"OH THANK CELESTIA SOMEPONY SPEAKS PONISH." I yell out, the linguistic barrier was causing me to lose my mind but hearing those words might as well been a choir of angels. I unceremoniously skitter towards the radio's microphone and shove my muzzle close to it. "You cannot imagine how relieved we are to hear a familiar language, both of us woke up here and we have no idea where we are can yo-"
*Kzzzt* "Woah! cool your jets kobylka," the stallion interrupts me. "I know you are pro*Kzzt*bly very confused right now, and I would gladly answer all of your ques*Kzzt*s but right now you have to get going! you are in DANGER!"
My blood freezes, "Danger!? what do you mean we are in danger!?" I question the stallion. This is not good, our first interaction with another pony in this unfamiliar land and its a warning of some unforeseen hostile.
"Metal Monsters and lots of them. Heading your way."
"M-Metal monsters?" The private whimpers. So much for Celestia's fearless guards.
"Monsters!? What monsters? who are you??" I raise my voice.
"Look, I know this is a lot to take in but you got to get moving NOW! you don't got much time, at any moment they will b*Kzzt*..." The stallion suddenly goes silent after a shriek of static noise. Silver then stares at me, with an obvious worried look on her and then she speaks to me.
"Mam, do you think we a-are actually in danger?" The Pegasus looks like a scared filly saying those words.
If it were any other situation I would reprimand Silver for being so fearful but right now I too was feeling a tinge of dread, I stare into her cadmium green eyes and speak. "Keep your head cool Private, remember your training." My words seem to ease her mind a little, she nods in acknowledgment.
Then suddenly, the stallion speaks again. *Kzzzt* "SUKA! they are close!"
After those dreadful words I hear a faint thumping sound in the distance, it echoed in a slow rhythmic pattern. my ears began swiveling madly trying to pinpoint the origin of the mysterious sound. with each passing moment the thumping became more sonorous, I was growing more agitated.
"MAM, LOOK!" Silver yelled at me pointing a hoof at the horizon, a pair of yellow lights in the distance were sparkling faintly. I squinted my eyes to try to focus what exactly it was but before I could begin on figuring it out more pairs appeared. A lot more pairs appeared followed by more thumping, it looked like dozens of eyes were staring into my soul.
I just froze. I've been with the royal guards for years. I've faced off against an innumerable amount of threats including the supernatural that nothing really fazed me anymore, but this felt different. this felt like something no pony has ever faced of before. The thumping felt like drums of war as the lights bounced in-sync. For the first time I felt something I thought I buried a long time ago, something I thought I lost when I donned my helmet for the first time, something even as a filly didn't really hinder me.
Fear.
"HEY!" the stallion screamed through the radio, it momentarily snapped me out of my trance. "You can see in what direction they are com*Kzzt*ing from right?"
"Yeah..." I meekly respond.
"Listen, you have to run as fast as you can in the opposite direction, take the radio and FOLLOW THE PYLONS! it will take you to an abandoned town. Once you get there hu*Kzzt*ker down."
I shake my head to ground my self back into reality "How far is this town?" I Inquire
Silver then suddenly bumps in a question, "And why is it abando-"
*WHAAAAAARRRRRRR-RR-R-R--R-R-RR-RR--R-RRRBBBBBBBBBB-B--B-B-B-B--B-B*
A horrendous metallic warbling noise thundered around us, my ears ring in pain.
"*Kzzt* RUUUUUUUUUUNNNNNNNNNN!!! *Kzztzzttktz*" The stallion bellowed from the radio. Suddenly I felt a surge of energy overtake my body, I felt like I could run a marathon.
As my mind shifted into survivor mode. I lifted the radio with my magical grasp, freeing it from the now half-orb. My eyes looked above to locate the power lines that normally interconnected these pylons and tracked it to the next one opposite from the encroaching lights. In the distance I see another tower.
Time to go.
"COME ON SILVER, ON ME!" I ordered the Pegasus. We immediately began booking it to the next tower, the snow was still a problem as we couldn't break into a full on gallop but we moved as fast as we could. In no time we ran pass the second tower, then the third, then the fourth and then the fifth, after that I lost track. The singular thought in my head was to get away ASAP!
I would occasionally look behind us to see if the yellow lights were still in pursuit but thankfully none of them were in sight. I don't know how long we ran, maybe it was an hour or two? It doesn't matter, as long as the distance between whatever those things were and us grows larger the better. I asked the stallion how far is the abandoned town, he says it shouldn't be long. At some point we managed to trot over a hard surface, our only source of light was my pink telekinetic aura that carried the radio, it glowed faintly so it was difficult to discern at first. but as we briskly trotted by, some holes on the blanket of snow appeared revealing what was below. An asphalt road
As we trotted by, some large metal carts appeared. They were covered in snow and mangled and some had strange trails of holes on them, but I was intent in keeping my pace so I did not stop to inspect them. As more time elapsed more of these carts appeared, some were large and others small. There were ones that had massive boxes with wheels attached to them, as well as more of those strange trails of holes. We marched on, more disfigured carts littered the asphalt. By this time our pace was reduced to a slow trot since the thumping lights are nowhere to be seen, so we had an opportunity to relax a bit.
And there we saw it. We trotted besides a large sign that stood right next to the road. But it was destroyed, it looked like somepony went to town on it with a baseball bat, removing any hope of decrypting what was written on it.
"FrostHaul... " a soft masculine voice emanated from the radio's speaker.
"Huh?" I respond indignantly.
"FrostHaul. That's the name of the town, used to be an industrious little place before they turned it into rubble." The stallion answered with a hint of sorrow in his voice. Then a thought passed my mind.
"Wait a second, how did you know we are near the town's sign?" I interrogate him, suspicious on how he knew that information.
"Gah! *Kzzzt* Now is not the time for questions, find a safe place first and then I'll talk, I do not want you to get sniped."
I sigh in annoyance, there is only so much cryptic crap I can take. "Well, if you are going to be like that then can you at least tell me your name?"
The radio was silent for a moment before he answered, "Oh, how could I forget something like that?" The stallion audibly clears his throat. "My name is... Cosmo!!!" He said with overflowing suave. Like if he waited for that moment for a long time. I just stared at the radio's microphone slightly surprised at the tonal shift, silence again permeated around us.
"*Kzzzt* Ugh... Just head forward a couple of blocks more *Kzzzt* you will find a old apartment complex, look for an accessible room and hide in it." Cosmo deadpanned.
Silver then got close to the microphone, "Why are you so focused on us finding somewhere to hide?" she asked thoughtfully.
The radio again fell silent for another moment before springing back to life, "Because you are in an area called the Red Zone. And from what I hear its infested with those metal freaks. The less exposed you are the less likely the chance of you getting turned into red mist. Those things only have one directive and that is to inflict as much pain as possible." Cosmo speaks with a somber tone.
Red Zone? that does not sound like a friendly place. And if his words are true, just how dangerous are these metal monsters anyway?
I shake my head to clear my thoughts, I'll interrogate him thoroughly when we find a place to hide. We marched on for maybe another twenty minutes before we spotted a large building in the distance. Despite the low light some details were visible like that it was five stories tall, walls devoid of decorations and the obvious mounds of snow on its roof and window overhangs. This looked like our destination, I gave its description to Cosmo and he confirmed it indeed was the place. Now to find a way in.
As we got closer a tall metal fence came into view, at first I dreaded the idea of climbing a ten foot fence but our luck seems to have changed for the better recently. Part of the fencing was missing and gave a way to the inside, I was curious on what created such a convenient entrance but I soon discovered my answer. As we entered, one of those mangled carts was inside with the missing fencing in front of it. I guess somepony crashed it through the fence at some point. We entered the courtyard and made a couple of more discoveries, one being that the building was a giant 'U' shape and second that a large, unusual mass of metal was resting in the middle the courtyard, It kind of looked like one of those carts but the shape was to angular, perhaps it was beat up more than the others.
At first glance we realized that the buildup of snow and rubble blocked most of the first floor doors so we began inspecting more thoroughly, but it did not take long to find another access point. A stairwell entrance located in the outside had enough room for a pony to squeeze through. We both made it to the second floor's outer corridor but we treaded lightly, the wood flooring under us creaked and groaned menacingly so we tried not to apply too much pressure. Using the glowing aura enveloping the radio as a weak lantern I tried to find a suitable way of entering.
Silver and I tried to push the doors open as we went along the corridor but none of them budged even in the slightest. We almost traversed the entire corridor before we found a door ajar, we pushed the door opened and entered.
We found as much as you'd expect from a rundown apartment. Broken furniture, damaged tiles, cracks in the walls, dust and dirt. We quickly shut the door and began exploring our new surroundings. We entered on what seemed to be the living room, ripped sofas encircled a broken coffee table. I also noticed another black mirror mounted on the wall, it looked similar to the one on the radio but much larger. Further inspection revealed nothing out of the ordinary, a bathroom and a kitchenette that doubled as a dining room were adjacent to the living room.
I sat down on the floor, a wave of relief washed over my aching hooves as hours of walking and running finally ceased. Silver did the same besides me. I Then placed the radio in front of me and floated the microphone close.
I sigh deeply. "Cosmo, we are in the building."
"Good! just in time actually, those metal freaks are spreading out but don't worry, none of them managed to tail you so they wont bother searching ruined buildings unless they knew you were there." Cosmo sounds relieved saying that. Did we really dodge that much of a bullet?
"Ok Cosmo, we did our part now its time for you to do yours." I demanded.
"Oh yeah, that part... look, there is no easy way of saying this so I'm going to try to break this down as mu-"
"I, don't, care if you are as blunt as a brick, just tell us what happened to us," I practically begged Cosmo, I am tired of being left in the dark for so long, I just want to know what happened.
"Oh... Ok then, I can do that." Cosmo then clears his throat.
"You two knuckleheads got warped into an alternate dimension"