Chapter 5/Russia: For This Breath
What is the thing for which we fight, for which the men with whom we feel the stir of sympathy throughout the ages have fought?
???, ???. ???
Rujy awoke with a start, jumping in the cold, hard metal chair he was sitting on. The musty smell of a heavily used sack overwhelmed his sense of smell, and opening his eyes revealed nothing but pitch-black darkness. His hands were tied tightly behind the chair; too tightly, far too tightly.
"It's awake."
This was it. What every Russian soldier feared and dreaded.
The Europeans had caught him.
Well, the Europeans, or the Americans, or the Chinese, or the GLA, or the [REDACTED], or perhaps even their very own secret police. It was hard to tell what with each faction having a similar procedure when interrogating officers. Rujy tried to think back to how he'd got here, but everything past falling asleep on guard duty was blurry.
He'd fallen asleep on the very same guard duty he'd assigned. The 'caught by our own secret police' option was looking far more likely by the second.
"Hello? Can you not understand me or are you just brain-dead?"
The feminine voice had no specific accent, but had a distinct authoritarian tint to it. Rujy could tell this was someone who expected things to get done at a single command. The sound told him he was indoors. He decided to wait as long as possible before answering, so if he ever got out the situation no one could accuse him of collaboration.
"Be patient, Chrysalis. This is not purely a changeling operation."
"I don't remember asking for Nightguard involvement," replied the first voice coldly with an almost animalistic, deep growl.
"My Queen, and , er, Captain, please focus. The subject is awake, remember?" broke in a third speaker.
"Right, right. We will settle this matter later. You, thing, I know you are listening. Speak up."
Rujy decided that this was the best time to break the silence, preferably with a classic patriotic opener.
"You will not make me betray Mother Russia!"
There was no response for a few anxious seconds in which he seriously entertained the possibility that his interrogators had believed him and would now have him executed. The second voice spoke up tentatively.
"Changelings...?"
Changelings, Nightguard, a Queen, and a Captain. They're using codenames, but their antagonism between each other earlier seemed genuine. Perhaps a joint operation between departments who don't like each other?
"Sorry, Captain, just discussing using the... y'know."
"Ah, right. Carry on then. I'll fetch the Lieutenant. Don't say anything to the subject in the meantime."
Rujy heard two heavy pairs of footsteps move away a bit, going down some stairs, then return with another two pairs. The four voices had a quick conversation, too hushed for him to make out any words or even the general sounds. After a moment, the first voice cleared his throat and spoke to Rujy.
"Don't worry, we're not trying to make you betray anything or anyone, and certainly not your own mother. We just wanted to ask you a few questions."
Classic interrogator behavior. Make the victim feel at ease with some light reassurances and jokes. For now, he'd pretend to comply.
"Go ahead then."
"What is your n-"
Chrysalis interrupted, "No time for lengthy conversations. State your name, rank, allegiance, and species. Then you will explain the purpose of your mission, and how you arrived here. Do not lie, do not twist the truth, do not attempt to avoid answering anything. Begin, and make it quick." A dim green glow leaked under the hood.
Overwhelmed by the instructions, Rujy attempted to fulfill them as fast as possible without a thought.
'Lieutenant Colonel Rujy Nagarin of the Russian Federation VDV- paratrooper- division. Human. I am the commander of a mission to investigate a signal originating from the edge of Antarctica. We have no idea how we got here, we were flying above Antarctica, engaging an enemy aircraft carrier, when a white flash blotted out everyone's vision for a moment and we simply appeared in a new land."
A sharp, stabbing sensation pierced his forehead. He gasped in pain before calming himself. It seemed the plan had changed, and he was telling the interrogators the whole truth.
"Good, I suppose. Are you the highest ranking soldier out of all those here?"
"Yes."
"Hm..." Chrysalis mused over this before the voices began another hushed conversation. Rujy took this chance to compose himself, ignoring the pain in his forehead, while he gathered his thoughts. Every plan and idea he had, had gone out of the window, and he was down to improvising.
Before he had time to think, Chrysalis fired another barrage of questions.
"Good job, human. We're done."
The dim green glow which had permeated his vision disappeared
Rujy panted heavily. It had been about an hour or two of constant questions, threats, and little verbal encouragements, during which his already awful headache had grown steadily worse. He was fairly sure he had told the interrogators everything he knew about Russia, the war in Europe, and humanity in general.
They had seemed especially interested in the horse corpse.
"Alright, we're going to remove your hood. Just don't freak out. Understood?" This was the original voice, which hadn't spoken since the start of the interrogation.
The Lieutenant Colonel nodded carefully, shifting his blood-drained wrists. The splitting pain in his head had faded to a dull murmur.
The hood was slowly lifted up to reveal a dark room which Rujy recognised as the second story of the house they had occupied. His back was to the bed. The downstairs light and starlight shining through the windows illuminated just enough for him to see...
He gasped in shock. In front of him were four strange horse-like things. Two of them were pitch-black with leathery wings folded along their barrels, fangs sticking out of their mouths. However, their strangeness paled in comparison to the other two- one of whom was extremely tall.
The only reference Rujy had for them was insects. They had glowing pairs of eyes, translucent, bug-like wings, a horn each on their forehead, and a vaguely aquatic fin adorned the head of the shorter one. Heavy, grey, chitin-like armor plates glinted in the starlight, shifting as the regular-sized one moved uncomfortably under Rujy's stare.
The taller one stared back with what Rujy guessed was indifference on her face. Her eyes glowed green rather than blue, and she had a green-black mane and tail. She also lacked the sharp, long fangs of the regular-sized bughorse. Her horn was crooked and long as opposed to the short, smooth curve of the other bughorse.
"I think we broke it," muttered one of the bat-like horses.
The regular bughorse extracted a clear glass bottle and a case of shot glasses from seemingly nowhere, holding both items in its front hooves seemingly without any problem in balancing itself.
"Er, vodka? Alcohol?" It waved the bottle in front of Rujy's face, who broke out of his trance to nod towards the ropes binding his wrists. "Yeah, we should probably do something about that. My Queen?" It turned to the taller pony, who gave a slight nod.
"You haven't asked us about this, changelings," said the grey bat-like horse coldly.
"Lieutenant..."
Rujy blinked to himself. His interrogators had been sentient, talking horses the entire time it seemed. It sounded like something out of those cartoons Dedushka would talk about sometimes, where brightly-coloured animals possessed very human-like qualities and had some lesson to teach the audience every episode.
Which meant the horse they had found in bed...
He cut off that line of thought and decided to simply go along with whatever this was. After all, they had recently teleported from the freezing Antarctic to a late-summer grassland. Some mythical force was at play here.
"I could go for a shot of vodka right now," he spoke aloud, surprising even himself. The bughorse- changeling, as the Lieutenant had called them- shrugged, waving her front hooves as if to say, the human requested it, nothing I can do now. The Lieutenant sighed and motioned forward.
The changeling gave a wide smirk, skillfully laying down the glasses in a line on the floor and tipping the crystal clear vodka bottle over each one. It handed them out, then moved behind Rujy and tore open the ropes with its fangs. He shivered slightly as the sharp teeth passed his wrists by barely a centimeter.
The changeling handed a glass politely to Rujy before picking up its own.
"Cheers, human," it said in a slightly buzzing voice that differed greatly from the one it had spoken in before. It sounded as if its voice was overlayed by another, ever so slightly out of sync one.
"Yeah... cheers." Rujy downed the glass in one go, not feeling particularly cheerful.
Judging from the silence permeating the room, aside from the clink of glasses on the floor, the horses felt that way too.
"Alright, time for business." The 'Captain' quickly briefed Rujy on ponies, their society, the princesses- Rujy noticed the taller changeling, who was apparently the Queen of their entire race, giving the Captain a glare when spoke about the subject- the Equestrian military, and finally an intensely brief explanation of the changelings from which he only learnt that they were a close-knit race of ponies that lived separately from Equestrians.
"Ok, so... you are magical ponies that talk and behave like humans, and are separated into various equine species with their own abilities and biology and stereotypes."
Queen Chrysalis smiled coldly. "Yes, and you are feeble, hairless minotaurs which tore their world into several factions based on nothing but ideology."
"Ja, so we understand each other now. Where are my men?"
"Your ponies- uhh, men- are unharmed. All of them are artificially asleep."
Rujy's mouth turned downwards. "The injured require medical care. Most of them are badly wounded and won't make it through the night without attention from our medics."
Queen Chrysalis huffed while the Lieutenant gave the Captain an 'I told you so' look. "Surely your injured will survive just a few more hours? We have more things to go through before we can deal with 500 more, potentially unreasonable, humans."
The Lieutenant Colonel shook his head. There was no way he would sacrifice some of his own mens' lives for diplomatic points with the ponies, even if they were literally making history right now.
"At the very least the medics must be awoken. I will not negotiate on this," he stated in what he hoped was a firm tone, rubbing his raw wrists.
The Lieutenant and Captain of the Nightguard broke into a hushed conversation between themselves while the Queen and changeling did likewise.
"We'll take you back to Stalingrad."
"We shall escort you to our Hive."
Queen Chrysalis and the Captain made their offers at the same time, looking at each other in surprise.
The Queen made her argument first, "They are avengers and thus guests of the Hive. It is only right that we have the honour of taking care of them."
The Lieutenant bared his fangs. "We will process them through the proper channels and ensure they are safe and taken care of- back at Stalliongrad."
"The proper channels? Is any of this"- the Queen waved one of her forelegs around- "proper? This is just a dirty black ops mission to maintain Luna's façade of actually caring about the changelings."
It seemed that Rujy's assessment of the changelings and Nightguards not particularly liking each other was true. He looked around the room for any weapons he could use in case things went south, eyes coming to a rest on a sheathed sword lying against the staircase railing.
It would have to do.
"We're risking all of the trust our fellow batponies have built with the public. Don't act sour just because your 'lings are too hideous to- ACK"
A sickly green glow had enveloped the Lieutenant's head, which slammed repeatedly into the floor. Rujy noted that Queen Chrysalis's horn had the same glow, an expression of deep concentration on her face.
In a flash, the Captain had drawn a knife and held it against the other changeling's neck, who was too stunned to react. Rujy picked up his chair threateningly.
The head-floor slamming stopped. Queen Chrysalis placed her hoof above the now unconscious Lieutenant's head, staring at the Captain menacingly.
Stalemate.
No one moved or spoke as heavy hoofsteps rushed up the stairs and two fully armored, weaponless batponies and a changeling arrived.
Queen Chrysalis, taking in the situation, gave a deep, frustrated sigh. She backed away from the Lieutenant batpony as the Captain did likewise with the changeling.
"Take the humans. And go," whispered Queen Chrysalis, fury written all over face.
"Sorry about the L-"
"NOW!" barked Chrysalis, nodding to her changelings and moving back down the stairs.
The two Nightguards didn't stop her.
Warehouse 15, Sector 4, Stalliongrad Industrial Complex. August 7th, 2045. 3:05 AM
"Going for 1,500... 1,700... 1,900... 2,100... 2,200... 2,300... and SOLD for 2,400 rubles. Now we have a gentleman offering 600 rubles for an opt-"
The double doors to the huge, empty warehouse burst open. The 400 or so soldiers inside froze as Lieutenant Colonel Rujy entered. They relaxed slightly when Captain Artimey hobbled along behind him.
Rujy strode furiously past the tables displaying various pieces of equipment, an auction floor, and groups of soldiers trying to hide their fully decked out rifles or wads of cash, until he reached the small armory area at the end of the gigantic room where the company quartermaster grinned nervously.
He grabbed the quartermaster by the collar and shoved him behind one of the empty portable weapons lockers, out of sight of the soldiers.
"I leave for 20 minutes to confer with the ponies," Rujy remarked, "and you let the soldiers start some sort of black market operation?"
"The- the-"
Rujy pointed a shaking finger towards the squad of Nightguards standing by the exterior door to the warehouse, politely declining what appeared to be a soldier trying to sell an RPG-40.
"The ponies are watching our soldiers turn this place into some sort of hyper-capitalist monkeyhouse. Do your job and make sure everyone has the equipment they need, and only the equipment they need. Understood, comrade?"
"...ja."
Rujy released the quartermaster, straightening the creases from his uniform.
"Good. Get to it." He returned the quartermaster's salute and turned his attention to Dedushka, who was speaking to another officer about the wounded.
The officer's face was grim as he spoke. "...more in the night. Our medical supply stocks are looking good, though. Nothing else to report, sir."
"Now what?" Rujy asked Artimey as the officer saluted and left to talk to a medic.
"Hm... I believe we are not guests here, but rather prisoners. Hopefully when the Nightguards' Princess Luna arrives, we'll be able to hold a diplomatic meeting of some kind. For now, I suggest we let the men rest up. It's been a long 24 hours."
The Lieutenant Colonel nodded, sitting on one of the white folding tables set up in the armory area. The chaos had died down a bit, with the soldiers now breaking into groups to chat or have a smoke. He couldn't see Captain Rolan anywhere, but he supposed the Captain was dealing with the vehicles parked in the far corner of the warehouse.
Having nothing better to do, Rujy took off his officers' coat and pulled a military cap over his head so he could blend in with the soldiers. Walking past the soldiers, idly listening to their conversations and speculations about the ponies, he eventually reached the large group talking to the Nightguard squad barring the huge steel door to the warehouse.
"...and where are the other races then?"
Rujy sighed as he heard the boisterous voice of Jano Bolkov. It seemed he had elected himself as the ambassador to ponykind.
"The Nightguard only accepts thestrals. Our missions are based on stealth and intel collection, so thestrals are best suited for the job," explained a serious-faced batpony mare. Rujy noticed a bright mark just next to one of her hind legs depicting a closed red eye.
Apparently Jano had too. "What's the eye on your flank?"
"Hm? Oh, these are 'cutie marks'. Every pony has a unique one that they get soon after adolescence. It can mean anything from their special traits or talents to their very fate."
A soldier whispered something into Jano's ear, who passed it on to the batpony, "I presume yours has something to do with counter-intelligence?"
The batpony nodded. "Yes. I specialise in tracking down and... terminating spies. However, all members of the Nightguard are skilled in every field." Her voice had a hint of pride in it.
"Yeah..."
The conversation died down a bit as the soldiers ran out of things to ask, or were too nervous to. Rujy could tell from his position near the back of the crowd that one of the younger-looking Nightguards clearly wanted to say something, but perhaps was too afraid of getting reprimanded.
Eventually a Russian private broke the silence. "Can you tell me where the restro-"
An incredibly loud knocking rang from the shut door, causing everyone on the warehouse floor to freeze.
"ROYAL GUARD. WE HAVE A SEARCH WARRANT FOR THE PREMISES. OPEN THE DOOR IMMEDIATELY."
"Oh, buck me," muttered the batpony squadleader as she directed her squadmembers away and motioned for the Russian infantry to back away from the door.
Rujy took off his cap and pushed to the front of the crowd. The Royal Guard was supposed to be the sister department to the Nightguard, but the reaction of the batponies was unsettling.
"Everyone, take cover. Do not fire unless I say so," he ordered, hopefully loud enough for the entire warehouse to hear. Judging by the scramble of soldiers grabbing rifles, turning over the tables, taking positions on the catwalk above, and moving the sensitive equipment out of potential harm's way.
He scanned the room for the other batponies but couldn't spot them.
"Why are you so spooked, Nightguard?"
The squadleader was fiddling with a small black device featuring a clear, dark crystal. "We hoped to reveal your presence on our own terms. The Royal Guard will not take it kindly when they discover we've been keeping several hundred of a new species locked up in a warehouse."
"Right then, what do you plan to do?"
"I will summon Princess Luna and have her talk to the Royal Guards. We should have a few more seconds..."
The knocking on the door and the shouting ceased. Rujy took a step back, knowing what this meant.
"Nightguard, get back fr-"
The metal door burst through the frame, sending the Nightguard squad leader flying a few meters and breaking the device. Another batpony quickly swooped down seemingly out of nowhere, deftly tossing her unconcious body on his back and cantering through the interior double doors.
Rujy backed away behind the closest overturned table to the doorway, peeking over at the rapidly dissipating smoke. He motioned for the two soldiers next to him to lower their rifles as five pony forms stepped through the smoke, spears and swords at ready.
In contrast to the batponies, these ponies were a mix of the unicorns, pegasi, and one earthpony, as described by the Nightguard Captain. The five ponies decked out in gold-and-white armor and helmets stared at the 500 Russian soldiers.
One of the unicorns' horns lit up and he spoke seemingly to thin air.
"Command, there are humans in the building. Like the ones in Canterlot, yes. Send backup."
The words, although quiet, rang out through the warehouse, which was entirely silent for the third time in just a few minutes.
The other unicorn, with the insigna of a Private, suddenly raised his hoof and barked out, "Surrender, non-pony- OW!"
He rubbed his head which had just been hit by the hoof of the red-coated earthpony. "Sorry about him, he's a unicorn supremacist."
Great, so the ponies also suffered from racism. Rujy rose from his crouched position behind the table, attempting to look dignified.
"No worries. I am Lieutenant Colonel Rujy Nagarin, leader of the esteemed Volki task force of the Russian VDV."
"Right... and how did you get here?" The earthpony appeared to be in charge of the raid squad. His eyes darted back and forth between the mass of soldiers and equipment and Rujy's face.
"Our Nightguard... allies found us to the north of Stalliongrad. They brought us here while they waited for the authorities to arrive."
"I see. Have you been... well accomodated?" Rujy could tell now that the earthpony was just stalling for time, asking random questions, likely until backup arrived.
"I'm sure the Nightguard can tell you more."
As if on cue, a black orb appeared between the ponies and Rujy, causing him to take a surprised step back. Lighting originating from nowhere struck the orb.
A pitch-black, tall shape began to appear.
Queen Chrysalis?
???. August 7th, 2045. 6:34 AM
The Blackbear gunner lowered his camera and observed the image taken. It had perfectly captured the roaring, red hot flames licking the walls of a farmhouse, smoke pouring out of the windows.
As he observed the image, fine-tuning the filters and lighting effects using an unfolded digital display, the VDV agent picked up a charred bottle from the edge of the fire. It was a bottle of coke.
"So, our comrades were here... but where did they go?" He muttered to himself, looking around for any other clues before they were enveloped by the flames.
"Found something, bluey?" shouted the Blackbear Captain from his perch atop the supertank parked just below the crest of the nearby hill, watching over the crew trying to install an electrical generator.
"Ja. Coke. Do not get excited, it's empty."
"Hmph." The Captain lifted a pair of binoculars to his eyes, taking in the large city which they had identified as 'Stalliongrad' from the signposts they had passed on the way. "Everything's on fire in this region, it appears."
A large plume of smoke rose from a warehouse on the edge of the city, coating the sky an ashen black, blotting out the rising dawn sun.
Stats
Page generated in 0.015 seconds
Total duration
1,086 users online
2,432,647 hits today, 2,151,698 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
It's good that the human forces were kept small, giving ponies chance to fight back if anything happend.
11584029
Who's side are you on?
Besides, the ponies will quite likely suffer heavily casualties by the superior tech from humanity.
Redacted!? Is the Brotherhood of Nod somehow in this frickin universe too?
Oh shut the f*** up bug! Like you are "morally" better either. You love being a villain yourself, so you don't have the "moral high ground" in this.
And just one of these human "factions" can quite easily decimate your entire hive, so watch your freaking mouth, insect.
11584106
The fun side! Amusing side!
11584109
The only thing I can say at this time is 'Burgers'.
11584443
Like a name or the food?