Metro: Retribution

by RF and AG

Chapter 15: Packed and Ready to Leave

I had been awake since six, staring up at the ceiling, my mind racing, but not for the reason I would have thought. After everything that had happened, I should have been thinking about where I was going next and everything which Khan had said. Not only that, my mind should have been more focused on the dreams or memories, whichever they were. That was where my mind should have been, but it wasn’t focused there.

No, I was too focused on something from back home. Well, actually someone was a better way of saying it. I had been focused completely on Anna for the better part of two hours. After everything that we had been through, I had grown more than a little fond of her. Our rocky start was nothing more than the prelude to something special, even if it was only for one night. I never got the chance to talk to her the day after, and had regretted it ever since I left for the last stand at D6, leaving her standing on that platform.

I closed my eyes once more, though this time it wasn’t with the intention of finding sleep. No, I was more focused on Anna, every aspect to her… every aspect. My thoughts strayed back to that night and the lack of sleep that we both got. I envisioned us lying there, just about to go to sleep when the scene changed, on purpose mind you. Now, instead of thinking about the past, my mind was focused on what I hoped would happen in the future. Her being overly surprised to see me, in fact it was closer to being completely ecstatic. Though that was followed by a few slaps from her, maybe going as far as a punch, yet it would end the moment I pulled her tight and kissed her.

My eyes opened once more, not being able to keep the fantasy any longer. With a sigh, I rolled over to glance at the clock again. A little after eight and there was no hope of sleeping a bit longer. My body didn’t mind if I was up though, I had slept enough in the past few days. It almost threw my entire cycle out of order, I was well acquainted to dealing with little sleep.

Knock, knock.

Someone was at the door; at least that would give me a reason to actually get out of bed. Maybe a reason to push the thoughts of home to the back of my mind. I didn’t mind them, but I was getting ahead of myself with the positive thinking.

“Yeah?” I called out.

“Artyom, you awake?” Cadance responded with her own question, hopefully a rhetorical one at that.

“No,” I mumbled before pulling myself out of my bed. Cadance entered shortly, most likely picking up on the sounds of my boots hitting the floor. It was funny that the ponies didn’t even think to remove them from my feet.

“Ahh, good you’re awake. How are you feeling?” she asked as she trotted over to me, looking up at me with a slightly inquisitive face.

“Better, hungry though,” I answered simply, I wasn’t one to talk much in the mornings.

“Good! Shining is already waiting for us in the dining room. Come, let’s go grab some food.” Cadance on the other hand was a morning pers- pony it seemed. She had to be, unless she was an amazing actor.

“Fine,” I said as I motioned for her to lead to which she promptly stepped in front of me and began to trot out the door.

I followed behind her, twisting my back as I walked to try and get the kinks out of it. No matter how comfy the beds were, I would always wake up with a little bit of a stiff back. Being knocked down and around often enough did that to a person. Maybe the ponies knew how to fix a back, might be something to ask if I ever find myself with some free time.

The walk to the dining hall was a little bland as there were no crises or drama to entertain, or otherwise engage my attention, no winding staircases to shake my fist at or even a plant to make me choke. Maybe it was better that way though; for once it gave me a chance to stroll more leisurely. I don’t even remember when I had the chance to actually relax and walk at a normal pace. There was usually a place I had to be or something I had to do.

All in all, the stroll was nice, though quiet. Cadance just wore that rather serene smile that she had by default. I, on the other hand, kept my neutral expression. There was still a part of me that wanted to keep a stony militant appearance for the ponies. However, Shining was starting to grow on me and I couldn’t hold the same expression all the time. He would eventually see it falter and see a more truthful version of me.

“Artyom?” Cadance spoke up, breaking me from my thoughts. “You all right?”

“Hmm. Yes, just thinking,” I replied. “Are we there already?”

She giggled slightly, holding a wing to her mouth since her hooves were busy, before answering my question. “Not yet, you were just staring rather blankly.”

“Oh. Usually thinking makes trip faster. Odd we are not there.”

“You know, talking also passes trips around the Palace,” she said, adding in a small wink to get her point across.

I let out a small grumble, not answering her right away. I had to admit that it was true that talking did make time seem to fly past. Though, I hadn’t had the best conversation partners lately. The Princesses back in Canterlot had hardly been that welcoming and willing to talk with me, not to forget my travelling companion. Shining was obviously getting better, but he still was hardly the person, or pony in this case, that I wanted to talk to.

Khan was not included in my little list, since he was a completely different case. Back in the Metro, he was actually my favourite person to talk to, though they were often enough a rather one-sided conversations. He loved to talk and I often enough just enjoyed listening to him give out free information. Now though, I could tell that he was more than a little troubled. He acted close enough to his regular self, but, at the same time, there was something off about him. It wasn’t something that he was trying to hide either, in fact I think he was making it rather obvious that something was bothering him.

I would have to ask him next time.

“You know, I was trying to tell you that you can talk to me, right?”

Somehow, I had sidetracked my thoughts and forgot about Cadance. “Sorry,” I said, “was thinking again.”

“Do you want to talk about it?” she was at least sincere in asking me, she made it obvious enough in her tone.

“No, of little important.”

“Importance.”

“What?” I asked, a little confused by what she said.

“Importance, that was the word you should have used instead of important,” she said, correcting me, yet never losing her smile. “For it not being your native language, you speak in rather well.”

“Oh,” I said, blushing slightly which confused me as to why I should blush at being corrected in a tongue not native to me, “thank you.”

She dismissed my gratitude with a hoof, not in a demeaning way, but more in a way that spoke ‘you didn’t need to thank me.’ We walked a few more steps before she tapped my leg as if to get my attention. So, I halted my walking and turned to face her.

“May I ask you a question, Artyom?”

“Don’t see why not,” I said, shrugging my shoulders.

“Why do you want to go home?” She asked, and I almost regretted giving her permission to ask the question, yet she actually continued. “I read a copy of the interview that Twilight had with you. Your world, it seems to be something that only the most twisted being could think up of. Not only that, but you died there Artyom. If you decided to settle down here, you know that we would help you.”

“Would you help me?” I asked, genuinely curious due to the treatment I had received, so far, on this world. That and I wanted to shift away from the question if possible.

“I know my family would help you, Artyom. Twilight, probably, already considers you a friend, I know that I do. Her parents have always been the most accepting and welcoming ponies that I have ever known. I hate to tell you without him allowing me to … but Shining is still reeling from the incident with Twilight when you first arrived. He has always vowed to keep her safe whenever possible and he undoubtedly thinks that he failed. Give him some time and he will warm up, I promise.” Her words sounded completely genuine, not sugar coated like Celestia’s had.

“Good to know, good to have friends.” I said, hoping to end the conversation there, but Cadance didn’t give up that easily.

“You still didn’t answer the question, Artyom,” she said while giving me a small smirk. Oh, she was clever and I didn’t have a good way to shift the conversation. I could have just ended it but she had given me insight into something private, not replying would have been a good way to earn her scorn.

 “Fine, I’ll answer,” I said with a sigh, “What Metro is, does not mean I can leave for good. I left lots behind, too much. Feel a little oblige- obligated to return. Left behind, Anna, my father, my comrades.”

“That isn’t all is it?”

“No, guess not. I wanted to change Metro, to help build. I learnt much when in Rangers. Collected books to help our future,” I sighed out loud, looking away from her for a moment before speaking. “Мне не хватает моих книг, мне нравилось их читать, жаль что так много не успел”.

I shook my head briefly, forcing myself to focus back in Cadance. With another sigh I spoke to her, “Guess it was big dreams, ended short.”

Cadance just nodded, not making eye contact with me. We were still facing each other though. It looked like she was contemplating something, as to what, I had no clue but eventually she spoke.

“You wanted to make a difference in your world, to help everyone rise above the horrors of such a destroyed world. I can’t find any other word to describe that, other than noble.” I was a little surprised at how poetic that was, though Cadance did seem like one of those ponies which wore many masks.

I was about to speak, up but she cut me off with a raised hoof. “I feel a little foolish now, Artyom. I know that I couldn’t have known what the Metro meant to you, but yet I still feel foolish for even thinking it.”

“Don’t understand, what do you mean?” I said and I meant it. I was confused as to what she was referring to, it was if she had started a new conversation.

She muttered something, yet I couldn’t hear it, no matter how good my hearing was, her muttered utterance was far too quiet for my ears to decipher clearly. She sighed once more before finding her voice, “I was going to try and convince you to stay. I would have done all that I could to help you start a life here, but looking back I should have realised that I was being haughty and presumptuous, thinking that you wanted to return to your world, because you felt like you didn’t belong here, or because you thought that ponies wouldn’t care about a non-pony or want to be friends with such and alien looking stallion. I never thought that you wanted to go back because you had a purpose. I feel foolish.”

I didn’t know what to say at that. For the first time in a long while, I was completely speechless. Usually I would at least be able to make a small quip to myself, about the situation, but not here. I was at a loss for words because I couldn’t make up my mind on how I felt about the revelation. The only thing I could rule out was anger: I was far from angry at her since at least her reason for wanting me to stay wasn’t selfish.

“I … can’t respond. Too much to think on,” I finally say. My arm rose up to indicate for her to continue leading us to the dining room. Of course, this time was in silence.

As it turned out, we were actually just around the corner from the dining room; she had probably known that we were so close. For all I knew, she had planned to escape to her husband if I had an adverse reaction to her confession.

I would never have reacted in that way though, I might have been rash at times but lashing out against something like that was a little crazy, even for me. In fact, I was lost as to how I hadn’t made up my mind on what she had told me. It wasn’t that big of a revelation in hindsight, it didn’t even make my list of top most shocking things. So how was it that I couldn’t respond to that?

Both of us entered the dining hall in silence, not even looking at one another. I had noticed that after telling me her secret, Cadance’s ears had splayed back on top of her head. I think that was a sign of worry or of being frightened. I wasn’t sure, but one thing that I did know was that she could hide her emotions rather well, for the moment that we entered the dining hall, her serene smile came back and her ears went upright once more.

        “Hope we didn’t keep you waiting too long, Shiny,” she said as though nothing had just happened. To be honest, I was impressed at how well she acted despite her reaction just before.

        “Hardly, I got here just a moment ago. It was nice to just stroll around the palace for once,” Shining replied.

        I didn’t say anything, instead opting to just grab a seat on the opposite side of the table from Shining. Cadance was seated at the head of the table while Shining sat on her left. The dining room was similar to the one that I had sat at during my stay in the Canterlot Castle. This one though was much smaller in size, most likely only for these two and maybe a few other select guests.

        The crystal hall was still rather large in height, measuring about two, to maybe three stories while it was at least twenty meters long and a little over half of that in width. To be honest, I wasn’t that interested in viewing the room let alone anything else that decorated. Normally I would have taken in my surroundings in order to develop some sort of plan in case something went wrong, but I had something more important to worry about.

Namely, the delicious food that these ponies made. That was one thing that I couldn’t deny these ponies, no matter what faults they had. The cooks here were amazing at their craft, though they did have access to ingredients that those back in the Metro could only dream of. So, instead of taking in designs and colours of the many pieces of furniture and decorations, I was digging into a pair of eggs that were apparently made ‘sunny side up’.

At least that was what the name tag beside it said, which confused me until I saw that every other dish also had a little name tag. I honestly did not care, since all I knew is that it went good with toast, though that wasn’t where I stopped. A massive fresh fruit platter, a tray of pancakes which I had had before but only once, more types of eggs that I didn’t recognize, and what I assumed were dishes that were made for just ponies since they weren’t anywhere near my part of the table. I didn’t pay much mind to it, for I had a large amount of delicious food to dig into.

        I was sitting on the edge of my bed with my gear strewn about on top of it. The breakfast had been rather quick and sweet considering that not a single soul talked the entire time. It was a little unnerving to just sit there in silence and eat … who was I kidding, it wasn’t unnerving at all. I actually preferred the silence over anything, mainly because that meant no awkward questions or statements. Though I did let Scowly know where we needed to go, which brought up an odd reaction at best. He had simply told me to get suited up and leave the planning to him. That was fine by me, for that meant I didn’t have to divulge any more information than necessary for us to work together.

In my eyes, they hadn’t earned the right to know everything about me. Even in my talk with Twilight I had been rather restrictive of what I told her, dodging around questions often and not giving her the full story in some cases. Looking back though, maybe it was unfair to treat her the same as I would treat the Princesses, for she was good natured compared to them. It was like being in the same room as Korbut whenever I was sitting with them, just a feeling that they were hiding something from everyone.

I shook my head, clearing my thoughts, it wasn’t the time to ponder, for at the moment I needed to get suited up. We were going to head out and I needed to be ready, for this time I wasn’t operating under a plan that I actually had input on. No, I was at Scowly’s mercy in a way, though I could just feel the love for me radiating off of him.

I chuckled out loud as I finished buckling up the last of my body armour, all that was left was my helmet, weapons, and an equipment check. I opted out to hold onto my helmet until we were actually going to head outside, since I actually liked the fact I wasn’t confined under that metal cage, known to most of our soldiers as a pot, for once. So, setting my helmet down, I instead decided to move onto my equipment and weapons check.

It took me hardly five minutes, which had been the perfect amount of time apparently, since, just as I was finishing shoving the magazine back into my Kalash, a knock came from my door.

“Enter,” I said simply, slinging my weapon over my shoulder in the process. I had expected Shining or Cadance to come and retrieve me from my room, but instead I was greeted by an unfamiliar crystal pony guard. This one wasn’t like the ones I had seen down in the caverns, no, he was obviously a show guard. One of those ‘guards’ that were only there to look good. Each spec of the armour glistened as brightly as his crystal coat, having no signs of any sort of true wear, while the rest of him was just as untouched. I’d seen enough true soldiers to spot those subtle difference. Sure the guard probably had the same training, and possibly the same abilities as a normal soldier but all his job was was to look good unless there was an actual threat. No patrols or hunting parties for him… did ponies even have hunting parties?

I had seen some back in the Metro but they weren’t common, since we hardly had need to actually show off those good values. They were used instead to help recruit young men into the army of whatever faction. The whole idea was probably something carried down from before the war.

“The Prince is ready for departure. I am to escort you where he and the Princess are.”

No emotions, a true professional in the face of odd circumstances. No doubt if it were any other pony aside from a guard they would have been more than a little scared when talking to me. Why my mind had even been drawn to this idea was lost on me, maybe it was because I was a little bored, still being in the Palace.

So, instead of actually replying to the guard, I just opted to extend my open hand, beckoning for him to lead. He looked at me oddly for a moment before turning and heading out of the room with me in tow. I grinned slightly at my little mistake, how could I assume that the guard would even know what that meant? Human mannerisms were probably not a part of basic training.

Despite feeling like I was being lead with a leash, I followed the guard out of my room and down the many hallways that the palace held. For once, I opted to not actually occupy my time with daydreaming or thinking about the very meaning of life, this would hopefully be the last time that I would ever need to see the Palace so why not enjoy the view that pieces of art and decorations provide?

We had cleared our third full hallway before I came to a realization; no matter how much I tried to take in the sight of what was spaced throughout the Palace, I was completely uninterested. After only being in the castle for a day and a bit, I was completely over the fascination of the crystal walls. If it had been a set of crystal walls then maybe my interest would have lasted longer but it seemed that I got used to them. It was unfortunate too, since it slightly dulled my desire to see the sights around the empire, not that I would be allowed to. Even though my world had gone through an apocalypse, I still wanted to visit some of the places in the hope that they might still have been standing. That didn’t exactly translate to this world but maybe that was because I was so determined on returning home. What if I stayed a little longer, just to see what this world had to offer?

That thought was filed into the back of my mind as my eyes picked up something, something that I could occupy my mind with once more: wondering why did ponies enjoy stairs so much. Sure, it was the first stairwell that we had come upon but that didn’t mean I had to enjoy it. The many staircases in the Metro were nothing compared to what these ponies put into their buildings, for at least in the Metro it was maybe a flight or two of stairs. Here, in Equestria, ponies apparently had never thought about removing some of the staircases and instead constructing buildings that had fewer floors.

There was a small part of me that wished that they would just invent the elevator and be done with the copious amount of stairs, of course such hopes were not something that was reasonable. So, instead of riding in the convenience of an elevator, I instead had to take each annoying step down those stairs. Ah, the joys of being stranded in a world that was not my own, truly something to enjoy.

To my amazement, I was greeted at the bottom of the stairs by Shining, which was amazing at that, I couldn’t stress that enough. Why was it amazing? Because he actually had a smile on his face and his wife was not in the current area. So, that meant he was either in an extremely good mood or was happy to see me. The second idea was one that I was not hoping for because that could mean anything and most likely it wasn’t something that was going to turn out in my favour. Maybe I was being paranoid though, maybe it was something that would actually be good in general.

“What a great morning, Artyom, isn’t it?” he asked with a devious smile, yeah, something was up.

        “Sure,” I answered, my eyes staying as neutral as possible, even knowing that he most likely had something up.

        His smile turned to a frown quickly, apparently, my expression had betrayed me somehow, and here I thought I had it down flat. “You know, you take the fun out of things at times.”

        “Может просто у тебя такие идеи о том что весело,” I said with a small smirk before switching back to English, “I try.”

“I can tell you enjoy it, right, so I guess we might as well get down to business,” he said as he turned around to start walking down the hall. The other guard turned around and headed back up the stairs, so I figured it was time to follow Shining. “Since you’ve brought light to where you need to go, we needed to make a plan as to how we are going to get there because you just had to choose one of the hardest places to smuggle you into.”

The Gryphon Empire. Now, I wasn’t given much information on them since I didn’t inquire much about the Gryphons. What knowledge I had was given to me during that interview with Twilight and, even then, it was hardly more than a brief overview. So, here I needed follow Shining and his every move or we could be screwed quite easily. I needed to pick his brain for info on the Gryphon Empire, but then and there wasn’t the time. What I needed to know was how he planned to get me out of the country.

“Listen, Artyom, what needs to happen is that you need to trust Cadance and me. The only way we are getting to the Gryphon Empire is by boat and we are in no place to launch a boat. The nearest port city is Baltimare, which is only about the same distance from Canterlot to here. That means we are going to have to take a train but you cannot be seen no matter what since the media would have a field day upon hearing of a new race, not to mention how the public might react. We got lucky that the Princesses could easily teleport us into their private train car. We wouldn’t be this lucky again, simple as that.”

I had a bad feeling about this, I knew that this plan would involve me being smuggled in some way that would cause major inconvenience for me. I just knew it, and that nagging in the back of my mind just kept pushing that idea on me.

“We’re going to need to smuggle you to the boat,” he said, just as I called it. “Our plan is to ‘ship’ you there in the cargo carriage since that will draw much less attention than moving you via the normal train cars.”

I held a rather unimpressed stare at him since, as the stare showed, I was not impressed with the plan in any way. Based upon what I heard, he was going to smuggle me to the ship by stuffing me into a massive box, yeah that was not going to happen.

“Нет.”

“Huh?” Of course he was confused, I should have realized that.

“That mean no,” I clarified for him.

He simply stared at me for a second with a rather blank face, which was a small surprise considering that I was expecting him to be in shock at me refusing to go with his idea. His eyes narrowed for the briefest of seconds before he spoke up, “Right, I guess I’ll have to think up a new plan. Oh, and Cadance wanted to talk to you.”

With that, he walked away, down the hall before entering a door on the right. Of course before he left he forgot to tell me where his wife even was. I was more than a little ticked at this whole thing, not just him leaving but his ‘plan’ as well.

“Конечно, уходи даже не сказав мне где её найти. Отличная идея, головожоп,” I said out loud, figuring the hall was empty.

“Oh, there you are, Artyom!”

        “Ну конечно же он не пуст,” I said before turning around to find a smiling Cadance. It seems that she found me instead of the reverse.

        “It’s too bad that I cannot understand your native language, it seems like such a beautiful dialect,” she said, that serene smile seeming to gleam even brighter.

        “Sure …” I said, not wanting to argue at the moment, she obviously has never heard a an Officer speak to his recruits. “You want to speak to me?”

        “Yes, though how about we go into the room over here, I don’t really want guards to hear this,” she stated before leading me over to one of the rooms.

        As we entered, I noted that this room was … bland. There was hardly anything more than a large meeting table and some chairs. Not a single bit of art or furniture beyond the already mentioned items. It sure was a different sight, since the rest of the Palace seemed to be keen on upholding a certain amount of decoration. I simply waved this room off as a place to actually get down to business or something to that extent, it was tough to figure out the motives of these ponies.

        Cadance didn’t move to take a seat, in fact she didn’t even close the door, but from the new look on her face I could tell that the door was hardly her first priority. Her ears were once again splayed on top of her head and there was a small frown growing at the corners of her mouth. If I had to guess, this was going to be about her question that she asked me earlier.

        “Artyom …” she began but stopped to bite her lip briefly, “Listen, Artyom, I’m sorry for attempting to, convince you to stay here, against your will. I just thought it would be better, especially after hearing about your world. So I thou-”

        “Stop,” I said, cutting her off in the midst of her apologies, “do not apologize. No need to say sorry. You did nothing, period.”

        “But I-” she tried to speak up once again, but I held my hand up to stop her. I walked around her and put myself between the door and her before bending down to meet her face to face.

        “You did nothing. There was no attempt so you did nothing. Not mad at you, simple as that. We are fine, no problem,” I punctuated each sentence, hoping that it would get through to her.

        Which, luckily it seemed to. Her frown had changed to a slightly sad smile. Her ears had begun to rise up slightly off her head. She had shown me more hospitality than the other two princesses and had even come out and apologized to me. It was tough to be mad at her for something that didn’t even make me mad in the first place, besides … it was good to have a friend on the inside of the royalty group. I didn’t know Twilight enough to consider her one, though that could also have been said about Cadance.

        She sniffed once more before looking directly into my eyes, “I’m sorry, Artyom.”

        “Don’t be s-” I didn’t get to finish my sentence before the lights went out and by lights, I meant my consciousness.

        “Well, that went better than expected,” I said as I looked down at the now unconscious form of my travelling companion.

        “We could have found a different way, Shiny. I don’t like tricking people and you know that,” Cadance said with a small pout. I knew she wouldn’t like the idea, but it was the best chance we had to actually move Artyom without drawing any attention.

        “I know, dear, but it is for the best. Otherwise, we could have had a predicament on our hooves. Princess Celestia even agreed that it was for the best,” I said, hopefully using a decent enough argument.

Cadance just sighed before looking down at Artyom. It seemed she was actually growing a little fond of him, though considering who she was that wasn’t that far of a stretch. To be honest with myself, I had also grown a little closer to him, though that was more out of convenience than anything.

Cadance walked closer to me before planting a kiss on my cheek, “Be careful, hon, you know how ruthless those griffons can be. Even if you are going to try and stay out of the ports, be careful.”

        “I will, dear,” I said before she walked out of the door. Shortly after, a pair of unicorn guards carrying a large wooden crate, with some air holes cut out, came into the room. “Alright, get him inside and comfortable enough, don’t need to injure him in transport. Be quick about it since our train leaves in an hour. I will meet you at the station.”

        The pair snapped a salute before moving over to Artyom, horns glowing in preparation for lifting him. I, on the other hoof, walked out of the door, looking forward to having the entire train car to myself, maybe actually being able to get a drink this time; Celestia knew I needed some hard cider at least.