War Gone Cold

by Bronycommander

Chapter 1 Land without End

Chapter 1: Land without End

A yawn filled the room as a pink filly awoke from her peaceful sleep, stretching herself. “A wonderful morning.”

Lily smiled at the sunrise and made her bed before joining her parents for breakfast. “Good morning!”

“Morning, sweetheart.” Her mother replied with a smile and they breakfasted together.

“So, any plans for today?” Pine Marten asked his daughter.

“Meeting with my friends again!” Lily replied happily.

It was one a week or two after her accidently adventure on Earth with her friends, yet they had recovered quickly and wanted to repeat what they couldn’t.

“Of course, my dear. I hope you will enjoy it.”

“I will, dad!” The filly said before helping with the cleaning, then walked out of the house, with her parents watching until she was out of sight.

“There she goes again. She really has some good friends. They watch out for her and she for them. A true friendship.” The Park Ranger added with pride in his voice.

“Yeah, it is. I can still remember how Dinky was one of the first friends she made, understanding her completely with her strength.”

“Me too. And I have no doubt Katja and Blau will make good friends too for her. Frankly, I wonder from a medical standpoint how it is possible…”

Pin Cushion couldn’t finish as her husband, said, “Some things shouldn’t be looked further in, honey. Though, they all were very lucky when…” He cut himself off when he sniffed. “Sorry.”

The mare sighed. “Even if she recovered quickly, the image of seeing her on life-support still haunts me.”

Her husband hugged her. “Shh…I know it was a horrifying sight but it’s over now.”

“Sure, but…I am afraid of seeing it again…that she might not wake up this time…”

“Honey, don’t say that, think positive.” He gave her a weak smile and she sighed again.

“Right…”

Lily hummed to herself as she walked to Dinky’s house, enjoying the sunrise on the way and knocked on the door as she arrived.

Dinky opened with it a smile. “Lily, nice to see you!” She hugged her friend.

“Me too! Ready for the day?”

“You bet!” Dinky exclaimed as she stepped aside revealing the siblings behind her.

“Hi, guys.” The Earth pony filly greeted them and they nodded with smiles.

“Hello, Lily. Let’s starts the day, shall we?” Blau asked and she nodded.

They all four then walked through the streets, enjoying the warm weather, seeing Pip, Nancy and Tungsten at a café, drinking tea. “Good morning!” The little pinto colt smiled at the group.

“Morning, Pip! I hope you slept well?”

“Yep!” he exclaimed smiling, his mother nodded with a smile of her own.

“Lovely weather indeed.” Nancy took a sip of her tea, noticing that Tungsten was looking away. “What’s wrong?” She asked, yet suspected what it was.

“I…I…” His voice cracked as she looked up with a sad expression, fighting back tears. “I am fine, just got something in my eye.”

“Tungsten, it isn’t good to keep it in.” Pip tried to calm him down.

“Yes, Tungsten, we know it’s hard, neither of us wanted this to happen,” Dinky added and he sniffed.

“I miss my mother so much…” Before he could say anything else he was hugged by Nancy and his friends.

“Shh…I told you before, I and Pip don’t blame her for what happened.” The mare said in a calming tone.

“I just miss her so much…” Tungsten sniffed, “She…visited me from time to time but after you and your friends landed in Italy, Dinky…I didn’t saw my mother again…”

“I am sure you will see her again.” Pip said to him with sympathy, “Blue’s very adaptive after all.”

“She may have ended up on the wrong side but she was never a bad pony, only wanting to keep you safe,” Dinky added and he sighed.

“Yeah…I hope she’s alright…”

“Think positive, Tungsten,” Pip said in an attempt to cheer him up, then looked at Dinky with a weak smile. “We join you later, okay?”

“Sure thing.”

The small group then walked on, coming across Lyra and Bon-Bon. “Good morning.” Dinky greeted and they returned it.

“Morning, children,” Lyra replied with a smile, her friend waved a hoof.

As they walked past, Dinky’s ears twitched as she heard a sigh escaping Lyra’s mouth. “What bothers you?” The earth pony mare asked concerned.

“It’s…him. I miss him…It’s been so long…” The unicorn hung her head before her friend hugged her.

“I know, Lyra…But hope dies last….”

This made Dinky think. Lyra had ever mentioned a friend that went missing but…

When I was very young, didn’t I see her with a…

“Dinky? You’re coming?” Lily called out, tearing her out of her thoughts.

“Wha? Sorry, right behind you.” The little unicorn replied slightly confused.

Going out of town, the knights crossed also their way. “Hello, Uncle Fletcher.”

“Morning, children. Slept well?” He asked with a smile.

“Yes, we did. How’s Ifrit?” The grey filly asked smiling.

“I am doing fine.” The spirit replied as he appeared next to the green stallion. “Well, as well as you can be as spirit.”

“Glad to hear it.” They got quickly got used to him and he assisted Fletcher and his fellow knights by giving advice or by supporting with defensive spells whenever they were on missions.

He tipped his helmet and Dinky could swear she saw a halo on it. “Now, enjoy the day, children.”

“Of course.”

The group did a walk through the meadow as Lily spoke up, “Do you think Katyusha survived the war?”

Blau put a hoof to his chin. “Well, Konrad mentioned her in Africa, which was 1942, so she must have survived Moskau. But after that…I don’t think we will ever know.”

“Yeah…I wonder more about that lab we discovered. It The state of it and such hints it was from the civil war but…when we found it, it looked like it was abandoned in a hurry and with Ponyville being abandoned back then, there is no reason for that…” Katja mumbled.

“I am pretty sure Fletcher and the others will soon find out more.” Dinky was confident of it.

“Still, the Grye family could have something to do with this. It’s likely.” Lily added.

“We can only wait and see…” The little unicorn mumbled before stopping abruptly.

“Why did you stop?” Katja asked confused before her eyes went wide. A large gas cloud was coming towards them.

“Mist? At this time of year?” Lily wondered.

But the mist was dark, not the usual white color it had normally.

“That definitely not normal…” Blau realized, sounding suspicious.

“Yes, we should warn the others,” Dinky concluded and they ran back towards Ponyville, seeing Pip just walking out with his mother and Tungsten. ”Wait! Stop!” She called out to them.

“What’s…” Pip cut himself off as he saw the mist too. “What in the world?”

“I don’t know, it just…” She could never finish as she saw something lighting up in the mist and she felt how she and her three got sucked towards it.

“No! No! No! No!” Lily yelled as she tried to hold onto something, the siblings screamed, Dinky did too.

“Guys!” They heard Pip’s voice before everything went black

---

“Uhh…what just happened?” Dinky asked dazed as she came to.

“I don’t know. Where’s Lily?” Blau asked, not seeing her anywhere. They were in a small room, it was dark.

Suddenly, a bright light shined in through a window, followed by a voice. “CP, this is Dimitri 3! Just saw a suspicious person. Gotta check it out. Over!” Then a clicking noise.

“This is CP - understood! Keep your guard up. Out!” A distorted Russian voice, like on a radio replied.

Before they could react, the door opened and flashlight got shined into their direction, causing them to cover their eyes.

“Huh?” The light stopped and they uncovered their eyes, seeing what looked like a human in the doorway, a colorless question mark over the head, followed by a colorless exclaiming mark.

Another human was next to him, having the same reaction but due to the darkness, they could see any details.

A slight groan sounded and they all turned towards a cardboard box at the corner of the room. One of the humans walked to it and opened it, startling slightly, also hearing a gasp out of the box.

“Don’t shoot!” It was Lily and Dinky cleared her throat.

“Can you help us? We appear to be lost.” She asked in a calm manner.

Both humans looked at each other for a moment before one of them said, “Yes. Follow me.”

While still a bit shaken Lily followed her friends outside, taking a look around. The house was surrounded by sandbags positions at a road, a mortar in the middle and mounted machineguns at each ends, realizing it was a military guard post, a dusty environment, showing they were in a desert.

Now they could see both humans, both were men. The first one was of athletic build, clean-shaved, reddish-brown hair and forest-green eyes, the face featured a narrow chin and high cheek-bones. His uniform was of a beige color, a green beret on his head.

The other soldier also athletic, but had black hair and blue eyes. His uniform consisted of a field cap, a blue stripped shirt and fatigue pants. His face had light stubble.

Both carried rifles that looked similar to the MP43 Dinky and the siblings had seen in Isenstadt. “So…who are you?” The beret-wearing soldier asked in English.

“I am Dinky, those are my friends Lily, Katja and Blau Streifen.” The filly introduced herself and her friends. “About where we come from, it’s a long story.”

She and her friends then told where they came from, how they landed here, and that they did meet humans before.

Both men looked at each other for a moment. “Okay…I am Sergeant Major Arkturi Lovec and this is my friend, Chernov. You are in Afghanistan, March 1984.” The man in beige uniform explained. “Your English is pretty good.” He added impressed.

“English? For me, it sounds more like Russian.” Chernov said confused and Katja raised a hand.

“The magic of Equestria allows ponies to passively understand some languages.”

Again, the soldiers looked at each other, trying to understand.

The confusion was understandable for the children, the men had never seen like this.

It seemed like hours until the science was broken.

“Uhh…okay…” Chernov replied and turned to his friend. “What are we gonna do?”

The officer thought for a moment.

“The only thing we can do, help them.” Lovec reached for his radio, being a small handheld version. “CP, this is Dimitri 3. I have found lost civilians. Request permission to give them shelter. Over.”

“CP copies. Are they local people?” A Russian voice asked on the other end.

“Lost children.”

“Copy that. Permission granted to give them shelter temporarily. Out.”

He then attached his radio back to his belt. “Okay, that’s sorted out. It’s getting late, you should eat something and get some rest.”

As he said this, the kids took notice that the sky had a wonderful red/orange color, meaning it was evening and that this had been the reason why it was so dark in the house.

“Thank you. But won’t you get into trouble for this?” Lily asked and Chernov’s expression became unsure.

“Likely, you really think it’s worth, Arkturi?”

“Hey, it’s the least we can do and CP gave permission, we only follow orders. Besides, it may be a ticket home.” He pointed out and his friend shrugged.

“Here.” Both soldiers held up two hexagonal metallic containers. “Take some of our rations.” The Sergeant Major smiled.

The kids took them gladly, sharing them with each other. Apart from meat. There were also vegetables in it, but as they took bites, their faces twisted in disgust.

“No offense, but this tastes horrible!” Blau complained, trying not to gag, his sister and friends nodded in agreement.

“Yeah, they don’t taste well but they fill the stomach and are designed to last. No matter how long you keep a ration, it'll never go bad.” Chernov pointed out before pointing to the house.

Inside were cots, Dinky and Lily shared one, the siblings shared another one. “Goodnight. “Arkturi said before walking out with his fellow soldier.

“Goodnight, my friends.” Lily smiled weakly at her friends before falling asleep. They all knew they could only wait and hope for the best.

Author's Note:

The next story, this time a crossover of Metal Gear 5. Why? Because it's one of the few games that show Afghanistan and the Soviets in a detailed part, perfect for the setting of what happened to the She-Bear

Comments

[midnightwolfGX]

Nice start to the story. Good level of buildup and introduction of the characters.

[Bronycommander]

9820718
Glad to hear it