The Stories of a Dreamlander

Chapter 39: Survive, Evade, Resist, Extract (SERE)

Part 1: Survive

TIME: 10:33 Herdiet Western Time
DATE: War Day 410/18 Quintillus 1873
LOCATION: Forested Foothills, Unknown Region, Union of Herdiet Stableist Republics

Fluttershy, Rarity and I had found a place to hide, for the moment. A cave out in the wilderness, after travelling for three hours on foot in a random direction away from all the roads and paths we could identify. Anything to get away. Right now, the girls were resting. I was standing watch with my newly-acquired AK. I'd expended the rest of the rockets I had on vehicles in the parking lot, and made a real mess of things in the town's "police station." The building itself was simply gone - apparently, the natural gas saturated enough of the structure that the explosion of the RVP rocket was enough to cause its collapse.

That did satisfy me, a little.. I mean.. two of my close friends were tortured in there in ways I didn't want to think about. But revenge is a cold, hollow thing - you feel good in the moment, but it leaves you feeling empty afterwards. The emotionally driven would fill it with a thirst for more revenge. Me? I simply accepted it at its face value.

I watched the girls sleep. Even Rarity was more tired than she was worried about her looks. There was a stream nearby - I'd see about getting her at least partially washed off, if it wasn't too cold. I was, of course, worried about hypothermia. Quintillius? That should be.. early to middle part of the year, if I remembered the Roman calendar. If they went by March being the first month - as the Romans did - then Quintillius would be equal to May on an Earth Gregorian calendar. Late spring. If we were in a northern-temperate region (it felt like it), a snowmelt stream would be absolutely frigid.

Oh, and we couldn't risk starting a fire. I had no idea who was chasing us, how many they were, or how thorough they were at their job, but smoke from an unauthorized fire was sure to draw attention.

As would gun fire.

I scouted around the area a little - never going more than 25-30 meters from the cave entrance - and looked for anything I could figure on being edible. Fluttershy or Applejack would know what's edible, I figured..

..Applejack. My Leading Mare. What was she suffering through?

Dismissing the thoughts from my head, I went over what I could remember of my Boy Scout training on edible wild plants. Of course, Equus was much different than Earth, but some basic rules ought to apply. Look for things that don't taste like bitter shit, watch what they do when rubbed on the skin, things like that. That, and at least the girls could partly subsist on grass. For me? Most tree leaves should be relatively edible..

..aha! Something that looked like a pine tree. I gently brushed the fine, needle-like leaves through my fingers, and plucked what looked like a ripe one. I bit off a tiny amount to test for flavor.. and it tasted like a pine leaf. Maybe Equus wasn't so different after all? I should have had Megan and Danny write me out a survival guide on wild edible plants - guaranteed they'd eaten some at one point.

I picked a pine cone from the tree and examined it. Yep, looked like an Earth pine cone. Then again, besides the strangeness of differnet types of apples growing on the same tree, Applejack's apples were just like Earth's. I pulled the AK blade bayonet I had, and scraped the pine cone open to see if it had its nuts yet. It did, so, I pulled them out a couple at a time, and bit into one. It didn't taste bitter.. so, I stuck it in the little saddle bag I had.

I ended up finding a berry bush.. berries were a questionable thing, though - some contained posions that made them inedible to mammals, but perfectly okay for birds. These berries LOOKED like edible ones, but I wouldn't dare eat them until Fluttershy checked them, so I picked a few, and took them back with me.


TIME: 14:47


I was checking the time on a watch that had ended up in our stuff. I didn't recall looting it, but I probably snatched it from one of the guards I basically stripped bare without thinking. It was just barely large enough for my wrist.. I'd need a new one custom made for me. I needed new glasses, too. Mine were gone, now. I had no idea if they'd been wrecked in the fight with Tirek, or what. I'd have to have Rarity make me a pair.

Speaking of.. she woke up very suddenly, with a gasp.

Rarity: "..I suppose I'll have to get used to the idea that not every drop of liquid on me is another attempt to shame me." She blinked, looking at the ceiling of the cave, then back to me. "How was your shift?"

K: "Okay. I found some things that might be edible, but I'd like Fluttershy to have a look at them, first." I shrugged. "I don't know what's safe to eat around here." I gave her a nod. "When you have the energy to cast magic, I need glasses. I'm blind as a bat over here." I rubbed my face.. I was terribly nearsighted. I couldn't see anything clearly beyond five inches (12.7cm) from my eyes. "And I wouldn't mind a little stitching work done on these things.." I lifted my arms, looking at my rough tunic-like-thing.

Rarity: "Not a problem, Darling." She gave me a smile. "Not that I wouldn't enjoy seeing you run around in the nude.." A bit of a smirk. "..remember Marelin?"

K: "How could I forget? My first night experencing a real lady, and Tirek had to shell the place." I shrugged, with a small chuckle. "But no, it really was magical." I reached out to pet her neck.. and when she didn't recoil from my touch, stroked it tenderly.

Rarity: "Mmm.. you can keep doing that, My Darling.." She scooted a little closer, and encouraged me to scratch her ears. "MMmmmm.. feels so good to feel the touch of someone I care for.." She gave me the Bedroom Eyes.. but just for a moment.

K: "Maybe later." I grinned, but frowned a little, looking at Fluttershy. "Honest. How bad was it?"

Rarity: *Long pause*Sigh* "I hope they didn't damage her internally." She looked very concerned all of a sudden. "As if Grogar wasn't bad enough. If they've harmed her to where she can't have foals.." She grit her teeth a little. "..I am a vengeful bitch, K. I admit it. In my own ways. And you showed me new ways.." She gave an almost motherly smile. Such harsh language!

Rarity got up and stretched a bit.. then went over and munched some of the vegetabes I'd 'bought' from the store, and proceeded to liesurely walk around and get the kinks out of her body. After a bit, I watched her horn glow, and off she trotted.. pausing to take her SVKM and saddle bags with her. Of course, if she needed her rifle, we were screwed anyway, but still..


TIME: 17:33


Rarity finally came back to the cave - she was as clean as she could get herself with just water, her hooves were filed as even as she could get them, and she pulled a pair of simplistic glasses from her saddle bag. The lenses were very thick.. and.. diamonds?

K: "Rarity?" I tilted my head.

Rarity: "Quartz. Hold still."

She fitted them to my head, and produced a stone cutting tool from her bag. She proceeded to hone and pare down the lenses until they were perfectly polished, about as thin as my old lenses, and a bit stronger than my old prescription. The frame was made of.. it looked like metal wire.

K: "Where did you get the metal?" I asked, not moving.

Rarity: "There was an abandoned hunting camp up the hill a bit. I found some things there. A stone cutting tool, some metal bits, and the ground was littered with gems. So, I pulled a couple clear ones and shaped them into lenses. I'm no optomitrist, K, but this should do." She rubbed her chin a little.

K: "Thank you. The lenses are actually better than my old ones." I shrugged.

Rarity: "It shall do until we can get you proper glasses. Now, about those abominable wrappings!"

I was suddenly telekinetically stripped of my cloth wrappings. She pulled the sewing kit from my saddle bags, and in just a few minutes, proceeded to measure, stitch, and sew me a pair of pants from the blue cloth, TWO shirts from the black cloth, four pairs of socks from the linen foot wraps, and a pair of proper woolen boots. She used a piece of metal, split in two, for the shank (one at the balls of my feet, the other at my heel), with the thick leather that I'd grabbed. She also used the leather string to construct laces for it. In the end, I had woolen boots with a full toe and heel of leather, and little straps that went up the sides in a criss-cross, ending with a tie at the top. The boots took her the longest.

Rarity: *Whew* "I'm glad that's over." She sat next to me.

Fluttershy was still asleep.. twitching and moaning every so often. Rarity got close to me, and rested her head on my lap, letting me stroke her neck and ears.


TIME: 18:11


Fluttershy finally woke up, with a start, gasping a little, and having reflexively reached for her APSv. Once she realized she was okay, she got up and tried to stretch her wings.. well, one of them. The other one still hurt too much. She flicked the wounded one a few times, and forced it to fold at her sides before stepping quietly over to us.

Fluttershy: "She's asleep in your lap.." She spoke ever-so-softly.

K: "I know." I reached out to pet her.. and when she likewise didn't shy away, I scratched her behind the ears.

Fluttershy: "Mmmmmmmm..." She rubbed into the ear scritches. "That feels so nice.." She smiled. "I see Rarity made you some clothes and glasses." She smiled a little.

K: "Yeah. Hey, could you ID those plants I brought back? I need to know if they're safe to eat. I figure, our diets are close enough that if you can eat them, I should be able to." I nodded to the stuff I had in a small pile.

Fluttershy: "Sure." She walked over and picked through my findings. "Hm.. very good. All of these are safe." She turned to look at me. "Been out in the wilderness before?"

K: "I was a Boy Scout. It's.. a.. sort of a young men's organization that teaches things like camping, first aid, stuff like that. Identifying plants safe to eat is a big part of it. Basic bushcraft." I shrugged. I only made it to First Class - yep, no Eagle Scout here.

Fluttershy: "Mm.. you did alright." She nibbled the berries. "Oo.. in season.."

K: "Go ahead and have them." I nodded to them. I was busy with a couple carrots, and an apple. "I know where more are. It's not far."

Fluttershy: *Hm!* This cheered her up. She ate them all. "Thanks, K." She moved back over to me, and nuzzled my hand, again, for more pettings.

K: "We should move at night. I'm shocked they didn't find us already, but the more distance we put between us and that town, the better. If we keep heading south-west, we'll hit a NEIGHTO nation, guaranteed." I said, as I pet on her.

Fluttershy: "Sounds like a good plan.. but what about the others?" She lifted her head to look at me, questioningly.

K: "I don't know. Maybe we'll get lucky and ambush some secret police, and.. if they know Equestrian.. we can question them." I shrugged. "If not, our responsibility is to get back to allied territory alive. Maybe we can politically force the Herdiet Union to hand over the others.. if the NEIGHTO allies will back us."

Fluttershy: "And if they don't?" She sounded worried.

K: "I'll lead an all-volunteer mission to walk back in to the UHSR and free them from captivity.. I don't care what Celestia says about it." I grunted.

Fluttershy: "I trust you." She snuggled me a bit.


TIME: 18:44


K: "Wake up, Rarity. Time to go." I nudged her.

Rarity: "Mm.. okay." She got up and stretched.

Fluttershy: "I'll pack us up." And she went and did that.

I checked my AK and APSv. Just out of habit. I could actually aim, now, instead of hosing down an area and hoping for the best. Once the girls were all in order, I led the way. Our first stop was the berry bushes I'd found - we picked as many as we could safely carry, and moved on. We walked all night long.. stopping to rest here and there.. and eating as we could.

Fluttershy showed us right off the bat what wild plants were edible, so we wouldn't have to keep bugging her about it (not that she minded). We picked some wild tubers and took them with us. Water wasn't a problem - we ran across four streams and one decent sized river during our walk. I was just thankful to have the light of the moon overhead.. it felt like Luna was watching over me.

As the moon started to set, and dawn approached, we started looking for a spot to hide for the day. We were out on the plains, now, follwing that south-westerly path.. not a lot of places to hide out here..


TIME: 05:22


Fluttershy: "I think I see a barn.." She pointed to what looked like a barn building on the edge of someone's farm.

Rarity: "Hm.. remind me to hug Applejack when I see her next.." She let a smile curl up her lip edges.

K: "Yeah, come on." I motioned for the girls to follow me.

We got to the farm in a few minutes, and crawled up the concealed side of the barn to the loft. Plenty of hay up here.. and the barn itself was completely empty. So, we got set to settle in.. when we heard the commotion outside.

Crawling to the very edge of the side of the loft's upper window, we could see a jeep of some kind.. and three Secret Police types milling about. They.. didn't look heavily armed. That didn't read right at all. If they were looking for us, they should know we were armed to the teeth.. no, they seemed here about another matter..

The first one was busy dragging out a woman from the main house. The second was sitting in the jeep, smoking (I thought that was just a Griffon thing?). The third one was pulling stuff out of the farm's grain silo. More like.. he was going through it.. like he was checking how full it was, or something..

Rarity: *Quiet murmur* "What are they doing?"

K: *Quiet murmur* "Mmm.. appropriating food for the greater good, I think.." I scowled. "Forced food confiscation. They called it.. uh.. food allotment, on Earth. Basically, the government steals all the food it wants and pays you a pittance for it."

Rarity: *Harsh murmur* "How barbaric..!"

K: *Shh*

I watched as the Secret Policepony got the woman out of the house. She was pushed to the doors of the barn. He then started questioning her, harshly. She defended herself verbally.. her words harsh and angry.. defiant. That got the first one to get close to her and shout at her. He was practically right below us.

I didn't understand the language, but I knew what was going on here. They were going to steal what little she had, and probably beat her for the trouble.. we had to do something..

K: *Very silent whisper* "Rarity.. target the one in the jeep. Fluttershy, the one below us. I'll get the last one.."

Fluttershy: "You're doing the right thing, K.." She gently, quietly moved into position.

I sure hoped I was.. this was going to be close..

[End of Part 1]


Part 2: Evade

TIME: 05:28 Herdiet Western Time
DATE: War Day 411/19 Quintillus 1873
LOCATION: Farm, Unknown Region, Union of Herdiet Stabelist Republics

Like a group of partisans, I felt like I was doing the right thing.. though I was second-guessing myself the second I said..

K: "OPEN FIRE!" I immediately squeezed the trigger bar of the AK, and stitched up the Secret Policepony that was investigating the grain.

Fluttershy leaned out and fired a short burst from her PPSv, and Rarity needed only a single shot to down the Secret Policepony in the jeep-like vehicle - right in the head, through both eyes.

Below us, the farmer mare flopped on her belly, and covered her head to protect herself - probably thinking that SHE was the one being shot at. It was over in but moments. And there was quiet as I tried to figure out what to do next.

Farmer Mare: "Chto..?"

I recognized that word from C&C Red Alert - Russian for "What" as in expressing "What just happened here?"

K: "Are you okay?" I had to fight the plebian urge to shout loudly - as though talking to someone in a language they don't understand in a very loud voice somehow helps the situation. I hope she at least understood the tone of my voice.

Farmer Mare: "Eh!?" She looked up at us.. and was more surprised to see me than she was the girls (of course).

Rarity: "Pardon us, Darling, but do you speak Equestrian..?" A slim hope, but-

Farmer Mare: "Y-Yes.. I do.." She blinked.. she was still trying to process what just happened.

Fluttershy: "How helpful!" She scooted over to the stairs that led down to the main part of the barn.

K: "We're coming down - we mean you no harm." I assured her.

Rarity: "Yes, Darling. Everything is going to be okay." I gave her a look, like, 'are you serious?' and she returned it with 'it's all I got' - she knew as well as I did that we probably just got this girl in a heap more trouble than she already had.

We exited the barn, and the mare was already starting to.. dispose of the bodies?

K: "Here I figured you'd be mad at us - one does not go around killing Secret Police and get away with it.." I shrugged, honestly shocked that she wasn't one of those so psychologically conditioned to worship The State that she would gladly suffer their abuses, and be enraged at outsiders for trying to save her (much like a beaten wife).

Farmer Mare: "KSVB are pigs." She snorted as she stripped the uniform from the one near her grain silo. She turned to look at us. "Komitet Spetsial'nyy Vnutrennyaya Bezopasnost' - Special Internal Safety Committee." She shrugged, as if she figured we wouldn't understand.

Rarity: "My name is Rarity - these are my friends, Fluttershy and K." She nodded to us.

Sinichka: "Sinichka. You give me a hand with these bodies?" She shrugged at them.

K: "Of course." I grabbed the one Fluttershy had shot, and stripped his uniform off of him. "You're not mad at us for killing them?"

Sinichka: "They have threatened to move me to collective farm for many years. The only thing that protected me was.." She looked at the grain silo. "..I was able to make Allotment every time. But my father passed two months ago, and.." She lowered her head a little. "..there was a boy who would help on the farm, for extra food. They hang him for smuggling food, last month."

K: "Basically, you were pretty much screwed, no matter what?" I shrugged, as I put the KSVB officer's corpse next to the one she had stripped.

Sinichka: "Da." She was going to go back for the other one, but Rarity and Fluttershy were seeing to him. "I had a choice.. give them all my grain, or marry their boss. He is a local political commissar. He.." She looked at Fluttershy and realized she was a Pegasus.. and Rarity a Unicorn. "You two.. are..?"

Rarity: "I'm a Unicorn and Fluttershy is a Pegasus." She smiled, having taken the KSVB stallion's boots.

Sinickha: "..those are very rare here.." She looked at her dress. It covered her whole body, but I was close enough to make out the wing lumps.

K: "You're a Pegasus, too?" I tilted my head.

Sinichka: "Yes." She blushed and lowered her head. "Pegasus mares are very.. desired." She looked up at the three of us. "You are foreigners, yes?"

K: "Yes." I nodded. "We were taken prisoner." I looked between Rarity and Fluttershy. "We were on Mount Frost, inside what used to be the Empire of Harmony.."

Sinichka: *HA!* Granted, it was an ironic sort of 'ha.' "You know your capture made the news? The government called it a mission to intercept partisan suppliers.. they say that Equestria is destabilizing our country."

K: "Obviously, that isn't the case. What did they say about me? Anything?" I helped Rarity get the third KSVB stallion into the heap as Sinickha walked over to a small gate that was in front of a wooden structure about as tall as me.

Sinichka: "They say they capture great and ancient evil that Equestria unleash upon us." She pulled the gate's handle with her mouth, and several large pigs came out. "Is time for dinner!"

The pigs started eating the KVSB stallions without questioning it.

Rarity: "..oh, my!"

K: "Pigs'll eat anything. Where I come from, this is a perfectly legitimate way to dispose of a corpse. I hope they're hungry enough.."

Sinichka: "Always." She smiled. "Please, come, better you get off the road." She nodded to her farm house.

Rarity: "Why would they say such things..?" She asked me as we walked towards the farm house.

K: "Propaganda. Keep the masses fooled into thinking the government is there to help them, not hurt them. That they're being repressed by exterior actors, not internal actions. Deflect blame for anything that goes wrong. If it wasn't Equestria, they'd blame people that weren't complying with the State's wishes - saboteurs, internal dissidents.. it's pretty much standard procedure in any oppresive regime." Even on Earth. No, especially on Earth.

Sinichka let us into her home. I was still a bit surprised..

Sinichka: "Rarity, yes?" She moved over to the white mare.

Rarity: "Yes.." She nodded a little.

Sinichka: "Upstairs is a bath tub and soap.." She gave her a little girly grin.

Rarity: "Sold!" She was gone, stripping out of the stolen camo's as fast as she could.

Sinichka: "And Fluttershy.. please, let me see your wing." She nodded to her, and muzzle-nudged her to a chair in the kitchen.

Fluttershy: "I-It's really nothing.." She blushed..

Sinichka: *Sniffs* "Seems you were also.. party guest." She looked at me with a little anger in her eyes. "They did the same thing to one of my close friends.. she hang herself later." She gave Fluttershy a hug, and went to fetch a first aid kit.

K: "How is it that you know Equestrian?" I asked, tilting my head.

Sinichka: "My father.. and I.. we.." She looked around as though she was afraid of something, and set the first aid kit on the counter before scooting into another room. She returned with a lithograph of Princess Celestia. "..we worship the Sun." She smiled.

K: "Princess Celestia.." I traced my fingers over the lithograph.

Sinichka: "Worship of idols is forbidden.. but there are some of us that believe." She smiled.

K: "How..?" I sat down as she started to properly render aid to Fluttershy's wounds.

As Sinichka explained it, around the birth of the Herdiet Union over 1800 years ago, there was a sect of ponies that worshipped the Sun. Not in the same sense as Equestrians do today, but more that the sun brought them warmth and good planting, and then, good harvests. The image of Celestia herself being tied to the sun, started around a thousand years ago. Right around the time she dealt with Sombra.. it made sense. Perhaps some Crystal Ponies came to the Herdiet Union with their tales of the Sun Goddess defeating the darkness. She was flanked my the symbol of Luna on one side.. and something I'd never seen on the other.

K: "What is this mark?" I pointed to it.

Sinichka: "The Tyrant of Tartarus." She nodded, as though I should know. "Tirek!"

Fluttershy: *Eep!* She shrunk into a ball.

Sinichka: "Oh! I am sorry, did I hurt you?" She pet Fluttershy's mane reassuringly.

Fluttershy: "N-no.. I'm sorry.." She resigned herself to having her wing bandaged.

K: "It's just.. we fought Tirek on Mount Frost. That's.. I guess.. how we were captured. Tirek defeated us.. and killed her friend." I nodded to Fluttershy - and giving Angel more dignity than calling him a mere pet.

Take care of her..

I would, Angel.. from now on, I would.

Sinichka: "Sounds typical. Every now and then, KVSB or the Border Guards take prisoners - ponies, griffons, whatever. Any that get too close to what the Arkose (Arkozovymi Krepost' - The Arkose Fortress, the seat of the Herdiet Government; Arkose itself is a type of rock that contains Feldspar) deems to be their lands, are taken, usually branded as invaders, and never heard of again. Usually, we get notices in the news that they are executed."

Fluttershy: *Gasp!* "T-Twilight and the others..!" She had her hooves over her mouth.

K: "We have to save them, somehow.." I shook my head.

Sinichka: "Then I will go with you." She said, all of a sudden.

K: "Are you serious?" I tilted my head. "Just like that?"

Sinichka: "I have nothing here." She shrugged and shook her head. "The Commissar wants my hoof.. and has killed or sent away any stallion that even looks at me funny. My father has passed. I have no one.. no thing ties me to this land, but tradition. And I have not the means to carry through with that tradition."

K: "A very logical way of looking at things." I nodded.

Sinichka: "Alright, then. And we must rescue your friends, too." She nodded, and finished with Fluttershy's wing. "Now, go bathe, but be careful of the bandage, yes?" She gave Fluttershy a small hug and shoo'ed her upstairs. "I long have dreamt of being rescued.." She said, standing between the door to the kitchen and the hall leading to the front area. "..you think I will find a knight in shining armor?" She gave me half a smile.

K: "Who knows." I shrugged. "But, guaranteed, Princess Celestia will want to thank you in person."

Sinichka: *Hm!* "Thank you. You've no idea what that means to me." She smiled, and went to get herself prepared.

Me? I snuck back outside and sought to dispose of the jeep. Since I couldn't drive such a tiny, cramped thing comfortably, I simply put it in neutral and rolled it into the barn. I made sure to loot it of anything useful - three large saddle bags, some mechanical tools, three PPSv's and their magazines, the KSVB officer's PT-71's and magazines, three field knives, entrenching tool (shovel/spade), and mounted on back was one of the KDS-71 Heavy Machine Guns. Since we weren't taking that with us, I pulled the firing pin mechanism out and broke the pin off before putting it back in place.

Even if they recovered the vehicle, they wouldn't be able to shoot with it until they fixed the firing pin.

Sinichka invited us to stay until it was nightfall. The girls slept together in her parent's old bed (it was so cute seeing Rarity cuddle up over Fluttershy, protectively). I slept on the floor nearby, clutching that AK and praying to anything that would hear me, to help us.


TIME: 18:47 HWT


We left early in the evening. Sinichka had a plan that she thought might work - sneak into town and go see the Commissar. We needed travel papers, for one thing, or we'd be stuck skulking around the wilderness. That, stolen uniforms that didn't have bullet holes in them, a truck large enough to hide me in the back, information on the locations of our friends.. we needed as much as we could get away with. Anything to help us evade capture.

Sinichka: "His office is over there.. near the edge of town." She nodded. She had her best outfit on - it showed off her flanks. "He has only one guard with him - his secretary. He will be armed."

K: "Got it." I nodded.

So, over to the office we stalked. She took the streets - we took the edges of the town until we got to the office - it looked like a single story house that was simply taken over. She knocked, and the secretary let her in. According to the plan, she was going to try to get the Commissar to come to her.

After about ten minutes, the Commissar arrived. He was dressed in his uniform - green field tunic, blue pants, blue-topped hat with a red band, and black boots for his rear hooves, with black hoofcaps for his front hooves. He had a nice rack of medals on his chest, and some stars on his shoulder. Probably the equivalent of a Major.

We snuck around to the back of the building, where Sinichka had the window open and ready for us. The Commissar came in.. walked over to the window where Sinichka was sitting..

..and I reached up and punched him in the throat with all of my strength.

K: "Rarity! Go!"

Up and over the ledge, she rushed the front room of the 'office' and I could hear her take out the secretary. No gun fire.

I got in through the window, with Fluttershy, and Sinichka quickly closed it and drew the curtains. I grabbed up the Commissar..

K: "Der Kommissar's in town.." I smirked. Ja, ja.. don't turn around.

Commissar Prelkov: "*GHHG!* "DE ESCAPED EVIL!" He tried reaching for his PT-71, but I grabbed his foreleg and squeezed.

K: "Settle down, Commissar. The next few minutes of your life can be pleasant or painful."

Behind me, Rarity was levitating a chair leg with her telekinesis, smirking, and indicating where she planned to put it.

Prelkov: "Vhat you vhant?!" He looked at Rarity.. then me.. then Fluttershy.. then realized that Sinichka was removing his uniform.

K: "Certain things, Commissar. And the lady's chair leg is the least of your worries..." I leaned in and explained Hot Monkey Sex to him.. and what that would mean to his fragile anus. He went as pale as a pony can go (of course, I embellished my dick size, just to scare him).

Prelkov: "You vill not get 'vay vith this!" He stammered.

K: "I think we will. Now, let's start with the basics.. where are the other four prisoners from Equestria? And where is the Flutter Pony?" I asked, nicely..

Prelkov: "I-I am trained to resist torture!" He tried scoffing.. but a naked man can't scoff very well.

K: "Rarity.. we're going to make him into a Kissy Sissy." I smirked, and flipped him over the desk.

No homo.

Well, no, I shouldn't say that - I am Bi. But I wasn't really attracted to males like him. I did this purely to torture him in the worst ways possible (while thinking of pounding Applejack's firm, muscular ass). You see, culturally, in Russia, if you're on the GIVING end of Anal Sex with another male, you're not gay. But if you're on the RECEIVING end, you are. And being gay in the Russian/Slavic definition of the term, is to be completely emasculated.

Add to that, Rarity was now using Sinichka's beauty supplies to make him look girly.

It was exactly the same line and definition of torture that they'd been doing to the girls all this time.

When I finished blowing my load in his ponut hole (fuck you, /mlp/), Rarity already had him looking cute, and in Sinichka's dress (she had his uniform on).

The perfect little Trappy Commissar. He was sobbing like a baby.

Prelkov: "PLEEZ! NO MORE!" *Sobs*

K: "I'm just getting started, you little faggot." I slapped his ass. Hard. "My little.. Suka.." I bit his ear. Suka = Bitch.

Prelkov: "WHATEVER YOU VANT! TAKE! PLEEZ! NOT AGAIN!"

K: "That was easy. Open your safe, Commissar, or you're getting round two."

I took a cigarette off of his desk from a small cup that had them, used the strike-anywhere-match from the little box on his desk and struck it off his ass, and leaned back and pretended to smoke (I sucked it into my mouth, held it a moment, and exhaled - it burned like a motherfucker, partly because I hadn't smoked in over three years, and partly because the tobacco was harsh as fuck). I looked boss as fuck for a man with his pants down and a half-chub that just anally raped a pony.

Trappy Prelkov crawled over to the safe and fiddled with it until it was open. That done, he handed over all the papers he had, plus a few thousand bucks.

Sinichka: "Why, Commissar! There is no reason for you to have THIS much money..!" She wagged a hoof at him, shamingly.

K: "Skimming off the top, eh? I like naughty little traps.." I gave him the cruellest smirk I could muster.

He swallowed audibly.

K: "Where are my friends?" I said, deadpan.

Prelkov: "Th-they are held in detention centers.. ten and seven!" He pointed to a map. Detention Center Seven was in Moscow. Yes, it retained the name of its Earth equivalent. "You will never get in there!" He rolled on his back, his tail flipping between his legs, protecting what little anal integrity he had left. Never mind the fact that monkey jizz was slowly leaking from it.

K: "I need keys to the truck out front." I nodded to Rarity to get the Secretary. That would make two uniforms.

Prelkov: "Desk. Top drawer..!"

I fetched them. That was everything on the list.

Now, to finish the job. I grabbed the nape of his neck and held him over his desk again.

Implying rape? I don't need to imply. When I was done with him - and he was crying all over himself because I managed to make him blow his own load all over the dress, and his desk top - I grabbed the secretary, and with a little handy manipulation, got him hard and slumped him over his boss. I then made sure his horsecock found the mark on the sobbing Commissar.

Sinichka: "Why the display?" She quizzed me.

K: "Just wait."

I took the Commissar's PT-71, and disengaged the safety. I then stuck it in the Commissar's mouth, grinning greedily as I angled it.. just right.. his eyes screaming to me - begging me to show him some dignity and mercy, and my human eyes returning none in kind..

*POP!*

Just right. The round went through the Commissar's head, out the back, and into his secretary's eye. They were both dead in an apparent suicide.

K: "Let's get out of here."

[End of Part 2]

Part 3: Resist

TIME: 19:22 Herdiet Western Time
DATE: War Day 414/22 Quintillus 1873
LOCATION: Detention Center #10, Sarov (Gorki-16), Gorki Oblast, Union of Herdiet Stableist Republics


As the darkness fully took hold of the facility where various secrets important to the UHSR were kept, the guards outside - I imagine - were used to seeing trucks come and go, even at this hour. So, when we approached, they probably thought it was just another shipment of some kind. They had no idea that the truck itself was loaded for murder.

It wasn't a military truck we were driving, but a civilian truck with Commissar markings - Sinichka told me that these were called "Harvest Trucks" and their purpose was to secure the Food Allotment from individual farmers in various regions and to ship them to central collection centers in each administrative division. As such, they were given to Commissars to also handle other tasks, including personal transport at times. Thus, they used keys instead of push-button ignitions.

Actually, interesting story about 'individual' farmers, here - as part of the cultural tradition, farms were allowed by the State to be family operated (as they understood that this allowed for greater efficiency) though state owned. If a farm could not meet its Food Allotment, THEN the State would take it over and either convert it to a Collective Farm, send the farmers themselves to a Collective Farm to work at and reuse the land for some other purpose, or if it wasn't economically viable to do either, the local Commissar was supposed to 'improve' the farm with State funds to make sure it made its Food Allotment. It was because of this flexibility, and a lack of exports, that ensured the UHSR always had a significant food surplus, allowing price controls.

Prelkov, instead of helping like he should have been (since their farm was one of only two in the area and it wasn't economical to convert it to a Collective Farm), had been using his position to try and force Sinichka's farm to fail, so he could force her to marry him as an alternative to her going to a Collective Farm or - gasp in mock surprise - be held accountable for the farm's failure herself (which would mean prison).

As we approached the gate, the guard in the front seemed utterly bored with his job. As though nothing interesting ever happened. Sinichka and Rarity were in front, in uniform. Rarity was dressed as the secretary, and Sinichka as the Commissar. We had his identity papers, travel passports (the ones we took were for unrestricted travel), the works.

The guard looked up as they rolled to a stop in front of the guard post. The guard on the other side was practically asleep.

The guard asked them for their clearance and identity papers (I guessed - after all, that's standard procedure).

Rarity pointed the APSv at his face and pulled the trigger bar, painting the guard shack with his brain matter.

K: "FIRE!" I yelled, popping up from the back of the truck and unloading with my AK into the second guard at the gate - three shots - then redirecting fire to the nearest 2.5-meter wide spotlight up on the nearest guard tower.

Fluttershy came up and hosed down the tower on the other side, pumping half a drum magazine into it.

K: "DRIVE, DRIVE, DRIVE!"

Rarity hit the gas, bound for the double doors at the front of the facility.

Rarity: "BRACE YOURSEVES!"

I lowered myself to the floor of the truck bed, and tucked Fluttershy in close to me, so I didn't see how fast Rarity made the truck go, or the incoming fire from the machine gun emplacements along the walls. All I felt was the crash.. and once we stopped, the truck was wedged halfway into the main hallway.

Yes, we were going for a frontal assault with only two trained ponies, myself, and Sinchka. Suicide? More like the very last thing they would expect me to attempt.

K: "BAIL!"

I pulled myself over the side of the truck, and knelt to cover Fluttershy. Two guards came from around the edge of the building, but I cut them down before they realized I was even there. They each got four rounds.

Rarity: "We're out! Let's go!" She covered Sinichka, who was armed with a PPSv.

Sinichka: "Where do we go!?"

K: "Follow me!"

I pivoted from my position, letting Fluttershy take over as Rear Security, as I moved up the hallway to one of those convenient pictogram "street signs" just like the one in the KSVB Station in the town I was originally held in. Jail area.. Jail area.. aha! High Security Containment (a barred jail door with a big lock on it).

Straight ahead, I went, following the signs. The alarms sounded, with red lights and klaxons blaring in the distance. I could hear more KSVB troops moving in, and as we passed a door, a KSVB pony came right out of it, looking to see what had happened. He yelled at the sight of me, but he wasn't nearly fast enough to draw his sidearm. I smashed him in the head with the stock, wheeled the rifle over, and impaled him on the knife bayonet, right in the heart. I pulled out, swapped positions with Fluttershy again, and fired the rest of my rounds back up the corridor to discourage pursuit (suppressive fire).

Fluttershy changed positions with me again, as I moved forwards as fast as possible, and grabbed another magazine from my vest. Catching the lip of the magazine on the AK's mag release lever, I pushed it out, slid the new magazine in place, and rotated the rifle in my hand to grasp and pull the charging handle.

Rarity: "Hold!"

She had taken position as leader, and stopped at the door leading to the next section of hallway. She motioned for us to press ourselves against the walls - which we did quickly - and she pressed the door open with the tip of her rifle. The second she did that, the door was peppered with gunfire. They were there, and waiting for us.

Fluttershy: "What do we do?" She already knew what I was thinking, though.

K: "Break through."

I nodded to Rarity, and she levitated her rifle out ahead of her, and cracked the door open again. Using the window in the frame of the door to see where her rifle was pointed, she telekinetically yanked the trigger ten times, emptying her magaizne. She retracted the rifle through the door, and I moved forwards, kicking the door flat off its hinges, and taking accurate burst shots at anything that seemed to be moving.

I reloaded again, and motioned for the group to move up.

Fluttershy took over as formation leader, as Rarity finished reloading, and I reloaded my AK. That put me at third man of the formation again as we quickly moved to the end of the hallway. There were stairs here, going down to the High Security Area. There was a landing halfway down, and the stairs continued after that - a standard 'corner' staircase.

K: "Wraparound." I directed. "Sinichka, hold the corner." I put her in position right at the corner, and put her in a proper firing position. "Shoot anything that tries to come through that hall, until I tell you to move."

Sinichka: "DA!" She affirmed, and kept her eye down the crude sights of the sub-machine gun.

We got down the steps, bounding cover the whole way. I heard Sinichka's PPSv fire up above us, and hoped she was okay. As it happened, I got to the bottom first, being third in line, and took cover near the edge of the stairs. Most of the commotion was above us - I didn't hear anything ahead, but that didn't mean there weren't surprises.

K: "CLEAR! SINICHKA! MOVE UP TO ME!" I called back to her.

Sinichka: "COMING!" She fired again, and then moved - I could hear her hooves hurrying down the stairs.

K: "RARITY! WHAT'S IT LIKE BACK THERE!?" I called back to her.

Rarity: "JUST A FEW!" I could hear her open fire, and bodies hit the floor (let the bodies hit the floor!)

K: "MOVE UP!" I called. Rarity joined me after a moment. Fluttershy followed her.

Once again, I took the lead. I was down two AK magazines (I'd been discarding my empties for speed), but that was okay. We could always steal more. As we passed each doorway, Rarity kept her rifle pointed at the ones on the left, and Fluttershy the ones on the right. I advanced up the hall with my eye down the sights, somewhat hunched over.

We reached the end of the hallway, which had a large barred sliding gate over it. We could see beyond the gate, and there were individual cells here, lined up along the walls. This was the 'dungeon' area, more or less. High Security prisoners were housed seperately from the rest of the population. I intended to set every prisoner here, free, to further confuse the authorities and keep the KSVB as busy as possible. The gate, however, was locked.

K: "We'll need keys." There were four doors in this hallway that we'd passed - two on either side. "Sinichka - what do the door plates all say?" I nodded to them.

Sinichka: "Names. Uhm." She pointed to the one nearest the gate. "His is the higher rank."

K: "Rarity, Fluttershy, breach and clear." I took cover in the far corner, away from them, covering the hallway. I moved Sinichka next to me.

Rarity: "On it." She switched to her APSv, and moved to the door. Fluttershy stacked up behind her. "Three.. two.." She back-kicked the door near the knob, and Fluttershy went in first.

I heard a burst of gunfire, and they exited in short order. Nods were passed to me and Sinichka, as Rarity tossed me the keys and swapped back to her rifle. Despite its long length, she handled it well in close quarters. For comparison, it would be like me using an M1 Garand for CQC fighting.

We moved into the main 'dungeon' area, and were immediately greeted by cheers in Russian - half the cells were full. I passed Sinichka the keys.

K: "Here! Free them!" I instructed. "Tell them if they want their freedom, they'll follow me!" I gave her a firm nod. "Fluttershy, with me. Rarity, help Sinichka!" I made pointings, as Fluttershy and I advanced towards the back hallway of the High Security Area.

Pressing myself against the walls, I kept as close to the sides as I could. Fluttershy was across the hall (it wasn't very wide) and pressed against the opposite wall, and back a little bit. We got to the end of this hall, and found ourselves in another section of jail cells. They were full, too. It seems that even after 1873 years, The State still has problems.. interesting.

K: "SINICHKA! MORE OVER HERE!" I called back to her.

Fluttershy and I moved up to the next section - interrogations. This was represented by two eyes drawn like they're looking at each other. Three KSVB agents came right around the corner, no doubt hearing my calls. The turn was so tight, we almost ran into each other. Being the larger creature that I am, I pounded the one that got closest to me in the head with the stock of my rifle, and kicked the next one in the face. Fluttershy collided with the third one, and ended up on the ground with him.

I ended up grabbing the one I'd been clubbing, by the neck, and heaving him against the wall (adrenaline, folks - great stuff, as I've said before). He hit hard, and that let me go after the second one. I kicked him in the neck as hard as I could - hard enough that I felt his windpipe give a little. He immediately started coughing for air. This let me back up, and double-tap both of them with my AK. With that done, I walked over to where Fluttershy was struggling with the last one, picked him up by his uniform, and pulled him off of her. This gave her room to draw her knife and stab him in the side, right by the heart, three or four times, then kicking him with her back legs, in the chest. I dropped the corpse and helped her up. She recovered her PPSv and we started moving.

K: "ANYONE HERE!?" I called out as loud as I could muster. To be honest, I felt.. tight.. all over. It was probably the injuries acting up, along with the adrenaline.

Fluttershy: "I hope they're alright.." She said, quietly.

We moved into the main hall of the interrogation center for the dungeon. These were all 'enhanced' inerrogation rooms. I simply kept moving, watching each doorway until we reached the end of the hall. There was a larger door here, and it looked like it had fresh locks installed on it. This must be the place.

Fluttershy: "Does.. one of the keys work?" She asked, as I contemplated the door.

K: "Fuck keys." I levelled the AK at the door, and fired a burst offset from the lock plate, and kicked it open.

Inside was some kind of examination area. Most of our gear was in a huge metal tub off to the right. There was evidence that blood had been spilled here. There were two exam tables, and some other equipment that looked painful. I went for the big metal tub and rooted through it.

K: "They must have my cell phone elsewhere.."

But, on the plus side, my Morgan, my boots, and my (raggedy) clothes were all here, as was a couple other Morgans, most of our uniforms, and some other things.

K: "Cover me." I announced, as I got my stuff together.

It looks like the uniform I had been wearing, had had it, though. It was drenched in dried blood.. how much blood did I lose? Forget it. I got my rucksack from the bottom of the container, and got into my proper uniform. My rank pins were still fastened to my coat collar, so, I put them on my shirt collar. I pulled off my pants and hospital gown underware, and put my real clothes on. My proper military boots replaced the ones that Rarity made from the rough materials, and I put those clothes in my ruck. I checked my ruck for everything else I'd had in there, and found that except my cell phone, everything was here.

I stomped my boots on the ground.. felt good.

K: "Flutters, get your uniform on. I refuse to be called a spy or an insurgent." I twitched the sides of my mouth. "Not that we probably won't just be shot, anyway."

As I'd found out, the main questions they were asking the girls were military secrets - strength of the Equestrian military, things like that. They never once asked about the Crystal Kingdom, though they did ask about Tirek's capabilities. The girls had refused to talk. They said nothing at all, other than to demand they be released. Fluttershy got her uniform on and changed out the Herdiet Army saddle bags for the ones I'd designed for them. They were roomier and had better pocket access. Hers also had our squad medical gear - though they'd pulled this all out to examine it, she neatly put everything back. While she did this, I got my chest holster out for my Morgan, and slung it there.. partly symbolic, partly for comfort.

Fluttershy: "Ready."

K: "We'll get the others' bags when we come back through." I nodded.

We moved through the Examination Room, and entered a little hallway. There was a secured locker here. I used the bayonet (dismounted) from the AK to break the locks on them. Inside was our weapons - my Bradley/Gavin was okay, but Dash's was broken in half. I grabbed it and checked the chambers - the grenade was still loaded, and the magazine was just as empty as I'd left it. Applejack's Chaffee was here, and I took that as well, slinging it behind me. Her shell magazine quiver was in another locker. One quiver was broken open, and the shells scattered in the bottom. I slung the quiver over my hip at an angle.

Strange. They hadn't even bothered to test fire them.

Yeah, sure, another seven-plus pounds on my back - but this came with a grenade launcher. I swapped out the chest harness I had for AK mags, for the NEIGHTO-standard magazine pouches that attached to my belt (my belt was even still here - no sign of my sword, though). Re-equipped, I reloaded the AK to a full magazine and decided to use it until it was empty.

Through the side hall, we moved to what looked like an observation deck. It was darkened, and there were a pair of one-way mirrors. I fished for Fluttershy's flashlight in her bag, and squeezed it on (they were designed for mouth use, and were more like those circle light things you buy for tool drawers that you tap to turn on, except they had a bit at the back for a pony to bite into), and stuck it in my mouth (even I had to admit this was convenient) while I searched for a light switch.

K: "Hrh wh gho.." I flipped the lights on - the switch was between the two mirrors.

That lit up the two cells. Twilight Sparkle was in one of them, heavily chained down, with some kind of magic restrictor over her horn. In the other cell was Pinkamena. Yes, Pinkamena had returned as Pinkie's dominant personality. She turned towards the mirror and stared at it with murderous eyes.

Pinkamena: "You won't get me to smile today." Her voice was haunting..

K: "Fuck this." I drew my Morgan and shot it at the one-way mirror (aiming way over her head, of course). The glass shattered in a million pieces. "PINKIE!" I yelled to her. "PINKIE, IT'S US!"

Pinkamena: "You've come to rescue us..?" She still sat there. "It's a trick. When I smile, they're going to shock the purple one." The purple one.. Pinkamena was seriously in control - she wasn't recognizing her friends.

K: "Fluttershy, get Twilight out of there." I nodded to the other cell.

Fluttershy: "Right." She went over to the other cell window, and likewise shot it out. I noticed there was a window separating Pinkamena from Twilight.

K: "Pinkie.. look.. we're getting Twilight out of here. This isn't a trick! Please!" I stepped closer to her.. "Please believe me." And reached my hand out for her. "We have to get out of here, Pinkie.. please.. please come back to me." I ended up kneeling at her hooves. She was completely unharmed, and she looked well fed.

It came to me what they'd done to her. They used Pinkie's natural personality against her - every time she smiled, laughed, or anything like that, they harmed Twilight, and rewarded her with food. They deliberately used the bonds of friendship against her. All I could do was - and this was a serious risk - get over to her and hug her tightly in my arms. Reach out to her.

K: "Pinkie.." I stroked her back. "..please. Please don't let her take over."

She had been in the Pinkamena personality for a while when she went crazy last year. We always feared that another psychological break like this might make Pinkamena take over permanently, and destroy her primary personality (or make it the submissive personality).

K: "Pinkie. I know you're in there. Don't let them win. If you let her stay out, they win. If you never laugh again, Tirek wins. I didn't nearly die for you to just give up. I gave up everything for you girls.. I was ready to die on that mountain to make sure you could laugh and party for the rest of your life. Please don't give up." I blinked. "Besides.." I whispered something to her, pertaining to that discussion I wouldn't tell you about a while back, before Chrysalis' first appearance.

Pinkamena: "T-Tickles..?" Was her response. She - Pinkamena - gave me a concerned look, but I could see in her eyes the will of Pinkie Pie, looking for a way out.

So, I flopped her on her back and Raspberried her belly. She didn't react at first - Fluttershy later told me her face was making all kinds of ridiculous contortions - but finally, after the fifth Raspberry, she popped back to her 'normal' self and started laughing her head off.

Just to be sure, I gave her a couple more.

Pinkie: "STAHP! STAHP!" She swatted me with her hooves, and I finally relented.

K: "Come on, we don't have much time - I don't want to imagine what kinds of reinforcements they're calling for." I stood up and offered her my hand.

Pinkie: "Whatever it is, we'll get 'em!" She took my hand and got on her own four hooves. I had to help her get up and over the window sill.

K: "Should I be concerned..? About how easy it was to change you back?" I started, getting a hand up over the ledge.

Pinkie: *Shh!* She put her right forehoof to my lips. "Don't worry." And she gave me a kiss on the forehead.

She may have said not to worry, but.. this personality switch thing did have me worried. Her swapping in and out of her Pinkamena persona hadn't happened in a while.. did she do it to protect her Pinkie persona? Or.. did Pinkamena do it? Or what? I was worried and unnerved by the idea that my friend was suffering somewhere, and - just like the others - I couldn't do anything about it.

Twilight looked horrible. Fluttershy was rendering what first aid she could to her. Her forehooves were both charred at the base of the hoof, her horn was charred at the base, one eye was almost swollen shut, her snout was bloodied badly, and her tail was frazzled. She'd fought back.. and paid for it.

Twilight: *Ngh* "K!" She gave me a weak smile.

I went over and hugged her. What were we just talking about last? Not making it weird? What a difference. Fluttershy bandaged her forehead and stuck an eyepatch over her swollen eye so it wouldn't affect her vision.

Twilight: "I-I knew.. you'd come for us." She looked over at Pinkie, with tears in her eyes. "Oh, Pinkie!" And they hugged.

Pinkie: "I'm sorry, Twilight.. she.."

Twilight: "It's okay." Twilight petted Pinkie's mane, giving it a few strokes before pulling back and looking at her. "I know it wasn't YOU.. well, not really YOU.. but.." She shook her head a little. "The technology here, is amazing!" She beamed. Same old Twilight.

K: "We have to get out of here." I nodded to the door. "Come on - most of our stuff is in the rooms beyond."

I led them back through, and got them geared up. Pinkie's Knox was ruined, so she took my AK for the time being. Twilight's Merrill was still operable, and had its ammo, so she took that for now. We got their uniforms and packs on - Twilight just slid on her black undersuit and LBE rigging for the time being (yes, she now looks like Solid Twilight) - and I led them back to the chamber where Sinickha and Rarity were. When I got there, I was presented with two dozen freed prisoner ponies.. one of them was wearing the field uniform pants of the Herdiet military.

K: "Who's this guy?" I nodded to him, keeping my distance a little.

Maj. Kosegin: "Am Major Yuri Kosegin. Herdiet Union Strategic Rocket Forces. And I rekvest political asylum in Kingdom of Ekvestria." He bowed his head all the way to the ground, at me.

K: "Asylum..? What did you do to get locked up in here?" I tilted my head at him - surely, this was some kind of trick. Wait.. strategic rocket forces? Weren't they the ones that...

Maj. Kosegin: "I objected to Comrade General Secretary Zhelezo's directives and policy regarding use, deployment and planning of.." He looked at me like I wouldn't understand. "..vepons of extreme power. Bombs that destroy whole cities!"

K: "A-Atomic.. Bombs.." I was dumbfounded.

Maj. Kosegin: "DA!" He nodded enthuseastically. "I vill provide every'ting I know! Everyt'ing. Please." He implored me. "Just get me out of here."

Twilight, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie all had a look of absolute horror on their faces. Twilight started to say something, but I cut her off.

K: "Sinichka, who are the rest of these people?"

Sinichka: "Political prisoners. Mainly people who object to government, local commissar, or other policy." She nodded to the other large stallion in the room. "Except him. This is Stupka. He is from the Don Cossack."

Stupka: "Joo arr.. General." He nodded, as though General was my first name. His Equestrian was very poor.

I gave him a nod. Cossacks, as I recall, had been a unique semi-political, semi-military, semi-cultural little nugget of legend and tall tales on Earth - a group of people that had a unique and seperate history within Russia and Ukraine. They'd been, recently, victims of extensive eradication attempts over.. oh.. nearly eighty years, on Earth, until the end of the Cold War?

Sinichka: "Stupka is here because his people.. they fight against conquest of their home lands." She shrugged - military terms and such being new to her, she didn't quite understand how to put it.

Maj. Kosegin: "Donetesk and Raizina regions were conquered by Herdiet Union in year 1831. Ever since, we fight constant rebellions there. Sparse population in the region, but very fertile. The natives there - the Cossacks - have fought us every step of de way." He explained.

K: "An insurgency." I nodded. "Stupka, welcome aboard." I offered him my hand, and he put his hoof out to shake it. "We're going to have to fight our way out of here and steal a couple vehicles." I looked at the ponies. "Who here can drive?"

Maj. Kosegin: "I can."

Stupka nodded to another stallion in the room - a smaller stallion with broken glasses. The stallion nodded to me.

K: "That's three ponies." I shrugged. "Major, would you know where they took my.. I had some advanced technology on me-"

Maj. Kosegin: "Detention Center Number Ten. It houses technical institute as well - they use prisoners there for experiments." He shrugged.

K: "Well, we need to get there anyway - my Leading Mare is there, along with my other friend." I looked towards the door.

Now, if I was the on-site commander, I'd be building temporary reinforced positions, starting at the breach point, and moving inwards. If they had dedicated counter-assault teams, they'd be in the vanguard, with standard troops right behind them, who would pull sandbags, office furniture and whatever else they could gather to build little fortified points leading back towards the entrance as the counter-assault team moved in.

Maj. Kosegin: "Our first task is escape.." He lowered his head a little. "..you will trust me with a weapon?"

K: "Any of you that want to escape, come with me and start grabbing weapons from dead guards - I can't guarantee we'll all make it, but it's better to die on your hooves fighting, than die on your bellies like Diamond Dogs!"

Sinichka translated for me.. and into the hall we went. The girls and I were in the lead. Major Kosegin was the first to pick up a weapon - the PT-71 from the dead guard in the office. He also threw on the man's jacket, but pulled off all the medals and pins with his teeth, before resuming position right behind me.

Maj. Kosegin: "You are.." He paused, trying to remember. "..General K, I presume."

K: "I am, Major." I nodded, with the Bradley/Gavin at my shoulder.

Maj. Kosegin: "Then you must know at least this.. Comrade Zhelezo is plan to use Atomic Bombs as first strike on NEIGHTO. He knows you do not have any means of counter attack. He will demand NEIGHTO surrender to Herdiet Union." He shook his head. "He vould kill thousands!"

K: "I figured that. We have Atomic Weapons on Earth, where I'm from. And we've used them before. The reality of their use is far more tragic than you can imagine." I frowned. If they had atomic weapons, perhaps that's where Tirek got them from? Stole them..? "Was there a security breach about.. oh.. four or five months ago? Did a gravity bomb go missing?"

Maj. Kosegin: "Y-Yes! Was big scandal. Is part of reason why I am here - my voice of objection made me a prime suspect." He shrugged as we got to the stairs. "Weapon was never recovered - I was to be tortured for information starting tomorrow."

K: "Tirek stole the weapon." I nodded. "And it was improperly detonated in Neighpon." I swept my aim up the stair well. "Please tell me you know a back way out of here?"

Maj. Kosegin: "T-Tirek..?" He seemed unnerved by the mention of him, but addressed my question. "Yes, but we must go through Armory." He nodded.

K: "Location?" There was no way out of this basement but up those stairs.

Maj. Kosegin: "First floor, hallway C, down to lower level, there is vehicle dock behind Armory." He nodded.

K: "Twilight, my left. Can you levitate the Merrill?" I didn't know how bad off she was.

Twilight: "No. My magic isn't working right now." She looked down at the ground, but back up at me. "Lead on."

Up the stairs I went, directing the Bradley/Gavin at the open spot (the landing, then up the facing stairway) at all times. I paused right at the corner.. my paranoia. I could.. FEEL them. That sense that you're being watched and can't see your watcher. I motioned to Twilight to get ready. She reared up on her hind legs and held the Merrill's belt with her off hoof.

K: "GRENADE!"

Guard: (Around the Corner) "Granata..?"

The Gavin fired, the shell - an impact fuse grenade - bounced off the far wall, the impact fuse lasting the appropriate half second before exploding. I could hear screaming, and tapped Twilight on the shoulder to go ahead of me, and motioned for Fluttershy to go next. I reloaded the grenade - my load bearing equipment had two left on it. I should have had five. One was a timed fuse, one was an impact fuse. I loaded the timed fuse grenade as Twilight got to the corner. She pressed herself just barely around it, and hosed the hall down with a 3-second burst of fire. I heard more screaming as she ducked back. Fluttershy was ready to move, and I got behind her. I tapped Twilight, and she slid the Merrill around the corner again, and opened fire, covering me and Fluttershy as we moved across the hall.

As I popped out from cover, I took aimed shots at the targets in the hall - a counter-assault team, as I suspected. They were armed all with PPSv sub-machine guns, with officers carrying AK-72 rifles. The grenade had dropped a pile of them that were waiting for us around the corner and in one of the rooms just off of it. Twilight's first burst caught them as they were trying to reposition and recover wounded. Our second act caught them as they were trying to get BACK to cover.

Clearly, they weren't trained on how to deal with an enemy special operations team. Especially fitting given what Twilight looked like. I pressed myself against the cold concrete wall, and slid up the hallway as Rarity came up at the rear with Sinichka, Major Kosegin, and Stupka. Stupka started grabbing and handing back PPSv's as he could, so that everyone had a weapon. As I advanced up the hall, I kicked a wounded officer in the head as hard as I could, and stopped his breathing. I slid my toe over the strap of his AK-72, lifted it with my foot, and 'kicked' it to Kosegin.

K: "Catch." I said, having seen him out of the corner of my eye. "I hope you know how to use it."

Maj. Kosegin: "I do." He chamber-checked it.

K: "Fall in as Rear Security." I nodded gently to the rear of our formation, trusting him to grab extra mags as needed.

Speaking of that.. the Counter-Assault Team was armed with something I'd not yet seen in pony hooves. Long, cylindrical objects.. with handles. Grenades! They looked like HE grenades without a fragmentation jacket. I plucked one from one of the CAT soldiers, and hefted it in my off hand, figuring out what the safety latch was and everything, just by looking at it.

K: "Major, if I pull the safety latch off, does that start the fuse?" I dangled it in my fingers.

Maj. Kosegin: "No. You must pull fuse handle. Six second timer." He nodded.

K: "Right." I flicked the safety latch off with my fingers, and held the grenade against the Gavin's tube with my hand - a dexterous maneuver that ponies would never be able to do properly. "The hallway?"

Maj. Kosegin: "Back to front of building, then turn left. Straight up that hall is stairs to lower level - armory will be off to the right." He nodded, as he picked up ammo and grenades.

K: "Got it. Let's go." I moved up the hall.

With the CAT unit defeated here - unless they had another - we shouldn't encounter resistance until we hit the front of the building. I could already see sandbags having been hurriedy placed around the truck we'd crashed. They were using it for cover. I knew they were taking cover behind it, and around the rubble..

I snapped the grenade's handle out, and I could actually feel the fuse snap into place and ignite. I counted in my head.. one.. two.. three..

K: "GRENADE!"

..and I heaved it over the edge of the barrier, and heard it clatter to the floor.

Guard: "GRANAT-"

*KACHOOM!*

Screaming. And one body that tried to dive out of the hole, flopped over, dead.

K: "HOSE IT DOWN! GO-GO-GO!"

I motioned for Twilight and Fluttershy to stay, and Rarity and Pinkie to take the lead, herding the escaped prisoners towards the hallway indicated by Major Kosegin. I heard Stupka say something to the Major, and the Major speak back to him a bit angrily. I think Stupka warned him the consequences of betrayal, and the Major angrily denied any such treason.

Twilight and Fluttershy hosed down the broken opening in the front of the prison complex as the others made their way to the hall. I moved out ahead of them and to the side, to provide moving cover fire. I ejected the spent magazine from the Bradley, and switched to a loaded one. I didn't have many of these left (4, including the one in the gun), so, I'd break and discard the weapon once we got to the Armory, and grab another AK or something.

K: "TWILIGHT! FLUTTERSHY! MOVE!"

I stopped at the rear of the escaped prisoners and knelt down to cover them. I only had to fire once - at the head of a lone Herdiet soldier that popped his head out from behind cover. I got him in the neck, and he fell. Twilight and Fluttershy moved around me and I took up rear security.

I had to say, it felt good not being alone anymore.

I started moving up the line, trading places with Ponies as my longer legs moved me through the crowd, until I was at the head with Rarity and Pinkie, the Major, Stupka, and Sinichka. We were at a door, it was wooden, and it was locked. I kicked it as hard as I could, and sent it flying open, partly breaking the hinge. Stairs - leading down.

K: "I'm on point, follow!" I shouldered the Bradley/Gavin and charged down the stairs, reaching the bottom as the Armory guards came out of hiding to check what was going on. I didn't even bother looking for weapons, I just shot them down like dogs. Once they were down, I marshalled everyone to the Armory. "Girls, grab local weapons - whatever you can get. Break and toss your NEIGHTO ones, we're not getting any more ammo for them anytime soon."

Maj. Kosegin: "General. I should varn you, there are Tanks deployed to thees prison. We should take Anti-Tank Weapon." He nodded.

K: "Grab me an RPG and a couple spare rockets."

Maj. Kosegin: "Understood." He nodded and started handing out weapons. Stupka ended up with another one of the RPD's.

I was going to use my Bradley until I was out of mags for it, the same for the Chaffee, but I wanted a local weapon, too, so I grabbed one of the long-barrelled RPD's and loaded a drum. I stuck an extra set of AK webbing and magazines into Pinkie's saddle bags, along with a couple drum mags. Major Kosegin grabbed one of the RPG launchers and a quiver of the half-meter-long rockets for it. It struck me as odd that they'd make the rockets so long, and thus, give them very long range.

I found out later that this was because their primary tank guns were equally long ranged, and they THOUGHT my 75mm mountain guns had extremely long range (6km in direct fire roles) when, in fact, they had about a 5km range at maximum. So, their primary anti-tank rocket launcher having an effective range of 150 meters (that it could reach in about 3 seconds), made sense.

Our little band of ponies - Twilight Sparkle, Fluttershy, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Major Kosegin, Sinichka and Stupka along with 22 other freed prisoners - was now heavily armed with the best weapons we could steal from the military. Thirty of us. We cleaned them out of hand grenades, too. Most of these dissidents had some experience with weapons, either because they were insurgents or they'd served in the military (draft is universal here, I found out later).

Major Kosegin took the lead, and moved us through the Armory's racks of weapons. They even had one of those water-cooled machine guns here, on its wheeled mount. Two of the prisoners grabbed it and hitched up to it, while a third grabbed the water can and attached it, along with a box of ammo, a spare one he took with him.

They were planning for the future.

The Major and I moved through the hall at the rear of the Armory, reaching the Loading Dock. It was locked up, so I whipped out the Chaffee and shot the lock off with a slug - risky, yes, but time was of the essence. Thankfully, the lock was more frail than the shotgun slug and it didn't simply ricochet off. Stupka lifted the rolling gate, and we jumped down..

Maj. Kosegin: "The left! Tank!"

He scooted everyone back, though I ran across the small road to a concrete block that was about a meter thick and took cover behind it. It looked like a light tank, and it was coming up the road at us. Some of the prisoners didn't heed his warning, and made a break for the rear fence. The tank fired its small cannon, and the shell impacted right amongst them. I could feel a fresh sting of injury along my arm, and when I looked down, I was gashed open by shrapnel. Not badly, but..

I popped up and fired the shell in the Gavin, hoping it had enough armor penetration ability to stop the tank. Timed fuse, so I aimed to have it land right where the tank would run over it. The shell landed right about where I wanted it to, and went off just as the tank drove over it. One of the treads blew off, and the tank skidded off course, ramming into the prison's exterior wall. I quickly reloaded as the second and third tanks appeared, and changed position just as they fired.

The cement block was blasted clean through by the cannon, sending shrapnel everywhere. I advanced, sighting up the second tank in line and aiming the last grenade - an Impact Fuse type - for the driver's compartment. I fired and the shell landed a bit off. But, it was enough to cause the tank to stop moving. I didn't know it, but spalling from the grenade had killed the driver and wounded the loader.

K: "Throw me the RPG! Then get to the trucks!" I pointed at the trucks near the rear gate. Our escape.

Maj. Kosegin: "Are you sure!?" He threw it anyway, and the rockets.

I didn't see them, but the girls got everyone to the trucks that was left - 21 out of 30 ponies.

I caught the RPG. I let the rockets land on the ground as I moved again, not letting the tanks draw a bead on me with their main guns. I stopped, knelt, aimed at the still-moving tank, and fired the rocket at a range of about 200 meters, just as the third tank crossed in front of the second one. The rocket hit right at the turret ring, and while it didn't blow the tank itself, I managed to kill the crew inside with spalling. It also cut a nice hole in the turret ring, preventing it from turning. The second tank was blocked by the third, but I decided it better be shut down, so I moved over to where the rocket quiver was, and reloaded, the weapons on my back, sides, and front all clattering around.

Rocket reloaded, I got up on the loading dock, watching the second tank - "K"713 - try to turn its turret into a position where it could get a shot at the trucks. I aimed for the turret itself, just as the cupola machine gun got a rough fix on my location and started shooting. Honestly, I wasn't paying attention to that - I had no idea the bullets were landing close to me. I just fired, having sighted in on the Cyrillic "K". The rocket flew, and impacted right there, the hot jet going all the way through the turret at that angle, and igniting a shell in the hooves of the gunner, who was preparing a quick second shot, given that his loader was dead. This caused the shell to detonate, right next to the gun's breech, which caused the shell in the breach to blow out, and blasted chunks from inside the turret's face, and causing the gun barrel to burst open.

That was that.. I jumped down from the dock, and grabbed the remaining rockets in the quiver, turned, and ran for the trucks. They already had them started, and two of the ponies were getting the gate open.

We had escaped.

[End of Part 3]

Part 4: Extract

TIME: 21:34 Herdiet Western Time
DATE: War Day 417/25 Quintillus 1873
LOCATION: Entering Moscow Federal City, Union of Herdiet Stableist Republics

The group that stayed with us were all partisans of some stripe or another. A total of 14 ponies, and myself. Twilight, Pinkie, Rarity, Fluttershy, Stupka, Sinichka, Major Kosegin, Radaz the Blind (the pony with the broken glasses from earlier), Val, Korobin and his brother Veliky, Gregor, Pushkin, and Borz. I knew them all by name, now. And I spent a day teaching them basic special operations tactics that had been honed in the training of the Royal Rangers and the Cavalry.

Now, we were going to fight to get the last two Elements of Harmony to safety. My beloved and Rainbow Dash. I could only imagine what torture they'd undergone. Plus, I had to reclaim the Sword of Rainbow's Light and my cell phone, lest they learn how to use the information on the latter, or unlock the magical power of the former. According to Major Kosegin, they were all held at the Prison Facility, and its attached Moscow Special Technical Institute for Advanced Research.

On our way in to the city, disguised as a KSVB unit (complete with uniforms obtained at the other prison facility, Prelkov's papers and his uniform, and some coaching from Major Kosegin), we spotted something that got all our dander up - the Air Base outside of Moscow was brimming with activity. Seriously, everything was moving and it seemed they were doing something important. Major Kosegin even told us that this didn't seem like a drill - that they wouldn't have people moving around the weapons storage bunkers if this was.

This, of course, revealed to us that the Herdiet Union also had an air force. They, too, had airships - but their airships seemed faster, sleeker.. and more powerful. The Air Base had six large airships on standby, along with a force of smaller ones ready to go.

Kosegin: "General.. I.. I don't want to sound alarming, but, I think.."

K: "They're going to attack, aren't they?" I scowled. I rubbed my face. It felt like six years of age just fell on top of me all at once. The Herdiet Union was going to execute a pre-emptive atomic weapon strike on NEIGHTO.

Kosegin: "..yes." He said, grimly. "I am sorry, General. We are too late." He shook his head, and let out a frustrated whinny.

K: "They haven't taken off yet." I mused. "We still have a chance." I looked at the girls. "I once promised myself I'd never bring this kind of horror to your planet - seems someone beat me to it."

Twilight: "Did.. did you have.. plans for this..?" She started, but couldn't finish.

K: "Actually, no. Those are technically a state secret - basic design schematics can be found on the Internet, but I never downloaded them." I shook my head. "I promise you, Twi, this is NOT my doing."

Koseign: "No, this has been in development for decade or so.. actually, I believe research began as far back as when I was kahdet." He shrugged. "Twenty years - since I graduate Academy."

K: "Does the Herdiet Union have long-range rockets or missiles?" I asked him, given his stated divisional assignment.

Kosegin: "Well.. perhaps not very long range.. we have rockets that reach perhaps three hundred kilometer. SS-5 Rook. It was design for deployment at the edge of our territory." He shrugged at me.

K: "No actual *strategic* rockets.. that's an Intermediate Range Ballistic Rocket if it's almost wholly unguided. What about Guidance Systems?"

Kosegin: "At best, gyroscope and wind propeller with counters." He shrugged. "All mechanical."

K: "About as good as a German V-2.." I mused to myself. "..C-E-P of perhaps a couple kilometers.." I shook my head. "How large is the warhead on those?"

Kosegin: "...twenty five kiloton." He said, darkly, regretfully.

K: "Oh, FUCK me.." I tensed my hands on the bench seat. "Twenty five kilotons.. you don't need much accuracy for that."

Twilight: "K.. what does that mean?"

K: "A missile like that, aimed at the center of Canterlot, would destroy most of it, even if it was off target by as much as a kilometer. It would destroy any Pony building within two and a half kilometers of the blast itself, save perhaps the castle. That, guaranteed, within half a kilometer."

Rarity: "..I do hate to say this, but at this rate, I'm not entirely surprised to hear this news." She shook her head. "I'm.. just.." She waved her hoof. "I'm glad the war has desensitized me to things like this."

Fluttershy: "..I don't think I'll ever be desensitized to things like this.." She lowered her head.

K: "I'm sorry, girls." I bowed my own head.

Twilight: "Don't blame yourself. I'm.. glad you know so much about these things. Can we.. what can we do?" She looked at me, hoping I had a plan.

K: "Use one." I looked right into her good eye. "Show them how horrible these things are. We're going to use one on Moscow." I nodded, firmly.

Rarity: "Somehow, I expected you to say something like that." She fixed me with a wry grin.

Twilight: "K..." She shook her head at me, somewhat in shock, somewhat jaded. "Are you serious!?"

K: "As a heart attack. We're going to drop it right on that base." I pointed at the massive airfield. "It's large enough and flat enough that the base and technical institute should be wiped out with minimal damage to the civilian parts of the city. It's a legitimate military target. But, first, diplomacy. We're going to steal one of those planes, and hold a gun to the head of the Herdiet Union. He agrees to our terms, or I drop the bomb. Major - how much of the Union's atomic arsenal is stored there?"

Kosegin: "It is all zere.. we call it Temnyye vsadniki - The Dark Horsemen. The technical institute contains our only atomic research facilities.." He looked horribly ashamed.

K: "I wonder.. I don't think the Premier would be able to rebuild his program that easily, then... And his secret would be out - so, he either gives up his Atomic program, or we have very clear Casus Belli to invade after I obliterate his air base. Plus.. how many bombs can one of those planes carry? How many - do you know - have been manufactured?"

Kosegin: "Two devices per plane." He nodded. "Should be 17 warheads by now... I-I'm not sure. A week ago, yes, but now, who knows?" He looked me over, considering my proposal and ideas. "You steal plane - use one and will keep the other, da?"

K: "Da. We will keep the second one, and the plane that can deliver it. The Premier will have no atomic forces left, and the entire NEIGHTO alliance should back us up against him for a situation this dire. So, yes, we will hold a gun to his head. Our terms will be simple - he accepts oversight of the dismantling of his atomic weapons program, he signs a treaty agreeing never to redevelop them, to stay out of Equestrian affairs, compensate us for all the damage he's done, and leave the Donetesk and Raizina regions... after we destroy the air base with his own weapon, and threaten to use the second one on him."

Twilight sighed, and sized me up. She didn't have to ask if I was willing to actually drop one on Moscow and guarantee civilian casualties - she knew I would never cross that line.

Twilight: "That's a pretty big bluff, K. Do you think we can do it?" She tilted her head at me.

K: "Yes, because they know what I am.. and I'm pretty sure they're afraid of it. Of me. I think they'll believe me when I say I'm going to do it - especially once I blow up that airbase and take away his toys. Now, let's go rescue Applejack and Dash. After we bust them out and get my phone and sword back, we'll rush the airbase and steal one of those planes." I nodded. "Don't worry, Twilight.. As I said, I'm willing to use one on the air base, alright. But I promise you, I won't use one on Moscow itself. No.. that will be our last ditch weapon for Tirek."

Twilight: "..I already knew you wouldn't."

Pinkie: "Big, tall order!" *Giggle!* "But, we can do it! I know we can!" She gave a bright smile and whispered into my ear. I won't tell everything she said, but in short, she told me we wouldn't need that second bomb...

K: "Alright. Stupka - get the men ready. Today, we fight to free your people." I nodded.

Stupka: "DA! All iz reddy!" He grinned cheesily, showing his missing, gapped teeth, fixed with a cruel smile. Today, he would repay his hated oppressors.

We drove towards the prison facility, which was attached to the Technical Institute by means of a long, underground tunnel system according to Kosegin. We were partly disguised, again, and hoped to repeat the actions we'd done previously - bluff our way in with essentially forged papers and identities. It was a long shot, I was sure they'd be ready for that trick, and we'd have to shoot our way in. We had one of their KDP-71 water-cooled machine guns sitting in the back of the truck, covered only by the tarp, with a small eye hole looking out. I'd be on the other side, ready to handle the guards over there.

The guard gate was double layered - a gate going in, a gate going out, with a slide-down thick metal gate between them, embedded into concrete walls. The walls had guard towers on them, cast as part of the concrete. I was looking out the spy holes in the tarp at the targets I'd have to neutralize. I set each member of the small team to different firing positions as the truck got in line. We were as ready as we could get..

In the front, as last time, was Sinichka and Rarity in uniform. For obvious reasons, Major Kosegin was in back with us. Fluttershy was between Sinichka and Rarity in a scavenged Infantry uniform, looking like a guard or assistant to the two. The stated cargo in the back of the truck was soaps and cleaning supplies, along with some "top secret orders" in a leather envelope carried by "Commissar" Sinichka for the Prison Commander. We approached the guard gates, and fell in line behind another truck. Once we got close, my breath went slightly shallow and rapid..

Guard #1: "Papers, please." He seemed alert enough, looking at Rarity, the driver.

Rarity: "Da, comrade." She handed them over carefully, but with an air of soldierly hurry.

Guard #1: "I did not realize we were expecting a shipment today." He stated as he looked at his clipboard.

"Commissar" Sinichka: "Yes, I have orders for the prison commander, and met the truck along the way, so suggested we should go together, and I ordered them to hurry - I believe the shipment is two days early." She put on a haughty air.

Guard #2: "I will call the Sergeant?" He made an inquiring tone towards his comrade.

Guard #1: "Indeed. This is a highly secure facility, Comrade Commissar - I see you are from the provinces, so you likely did not know, there are additional clearances required. Additionally, we are on Standby Alert. I shall call for the sergeant." He nodded, businesslike, and reached for the phone.

I sighted in on the machine gun in the guard tower above and to our right. The Machine Gunner had seen the hold up and was now directing his weapon towards us, to cover the vehicle. I couldn't understand what was being said, of course, but I could hear and understand that there were going to be hold-ups.. with the metal gate raised into position, we didn't have a chance in hell of rushing it. I was relieved when the gate came down, and the Sergeant, along with a junior officer, drove up in a GAZ-like jeep, similar to the one we saw on Sinichka's farm. They parked almost right on the gate mechanism, forcing it to stay down, much to the annoyance of another guard.

Guard #3: "Comrade Lieutenant! You cannot park there!" He huffed.

Lieutenant: "I will be only a moment!" He huffed back, aggressively.

Guard Sergeant: "What is the matter, Comrade?!" He directed himself back at Guard #1.

Guard #1: "We have a Comrade Commissar here from the Provinces around Zagongorod. He has communications for the Prison Commander-"

Lieutenant: "I will take those, Comrade Commissar.."

"Commissar" Sinichka: "I think not, Comrade. My orders are to deliver these to the Commander personally - the orders come from KSVB Central Committee. Unless you would like to take this up with them?" She was stern, haughty, and actually snorted at him.

Lieutenant: "AH! I-I mean no disrespect, Comrade! I-I just thought-" I could hear him stammer.

"Commissar" Sinichka: "I do not believe you are paid by the people to think, Comrade." She narrowed her eyes at him.

Lieutenant: "I-I apologize, Comrade!" He was shaking in his boots, and waved for us to go through. "Let them in!"

Guard #1: "Lieutenant..?" He inquired of him.

Lieutenant: "Let them in! My clearance." He sussed at the Guard, looking straight at him. "You would join me in the Gulag!?" He motioned to Sinichka.

Guard #1: "Of course not!" He motioned for us to pass, and handed Rarity the identity papers and clearance. "Please, comrades! Go right ahead."

"Commissar" Sinichka: "Thank you, Comrade. Good bye."

Major Kosegin whispered, roughly, that things were okay - I'd left it to him to pre-empt anything, but I would have given the order to fire if someone did something overt, like rack their weapons. I didn't get most of that, but I picked out a few words, here and there. I got the idea that we were going to get away with it, based on Sinichka's attitude.

We drove into the heart of the complex.. the guards were somewhat on alert, and we knew that just because we got past the gate, the jig was going to be up, anyway, very soon - this just kept us from getting bottlenecked at a chokepoint. We still had to get out - but we wouldn't be using that gate. Rarity spotted a loading dock at the side of the High Security wing, and Sinichka whispered to her to go for it. We got as far as the loading dock, and Rarity pulling up to a stop.

Sinichka: "Get ready.." She warned, and I could see a couple of unarmed soldiers that had been unloading vehicles, start to approach. "Comrades! Come here! We have many things to unload and I have priority!" She demanded to them, to get most of them to come over.

The ruse worked better than expected - besides one, a sergeant, stopping to light a cigarette, the rest of them obendiently came over to the side of the truck...

..and right in the sights of the KDP-71. I plugged my ears.

K: "FIRE!"

*CHUF-CHUF-CHUF-CHUF-CHUF-CHUF-CHUF-CHUF-CHUF-CHUF-CHUF-CHUF-CHUF-CHUF-CHUF-CHUF-CHUF-CHUF-CHUF-CHUHH!*

Twenty rounds from the belt, and twelve ponies fell dead very quickly. The sergeant lighting his cigarette was interrupted by Rarity almost kicking the door open, and heaving one of their own combat knives into his neck. He fell down, mortally wounded, before Fluttershy dismounted with Rarity covering her, and finished him off with a shot from her APS to his dome.

For a moment, there was silence.

K: "MOVE! BEFORE THEY RAISE THE ALARM!" I nodded to the brothers Korobin and Veliky. "Keep them pinned here until you can't any longer. Hold off ANY reinforcements as long as you can!" I knew I was probably leaving them to their deaths as they took their places at the machine gun, while Radaz the Blind whipped the covering off of the back of the truck completely, giving them a clear field of fire.

We ran for the back entrance to the High Security Facility. I had an AK-72, up, at my shoulder, ready to fire. They never developed an underbarrel grenade launcher, interestingly enough. I whipped around the corner to Rarity and Fluttershy's side, with Twilight behind me and Pinkie in the rear. Three guards came to investigate the shooting, but we cut them down in a hail of bullets - I'm not entirely certain they understood what was happening, only one of them tried to unshoulder his AK.

K: "There. The signs!" I pointed to the helpful pictograms, and we moved quickly towards the one showing Interrogation. Up one hallway, grenading EVERY door we came across, and to the right. This hallway had no doors and was very clearly a killzone. "Gregor, Pushkin, Borz, and Val. Gather up those desks and tables to use for simple cover. Hold here for ten minutes, then follow us. If you're in contact, throw as many grenades as you can at them to force them to fall back and break contact, then join us." I nodded to the ones left. "Stupka, Sinichka, Major, and Radaz, with us."

Rarity: "Will this hold them off long enough, do you think?" She had an air of professionalism with that statement - not worry.

K: "Yes.." I looked back at them as we made our way up the long, blank hall, towards the locked door at the end. "..but I have a feeling some of them won't make it."

Twilight: "I hope they do." She grunted.

Pinkie: "LOooots of people are going to die today.." She blinked, and looked at me, then back down the hall. "Some of them, too, I think - I don't know. It's all so overwhelming."

K: "It's fine, it's fine. Rarity, Twilight, Flutters, Pinkie, stack up on me. I'll kick. Ready?"

They all moved into position, while Stupka and the others gave us close cover. NOW the alarms started sounding.. and distantly, I could hear the brothers Nokorov defending their position with the machine gun.

Twilight: "Ready."

I back-kicked the door as hard as I could, and the girls stacked inside. I could hear gunshots as I took my place at the end of the line. When I got into the outer Secure Section Area, I saw five dead guards sprawled all over the place.

Twilight: "CLEAR-RIGHT!"

Rarity: "CLEAR LEFT!"

Fluttershy: "Clear Up-Right."

Pinkie: "Clear up-left! Allllll cleearr!!" She trilled.

Kosegin: "That gate there leads to the interrogation area." He pointed with his hoof. "We.. we should hold here. The tunnel leading to the Institute is back down that hallway. If they manage to cut us off in this section, we will have no escape."

K: "Yeah, and if I lose you, Major, I lose the only pers-Pony - that can tell me what's going on. You stay with me. Radaz, Sinichka, Stupka..? See we're not interrupted."

Stupka: "DA, K!" He chortled and hefted the KDP-71 off of his back, while Radaz set up the tripod for it. They had it off center to the doorway, which Sinichka jammed partway open with a guard's body. They stacked all the spare rifles, grenades, and magazines carefully behind the gun shield. "You no take too long, da?"

K: "Try not to." I nodded, and patted him on the shoulder. "Come on."

Fluttershy: "I-I got the gate open." She nodded.

K: "Let's go." I motioned.

Applejack and Dash were just ahead. I was sick to my stomach, and fearful, of what they might've done to my Leading Mare, never mind Dash. I saw what they'd done to Rarity, Twilight, Fluttershy, and Pinkie. I couldn't imagine what they'd done to Dash and Applejack. But I had to keep my head about me. We breached the last hallway leading to the Interrogation Cells, and rushed the three guards that had flipped over the desk in the room and were taking cover behind it. I fired over their heads with my AK as Twilight and Rarity moved around to the side. Rarity levitated her SVKM, and fired down into their positon until she drained her magazine. Twilight switched off with her and hosed down their mortally wounded bodies.

Twilight: "Got 'em.. APPLEJACK!? RAINBOW DASH!? WHERE ARE YOU!?" She suddenly went from Tactical to Terrified. "Dear Celestia, what did they do to them.." She shook her head as we moved into the Interrogation Bay.

It was much like the one we saw that Twilight and Pinkie were in. It was large, almost dungeon-like, with individual cells and a large bisected interrogation room set in the center.

K: "APPLEJACK!? DASH!?" No answer. "Alright, check the cells. I'm checking the interrogation room.." I switched to my APSv and made sure I had a full mag in case I needed to hose the room down. "..Rarity, on me."

Rarity: "Right."

I kicked the door open to the first side of the interrogation room proper. There was an overturned, kicked, and chewed desk here. Someone had been beaten - there was blood spatter on the floor, but not a large amount of it. I looked up and saw the two-way mirror - we were on the reflective side. My mind processed this for half a second before I shoved Rarity to the ground.

*BATATATATACHH!!*

Another APSv was fired through the glass, shattering it, and just barely missing both of us.

K: "EVERYONE HOLD UP!" I called out as loud as I could. "HOSTAGE SITUATION!" I cautioned.

I figured it out - when the Alarms sounded, someone came in here, realizing they were trapped, and pulled both girls into that room. Whoever it was, they were holding the girls at gunpoint. And they'd just tried to off me and Rarity.

K: "ALRIGHT, WHOEVER YOU ARE! THROW YOUR WEAPONS OUT AND COME OUT OF THERE WITH YOUR HOOVES UP!" I demanded. "YOU'RE SURROUNDED! AND WE'D RATHER KILL YOU BEFORE WE DIE IF YOU FUCK WITH US, SAVVY?" I nodded to Major Kosegin, who was just a bit away from me, by the door. "Repeat that in Roostian.."

Kosegin: "Vyydite iz komnaty i sdavaytes', tovarishchi - eti inostrantsy khotyat ubit' vas, yesli vy bystro ne podchinites'! Vy derzhite ikh druzey, i oni vernut ikh, nezavisimo ot riska!"

Guard in Room: "A chto, yesli my eto sdelayem!? Oni vse ravno nas ne ub'yut!?" Came the call back.

Kosegin: "They think you may kill them anyway." He shrugged, but kept his own AK aimed at the general direction of the other door.

K: "They have until I count to ten to surrender, or I'm going to kill them for sure - tell them that!" I snarled.

Kosegin: "Vash vybor, tovarishch! Inostranets soschitayet do desyati, a potom voydet i ub'yet vas, nesmotrya ni na chto! Zalozhniki nichego ne znachat dlya vas ili dlya nikh - oni znayut, chto popali v lovushku, i risknut vsem, chtoby spasti ikh! Yesli zalozhniki umrut zdes' ili v koridore, eto ne imeyet znacheniya!" He yelled, authoritatively.

K: "ONE!" I yelled, as soon as he was done talking. "TWO!" I yelled a moment later. "THREE!" A moment after that.

If Applejack and Dash could hear me, I thought, they knew what I was willing to do to save them. What bothered me is that they hadn't said a word. One APS came over the lip of the broken mirror and landed near me. An AK was heaved out the door and landed by Kosegin. I whipped myself up and over the lip, aiming my APSv into the room, fully expecting one wouldn't want to surrender - and I was right. What I didn't expect was that this one was wearing a lab coat, and had Applejack by the muzzle, with a scalpel to her throat. Dash was on the far side of the room with the two guards.

K: "LET. HER. GO." I stated firmly, focusing the front sight of the APSv on the labcoated pony's head, between the eyes. "Dash?! Talk to me, Dash!"

Dash: *Nngghh* "B-Bastards.." She was weak, but she was talking.

K: "Get out of there, Dash." I ordered.

Dash and the guards exited - the guards were tackled by Pinkie Pie and tied up with party streamers, then thrown into a nearby cell. That left the one in the labcoat. I could see that Applejack had bruises on her, that her muscle tone was degraded, and that she looked horribly dehydrated and starved. She also didn't have her hat, and her ponytail was partly cut and frayed out. She was a mess.. and she had a rein-gag in her mouth, rendering her unable to speak. But she was looking me in the eye.

K: "Love you, honey." I said, without blinking. "DROP. THE. KNIFE." I demanded.

Kosegin: "Tovarishch! Otpusti yeye!" He yelled behind me.

I could see a twinkle in her starved and beaten form.. then her eyes narrowed. I knew she was going to act. She suddenly bucked her right leg HARD into the labcoated pony's balls, and wrenched her head away from the knife. At the exact second her head was out of the way, I fired. Three rounds on full automatic, they blew his pony brains out and all over the wall. She collapsed, and I vaulted over the rim of the mirror, dropping my pistol, and scooping her up in my arms.

She was safe.

My Applejack was safe.

{End Part 4}


Part 5: Fateful Reunion

TIME: 22:04 Herdiet Western Time
DATE: War Day 417/25 Quintillus 1873
LOCATION: Special High Security Prison, Moscow Federal District, Union of Herdiet Stableist Republics


I fumbled with getting the rein-gag out of Applejack's mouth, and all I could do was kiss her. Her lips were so thin, so thirsty, so starved, I was crying, overcome with emotion. I hadn't seen her in almost two months, she hadn't seen me in almost two months, and I could feel her sobbing right back into me, her weakened forelimbs draped over me.. I forced myself to snap out of it.

K: "Rarity! Fluttershy! She needs water and food!" I didn't release my grip from her.

Twilight: "Dash isn't much better off! They starved and beat them!" She was more than a bit angry.

Applejack: "Ah.. ah.. di'in't.. tell'em.. nuthin'.. h-honey.." She was barely strong enough to talk, let alone fight.

K: "It's alright, it's alright.. honey, just.. hang on, okay?! We're going to get you out of here!" I looked up as Rarity and Fluttershy came in and helped her drink some water. They took her, and I got up to go see about Dash. Twilight and Pinkie had her, and were helping her drink.

Twilight: "They haven't had water in almost three days, and no food in over a week. They've been doing it like this - bring them to the brink of dehydration, then give them water enough to rehydrate them.. and food at strange intervals.." She shook her head. "They weakened them on purpose. They really only got beaten if they tried something. Which, of course, they did." She looked up at me. "They really need a hospital."

Fluttershy: "I agree.. we need to get them to a hospital as soon as we can.. I-I don't know what kind of damage they might've suffered internally.." She looked towards the hallway, pacing up with my APS and handing it to me in her hoof.

K: "Major - the route to the Institute." I directed, getting my emotions under control.

Kosegin: "Back up that way, to the main area of the prison, then follow the tunnel marked with a beaker and bunsen burner glyph." He shrugged. "You can then get to airfield from main lobby area of institute."

K: "Give them a minute to recover.." I paced forwards, and took a peek back through the door we'd come from. "STUPKA! ANY CUSTOMERS!?" I called back.

Stupka: "DA! THEY COME, WE KILL! SIMPLE!" He chuckled to himself, but was interrupted by a guard firing at him and hitting the gun shield. Sinichka put him down with precise rifle fire from her SVD. "IS GETTING BUSY, HERE!"

K: "Major, is there another way to this hallway?"

Kosegin: "A-A maintenance shaft, but.." He shrugged.

That meant that the team back up the hallway, and the brothers, were most likely dead.. shit.

K: "Twi, how are they?" I glanced back at her, shouldering my AK, putting my APSv away, and changing magazines.

Twilight: "Well-"

Applejack: "FILLYFLANKS! Ah'ken'feight!" She drawled out, with struggle in her voice. "Gimme'a gun." She, woozily, stepped forwards. "'ll deal with m'body after we git outta heah.." She grumbled. "Ain't that what you do, sugarplum?" She wryly grinned at me. "Mah stallion.." She put her left foreleg around my hip.

Dash: "No way you're getting all the glory, Country Pony.." She grizzled out through her teeth. Her rainbow skittle hair seemed extra drab, like the color had been drained from it. All but the reds.. the reds seemed.. "..arm me, damnit. I can fly."

K: "Look, gals, they have Atom Bombs." I said quickly. "We have to stop them - they're preparing to attack NEIGHTO. They'll probably hit the palace, Baleston, Manehattan, Phillydelphia, and Coltago, plus Marelin, Paris, Roam.." I gestured. "I have a plan, I'm going to put the genie back in the bottle, and I'm going to stop this, but we're going to have to do the thing I promised I wouldn't - we're going to drop one of those bombs on the air base next to this facility."

Applejack: "Are ya shure, honeybun?" An air of her already knowing the answer, but asking anyway.

K: "I'm sure. I don't want to be, but I am. Now, let's go. STUPKA! COMING OUT! PREPARE TO MOVE!" I yelled back up the hall.

Stupka: "CUSTOMERS BEING SERVED, BUT READY ON ORDERZ, GENERAL!" He yelled back. I heard a grenade go off.

Twilight sorted out extra gear to Dash and AJ, both taking an AK-72 and some magazines. Dash took an extra helping of Grenades. Since she could still fly (very limitedly), it seemed a good idea.

Applejack: "Whar'r we goin' and whut're we doin'?" She nodded.

K: "Up the hall, there's a passageway to the technical institute. The eggheads - sorry, Twi - that're behind this, are there. They also have my sword, and my cell phone - which was fully charged, remember?"

Dash: "All your plans..!" She started.

Stupka: "CUSTOMERZ GETTING VEDDY THICK!" Another grenade.

K: "Come on, we have to support Stupka!" I pointed. "Pinkie! Point! Rarity, Twi, me, AJ, Kosegin, Dash!" I moved, shouldering the AK as I did. It felt kinda like a real one, come to think of it, but at about 7/8th's scale or so.

When we got up there, I found that Borz and Val had survived, along with one of the Nokorov Brothers, Veliky. They were slightly wounded, but holding off their attackers. Sinichka and Stupka were manning the machine gun, while Radaz had taken up a rifle.

There were at least a hundred bodies in the hallway.

K: "Fantastic! We need to go, though!" I pointed towards the tunnel that led to the institute. "Stupka, disable that weapon! Here!" I grabbed one of the RPK's on the ground, and handed it to him.

Stupka: "DA!" He laughed hard and reared back, bucking the machine gun so hard, the receiver bent. He must be a terror in hoof-to-hoof combat.

Sinichka: "We leave, now, yes?" She smiled. "This is leading mare of yours?" She nodded to AJ.

Applejack: "You didn't...!" She looked at me, with mock surprise.

K: "Nope, not this time." I grinned.

Sinichka: "He says I make stallion very happy one day, but I not kiss your stallion, miss Applesjack." She grinned sweetly.

K: "Ready?"

Twilight: "Ready." She gently rubbed the side of her face by her eyepatch.

K: "Move! Stupka! Take Rear Guard!" I pointed.

Stupka: "DA!"

{End of Chapter 39}