The Only Easy Day, was Yesterday
"And that Maxim, is how we went through time and kill lots and lots of zombies." said an old man with his 12 year old grandson sitting on his lap.
"Dad, you're speaking nonsense again." said a pregnant woman with blonde hair.
"How many times do I have to say, it's the truth Natasha. Trust me, it's not the vodka this time. As soon as we get out of this country, I'm going to show you my friends. Starting from Dempsey, to Richtofen, and then Takeo. I hate Takeo, but he's had my back for so long."
"Well, I think story time is over. It's time to show Max how to hunt." said a black haired man who was cleaning a hunting rifle behind the old man.
"You hear that Max? Today, you are going to be a man."
"What if we run into a bear Grandpa?" said the 12 year old Maxim.
"Don't worry about it, Grandpa Nikolai and you father shall protect you no matter what." Nikolai said as he hugged his grandson.
Max jumped off of Nikolai's lap as he stood up.
"Remember the first rule of survival Max, a real hunter always watches where he steps. Now Max, Alexei, onward to glory!" Nikolai said as he kicked the cabin door open.
"He forgot his coat again." said Alexei.
"With the amount of vodka he drinks, I don't think the cold will bother him." said Natasha.
1 hour later
"Remember Max, calm down, and aim for the head." said Nikolai as Max aimed his hunting rifle at an elk.
The three of them were taking cover behind a log. Despite his grandfather's advice, he couldn't calm down. Not only is he shivering from the cold, despite wearing a thick jacket, but this will be his first time firing a gun and killing another living being.
"Max-"
Max panicked and fired his rifle. Instead of hitting the elk's head, he shot his body. The elk ran off, leaving behind a blood trail.
He felt someone put a hand on his shoulder.
"It's okay Max, we'll just follow the blood trail. That elk should bleed out soon. Not bad for your first time." said Alexei.
Max however, was too focused on where the elk ran off to.
"Well, we should probably get that elk before- ack!" Nikolai was standing up and took one step before his leg got stuck on a hole in the ground.
"Great, hey Alexei, need some help here."
Alexei tried to help his father in law get out of this situation, but to no avail
"I think my leg is stuck Alexei, but at least my vodka is okay." Nikolai said as he drank a bottle of vodka from his pocket. "Still tastes better than all of those perks."
Alexei shook it off as the vodka talking. "Hey Max, help me pick up Grandpa."
He didn't receive a response.
"Max?" Alexei looked behind him, but didn't see his son.
"Max! Where are you?" he yelled.
He then noticed footprints that seem to be going along the blood trail.
"Oh no."
With Maxim
Maxim followed the blood trail, with his hunting rifle for a good five minutes. When he shot that elk, for some reason it felt good for him. He wanted to go and check out his kill. Maybe shoot some animals along the way. Unfortunately, there weren't any. More than likely, they fled when they heard his rifle discharge.
Up ahead, he saw the elk, laying down. As he got closer, he noticed the elk's breathing was labored and was likely about to die. Max aimed the rifle at the elk's head, ready to finish it off, before he heard something coming his way to his left. He aimed his rifle at where the sound was coming from.
Coming out of a large bush, was huge brown bear. The bear roared and stood up on its hind legs.
Max panicked once again and fired his rifle, hitting the bear at its shoulder.
The bear roared once again. Max dropped his rifle and ran the other direction. As he was running, he heard the bear chasing him.
"PAPA! GRANDPA! HELP!" Max ran, hoping they could hear him.
All of a sudden, Max tripped over something and landed hard. He turned and saw the bear slowly coming towards him. Max crawled as fast as he can and tried to get up, but felt a massive wave of pain from his right leg. Noticing his leg is probably broken, Max crawled faster.
"Hey, get away from him."
Max saw his father behind the bear as he fired his rifle at the bear's rear.
The bear roared once again and turned around. Alexei wasn't alone however, Nikolai stood next to him, both of them with their hunting rifles at the bear. The bear charged them and they both fired at the bear's head, one into the left eye and the other into its forehead. It fell a few inches from their position.
Alexei dropped his rifle and ran to comfort his now crying son.
"It's okay Max, it's okay. Papa's here. The bear can't hunt you anymore. You're a man now. Please stop crying Max."
May 24, 2016
Kovrov, Russia
"Max!"
"Max!"
"Max!"
Wake up!"
Max opened up his eyes and saw I.Q. in front of him, shaking him.
"Are you okay? You seemed to be having a bad dream." she said.
Max looked around the armored van and saw members of Rainbow Six staring at him with worry.
"I'm okay, it's nothing."
"Are you sure it was nothing Kap? It didn't seem like it when you started yelling 'Papa' and 'Grandpa'." said Doc.
"Drop it." Kapkan said with malice.
"Alright then, just don't let it bother you when we're in the White Mask safehouse." said Castle as he loaded his shotgun.
"Alright people," Kapkan heard Thatcher say over the radio. "This is the 7th safehouse this month. Kill any White Masks you see, capture them if possible. Intel says they're holding a Russian scientist as a hostage inside the apartment building. We don't know where in the building exactly so watch your fire. Kapkan, I.Q., Doc, Fuze, you guys will breach the bottom floor west side. Castle, Mute, Jaegar, Thermite, bottom floor, east side. Montagne, Twitch, Ash, Pulse, 2nd floor, west side. Smoke, Sledge, Blitz, Rook, 2nd floor, east side. Tachanka, Glaz, Bandit, and I will breach the 3rd floor from the south side. We don't know why they need the scientist and what they've done to him. They've held him captive for more than six months. Anything could've happened during that time."
"So where is Blackbeard, Valkyrie, Frost, and Buck?" asked Glaz.
"Right now, they're on a separate mission to bag one of the White Masks weapon suppliers in Rio de Janeiro. Alejandro Rojas, you know him as Alex the Red. After they catch him and make him reveal more White Masks locations, they're going to go and meet our new Brazilian teammates. I'm sure you guys are gonna like him."
"Any other candidates?" asked Sledge.
"There are some candidates from JSF, Detachment 88, GROM, and Para but we won't be meeting with them for sometime." answered Thatcher.
They felt the armored vans they were riding in come to a stop.
"Alright people, we're here." said Thatcher.
Tuchanka got up and kicked the door, letting everyone out.
As the Counter-Terrorists exited the two armored vans, Kapkan noticed two things, there was a drone in the air, most likely belonging to a curious civilian, and a camera on an adjacent building looking right at them. Kapkan pulled out his VSN and shot both of them.
<"Hey, watch your fire. Why did you shoot the camera on that building?"> asked one of the Russian police officers.
<"Sorry, can never be too sure. As for the drone, take it and find out who it belongs to. We don't need civvies giving us problems.">
Kapkan turned around and walked to the side of the van where Thatcher, Twitch, Pulse, and Jaegar were huddled around. They were looking at a tablet Twitch was using to control her shock drone.
"I count 20+ hostiles on the first and second floor, 3rd floor- dammit. They destroyed my drone. Anyway, I counted at least 15 hostiles on the 3rd floor. Probably more. Didn't see the hostage though."
"Alright, good work. Tachanka?" Thatcher said as he turned around to look at the tall Spetznaz operative. In his hand, he was holding a poster with the design of the building.
"Seems like a standard apartment building. No attics, but there is a basement. I advice ground floor teams to check it out. There should be stairs near the lobby."
"Any outside entrances to the basement?" asked Thatcher.
"Negative."
"Okay, everyone get to your positions. It's showtime."
"Hopefully I don't have to save anyone's asses this time." said Jaegar over the COMs.
"Fuck off. That fucker got lucky and sprayed his entire mag through the wall." said Castle.
"Whatever you say." answered Jaegar.
Kapkan and his team arrived at two barricaded ground floor windows on the west side.
"Fuze." said Kapkan.
"I'm on it." said the Spetznaz operative. He placed two Cluster Charges on the windows. IQ and Kapkan took one window and Doc and Fuze had the other.
"We're ready Thatcher." Kapkan said.
They waited for a few moments as the other teams got into positions until the SAS operative confirmed everyone's ready.
"Go."
Canterlot Castle
Princess Celestia
Princess Celestia, the almighty Goddess of the Sun, the one they say was nearly invincible, and fearless was tossing and turning on her bed. Anyone would assume she's having a nightmare. They were right. If one was in the bedroom with her, they would hear her repeatedly saying no, over and over again non-stop.
Inside Princess Celestia's nightmare
Celestia walked through the streets of Canterlot. Building all around her were destroyed and burning. The mutilated corpses of her citizens and the Royal Guards lay in the streets. She then saw the bodies of the Element Bearers. Rainbow Dash was cut in half, Fluttershy had a huge gaping hole on her chest, Applejack's head was nothing but mush, Rarity's body was still burning, and all what's left of Pinkie Pie was her head. The pile of flesh near it was probably the rest of her body. To her left, she saw Shining Armor's body was pinned to a wall by a sword. Near him, was Cadence with half of her body missing. She looked like she was trying to save Flurry Heart, but alas, the baby's body was without a head. Tears streamed out of Celestia's eyes as she was muttering the word 'no' over and over again.
Celestia then noticed the figure standing down the street. A hooded figure with a green uniform stared at her behind his mask. On his right hand, he was holding the head of Twilight, her most faithful student. On the other, he was holding by the horn, a barely conscious Luna, bruises and cuts adorned her body.
"LUNA!"
Celestia ran towards the figure, through all of the bodies and rubble. As she past two piles of rubble, something exploded under her causing her to get launched several feet towards the intimidating figure. Her fore hooves were nothing but pieces of burned flesh as Celestia cried out in pain. Through her teary eyes, she looked at the figure as he dropped both Twilight's head and Luna.
"You thought your precious ponies were perfect, unable to do anything wrong. You constantly ignore their misdeeds and fail to realize their flaws. You did not heed my warning nor did you attempt to help me. To your ponies, they called me a monster and treated me like one because I was different. This is their punishment. This is justice." The figure said as he raised his boot above Luna's head, and brought it down turning her head into mush.
"NOOOOOO!"
Back in reality
Celestia violently thrashed on her bed.
"NOOO LUNA NOOOO!"
As she said that, Luna and a couple of Lunar Guards burst into her bedroom. The Lunar Guards looked around for anything suspicious, but Luna flew to Celestia and cradled Celestia's head.
"Shhh Tia, it's alright I'm here. Please calm down, it was nothing but a dream.
Tears continued to stream out of Celestia's eyes as she looked up at Luna.
"Lulu is that you?"
"Yes, it's me Tia. Everything's alright now."
Celestia continued to cry as sh said to Luna, "Please don't leave me. Please don't leave me sister."
Luna teared up a little at the sight of her sister reduced to a wreck.
"I won't leave you sister. I swear."
For the rest of the night, Luna stayed with Celestia, protecting her as a sibling should be doing, until it was time to do their duties as the Princesses of the Sun and the Moon. Every other pony thought this was just going to be a normal day, but Celestia, she knows something will happen, but she can't let her precious ponies see her like this. After all, the Goddess of the Sun must look perfect.