Fallout Equestria: S.T.A.L.K.E.R

by aegishailstorm

Chapter 34: Dark and Dusty, Painted on The Sky

Chapter 34: Dark and Dusty, Painted on The Sky

"Nikolai."

Willow tapped on the door of the break room once more. "Nikolai?" He broke a few specks of old paint off the metal door as he knocked again. The door swung open, and Flashpoint stepped out.

"Nikolai's using the bathroom. Something he ate this morning didn't agree with him-" Willow shook his head, "There are creatures flying the White Apple Emblem right down the road. They're looking for something. That cannot be a coincidence." Flashpoint stepped out into the diner hallway and glanced both ways in the dimly lit hallway.

"Where did Nikolai go?" Willow's ears swiveled to the sounds of something outside Flashpoint's perspective, after listening for a moment, he snaked his tongue across his fangs. His look of manifest concern was parroted in Flashpoint's green tinted eyes. The zebra pushed his way past Willow with a feeling of fleeting concern in his gut, and trotted towards the kitchen.

After 20 seconds- at time period which felt like an eternity for the zebra, Flashpoint's head swung back to answer Willow's query.

"He told me he would only be gone for a moment. I should have known better!"

Willow sighed and swore below his breath, flaring his wings and removing the old, worn safety from his carbine as he crept up to one of the windows and peeked outside at the dusty, cracked asphalt and the Mercenaries beyond the parking lot.

"Go look for him then!" Willow ordered.

Flashpoint scampered around and turned back down the hallway towards the bathrooms, his hoofsteps made little imprints in the dust and creaked floorboards as he turned another corner and knocked on the rotted doorframe with a little rocking motion of his right hoof.

"Nikolai?" He inquired. No answer came. He went back around into the kitchen and back towards the little food unloading dock at the back of the restaurant.

"Nikolai?" No answer came. He galloped back inside, and finally resolved to attempt using his PipBuck to try and contact him. He curiously spun one of the knobs, and the device answered him with a soft droning chirp, followed by the diagram of a generic Equestrian equines body.

"Alright, I can't find Nikolai and neither can Willow. He can't have gone far-And I do not know how make contact with him. Perhaps this 'Eyes Forward Sparkle' thing could find him for me-" The words had scarcely finished leaving his mouth when the clear and angry voice of The Stalker provided him with a strong reprimand through the PipBuck's speaker.

"I am on roof Flashpoint! Please get up here!"

"Yes, I know you can hear me..." Nikolai's voice continued. "I left room, overheard conversation, and then went to find better spot to find де хулігани. Where the hoodlums are. Is nothing to be worried about. Though, I am a bit-Hello Willow!"

The call ended and Flashpoint raced out behind the diner and clumsily scaled a ladder that ran up to the collapsed portion of the roof. His PipBuck clanked and clattered against the rusty ladder the whole way up in the most annoying and nerve racking fashion possible. He hoped what the device offered in subtle and active benefits was more than what it took away-his meager stealth capabilities, and just a smidge of comfort as far as the amount of weight atop his foreleg went.

Atop the roof of the structure, the broken shingles and plaster had formed a sort of makeshift parapet for Nikolai to take cover in. He noticed Flashpoint and gestured for him to come closer with his left hand. The zebra warily edged his way around the intact portion of the roof and up to Nikolai's off hand side. Willow was on his right, too preoccupied with watching the movement of the White Apples to acknowledge his friend with anything more than an ear flick in his general direction. Nikolai swiveled his head around and smiled below his mask.

"Flashpoint, how does that new PipBuck feel?" Flashpoint tipped his head to one side. "Oh- It feels...It is nothing. Honestly." He grinned uncomfortably. Nikolai shot him a half absent thumbs up.

"Fantastic, watch our rear in case we need to run away fast- Fast and dignified, not like headless mutant chicken. You understand expression, yes? Now," He wagged a finger over at the ladder he had just ascended. "Go on, Willow took first watch, you take second. I promise next time I will take watch."

Flashpoint turned and made his way back towards the southwestern side of the diners rooftop all while Nikolai quietly watched as the mercenaries loudly and methodically made their way around the strip mall through his rifle scope. The stark contrast of the glowing red chevron against the shades of grey, black, and brown that made up his target area made for an easy time picking points of aim.

"Hey, Willow." Nikolai turned to Willow and pointed at the batish creature with his left index finger. "There are five of them, yes?"

"I counted seven while I was behind the dumpster a few minutes ago." Willow replied. Nikolai nodded and went back to his rifle optic. He could have opted for his binoculars instead, but he scarcely knew when the street might erupt in a storm of two way gunfire, so he went for a lethal monocular in its place. The Stalker's hand lay steady on his weapons grip as he balanced the handguard against the edge of the crumbling parapet.

"What do you want to do Nikolai?" Willow asked him.

"Wait a moment, they may very well pass." He replied. "Then we do not have to waste any bullets. And we can tail them. Who knows? They may lead us to something of value. And then we can take that valuable stuff while they look other way and run off! Is like the Robin Hood, yes?" The thestrals left eye shifted towards Nikolai.

"What?" Nikolai inquired.

The Stalker shook his head and directed Willow's attention back towards the White Apples. As Willow had pointed out, there were certainly more than five. Together, they marked a total of ten mercenaries. Nikolai shifted his leg and itched the portion of his arm where he had been shot back in Whiskey Springs, the magic of Equestrian medical capabilities meant that all that remained of the wound now was a small red imprint and the occasional phantom pain and uncomfortable itch.

"Oh, I never tell you about Robin Hood? Old folk tale. I tell you later." His rifle muzzle tracked the little caravan of mercenaries as they made their way closer to the Stalkers position. An instant later and Willow could clearly pick up their small talk. Willows hypersensitive ears and eyes could make out every little detail about his quarry. As it was, it would have been so easy for him and his two compatriots to put an end to those ten mercenaries in just a few moments. But like Nikolai had insisted, they had to wait for a sign of hostility. They were now just 40 meters away, Nikolai and Willow ducked down below the parapet just a little bit, and Flashpoint followed right after.

"What can you hear?" Nikolai demanded in a hushed tone. "What are they talking about? Us? Some sort of bounty? What is it?"

"They're looking for something. They won't say what." Nikolai shook his head. "Alright, we will wait for them to pass, and then we will move across the street and-" He opened up his PDA. "Go to local high school, ok? Is not that big deal! Hopefully should not be that difficult!" They watched with steeled patience as the convoy methodically made it's way down the street towards them until it stopped, just 25 meters shy of the parking lot.

"Nikolai, we're being outflanked-" Flashpoint called out across the rooftop. The Stalker looked back at the White Apples and set his scopes crosshair on the first burly pony. Then calmly took the safety off of his rifle, shifting the selector lever to 'semi auto'. He breathed in, and then out.

"Duck!" Willow barked all of a sudden. " A sharp whistling gave Nikolai all the auditory que he needed to tackle his friends and dive into the collapsed portion of the building, sending all three of them chaotically plummeting through a layer of decaying sheetrock and onto the torn floorboards and ruined carpet below to the result of much groaning and moaning on their part.

"What was that!?" Flashpoint cried, holding himself down against the floor in a well deserved panic. A moment later, a thunderous explosion rocked the exterior of the diner, followed by another, and another in quick succession. The repeated shockwaves sent a gust of wind and shrapnel through the destroyed windows, scattering broken glass across the diner even more prominently than before. Both Willow and Flashpoints ears rang and hissed with pain. A yellowed jukebox split down the middle.

"Mortars!" Nikolai exclaimed, his voice barely legible as gunfire erupted outside and the walls and residual windows of the diner's northeastern side began to come apart.

"Mortars!" Willow repeated, fighting to keep his ears from flattening against the sides of his head. Nikolai glanced up, and ducked down as a mortar struck about ten odd yards away. The Stalker pounded on both of his companions back, and gestured for them to maneuver back behind the diner kitchen counter as gunfire tore up the booths around the front door and sent splinters flying every which way.

Then, all of a sudden, it all stopped. And a split moment later a blood curling scream rang out, followed by the sound of metal meeting asphalt and the tearing of flesh.

"Raiders?" Flashpoint inquired, his voice bordering on shouting.

Willow tapped the side of his head, and got only ringing as his friends motioned and waved at him. His hyper tuned senses had been overwhelmed, and it would be a short time before they recovered. Nikolai made this out, and nodded in understanding as he shook the broken class and bits of wood from his coat and ballistic vest.

Nikolai pulled his friends up from their hiding spot and sprinted over to the back door, he slowly pushed it open and glanced outside with his pistol drawn up by his chest in a compressed low ready. Flashpoint rushed to poke his head outside while Willow watched their rear.

"All good?" The thestral queried, tilting his cloaked head to try and get a better view. Nikolai tapped him on the shoulder with his right hand and gestured forward with a salutary thumbs up to affirm his question. Outside, an ancient pickup truck had been turned to confetti by the mortar strikes, additional craters dotted the ground all around them. The trio had whoever had fired those shells to thank for being such a bad shot. The three dashed around the back of the diner and peeked out into the street.

The road outside was an utter mess. The small caravan of White Apple Mercenaries which had been encroaching on their position atop the diner only moments earlier had been torn asunder by the mortars. Disemboweled and desecrated bodies lay strewn across the road. Some were too damaged to even properly identify as that of a pony or a griffon, back towards the highway, a billboard advertising Sparkle Cola had been blown off its supports and lay across a portion of the road.

"No time to loot or mourn aggressive strangers." Nikolai told his friends while in motion. " We go! And hopefully do best to not end up like that, yes?" He gave another hand signal, and they began to sprint and gallop along the sidewalk of the main street of Cottage towards the local high school, past and away from the wrecked strip mall and into the aged and abandoned but still mostly intact northern section of the town.

The town was quiet. Too quiet, as corny or perhaps stereotypical as that may sound, it was nothing if not the truth. While abandon structures and downs devoid of sentient life were extremely common in the Wasteland, it was certainly uncommon to receive indirect fire from mortars, and then for it all to fall quiet as if nothing of the sort had ever occurred.

Nikolai's working hypothesis was that it must have been the Enclave. But he hadn't seen or heard a thing from them since the MoAS laboratory a while ago. But he knew their preference for energy weapons and didn't think they would want to use such a loud and inordinacy way to dispatch their foes. Willow had identified Pegasus Enclave units before they were within visual range once before, he had the capacity to. The Unity made an odd thing to direct blame towards. And more likely then not, if they could hear the Enclave, coming, then the Steel Rangers or any such contemporary force would have stood out like a sore hoof.

That left raiders or some other mercenary group. Perhaps those White Apples had stepped into another organizations operational boundaries and had paid the price for it. But that bombardment had been clearly aimed at the diner, not a little wagon and a half dozen odd mercenaries from Southern Equestria. That left Nikolai without any clear and obvious offenders to point his gloved finger at.

The high school itself seemed a strange sight to Nikolai, he hadn't yet gained much of any sort of knowledge as to the state of the Equestrian education system. He saw himself as a businessman, an adventurer, and... Perhaps even a bit of a scholar ... His own somewhat lacking skills in that last department not withstanding. First and foremost he sought some sort of way to expand the depths of his coffers.

The structure of Cottage High had been left remarkably intact by the damaging forces of time. If anything, those who had constructed it certainly seemed to have had a talent for their work. The high school itself was located at the end of a T intersection of the town, about a half kilometer south of the diner. It was a low red brick and plaster structure with large floor to ceiling windows that ran alongside it's cafeteria. Beyond it lay a small blacktop yard, playground, and beyond that- A set of bleachers along what looked a bit like one's average high school football field.

Nikolai, Willow, and Flashpoint stormed across the dead lawns and unhewn, dead tree branches that dotted the property. The windows of the exterior of the building seemed all torn up and scattered every which way- But an odd number of them had been boarded up or barricaded somehow. Though perhaps not now, it may have at sometime in the past served as a makeshift fortification. The bullet holes conclusive to small arms and automatic weapon fire seemed to lend a bit of credence to that theory. With their bat pony companion still slightly dazed and def, and Flashpoint not having the time to stop and try to work out the detection system on his PipBuck, they were left to make their way into the building without knowing if there was anyone home- So to speak.

"Go, go!" Nikolai broke a few of the rotted bits of plywood barricade away from the windows and ushered his friends inside before taking one last look at the intersection and the diner down the road- Then to the faint silhouette of the smashed wagon and dead bodies, and scampered inside. His boots crushed a little pile of .22 rimfire cartridges as he dropped down into the classroom and surveyed the makeshift barricades which had been made out of the old school desks. The dry blood and swept aside broken glass were tell tail signs of what had gone on here.

Nikolai gestured towards Willow Lamps right ear "Can you hear anything yet?" The thestral shook his head.

"I'm regaining it. I can feel it fading. But I'm blind in one of my six senses for now." Nikolai groaned, and pressed forward into the hallways and towards the cafeteria, but then started back towards the classroom they were in.

"Well?" Flashpoint asked him. "What do you guys want to do now?" Flashpoint shifted his body just enough to the point where he could look past Nikolai and out into the world beyond the window frame.

"We should leave. We need to get out here. I truly do wish to be able to work out all the little odds and ends of my new PipBuck. But we cannot remain here Nikolai. Whoever just tried to blow us up may very well try again... And... Perhaps that may very well be them..." His voice trailed off in an ungainly sort of way. Nikolai turned and swiftly noticed why.

"Raiders." He said in a low, firm manner. The expression below his mask almost blank. It wasn't flush with horror. Just a bit surprised. If a conveyance of his emotions to the rest of the world could be referred to as, 'a bit'. He was not mad, nor was he terrified. He was in an almost obscene state of mind for the situation. And he quickly resolved to create a way to deal with the large 'congregation' of bloodthirsting psychopaths' about three hundred meters distant.

The fact of the matter was, was that neither of the three had properly identified them as being any sort of raider. From as distance, even through binoculars, it was difficult to pin anything down. Nikolai couldn't make out the total number of them, but at leas they seemed to have stopped at the ruins of the diner. Willow could have provided them with greater information in exchange for little effort on his part. But it would be a few more minutes before anything like that would be possible. As it stood, they had two routes they could go about handling this:

They could lie in wait for any raiders making their way down the road and attempt to ambush them, or, as an alternative. They could withdraw, circle around Cottage, and be back on the open highway within the hour.

And completely exposed to mortar fire. This was unacceptable, and not in some pompous sort of way. The Stalker was deeply troubled. But, if there was anything to be made into his, he had the know-how and the equipment to make his way out of this. He wasn't just some unlucky Wastelander.

"Flashpoint. I need to to remain behind." The Stalker pied another glance out of the Window then ducked back inside. "Stay beside Willow and help him recover. Figure out the base workings of that PipBuck. He tapped a button on his radio, which resounded in a little beep.

"You see my frequency, this one here? Memorize it. Tune into it and wait for my instructions. I am going to look for a way past this blockade. I will return in half an hour. If not, then you and Willow must wait here until nightfall. Willow can see in the dark, and so can I with device I find in Canterlot. Those hooligans outside very likely cannot. The moon is not going to be full tonight. Use that to your advantage. If they move before then, make a break for it. Do your best to not draw any fire... And hold onto this." He palmed his Energy Rifle off to Flashpoint.

"It is obvious to find location of shooter. Use it sparingly- Actually- Give it back." He snagged it out of the bewildered zebra's hooves.

"New plan. I am going to find those mortars- And turn them into melted slag. Remember, we only have so much ammunition. You and I must do best to stay out of sight. Please." He gave them an earnest nod, and dipped out of the room and began to make his way past the cafeteria and towards the gymnasium. Meanwhile, Flashpoint remained behind with Willow. The two stallions watched him leave, and then turned to one another. Neither said any words. They didn't have any to exchange.

Nikolai had once again found himself alone on some grand exploit to dig him and his companions out of trouble. A quick swig of Vodka and a prudent demeanor had been the groundwork for it nigh every single time. And it was what he would do this time as well. His companions were crucial to him more than anything else. But one was wounded and the other didn't have the tools necessary to accomplish what needed to be done. And so he was alone. The Stalker winded his way through the hallways of the building, past the locker room, and out onto the blacktop behind the structure. Nikolai swung his head both ways, then took off eastwards.

"Kalinka, kalinka, kalinka..."

Nikolai hummed a little tune to himself, he couldn't afford to keep his radio on it's usual location at Zone FM. He made his way about fifty yards before disappearing into a dead and crumbly brush line which lead down into a creek bed that ran northeast along the limits of Cottage. He moved slowly and methodically, trying his best to seem like a natural part of the environment. His dirty and dust covered worn green jacket blended in almost perfectly against the dull and dry creek bed. Water had very likely not flown through her for a long, long time, the shaped river stones along it's bottom had been almost wholly covered in a layer of coarse, unfertile dust from the surrounding wilderness.

"This looks a bit like Ukrainian countryside. " Nikolai thought to himself. "Make everything green, make creek flow, make sky blue. Would not be that hard, please God?" Humorously and unglamorously, no response came to The Stalker, he made his way past the local fire station and, from a distance, spotted the first of his quarry, a flash of yellow and orange fur through the dead stags along the creek. He took a methodical knee along the bank and leveled his rifle at the sudden splash of colors. Up on a rise in between two homes, was a line of a half dozen armed ponies of a disgruntled demeanor. Each and every one of them bore some sort of ramshackle armor.

"That is odd. Raiders do not usually move in such a methodical manner." He raised the edge of his rifle scope to his eye and spied out the group. They weren't heading in his direction, and the dead foliage and distance from them meant that getting discovered would be of little issue to him. Nikolai picked himself up and continued, he pulled his rifle's magazine from it's well and examined it before reinserting it a moment later. Full metal jackets, again. And after his mid air battle with a canterlot dragon a day or so prior, he didn't have ammunition enough left do take on dozens upon dozens of violent attackers and win. He either needed a quick and decisive victory, a bloodless one, or a speedy withdrawal.

He continued making his way along the creek, and eventually came to a little stone bridge which led it's way atop the creek. The Stalker took ahold of the crumbling edges of it and pulled himself up and onto the east bound road out of Cottage, he looked both ways, and then back down into the creek bed and under the bridge. He very nearly jumped at the sight of an old skeleton, and then began to try to calculation out the location of the mortars in his head.

"Let us see... Velocity of mortar... Speed of sound, noise to impact..." He opened up his PDA and scrolled around it until he figured out how large Cottage was. This, in total, took him about 15 minutes. He had been after an engineering degree when he had left for The Exclusion Zone all those months ago. It was a set of fairly simple algebraic equations that he would normally not give any care for. But, since he had the know-how in his metaphorical toolbox, he thought that it would be prudent to use it. He checked his watch and sighed as he pushed himself up to his feet. He nearly jumped out of his boots when he heard,

"Don't move! Don't move!" Nikolai ducked back under the bridge, and then heard a gunshot, followed by the rattling of something, and the sound of laughter along with fading hoofsteps westward. The Stalker waited a moment with his rifle aimed up and out of the creek and towards the road as the shadows around him gradually shifted. Finally, he struck the contact button on his radio and began to relay his findings back to his friends.

"Flashpoint?" He took his left index finger off the radio and waited.

"Nikolai? We can hear you." The Stalker furrowed his brow. "Willow is ok? Ears better?" His question was met with momentary static.

"Nikolai?" It was Flashpoint's voice. The mute chirp in the background told Nikolai that Willow was still there, and given by it's affirmative tone, he had heard Nikolai's voice loud and clear. Which meant that his hearing was back. Though, The Stalker still needed to directly confirm that face to face.

"I believe I have figured out where those mortars were. Remain where you are, and, the next time I call you, be ready to move to the bridge on the eastern side of town. Get there as quickly as possible." He had to admit, he was a slight bit nervous at the prospect of open, unsecured two way radio communications. He removed his index finger from the radio transmitter and swore quietly. He didn't want anyone listening in on him, but he had no means to encrypt his messages, so he would just settle for the tried and true method of broadcasting, then moving and waiting for a while, then broadcasting again. It wasn't perfect. But on the off chance someone out there could hear his every word, then at least they wouldn't be able to find him with any ease.

Rest assured, that Nikolai had enough to worry about without a guided missile dropping on his head. He pounced up onto the cracked road and picked up an old soup tarnished aluminum can with a bullet hole square through the middle of it. He set it down and chuckled.

"Target practice. Ok... These are definitely not usual raiders. Otherwise they very likely would have shot each other for fun!" He jogged across the street and took a knee by a little stone outcropping that had been potmarked with graffiti, he looked both ways, and spotted the patrol from earlier. A hundred meters away, but looking away from him. He crouched down behind a low spot on the other side of the rock. His gun barrel tracked the strangers movements in such a way that he could have opened fire and ended each and every one of them before they could manipulate the trigger with their mouth. Nikolai checked his watch, which resounded at just past midday. It would be at least four hours before it would begin to get darker. And he didn't have the patience to sit around and do nothing for that amount of time.

"I'll just follow them back to their camp! Then... I'll disable those mortars. Not difficult at all!" He exclaimed it in a hushed whisper, and the crosswind made sure that no soul but him ever heard those words.

And so, Nikolai followed them. He made his way down the little embankment away from the bridge, then crept through a hole in a chain-link fence and followed the small assembly of equines like something out of a spy novel. They made a turn northwards about a hundred and fifty meters into Cottage, and Nikolai sprinted across the road, just narrowly avoiding an overhead griffon patrol. It was just one of the miraculous bird-cat hybrid things, but Nikolai couldn't deal with them whilst they were airborne-lest he draw more unwanted attention.

He jumped onto the low balcony of a bungalow and then gently broke into a home in the typical fashion of a burglar. He swung his rifle around at high ready in a quick survey of the room, then took a seat upon one of the old couches, away from the window of course. He removed his mask just a bit and then took a gulp of water to quench his thirst, followed by a quick examination of the minute and hour hands of his watch.

"I need to get back to stalking that patrol." He thought, he picked his gun up off of his lap and dashed out onto the back porch of the structure. He hopped a small picket fence and kept his modest level of momentum going. He dodged and weaved around the trunks of a few hardly standing oak trees and came back around to the main street of town, he spotted the Diner down the street, then quickly ducked back in between homes and doubled back. Every little sound or rattling noise, every creak and crack from any number of things made his hear jump up into his throat.

"Now... Where would- Oh blya-"He pulled himself back up into the shadows at the sight of a tent flap.

He had found their camp, whoever it was that 'they' were. They had turned the town square into a makeshift camp. Dozens of ponies and griffons alike prowled the set of ramshackle tents, a few carts, some loaded with cages and others filled to the brim with all manner of supplies- food, water, and ammunition. The Stalker lustfully eyes a pallet of 5.56, and resolved that he needed to find some more cartridges. He swapped to his drum magazine and climbed inside of another bungalow.

"Oh, get down!" Something tugged on his rucksack. The Stalker instinctively tugged away, and way greeted with the odd, decayed face of a ghoul wearing a chipped steel helmet adorned with a faded pink and yellow cross, and a set of tattered olive green fatigues. The stallion gripped an ancient double barreled shotgun in his hooves and cast a wicked grin at Nikolai, who warily brought his rifle away from the window and over at the ghoul.

"Quiet!" He insisted, "You'll give us away!" The voice was gravelly, but full of spirit. Nikolai's mind drew him to the first question he could think of:

"Just how long have you been waiting here?"

"Daw' gon' N' I dunno!?" The ghoul replied, almost incoherently. Nikolai arched an eyebrow below his mask lenses and looked away. "Ok... Follow own advice, stranger. Stay quiet."

It took Nikolai a moment to realize the pair of batish wings along the creatures sides. He didn't have time to worry. The unexpected introduction had drawn the attention of some of the belligerents outside, and eyes were now being drawn to Nikolai's hiding place. He snuck out the front door in an inconspicuous manner just as the first pony, an earth pony mare with a speckled grey and brown back and a scar across her right eye, was greeted with a flurry of buckshot and a gust of fire and smoke which drew a good third of the camp to the precipice of that window.

...And away from their mortars. The Stalker darted across the street as gunfire tore up the bungalow he had been in, he very nearly ran right through the angry crowd without drawing a single eye. These were definitely not raiders. That was assured. But they were certainly not friendly either. They were out rightly hostile. In a foolish move that could have cost him quite a bit, he very narrowly managed to make it back into the safety of the abandoned buildings on the other side of the town square.

"Flashpoint?" He tapped the transmitter portion of his radio. "There are at least 60 or 70 of them. Hmm..." The sound of his breathing though his mask reverberated over the airwaves. "Perhaps eighty! Beware... And... Do not worry." He looked up for a moment, then crawled his way beneath a house deck and continued his conversation.

"I stumble into ghoul who start shoot at strangers, I not even learn name. He is probably dead now-Oh, Willow. He was a bat pony ghoul, I did not get good look. But if we have chance at later time, I just thought you would like to know about it."

"A thestral ghoul... That ain't unheard of. It's no big deal. Tell me if you spot him again." Nikolai took his index finger off the radio and began to move around until he was directly beyond the little courthouse in the middle of the desecrated town square. Nikolai swung his head every which way. But he couldn't find any mortars. He dashed across the street and came to a halt behind a cart.

"Blin, they must have moved them somewhere. But where?" The sound of hooves against asphalt led to him jolting away from the corner, he reached out and tried to snatch whoever had just approached him, he ended up grabbing the muzzle of a small unicorn, he cupped one gloved hand over the stallion's muzzle, and the over under his right foreleg, keeping him restrained just enough so that his hind legs couldn't kick Nikolai in the shins. Nikolai responded by dragging him back away into an abandon house and pinning the stranger to the ground, he unsheathed his knife and began to interrogate him in a strange, strange manner.

"Hello friend!" He whispered. "Tell me you name and where those mortars came from. Also, tell me where they are. And do not lie, otherwise I will stiffly rebuke you!" The stallion's eyes welled with a mixture of confusion and terror.

"Huh-What are you- What-Who-What are you!? Hel-"Nikolai cupped his hand back over the stallions muzzle. "Shut up please. Now, I know you are lying. But I am very nice person-We make good friends, yes? Stop squirming and tell me cyka!"

"Um-I-I don't know anything!" He screamed, his voice muffled by the Stalker's hand. "You are probably lying, so I call nonsense. Is not good to be untruthful, you know?" Nikolai laughed a bit and slapped the unicorn on the shoulder, being sure to snatch away the little revolver which had been hidden in a shoulder holster as he did.

"Why do you want to know anyway!?"

"Because you tried to blow me up!" Nikolai remarked sharply.

"Because you White Apples were trying to-"The Stalker facepalmed, and pointed to the patch on his shoulder. "Blyat, you idiot! I am not White Apple, what the hell? Do you have rock salt in place of brain? What do bunch of Raiders want with random person-Or, White Apple mercenaries?"

"Why should I-"Nikolai groaned." Answer it. Answer question." He lowered his knife, but still kept it close at hand. He had just met this pony. And on account of the circumstances did not wish to give him much of any kind of quarter. At least not until he gave Nikolai his name and a thoroughfare explanation of the situation from his perspective.

"This is the home of our longest living familial relative. We travel back and forth between Cottage and any number of our hunting camps in search of supplies. We meet back here every month or so. Watcha doing here anyway?" Something dawned on Nikolai.

"This relative of yours, he would not happen to be a thestral ghoul now, would he?" The unicorn raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, how do ya know that?" Nikolai groaned. "I met him five minutes ago. I thought you were trying to kill him!" All of a sudden the expression on the unicorns face turned nearly upside down.

"No kidding? Do you mean this was some sorta misunderstanding-Could you put me down and give me mah gun back?" Nikolai snorted a laugh. "No. I am in bad position. If I let you go and you are lying to me, you could have them tear half of town apart looking for me. If I do not, then they might try to kill me. Even if you are telling truth, who is to say that they would not be mad any way? And cages on back of carts- Griffons? Explain that!"

"Well, we've got a few mercs to keep things under wraps 'n do our less pleasant work. And the cages are for prey and captives." Nikolai thought to himself for a long while, he had to consider his options quickly. Finally, he resolved to allow the stallion to leave, with him in tow- Then stopped him again as he changed his mind.

"We will wait here for next four hours. Find something to make conversation about. The Stalker ordered the stallion to take another seat.

"Why?" Nikolai arched an eyebrow below his mask. "I do not have to tell you. Just wait here and you will not be hurt. So... What is name?"

Four long hours later...

"Hey! Nikolai! You aren't dead, are you?" The Stalker's radio crackled to life and he jumped up off of the old stool he had fallen asleep on. He sputtered and sat up. His eyes and mouth were dry. He wasn't used to sleeping with his mask on for so long. He raised it above his mouth and took a breath of cool, dusty air, then lowered it again. He stumbled to his feet and snatched his radio out of its respective pouch on his vest for the first time in a long while. He turned to where he had left the stallion, and found that he was gone. After cursing for a brief moment, he responded to his friends call.

"Yes! I'm alive! Willow? Are you good!? Blin, do not make joke like that-" He gazed out of a window, and donned his night vision headset, with the flick of a switch his whole world lit up in a pale greenish blue light, potmarked with translucent hexagons. He scaled out of the build onto the dead lawn behind it, and spotted the unicorn from earlier eagerly leading a few of his armed compatriots around. Probably looking for The Stalker, who had since left his napping spot. He raised his AK 101 and scaled over a rusty chain link fence as he began to make his way back to the creek. He took a moment to duck down beneath an ancient playset and radio Flashpoint.

"Guys. Get going, creek bed behind the school."

As flickering torchlight illuminated the street across from him, he spun his head around and stumbled down into the creek about a hundred meters north of the bridge. As the dust behind him settled he took off at a low, crouch-walk back towards the school to meet up with Willow and Flashpoint, taking to crawling in some places or just flat out staying still to avoid the prying gaze of the armed strangers. At about the fire station, he spotted the glint of Willow's pupils, highlighted by the grainy image presented to him by his optics. He took a knee, and the bat pony replied with a friendly chirp.

"Hello Willow." He waved to the murky figure in the darkness.

"Hey, Nikolai." Willow's voice replied from behind him. The Stalker looked back over his shoulder, and found Willow and Flashpoint standing behind him. He then turned, and looked back at who he thought was Willow. Then, he looked back at Willow. Then, once more, at the strange creature whom he'd pegged as Willow through his night vision.

"Wait-If you are Willow, then who the hell is that?"

"Gah!" He raised his night vision device out of the way and activated his weapon light, illuminating fully the bat pony ghoul whom he'd met four hours prior. He heard Flashpoint backing away behind him.

"Is ok! Is ok! This is new friend I make!" The thestral ghoul stretched his decayed face into an awkward smile in the harsh white light of Nikolai's rifle light.

"Hello 'der! Mah names-a Whirly Hills! How do ya do!?" Nikolai furrowed his brow and lowered his night vision again.

"Not too bad. Hey, are those your relatives up in that camp?" Whirly laughed a bit and flared his torn leathery wings. "Well yes dey are, 'd ya wanna meet dem!?" Nikolai quickly shook his head. "No thank you Whirly, we will be going on our way- Um.... Thank you for offer though!" Nikolai didn't even bother to ask him why he had fired upon them in the firs place. The trio pushed their way past Whirly Hills with as much rapidity as was possible, the ghoul waved at them, and disappeared into the shadows.

"We're not going back to the school, are we?" Flashpoint asked him. Nikolai shook his head, the filter of his mask highlighted by the distant glow of Canterlot.

"No. We are going east. across country. PDA says that there is another town about ten kilometers off from that little stone bridge. If we start now, we can make it there by daybreak, if we can do that, then we can make it to the Canterhorn mountain range by sunset tomorrow. Willow and I can both see in the dark. Stay close behind, Flashpoint."

Nikolai had no intention of staying behind in Cottage any longer, a feeling in his gut told him that nothing good would come out of trying to negotiate with the ponies and griffons who had nearly blown him to pieces just hours earlier. He needed to put as much distance between them and him as was possible, and fast.

With that, the Stalker and his two equine friends made their way out of the dry creek bed and into the foreboding dry wilderness ahead of them. At a distance of about a half kilometer, when the camp and torch fires of Cottage were little more than flickers against the pitch blackness of the Equestrian Wasteland, Nikolai was finally able to turn his radio on again, serenading the trio with Zone FM. Much to the contempt of both Willow and Flashpoint, who could hardly stand to hear Nikolai karaoke; "Take Me Home, Country Roads" in a broken Slavic accent without at least some measure of patience.

Then, it suddenly dawned on his that he had never given the unicorn from the town square back his revolver. It was too late now, and frankly, he just didn't care. He took it out, and examined it. A modest and tarnished .38. Usually a thing he would bypass, but he was stuck with it now.

"Hey, Willow? Want new gun?" The bat pony looked up at Nikolai, a bit surprised. "Um-Sure. Can I ask why you're giving me it?"

"Because I stole it from those ponies back at that camp and I do not want to give it back. Little bit of penance for making you go def for all that time. Here, now take it. I insist."

Comments

[Heretics Everywhere]

huh, despite reading this from early 2023 I never favorite it
well time to fix that

[RustyHinge]

I wonder, will we see anything from Nikolais' old 'home'? Like say...emissions or mutants of any kind; say snorks for example?