Metro Ponies

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.