bodies or dead mutants.
"Ignore all this, we will proceed into the station as normal, be on guard make sure weapons are loaded, and the safety is off. We don't know what we are dealing with here," Stephano said climbing back into the train. They did as they were told and they resumed their advance. They came up to the airlock and it was literally torn open. They could see claw marks going through the metal, and there was blood all over the airlock dripping onto the ground. There were no bodies, but you could tell there were people here because of the bloody hand prints everywhere.
Zakhar, the youngest and least experienced of the entire group, started getting scared and was breathing heavily. One of the men from another station came over to calm him down, but that made things worse.
"Okay, split up five groups of five, DO NOT leave a man behind, stay with your group, you see something strange don't hesitate to shoot," Rotislav said. Rotislav, Stephano, Ulf, Zakhar, and I were in one group and everyone went separate ways. We were walking around looking for whatever had done this. All we saw was blood, spent cartridges, fires, destroyed dwellings, damaged walls, floor, and ceiling. A few minutes of searching in the middle of the station, we found a trail of blood leading off somewhere.
We stopped and looked at each other, Zakhar was the only one who was afraid, while the others were ready to follow it to the end. We followed it slowly and a few seconds later we heard a creaking noise of an unoiled door opening and closing over and over. We walked further and saw the door. The room behind the door was comletely dark, and the lights above us were flashing and were doing it in thirty second intervals.
"Zakhar go to the door and open it and keep it open, Ulf, Stephano, Phillip, and I will give you cover," Rotislav said. As soon as he said this the door stopped half away and swung nearly shut leaving only a crack, Zakhar hesitantly walked up to it and with his gun at the ready.
He got up to the door and reached for the knob, he touched it only slightly, and it swung open surprising everybody and a strange looking mutant pounced Zakhar. In one swipe of its razor sharp claws it ripped through his steel-plated body armor and tore out his chest, emptying it, and it bit out his throat before we could do anything. At least he died instantly. It screeched, and the noise was unbearable, and indescribable. We were stunned for a moment and then we opened fire.
We fired our entire clips into it, and it was still alive, but only barely. I went up with my trench knife and stabbed into its head. It was nothing like we've seen before, it was about seven feet tall on its hind legs, had the body twice the size of a nosalis, but its head wasn't a head, it was a horse skull and that's it, no skin on it. It had all sharp, pointy teeth and the fangs were about eight inches long while everything else was four inches. Its claws were very long and very sharp, as told earlier when they tore through the airlock. We heard more screeches coming from the tunnels and all around us, and then the guns started going off and there were screams. We looked into the room and there was all the bodies of the dead people, and then they started shifting. A body slid off the top and hit the floor. It made a noise, got up and shambled towards us.
"WHAT THE FUCK! First these things and now zombies, what the hell is this world going to," Stephano said and shot it in the head.
"We have to run, we need to get out of here now," Rotislav said. We started running back to the train and we ended up bumping into another group of men. It was Dietrich, Raimond, Pyotr, Yaroslav, and Yegor. We ran together with a few men shooting behind us at the beasts. Before we got back Yegor was pounced and he was ripped open in an instant. We rounded a corner and Pyotr slipped and fell. He tried to get back up, but something grabbed his leg and began to pull him away. Before he was pulled away he grabbed onto the wall and screamed for help.
"I'm coming Pyotr!" Yaroslav yelled. He ran towards him, but another pair of claws grabbed ahold of his head and pulled it back. It started ripping in the middle and he was screaming louder than before. About halfway of his head being ripped off another claw came forward and reached into his open neck and ripped out his spine, finishing him off. "Noooooooo!" Yaroslav yelled. He grabbed his gun and went around the corner firing. We never saw him again.
The six of us got onto the train and waited for the other groups of men, but all we heard were the screams of the men and a few gunshots. We had to leave. It was just Rotislav, Ulf, Stephano, Dietrich, Raimond, and I that survived that station. We had to hurry and pick up the men left at Park Pobedy, and hope that we could make it back alive.
It wasn't easy. While we were going to Pobedy we could hear the beasts behind us. Then the lights in the tunnel went out and it was too dark to see anything and the lights wouldn't penetrate but only three feet into the darkness. Then we saw the eyes. The eyes of all the beasts coming for us, red, yellow, blue, light blue, purple, pink, orange, green, and everyother color.
They were getting closer and some were leaping onto the train. We were fighting them, but it was futile. The turret that was implaced was helping us out a little bit, but we still lost Dietrich and Raimond. Dietrich was on the far left of the train firing when he up and dissappeared. Raimond was in the middle manning the turret when one of the beasts landed on it. The beast swiped and ripped his face off.
We came up to Pobedy, and the other men were trying to get onto part of the train we left for them just in case something happened. Rotislav yelled to them to hurry up, and took a grenade, cooked it, then threw it at the horde behind us, blowing them up and allowing the other five more time. We kept on going hoping that the other's were going to make it out okay. A few minutes later we saw their rail car coming towards us, we felt relieved, but once it got closer we noticed that the men were either dead or missing.
Before we could react to it getting closer, one of the monsters jumped out at us. Ulf had an automatic shotgun and killed it, but not before it could get a good swipe on his chest. He fell back with blood gushing out of his chest. We could clearly see his heart beating and pumping blood. He tried to speak, but he died before he could say anything. "Oh god, what are we going to tell Fyedora?" Dmitry asked.
"HOLY SHIT! Where the hell did you come from?" I asked.
"My group was killed and I got back before you, I hid so those things wouldn't find me, sorry, I know I didn't help and Ulf could still be alive if I had done something, so you can tell her it was my fault," Dmitry replied.
"I will, we are great friends and after Rotislav made those comments I doubt she'll be in the mood to talk to him, you're an asshole," I said. We were getting closer to Moskovskaya, but we were still fighting these creatures. About one hundred metres out they stopped following. We were able to get into Moskov without any further attacks.
"What happened? Where is everyone else?" Lt. Mikhalych asked.
"We were attacked by new mutants in Elektrosila, there were but they died on the way back," Rotislav said. Lt. Mikhalych walked over to the train and saw Raimond's body and Ulf's body.
"Who will tell Fyedora about Ulf?" Mikhalych asked sadly.
"Phillip will," Stephano said.
"I don't think I could stand to tell her myself, seeing her cry would destroy my heart," he said, "I will tell Raimond's family specifically and give a memorial to the others." he sighed and walked off. After awhile of being there we got our stuff together and left for Kupchino. The radio operator in Moskovskaya said we were coming, but didn't say how many of us were left. We arrived an hour or two later we didn't really care, we were too depressed to care.
Fyedora was the first to come up to us when we stopped. "Where is Ulf?" she asked looking around with worry in her eye's. I looked her straight in the eyes, took a deep breath and said.
"Ulf died on his way back to Moskovskaya, a new mutant tore out his chest in one swipe, there was nothing we could do, I'm sorry Fyedora." She started to cry uncontrollably and fell to the ground. I picked her up and hugged her. "Crying isn't going to bring him back, he was a great man, just like the others," I said trying to comfort her.
"He did get Zakhar killed," Dmitry said.
"He didn't know that the mutant was behind the door, it wasn't his fault, and how did you know that?" Rotislav asked.
"We saw what happened when we were running back to the train," Dmitry said. I walked Fyedora back to her quarters and sat her down. I patted her on the head and left. I went to my quarters, laid down my equipment and fell asleep. Then I woke up in a field.
"Yep, I woke up here with all this equipment and even had my body armor on, which is weird because I took it off before going to sleep," Phillip said.
"So are you wishing you were back at you station right now?" Artyom asked.
"Honestly, I love Fyedora, Rotislav, and Stephano, but I have no family and most of my friends are dead, it just doesn't seem like there is anything to go back for or to even live for now," he said sadly and sat down on a stump.
Pinkie was made sad by his story and the comment he made. She walked up to him and gave him a hug. He was startled at first, then calmed down and pushed her away. She looked at him wondering why he had done that. "I was only trying to be nice, everypony needs friends," she said looking at him with a sad face.
"Aristotle once said, without friends no one would choose to live," Khan said.
"Friendship redoubleth joys, and cutteth griefs in half," Luna said.
"Yeah, and C.S. Lewis said, Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art. It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival," he said flaly, "anyways the bottom of the bottle is my only friend, I saw a kelpie, or what looks to be a kelpie back in the forest," he said trying to change the subject.
"What is a Kelpie?" Pavel asked.
"A kelpie is an evil water spirit that usually takes the form of a horse, and any man that tries to ride it, it drowns him and then eats him. They say if you can bridle it, it will do whatever you want it to do," Ulman answered. Everyone and everypony stared at him. "What? I read..... sometimes," he said.
"Never anything useful though," Vlad said.
"That was useful," he replied.
"Not really if you think about it," Pavel said. Ulman grunted and pushed Pavel. Pavel retaliated by pushing him back harder. Ulman knocked him over and Pavel fell to the ground face first. Pavel rolled over and kicked him in the knee, making him lose his balance. Pavel got up and punched Ulman in the face, finishing him off. Ulman got up from the ground and tackled Pavel, and thus started a fight. They were rolling around on the ground fighting, and the others just stared at them. Celestia raised an eyebrow at Miller.
All he did was put his face in the palm of his hand, shook it and said, "Idiots." They all watched as Ulman and Pavel fought on the ground for a few minutes before Miller ordered Artyom and Danila to break it up. They both had a few bruises and a few scrapes. They laughed about it and hugged each other (in a manly way, not a full embrace).
"You can quickly get over a fight and become friends again?" Luna asked.
"It's a guy thing, women usually hold grudges and never talk to each other again. That's why women should be the leaders of all the nations there would be no wars," Ulman said jokingly. Though the ponies weren't too happy about it.
"Really, you have to be sexist," Danila said.
"I was joking, I don't always mean what I say," Ulman said, "anyways, Miller keeps me in line if I go too far."
"So where are you guys staying?" Phillip asked.
"We were staying in town, but now we have to stay in the royal palace," Miller said, "what about you?"
"Me? I am staying in the forest, I like it there, the darkness, even after what happened, is inviting, I like the night, it is more of my element," Phillip repllied. Luna took interest in what he said.
"It's dangerous in the Everfree Forest during the day, and even worse during the night, are you sure there is nowhere else you'd like to stay that it is still shrouded in darkness?" Luna asked.
"Don't know of any other place that's dark, and besides I found this cool archaic castle to stay in," Phillip replied.
"An old castle? We used to live there long ago," Luna said.
"It's nice, kind of broken in a few places, but I'm getting used to it, fun to explore," Phillip said, "you know when the bombs fell and we rushed into the metro, people knew I was American and they blamed it on us, though a few blamed on the chinese, whenever they said American they looked over at me, and as I was sitting there looking at the floor I sang part of a song; This isn't a game, turn the safety off still we want more, and so the beat gets faster everyone must play, 'cause fame will find you put your face on the cover of a loaded magazine. We're proud of ourselves, our greatest inventions, methods of killing have reached perfection, all the players marching to a different drum, the rhythm of the war dance, and the beat goes on. What will become of us if there's no-one to watch over us? If we should face the certainty of our destruction forfeiting everything, pointless cries, futile dreams. There'll be no laughter, there'll be no tears when tomorrow never comes. As the warning sirens sound, and the world is at an end, render unto night creations torn asunder.
What will become of us if there's no-one to watch over us? There'll be no laughter, there'll be no tears, when tomorrow never comes," he said nodding his head, "got them to leave me alone for awhile, I remember that song vividly and when I watch people kill each other or I have to kill them myself, it plays in my head. I kill the enemy, but do not hate them," he finished.
"That's a song? What's it called?" Pinkie Pie asked.
"It's called 'Tomorrow Never Comes' by VNV Nation, a few of their songs are kind of though provoking, that's why I like them," Phillip said.
"Your friend, Ulf, had a fiancé, was there anyone you loved in your life?" Rarity asked.
"Yes, I had a girlfriend, she died from cancer, the last thing I said to her was, 'hush now, let it go now, there's no need for sad goodbyes.' Also a song by VNV Nation it's called 'From My Hands,' and she passed away, well we injected her with something to make it fast and painless since she was in had been in terrible amounts of pain," Phillip said sadly starring at the ground playing with a knife.
Rarity was kinda wishing she hadn't asked that question after seeing, his reaction, and hearing his answer. Pinkie didn't care what he would do, she went up to him and hugged him as hard as she could. He sighed, but did nothing to stop her. She was still hugging a few minutes later, and he looked at her.
"This is awkward, getting hugged by something that can't move it's appendiges, well not SUPPOSED to, move it's appendiges like a human," he said. She let him go and he stood up. "It was nice to meet you all, I'm going to head back into the Everfree and to the castle." He shook Miller's hand, got his belongings and headed towards the forest.
Luna looked over at Celestia and gave her a look of wondering if they should do anything about him. She shook her head and said softly, "We will watch him, see what he is like before we do anything we don't need another Bourbon incident." Right before Phillip entered the forest, they all heard a screeching sound that Phillip knew all to well.
"What was that?" an earth pony guard asked freaking out.
"It was nothing Silver Boulder, probably just an animal in pain or something," the other, pegasus, guard said.
"Well, if it's in pain, then what is causing the thing to be in pain? Huh, Lightning Dasher?" Silver Boulder asked. Silver Boulder had a silver coat and black mane and tail, light blue eyes, and an orange rectangular sheild with a halberd across it, diagonally, for a cutie mark. Lightning Dasher was a dark purple pegasus, with a bright blonde mane and tail and purple eyes, and had a crescent moon cutie mark. Though the cutie mark was different in shape and meant something else to Luna's.
"It was one of them, they are here," Phillip said standing before the forest. He secured his gear and tried to take a step forward, when something stopped him. He looked down to see a purple shimmering haze around his legs.
"You aren't seriously going in there are you?" Twilight asked worriedly.
"I am, I have unfinished business to attend to, I will destroy these things to avenge my fallen brothers and to rid the world of them," he replied.
"Well, if you're going to do that, you will need our help," Miller said.
"Okay, but you will listen to me and absolutely no heriocs, if someone knows they are going to die, well, let them," he said,
"Well, I'm not going to let Pavel die or Artyom," Ulman said back talking him. Danila looked at him, and Ulman shrugged.
"You want to know why most of those people died, it's because they were too stupid to realize that if you didn't run you would die, yes I know it's horrible for me to say that, but if you were in my shoes, my entire life, then you would understand," he said.
"We will need our weapons, and gear," Miller said looking at Celestia. She nodded and told the two royal guards to fetch them. A few minutes later they came back with the weapons and gear that Miller & Co. needed before they could go. They suited up and waited for Phillip to give the okay.
"Everyone ready?" he asked. They all nodded their heads in confirmation.
"Please be careful," Rarity said and the other also said to be careful and to come back in one piece. Phillip turned away from the ponies and went into the Everfree, the others followed.
Later at the Palace
"That Phillip one is strange, seems like he has multiple personalities, doesn't seem to be anything harmful about him, he justs needs to be understood more," Luna said to her sister.
"Maybe, but we still need to watch him, make sure he isn't harmful," Celestia said.
