This won't make sense without watching this video.
The flight of two Ilyushin Il-76D paratrooper aircraft followed closely by two Sukhoi SU-24, to keep watch on the flight, had reached its final waypoint for the stealth weapon experiment at over dense Russian woodlands. This was the first attempt to drop paratroopers from an aircraft fitted with the stealth force field technology, as it would be crucial to see if they could shield the detection of the paratroopers and their equipment, also doubling as a training mission for the troops. These two jets carried a company ,three BMD-3 air dropable IFVs and its commanding officer, Captain Vladimir Igorov. Little did the company know how this experiment would actually go down. As a matter of fact, no one knew.
"Alright men," Vladimir said, "We will be above the drop zone in 2 minutes."
The men all replied in various forms of approval, all of which enthusiastic. Immediately following their acknowledgment, Igorov ordered men to the rear doors of the aircraft individually. After being informed by the pilots that it was time to ready to begin the jump. He ordered all of his men off the massive aircraft, before he too jumped. He loved the feeling of freedom and fear that comes from jumping from an aircraft at altitude, the feeling of adrenaline rushing through your body whilst cutting through the air towards the ground. As a matter of fact, this feeling engulfed him so much, he didn't detect that the stealth force field generated barrier he, along with the rested of his company, passed through was charged with a high amplitude wave of electricity, even if the Captain did notice it, he wasn't alarmed and surely didn't understand the full implications of this.
He noted the three IFVs following behind him towards the ground; the parachutes on these far heavier vehicles deploying at a higher altitude than the infantry. The Captain noticed there was something wrong with forest below him, as there was a lack of roads, radar stations for the experiment, identifiable landmarks, and an odd-looking town in the distance. This was not the only thing troubling him as much of his company was new recruits, including two of his Lieutenants. Whatever daunting tasks that were awaiting him, he knew, would be extremely difficult to face.
Twilight Sparkle, Princess Celestia's student, was coincidentally, at the same time as the Russian stealth experiment, experimenting with weather magic over the Everfree forest with none other than the Ponyville Weather Team's Captain, Rainbow Dash. At one point Rainbow heard a loud buzzing noise (the sound being similar to that of a taser) , alerted Twilight and the two mares, upon looking up, were shocked and confused to see what they might describe as a large number of falling 'flowers' or similar objects, but really should be described as a white bouquet of parachutes.
"What is it, Twi?" The cyan pegasus asked.
"I-I don't know," Twilight stammered back in response.
Not twelve seconds later a paratrooper, dressed in a variation of camouflage, wearing a helmet with the same camouflage and a pair of sunglasses, landed in front of them and shouted: "Что же это?" Then, he proceeded to remove a small rectangular black object from his vest as well as what looked like a compass from his vest pocket and shout orders into it. Needless to say, the ponies thought he was crazy.
"Who are you?" Rainbow asked the creature.
"Ёбанный в рот!" He replied back, shouting. He then shouted into his black device again repeating the word Американцы.
The ponies looked more confused. This confusion was interrupted by the man shouting more into his device and pulling out a cylindrical object. After the pin was pulled out, it emitted a loud bang and after several seconds, orange smoke. Rainbow Dash began shouting at the man who pointed an L-shaped objected at her. (Yeah, you know what it is) He then waited for something. This confused the ponies more.
Twilight immediately whispered to Dash that she believed "The creature is threatening us," continuing to light up her horn to alert her older brother (as she her self lacked any significant combat spells(other than a couple that can suppress, but not damage)), the Captain of the Royal Guard, that she was in trouble and where she was; this being a simple distress spell she had learned from him several years earlier. Normally, the paratrooper might have noticed the light on her horn, but it was bright in the noon light, and he was looking in the other direction, still waiting for the unknown object to arrive.
After a couple minutes a rumbling noise got louder gradually, and finally, a large object slammed right through the treeline. This object could be identified as a BMD-3.The vehicle moved into the clearing where a large hatch in the rear of the vehicle opened. A figure walked out, flanked by two more. The figure walked over to the ponies, what one could assume to be his guards following.
He said something to the first paratrooper they encountered, and he replied. Then he proceeded to move behind him with his guards.
"He says you speak English, no?" The far more level headed solider said to the ponies in heavily accented English.
"English? But yes, I understand you." Twilight replied.
The man decided to ignore this and continue on, "What exactly, um, are you?"
"Ponies, this is Equestria, what are you?"
The man attempted to avoid laughing, then replied,"We are Humans, we are from Russia and we greet on behalf of the VDV."
"Where is the nearest settlement to here?" He continued.
"It's Ponyville, about a mile that way-" Twilight thought for a moment and then used her magic to check her direction. The man noticed this, as evidenced by his now wide sky blue eyes, however kept quiet for the time being. "There," She said more assured and pointed in a direction that would be known as north-west.
"Da, thank you," The man and his followers walked back to their vehicle and proceeded in the indicated direction.
"What are we gonna do, Twi?" Rainbow asked.
"We're going to wait." She said, fear clear in the shaky tones of her voice.
Captain Igorov sat in the IFV with two Sargents and a Corporal, Andrei Abramov, clutching his AN-94 assault rifle. He barely believed the Corporal when he heard his first transmission, and it was a miracle they found him. It was a hell of a time finding it as he was, with his compass coordinates. Luckily, it looked like they might find a settlement. He was hoping the locals might have some method of getting communications up, even if they were ponies. His thoughts were interrupted by a distress signal from on of the Il-76Ds coming in through their radio.
"This is Test Flight 2, we are taking fire to our right engine, appears to be from 120 degrees, not extensive damage, need return fire!"
The reply to this was both of the SU-24 pilots obliging to make the bastards pay and it appeared that whatever was shooting at them was either dead, or scared senseless enough not to shoot back further. The Captain suddenly had doubts about the locals being friendly or more importantly, being strong enough to put up a decent resistance. He assumed they wouldn't be friendly, by the tension in the unicorn's voice. Unicorn. God, did Vladimir not expect to have to deal with a unicorn. And its friend, the rainbow pegasus. He frowned. He wondered if it meant what it thought he meant, but decided it was unimportant.
He looked at his watch. 12:32. He knew the infantry was only 150 or so meters behind the vehicle, as the vehicle was moving slowly and one of the Lieutenants was told to state if it left this range. The gunner on the vehicle shouted he saw something, and the vehicles stopped at the Captain's request, to wait for the infantry. After about a minute, the vehicles moved slower and moved into the area around the strangely shaped cottage that the gunner spotted. The Captain got out of the vehicle with the men behind him. The Captain told the men to 'stay low' until he told them otherwise.
More radio chatter from the aircraft came in. The damaged Il-76D had lost large quantities of fuel and hydraulic in its right wing and was on a collision course with a village and couldn't pull up. A solider pulled out his binoculars and confirmed that the aircraft was going to crash into, ironically, a village that was visible in the distance roughly one kilometer away.
The massive aircraft slammed into the settlement, right wing first tearing up houses, and after around two seconds the left wing (still relatively filled with fuel, the aircraft couldn't fly due to this unbalance as well as lack of control surfaces) creating a large explosion.
"Go, go, go!" The men listened to their Captain obediently, except for Lieutenant Nikolai Vazov, the Captain's good friend, who noticed something.
"CAPTAIN!" Vazov shouted, "There's something coming at us, actually multiple targets, from the sky," He pointed at several white armored pegasi with his AK-74M.
Another solider spotted several unicorns and what looked like plain horses charging at them and the Captain gave the order to fire. The unicorns attempted to disarm their opponents using magic, but it proved ineffective at distances over 50 meters. They also shot beams of magic, but these were not as effective as the rounds in the rifles. Most of the at this point unnamed opponent to the VDV,(The captain refereed to them as Equestrian military) resorted to using spears, bows, and javelins.The BDM-3 was tearing apart the attackers and driving the rest away.
"Gentlemen," The Captain stated indignantly, "We're moving up to the town, now."
It took twenty minutes for the company to arrive in what was left of the unidentified town. The men were to look for the pilots, as well as watch out for any armored locals, which were deemed to be hostile by the Captain and to be shot on sight. The massive wreck of the Il-76 was littered across what the Vladamir assumed was once a medieval era looking town. What was left was burning rubble, chunks of cement and burning craters in the dirt roads that ran throughout the village.
"Company," Vladimir said, "We'll split apart and check the wreckage, first platoon, I want you to go off to the west, second platoon, to the north, third platoon on me to the east."
As the first two platoons obeyed their orders and proceeded to check the fuselage, the third platoon followed the Captain to the east. After 3 minutes, third platoon found the nose cone, and checked its contents. Inside they found the pilot and copilot, the pilot had several broken limbs and was covered in blood, but was alive. The copilot didn't fare so well, to say the least. He had been crushed under his control panel.
The Captain ushered a medic to the front to help the pilot, his face visibly displayed his rage. He knew the copilot, and he also knew his wife and children. There had been some men who had been wounded in the previous engagement near the forest, but those were not serious injuries, the worst being a broken arm from the blunt trauma of a javelin. Vladimir's expression turned bitter with hatred as he walked over to what was probably once a shop, and opened a pack of cigarettes. Smoking relived the stress from situations like the one he was currently in.
He was pondering if any of the shops that were in this town carried alcohol, when he heard a feminine voice cry out. He wasn't sure what it said, but it was English, just like all the other bastards here. Sighing, he picked up his assault rifle, gestured for a squad to come with him and walked towards the voice's source. As they moved closer, towards a small house, more reminiscent of a cottage then anything that Vladimir had seen. On the doorstep was a small sea-foam green unicorn.
"Oh sweet Celestia!" It shouted, "I can't believe humans are real! They'll never believe me-"
The Captain decided he should cut her off, otherwise he would probably never get the opportunity to speak. "Um, yeah, we're real, and it looks like you're not in danger or anything so we'll just get go-"
"NO!" The pony shouted, much to the surprise of the Captain and his troops, who had pulled their AK-74's in her direction, as well as the Captain's now upholstered MP-443. "Oh sorry. It's just that I didn't want to ruin the first chance I get to meet humans."
The Captain huffed and walked away, his men in tow. The pony continued to beg for the humans to stay with her, but to little avail. She began blubbering eventually revealing her name as 'Lyra' and then inquiring about his. The Captain did not inform her of his name, and asked her to leave again. It took him twenty minutes and two more cigarettes in an attempt to cause her to lose interest and leave. He smiled. He was happy he didn't have to shoot her.
Vladimir gave the order to dig in around the town; heavy machine gun nests at key access points, Kornet AT launchers in case the enemy does have armor, and an AA-Flak gun in what was presumably a park. The Captain knew there were still ponies in the town's houses, hiding from them, but he was unsure of how to deal with them. Odds are they won't be friendly like 'Lyra'. They'll probably be hostile like the armored soldiers, and that rainbow-maned pegasus.
Then again, Vladimir mused, they probably will just hide like little cowards no matter what we do. He preferred alone time then being around other people even his friends, like Nikolai Vazov. He needed to talk to him later, he made a mental note of that. He tossed his cigarette butt into the dirt street. He suddenly realized that they were going to have to find resources, and fast.
"Lieutenant Savrasov!" The Captain shouted, "Get a scouting party out and look for food and water. There's probably a well somewhere near the town center. Get some guys on it, stat." He finished with another puff on his cigarette.
The Lieutenant acknowledged with a salute and began to gather his men. Vladimir smiled. With that out of the way, he could worry about more important things, like getting out of 'Equestria' he wondered if the nervous looking ponies they left in the forest told him the truth, then if they were still alive. If it weren't for carrying heavy weaponry, there is no certainty he'd still be alive. Hell, these were just two ponies there's no way they're still alive.
He frowned; this was short lived however when he heard a message come through the radio. It was from the aircraft that were still airborne. They had found a suitable strip right outside of the town they were in, and were going to land on it.
Princess Celestia looked out at the damage that had been to Canterlot. She wondered how these creatures had done so much damage, and how the Royal Guard thought it would be a good idea to shoot first, then ask questions later. They learned the hard way that it wasn't a smart move. Casualties were in the upper hundreds, no exact estimates had came in at this point. According to Shining Armor, they had also lost the better part of a platoon to what survivors claimed were unknown 'bipedal' creatures. Celestia shivered.
She could see smoke billowing up in the distance from where one of the 'airships' crashed about two hours earlier. Ponyville. Her star student lived there, as well as the Elements of Harmony, Equestria's best line of defense. Celestia, of course had a super weapon, that was unrelated to the Elements she believed she could use to liberate Ponyville, rescue the Elements, and wipe out what ever force had taken over.
Her very own airship, The Rising Dawn, over 40 meters long, equipped with twenty-four, four inch black powder cannons on each side of the vessel, it was sure to do damage capable of wiping a city the size of Las Pegasus off the map. Its balloon was armored with a quarter inch of steel. It could survive an army hitting it with everything and still kill the entire army. Equestria's brightest young officer, Captain Shining Armor, was to be put in command of the behemoth. It was the only hope for saving Ponyville and the Elements, and thus, Equestria's only hope.
Lieutenant Alexander Repin, pilot of the last of the jets (His being an SU-24) , followed suit of the first two aircraft to land on a clear strip of a field near the crash site of the first paratrooper aircraft. The town, if one could call it that anymore, was about 150 meters from the strip, allowing the troops in the town to quickly defend it and build a hasty operations area for protecting the aircraft.
The aircraft bounced on the grassy runway as the wheels made contact. The aircraft slowed to a halt, and the pilot eased the flaps down, and gently pushed the thrusters forward. He used the rudder pedals to taxi to a make-shift parking spot for the plane, and shut the engines down. After double-checking everything, he stepped out from the plane and on to the wing, from there he jumped to the ground.
Satisfied with the day's events, he started towards the town, where the other pilots and officers were waiting. He wondered why the occupants of the town hadn't put up a resistance. It seemed likely they would, but after quickly defeating their actual military, they took the town without a shot being fired.Other then a 93 thousand kilogram plane crashing into it! He knew whatever types of forces this nation had would come back for the town, or if they were smart, would try to negotiate with them.
Alexander knew the latter wasn't plausible, but he could hope that he wouldn't have to slaughter every one of them. He sighed. He knew what it would likely come down to. But he had a job to do now, and that was figure out how to get home.
"Look who decided to join us," His wingman joking said to him, exerting a laugh from the others.
"Let's just get right to it," The Captain gave a glare to the other fighter pilot before continuing their conversation about how to get out of wherever they were.
"Those 'ponies', in the forest, must have had something to do with it," one of the platoon leaders concluded.
The Captain appeared to have a revelation. "He's right. There's no other reason they would go into a forest with such dangers, presumably ones they knew about too, other then to do something along those lines. And the unicorn could do magic, so they must have done something that sent us here."
"What about the stealth device we brought with us? That surely has something to do with it." The Il-76 pilot noted.
"So what if the unicorn was responsible?" Alexander finally piped up, "How are we going to find them?"
"Well, there is a town here, they presumably lived here, and maybe they had friends."
"What are you saying, Captain?"
The Captain gave him the glare of a man with a 'genius' idea, "I am saying we find their buddies, and make them find them for us."
The group of eight,(nine if you include the Captain) glanced at each other nervously. Reluctantly, with no better ideas, the officers decided it was worth a shot. A shadow suddenly cast over their meeting point; it was The Rising Dawn. The massive ship moved closer towards the town, causing the gunners to point their weapons at the craft, waiting until it entered the range of their weapons.
The cannons on one side of the untested ship fired, none of the projectiles hitting, or causing fragmentation damage to the troops. The ship was so surprised by this, they barely were able to reload before the AA-Cannon fired at their 'armored' balloon. The ship quickly sank towards the ground, even though a sudden flash appeared across the deck before another, this time on the ground twenty meters away from the 'sunken' ship.
It was a white unicorn with a blue mane wearing golden armor, as if to signify his importance in the group. This pony was flanked by four more unicorns, attempting to attack the humans. He bellowed a cry that most of the Russians couldn't understand; "You attacked my sister, a move that you'll regret before you die!"
He fired a couple of bolts of magic, this was stronger then that of the earlier ponies and managed to take out one solider. The Russian soldiers hit the ground, before quickly shooting down the ponies. The Commander threw down a shield effectively not allowing himself to shoot, but holding back rounds from the Russians. Vladimir walked up to the spectacle, told his men to cease fire, but still be at the ready. He pressed his hand against the cracked barrier, as the imprisoned pony spat the wall.
"What do you want?" Vladimir asked him in a relatively sincere tone.
"To rescue my sister and stop you evil vermin!"
"And who attacked first?" Vladimir grinned.
The pony faltered. Bingo. "Y-you did my sister sent a distress message to me, so we tried to destroy that flying machine. We assumed it was associated with the danger of my sister."
"Shouldn't make those kinds of assumptions. Who is your sister anyway?" He asked as the question reached the front of his mind.
"Purple unicorn, element of magic, amazing in every possible way..."
The white pony droned on, but the Russian officer ignored him after purple unicorn. He saw a purple unicorn in the forest, it might be a coincidence, but he had to be sure.
"Does she have a rainbow maned, uh," Vladimir drew a blank. He didn't remember the word for 'horse with wings' but he was sure there was one. He began pressing his fingers to his temples in thought. This was short lived as the pony interrupted him.
"Pegasus friend? Yes, have you seen her?" He said with great interest.
Fuck. He knew where she was, and she was quite possibly the reason they were even in this situation. He rubbed his temples again as he realized how screwed up it was to be fighting colorful little ponies.
A shot rang in the distance, killing the pony officer who refused to cooperate, as the Captain looked at the summer sun, it was probably around 7 o'clock at night now. A glance at his watch confirmed that. He was sure he'd have to find the unicorn and uh, winged horse? that they'd found in the forest if they wanted to get home. How would they find them though? Sure, if he could find their accomplices, it would make it easier, but how would he find out who they are?
"Captain!" A young paratrooper ran towards him, causing the Captain some alarm, causing him to pick up his assault rifle, "I was thinking that you should probably see this," The solider removed his Android from one of his vest pockets and handed it to the officer, who continued to look confused.
A children's show played upon tapping the screen. Vladimir looked confused when he recognized the first character to be displayed, a cyan pegasus, as Rainbow Dash. Realizing the significance of this, he handed the phone back to the recruit and asked him where they could find the friends of the characters.
"Uh," The solider scratched the back of his head, then pointed to a building across the street, " I think that's the bakery, uh, Sugarcube Corner, right there, one of the Rainbow Dash's best friends lives there."
"Good work, Private," Igorov replied back, grabbing for his radio, "we need a fireteam, near the tail section of the plane, we're going to breach a building."
Pinkie Pie stared out the window of the building, hoping that the monsters wouldn't enter. Rarity, and Applejack (who happened to be in town at the time) where behind her. one with the helmet pointed at the building they were in, as the one in the hat pulled out a small black device.
She closed the blinds. She couldn't take it anymore. They would come and kill anypony that they saw, they had killed Shining Armor, and nopony could stop them. A knocking noise is heard on the door. The ponies backed up. Another knocking, this time accompanied by shouting. The door exploded downwards as Applejack attempted to buck the 'monster' entering, telling her friends to run.
The machinegunner was kicked down, dropping his PKM on to the floor of the building. The man behind him hit his AK over the head of the orange pony who did the damage. Corpral Datsik piked up his PKM and continued the breaching of the building. The brony pointed out that the one that they had hit was Applejack, and there were likely to be more of the ponies upstairs.
The Sargent told the brony that it was obvious and to shut up. The group moved up the stairs. A white unicorn grabbed one of the rifles with her magic and was subsequently knocked out with the stock of the Sargent's rifle. The next pony, a pink one, begged for them not to kill her. The Private told 'Pinkie Pie' that it was OK, as she continued to cry hysterically. A smaller one, a white unicorn with purple hair was cowering in the corner. The Sargent asked the Private if any of them were important. The Private nodded pointing at the pink one as well as the white one.
The infantry moved ahead of the BMD-3s, scouting ahead. The three ponies sat tied up in the BMD that the Captain was in. He continuously asked them where the two ponies would go in this forest. They called him a 'monster', telling him that he shouldn't have abandoned them there. The Captain told them he was trying to help them now. The ponies refused to cooperate.
A radio call from a scout came in, "Uh, horse thingy with wings, a yellow one, one hundred yards. Could have intel on our target, how do you advise?"
"Catch it. If it tries to fly, shoot its wings off."
"Yes sir!" After hearing this, the Captain placed his radio back on his uniform and continued to interrogate the ponies.
The soldiers outside the vehicle searched for any signs of their targets. A particular solider, armed with a RPK-74, stealthily snuck up on the yellow pegasus. The man rest his rifle on a branch dangling from a tree and tackled the pony, as two men behind him kept their AKs fixed on the pony. She gave the man who tackled her a look. The man flinched, even though he had successfully tied her up already. The other soldiers learned this must be a 'magical' power of hers and decided not to look at her in the eyes, after informing the Captain of this via radio, they placed her in the APC.
The Captain asked the pony if she had found them, and why she was there. She claimed she was in her house when she realized Rainbow Dash and Twilight were to stop by right after their trek and after noticing their absence, she brought some tracker animals with her to find them. She (luckily) had some idea where they were. The Captain could only hope they were still alive.
Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle Ran. They heard the vehicles again. They were coming. They had destroyed their town and now they were going to get them. Did they find out she alerted the guard? What would happen if they got them? Would they kill them? Suddenly Twilight stopped.
"What the hay is it, Twi?!" Rainbow screamed, beckoning her friend to move forward to avoid the inevitable.
"I sense... the others..." She panted.
Rainbow's eyes widened. They had their friends. Maybe... just maybe... she could summon the Elements of Harmony. Or maybe get some Royal Guards to bring it to them. Twilight couldn't summon it. She had to simply inform a pegasus guard of the situation and get him to drop off the Elements.
The SU-24s struck the cliff side city another time, realizing this was their military capital. A surviving tower, which attempted to bring down the jets, was destroyed by a single rocket. The planes flew off, turning around miles away to strike again.
Sargent Racing Inferno saw his shot. He jumped off the side of the cliff, with his pack containing Equestria's most dangerous weapons in tow. He knew he would have to get there fast, or face annihilation at the hands of the Russian fighters. One of the planes must have seen him as it flew off course towards him. He dropped like a rock, hoping to not die.
Little did the Sargent know, the pilot of the jet was simply experimenting if he could get a heat lock-on on to the pegasus.
Twilight and Rainbow sat there, cornered by the Russian Airborne infantry. A pegasus flew down. He carried a large pack and he was adorned in Royal Guard armor. The Sargent who recognized what this meant, instantly shot him down. His pack tumbling from his injured form. Twilight quickly removed her element from the bag, but was hit knocked out by a qucik hit from an AK-74 on the back of the head.
When Twilight came to, she was tied up, her horn covered with a rag sealed by a rubber band. As she tried to stand up, a solider pushed her back to the ground. She forced her head forward, noting her friends and the pegasus who dropped the elements off, gagged and bruised. The man wearing a blue beret in place of the other soldier's helmets put his rifle on to a box of crates, then walked over, a sly grin planted on his lips.
"I know what these are," He said, gesturing towards the bag containing the elements, "You thought you'd be able to get to them and kill us?"
He made a tsk-tsk sound. Twilight attempted to retaliate, but it didn't come out that way.
"What do you want with me?!"
"We want to go home."
She looked at the men, behind their emotionless expressions, she saw fear; fear that her brother had told her about. 'Every young soldier thinks they will be the best, but is really afraid.' She remembered.
"I don't know how I got you here," She said, "It was an accident."
"FUCK!" The Captain slammed his fist on a crate, knocking his rifle off.
"Sir, I have some good news!" Another solider shouted happily in Russian.
"Not now," He said.
"But sir, the pilot just woke up- he knows how to get us out of here!"
"Good. What have we gotta do?"
"We're going to have to get a radio transmitter. About 25 meters tall. We're gonna need it on the tallest point near here, which would be that city we keep shooting at."
"Fuck. That's where all their military is."
"Face it Captain, all they are capable of is costing us more ammunition."
"What if their guy wasn't lying about there being more like him-"
"Then we're in for a little challenge."
"Who's the guy he took down doing?"
"Damaged armor, bleeding arm and mild trauma. He'll make it."
"He won't be able to fight though, I guess?"
"Yep."
With that, the Captain turned to another soldier. "What are we gonna do about these ponies?"
"We could bring them back to Russia, sir."
The Captain contemplated that before saying, "Very well. We will bring them with us. We might get tired of rations."
The men laughed at his joke before moving onward.
A/N: Sorry about the wait on this one. I've been busy for the past month.
The BMDs moved towards the train station, as that seemed to be the quickest way to transport their large numbers of troops. As the men moved onto the platform, they quickly gunned down the ponies at the station that refused to cooperate and commandeered the train. The men quickly weaponized the train, Kornet launchers and .50 caliber KORD machine guns were mounted on a platform quickly welded on to the front of the train with some equipment designed for repairs.
The name,Friendship Express, which was plastered onto the side of the train seemed ironic to the Captain. A map indicated the train did actually go to the city in question. The men loaded all their weapons, and the IFV's waited behind the train to follow it to the city. The conductor ponies were ushered forward and told to move the train to Canterlot. The train started moving with all of the troops in its cars, in the IFVs or on the monstrosity's weapons.
The Captain grinned as the train started rolling down the track. All of the weapons were loaded, and contact was maintained with their FOB, where their planes were parked. The Captain planned the battle out with his Lieutenants with a map of the city that was on the train. The plan was to take out checkpoints that were likely to be set up on the train tracks,known from intel gained from ponies at the station. Then rush into the city, quickly pushing back all who put up a resistance. It was foolproof.
It was truly a force to be reckoned with; a train with loaded up with Russian heavy weapons followed by two tanks. The SU-24s definitely were another claim to this unstoppable force's power. As the train neared the city, alarms started blaring at extremely obnoxious decibels. Many of the men were perplexed by the physics-bending properties of the land they were in, specifically by the fact that they had just entered on one side of a hill, and came out on the opposite side at a higher altitude.
This barely phased the Captain, him having seen the most of what this bizarre land had to offer. He began to wonder what would happen to it after they got home. Surely, the scientists would want to check it out themselves. But what would they do with the actual land? It was no doubt warmer and more hospitable than plenty of Russia. But was the land really usable? Whatever the energy that was making this place work, could definitely be a hassle for those who wanted to occupy the land.
The Captain was shaken out of his thoughts by the bursts of machine gun fire. He took a deep breath, knowing the train was going to arrive at its destination in a matter of minutes. The Captain picked his radio off of the table where it rested next to his assault rifle, which itself rested on a map ripped off of a train station wall. He informed his company that the train would arrive at 'the end of the line' and this would be where they would fight their way up to the castle, which should have the resources to build their radio tower, hopefully an explanation as well.
Just as he was checking the action on his MP-443 pistol, he noticed a buffeting noise he hadn't noticed before. He walked over to the window on the train nearest to the source of the noise, the window in question being on the left side of the train. Vladamir's mouth was agape when he saw the sight that greeted him. Two Mi-24 Hind assault helicopters had somehow gotten here as well. A quick glance through his binoculars confirmed them to be Russian. So, he naturally called out to the helicopter using his radio.
He identified himself as the commander of the VDV force that was marooned here. The helicopters claimed that they were sent through a portal in Russia, and were instructed to do so under the command of the GRU. The stated objective was to find the missing airborne company, and provide assistance if necessary. Each helicopter was to be carrying fourteen troops, all of the troops were members of a GRU Spetsnaz unit.
The Captain did not have time to inquire more, as the Friendship Express had pulled into the station and began unleashing hell on the unsuspecting pony guards. Vladamir did however instruct the helicopter to fly to the green smoke, and have the Spetsnaz fast-rope in.The green smoke was created by his tossing of a colored smoke grenade onto the station's platform.
A gold streak hit the platform, sending Vladamir flying. Another flew by, hitting other soldiers in his company. He was vaguely aware of the pilot shouting that he saw the source of the fire, and was proceeding to engage rather than fast rope the troops down first. A Spiral missile hit one of the castle's spires with a deafening explosion, followed by the sound of the bricks that constructed the building give way and the crash of the massive structure against the Earth.
The SU-24's cannons tore right through a platoon that was nearby, and who's presence was only known due to the pilot's spotting of it. Vladamir finally brushed himself off, regaining his bearings at his new location. This being twenty feet away from the platform of the station. He heard the sounds of the squads fast-roping down from the Hinds. He lifted his AN-94 back into his hands and aimed down the Kobra red-dot at a squad of the Royal Guards.
Several of the Spetsnaz members moved towards Vladamir, two of them carrying a box made out of Kevlar. They pointed their sub-machine guns at other guards, every shot fired hitting another pony, the soldiers moving in silent cooperation, an understanding far beyond the normal level, no two men shot their weapons at the same pony. Their experience level made that of the airborne troops who had been fighting alongside them look like a aimless bramble.
As the Captain lowered his rifle, the two operators carrying the Kevlar box set it down, the first one telling him that it was the device needed to generate the portal, and that it could be activated immediately and they could go home, provided they wouldn't be attacked. Vladamir considered this, but he was an experienced solider. This was his fight. He knew that he couldn't just leave it, and let the GRU do what they pleased with it. It wasn't over. Not yet.
There wouldn't be a peace between him and this land, not until there are no more Equestrian soldiers to fight him left. He had a score to settle. This wasn't about Russia anymore, this was about vengeance. He turned back towards the man in the balaclava and goggles, and then he spoke, "We need to clear the area first, it's the only way we can keep the motherland secure."
The solider seemed to understand, though it was impossible to see his expressions due to his facially-obscuring headgear. The BMD-3 vehicles moved up past the station and began the trek uphill towards the castle. He was going to find out exactly what the queen- or was it princess? Either way, the ruler had information and they needed to figure out what it was.
Vladamir frowned. It was entirely possible that the earlier airstrike had killed the leader when it had blown part of the building to pieces. He still needed to find her though. Her student, the purple unicorn that they had taken prisoner, defiantly would be able to identify her, and that would prove useful provided that the leader was actually still alive. He removed the clip from his rifle, and swapped it with a fresh one from one of his pockets.
The team moved through the halls that wrapped around the castle. One of the soldiers near the rear of the dozen man group was holding a purple unicorn in a position that was clearly uncomfortable, which was only exemplified by the bag that covered her horn. She coughed as some left over smoke from the missile rolled over her nostrils, the humans surrounding her barely noticing. Finally, she led them to a room before speaking.
"She's here," She said, extremely dejected, deflated and an obvious expression of her own betrayal across her face.
Two men took up a position next to door. They then nodded to each other before breaking the door open and rushing in behind the rest of the team. The wind whistled through the castle room, obviously due to the large hole that was the far wall. A white unicorn-pegaus hybrid that lay on the ground in an awkward position, next to this a surprised dark blue member of the same race backed up, wings extended quickly, with tears in its eyes.
