War Gone Cold

by Bronycommander

Chapter 3: A new mission and old Allies

Chapter 3: A new mission and old Allies

Dinky, Katja, Blau Streifen and Lily woke up, finding themselves back at the guard post where the two soldiers had found them. “Hey, isn’t that-

Blau was cut off by a grunt of pain coming out of the house.

A man in desert colored uniform stumbled out, gasping for air and collapsed. “Dad!” The colt exclaimed and was about to run towards him with the others but stopped in fear at what happened next.

Konrad twitched and rose again, stumbling a bit. He had deathly pale skin, whitened pupils, blackening around his eyes and mouth, slight sores near the neck, enlarged veins, and several small blue orbs emitting from his head.

“D-dad…” Blau could only stare in shock before his father walked slowly towards them in a zombie-like gait. “N-no…”

They all stared in fear and shock before he broke out in an animalistic sprint towards them.

“Dad, don’t!” Katja yelled in vain and they screamed as he lunged at them.

---

In that moment, they awoke gasping, cold sweat running down their faces, breathing heavily as they looked around. They were in a prison cell.

“This is not good.” Lily realized, trying to catch her breath.

“Yes, but stay calm, panic won’t help us.” Dinky pointed out, trying to think of something.

Their ears perked up to the sounds of footsteps, seeing the shadow of a man coming closer.

But what they saw was beyond their imagination.

It was indeed a man, wearing a black suit with trench coat and hat, with a black mask covering the face. Yet this wasn’t what was so horrifying.

The man had facial scars, burns, and discolorations. One of the scars was most noticeable the shape of a smile, known as Glasgow smile as far as the kids knew.

His expression was neutral as he looked at them. Overall, all those injuries gave him a pale skin, either rotting or frozen, as if he had died several times and lived again.

“My, my, what have we here?” He asked in a slightly fascinated voice, causing Lily to whimper, hugging Dinky, who patted her back with a brave smile, the siblings did too.

“Whoever you are, you won’t hold us long!” Blau exclaimed and the man smiled slightly.

“Are you sure about that? If you escape, then what? The nearest Pakistan border is several miles to the east. Several miles of a war raging soil. Think you'd make it? You wouldn't get any help from them. Besides, you intrigue me...I think we should get to know each other.”

They all looked at each other, wondering what he meant as he turned on a radio, playing a tape.

---

Thanks to the quick response of Pip, Nancy and Tungsten, Fletcher could act quickly and go to earth shortly after they reported what happened.

Upon arrival, he found himself in a desert, wearing the same clothing he had worn in Africa, walking through the sand. “The desert again, eh? Better than -40 degrees in my option.” He commented before Ifrit appeared, walking next to him.

“First you trudge through biting winters now sweltering wastes. I fear for your sense of equilibrium.”

While appreciating it, Fray asked in return, “And how is a flaming spirit helpful in the hot desert?”

“More ways than one, Fletcher.” Ifrit countered calmly.

“Okay. Have you ever seen Mist like that?”

“No...But I sense the aura of very strong magic...unknown to me, or unfamiliar at least.” The spirit suspected.

Eventually, it became evening and he set up a campfire for the night at a small Oasis, with Ifrit providing the fuse. “Here. Rest well.”

“Thanks.”

The knight fell asleep fast, having peaceful rest before the next day came and breakfasted, moving on afterward.

Using his tracking spell, he walked towards north, having to cover his face as a Sandstorm approached.

After it cleared, he gasped slightly in surprise, coming to what looked like the remains of a burned down village, only the damaged buildings remained, still smoking.

“Oh dear…” He carefully examined the village, finding a still intact calendar, showing that the year was 1984 and he realized where he was. “Afghanistan…”

“A war-torn land. Scarred in this age in ways it may never recover from." Ifrit said gravely, "We must be cautious. This is not the Second World War, revealing yourself could have a much graver effect at this time.”

Fletcher nodded, knowing what his helper meant. The locals let out their anger on the invaders, which burned down a village in retaliation, creating a vicious circle. Killing any soviets or rebels could only spin it faster.

Yet their way proved lifeless. And as the sun fell, the single remaining threat of the heat steadily waned and left his shoulders.

The night was peaceful again.

In the next day, he walked for some while, seeing a small building in the distance and took out his binoculars. A few soldiers were posted around it. “A soviet guard post.”

Still, he was unaware he got watched himself.

A man with binoculars watched from a safe distance. He used his radio to call for possible Intel.

“Well...any day I would have worried about what medication you were taking, if any. But I checked around and pulled something up. Classified Information, still relatively uncertain, but the description matches a WWII anomaly known only as Sagittarius the Green Knight. He was last seen in Tunisia in 1942 and then in Italy 1943.” The watcher of Fletcher got informed.

“As to what he's doing in Afghanistan, your guess is as good as mine. He hasn't presented himself as an enemy of the Soviets or any local splinter cells. The only people he insisted on fighting were the Schutzstaffel. Made things pretty difficult for their military projects. All details suggest he is intelligent and not automatically hostile. Nonetheless, approach with care.”

The unicorn kept his distance from the Soviets, yet stumbled over something and cringed as he saw what it was.

The corpse of a soldier. There were no signs of decomposition, meaning his death hadn’t been too long ago. His throat was cut open. “Poor guy, must have fallen victim to a wolf or something.” Fletcher suspected.

“Watch out!” Ifrit warned and the stallion turned around as he heard a growl.

Just a few meters away stood a wolf, growling at Fletcher, baring his teeth at him, the menacing eyes blazing with rage, yet the stallion looked calm at it.

Still, he had no time to react as the wolf charged towards him and lunged at him, getting thrown to the ground. Fletcher used his left foreleg to hold the wild animal back and preventing it from biting his throat.

His armor absorbed the bite, so he felt no pain, yet knew he had to act fast, he couldn’t hold the animal back forever.

Ifrit was quick to respond and fired a garishly spell that blinded the Wolf, allowing Fray to kick him off, knocking him out in the process.

“Okay…one wild animal less to worry about…” He mumbled, catching his breath.

His ears perked up at a noise. “Kept you waiting, huh?”

Slightly startling, the unicorn turned around to face what looked like a muscular man with a slight beard, blue eyes and brown hair. Noticeable was an eyepatch over the right eye. “You’re pretty good.” He added with a slight distorted voice.

Fletcher carefully walked up to it and touched the man, he slightly fell back, then forward again and the pony realized: It was just a balloon.

In response, he grabbed his spear. “Make fun of ME, will ya!” Fray yelled frustrated, slashing the balloon, popping it. Breathing heavily, his ears perked up again at footsteps behind him but he wasn’t able to react in time.

“Freeze!” A male voice ordered.

Knowing he was held up, Fray knelled, laying his spear down. But he wasn’t one that gave up easily.

Fletcher turned around in a flash, fired a spell at his attacker, throwing him back. To his surprise, the attacker looked identical to the man the balloon had resembled, except he had a piece of shrapnel in his forehead in the shape of a horn and his left arm was a bionic arm as far as Fray could tell.

Despite having fallen on the ground, the man recovered quickly and kicked Fletcher’s legs, causing him to fall down, slightly groaning in pain.

Yet he managed to get up quickly and fired a few non-lethal spells at his attacker. The man looked briefly surprised but managed to avoid every shot by jumping or diving out of the way, showing that he was very skilled.

In a quick sprint, the man was charging at the stallion, dealing a few punches which the stallion managed to block. Still, the attacker managed to deal a blow to Fray’s head, making him stumble a bit, being disoriented.

Dazed, Fletcher’s vision was blurry and he felt how he was getting thrown to the ground, landing hard on his back.

“Don’t move!” The man yelled. Fletcher was still dazed and quickly realized in this state he couldn’t do anything as the human was pointing a pistol at his head, so he placed his hooves on his head.

“Alright…”

“Talk.” His captor ordered without emotion.

“I won't say anything. I'm a soldier like you, not afraid to die.” Fray said without any fear. “To get this close to me...impressive.” He had to admit, it was very rare for others to succeed in holding him up or knock him down so easily.

A quick stinging pain followed in his neck and he moved his eyes, seeing that a small needle was stuck in his neck. His vision got slowly blurry and he realized what it was.

A tranquilizer gun…damn it…

He wanted to move but felt tired, his body no longer responding, struggling to keep his eyes open.

Yet faintly, he felt getting lifted into the air and managed to look up, seeing he was attached to a balloon. Uh-Oh.

The stallion could only scream as the balloon rose into the air at a high speed before he blacked out.

---

“Ugh…” Arkturi groaned, holding his head as he woke up. “What happened?” He mumbled looking around. He was in a cell. “Where am I?”

“In a safer place than Afghanistan, comrade.” A male Russian voice said and a man walked into view.

He had grey eyes and hair, wearing a red scarf around the neck. Most noticeable was that he had bandoliers around his chest, two revolvers in holsters and was wearing cowboy boots, complete with duster and spurs.

“I am here to offer you a better job. As an interpreter for the free West.”

Lovec blinked at what he had just heard. While he had found out that the West kept the legend of his mother alive, it made him wonder at sometimes if the West would be really that good. He even dreamed at times of living free here, able to tell about the She-Bear without fearing the communist suppression. It sounded like a good offer.

“I…could do that but for who?” He wanted to know.

“Have you heard of the legendary Big Boss?” The man asked in return.

Slowly, Lovec nodded. Through his reading of Western newspapers and such, he read about the man known as Big Boss. For the Soviet Union, he was a hero because he had killed Colonel Yevgeny Borisovitch Volgin back in 1964, having had a reputation for being the most brutal and cold-blooded of the Soviet spymasters.

The renowned Big Boss had later founded a private force in the early 1970s, but on March 16, 1975, an off-shore plant near the coast of Costa Rica was destroyed.

The Private force was blamed, being a bunch of "money-grabbing private militias," as well as causing a scandal among the United States and various other nations and groups when it became apparent they were among the clients list. However, the United States Secretary of Defense publicly denied that America or its allies had any involvement in the incident, with the UN and the IAEA making similar denials when reports came out that IAEA inspectors had visited the site, and the other countries avoiding any comment altogether. Officially, the casualty figure was uncertain other than there not being any known survivors, although military choppers had been sighted in the area both prior to and during the incident.

Hearing that the legendary Big Boss had survived filled him with uncertainty, but it was an offer he would only get once in life and what had he to lose?

“Okay, I’m in.”

“Good. Welcome to Diamond Dogs.” The other Russian replied and opened the cell, leading Lovec to a dressing room. Once inside, the former Soviet Soldier put on a Beige uniform with dark green gloves, armed with a Colt M1911A1 as sidearm and a nFN FNC light carbine as primary weapon.

At the door outside, the man gave him a smile. “Call me Ocelot. And this,” He pointed to a man with sunglasses, wearing a green suit with a red tie, as well as a khaki trench coat and a black beret depicting the Diamond Dogs logo, a cut diamond, with a black Rhodesian Ridgeback hound's head snarling in profile. A yellow banner underneath featured the name of the organization.

“Commander Miller.” Ocelot finished and Lovec gave a salute.

“Your codename is Ochre Capybara and you will be in the support unit, doing Russian interpretation,” Miller said with a neural emotion and Lovec nodded walking outside. He took notice that Miller had his right arm and left leg missing, thus wore a prosthetic leg and used a walking crutch.

While accepting it, the Sergeant-Major looked gave Ocelot a confused look and asked, "...Why?"

Ocelot stayed silent for a moment, shrugged and answered, “Random codename. Standard procedure. I don't make the rules.”

Lovec just nodded and moved on.

The sun shined as the Russian got outside, taking a look around. The base of Diamond dogs was also an offshore plant, still under construction with white tarps.

Still, he wasted no time to get to work, his fellow workers welcomed in, being Soviets too for the most part. But due to that, he slowly worked out how things were.

Diamond Dogs was a Private Military Company. Mercenaries. They recruited mostly by abducting enemy soldiers or rescuing POWs via Fulton Recovery using modified choppers, like him. But yet, he knew this was way better than Afghanistan in terms of safety.

As he took a short break, a voice called out, “Lovec! There you are!”

To his surprise, as he turned around, he saw Chernov and Sergei. The former wire a dark green uniform, the later the same uniform as him.” Guys!” Arkturi exclaimed surprised.

“Yes, we got recruited too. What’s your codename? Mine’s Silent Mastodon.” Sergei asked his friend.

“Ochre Capybara. And what’s yours, Chernov?”

His friend scratched his head “…Agama…”

“Isn’t so bad,” Lovec said with a smile.

“I guess. I also practiced English and I have to say, teaching me an innuendo-laced phrase was a smart and vicious idea.” Chernov replied, grinning. “You really have the humor of your father but the viciousness of your mother.”

Now, Arkturi chuckled. “Nothing wrong with a little humor. But what are you doing here, Sergei?”

“Well, turns out the Diamond Dogs aid the Mujahideen in trying to drive out us out and I was one of the first targets due to my involvement in the Scorched Earth Operation but Miller and Big Boss thought my skills would prove very useful to Diamond Dogs. And I can’t complain, they wanted me dead and I have a second chance here.”

All of a sudden, Lovec’s expression became one of worry, getting reminded of an important thing. “Wait, what about the children? If you got recruited, then who-“

Sergei held up a hand. “Don’t worry, I had everything organized before my…recruitment. Our fellow soldiers should get them to Russia today, probably even as we speak right now. Still, we can only hope for the best.”

“Right.” Lovec nodded before he heard the sound of a chopper and saw a UH-60 Black Hawk landing, a man with an eyepatch and a horn in the head climbed out. They all recognized him, saluting. “Boss! Welcome back!”

He already was informed, that was the legendary Big Boss, also called by his codename Venom Snake, or just Snake. Shake returned the salute before getting led away by Ocelot.

“So that’s Big Boss.” Arkturi was impressed and honored at the same time.

“Yes. I wonder what is going on.” Chernov replied as their new leader was led towards the brig.

The three friends decided to follow, hearing a voice. “You think this is a game?! I'm going to be somewhat hesitant in joining the men who looked me up in a cage!” It sounded German.

All three looked in surprise to see a green unicorn stallion in one of the cells, an angry expression.

“Boss, what were you thinking? We don't know if he's working for Cipher. He knows our location.” Miller asked in protest, yet Snake said nothing, his expression neutral before Ocelot stepped in.

“Calm down! We recruit enemy soldiers all the time. What's the big deal? We can use a soldier with his skills.”

“He's not just some grunt, but a talking, magic-using unicorn!” Miller exclaimed, causing the three Russian to look confused at each other, wondering if they heard that right. Snake on the other head was not confused at all, staying neutral.

“Yes, he’s unique and could be of use for us. Besides, why should Cipher use a legend that existed before they existed themselves?” Ocelot countered calmly. “And in the end, It’s the Boss decides.”

“I’m not interested in your cause, I am on a mission.” Fray interrupted and the three Soviets looked at each other, realizing something.

“Sir, permission to speak?” Lovec asked, getting the attention of his new superiors.

Snake, after a brief moment, gave a nod to show it was granted.

“We may know who he is.” He spoke up and the unicorn raised an eyebrow.

“And how?”

“We found and took care of the children you’re looking for,” Arkturi replied and told the stallion with his friends everything.

Slowly, the stallion smiled. “You have my thanks for helping them. But if they are in Russia, I waste only my time here.”

“I am afraid, this won’t be so simple. This base has to be kept secret.” Miller pointed out, yet the stallion just shrugged.

“I can keep a secret.”

“But there’s also another thing. Our contracts in the Mujahideen informed us that the Base Camp was attacked by an unknown force not too long ago.“

“What?!” Sergei exclaimed in shock, the eyes of his fellow men went wide.

“Yes, whatever that was, all personal was wiped out within seconds.”

In response, the stallion got up, his expression serious. “Then let me take a look, I may be able to find out more.”

“No,” Ocelot said, “After that attack, the base and its guard posts were put on high alert, full lockdown. There is no way you could get in undetected, as they have heavily armored guards and I doubt there’s anything left that hints who attacked.”

After a short moment of silence, a sigh escaped the pony. “I guess that’s a point.”

“But we can help you to find them. Work with us and we help each other.” Ocelot offered and Miller slightly gasped.

“What?!”

“Helping him could aid us in our goals.” The Russian simple countered, “But it’s eventually your decision, Boss.” He looked at Snake, he simply nodded and Ocelot looked back at the unicorn. “What do you think?”

Their captive and possible recruit didn’t answer, appearing to think about it.

“This could work to our favor. These folk seem the keenest eyes in the desert and the farthest-reaching hooves.” Ifrit advised the Green Knight In his mind.

“It’s a good point, but still, I should be careful.”

“Alright, I accept,” Fletcher answered Ocelot and Miller slightly groaned.

“Fine, but I’ll keep an eye on you.”

Fray just nodded as Ocelot released him.

Then he informed himself where he was and who his captors were, slightly impressed once he knew everything.

“Heh, never thought I would ever be a mercenary myself…” He mumbled.

“Be careful. Sellswords are not to be trusted” Ifrit warned

“Yeah…Would you if he had extracted you?”

“Maybe…It would really depend on the situation, just like with you.”

“Right. Having their base located near the Seychelles off the eastern coast of Africa is a good staging area for various global hotspots.”

A few days passed, he worked tirelessly to find out about the whereabouts of the children, but couldn’t find out anything and his tracking spell was blocked by something. They could be anywhere in the world, so working with Diamond Dogs was an advantage, they could bring in to them wherever they were.

The staff was a bit uneasy at first but got along with him quickly.

One day at evening, he chatted with the three Russians as Ocelot walked up to him. “I think we got something. The rebels informed us about some…usual prisoners held at the Lamar Khaate Palace.”

“Okay, I take a look,” Fletcher replied and the three soviets saluted him.

“Good luck!” Lovec said before Fray made his way to the helipad, equipping a radio for Intel, Fulton recovery balloons, which Snake had used to get him here and an iDroid, a hand-sized device that displayed a holographic map of a given area, which came in a satellite-based map or gave a general layout of the area.

“This is Pequod! On station at LZ!” The pilot if the chopper informed as he arrived and Fletcher got in. “Gaining altitude,” Pequod added as he flew away, towards Afghanistan.

Yet, Fletcher was wondering. The palace was under Soviet control. If they got attacked when they tried to get the kids to safety, the children couldn’t be said prisoners, but who else would be it?

He could only wait and see as he played a cassette with Intel via the IDroid, spoken by Miller.

“The palace is a holding place for a lot of POWs. Civilians, guerillas, suspected guerillas... The Soviets turned the place into their own black site.”

As the chopper arrived near the Palace, Fletcher jumped out and made his way towards it.

Arriving on a hill with a good view, he used his binoculars to take a look, seeing that the palace was immense, and was at least two stories in height. However, because of it not standing the test of time, it also had a lot of rubble throughout the area.

To the north of the palace itself, two purpose-built living quarters were erected by the Soviets accompanied by two holding cells for any prisoners they took. Also littered around the compound were sandbags and gazebos for use by them.

Fray tapped his radio to get further intel and Ocelot told him, “The place Lamar Khaate Palace was originally built by progressive royals as a separate palace away from Kabul. With its Western architecture, it was their declaration of a new dawn. I'd say their prosperity didn't last... ‘Lamar Khaate’ means ‘sunrise.’”

“What irony.” The Green Knight commented before spotting something in the desert. A pony trying to get away from the palace, forelegs tied up, so it was forced to move on two legs, staggering strongly as it tried to keep balance.

His eyes went wide as he recognized the pony. “Wagensroll!” He exclaimed as he saw a soldier chasing the Earth pony and quickly took aim with his bow.

Wagensroll was thrown to the ground by the soldier, his rifle raised. “Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot!” The stallion pleaded with a terrified expression, not wanting to die.

The soldier kept his weapon raised, so Wagensroll closed his eyes, waiting for the bullet that would end his life.

But it never came.

Instead, he heard a sound of something hitting the ground, slowly opening his eyes. The Russian was lying on the ground, sleeping.

“Wagensroll! Are you okay?” Fletcher yelled as he ran up to him, cutting the rope with a knife.

“Fletcher…” His relative managed to smile weakly. “You saved my life…Patch…” He pointed to the Soviet outpost. “…Still in there…”

“Shh, save your strength,” Fletcher said with a smile of his own and attached the Fulton on Wagensroll. He cheered as the balloon went up and Miller confirmed his extraction.

“Subject on board. Leave the rest to us.”

With that done, Fray moved towards the outpost, having little trouble in avoiding the searchlights and guards, but had to stop at the entrance as a soldier guarded it, making entry impossible.

Knowing he had to get past, Fray fired a spell past the guard. It created a noise, causing the soldier to take a look, so the pony could get in.

Walking down the stairs, he saw Patch, slightly gasping at what he saw. The historian was cuffed to a pipe, a black bag over his head, his glasses on the ground next to him.

Fletcher quickly removed the cuffs and took the bag off, then put his glasses on. “Patch…”

Purple Patch looked up, his face had a few bruises, yet he managed to smile. “Fletch….Is it time for tea then? I'm quite parched...”

“Sure, after you are safe,” Fray replied and used his magic to put Patch on his back, seeing that he had several bruises all over his body, in no condition for a Fulton extraction.

The guard was back on his post, but Fletcher distracted him again with his spell and got away from the base unseen, calling the chopper as Miller radioed in.

“Fletcher, your relative informed us there are two more prisoners, held at the Wakh Sind Barracks as far as our Intel suggests. I marked the location on your IDroid.”

“Copy that.” Fray acknowledged, yet wondered who it could be and it hit him like a brick.

“Midnight and Wolf?! How did they even…” He exclaimed in disbelief and irritation before catching himself and used his radio. “Keep an eye out for individuals similar to myself calling themselves Midnight Blade and White Wolf.”

“Copy. How will we know when we've found them?” Ocelot asked.

“Trust me...you'll know.” Fray replied and looked on the map. The Barracks were not far from here, so he moved out after the chopper arrived and Patch was loaded in.

“Thank you.” The historian said before the Blackhawk flew away.

It was a short walk and he overlooked the base with his binoculars. The conditions were rather poor and one of the buildings on the base remained unfinished, although each barrack did have air conditioning and a cassette player.

“We know from a mission that prisoners are kept in the unfinished building,” Ocelot informed.

“Roger that.”

And so, the knight sneaked his way towards the building, seeing a Soviet was guarding the stairs, so he lured him away with the same spell he used before and walked down, only to see another guard at the end, having his back to him.

Fletcher got silently behind him and said, “Hands up!”

“Don’t shoot!” The soldier laid down his weapon.

“On the ground.” His enemy did as told and Fray moved towards a cell door, hearing a voice from the other side.

“Hold still, so I can...” It was male.

“I can do this myself.” A female voice replied.

“Relax. Can’t believe how tight...”

“You’re pretty good at this.” The female voice was slightly impressed.

“You too.”

As Fletcher worked on the door lock, he saw two shadows on the wall in a rather suggestive pose. I hope it isn’t what it looks like.

Me either. Ifrit replied in his mind as he opened the door.

“Almost...Almost...” Midnight mumbled as Fray walked in and the unicorn saw his fellow knights with tied forehooves and wings.

The batpony was lying on top of Wolf, all three blushed in embarrassment. “Uhh...Fletch, this isn’t what it looks like, we tried to...” Midnight tried to explain before getting gently off the mare.

“We tried to free ourselves but it failed, so, would you be so kindly?” Wolf finished, holding up her tied hooves.

After a short moment of silence, Fletcher replied. “:..Sure.”

As he did so, he saw that they had a few bruises on their legs and wings but were fine, their equipment on a table next to the cell, noticing that the ceiling had a hole, big enough for a Fulton.

“It will get you to safety quickly.” He said as he attacked it to Wolf and she looked at it with unease.

“Fletcher, are you sure that's sa-AFFFE!” She yelled as she got pulled up and he attached one to Midnight, who shared Wolf’s expression.

“Uh, Fletcher, are you sure that's the only w-AAYYY!”

“Now that’s some lateral thinking!” Miller commented at Fletcher improvisation.

With his friends safely extracted. Fray collected their gear and got unnoticed out of the base, calling the chopper and got back to Mother Base.

His friends and relative already waited at the helipad for him. “Are you okay?” He asked concerned, yet Midnight waved a hoof.

“A little shaken from the ride but otherwise fine. Wish we had used it not so rare back home.”

“Speaking of, how did you end up here?” Fletcher wanted to know.

“Well, we used the time to take a closer look at the lab. Turns out, the teleporter is a bit faulty due to the inactivity and lack of maintenance over time. The power cut out and as we restored it, the teleporter went on.” Midnight explained. “As for how we got captured, the aftermath of the teleport made us quite disoriented, and I guess the Soviets freaked out when seeing speaking, armed ponies.”

“I see, then let me use the spell that gets you right back home.”

Now, Wolf held up a hoof. “No, Fletch. Dawnwind’s still missing and we got informed about the situation. Let us help you. Miller already organized quarters for us.

The unicorn sighed. “Aright. But for now, rest, we all need it.”

Everypony nodded, the knights shared a quarter, Patch and Wagensroll shared another, all slept well, yet hoped it wasn’t too late for Dawnwind and the kids.

---

In the next morning, Ocelot had a message for them. “I think we located Dawnwind, she’s held at the Aabe Shifap Ruins.”

“Okay let’s go! There’s no time to waste!” Wolf exclaimed and boarded the chopper with Midnight and Fletcher.

The pilot let them out near the ruins, so the Soviets wouldn’t be alerted and they moved out, overlooking the ruins from a cliff. It consisted of partially collapsed towers and pillars.

“Look!” Midnight spotted Dawnwind, she was lying in the middle of the ruins, tied up.

While wanting to get her to safety as soon as possible, Wolf looked around. “Something’s not right…”That’s too easy…” She mumbled and saw several laser sights near the deer. “A sniper ambush. Mind If I take care if it?”

“Go ahead.” The bat pony replied and she took off into the air, using a cloud as cover.

Once in the middle of the ruins, the Pegasus, punched the cloud with her storm magic. Loud thunder echoed through the area, lighting spread out in all directions.

The snipers looked up, barely able to react as lighting headed straight for them. They all twitched in pain, muttering gibberish as they got shocked into unconsciousness

With the threat gone, the mare flew down to her family member.

Wolf... I knew you would come...” Dawnwind said with a weak smile as the mare cut the rope, seeing that her mentor had a few bruises but was otherwise fine.

“I would never leave a family member and friend behind. Now, please stay calm.” The blue pony was about to attach the Fulton but Dawnwind pushed it away.

“This isn’t necessary, I’ll be fine…”

“But you’re in the middle of enemy territory!” White Wolf exclaimed concerned but Dawnwind smiled.

“Don’t worry, I’ll be fine.”

Wolf sighed. “Alright.” She then watched how Dawnwind walked away, her fellow knights joined her. I think the Soviets found out about you having rescued us and wanted to surprise you.”

“Perhaps but it doesn’t matter anymore,” Fletcher replied before his radio ringed. “Yes?”

“Sorry, but we got more strange reports, can you take a look? I marked them on your map.” Ocelot informed and Fray looked at his fellow knights, they nodded.

“Sure thing.” The nearest location was in the desert near the palace.

They arrived in a few minutes, looking around with their binoculars. “I wonder what it could be…” Fletcher mumbled curiously.

“I guess we’ll see.” Midnight replied and he saw Wolf pointing at something.

“Over there!”

They all three looked and couldn’t believe their eyes.

A unicorn dressed in a starry-patterned hooded cloak, black sap-silk, its face concealed by a black iron mask. The uniform, looking similar to a Samurai armor, was dirty, the pony was staggering as it walked around, carrying a large sword on the back.

“Is that... A dark Horse member?” Midnight blinked in disbelief. “I remember him...He went missing on a mission 7 months ago. Let’s bring him home.”

He walked up to the Dark Horse member, but he wasn’t prepared for what happened next.

The operative stared at him for a moment, then without any warning, swatted the batpony, strong enough to throw him dazed to the ground and fled erratically.

“W-what was that?” Midnight wondered as he got up, not understanding.

“I think whatever happened to him made him erratic, thus he does not recognize us. Still, there must be a way.” Fletcher suspected.

“What about the vow of the Dark Horse squad? The IDroid has a recorder and loudspeaker.” Ifrit suggested.

“That will work for sure! Thanks, Ifrit.” Wolf smiled and started a recording.

“We are the heroes unseen and unsung. We are servants and yet masters, forever fighting in battles without heroes”

“We are the hammer, white-hot, against the anvil of harmony. We ring, deafening, upon the coarse metal that bleeds and scars the land”

“We are the burning embers in the fires of the sun. We are the biting frost on the dark side of the moon”

“We are the Heroes Unsung, the Army Unseen. We are...The Dark Horse Squad”

“And we are there when the world needs heroes”

Once it was done, she activated the loudspeaker and all looked in awe how the Dark Horse stopped, turned around and slowly stumbled back to the knights, eyeing them for a moment.

“Wait... ah, it's you!” The operative exclaimed in surprise, sounding male under his mask. “No, that's impossible... I never expected to find you out here, of all places and times!”

He then removed his mask, revealing he was a unicorn stallion with teal eyes, a grey mane and dark blue coat, saluting. “As I have a contract under you, I am always prepared for your orders, no matter how belated they have come! Everyone thought you were dead... but not me.”

Fray smiled. “Glad to have you back, Abstraction.” He then attached a Fulton and the other unicorn cheered as it went up, with Miller conforming.

“Okay. Subject is in.”

“Now, to the next.” Midnight took the lead, and again, it was only a short walk, this time coming to a mountain area.

Yet, one thought entered his mind. “I wonder though, how did Abstraction end up on Earth like the children did before?”

“Maybe, some sort of fail-safe?” Fletcher suspected. “Could explain the accidents with Dinky and me back then. I never looked into teleportation that much.”

“In any case, we can ask him once back at Mother Base,” Wolf added.

“Right.” Midnight nodded.

Looking around, they kept their eyes peeled and Fletcher yelled, “I see another one!”

Parting to it, they saw it was indeed another member of their personal squad. This one was a Pegasus.

The pony was lying in a small cage, tied up, guarded by a group of men wearing shemagh scarves, ammunition belts around their chest and waist, camouflage jackets, backpacks, and harnesses, occupying a cave. A mace was on a table next to them

“Who had thought of that?” Midnight commented, “Those are Mujahideen. Must have been separated. We must be careful.”

And so, the three slowly closed in, with the rebels spotting them quickly. “More of them?!” One of the men yelled and they aimed AKs at the ponies.

“We mean you no harm.” Midnight explained calmly.

“he first of you creatures came at us like a mad things, screaming and ranting. What in hell are you anyway?!”

“Even if that happened, we are not.” Midnight stated before one of the rebels fired a warning shot, hitting the ground close to him.

“Not another step!”

The bat pony sighed. “Listen, we don’t want to hurt anyone, we are here to retrieve our friend. You are separated from your fellow countrymen, aren’t you?”

One of the rebels slowly nodded. “Y-yeah, we barely survive by ambushing Soviet supply trucks.”

“Then, take this.” Midnight gave them some medicine and rations. They hesitated but took it gladly.

“Thanks, this will help us to get back.” The leader of the group thanked and left, allowing the grey stallion to work on the lock.

“Oh, Triarch preserve me, what now?! Was I horribly cruel to penguins in a former life to warrant such haphazardry?! Who approaches?! Know that I am armed and possess great skill in powers beyond your...” The Dark Horse member mumbled before Midnight quoted the vow.

“Oh, it's you. Marvelous.” It said with clear sarcasm. “Now I have never been more assured that the Hasbrood despise me. Forbidden artefacts, transcending dimensions, hordes of humans in all their accursed degradations and now the thousand-year old soldiers come to drag me into yet more unsavory endeavors! I mean, really, I-What?”

Midnight opened his mouth to speak but was cut off. “No, shut up a moment, I'm talking. Yes? No, no, my lords, I only...Of course but...But these humans they're so repugnant, so loud and crass and no respect for the elegance of war and absolutely drowning in their own ignorance, I...Yes, yes, as you wish.”

Then the Pegasus sighed. “Are you here to free me? Or does another reason lend itself to seven months of bucking abandonment!!!”

Despite this, the Dark Horse member grabbed the mace and removed its iron mask.

A sea-green stallion with neon-green eyes over heavy bags and bright purple mane, slightly smiling. Noticeable was that his eyebrows were huge, bushy and curly at the edges, like two big purple caterpillars and his shoulder pads and cuirass were fashioned into three bronze horse-heads.

“You’ve fallen a long way from the glory days, Abundo.” Midnight smiled at him. “But now, welcome back.” He was about to attach the Fulton and but Abundo pushed it away.

“Certainly not. The Hasbrood disapprove of such things. Contraptions of human-make are...unclean.” He said with distaste.

“But how will you get to Mother Base?” Fray asked and the male Pegasus gave him a look of derision

“You fail to notice, I take it, the pair of wings upon my shoulders?”

“It's Luna-knows how many miles and you don't know where you are.” Midnight pointed out and Abundo just scoffed.

“I shall fear no waylay for the Triarch shall be my guide...though a map would be appreciated.”

Midnight in response tossed him the coordinates. “Don't take too long and don't go drawing attention to yourself.”

Abundo just rolled his eyes. “These humans are a dull-witted sort. They shan't think much of a horse in the clouds other than their own intoxications. As for speed, I fly upon fortune's fair winds. I shall be with you sooner than your mind would assume.”

“To be sure. Adieu.” The batpony said and waved him goodbye sarcastically as Abundo took off.

“Why did you let him go? Anything could happen to him.” Fletcher asked.

“Most of it already has. Abundo's a resilient type and he always finds his way somehow. Frankly, though, the less I see of him the better. Hasbrethren Warrior Priests are good to have beside you in a fight but outside...if you thought Dawnwind was bad, just you wait...” The lord commander warned and Wolf rolled her eyes with a slight smile.

“Yeah. That reminds me, do you still know how many went missing back then?” She wondered.

Midnight tipped his head. “If I remember correctly, there were six members that went missing back then. Given that those two reports were Abstraction and Abundo, the other reports must be the other members.”

“Only one way to find out,” Fletcher stated as they moved to the next location, being near a river under a bridge.

A lone Pegasus was wandering around, the armor was featured leather, several utility belts were attached to it, carrying a grappling hook and crossbow device based on an ancient design.

But upon spotting the knights, the pony ran away, towards the end of the river into a stone wall and the cliff rumbled.

“What the?” Fletcher looked up and his eyes went small as he realized. “Uh-Oh.”

“Everything but that!” Wolf exclaimed in fear, hoping it would not happen and that they would lose their comrade.

A loud crack followed.

“Rockslide!” Midnight yelled as the rocks came down, blocking the way. “Damn it!” He cursed as they now had no way of reaching the Dark Horse member.”

“Stay back!” Fray warned before firing an explosive arrow, blowing the barrier up.

Midnight quoted the vow as coughing came out of the smoke, seeing the Pegasus stumbling out.

“Commander Fray...Thank you…” It said happy with a female voice and took her mask off.

Underneath was a mustard-yellow mare with a burgundy-red mane and cornflower-blue eyes. A broad, muscular, slightly masculine build was clearly visible under the armor as she smiled. “

“I feel half-suffocated, like I've been trapped under a rockslide for Celestia knows how long...” She shielded her eyes. “It's brighter than the Badlands here! Can we go underground, where it's nice and cool?”

“Of course, Neolith,” Wolf said happy and attached a Fulton to her. Neolith cheered too as she got extracted.

“Another one done for the count.” Midnight announced with a happy smile. “I wonder though…there’s a fourth location on the map…”

“Why?” Fray asked, “If I remember correctly, it were six in total that went missing that day, so it’s likely we find another here.”

“It’s just…I have an odd feeling about this…” Midnight replied as they moved out.

Half way there, Miller radioed in. “Your ally Abstraction informed us he and the other two were the only ones in Afghanistan. Whatever the last signal is, it is different from the Dark Horse members.”

“Called it.” The grey stallion deadpanned as they came closer, again a mountain area.

They all looked around to investigate the Report. They wondered what cause it was, all missing Dark Horse Members had been found.

Then they saw a Pony in the Distance, walking aimlessly around in an erratic manner. Looking through their binoculars, they were not able to believe their eyes.

It was a unicorn mare. She had a cobalt blue Coat and Dark Red mane. Overall, she was bit portly, carrying an empty holster on her hip, her eyes looked tired with noticeable bags sagging below them. "Is that..." Midnight wondered before Miller interrupted,

"That's the Target."

“Blue Murder? How did she end up here?” Wolf wondered.

“We can ask her after extracting her.” Fletcher replied, carefully closing in on the unicorn “Blue…” He said and she looked at him for a moment.

A sudden strike from her took the fight out of Fletcher before he could react.

A sharp pain came from his lower body parts and his eyes went wide. His jaw opened up and let out a howling screech of pain as he clutched his crotch, collapsing in pain.

His fellow knights ran up to him as Blue Murder fled erratically. “Don't worry, Fletch, I’ll get her,” Wolf said in a comforting voice and flew after the blue pony.

As Fletcher winced in pain, Midnight carefully helped him up, a look of grim awkwardness. “You’re going to be fine, Fletch. You cheated Death, you'll survive this.”

“Let me help.” Ifrit appeared and casted a spell on his aching body part. The stallion let out a sigh of relief, as a cooling feeling, like that of an icepack engulfed his crotch.

“T-thanks…” He groaned and the spirit gave a nod.

White Wolf caught up quickly, holding one hoof out in a stop gesture, the other one near her leather band. “Blue Murder, don’t force me.” She tried to reason with her. “It doesn’t have to be this way.”

To her surprise, Blue Murder flinched at her words, staring towards Fletcher, then rubbed her eyes and looked back to the Pegasus.

“Well...honestly, I'm not sure whether this is a step up or down fortune-wise. Still, anything to break up the monotony is much appreciated, sir knights...You don't happen to have any tea, do you?”

Slowly, Wolf nodded and pointed to her fellow knights and Blue Murder slowly moved towards them.

Blue looked slightly confused at Fletcher, then felt guilty as she realized. Er...Whoops…

“Wasn’t intended, I swear.” She said with clear awkwardness in her voice, Fray did not react, hissing slightly in pain.

Midnight took a close look, Blue’s fur was dirtied but otherwise, she seemed fine. “Can you walk?” He asked, just to be sure as her expression was one of exhaustion.

“I can, but not long distances, I fear.” She replied and the lord commander sighed.

“Then the quick way.” He mumbled and attached a Fulton on her. The blue mare looked at it in surprise, yet cheered as she got pulled up. “Okay, we got all. Let’s head back to base.”

“You got it.” Wolf looked on the map and face hooved all of the sudden. “Doh!”

“What’s wrong?”

“Our current position is a landing zone for the chopper, so we could have saved the Fulton.” She deadpanned and Midnight shrugged.

“Too late anyway.”

It took only a minute for the chopper to arrive and they got it, feeling happy to see their missing comrades again. All three, Blue included, waited already at the helipad at them. And strangely, Dawnwind too.

“How did you get here?” Wolf asked and her mentor opened her mouth but hesitated.

“How did I?” She looked at Patch, who pulled out a map.

“Well, you got me. By all accounts, it doesn't make sense.”

Dawnwind shrugged in response. “Oh well. Quite some friends you brought back.”

“Yes, some of our personal squad, they went missing some time ago. Experienced sword fighter Abstraction, expert healer, apothecary and defender Abundo, explorer, tinker and excavator, Neolith. And of course, Blue Murder.” Midnight introduced and they all nodded.

“We have been already informed about the situation and we are ready to assist you.” Abstraction sounded determined and the knights noticed that the armor of the Dark Horse members had been cleaned. “And your caring for those children honors you, commander Fray.”

Fletcher looked slightly down, trying not to blush. “I know. What about you, Blue?”

She gave a simple nod. “I help where I can. We are in the same boat now.”

“Even if she’s cooperative, we all must stay vigilant around her.” Ifrit warned the knights and they nodded.

Despite working together, they couldn’t find anything new and the sun was setting. “I already organized a quarter for you three,” Wagensroll said to the Dark Horse members, they nodded. “Dawnwind, you share a quarter with me and Patch. Blue Murder, you would share one with my relative and his friends, if you don’t mind.”

She waved a hoof. “Not at all. Is better than when I had to share a room with Corax. Ugh…he quoted Shakespeare even in his sleep.” She groaned. “Worse was when he fancied a midnight snack. The things he kept in those jars. Eurgh!”

“I can imagine…” Midnight shivered. “But if it hadn’t ended for him, I think he had made a great Shakespeare actor, no doubt.”

“Maybe…” Blue replied before they all went to bed.

---

As morning arrived, they breakfasted and the three Soviets walked up to them. “Good morning.” Blue greeted as she took a sip of her morning tea. “Quite some good tea you have here.”

“Thanks,” Sergei replied, sounding slightly worried.

“Something wrong?” Abstraction asked and the former Spetsnaz sighed.

“Yes. Snake was leaving not long ago, undergoing a mission for the CIA at Da Smasei Laman, a fort that belonged to Mujahideen fighters. It was wiped out and they thought I was responsible, but I wasn’t. This area is controlled by... an unknown group.”

“Mhm…then we should keep an eye but for him. Know he’s skilled but better safe than sorry.” Midnight thought about it.

“If that’s your decision, we’re with you.” Abstraction said, his fellow operatives nodded, Blue did the same.

“In that case, I already took the liberty to make some equipment for you.” The green earth pony pointed to the armory.

Inside he gave very knight and Blue a pistol with built-in Suppressor. “That’s the AMC Auto Mag Pistol, converted to fire tranquilizer rounds. Hit an enemy with that and it's good night, sleep tight. It uses a slide-lock mechanism, so you have to load a new round into the chamber by manually every time you fire.”

“Won’t be a problem. What else do you have?” Fletcher asked his relative, who smiled.

“For you, I made a tranquilizer sniper rifle, based on the Czechoslavakian Vz. 54 Sniper Rifle, which itself is a variation of a Mosin-Nagant Rifle.” He gave it to the unicorn, it was outfitted with a suppresser, the body colored in dark blue to show it was a non-lethal version.

“Thanks. The Mosin-Nagant is a very reliable rifle after all.”

“And that’s not all. If you ever need actual bullets, here are some AK-74s. They are better than the FN FNC, as the latter has a relatively low rate of fire and limited suppressor lifespan, not to mention the reliability.”

“Fine by me, it’s very known for its reliability after all, no matter the condition,” Fletcher replied with a grin.

“As for you, Blue Murder, this is a tranquilizer version of the Heckler & Koch MSG90. Semi-automatic. Of course, I attached a suppressor and even thought of suiting clothing for action in the field.” Unlike Fletcher’s rifle, the MSG60 had only a small blue stripe on the magazine to show it was non-lethal.

He gave her the rifle and pointed to a table. It was a camouflaged coat in the color of yellow with black stripes, a Tiger Stripe. It had also a helmet and goggles.

“Thanks. You surely know a lot about military things.”

Wagensroll scratched his back. “Well, that’s an advantage when studying historic military technology and tactics.”

“Speaking of, you think Miller and Ocelot will allow this?” Patch asked unsurely.

“Yes, we do.” They all startled and turned around, seeing Ocelot standing behind him together with Miller. The boss prefers to work alone, but I am sure he appreciates your help if anything goes wrong.”

“Okay then, let’s go!” Midnight exclaimed and Abstraction took also a rifle and tranquilizer.

“Just in case.” Abundo and Neolith stayed with their own weapons as they all boarded the Blackhawk.

As the soviets had anti-air defenses near the fort, the pilot was forced to drop off the ponies short distance away from it, near a checkpoint to the fort, that was also a relay base.

Fletcher and Blue teleported on a canyon, moving along it, the Pegasus used the clouds for cover, while Abstraction moved near the canyon to avoid enemy patrols and guard pots, having little trouble to keep up.

It was only a short walk until they arrived at the base. It covered a bridge stretching over a canyon, two small Soviet bases on either side of it and a small outpost on the bottom of the canyon.

“Does anyone see Snake?” Abstraction asked on the radio.

“I see, him, snaking among the lower parts of the bridge,” Blue reported as she spotted him through her scope, watching over him with Fletcher.

Yet, he had no problem to get past the guards, distracting them by throwing empty magazines near them or neutralized them with his tranquilizer pistol or various techniques of hand to hand combat, like throwing them to the ground.

Midnight, Wolf, Neolith and Abundo took notice of a prisoner being interrogated by the Soviets, waterboarding him with a canteen. Due to the distance, the flying ponies couldn’t understand what they were saying but sounded frustrated, as the prisoner did not respond.

Eventually, they loaded him onto a jeep and drove towards the fort. Yet Snake didn’t seem to be fazed by this as he made it across the bridge, whistling.

The sound of neighing greeted their ears and they all saw a white Andalusian horse ran up to Snake and he mounted it, running through a canyon past the jeep and stopped a few meters ahead on the road, behind a rock.

“What is he...” Wolf wondered before she saw the horse defecating on the road and stepped aside. “Okay…”

To the surprise of the ponies, the jeep spun out the moment it drove over the defecation, putting the occupants in a brief daze. The Boss used this to tranquilize the three soviets inside and cut the retrains of the prisoner.

Both exchanged hand signals of sign language, with Snake showing a photo.

“A survivor – one of the Hamid.” Miler pointed out on the radio as the prisoner pointed to his throat. “Is he mute?” He wondered before the Hamid member pretended to hold a rocket launcher and Miller understood. “He knows about it. This is our chance!” He exclaimed as the now freed Mujahideen pointed towards the fort and Snake extracted him with the Fulton.

“We know the location of the target. It’s on your iDroid. Head over there and retrieve it.” Miller added and the Boss looked at the map before getting back on his horse, riding towards the fort.

“Smart move, Snake.” Midnight commented impressed as they all followed him.

Upon arrival, they saw that the Soviets had converted the fort into an outpost, base buildings and fortifications everyone.

Again, the ponies took positions watching over Snake as he crawled among the ground to avoid getting seen by the guard towers, moving towards the inner part of the fort, built into the canyon, vanishing out of sight.

“Shall we go in?” Abundo asked and Midnight shook his head.

“No, we better secure his exit, he knows what he’s doing. Still, I have a bad feeling about this.”

Slowly, they all felt how the wind got stronger. “A sandstorm is approaching.” Blue realized and put her goggles over her eyes.

As it fully covered the fort, they all could barely see anything but noticed the storm was very dark. “That is no sandstorm…it’s…Mist…” Neolith pointed out. “Strange…”

Then, they saw a faint silhouette floating by, looking like a boy before a loud roar echoed, sounding like a T-rex or something.

“What was that?” Wolf asked in alert before a voice sounded through the radio.

“You look well-rested, Big Boss.” It was a male voice, but the mist made it impossible to see where it came from. “…My, my, how you’ve changed. You became a demon for little weapons as that?” It asked and paused for a moment. “Well, I’m sure you’ll see the bigger picture eventually. If you get out of here alive.”

Screams and gunfire echoed through the fort and the ponies saw, how some soldiers scrambled to cover as the voice finished, “Rest in peace this time. I’ll see you in hell! Boss!”

Loud, rumbling steps made them slightly stumble, seeing something big walking away as Miller radioed in. “What the hell was that thing?! It was huge!”

Abstraction then did a magic Scan and located Snake, passing it to his fellow ponies and they moved to his location, finding him alright.

He pointed ahead with a slightly surprised expression and they saw a soviet soldier stumbling towards them before collapsing and four human like-creatures leaped forward. The soldier rose again but had deathly pale skin, whitened pupils, blackening around his eyes and mouth, slight sores near the neck, enlarged veins, and several small blue orbs emitting from his head.

One of the creatures landed in front of the soldier, the eyes glowing brightly green.

“It’s the Mist Unit…The Skulls!” Miller exclaimed, “What’s he doing to that soldier?”

The knights realized it from Quince what this was, the Dark Horse members and Blue could only look in shock at what they saw.

Nevertheless, the knights, Blue and Abstraction drew their AKs, removed the suppressors as they weren’t of use here.

Blue aimed at one of the Skulls and fired. Without warning, a metallic spike structure erupted from the ground, shielding the Skull from her bullets and one of the Soviets lunged at her, trying to feast upon her. The mare held her attacker back and punched him several times into the head, knocking him down.

Just then, she saw how the same Skull jumping into the air to strike her with a machete and she raised her hooves to praise herself.

In a split second, Snake sprinted forward and grabbed the machete, spinning it around. Blue saw how he rammed it into the Skull’s back. The Skull let out a distorted cry of pain and stumbled, being stunned. Blue Murder used this to finish it off with a bullet to the head, the Skull fell over in a blue liquid.

Neolith and Abundo flew around, trying not to crash into the walls due to the limited visibility, avoiding Shots from one of the Skulls that fired a bullpup assault rifle at them.

Abstraction used this distraction to fire a few rounds at the Skull. It filched from the hits and turned towards him. The Blue stallion had no time to react as also a metallic spike structure erupted from the ground and it did burst, throwing him over with a cry of pain.

He barely managed to raise his sword to block the melee attack of the Skull, using all his strength to push it back.

Neolith fired an arrow into the back of the Skull, allowing Abstraction to throw it back as it got stunned. Then she fired her grabble hook, pinning it down and Abundo prepared to bring his mace down.

“Take this!” He yelled as he bought down from high above, slamming the Skull into the ground, neutralizing it.

Midnight clashed blades with the third of the four Skulls. He kept it busy as Wolf dealt fast, yet effective strikes with her knives, knocking the Skull back. Fletcher then fired a charged arrow scoring a hit on its chest and it fell over.

The final Skull charged at Snake, machete at the ready. Snake countered by grabbing it, breaking the Skull’s arm in the process and rammed the machete into the neck of the Skull.

As it stumbled around, Midnight finished it off by ramming his blade into the chest of the Skull.

It fell to the ground and the Mist cleared, with all Soviets fell to the ground, reverting to their normal state, albeit in a state of deep unconsciousness, twitching.

Now the ponies could see the Skulls clearly. They wore technologically advanced suits, with a gas mask covering their mouths and headphones on the head. Only their eyes and forehead with a 2 on it were visible.

Suddenly without warning, they got up while regenerating their bodies and vanished by jumping high into the air before anyone could react.

“Uh…okay…” Blue mumbled unsurprised.

“Are you okay, Snake?” Fletcher asked worried and he nodded.

“Thanks for the help, although I had managed on my own.” Then he saw a big trailer with radar on it and threw a grenade on it, destroying it.

“You destroyed their anti-air radar?” Miller asked surprised, “It wasn’t one of the targets, but that’s put a hole in their air surveillance. The chopper will be able to get in close now. You can designate a landing zone near the outpost.”

Snake did exactly that with the ponies and extracted as the coopers arrived.

“So, this unit in the mist…” Miller mumbled on the radio, “Their speed, the way they jump…it’s not human. And those deformities…”

“They attacked the Soviets, too.” Snake replied.

“And that Grim Reaper lookalike in charge of them…that giant THING that carried him off…What the hell are they?”

“Cipher.” Snake simply answered.

“Well, what do they want? What’s their objective? Why Afghanistan?!” Miller wondered, “There’s one more thing troubling me…”

“What happened to the Hamid.” Snake figured out.

“Exactly. Whole squads of hardened Mujahideen killed without a fight, and no trace of BC weaponry. What does it all mean?”

“That’s what we’re here to find out.”

“Yeah. Right. If we really need to know, the truth will reveal itself. Even if it’s ugly…”

The ponies looked at each other without a word. They knew they were now into something more than they had thought. Cipher, they had been told about it.

It was the main enemy of Snake. A secret organization that was formed to fulfill the ideal of a unified world, soughing to control the entire world to ensure this. Apparently, said ideal had been the wish of Snake’s mentor, named the Boss.

Snake himself was chosen to be an icon for the group, having known The Boss better than anyone else. But eventually, Friction developed and Snake left, drifting from country to country as a lone soldier, forming the Militaires Sans Frontières in 1970 to provide military force to anyone who needed it, regardless of nation or ideology.

However, this was seen as danger to Cipher, and so a strike force was sent on March 1975, destroying the base of MSF under the disguise of a nuclear inspection.

Having barely survived, Miler had formed the Diamond Dogs as successor 9 years later.

“Do-do you think this…Cipher might have the children?” Wolf asked with fear in her eyes.

“It’s likely but we’ll find them, as we did before.” Midnight said confidently. “Plus, we got help on your side. “He looked at Blue and the Dark Horse members, they all nodded.

“Whatever is necessary, commander.” Abstraction said, ready to help where he could.

As the choppers arrived at Mother Base, Ocelot had information for the ponies.

“I and Miller created an Intel Team and a Medical Team. We thought Purple Patch can help with Intel and support, Dawnwind in the Medical Team, along with Abundo as needed.

“No problem, I help where I can and medical attention is one of my specialties after all.” Abundo replied.

Hearing that reminded Blue of something, turning to Fletcher. “About that earlier when you found me…Er...sorry. Reflex action. No hard feelings?” She asked with guilt.

There was a moment of silence. “Not at all, you had no control over your actions. I guess bad experience from the past?” Fray asked calm and she nodded.

“Yeah…”

---

A few days passed, Snake went on more missions, alone this time. He “eliminated” Three commanders of key Soviet units by extracting them as they had held a meeting to discuss how to deal with Venom Snake, namely reinforcing their troops with more gear, as well as dealing with the Mujahideen overall. Another mission involved stopping a Lieutenant Colonel that wanted to reinforce Da Smasei Laman to ensure better efficiency of the Soviet forces in the region.

Another two missions involved assisting a rebel offensive by eliminating as much as he could of the Soviets' mechanized unit that served as reinforcements, and the other mission was to extract a Mujahid captured by the Soviets, being the dying wish of his father. But it turned out that the father of the prisoner was dead and that he never heard of the client.

This left Miller to suspect that their "client" was most likely Cipher itself in an attempt to clean up loose ends, as the home of the rebel village was destroyed long before he was ever taken prisoner. Apparently, it fell victim to some sort of disease, then was completely burned to the ground. The prisoner himself was out on a mission at the time, and that was the reason why he alone survived. As such, the rebel, named Mulak, joined Diamond Dogs since he didn't have a home or family to go back to due to his village's destruction and because they shared a common goal of revenge against Cipher for the organization's role in personal losses.

For the ponies, it was only to find the children safe and sound, but also to make anyone pay who’d harm them, so they had indirectly something in common with the goals of Diamond Dogs.

In the next morning, they chatted as they had breakfast. “We hadn’t an opportunity to test the tranquilizer rifles, but they look they’re solid work.” Fletcher complimented his relative, who smiled.

“Thanks, though Dawnwind helped me in getting the medicinal plants for it.”

“Yes. Golden Crescent is rare to find in Afghanistan but has analgesic and sedative properties, perfect to strengthening tranquilizer rounds. You could easily stop an Elephant with this.” The deer added.

“And you did well,” Blue said as suddenly, an alarm sounded throughout the base.

“What’s going on?” Midnight wondered and they all took a look.

They saw a chopper coming in, escorted by two others, a group of soldiers taking aim at it.

Miller, Ocelot and a few soldiers wearing full black combat gear and red berets, the personal unit of Ocelot as far as the ponies knew, stood at the landing pad, a pilot in beige trousers, yellow T-shirt, yellow head covering and a headset waved red lights to signal the chopper in the middle away.

“No way is she setting foot on this base…” Miller stated, looking at the chopper in the middle.

For a second, all pones saw a woman jumping out of the chopper in the middle, vanishing in thin air.

Then a loud “Clang!” startling the soldiers and the woman materialized behind them. She had green eyes and brown hair, just wearing underwear and very thin stockings.

The moment the soldiers tried to surround her, black markings appeared around her eyes and she vanished again. “Thermals!” Ocelot ordered and three soldiers activated their thermal goggles, looking around.

Faint, soft humming greeted the ears of all ponies before the three soldiers formed a circle and the woman appeared again in a flash.

“Seize her!” Ocelot ordered as the soldiers surrounded the woman, fingers off the triggers but Miller stepped ahead.

“Fire!” He ordered but the men hesitated.

“Miller!” The Russian protested, “She saved the Boss.”

“She was saving herself. Fire!” Kaz exclaimed, yet the men hesitated again.

“Put her in the cell.” Snake’s voice echoed in everyone’s ears as he walked up from behind, lowering the guns of his men.

“Boss?”

”Keep an eye on her.” He added firmly.

“Right, take her away.” Ocelot acknowledged but nobody moved. “What are you waiting for? Move!”

Snake then put a hand on the woman’s shoulder, both gave each other a barely noticeable nod and she got led away.

“Boss, you are going to regret this. That woman…” Miler warned but got cut off.

“I know, she knows our location. Either way, one of these days we’re gonna to have to kill her. But now is not the time.” He explained. “When the time comes, I’ll pull the trigger.”

The ponies watched after him until he was out of sight. “Who was that?” Wagensroll asked confused as Sergei and his friends walked up to the group.

“I think that was Tixij, Russian for Quiet, a crack sniper. We lost some officers to her but there were never any sightings, and only corpses were left behind. While Miller wanted her dead, Ocelot thought it might be better to capture and interrogate her. I guess we will see how this will work out.”

“Very likely.” Midnight replied.

They then returned to finding clues where the kids could be, as during noon, Ocelot sought their attention. “Sorry to bother but the Boss’ about to go on a mission where your help could be of use.”

The ponies looked at each other and nodded without a word. “What is it?” Midnight asked him.

“The Boss is about to go on a mission to help a scientist defect from the East. I have a bad feeling about this, so cold you watch over him, just in case?”

“No problem.”

They boarded the chopper and were dropped near the Serak Power Plant, bear the Base Camp in the north. Again, the two snipers stayed on the canyon, moving along it, the Pegasus used the clouds for cover and Abstraction moved near the canyon.

A moderately-sized plant in itself, it was filled with numerous substations, they quickly spotted Snake as he lock-picked a door at the other end, next to a closed gate, leading into a large cave that had been modeled into a makeshift hangar.

He went behind a concrete wall as a truck drove through the gate into the station and the eyes of the ponies went wide.

At the far end, a giant anthropoid bipedal machine was standing on a moving platform, it’s “head’s” "muzzle" if looked closely had a motif resembling a skull.

“Just a minute!” An English voice called out, “This isn’t what we agreed on!”

“The changes have already been finalized.” Another voice replied.

“It’s not operational yet! The remote piloting and A.l. control haven’t reached the application stage.”

“Who said anything about an A.l.? That was Coldman’s mistake then years ago.”

The ponies looked around to locate the source, seeing two men on a catwalk. The one speaking was wearing a black suit with trench coat and hat. The other one was wearing a shirt with green tie and black pants. Noticeable was that he was also wearing a powered exoskeleton around the legs.

“Be that as may be, we’ll need to modify postural control to accommodate a human pilot. I share your urgency. But…we need more time to finish it.

He was unaware that a soldier in a Grey drab uniform with Balaclava and goggles walked up to the other man. “We analyzed the transmission log – he’s been in contact with Big Boss.” The soldier whispered and the man in trench coat nodded.

“Right. Planning on leaving us, Doctor, huh?” He asked the other men and grabbed him. “I’m taking your ‘legs’ back!” He then shoved him down the stairs.

Now, the ponies could see that the man with exoskeleton was wearing glasses, having wet himself as he looked at the human in trench coat with a fearful expression. “So you’re just gonna…kill me?”

“Sahelanthropus is mine now.” The trench coat wearing man said as he walked down and grabbed the doctor by the collar. “Listen! I may dwell in the dark, but I refuse to be judged by your standards, traitor.” He said with disgust before letting go. “I hope your friends give you what’s coming to you. Take him to the base.”

A soldier steering a small bipedal machine grabbed the doctor with an arm of his machine. “Yes, sir. Transporting Emmerich to the base camp and returning to base.”

“We’re shutting down. All units, strike camp and clear out.” A PA announced and all soldiers got into jeeps and trucks, with the large machine being brought deeper into the cave as a gate behind it closed.

“We still have use for him.” The trench coat wearing man commented before he got into a jeep as well and everyone drove out.

Despite this, the ponies could tell that those soldiers weren’t Soviet at all.

“No doubt about it, Boss. That man is your extraction target, Emmerich, The weapon system that disappeared into that cave, and the man who was with it…Emmerich must know something about what’s going on. I’ve marked the base camp on your map.” Miller said on the radio as Snake took notice of an Intel file on a table and scanned it with his iDroid. “Nice find. Analyzing the Intel file you picked up. We’ve got a fix on the target. I updated your map info.” Miller added as they all moved out.

Upon arrival, the ponies saw a Hind was in the sky, so the unicorns and Snake went prone to avoid getting spotted, with the bat pony and Pegasus carefully moving through the clouds.

Looking on the map, the location of the target was at one of the hangers in the back. Also, three of those small bipedal machines patrolled around the base, operated by Soviets.

Despite this all, Snake had little trouble moving to the marked location, but two soldiers were guarding the entrance.

Both snipers saw Snake looking in their direction, pointing at the guards and said on the radio, “Fire!”

Fletcher took out the left guard, Blue the other one from their elevated position with synchronized shots, allowing Snake to get in, followed by Abstraction to cover his back.

Snake drew his colt from a second holster, slowly advancing, as suddenly…

“Who are you?” A female electronic like voice asked and he turned altered into its direction, facing a large pod. “Snake?” A red light blinked in the upper middle. “It’s not you…is it?”

“Hey!” a male voice called out and he turned towards it, pistol drawn. “It’s just a machine.” It belonged to the man with Exoskeleton, using them to “sit” at a desk before getting up and facing the leader of Diamond Dogs. “Are you?” He asked with a confused expression.

“Dr. Emmerich.” Snake replied.

“Snake?” The doctor wondered before the Boss put a black bag over his head and cut a cable of the exoskeleton to disable it. “Hey! What gives?” Emmerich protested, “Let me go! No! Give me back my legs!”

“Right on schedule. Now bring him back to Mother Base.” Miller ordered.

As Abstraction escorted Snake, he and the others via radio, heard how Emmerich talked about developing a bipedal weapon for the Soviets but wasn’t deployed yet, and that those small bipedal machines were called Walker Gears, that they and his “masterpiece” would help them win the war, making Miller wonder what Cipher was interested in.

“Stop!” He held back the humans as he spotted a laser sight near a wall. “Sniper on one of the hangers. We need to get rid of him.”

“I’ll take care of that.” Neolith flew over him, using a cloud as cover and fired a tranquilizer arrow, putting the Sniper to sleep.

But Abstraction’s ears perked up as he heard a faint stomping sound, seeing one of the Walker Gears moving near them. As the pilot was having his back to the intruders, the stallion drew his sidearm and put the soldier to sleep with a well-placed headshot.

A loud whistle entered their ears and they saw something in the sky as they got close to the LZ. Then a loud rumble and a large cloud of dust, forcing the extraction choppers to aboard.

“What the?” Midnight mumbled and his eyes and those of his fellow ponies went wide as the dust cleared. Before them stood the large machine they had seen on the cave.

“Sahelanthropus?” Emmerich exclaimed in disbelief. “How?!”

“So that’s the Metal Gear he devolved for the Soviets…” Ocelot competed at the sight.”

“Impossible! It can’t be active!”

“Doctor,” A familiar voiced called out, and they saw the man in a trench coat again, standing on one of the hands of the Metal Gear. “You’re as useless as I thought. This is the real Sahelanthropus.” He pointed at Emmerich and Snake. “You and your friend will die here! Behold!” He exclaimed, raising his arms. “Today is the day weapons learned to walk upright!”

A second Blackhawk with the inscription XOF then hovered next to the machine and the man climbed from the hand into the chopper. The Metal Gear faced Snake and roared.

He in response whistled for his horse, put Emmerich on the back and ran away, with Sahelanthropus close in pursuit, sensors in its head glowing red.

The ponies could only watch in shock, being ignored completely.

After what seemed like hours, Blue exclaimed, “There’s no way we can damage that thing with our current weapons!”

“But we must do something!” Abstraction exclaimed as Snake managed to find cover behind a rock, the machine couldn’t find him.

Its sensor became blue as it looked around, remaining cautious and Fletcher got an idea. “Wolf, can you use your storm magic to disable it?”

“I can try!” She flew above Sahelanthropus and punched the cloud. It sent out lighting towards the machine and it let out a loud, painful roar, twitching and sparking from the electricity.

The machine fell slightly backward, arms lose in the air. “That should do it! Let’s get to the chopper.” Wolf looked happy at her success.

However, as they got on the choppers, Sahelanthropus groaned and started to move again, causing Snake and Fletcher to man the miniguns of their respective choppers as it turned towards them.

“Shoot that thing! NOW!” Ocelot yelled as Sahelanthropus attempted to jump into the air and strike the choppers. They did as told, Blue, Abstraction, Wolf and Midnight also fired their rifles to assist.

Moments before the machine had touched the choppers, the Metal Gear exploded with a loud groan, its left arm and leg were destroyed, crashing back into the ground, leaving a big cloud of smoke.

They all looked in relief at it as Emmerich mumbled, “An upright bipedal weapon. In terms of hominids…It’s a Sahelanthropus. How did they complete it without me?”

“We’ll hear the rest back at base.” Miller radioed in and Snake saw that Emmerich had pulled the bag up, putting it back then.

Upon being back at base, the ponies took the time to rest while Ocelot questioned Emmerich. “That was truly something…exiting…” Neolith let out a breath of relief.

“Yes. We should catch some sleep, it’s getting late.” Abundo suggested as the sun was setting and everypony nodded.

---

As the morning arrived, they saw the three soviets walking up to them. “Good morning. We got something that could interest you.” Lovec told them and Midnight raised an eyebrow.

“And that is?”

“Remember Quiet? Although the Boss captured her, we got still reports about Soviet officers getting assassinated, again without a trace. Still, there are rumors about ponies being near before it happens.

“It could be a potential hint, we should take a look.” Ifrit suggested.

“Okay, where was the last report?” Midnight asked.

“At the Aabe Shifap Ruins. Exercise extreme caution.”

“Of course.” The grey stallion replied and took his gear with the others. Snake also waited for them, they just nodded and boarded the chopper.

With them was a dog with grey fur and a left yellow eye, the other one was covered by an eyepatch. The ponies had seen him before, DD or D-Dog, the pet canid of Diamond Dogs, having found alone by Snake in Afghanistan some time ago as puppy, now fully grown and been trained for a combat support role.

They got dropped a bit far from the ruins, so they wouldn’t alert the assassins and made their way towards the ruins.

“Be careful, we don’t know how they operate or how many there are. Midnight warned his fellow ponies.

All looked carefully around. “I can’t see anything,” Neolith reported.

“Me neither,” Abundo added.

“Nothing.” Abstraction shook his head.

Blue stopped as she could swear that she saw a glint in the distance, coming from one of the towers. “Huh?”

She took her binoculars out and scanned the area, yet couldn’t see anything.

Putting it back into her saddlebag, her eyes went small to see a laser pointer near Fletcher, he didn’t notice it at all.

Everything went in slow-motion as she sprinted towards him.

“Down!” She threw him to the ground, just seconds before a loud bang followed and a bullet hit the ground near them, with all scrambling to cover.

“Sniper?! Where?” Wolf called out in surprise.

Fletcher peeked over his cover and spotted a glint, looking carefully through his binoculars. His eyes went small as he saw a girl in a tower, wearing the same uniform as the soldiers in the cave. “No…It can’t be…”

“Those are children!” Miller exclaimed on the radio in disbelief and shock. “In XOF uniforms?! Boss! Non-Lethal Force! Repeat! Non-Lethal Force!”

Author's Note:

midnightwolfGX, I hope you like the appearance of your OC Abstraction

Comments

[midnightwolfGX]

Excellent way to introduce Abstraction into the story! Nicely done! Also, those were some pretty close calls during the missions. I guess that's where all their training and experience pays off, huh?

[Bronycommander]

9820766
Yes, it does.