//------------------------------//
// 2:  Prepare for Unforseen Consequences 
// Story: The Zone 
// by Rostok 
//------------------------------//

For Sickle, living quite literally under the shadow of Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant once again felt like putting on a old, moth-bitten coat. A tad unpleasant from it's sorry state and full of associations with past events, but one that still fitted perfectly. He'd slowly wandered along it's facade, taking in the sights where he could avoid the heavy radiation pockets, letting the memories of his times here wash over him like watching a favourite movie in a dream, well known yet somehow distant, removed. Avoiding the radiation and the huge anomalies, pausing to strip what flesh wasn't rotten entirely beyond recognition to save and cook, keeping watch out towards the east gate that marked the absolute end of that infamous road stretching the entire length of the Zone, from it's entrance into the Cordon, up through the garbage wastes and Rostok City, past the Army's warehouses and then the Brain Scorcher labs marked by massive antennae, through Pripyat, all the way to the gate with the little encampment that the Monolith forces garrisoned here called home.

It was strategically positioned, even though the military who'd assaulted in the past had cut up from somewhere else or came in choppers. Beyond that gate where the road terminated was a huge forecourt and a large series of office buildings that had dictated the running of the place. They'd set up defences and small camps all across the NPP's grounds except out there, in the offices. He wasn't sure if anyone had seen baby chimeras anywhere else in the Zone, or even knew they existed, and he'd certainly take on the whole Ukrainian army than a chimera with the added ferocity and tenacity of a mother defending it's young. Only the competition they faced from the high number of controllers that also inhabited the area gave humanity a chance of contesting a claim.

He was still sat around a small campfire in one of the old converted train carriages they'd towed to make the camp, finishing off the charred meat as the rolling thunder of the emission faded southwards. The truly awful taste was even worse now he'd left the clutches of the Monolith's control, but he didn't have any other choices really. His supplies had run out, and there wasn't time to check for more. He wouldn't have time to search for any more after the relative safety of the emission before any mutants would re-emerge and this unmanned outpost became a deathtrap once again.

After that, heading back west and round to the far side of the plant seemed to be worth a last look before his final destination inside.






Strelok sighed as he stared down at the psydogs cavorting around in the distance, well, one psydog really if you didn't count it's copies, never straying too far out of sight of his perch on the massively overgrown vines spanning the two apartment blocks either side of him.



Now the fog had lifted he could see much further out under the overcast sky at quite the view of dreary Pripyat, southwards out across the school and eastward to the river-banks, but that meant it could also see him. It wasn't leaving any time soon, knowing he was injured. There'd been no sight or sound of anything else living out here, so he presumed it was him or nothing on the menu for the mutant dog. His rifle was accurate, and his still-beating heart was a testament to his shooting skills, but even so the dog was canny enough to stay out of effective range, moving erratically and mingling with it's clones. Like him, it was a survivor too.

Still, he worried a little about what he could do next. He had food for a couple of days, and sleeping rough in this awkward spot would hardly be the worst night out he'd experienced, but water would be an issue. Going out and facing it head on seemed like the only reasonable solution, but with his leg impaired it wasn't attractive. Even giving it a day to heal might make the difference. He dropped his head into his hands, staring dejectedly at the damn dog running around in the distance. Forcing yourself to do nothing when you're exposed and vulnerable was one of the nastiest parts of life in the Zone.





Hog was suddenly jerked awake by an elbow to the ribs, at full force, spasming his whole body for a second before his hands instinctively went for his sidearm and his head swung around to look at the threat. Nitro was crouching by him, gearing up. It'd been about a couple of hours since the strange flying horse thing had made contact with them after they spotted it above the trees. Blasted thing had scared the shits out of them at first, no one had ever heard of a flying mutant. Yet.

So once their surreal conversation had finished with it leaving for the rest of its horsey friends he'd posted Nitro on watch taking over from Alex while the rest of them had a little time to relax however they could. Even with the slightly lax attitude Nitro, Cardan and Nimble could bring at times, they'd all stayed subdued after the encounter. Zecora just sat with Twilight trying to stop her hyperventilating, managing to slowly calm her down into just mumbling gently like a less volatile nutcase. It didn't help that they all knew they were exposed out here on the road south from the Red Forest. It wasn't a route any of them but him and Alex had travelled, and too dangerously far north to have ever been frequented by stalkers. Still. Make use of them being on edge for you while you can. You never know when you'll be able to sleep next.

Nitro looked uncomfortable, as well as the rest of the group apart from Alex, that smug FSB bastard, he seemed to take almost anything in his stride. He muttered under his breath, "They're here.", before gesturing him to check round the corner to where the road straightened out. Grabbing his rifle, Hog cautiously got to his feet and paced out down the road, watching past the unfolding trees intently. His whole body was ready to react, to bring his shooter to bear at a moment's notice or scramble further across to shelter behind the nearby bus. He had no idea what to expect. Who knew what devilish magic they could summon up? The whole situation was fucked.

He couldn't stop himself tightening his grip on his rifle as the sight several brightly-coloured bulbous heads appeared snaking through the trashed trucks and cars leading up the road, each wearing some kind of medieval-looking helmet of muted grey. A couple even had a fucking unicorn horn, and, yes, there was that winged one again hovering by the trees behind them. Weird looking things. Only vaguely like horses really. The eyes and whole proportions were just wrong. He could see that just as clearly as he'd spotted them, they'd seen him step out of cover. Against his better nature he lowered his weapon further and slowly raised his hand in a wave.

The things paused, one was giving out orders while watching him intently, and the flying one swooped ahead of group towards him. The rest hadn't moved, so he could only assume that they weren't attacking. As uncomfortable as he was, his rifle stayed in one hand by his side as it flew closer. With a graceful slowdown, it dropped deftly onto the ground several meters from him. 

"We need you to bring Twilight out. They're not willing to get any closer to where your men are hiding."

Well, they could hardly be blamed for being suspicious. You didn't live long if you weren't a suspicious bastard. Walking right up to them alone like this wasn't something he planned on doing either.

"You're going to walk with me back to where we were before, and then we'll walk back with your people. Acceptable?"

The winged horse eyed him for a moment warily,

"Agreed."

Slowly turning, he motioned for her to walk with him side-by-side back towards the bus Twilight and Zecora were resting behind. A stony silence would usually have suited him fine, but all their asses were on the line. He had to ask.

"How do you plan on getting the lot of them out of here?"

"We have multiple unicorns with us trained to open a temporary portal back to Equestria, where we come from. We'll be heading back immediately to get them to safety."

Hardly what he wanted to hear, but he hadn't been hopeful. A way out of the Zone without ending up in some alien world would be a miracle. Then again, a world with small colourful talking horses didn't really sound so bad in comparison to finding a way through Zone to safety. As they approached the bus, he knew his leverage was at it's maximum.

"Do you think you'd be able to transport us somewhere else using this 'magic'? In return for so graciously taking care of your vulnerable citizens, of course."

She paused and glared at him.

"We've had several cases of your kind from this awful place ending up in our world, and experienced enough to know that allow any more of you into Equestria would be the height of folly. Don't mention it again."

Hog and the flying pony rounded the bus to face the two women sitting against it's side. Alex was leant up against it further along, watching their backs. The rest were watching him expectantly, not looking overly happy with the situation. It'd been a costly delay. Not to mention coming across anything fresh and unknown in the Zone tended to be seriously bad news. Fatally bad news. Trying to project as much firm confidence as he could when he hardly felt any better than them, he addressed the group.

"We're moving out, down the road towards the unnatural horses. It's your lucky day ladies, seems like Prince Charming and his band of merry men has turned up to save the day. I want you up front, nice and visible. Take it slow, and Zecora, find a path through. Alex, you're with me behind them. The rest of you sorry dogs are bringing up the rear, and in case any of you haven't turned your brain back on yet, No. Sudden. Moves."

He stood there as they collected their things, staring back down the road they'd come down at the gloomy, overcast sky and listening to gentle rustle of leaves drifting from the forest. It'd been a quiet day after the morning's scare, now this. If it went to plan things would be looking bright. Two less mouths to feed at the cost of one useful stalker. He glanced at the two transformed women packing the last of their gear. For a moment he considered confiscating it. If things turned sour, well, he didn't think Zecora would be able to use that shotgun she had before she was riddled with lead. The food could be worried about later. As they finished he motioned for them to head out, watching Twilight's grubby face marred by lines from her crying still plagued by fear but looking the happiest he'd seen her since they'd been ambushed, all the way back near the Jupiter Plant. Zecora just looked relieved, but still not fully at ease. At least she had her head screwed on straight of the two.

Now they were reunited and ready to leave, Twilight couldn't take her hands off the winged pony. As they stared to walk towards the rest of the ponies, she constantly rubbed up against her with her leg and patting the back of its hair like a comforting doll. The thing didn't look to comfortable with it at first, but once they'd taken a dozen steps or so it wrapped a wing gingerly around her waist. As amusing as it was to watch fucked up little trio he turned to the men.

"Follow me. Don't do a thing unless I mention that whiny bastard of a trader in Freedom, got me?"

Alex headed round the far side of the bus, but the rest began to file into a line, not uncommon for traversing untrodden ground.

"And keep spaced. Who knows what we're dealing with."





The sudden tremor shook Strelok out of his daze, sitting up on the vines. His head whipped around, and sure enough thick dark clouds were forming on the horizon. That first wave of distant thunder slowly rolled over him as he shakily got to his feet, balancing on the thick woody plant. Looking out over Pripyat he could just make out the dogs disappearing into the school to the southwest. Not long until the emission hit.

Getting down out of the anomaly was an option, but who knew what else was taking cover in the lower areas of the nearby buildings. It'd take a lot of time he didn't really have too. Looking upwards, towards the top of the vines he could just make out where one had breached into an apartment, rumoured by Alex to be a safehouse. Certainly a lot closer, and a lot safer place to hide out than any other options. Fuck, it would be a bugger of a climb though. Above him a whirling green energy coruscated along several of the higher vine strands, apparently highly corrosive according to Alex. He'd seen the pattern, but there wouldn't be much time to wait carefully for the perfect moments.

Still, better the devil you know. He quickly made sure everything was tightly attached, before starting the climb up the last trunk-like section. Every time he pressed his bad leg against the plant, the stabbing pain made his whole body tense up, crying in protest to forcing it to curl around awkwardly. Even so, he wasn't sure his arms were up to compensating for the last section. There was no way he was walking along those thin vines like a tightrope, even if they weren't very flexible. A knot formed in the pit of his stomach. He'd never had his strength and endurance tested in quite this way before. He paused a second, working out his plan as the coruscating green energy headed towards him. He'd need to wait for it to double back, then follow it upward to have any hope.

As it ended it's trail next to him, and bounced on the knotted end of the vine, he sucked a deep breath in and swung himself onto the vine, clutching it with a death grip as his legs sought to wrap their way around tightly. The moment they were both over he was shifting his arms upwards, then dragging himself along upwards in jerky, hurried movements. From what stomach-churning upside-down glances he stole as he pushed himself onwards, he was only just going fast enough to make it to the slowly approaching far building. With every change of grip the strain in his shoulders and arms grew, heat building and forcing him to gasp as he wrenched his way up the final section of steepening vine towards the point where it met the next, higher one.

The glowing green ball of energy was bearing down towards him under the already darkening stormy sky. Time for the most dreaded part. Swinging across to the higher vine. Ignoring the awful feeling in his gut and pain in his arms, he swung himself once back and forth before letting an arm fly out towards it. For a gut-wrenching moment he felt like he was flying, falling 5 stories above the ground, before his forearm grazed against the vine and suddenly his fingers were hooked round it. Thankfully he'd got his arm above it, and his knuckles were facing him. Staring at the flashes in the clouds above, he just hoped he had time to pull this off. He needed to get himself turned round, fast, in the short period of the glowing pulse travelling up and down before his window to start the final stretch.

Twisting his body to get a leg up now didn't seem possible, especially his bad ankle, so no other option but to do his other arm next. Clutching on with his leg and ignoring the pain in his left fingers, he yanked his body across to snatch a grip with his right hand on the new vine. Now the really dodgy part. He was awkwardly splayed between the two vines, hands on one, legs on another. Using them to pull his waist as high as possible, he let his legs unclasp and his heart felt like it was exploding out of his throat as his whole body swung underneath him, twisting wildly in mid-air. Pulling his arms downwards with herculean effort, he just about managed to swing his right leg up, hooking his foot up over the vine.

His upside-down perspective returned just in time to watch the glowing pulse travel past his head on the way downwards. The hammering of his heart didn't slow down as he swung his left leg furiously, trying to find purchase with it while his right leg worked it's way over vine properly. All the while the flashes above his face were getting redder and redder, contrasting against the blackening sky. Stealing another glance downwards he could see the thing already heading up towards him. He'd have to wait for next opportunity.

Gripping on for dear life to the rough vine had left his hands in agony, and hanging there awkwardly his ragged breath heaved irregularly trying to fight off the growing pain in his leaden arms.  With every fresh approaching rumble of thunder his arms trembled harder and made him skip a beat. It would be a close run thing making it to safety even if he could out-climb the green chemical pulse. Thankfully it wasn't long before it was headed back down towards him, and groaning with exertion he pulled his forearms up and over for better grip.

The second it passed him by he was off, shimmying and wriggling his body upwards as fast as could manage. Each pull turned more and more of his forearms into lead weights, and swaying in the raising wind he found his elbows and knees painfully digging into each other to hold himself up. The rumbles of were raising into a constant roar in the now crimson sky, laced with twisted bolts of lightning. With every press of his legs and pull of his arms the pain and blind terror grew, and his head made contact with the concrete of the apartment's balcony before he'd even registered he'd arrived.

Somehow he managed to heave himself up enough to make an awkward tumble backwards into the balcony as the roar became deafening and roiling clouds glowing red started to thunder past the building away from him, make the whole thing tremble and vibrate. Feeling the blowback burning even through his protective suit, his spent limbs jerkily clawed him back into a doorway before he rolled himself inside, gasping for air and lying splayed out on the floor.





They advanced slowly, following the odd collection of women and pony as they wove their way towards their comrades through the abandoned vehicles. Even with them in front, Hog's eyes were fixed on the helmeted group of ponies in the distance, staring equally intensely back at him. He'd just about stayed calm before, but now as they closed in his heart really started to race. The ponies were really starting to come into view now. Some of them were big, bulky bastards, coming up to his chest rather than barely making his waist like the rest. The rest, even more garishly coloured, had horns, which from his miniscule knowledge of the subject meant magic. Bad fucking news. Part of him wanted to shout out something to them, but the ball was probably in their court. If they had any sense they'd know their VIPs would drop in an instant the second something seemed wrong.

As the group ahead of him neared their destination, a little defensible ring of cars by an APC, Twilight did the unthinkable. She bolted for the ponies, crying some sentimental garbage running to embrace one of them. He had to physically restrain arm from jerking up instinctually, screaming in frustration internally.

For a moment, everyone else seemed to freeze, waiting for all hell to break lose. The ponies staring at him were close enough to see them visible tense too.

Then, as Twilight reached her goal unharmed and slammed into hugging one of beefy ponies, the tension seemed to ease. The unlucky thing looked awkward all of a sudden being take off guard by the human-shaped woman wrapping herself around it sobbing her eyes out, and both Zecora and the winged pony shot a glance back at him, looking worried. He gave them a nod to continue. Now was the time to speak.

"It's ok, it's ok. We don't mean any harm. I'm going to come forward and have a chat."

Making sure his rifle was visibly lowered, he carefully made his way forwards. Each step seemed to echo in the silent staring contest with the curiously large-eyed horse creatures. Zecora and the winged one were heading round the little stockade of cars now, joining the group.

"Stop right there!"

One of them, bright silver with a long, pointed horn poking out it's matte grey helmet, shouted out at him. He froze, letting his foot fall to the floor mid step.

"Thank you for giving your assistance to our ponies in need, but know we still cannot fully trust you. I understand you are the one that claims to have witnessed what befell the other two ponies we seek. Explain what you saw now, as accurately as you can, and we'll let you go in peace."

Fuck that, he wasn't giving them his time for free. He was in a bad spot sure, but he was confident the guys behind him posed some kind of threat.

"We need food and water, and I understand you're heading back to your world to drop those two off to safety. Give us any and all rations you all have on you and I'll you tell my story."

The pony in charge looked around at it's soldiers and then mumbled something to one of the other unicorns, a reddish thing. It's horn lit up, and instantly he tensed his fingers, finding the trigger of his weapon as it itched to come up.

"And no magic." He hastily added. "Not until we're done."

The red one glared at him, protesting under his breath, but the one in charge cut him off brusquely. Another, a big blue one, knelt down and started fishing through something hidden in front of them before pulling out smaller ration bags held gently in his teeth. He slowly trudged round to deposit them not far in front of Hog, The writing on them was alien, and it was some kind of foil to keep it fresh, but it didn't look far off from the stuff that turned up from all sorts of sources in the Zone. Satisfied, he launched into his tale.





Corroborated by Zecora, while Twilight sobbed uncontrollably, the account of how the other two women got torn apart by the horrific mutant aberration that had tracked them down those weeks ago had made all the ponies visibly uncomfortable. A couple simply couldn't believe how the one with both a horn and wings took the creature with her in some kind of magic explosion. He could see the beginnings of an argument brewing over that. Still, the ration packs had piled up as he went told it, as well as a series of water canteens. Overall, a trade very much worth taking. He was coming to a natural close, addressing what had come after,

"Between then and now plenty of good men lost their lives, but your two ponies here somehow made it through alive. To keep it short, we couldn't return to that place again, the hordes of mutants forced us to move on. I'm quite sure Rainbow, the winged one, is confirmed dead. You'd know about what magic can do but we didn't have any reason to believe Luna, the other one survived. I asked around, no reports of her or magic to suggest she'd-"

A deep rumble, distant at first but with sinister presence grew quickly into resonating throughout the air, making the very ground tremble. Hog's head whipped round, catching the rest of his group doing the same. An emission was rolling in. Deep dark clouds were building on the horizon.

"That's one of the deadly storms isn't it?" the pony in charge shouted out, breaking through the fresh jolt of adrenaline setting Hog's heart pumping even faster.

"Yeah, we're fucked." Hog remarked with a turn of his head, already jogging towards Degtayrev. "Alex! Where the fuck are we going to use for shelter?"

"We don't have time to backtrack, and we're a couple of hours away from the nearest shelter in the Army Warehouses."

Fuck those blasted ponies. The whole group had quickly gathered together, Alex standing tall over the rest, looking around in vain for some source of hope. All their bodies seemed to twitch and tense, yet unable to act, like rabbits in headlights. None of them had anything to say. Their doom seemed indisputable. Alex was the first one to chime in, his voice unusually subdued and uncertain, not much louder than the slowly building rumble of the incoming storm.

"Maybe an APC? It's a gamble though, half of them are missing doors and hatches and the rest are sealed. If we blow one open with a grenade we can't close it again."

Wracking his brains for some kind of salvation, Hog looked around him at the ever increasingly agitated trees trembling in the wind under the darkening sky, the ruined and rusting vehicles, and then across the group of ponies still standing there. One of them was helping Zecora calm Twilight down and the garishly pink unicorn was doing some strange magic with her horn, but the rest were all standing there staring at him and the rest of the men or the heap of rations now sitting there ignored on the floor. The one time when he most needed a miracle...

Before he could explore the idea any further the silver unicorn one in charge interrupted his chain of thought, shouting over to them,

"Why aren't you heading for cover?"

"What cover? Nothing here'll stop it." He shouted back, almost automatically.

"We need to leave now, before this storm interferes-" The pony tried to reply, before Hog cut him off,

"Wait! Wait! Take us with you! Otherwise we're dead."

The silver pony did a double take, alarmed by the proposition.

"I don't care what happens just take us out of here. I don't want to be boiled alive!" Nimble pitched in behind Hog, his voice panic stricken and wailing. Cardan was quick to back him up, the desperation not far from overtaking him completely, 

"Yeah, can't you do something?"

Alex was trying to calm them down with hushed words, but when he was so scared himself it didn't stop them continuing to shout, begging for their lives through the constant growling thunder rolling over the horizon. The ponies next to the commander were looking at him, hurriedly saying things under their breath, and even the pink one casting the spell looked up at the growing commotion.

Nimble tried to push forwards towards the ponies, only to be met by Hog's outstretched arm blocking his path. Something rash could screw them all. The light was dropping alarmingly fast now, and Hog had to grapple with Nimble as he writhed and fought to break free of his hold, trying to dash at the alien horses. Alex had his hands full with Cardan, stopping him from pulling his gun at the things. Nitro just had his head in his hands, curling up in the lee of a truck. Between them they were so caught up in the moment they didn't see or hear Twilight shouting out through the roar of the wind to the pony leader, pleading with it and the spellcaster unicorn.

Everything went pink.