“Vlad, are you ready?”
…
*CHLICK-CHLICK*
“Ready. You guys?”
The sound of metal and wood clunking and scraping against one another resonated in the silence of the night.
“Adin.”
…
“Dva.”
…
“Tri! ATTAKA!”
Luna grunted and sat up, wrapping her own limbs around herself. Her teeth clattered against each other as her entire body shuddered uncontrollably; it felt as if her entire coat had been shaved off, and the floor was nowhere near comfortable.
Luna felt tiny stones and dry sand pinch her behind as she moved, looking for her sister. The last thing she remembered was fear and tears.
Her worries melted away just slightly as her eyes fell upon the limp form of her sister in the corner of what looked like a very small room with a door that hung on its top hinge behind her.
“…sister?”
Luna crawled over to her sister, more tiny stones dug into her fur, pinching her skin underneath. Thankfully, the white Alicorn was alive and breathing, but a bruise had somehow appeared on the top of her muzzle.
Luna gingerly touched Celestia's shoulder and rolled her over while carefully holding the back of her head in her other hoof, gently swiping away a lengthy lock of Celestia's mane from her muzzle.
Celestia stirred and weakly reached up to rub her aching horn with the tip of her shoeless hoof. The Alicorn’s eyes fluttered open, the sight in front calmed her considerably
"Greetings," Luna cooed, smiling helplessly.
Celestia couldn't help but smile back at her sister, but once she opened her mouth to speak, but the sound of slow shuffling on the other side of the door stopped her. Luna's head shot around to face the source of the sound, her entire body frozen.
They heard whispers, inaudible mutters and shallow breathing.
The sounds stopped and whatever was at the other side of the door shuffled away, though Celestia did catch a single word from the unknown presence, something about ‘artefacts’ in really bad Equestrian. It sounded more like ‘artefactie' in a foreign language.
Minutes passed, but both Luna and Celestia hadn't moved a muscle. Such fear of vagueness had captured them in a tiny cage, rattling a stick along the bars, taunting them.
Celestia’s trance was broken by uncontrollable shaking. They weren’t resonating from her, no, when she looked to the side she saw little Luna below, limbs wrapped around the white Alicorn’s neck, tears escaping her eyes like a mini-fountain.
“’W-What... why... why am I crying? W-What was that...? What's happening!?,” Luna's sob turned into a pathetic squeak, drawing a worried glance at the door from Celestia. She immediately took Luna into an embrace, fluffy, oversized wings closed around the form of her sister. The Alicorn would say something to calm Luna, but she couldn’t risk the mumbling thing coming back. It would scare Luna even more. For now, Celestia gently put the tip of her hoof over Luna’s lips, emitting a quiet but soothing ‘ssshhh.’ Luna nodded, leaning into Celestia's embrace.
“I… I think it’s safe to move, little sister,” Celestia whispered, not breaking a line of sight from the door. Luna’s tears have been exhausted, for now. Luna glanced up at her big sister.
"How do you know?" Luna whispered back, begging to unlatch herself from Celestia. The little episode she had a while back left her a bit embarrassed around her sister. Who was on that other side of the door that drove Luna into feeling like she'd suffer a gory end if discovered?
"I am sure it has lost interest, little sister. If it was a predator it would have used its senses to smell us out," Celestia finished grimly, eliciting a quiet whimper from Luna.
Celestia stood up on her fours and began to dust her coat from any sand that has attached itself to her, Luna noticed that Celestia's golden horseshoe was absent from her left forehoof.
"'Tia, your shoe is missing," Luna pointed, Celestia looked up with raised eyebrows then glanced down, noticing that her horseshoe was indeed missing.
"Ah, must have fallen off. No worries, I will replace it later," Celestia finished and stood straight, her neck hurt considerably, she had to resist the urge to turn her head to the side and pop her neck. It felt nice when she did it, but she would only do it when alone. Celestia didn't want to seem uncouth.
Celestia neared the door and nudged it open with her hoof, Luna stood behind her, wary.
The door opened soundlessly.
Stepping out of the small room, Luna and Celestia discovered that it was night time. The moon seemed more distant, and the stars were too.
Glancing both ways, Celestia found out that her previous statement was true, and that there wasn’t a trace of the thing that had visited them less than a few minutes ago. No buildings or any kind of shelter were visible in the dark, except for the little room behind them. Luna approached Celestia's side, taking a worried glance behind herself.
“Do you think that we’re still in our world, our… planet?” Luna asked, straining her eyes to see at least two meters ahead of herself.
“I do not want to make such an assumption, Luna. Better keep those kind of thoughts to yourself from now on. We do not need panic among ourselves," Celestia finished, the only response that was heard from Luna was a meek 'oh.'
Celestia considered staying in the little room and wait out the night, but the thoughts of something discovering while they were sleeping were less than pleasant.
“It’s freezing,” Luna acknowledged, shuddering. Celestia sighed.
"We better find shelter soon, then," Celestia could have simply conjured up a spell for that, but she didn't want Luna discovering that her magic reserves were completely dry.
Princess Luna and Celestia came across a small metal contraption secretly hidden in a pool of murky water. The metal was rusted, showing signs of wear on its surface as well. They left it there and continued onwards, but what they didn't know is that the contraption was a high-powered, 50. caliber, single-shot Barrett M99 with pristine insides.
The grass beneath Luna and Celestia's hooves turned into a slick, muddy road. Painting their limbs in disgusting brown.
Meters ahead was a small white concrete building that cut off their view from the road ahead. The closer the two sisters approached the building, the louder a rumbling noise filled the air. Luna and Celestia crouched near the building’s wall. Celestia shuffled in front of Luna and gave her a reassuring smile.
“Do not worry, sister, it will go away eventually,” Celestia assured Luna.
Luna sighed and glanced behind herself; all clear.
“You don’t seem troubled by today's events, sister, or that we're in an entirely different world. How do you do it?" Luna piped up.
“To be honest, I think that self-control is… a sort of virtue, and can be mastered by anypony with more than enough will. For me, it’s automated, I have seen things far more disturbing than creepy sounds and muddy roads. For all I know, we could still be in Equestria, just in a different location," Celestia chuckled, the thought of them still being near home soothed Luna, it would be nice to sort out the whole 'floating bubble' thing back in Canterlot.
Luna sighed and leaned against a wall, beginning to scrape the mud off of her hooves.
“Don’t! Move!” A muffled voice boomed from behind the two sisters. They followed the advice and stayed put. At least it wasn't the shuffling fellow that gave them a visit a while back.
Luna heard the crunch of grass from behind as she felt the most peculiar surface texture grip her neck. Then a force threw her back.
Luna yelped and fell on the muddy ground on her back, eyes wide. Luna saw Celestia immediately charge against their attacker, but was quickly stopped as a bipedal figure dressed in what seemed like printed sand from head to feet caught the flying Alicorn in his arms and shoved her violently into the ground. The attacker seemed to be bipedal, standing on its two limbs. Its body was tall and wide in proportion. Its face was nowhere to be seen, in its place something blacker than night and ominous rested. Luna began to stand up but was quickly halted as the wind was knocked out of her lungs, stomach compressed by a brown boot.
Luna's horn lit up in a blue aura, but quickly sizzled out. Her brain pulsated, one of her nostrils began to leak blood, she felt like she was going to vomit any second.
Celestia flailed as the bipedal tried to gain a grip on her body. Kicking wildly, her rear hoof connected with the bipedal's mask. Seconds later she was hit upside the head with the butt of a small caliber sub-machine gun. Celestia lost sense and direction for a while and flopped face first on the mud.
She learned and stopped resisting. Beginning to be hoisted up into the air as sense returned to her aching head.
“SUNRAY, this is SUNRAY MINOR, how copy, over,” Luna’s captor began to speak into a tiny box strapped to his shoulder. It emitted a buzzing noise before a voice spoke out of it.
“Reading you loud and clear, SUNRAY MINOR. Send traffic,”
“Me and callsign RAPTOR have captured, secured and contained two strays five meters North away from the APC, break,” the uniformed man stopped and stared down at Luna, who was trying to push away his foot that crushed her belly.
“They seem to be docile, animals, can't tell what, low visibility,”
…
“Ten-four. Wait,”
…
“Alright, bring 'em in, we’re pulling out in ten, out.”
Luna’s captor took slung something away and gripped her chest, lifting her up and setting the pony on his shoulder. The bipedal and his partner began to walk around the building.
What came into view baffled Luna and Celestia. A huge metal giant of a monster sat rumbling idly between four groups of two bipedals each. All of them held small and large pieces of equipment in their hands. Luna hadn’t had inspected half of what they were carrying before she was shoved inside the metal giant along with Celestia, the Alicorn’s crown slipped away from her head and clattered loudly on the floor. The doors of the container shut, and the sisters were trapped.
Luna sat up and leaned against the metal wall, Celestia groaned and began to massage the back of her head, retrieving her crown back and putting it in its rightful place.
“Are… are you alright, big sister?” Luna asked with concern, sliding over to Celestia to check up on her.
“No, no, I am alright, Luna,” Celestia cut her off, standing up, “Ruffians. Did they hurt you?” Celestia turned towards Luna.
"N-No, I'm just so muddy and icky right now," Luna grunted, eyes furrowing. Celestia was in the same state, mud and leaves clung to her mane and fur like chewing gum.
Luna's expression sunk as she recollected on what happened a minute ago.
"Sister... Celestia, my magic failed."
*FFFHEWW ... BDUM*
An explosion sounded in the not-so-far-away distance, the following shock wave stirred the metal container.
All hell broke loose when that first PG-7 anti-tank grenade was fired from an RPG-7 launcher and detonated near a group of two fighters.
Russian bandits rushed out of the nearby shrubbery, surprising their enemies with a hail of hot bullets and even hotter shrapnel from grenades going off at their enemy's feet.
One particular bandit gripped a steel knife in his hand and butchered a soldier in desert khaki, ripping out his dangling dog tags around his neck as his foot rested on the camouflaged soldier's stomach and pushed.
“What’s happening?!” Luna panicked, ducking down, “Are we under attack? We’re under attack!”
Celestia brought a hoof to her forehead and sighed.
“Sister, please, for the last time, calm down. No pony can see it in this-” Celestia tapped the side of the container, “Plus, it is very sturdy and spell proof.”
“How do you know those are spells? I noticed those p-ponies… fellows -I don't know! They didn't have wings or horns,” Luna retorted, but relaxed a second later, “I’ll take your word for it, sister, but if something happens…”
“Nothing is going to happen; we are safe, as long as we have each other we will survive. Understood, Luna?” Celestia tried to tower over her little sister to make her point. It worked, as Luna looked away and folded her hooves across her chest. Celestia backed off and sat on her haunches on the floor, sighing once again.
…
“I cannot believe what happened…” Celestia groaned, leaning sideways against the metal wall, rubbing the bridge of her nose with a hoof. Luna stood up and tried the door with her hoof, but it didn’t even budge, “I hope Shining Armor didn’t raise the entirety of Canterlot on alert. I do hope he establishes order with Princess Cadance.”
Luna sat back down and faced Celestia. The fire fight outside had died a little bit, but the occasional bullet was shot off.
"Um, sister, about my magic... it doesn't work. I tried but it almost knocked me out, I even began to bleed from my nose," Luna gingerly lifted up a hoof to scrape at the dried blood on her snout, "Do you think the bubble took my reserves?"
“I do not know, I do not want to make any assumptions. we will figure it out eventually,” Celestia gave Luna a sincere smile.
…
A calming silence fell over the two sisters. Celestia’s ears flattened at the deafening silence.
“I think it is over, not even critters or crickets remain,” Celestia commented, shuffling over to Luna.
“Do you think every pony is… you know, gone?” Luna asked Celestia. It was obvious what had happened outside; screams of murder and death, explosions and shockwaves.
A battle.
Celestia couldn't have known the answer, but it was nice to hear the opinion of Equestria’s Princess once in a while.
“No, one still remains. Two, if lucky, three if exceptionally well trained, and more than five if well organised,” Celestia chuckled, “I do not sound like myself at all right now.”
Luna shrugged at that. It sounded silly. A minute later she began to strain her ears for the tiniest of sounds.
…
*KHS-KHS-KHS*
“There!” Luna exclaimed in a whisper, she had heard footsteps on grass off into the distance, “I heard somepony running towards, or away from us.”
“Stay quiet, we do not want to be discovered yet,” Celestia ordered, a nod from Luna as confirmation was all she needed to be able to relax on the floor.
“I hope we can go home soon” Luna whispered, “I guess those people who brought us here have perished along with their friends,” the pony stated, “They even spoke crystal clear Equestrian, just like us. Strange…” Luna trailed off on her thoughts, coming up with numerous ideas of whom and what those people could be.
“Fuuuuck, son of a…” Vladislav coughed, swearing loudly in Russian while stumbling towards the idle Armored Personnel Carrier, “Assholes, fucking… silencers and shit,” Vlad shivered; he had been shot in his stomach. Thankfully the soft armor in his Kevlar vest he was wearing saved his life by dampening the blow, and he now only had external bleeding due to how the homemade Strike Face plate had snapped in half and punctured his stomach, going through the soft armor.
Vladislav unstrapped the damaged vest and threw it on the floor with a grunt, it had taken him three days to collect the materials and money to make that. Vlad gripped the handle of the APC’s door and pulled it open with a bit of difficulty. His entire squad had been wiped out safe for him, one of his friends tried to make a run for it, but the only thing the coward got was a bullet in the back.
What a shame. A rookie, too.
Vladislav stopped short as he saw two figures inside the APC; two little horses, one white, the other blue. They didn't possess any weapons, in fact, they looked painfully innocent, but that didn’t stop him from unstrapping his personalized Makarov from his belt and pointing the muzzle at who looked more dangerous; surprisingly, the shivering blue one.
With a horn and wings, and a little blue crown.
“What the fuck…” Vlad swore under his breath, again, in Russian.
Luna was having an extremely difficult time keeping herself from sweating, keeping up the little smile she had going on started to hurt her face. She had heard the man’s swearing and grunting long before he opened the container’s door. His appearance was a tad bit intimidating; a black balaclava concealed his entire head except for two small circles around the eyes, the pulled up hood wasn’t helping either. His clothes and weapon just screamed ‘Bandit! Bandit! Bandit!’ at Luna.
Vladislav yelled something in Russian, glaring at the pony.
“Did you hear me? Are you deaf? Get out of here, dog, shoo!"
“S-Sorry, I don’t sp-“
“We are unarmed and mean no harm,” Celestia piped up next to Luna, answering the man back in extremely broken Russian, springing up to her full height and glory. Luna’s jaw hung.
“What-what in the fuck?!"
Vlad’s face twitched before he shook his head. Maybe he shouldn't have snorted that cocaine and smoked all that ganja before the attack.
“Whatever, I’m taking this. Stay or leave, either way I won’t give a shit,” with that, he climbed into the small space inside the APC and shut the door with a bang, making his way between the two ponies to the driver’s seat. He sat down on the stool and spun around on it, returning his pistol to the belt.
Vlad immediately noticed that a key was still in the ignition lock. He pinched it with his index finger and thumb and twisted. The engine revved up to life with a monstrous growl. The ten ton, eighteen wheel Armored Personnel Carrier nudged itself forward and began to steadily gain speed on the muddy road.
Vladislav had no idea how to drive this thing, but the controls seemed similar to a cargo truck’s. He had driven a few M35s back on the Great Land before coming to the Zone. He wanted to join the Stalker faction at first, but the bandits caught up to him faster.
"Where are you taking us?" Luna whimpered.
"What?" Vlad glanced back, "Shut up, dog!" he refocused on the road, "God damned powder."
Celestia cleared her throat, Vlad glanced back one more time.
"What do you want?" he asked in Russian.
"We just simply want to know where you are taking us," Celestia answered in English. The man seemed uncomfortable, as if questioning his own sanity.
“A safe place..." Vlad responded in English, coughing once and looking back. A pale face and bags under the pony's eyes indicated that she was starving and tired. Living in the Zone hardens a man, but a sight like that just tore him apart inside.
Vlad reached inside his jacket's pocket and produced a loaf of bread wrapped up in brown paper, he reached out and nudged it into Celestia's chest, she quickly took it and thanked the bandit.
Luna heard something next to her, and when she looked sideways she saw a Alicorn with a loaf of bread wrapped in brown paper, Luna leaned forwards and looked at the man driving the APC.
“This is only thing I have for now. I will make something for three when we arrive at base,” Vlad stated. Luna muttered a quiet thanks and stared at Celestia.
“He just gave you that?"
“Hmm?” Celestia looked towards Luna and opened the paper, “Oh. Yes, so kind of him, isn't it?” Celestia finished and held the loaf, tearing off a piece, placing it in her hoof and lifting it up to Luna. Luna caught the bread in her mouth and chewed, it was surprisingly easy to chew and swallow.
“Sister, how did you know what to say?” Luna asked, swallowing the last bit of bread.
“I have been around the world more than once, little sister. You would not believe what strange beings lie beyond our country,” Celestia smiled.
“Maybe I should get out more…” Luna deflated, frowning.
“Hey, listen, when we get back to the castle, I will take you to any place you want! It is going to be like a little vacation, wouldn’t it be great? You can see different cultures and races. It is a great opportunity for you to learn how the world works.”
“Oh, it sounds wonderful! I won’t thank you yet, though, you know how busy some things keep you,” Luna sighed, Celestia nodded glumly.
“I will try to keep my promise, Luna.”
Vlad swallowed, he had been listening to them this entire time.
So, sisters, eh? Weird. But I’m too tired to be wierded out right now. Tomorrow…
Vlad finished his thoughts and refocused on the road that was illuminated by two large flood lamps that were attached to the vehicle’s front bumper.
“Spooky night,” Vlad commented.
The trees and shrubbery around their surroundings were beginning to slowly vanish; the muddy track had been converted into a normal concrete road. Vlad was still far away from his home. The two ponies had finished offered Vlad bread before finishing it, but he refused.
Celestia rested her head on her hooves with Luna curled up near her stomach for warmth. Luna was idling fiddling with Celestia's mane, picking out any leaves and wiping away mud. It could have been relaxing if it wasn't for the cold.
