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Chapter 15

Children of Oonte
Chapter 15: A promise, Axelle and a desperate run.

Rich's Flashback 2:

Rich was cleaning up after an interesting evening. There was not much to do, a few plates and forks to clean and a quick shower and he was out to setup for another fun evening. Ashley knocked on his door and he let her in. After some small talk, not that much, Ashley got to the point. "I need someone I can trust to watch my back and my sister’s backs. Can you come with me on my mission?" Ashley asked. Rich thought about it, after hearing what Ashley did to find out Steve's name, maybe she can find out what happened to Anna?

"Can you help me find my friend? Anna," Rich asked.

"Do you have any personal items from her?" Ashley asked.

"No, I have nothing," Rich replied.

"OK, that will make finding Anna much harder but it could be done, I will help you look for Anna after I find all of my sisters and do a mission at the South Pole," Ashley explained. Rich agreed to help Ashley and she said goodbye and left Rich to his cleanup.

Present Day.

Rich breathed in the warm air of the African plains. This is the good life. Now all I need are some zebras with some beers and food to come running by and I can have a party! That mental picture was kinda strange with the image of four legged female zebras carrying baskets of beers and snacks on their backs. Wonder if four legged zebras would be interested in me? Better back away from that whole sequence of thoughts! They are kinda funny though. He looked back at the ship, Sherman was sitting in the shade with his shirt off but it looked like he will be going back into the ship soon. Could see the sunburn from here.

Rich took another look over the plains and saw something move fast towards him. It looked like a blue Pegasus pony and it was closing in fast. The pony landed right next to Rich and introduced herself. "My name is Axelle Benade and I have a message for Ashley Taylor," Rich liked the red eyes and rainbow mane and tail, that was not something you see every day. Axelle looked at Rich and asked where Ashley was, Rich pointed towards the ship and Axelle ran towards the ship, Rich stayed where he was.

Axelle was already getting annoyed, time was running out and these people were acting like they were on Safari. She angrily stepped into the ship and called for Ashley Taylor. A yellow Pegasus pony pointed at a sleeping purple unicorn. A four legged purple unicorn walked up to Axelle. "Hello, my name is Twilight Sparkle," the unicorn said. Axelle barely heard her.

Isabela saw the scowling blue Pegasus walk in and ask for Ashley and decided to head off a possible bad situation. She walked up and introduced herself and told Twilight and Mei to wake Ashley.

Ashley woke up slowly, she was tired from healing the damage to Mei's wings and the electrobomb spell in Beijing. Axelle passed on the info that they needed to go to Moscow and save the last sister. The Ennedi District Herd was willing to just send Axelle and not ask for help so the last sister could be saved. Axelle was kinda pushy but it seemed that she had reasons to be.

Esfir Turchin, a anthro pony with yellow fur, green eyes and blonde mane and tail, looked back warily, was that flame snake following her? Her water gun was empty and the other militia member's guns were empty too. Holy water or water magicked by unicorns was the only way to kill the flame snakes. People found out real quick that hot lead just made the flame snakes bigger. Flame snakes look like long funnels of flame about the size of a large dog, the wider end was the head and the body narrowed to a small tail. They moved by floating above the ground. Flame snakes could belch fire and anyone that gets hit with a fireball was usually in big trouble, only holy water or unicorn magic water would put the flames out. Flame snakes did not give up easy either, they would track anybody until they got their victim or the snake was killed.

Esfir led her team and a few civilians down the block. These folks were trying to make it in the city on their own but not having much luck at least with the Moscow herd they would have a safe place to live. Esfir was able to convince them to go back with her. Now they were traveling down a wide boulevard, that made it easy to see threats coming. The CC so far was not into sniping so it was safe.

When the CC first attacked Moscow, they firebombed some buildings, Esfir felt a pang, there were so many treasures that were lost in the Hermitage. After that the CC moved to the edge of the city and established several bases to keep people in the city. Moscow was a prison with hungry guards that would shoot and kill and eat any who tried to escape. Once in a while CC patrols would go into the city to catch people and large ships would beam up children and babies. Esfir did not want to think about the fates of both groups.

Nothing electric worked in the city and birds could not fly anymore. One of the unicorns from the mage guild explained that the spell that blocked electronics also did things to flying creature's wings. Feathers could not stay attached to wings anymore. Pegasi could and did grow more feathers but they would come off the wings in large bunches on takeoff. Feathers also flew off in small bunches if the Pegasus just walked around. Now the feathers were used to stuff pillows or for trade to other groups so they could use them for decoration. Chopped up feathers could be put inside coats as insulation and that worked out fine. They tried to use feathers as fuel for fires but the feathers burned like hair, smoky and smelly. No more recon flights by pegasi, now they have to walk like everyone else.

"We have to move now, it is coming," Ilya Nehoda, Esfir's second in command said and he pointed down the block. Sure enough there was an orange glow. Esfir gave the order and the group got to its collective feet, groaning and complaining. They continued down the block. They could not go home because the flame snake would just follow them home and maybe tell the CC where the base is.

While she trudged down the block, Esfir remembered what happened later to her city. Several of the crime lords carved out sections of the city as their own. They would not shoot you if you had something to trade or was just passing through. Esfir remembered that this area was not owned by anyone yet, think there is a church nearby. If they can get to a holy water font, they could fill up their guns and shoot the flame serpent and go home. Maybe they can find a priest nearby, a priest could bless water and that could work too. Four blocks later, they found the church but it was just a burned out shell. The area around it was empty and no one wanted to hang around for too long.

The sun was going down and the idea of running through dark streets with a flame serpent chasing them was not something Esfir wanted to think about. At the last rest period, Esfir contacted the Moscow Herd using Pnet. They could not get a team out to help, Fedor Prutko, the local crime lord would not spare any of his men at least not at night and Prutko had all of the guns. Prutko might be able to spare some men in the morning.

"Maybe we can try the sewers? Have heard that flame snake bastards do not like the sewers and they get confused there more easily. At least if we seal or lock the doors it will delay the one following us." Ilya suggested. Esfir agreed with Ilya and they started looking for a entrance way to the sewers.

An hour later with the shadows getting long, they were one block away from an entrance to the sewers when they spotted an orange glow but it was from in front. Esfir looked behind them, wait, its clear and then another orange glow appeared. The one that had been chasing them had led them into an ambush, those flame snakes were smarter than Esfir thought. The snakes started to move in closer. Flame snakes feed by setting people and ponies on fire and sucking up the flames on the burning bodies. There is not much left when that happens.

Mei hated flying in the Moscow sky, the air felt dirty, like flying through invisible sewage. She could not smell it but Ashley said that there was some sort of magic in the air.

Axelle saw the next sister first, she was with a bunch of people and flame creatures were slowly converging on them. Axelle gave Mei the attack signal and they both swooped down firing their water guns at the flame creatures. The flame creatures did not stand a chance against the high pressure blasts of magicked water. Once Esfir saw what was going on and saw the flame creature’s flames being doused, she ran up to the black crystal remains and stomped them to black powder. The rest of the militia stomped on the other crystallized flame creatures. When Mei and Axelle landed, Mei noticed that there were a bit too many yellow and blue feathers floating to the ground. That can't be good.

Some of the people cheered when Mei and Axelle landed and Esfir walked up to them to say thanks. Axelle contacted Ashley through the headset so she could land the ship nearby. "We will need to talk and plan, time is running out for the southern prisoner," Mei said. Esfir watched the purple ship land on the roof and wondered how she would get through all of those locked doors.

"Ashley is a unicorn and she knows how to pick locks," Mei said.

"Have your people ready to go in the building, we will provide food and water inside the building," Axelle instructed and pointed towards an apartment building that Ashley had landed the ship on.

For two hours Esfir's group got some nice food and drinks and they could relax. Upstairs Esfir met her sisters.

"The situation is not good with the Moscow Herd. They do not have enough food and water. The unicorns that can make food and water spend too much time making luxury foods for the local crime lord, Fedor Prutko. You should not go to the Moscow Herd because Prutko will find out about you and you will be serving his needs instead of the Herd's or anyone else's. He will not allow you to save the southern prisoner either," Esfir said, trying to advise Ashley and her sisters about the local situation.

"Well, we have to do something, that low food situation will be no food soon. Its winter here so you will not be raising anything," Renee said.

Ashley thought a bit and gave a suggestion, "We can make some small generators and food/water makers. Prutko will not bother with basic food and water, that should take the weight off of the unicorns. You will need magic to defend yourselves. Also you will need to contact the Moscow herd and have a team come and pick up the equipment."

"That sounds good!" Esfir said with a smile on her face. Mei noticed that there were several yellow and blue feathers on the floor and mentioned it to Ashley.

"You and Axelle will have to stay in the ship, its shielded from the CC magic in the area. Come to the party and afterward stay in the ship," Ashley advised.

"Well, since that is settled, how about we Party!" Isabela said with a grin. She grabbed Ashley with one arm and motioned to Twilight with the other one. Twilight went with them, she had a lot of questions to ask about Moscow.

Ashley woke out of a deep sleep with the image of the anthro alicorn from her vision. There was no words just a feeling of urgency. For some reason, they were calling her the southern prisoner. She looked into Isabela's eyes, she had seen the same image and felt the urgency. Ashley went to Renee and woke her up and then they got Twilight up. Time to go to work. After five hours of work, they had two power generators, three food generators, two water generators and one magic water maker. This should keep the Moscow Herd in decent shape until the southern prisoner was free. Esfir contacted the Moscow Herd so they could send a team out to get the items and also to tell them she was leaving on a mission. Later on in the day, they got a warning from the Moscow Herd that Prutko was coming with the team and Ashley and her sisters should be gone.

A few days later, Sherman walked along a beach south of Ushuaia in Argentina, he looked south over the ocean, somewhere hundreds of miles south was the Black tower. No more dreams about it any more. He thought about the preparations. Special cold weather gear will need to be made, special food will be made, special weapons and equipment made and with help from Twilight, hover bikes.

Renee was especially proud of that one. Ashley would land the ship on the beach then they would ride the bikes to the Black Tower. Now, the non magic users were told to rest and practice with their weapons. Axelle was pissed that her feathers were coming off of her wings in bunches and she could not fly. Mei took it in stride or maybe she just ignored it. The next batch would stay on the wings. Axelle did teach Mei some weather sense. The magic users would make equipment and rest so they will be fully charged before they headed south. They all hoped that they would arrive in time.

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