Metro Ponies

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.