LTV 1.3 Welcome to Stalliongrad
The raiding party left early in the morning and were expected to eat as they went. This was particularly difficult for the pegasi and earth ponies. Finishing first, thanks to their levitation powers, Crimson and the other unicorns assisted the rest of the group by magically suspending the food in front of their faces. Excited to arrive ‘home’ early, the others didn’t complain and just ate their bread and apples. Crimson retreated to the middle of the herd to his mate and Veridian, and then helped them eat.
The party had been travelling through extremely mountainous terrain and was covered by a thick forest. After a few hours’ trot, they emerged from the cover of the forest and could see their destination: Stalliongrad. Rows and columns of uniform-built structures and houses lay in a grid in front of them. Every building was about the same; dark grey, broke down, many burnt or falling apart. Even the sky itself had a smoggy atmosphere, due to constant fire-smoke from Resistance attacks. And then, of course, there was the monstrously tall, double-layered wall of concrete surrounding the entire city. Dotted along the wall were guard towers keeping watch on both the outside and the inside. There were two known entrances to the town, both heavily guarded by Soviet troops. There was also one more entrance the Resistance was able to secretly make in an un-patrolled portion of the wall; this was their only way in.
Even though every member of the Resistance was secretive, the Resistance itself was no secret. Despite the fact that the Resistance was at an all-time low, they were still a decent sized thorn in the Soviet’s side. As they entered sight of the town, Trotski ordered them to put their hoods up and masks on. It was a top priority for none in the Resistance to have their identity discovered. If any were to be discovered, it would spell disaster for the entire Resistance. One way they did this was by wearing their combat uniform: a white hooded cloak to hide their wings or horns (or lack there-of), and bandit masks. The masks were secretly color-coded to allow members to know what species they were looking at. A yellow mask represented a magic using unicorn. Red represented an earth pony that was limited to the ground. And a blue mask represented the sky in which a Pegasus would control. Their cloaks also helped to hide their mane’s shapes and colors. There was no need to hide their blank flanks though.
After covering the sleeping Veridian, they were ready to approach the town. Taking a slight detour to the south-west wall took them some time but kept them out of sight as best they could. There, the Resistance was previously able to break a hole through the double-layered wall surrounding the city like a prison. Trotski ordered a few unicorns, including Crimson, to scan the area for enemies using their magic.
Entering a trance-like state, Crimson removed himself from the rest of the world around him. Everything turned black and grey, with all living beings glowing white. He spirit-walked through the hole in the wall, and looked around to check for any ambush that may be waiting for the Resistance to walk through. There was nothing but a dark void. Content that there was no one, Crimson cancelled his spell and returned back to his sentient body. He then reported to the Captain that the way was clear, and for assurance, so did the other unicorns. “Very well then.” said Trotski, “We’re early, so let’s keep it that way.” And with that, they passed through the first layer of the wall.
All was silent, save for the party’s hoof steps and deep breathing. Crimson had to duck his head to avoid banging his head against the top of the breach in the wall. Bringing his head up, Crimson suddenly took an iron-capped hoof to the cheek. “Ambush!” somepony cried. Falling over in recoil, he defensively brought his fore-legs up to block the incoming stomps from his assailant. He called out to the Resistance party for help while he continued to get battered. Rolling to the side and jumping to his hooves, Crimson was able to identify his attacker as a male, Soviet earth pony. He backed away as fast as he could in order to get a better view of the battlefield. Everypony was already engaged in combat with their own attackers. None of the Soviets were lethally armed; this was an ambush aimed to capture.
Crimson, angered, set his horn ablaze and charged toward his combatant. The Soviet, surprised that this pony was fighting back, was unable to dodge the flaming horn and felt it searing a hole right through his chest. He fell over without any bloodshed for his wound was cauterized by the flames. Crimson frantically looked around the chaos to get a view of Heartsong. He soon found her surrounded by a ring of soldiers closing in on her. To the soldier’s surprise, she pushed back to of her assailants with a huge gust of wind from her powerful wings. With Veridian still on her back, Heartsong ran through the hole she pushed open and took to the air.
It soon dawned on Crimson how the Soviets were able to elude his magic when he searched the trail; they had a unicorn hiding them. Using his magic again, he searched around for any arcane rifts that would be left over from such a spell. He finally located the enemy magician none-to-soon, for she was starting to cast a no-fly spell at Heartsong. Casting the first spell that came to mind, Crimson sent a speeding ball of fire right at the enemy unicorn. It struck her directly in the jaw and seemed to interrupt her spell cast. Screaming in agony, she turned her head towards Crimson, who had already sent a second fire-ball hurling towards her. She watched as this one hit her square in the face, and fell over for good.
Crimson continued firing an onslaught of missiles at the Soviets until he heard a heart-wrenching howl behind him. He spun around to see Heartsong lying on the ground, Veridian and his saddle tossed off to the side, and Trotski surrounded by piles of defeated of defeated enemies. He took off at full gallop towards the group, cursing himself for not stopping the enemy’s spell in-time. The final assailant fled into the countless rows of housing as Crimson approached. “Heartsong!” cried Crimson, “I’m so sorry! I tried but.. I was too late.” She groaned and replied, “My…my wing, it’s broken, and so is… my leg. I… can’t move.” Trotski then yelled, “Get her out of here, comrade! Take the colt with you! And do not let them get ahold of him!” “But, I can’t leave you here, they will be back, and in greater numbers!” “Exactly, that is why you must go; Run to the base, get your mate and son to safety, and send back reinforcements.”
Crimson nodded and strapped Veridian to his back. It was extremely tight on him, for it was fitted to Heartsong, but he had no time to loosen it. He took Heartsong’s working wing over his back and helped her hobbled away from the ambush site, towards base. He weakly turned around and said roughly, “Welcome to Stalliongrad, Veridian.”