After celebrating their victory over retrieving Marigold's Tyrant, Daisy, Harmony's Elements are given a new mission. Dmitri has become more as well active, and not only is Harrow's End upset about it, but Marigold and the team are holding a grudge of their own. Sharing their motives, the team goes out in search of the stallion hiding in the wasteland.

*Begin Transmission*

The celebration was now over. As Daisy remained in her corner, stationary since the day before, the rest of the team was a different story. Chainlink was sitting on the ground, leaning against a wall with his head back, still missing his mask. X-Ray had been sleeping on the table in the center of the room. And Blade was sprawled out on the floor next to a spread of shattered glass. Both were still missing their face masks. Marigold and Acid, however, were in the next room, Marigold explaining that she had contact with her headquarters in Canterlot, and they entered to see the rest of their unconscious team.

"Possibly. After that report you told me, we'd best make sure they're still alive." Acid's mane was slightly ruffled, but her mask was still in place. She walked over to X-Ray on the table, and promptly flipped it. X-Ray let out a muffled gasp of surprise and toppled to the floor. "Wake up, X-Ray. You know only fillies fall asleep on tables!"

X-Ray jumped to his hooves, surprisingly alert, yet still a little wobbly on his four legs. "What happened...!? Infected? SpecOps? Is somepony dying...?" He stopped when he saw Acid with a look of amusement on her face. "Or... My psychotic team member... Waking me from an unsually... Long night...?" He brushed a few shards of glass from his suit and grabbed his face mask.

Marigold trotted over to Blade, and bucked him in the side. He gasped loudly, rolled over, and his hooves collided with a bookcase. It toppled over, showering him with the several hardcovers on the shelf. He emerged from his pile of literature to see the other three laughing like a group of foals. "So you decided on the rude awakening? When I get my hooves on you..." He jumped out of the pile, grabbed his mask from the glass shards, and trotted up to the chuckling team members. "Where's Chainlink?" Acid pointed one hoof to the armored stallion in the corner. "... Well? Who's going to wake him up?"

Silence... Then, "You." All four of them said, each pointing a hoof at the other. This was going to be a debate. After a long conversation of reasoning, 'I'd prefer to keep my mane attatched to my neck.', 'He'd buck me all the way to Canterlot if I tried.', 'I... Don't have the strength after... Last night's "Celebration". ', or 'He'd stab me with my own knife before I could even buck him!', the team finally decided to step into the next room for a compromise. Marigold grabbed one of the station's flash grenades, armed it, and threw it into the next room. It went off with a loud BANG! and a flash of light, followed by a loud yell from Chainlink, a small amount of gunfire, then a crashing noise. The team entered into the room, and the three of them except for X-Ray burst out laughing.

Chainlink had scrambled from his corner, pulled a gun, and Daisy had reacted by grabbing him and throwing him through the doorway down into the bunker. Chainlink had already returned to the top of the stairs, his armor dented in several places. "What happened..?" He asked as he saw his laughing teammates.

X-Ray had managed to recover and said, "You... Had a little too much last night... Daisy had to restrain you by... 'Removing you from the room'. You pulled your gun."

"I know I pulled a gun. I even opened fire. What I wanna know is why the buck did none of you just wake me?" The team all looked at each other, remembering their arguements of 'why-not's.

"It's a long and funny story..." Marigold said quietly. "But nevermind that. We have a new mission toward our way into a pain in the flank in the Corporation..."

After the team had cleaned themselves up, readjusted their armor, and recovered Daisy back into her stationary spot in the corner, they got down to business, standing at the replaced table in the middle of the room, Marigold had been going over the digital map. "The Department of my branch in Canterlot messaged me in with a bit of a lead. Dmitri has gone rogue, and is surviving in the city on his own, causing problems with their operations in the city. They want us to hunt him out, and kill him."

"This sounds like... Another betrayl chance to me." X-Ray said. "What if they can't be trusted?"

"I work for them. That should be enough for y'all to trust them. We won't be evacuated, the city is too overrun to get in a pegasi team, but they can have one send us in a nice buckload of supplies."

"Sometimes they send me in a shipment to keep me alive, but they always send me something special if I do something special for them. With a kill contract on such a high ranking officer, my mind is racing like a group of foals on what would be in it!" She smiled mischeivously.

"Hold your cattle there, cowpony." Marigold said. "We're just getting warmed up. Dmitri was last seen... Oh, you're not going to like this..." She pointed to a large transparent square on the map in the center.

"The town park is where they keep the, uh... Cemetery." Marigold answered. The team fell silent. It was obvious that the situation would be a very ugly one. "The infected may not have been able to dig their way out of the ground, let alone the infection reach them at all, but we are unsure. And unfortunately, the SpecOps are looking for him, too. So we'll be bucking them around to get to him."

"Easy. We get in, blast our way through the supposed horde of infected and SpecOps, buck Dmitri around a little, get some nice information to give to the Department, kill him, blast our way out. Simple right?" The team all just stared at each other or at the map.

"Let's do it. Anything to get my hooves on a target of Harrow's End." Chainlink armed his Riot Gun.

"Then let's move out." Acid said. "I'm ready to knock that stallion around a bit..."

"Ah'll bring Daisy." Marigold said, and the Tyrant in the corner looked at them. "Maybe with her, we can be back by nightfall for another 'celebration' ?" She snickered and headed for the door, calling Daisy out after her.

In the early sunlight of the morning, Harmony's Elements were already passing the ruins of town hall. During the day, the zombies stayed inside. Acid said that the light irritated them and the heat harmed them. Just outside the gate entrance, an archway opened out into a large square of land with a statue of Celestia in the middle. Scattered around the grassy land were headstones, the piles of dirt remaining filled. The buried dead had not managed to dig their way up. At the far end was a large building that looked like the funeral center. They suspected that Dmitri would be hiding in there, and possibly even using it as his operations base. "Perfect place to hide out. Should we attack?" Chainlink suggested.

"Not yet. He'll see us coming during the day. We'll camp over in there until he comes." Marigold pointed her hoof in the direction of a small mausoleum with the crescent moon of Luna engraved above it.

"The... Lunar Momunemt?" X-Ray asked. "Well... It is... Small... Maybe the infected won't be... Hiding out inside..." He slowly approached the entrance. "Will you... Do the honors, Chainlink?"

"Heh." Chainlink grunted. "Yeah. Sure." With one powerful buck, he sent the door flinging open, and inside were a few step-like ledges around the sides, and a stone coffin with another crescent moon on the lid.

"I hope whatever's inside that doesn't decide to wake up for a little midnight snack..." Acid said.

"Now, don't y'all get cocky. We can't let our guard down now." Marigold said. "Daisy. You wait outside, dear. We'll come get you when it's time to attack." The Tyrant stalked around the side with a few powerful hoofsteps, and was gone. Chainlink resealed the door, and the team all gathered in the dim light to plan their next move.

"So, do we have to wait here until nightfall?" Acid said. "I'm sure some of us," She nodded at Blade. "Might get a little restless." Blade only put a new clip into his SMG.

"I'm sure y'all will be fine. Anyone up for a nice 'friendly' game of Canterlot Hold 'Em?" Marogold pulled out a deck of pink cards and emptied the ammo out of a pistol magazine.

Night had fallen. At the end of their cardgame, Marigold and Acid all had the majority of the ammo, giving the three stallions the thought that those mares may have cheated. After redividing the ammo to the rightful owners and returning the deck of cards to Marigold, the team exited the mausoleum. Daisy was still outside, standing stationary at the side of the structure. Marigold called her name, and the Tyrant lumbered over. It was time to attack. "Alright..." Marigold whispered. "X-Ray and Acid, you go in the door on the left side of the building in to the altar room, Blade and Chainlink, you go around the right through the casket room. I'll take Daisy with me to help bust through the front and take him by surprise..." She nodded to the creature in the bulletproof trench coat.

"Sounds... Fair enough..." X-Ray said, looking at Acid. "Let's go..." The team split into their squads and moved for their locations: X-Ray and Acid to the left, Blade and Chainlink around the right, and Marigold and Daisy straight through the front. X-Ray lined up to open the door, him and Acid on either side. Chainlink pressed a square of plastic explosive next to the doorknob, and him and Blade stood at a distance. Finally, Marigold and Daisy stood out front, ready to order the Tyrant to break in the door. Marigold moved her muzzle to her radio, and said, "On three, we're going in..." The team all lined up in their position, and Marigold smiled. "Three-" The bucking of the door, the explosion, and the crashing in of the front entrance all happened at once, shaking the entire building, and the Elements and Marigold entered. But, all they had found were the bodies of dead SpecOps and debris, but no sign of Dmitri. "Where... Is he?" X-Ray spoke in the confusion.

At that moment, a fallen radio in the corner sounded on, and Dmitri's voice came through. "Greetings, 'old friends...' I hope you haven't forgotten about me." His voice was dark. "A little Griffon told me that your team not only hate Harrow's End, but you teamed up with a hole in their corporation? Most impressive... However, I'm afraid I must end our reunion short... But as a token of our shared enemy, I've left you a little... Homecoming gift. Enjoy..." The radio clicked off.

"I swear, when I get my hooves around him..." Chainlink said, clopping his armored hoof onto his gun trigger.

"What did he mean... Homecoming gift? And there are no SpecOps here, either... Why?" X-Ray asked. At that moment, every non-broken door burst open, and a swarm of infected ponies covered in dirt lumbered in.

"Impossible!" Acid yelled. "He dug up the bodies in the cemetary and sent them after us!" She immediately pulled her pistol and opened fire. The rest of the team did the same, X-Ray his Hammer, Chainlink his riot gun, Blade his Vector, and Marigold her SMG. They all ran their way out of the building and back to Daisy, who was already slamming around infected ponies, crushing them beneath her grotesque hooves.

"Daisy!" Marigold yelled. "Head for the police station!" The Tyrant smacked away another group of infected ponies, and galloped her way toward the exit, smashing more infected beneath her back hooves. The rest of the team had followed. Chainlink heard Acid scream, and he turned around, firing half a magazine from his Riot Gun, knocking down the infected like bowling pins and screaming profanities.

Daisy bashed through the gate of the front entrance, and the team followed out. They made a straight dash for the police station, with the horde of infected right on their hooves. Chainlink reached the front door and bashed it in, herded the team and Daisy inside, and slammed it shut just in time to replace the wooden plank on the door. The infected, however, had all stopped dead on their hooves, lumbering around in confusion and walking away in loss of interest. "That... Will be useful to know later. They do not follow us if... They cannot see us."

Chainlink spoke through nervous breaths. "Acid was lucky I saved her flank back there. I lost half a magazine on only about seven of them. By the way, Acid, are you alri-" He had only just turned to the team when he had realized the horrible truth.

Resident Pon-Evil - Operation: Equestrian Downfall

by Delta 727

Level 6: Hunting Grounds