The Black Squirrel Brigade

by Lamasioux

Act 4 - The Red Declaration

Author's Note:

blood/death warning

How often should you worry,

About the chaos that happens,

When you aren’t present?

January 2nd, 1014

“Comrades! Creatures! Mares and stallions! Colts and fillies! Ponies of our army and navy! I am addressing you, my friends! Today marks the start of a new beginning of our history!

Far too long has Equestria, Celestia and her ponies, basked in the wealth of their resources while we sat here struggling for years. They have kept to themselves, only aiding what they believe with their so-called magic of friendship while they ignored the ongoings and hardships of the world outside their realm. But after our revolt, our final attempt to finally bring attention to our problems, Celestia sent in the Royal Army to quell or voice through force.

But we did not give in. We held strong against such oppression and were able to come out as victores as we claimed our land and independence!

In the time since the revolution, we have prevailed on our own against all odds thrown at us. We have proven that even in this age, an age of change, that we can cement ourselves in the books of history alongside Celestia and the other prin–”

Just as Rapid sat down to listen to the speech replay on the radio, the power was went out.

The streets outside in Novochernushsk were in a frenzy as ponies ran about. They were all trying to figure out what to do after Stalliongrad had declared war on Equestria. Word was, the Stalliongrad army, known as the Red Army, was already marching their way south, directly for the city.

Rapid had just arrived back home that day after a trip to Krupochkin and he was met with the chaos that was outside. He had stopped to ask some ponies what was happening and that’s when he learned of the news, so at that point, he rushed back home to listen to the radio.

Concern quickly grew within Rapid once the power shut off, which made him rush for the window that faced the street outside to see if anything special had happened. For a moment, there didn’t seem to be anything happening outside other than ponies packing their belongings into vehicles as they prepared to leave the city, but just as Rapid moved away from the window, an explosion shook the building complex, which kicked up dust everywhere.

After collecting himself, it didn’t take Rapid long to figure out what just happened. Right behind the building complex he lived in, was a substation, which powered every building in the nearby area.

It didn’t take that long for everything to begin clicking in Rapid’s head about what was currently happening. Between the short amount of information in Sinister’s speech, the ponies he talked to, and the explosion just now, it was likely the work of a communist cell.

Once Rapid realized that, he made quick work for the safe in his closet, scrambling to it and fumbling around with the dial to open it up. Once open, Rapid found his trusty Lilia rifle sitting inside with a few boxes of ammo. Next to the safe, was a simple uniform of gray color, a blue scarf, and some ammo pouches.

Rapid quickly changed into the uniform, putting the scarf around his neck and putting the ammo pouches around his body. With all of that on, Rapid went back to the safe and began opening up the boxes of bullets, which he poured into the ammo pouches he now wore.

Just as he finished filling his pouches with bullets, another explosion rocked the building, which made Rapid stumble to the ground. After the shakes passed through the building, Rapid stood back up before going for the Lilia rifle.

The Lilia was an old, single shot bolt action style rifle that was used by the Equestrian military until 1007. It had since been replaced, but the military still had stockpiles of them. Under an initiative started by Luna at the beginning of The Great War, civilians could volunteer to join local militias run by local garrisons.

The program only allowed for a certain number of ponies and creatures depending on the location, but those who were in, were exempt from the military draft, but in turn, whoever joined was required to show up every two months for seven days of training. While anyone who joined was exempt from the normal draft, the expectation was you would take up the call to hooves in the event that the local garrison was overwhelmed. Because of this, everyone who was in, was given a personal rifle to keep at home, which they could also keep if they served in the militia for two years.

Rapid was one of those ponies who joined, but he had only been in the program for a year, not that matter now, so he had realized that with everything going on, it was very likely that the Novochernushsk garrison would need help.

With his equipment now, Rapid gathered a few more items, some water and a small snack, before he ran out of the building into the street. Looking around, it didn’t seem the other ponies who were still about after the explosions. Since Rapid didn’t want to linger in the area, he quickly set about going down the street towards the garrison’s location once he remembered his training.

As Rapid went towards the garrison, right before he left the view of his building complex, he looked at it from the distance he was at now and saw the cloud of smoke and dust that was floating in the air from the two explosions that happened behind the building. Even when he was inside his home, it was clear from the amount of smoke that lifted from behind the building that the bombs had been big.

Rapid was only able to make it a few blocks away from his building before he was stopped by a pony. “Hey! They’re gathering at the Speaker’s Building!” the pony was pointing down a road in the opposite direction that Rapid ran.

The pony didn’t give any other description or explanation as to what they were talking about. “What? Where? Who’s gathering where?” Rapid asked.

The pony again pointed down the same street, “The socialists! I saw them armed with rifles!” And again, the pony didn’t say anything else, as if expecting Rapid to do something about it.

It was still a concerning thing to be told though, but since Rapid was trying to get to the garrison, he just shook his head, “Sorry.” Before the other pony could say anything else, Rapid quickly left. The look of concern on the pony’s face was alarming given Rapid basically ignored what they had said.

After ten minutes of quick trotting, Rapid neared the garrison, but before he reached it, he saw some other ponies wearing the same uniform as him, with the same blue scarfs and rifles standing together at the corner of a road. While he was focused on getting to the garrison, the group of ponies caught his attention so he went up to them.

As he approached, one of them began waving with a hoof for Rapid to join them once they saw he also wore the same uniform.

“RAPID! Quick!” the pony yelled once Rapid approached closer. A few of the ponies in the group were now huddled against the corner of a building wall with their own Lilia rifles at the ready once Rapid joined the group.

The pony that had yelled out was Keyboard, another pony in the militia that Rapid knew. “Key-” Rapid had to catch his breath after having trotted for so long, “What’s going on?”

“Those communist cells we’ve always heard about are out of control. Since Celestia’s death, they’ve been springing up everywhere across the city. They already took the garrison building,” Keyboard replied.

“Wait, wait. Celestia’s death? What do you mean Celestia’s death?!” the amount of concern that quickly grew on Rapid’s face at the statement wasn’t healthy.

Keyboard was trying to move Rapid to the corner of the building wall as the two spoke, “Shot down. She was on her way here and some red pilot shot her down. It happened yesterday evening.”

“You mean to tell me that Stalliongrad killed Celestia?!” Rapid again asked with concern.

“Did you not hear the news!?” Keyboard asked with a tone of anger and confusion.

“I just got back to the city! I was about to listen to the radio broadcast when some bombs destroyed the substation behind my house!”

Keyboard began looking into the nearby window they were near, trying to see if the lights were on inside, which they were, “Wait, what? Bombs?”

A few of the other militia ponies looked over at Rapid at the news of the bombs, “I think some of those communist blew it up. It shook my entire building. Did you not hear it?”

“No, we’ve been here for the past 30 minutes holding this spot. We encountered some of those communists down the street and got into a gunfight with them,” Keyboard said as he motioned to the corner of the wall, “Look.”

“Fuck, what!” Rapid moved to the corner of the wall, where he took a peek around the corner with one of the other ponies who peaked with him.

Down the street, there was a pony laying in the middle of the road, unmoving, with a pool of blood surrounding them and a gun next to them. Before Rapid could look anymore, he was dragged back behind cover by Keyboard. The other pony that had been sticking their head out also got back into cover.

“Yeah, we’ve been holding here while Staff Sergeant Clip figured out where the other teams are. While we were, some of the communists that came from the garrison began shooting at us, but we killed that one and they scattered. It’s been quiet since. Clip was supposed to be back by now, or anypony, but they haven’t, so we were about to head out for the library on 7th Av.” Keyboard gave one of the ponies nearby a nudge, “Woodstove here said it was a discussed rally point at the last training for group H.”

Rapid looked down the streets they were currently on, looking at the road names, “7th Av, isn’t that halfway across the city from here?”

One of the ponies smacked their lips and yelled out, “They’re back!”

Everypony looked at the pony that yelled that, it was the one that stuck their head out with Rapid, and saw him reading his rifle.

Quickly, everypony got their own rifles at the ready and began taking up stances around the corner. Rapid did so as well, but he had to open the bolt on his rifle and load in a single shell into it before closing it. That was one of the bad things about the Lilia rifle, you weren’t supposed to walk around with it chambered, but it could only hold a single bullet.

“HEY FUCK OFF! WE DON’T WANT TO FIGHT YOU DAMMIT! JUST GO HOME!” the pony on the corner yelled out as he peeked around the corner with his rifle.

“Dammit, get your ass back here, they aren’t going to listen to us,” and just as Woodstove said that, the crack of a bullet whizzed past the corner, which made the pony on the corner jump for cover momentarily before they went back around it, aimed, and fired a shot.

“SHIT!” Keyboard yelled out, “Return fire!” he yelled out as he rushed for the corner to fire his own shot.

And just like that, a gunfight broke out.

Crack after crack broke through the air as bullets whizzed down the street, and the gunfire of their own guns filled the air. Rapid had yet to fire yet down the road, but an opportunity finally showed itself as Keyboard pointed across the street to the other building corner. “RAPID! Follow me!”

And without much else to it, Rapid found himself running across the street with Keyboard to the other side, with a few bullets bouncing off the street as they crossed. They had done it without suppressive fire or coordinating with the other ponies, but they were able to cross unharmed. With the free space they had, they were both able to take to the corner and fire back.

Rapid was able to look around the corner finally as he turned around to shoot. In the two seconds he had, he was able to see that there were a few ponies down the road that were aiming back at him, so with the first one he was able to line up his sights on, he fired and quickly got back around the corner.

Quickly, Rapid opened the bolt, let the empty casing fly out, and loaded a new one into the rifle before he aimed back around the corner to fire yet again. When he aimed again, he noticed that there was a new body on the ground among the ponies down the road, which he aimed at and shot. He had done that, even though whoever it was wasn’t a threat, because a bullet whizzed past his head as he had taken aim and panicked.

“FWUAHH!”

While Rapid was reloading his rifle, he looked up to see what that noise was and saw one of the ponies on the other side of the road squirming around for a second before collapsing to the ground. It was the one that had peaked in the corner with him.

“Get back over here Key! We need to get into a building! We-” Woodstove was yelling out to Rapid and Keyboard, but the whizz of a bullet interrupted them just as Woodstove was hit.

There was a moment of looking across the street as the two waited to hear what Woodstove had to say, but he began collapsing to the ground as well, but not before a few more bullets whizzed about. It didn’t make sense as to how Woodstove got hit since he was behind the corner, out of view from the ponies down the street, but Rapid quickly figured it out as he looked around and saw some more ponies down the street they were hiding on.

“Key. Key! KEY!” Rapid quickly shouted out as he aimed his rifle at the few blobs of ponies that were taking aim at them.

Keyboard looked behind and saw the new group of ponies that had appeared and ran around the corner they hid behind as a few more bullets shot at them, but because of Keyboard’s small mistake, a volley of bullets came at him from the original group of communists. None of them hit as he again ran back around the corner to Rapid, “GET INSIDE! INSIDE!”

A small amount of panic began building up inside Rapid as Keyboard shouted that. All of the militia ponies began rushing into the buildings they were near so they could get out of view of the new group of communists that were firing on them.

The other ponies across the street were able to drag Woodstove into the building with them, but left the one Rapid didn’t know.

Once Rapid and Keyboard were inside the building, Keyboard let out a defeated voice, “Rapid… Fuck.”

Trying to recollect after the ambush, Rapid looked at Keyboard with concern, “Should we sprint over to them?”

“No, look,” Keyboard pointed at one of Rapid’s legs, “You’re bleeding.”

Rapid blinked before he looked down at where Keyboard motioned and was surprised to see the blood that coated his uniform. With a simple breath, Rapid’s adrenalina waned from his mind and the pain began to creep up on him, which caused him to twitch his injured leg, which spread into a loss of balance that made Rapid fall to the ground.

A crack snapped by and the glass window on the building they entered shattered into many pieces as a bullet hit inside, which caused Rapid to regain focus on what was happening and not his injury, it also caught Keyboard’s attention as well.

“FUCK!” Keyboard took a quick peek outside and snapped off a round down the street before hopping back inside and reloading his rifle. “Are you able to run still? We’ll get to the others.”

Rapid took a few shaky breaths before he inhaled and pushed through the pain that crept into his leg as he pushed himself. Taking a few steady breaths, he clenched his own rifle and nodded, “Let’s make it quick.”

“Ok, ok,” Keyboard swallowed and readied his rifle, “On go from three, two, one. GO!” and with that, Keyboard was the first out of the door as he ran towards the other side of the street, with Rapid behind him.

Keyboard didn’t make it into the street before he fell to the ground after being shot, but Rapid didn’t stop for him, he just kept on going as he muttered, “Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck,” on repeat the entire time. By the time Rapid made it to the other building, he was going through heavy breathing as he barged into, greeted by the guns of the other militia ponies.

After a tense half second, they all realized it was Rapid and they relaxed.

“Where’s Keyboard!?” one of the ponies asked.

Rapid had thrown his rifle to the ground as he carefully brought himself to the ground to try and tend to his wound, all while answering the other, “Outside! We ran from across the street and he got hit instantly.”

The pony tsked before they made their way to the door of the building, “Let me see.” Just as they took a peek, trying to see where Keyboard was, they were shot, which caused them to convulse and fall backwards into the building, “GHEHAHHAHHH!”

Just as this all happened, Rapid saw the condition of the other pony here. Woodstove was laying next to a wall, barely moving his mouth in an attempt to say something while he bled out. Nopony was tending to him.

At this point, the pony that had peaked around the corner was scrambling with their hooves to try and press against their wound, but it proved fruitless as the stream of blood flowed from their neck. It was clear that the wound they had received was bad, so Rapid quickly moved to them to try and help out until his leg gave out.

There were only two more ponies who weren’t injured, and they quickly moved to help. One went for the one who peaked out, and one came to Rapid to help him. Neither looked like they were doing well with the situation. The one that was helping Rapid was shaking to heavens high, but they were able to manage through it.

As their injuries were tended to, a few gunshots rang outside that brought up the fear factor among everyone inside.

Over the next minute, things seemed to calm down, especially as the pony who was shot in the neck came quiet and quickly began dying silently due to their injury being out of the scope of help. Rapid looked with fear over at Woodstove who also now appeared to be dead themselves, before he brought his gaze down to his own leg that was currently bleeding. While it wasn’t as bad of an injury, it still brought on concern.

“Page. There’s an alleyway right across from us. We might be able to escape if we go now.”

Rapid blinked.

“Escape?” the pony helping Rapid turned around and looked out the window towards the alleyway that had been mentioned. There was a moment of thought before they turned back to Rapid and looked at his leg. “Get up.”

“I can’t,” Rapid answered with a shaky voice.

“HURRY UP PAGE! THEY’LL COME IN ANY MOMENT!”

Page looked at the other pony and just answered with a simple reply, “Ok.” There was nothing else they said as they stood up and gave Rapid a quick look before going to the last pony. The other unknown pony didn’t even acknowledge Rapid as they simply booked it out of the building towards the alleyway with Page.

There were a few rounds that fired off at them, but neither of them were struck and they were able to make it to the alleyway and escape. Just like that.

Rapid grabbed his gun and held it tight as he began backing up, pushing himself away from the front of the building, away from the two dead ponies that had pools of blood around them, to try and get somewhere safe.

“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck,” Rapid muttered on repeat with each breath he took as he struggled to move. He began choking up on his words as he exerted more effort in moving, which transitioned into tears as pain began engulfing his body.

Just as he managed to get a good distance into the building, a few rounds littered through the front of the building, which made Rapid duck his head down for cover behind his body. He laid as still as possible for a few seconds until he heard the sounds of hooves, which made him turn around and face the front of the building with his rifle raised up and aimed.

Rapid took a deep breath and held it, doing so to calm himself down and to suppress the pain. It proved its use as a pony barged into the building and he fired at it. He missed, and before he could even touch the bolt on the gun, the pony fired back, along with the others that had piled in behind. They didn’t miss.

Rapid dropped his rifle instantly as pain shot through his body as a bullet hit his chest, which caused him to winge in pain and curl up. Another round was fired, which filled the room with excessive noise, but also hit Rapid. At this point, he was moaning in pain, nearly crying.

The ponies that entered shot a few more times, but none of them were aimed at Rapid.

There was a moment of silence now, the only noise coming from Rapid, until the sounds of one of the ponies was heard walking over. They stopped just before Rapid and they knelt down to him and spoke in a thick Stallion accent, “Glory to the cause comrade.”

The entire time, Rapid hadn’t looked at who it was due to how much pain he was in, but he did hear the other stand back up and move away. There were some murmurs from the new ponies that had entered the room, but they went silent as a bolt was heard being racked.

Rapid gasped in some air to suppress the pain and before he realized it, he had been shot in the head.