> PonyZ: Radio Zed
>  by Tempest Wind
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Act 1 Chapter 1: Day Z
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Every dead body that is not exterminated becomes one of them. It gets up and kills. The people it kills get up and kill."
- Doctor on newscast, Dawn of the Dead (1978)

A UH-60 Huey helicopter flew at a breakneck speed over Electrozadvosk, a full squad of Equestrian 3rd Ranger Division rifleponies sitting in the back. One of them was a purple unicorn with a darker purple mane and tail, both accentuated by a single magenta streak. He was Command Sergeant Major Dusk Shine, and he was currently polishing the Colt .45 M1911 in his hand. The Colt .45 ACP MEU was standard issue, courtesy of the Colt brothers, and had a faster rate of fire along with a larger magazine, but Dusk preferred the older 1911's higher accuracy. Lifting his gaze up to the gunner position, he saw his friend Corporal Rainbow Blitz, a sky-blue pegasus with a rainbow-colored mane and tail, manning the M60E4 machine gun. Blitz was Dusk's pointpony, arming himself with a Trotington R870 pump-action shotgun. Casting his eyes about the rest of the vehicle, he saw the rest of his squad mates and close friends engaged in various activities; wielding the opposite side's M60 was Applejack, a rather large, orange-coated earth stallion with short blonde hair. Butterscotch, their corpsman, was a small, timid-looking pegasus, and had a yellow coat with a pink mane and tail. He sat further in the back of the chopper, bandaging the arm of Elusive, a pure white unicorn whose deep violet hair was in a rather frilly set of curls for a stallion. He had taken an SVD bullet during an engagement in Novy Sobor. Their team's explosives expert, Bubble Berry, was an earth pony, and pink all over. His chaotic mane and tail were so messy they resembled cotton candy, and his personality matched perfectly. He was watching his fragmentation grenades intently… Dusk worried about Bubble sometimes.
Returning his attention to his sidearm, Dusk jumped when a muted crack rang out and the helicopter suddenly lurched. Walking briskly into the cockpit, Dusk yelled over the thunderous din of the helicopter, "What just hit us!"
The pilot, Thunderlane, was wrestling with the controls. "I don't know! It sounded like some kind of sniper-!" There was another crack and his head turned into red mist. Dusk ducked out of reflex.
"…Oh BUCK! EVERYONE, WE NEED TO BAIL NOW!" he called back. Too late, as the helicopter spun out of control and quickly met the ground, too quickly for even the supersonic Rainbow Blitz to react. The centripetal force threw Dusk from the chopper just before the crash, sending him sliding along the ground. He groaned and passed out as a shadow passed over his vision.

PonyZ: Radio Zed
Chapter 1: Day Z

Dusk Shine jolted awake, coming up to a sitting position with his pistol at the ready, franticly scanning the area; he was lying near a small campfire, in an open area. He also saw that the rest of his squad were present and miraculously unharmed, though unconscious.
"Calm down, Sergeant Major." a male voice said, causing Dusk to immediately aim in the direction of its origin. A ghillied-up pony sat nearby, stoking the fire. "No one's going to shoot you." the stranger assured. Aware that he wouldn't still be alive if the pony had meant any harm, but still weary of his intentions, Dusk slowly holstered his pistol.
"Where are we?" he asked the stranger.
"We're about… twelve kilometers northeast of Electro." came the response, after a quick glance at a map.
Dusk simply nodded and nudged Blitz. "So who are you?" he asked as he tried to rouse the pegasus. Stupid Blitz wouldn't wake up. Likely dreaming about that fighter ace, Spitfire. Idiot was really reaching out of his league on that one.
"The name's Hawkeye Archer, Gunnery Sergeant in B Company. I was the sniper in a sniper-spotter team."
Dusk nodded again, repeatedly slapping the corporal's face. "I'm Dusk Shine. My squad was the attaché from the 3rd Rangers. Come on, get up you lazy sack of feathers." he ordered at the inert Rainbow Blitz, who seemed adamant in staying in heaven with Spitfire.
"Nice to meet you sir." Hawk got up and walked over to Blitz, taking out his M24 sniper rifle, and promptly whacked him in the head with the stock.
Blitz leapt up to his feet and put his hands to his head in pain. "Ow, Ow, OW, WHAT THE-" Dusk cut him off with a hand over his mouth.
"Will you shut up, Blitz?!" Dusk hissed. "The dragonbait that shot us down could still be around." Blitz nodded, still with a furious headache, and Dusk tossed him his Trotington. "Now wake up the others. I need to figure out what we're going to do next."
Blitz saluted him and started nudging Butterscotch gently. "Pst… Butterscotch… Wake up man…"
Dusk walked a ways, grabbing the map Hawkeye had used, searching for ideal places to go to. Their position was marked with a red X, near the towns of Electro and, further to the east, Cherno. Hawk walked over to Dusk's side and peered at the map.
"Any ideas of where to go, sir?"
"I think so… Priority one is getting some supplies… And then we need a reliable shelter…" Of course, they had very few options, but he took the time to study his mysterious companion out of the corner of his eye. It didn't take long; even looking this closely at Hawkeye, the leafy suit he wore covered everything; even his eyes were covered by a hood he wore. Dusk could only tell he was male from his voice, and had no idea what species he was. Deciding that now wasn't the best time to wonder about Hawkeye's appearance, he quickly plotted the course in his mind and, satisfied, rolled up the map. He started back towards the group with the camouflaged sniper in tow.
"Guys," Dusk began, "this is Gunnery Sergeant Archer. He's a sniper for B-Coy."
Applejack shook his hand. "Nice ta meet ya sir. Didja happen ta see the dragonbait that shot down our helo?"
Hawk shook his head. "Sorry corporal, no such luck. I just heard the gunshots and saw you guys crash. It sounded like an AS50."
"What's the plan, Dusk?" Blitz asked, eager to move out. Dusk gathered everypony and spread the map in the air, now enveloped with a purple aura.
"The closest town to our position is Electro. We'll be heading there first to get guns, ammo, food, etcetera." He pointed with a finger to trace their path. "Then we'll move down to Cherno and find some shelter. Assess the situation, see what we can see. There's a military base at Stary, not too far from there. That's our final destination. Currently, we're twelve klicks northeast of Electro, so we'll start in the morning." He folded up the map and placed it in his bag. "Right now, everypony get some sleep. We'll set up watch in standard order, rotate every hour. Blitz, that means you're up first." Rainbow nodded solemnly and flicked his shotgun off safety.
-------------
The next day, the seven soldiers started their hike through the forest towards Electro, Hawkeye in the back with his sniper rifle, and Blitz in the lead with his shotgun. As they came out of the treeline and reached the main road, something in the blue pegasus's peripheral vision caught his eye. He held up a clenched hand as he crouched down and his head swiveled left, away from Electro. It was smooth land, and though the object that caught his attention was a mile away, he could easily discern the sight of a vehicle coming.
"Truck coming," he alerted, "get down." The group quickly dropped down and laid prone in the trees, the sound of the truck soon reaching their pricked ears. The Ural truck rumbled by, and the ponies saw that it was being driven by two griffons.
'Great. Looks like the griffons might already be onto us.' Dusk thought. He and his team had hoped they wouldn't be seeing any enemy contact this early in their trek. Their position was bad enough without those beakheads knowing where they were. "Nice catch, Blitz." he congratulated, still on the ground. "Another few seconds and they might have seen us."
"So what?" Blitz countered, ever the tough guy. "It was just two of 'em. I could take two griffons in my sleep, even if you guys aren't backing me up. We should've just shot them."
"Don't you think the situation is precarious enough as it is without unnecessary firefights?" Elusive interjected.
"T'ain't smart to go pickin' fights like this. We don't know much, an' we have even less." Applejack added.
"Applejack's right. We have no idea what we're up against, or who would hear us if we made a commotion. And we are not equipped to find out." Dusk said.
"Oh, come on you pansies!" Blitz said exasperatedly. "It's just two griffons! There are seven of us, we wouldn't make any noise. And, even if we did, we'd have two captives and that shiny new truck to drive around in. What could go wrong?"
Suddenly, there was a sound like thunder that was becoming all too familiar and the truck's engine block exploded, destroying it and cooking the griffons inside with the resulting explosion. The noise caused everyone to cringe and flatten their ears against their skulls. When the echo faded, they raised their heads once more, gazing at the wreckage.
"What in Tartarus was that?" a dumbfounded Hawkeye asked.
Dusk Shine shrugged. "I don't know, and I don't plan on bucking finding out. Not even an AS50 can destroy a Ural in one shot."
"It wasn't even explosive ammo." Bubble Berry chimed in. Everyone immediately gave him blank stares. "Believe me, I know explosive ammo, and that wasn't it. See, it makes this weird kind of double boom, like b-boom! And this boom was just a regular boom kind of boom." Hawkeye continued to stare, whilst everyone else turned to Dusk, having already known Bubble for many years.
"Either way," Dusk said, changing the subject, "I think it's clear we should stay off the main road and sneak into town at night." Everyone hastily nodded their agreement, and they began marching, staying well inside the treelike.
"'And we'd have a shiny new truck to drive around in.' Got any more bright ideas, featherbrain?" Applejack asked. Rainbow Blitz chuckled weakly.
"Maybe we should just avoid any commotion until we know what we're up against."
-------------
As it got dark, the squad snuck quietly out of the thinning forest and into the town, each of them thanking Luna that there was no moon to reveal them. The town was abandoned; unsurprising, seeing as how a war was being waged in the region. The first building they came across was a hospital, from which they thankfully managed to find some basic medical supplies and food items. They were about to enter a gunshop when a groan from behind caught their attention. They turned around, weapons at the ready, and saw… a pony. What caught them off guard though, was how he moved. He walked toward them at a medium pace, apparently oblivious to everything around him. His brown coat was plastered with dirt and grime, and his yellow mane and tail were an absolute mess. They all lowered their weapons and looked at each other, confused expressions plastered on their faces. All but Hawkeye, who warily kept a tight grip on his M24.
'What in Equestria is that pony doing here?' Dusk asked himself. 'He isn't armed or in uniform, so it must be a civilian. They should all be cleared out.'
"Any thoughts, sir?" Applejack asked his CO.
"It's a civie, no doubt about it."
"Someone too stubborn to leave their home?" Elusive suggested.
"Let's find out. Hey! You there! What are you doing here?" Dusk shouted at the pony. It didn't respond. "All civilians are supposed to be evacuated." Again, it gave no response, save for letting out another groan. 'Something doesn't feel right.' He slowly brought his pistol up and pulled down the hammer. The pony continued coming closer. "Alright, that's far enough." The mystery pony was now close enough for Dusk to smell the bloodstains that covered him. "I said stop! Stop, or I will fire on you!" He gave no heed to the warning. Dusk tilted his pistol downward and fired, hitting the pony's leg. For an instant, time almost seemed to stand still as the pony, instead of falling over or clutching it's leg, stood ramrod straight. Baffled by the odd behavior, Dusk hesitated when the pony suddenly began charging him.
Rainbow Blitz saw all of this almost in slow motion, brought his Trotington up to its firing position, and pulled the trigger. The countless tiny pellets released from the shell tore through the pony's head, stopping it in his tracks and dropping it flat on it's stomach.
"Dear Celestia!"
"Oh my…"
"Woah, the buck was that, Blitz!?"
"He was going for Dusk, I…"
Dusk Shine himself was stunned into silence, trying to process what just happened.
Hawkeye walked over and examined the body, using his boots to flip it on it's back, revealing a bloody torso and, more importantly, bite marks all over the body. "That's what I thought." he mumbled to himself. He looked up at the rest of the squabbling group. "Blitz did fine, everyone." They stopped and looked at him. "Nice draw too. Fastest I've ever seen."
"What do you mean by that, Hawkeye?" Dusk asked.
"Sir, these things aren't ponies anymore."
"Anymore?" he asked incredulously. "As in they've become something else?" He looked at the corpse, then back to Hawk. "He looks like a pony to me."
"He was already dead, Blitz just killed him a second time." The sniper lowered his head at the memory that was surfacing. 'It seems like just yesterday…' "About a day after we took Chenarus, dead ponies and griffons started to show up. At first, we thought it was a good thing, but… then when Private Skies tried to talk to a couple up close… She… She…" Hawk shook his head and pulled back his hood, showing the others his face for the first time: his grey fur, his black mane, and especially his steely grey eyes. "They tore her apart sir. Those things are monsters, not griffons and definitely not ponies."
In those eyes, Dusk saw several things: anger and hatred for the monstrous corpses that had been reanimated. The cold and calculating gaze of a trained marine sniper, so detached from his enemies that he could drop them without remorse from a mile away. Finally, Dusk saw a great juxtaposition with the shell of coldness that the marine had erected: despair, as if he had lost someone, and the death had hit very close to home.
"Hawkeye, who was Private Skies?"
He reached into the suit and produced a pair of dog tags from one of his shirt pockets and handed them to Dusk, who took them gingerly. "Pvt. Cloudy Skies," he read aloud for the group to hear, "Equestrian Marines; B-Company, Scout-Sniper…" he trailed off. His eyes shot up to Hawk, who silently nodded. "Sweet Celestia, gunnery sergeant…" he managed to croak out.
"Had to shoot her too." he responded somberly. "If you get bit, you get turned into one unless you get antibiotics on it. Has to be strong stuff too, the kind you get from hospitals. We were out in the wilderness; we had none of that."
"I'm so sorry." Elusive offered.
"That sounds awful." Butterscotch agreed, forgetting his shyness for the moment.
"Why didn't you tell us about these… things?" Rainbow Blitz asked.
Hawkeye chuckled grimly as he replaced his hood. "Would you have believed me?"
-------------
The seven continued into the gunshop and began grabbing rounds from the counter.
"Nothing military-grade, unfortunately." Elusive reported, searching through the supply with his telekinesis. "This is all civilian ammo."
"Still better'n nothin'." Applejack said. "We get those things' attention, ah'd rather be fightin' at a distance."
Hawk was looking for a suitable knife, caught between a machete and an old SEAL knife.
Dusk saw him in his predicament. "Go for the machete." Dusk advised. "It's longer, less chance of them… reaching you." Dusk thought Hawk was a strong guy, but he wanted to avoid the word "bite" until he was sure Hawk was over Skies's death. Hawk nodded, giving the blade a few practice swings. "Hey, Bubble, you done taking inventory yet?"
"Just about," he responded, leaning out of a back room, "but they have, like, zero explosives here! Can you belive that? Not one stinking grenade! All I managed to save from the crash was half a pound of C4 and a glowstick!"
Hawk raised an eyebrow behind his hood. "Trust me, you're gonna be glad he has that later on." Rainbow Blitz said.
"Hey Hawkeye, what does your rifle take?" Bubble Berry asked, browsing a hunting rifle ammo case in the storage room.
Normally, Hawkeye would reprimand him for not using "sir", but he decided to let the kid off the hook. ".338 Lapua magnum bullets. See any back there?"
Bubble Berry shook his head. "Nope, sorry. No Lapuas."
"Alright then." he said back. 'Good thing I brought a few spare clips, I should be fine for now."
"Aha! Perfect." Elusive thought aloud, as he used his magic to levitate a pistol and ammo to his hands. "There you are, Butterscotch." he said, holding the weapon out to his companion. "Ruger P99. Just the thing for you." Butterscotch was immediately reluctant, and Elusive sighed. "Oh Butterscotch, you need it for personal defense."
Butterscotch didn't take them. "Elusive, I don't want to take a gun. I wasn't trained for combat." he meekly argued.
"You still have to defend yourself." Elusive countered.
"But I don't want to kill anything Elusive, I'm a medic."
Seeing that his friend needed help, Dusk stepped in. "They're already dead, Butterscotch. Just think of it as… putting them to sleep. They woke up and need to be put back to sleep."
Butterscotch looked at the pistol, then sighed. "Okay Dusk, if you say so." Elusive breathed a quiet sigh of relief and gave Dusk a thankful glance. Dusk smiled back.
"Hey guys, ah think ah found sumthin'." The others gathered around Applejack, who pulled a box of what looked like part of a trigger group out from behind the counter. "The owner of this place was packin' some full-auto civilian fire selectors."
"I thought those were outlawed?" Blitz asked.
"Eeyup." Applejack confirmed. "The manifest doesn't say anythin' about 'em." He took out a worn piece of paper. "It does say they have some semi-autos in storage in the range room, an' we can probably put the fire selectors in 'em. Use 'em as assault rifles."
"What kind of rifles?" Dusk asked.
"Let's see… mostly civie stuff… a shipment of police M16's, and a couple of L85's." Applejack read. "And it looks like there're even sights for 'em. One's Thermal and the other's got a SUSAT." 
"Excellent. Elusive, get the door." The white unicorn nodded and opened the door to the range with his magic, his MEU at the ready. He entered and motioned with his hand for the others to follow. The range was clear, and the storage room was just across the room, a steel door with a window and a crowbar locking it in place. The crowbar gave them all a bad feeling, but Elusive started forward, about to unblock it.
"Stop!" Bubble Berry yelled as softly as he could. The others looked at him and he pointed down. "Pinchy knees." he explained. His five friends immediately adopted a scared expression, their eyes bugging out.
"And what in the name of Celestia does that mean?" Hawkeye asked.
"Whenever my knees get pinchy, it means that something scary is close. It must be behind the door." he reasoned, and began walking over.
"That's ridiculous-" Hawkeye began, but Bubble knocked on the door. A slam came from the other side, startling the seven ponies, and a dead pony came into view in the glass portal. "Okay, the crowbar was a dead giveaway." Hawkeye argued.
"Let's try to keep this quiet." Dusk instructed. "Hawkeye, how good are you with that machete?"
Hawk pulled the machete from it's sheath on his belt. "I'm good enough." He removed the crowbar from the door and brandished both weapons at the walking corpse as it burst from the storage room, shuffling slowly towards Hawkeye. The sniper threw his crowbar as hard as he could, breaking the dead pony's nose and staggering it for a second, before rushing forward and cleaving it's head in two with the machete. The blade broke off at the handle and the re-killed corpse fell, dead once more. Hawkeye looked at the useless handle in his grip, surprised by how easily it broke. "Huh. Piece of crap." He tossed it away, replaced it with the crowbar, and walked into the armory with the others right behind him. Inside were several semi-automatic rifles, including civilian Car-15s and the two L85A2s, but the M16s were gone.
"Looks like somepony else got here first and took them." Hawkeye reported. "I bet they locked the zombie in here to keep anyone else away."
"So zombies is what we're calling them now?" Elusive asked Hawkeye incredulously.
Hawk simply shrugged. "Why not? They're dead and still walking, sounds like a zombie to me." Elusive rolled his eyes and tossed Dusk a Car-15. He had trouble enough accepting the situation without having to think about them fighting something as ridiculous as zombies.
"Hey Dusk," Blitz asked, "why don't we grab a bunch of these and use the radio tower to store them until we get a vehicle? I bet we could find a bus or a civilian truck around town."
"I don't know," Dusk began, "that gun took out a Ural in one shot. A vehicle isn't going to be safe. At least, not around here. Just grab a couple guns, load up on ammo, and let's head out."
"Great." Blitz complained. "More walking."
"Better'n bein' dead." Applejack countered. "Or do you end up as baked chicken like our two friends back on the road?" Blitz just sighed in resignation. Soon, each soldier was equipped with a sidearm, their normal weapon, two extra guns, and ammo for all. They ended up almost clearing out the room; needless to say that if whoever took the M16s came back, they'd be pretty pissed off.
"Let's get out of here." Dusk Shine told everyone. "There's nothing else we need from here, and we should get to Cherno ASAP." The rangers and the sniper snuck back out of town, not noticing the group of dead griffons wearing balaclavas and holding M16s. All of them had rifle wounds.
-------------
By midnight, the group was halfway to Cherno, thanks to a quick pace and the relatively small distance between the two towns. The strange rifle was heard again before they went to bed, setting them all on edge. Despite their best efforts, Blitz was not the only one up, and neither was AJ when his turn as sentry came. The night wore on slowly as each soldier tried to sleep, but their brains stayed stubbornly on alert. After what seemed to be an eternity of trepidation and silence, the ponies eventually succumbed to an uneasy slumber, the mix of drowsiness and adrenaline-fueled nerves not doing them any favors. The next day they crept even more carefully towards Cherno, but stopped when the sound of rotor blades reached their ears, perking them into alertness.
"You hear that?" Dusk asked the group as they looked up for the source, ears swiveling.
"Behind us." Applejack pointed, and the others turned and followed his finger to find a Huey helicopter flying towards Cherno. As it passed overhead however, an ominous rumbling sounded from within the machine, and it began rapidly losing altitude as the rotors slowed to a stop. It groaned and span, grazing the treetops before crashing to the ground with a tumultuous cacophony of grinding metal. The soldiers nodded to each other and took off in the direction of the smoking helicopter. When they got to the clearing it had crashed in, the survivors were pulling themselves from the wreckage, mostly unharmed. Dusk's eyes grew wide as he heard familiar voices.
"D*** it Rainbow, what happened?" came the inquiry of who could only be described as the female version of Applejack, complete with the southern drawl and trademark stetson.
"I think we ran out of gas AJ," went the reply of her cerulean blue sister-in-arms. "It just stopped spinning all of a sudden."
"What do ya mean ya (italics)think(/italics) we ran outta gas? You were pilotin' the thing, weren't ya?"
Watching this from their point of concealment, Hawkeye turned to Dusk and noticed his reaction. "Friends of yours sir?" he asked.
"Yeah." came the simple reply. "It's the friggin' Elements of Harmony. Attachés from the 82nd airborne."
"No kidding?"
"Trust me, its them. We know each other from… a bit of an incident way back. Who knew they'd be all the way out here?" 
"Well, I'll introduce myself. You guys stay here for now. We might not be the only ones who heard that crash, and it won't do for us all to be out in the open if that's the case." Dusk nodded and brought up his rifle as Hawkeye walked over to the feuding ponies.
"Look, I'm not confirming or denying anything here AJ. But I maaaay or may not have been entirely conscious while we were flying."
"Oh for Celestia's sake!" the orange mare exclaimed with a facehoof. "You were nappin' in the cockpit again, weren't ya?" she angrily accused.
"Hey, we've been fine every other time I've done it! And it was, like, practically full when I turned on the autopilot. Not my fault that thing chugs gas like Pinkie Pie in cider season!"
"Hello there," Hawk called out, "are you okay?" The two mares ceased their bickering and looked at him perplexedly, surprised to see another pony. He came to a stop in front of them. "Equestrian Marine Corps, we saw your helo crash."
"Wow, that was fast." Rainbow Dash said. "Hey Twilight, get out here!" she called. "We've got a friendly!"
Out of the helicopter stepped a purple unicorn, almost identical to Dusk Shine save that she was a mare as well. "Captain Twilight Sparkle," she introduced, offering a handshake.
"Hello ma'am," he replied, taking the offer. "I'm Gunnery Seargent Hawkeye Archer, B coy." Rarity and Fluttershy came out carrying an injured Pinkie Pie, right arm and leg broken, to see what was going on.
"Sorry ta cut the formalities short," AJ cut in, "but you said sumthin' about we. Is someone else with ya?" Hawk gestured for the others to come out and six jaws dropped, their owners all in shock.
"Well well well." Blitz began. "If it isn't the famous Elements themselves." All six mares shook their heads and cleared themselves of their stupor as their male counterparts came to greet them.
"Fancy meetin' you here, AJ." Applejack said, rubbing the back of his neck with a nervous smile.
"We got shot down near Electro." Dusk bluntly stated, suppressing all of the questions he knew Twilight had as he tossed her the Thermal L85. "Everyone, give those who need it a rifle and ammunition. As heartwarming as this reunion is, we need to be on the move ASAP." He then turned back to Twilight. "Long story short, we're caught in a zombie infestation."
Twilight could only stare at him in an absolute deadpan. "You're kidding, right?"
Dusk shook his head. "I wish I was kidding. You'll just have to trust me until you see them yourself. We're heading through Cherno, then up to the base in Stary."
"Sounds like a plan. Pinkie says she'll be able to shoot with her left hand, so long as we get her in a sling and splint that leg. We should be fine, so long as we stay together and stay quiet. No doubt you heard that rifle go off?"
"We saw it firsthand. That's what downed us, and later it took out one of those Griffon Ural trucks in one shot."
"It's been on the move." Hawkeye added. "We're at least twenty klicks out from where Shine's men crashed, but we still hear that thing at night, and it isn't getting any quieter."
"Alright Twi!" Rainbow Dash called with a salute. "We're all ready to go. Pinkie's set with some morphine and bandaging. We even found a good walking stick in the trees."
"Good," she called back, "then let's head out. We have to make it to Cherno before nightfall." With that declaration, they all set out for what promised to be shelter, supplies, and hopefully safety, however temporary.
> Act 1 Chapter 2: Bandits
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter II: Bandits

It was getting dark when the team of thirteen ponies reached Cherno, and with the night came the kind of tension that only darkness could bring.  Not even the moon was of much help, shrinking into one of its half stages and not quite as bright or big as it used to be.  Before, where the group had been buzzing as everypony chatted excitedly with their double, despite the protestations of their Marine companion.  But now, the tension ran high as the silence and the looming sense of danger suppressed such thoughts.  They were on the run from a deadly, unseen foe, and each sound, no matter how harmless, set them on edge.  And with these "zombies" running amok, they couldn't afford not to be.  Their long, sensitive ears swiveled about, trying to pick up on any threats their eyes couldn't detect, as the coming darkness would soon render their vision unreliable.

They snuck into town and started towards the local hospital, as they had run low on morphine treating Pinkie’s arm and leg.  If she was to be somewhat combat-ready, they would need to find more.  They moved along as quickly as they could while still retaining silence in their footsteps and frequently hid in whatever urban shadows they could find to escape the light of the waning half Moon.  Though they themselves could hardly see, the zombies had already proven themselves proficient nocturnal hunters.  Only when they reached the hospital did they allow themselves to feel a semblance of safety.

The establishment was simply designed; a rectangular prism with rows of windows across the front and sides, with the front entrance practically transparent with the amount of glass that was present in the wall, giving an unobstructed view of the interior.  It was impossible to be ambushed here.  Staying low, they entered the abandoned establishment, clearing the building slowly and methodically, checking every corner and never taking a step without a rifle at the ready.  It was obvious that the hospital had been the subject of other raids, but they grabbed whatever medical supplies that had been left and made for the exit.  With Blitz and Elusive in the lead, they exited the hospital through a side door, so as not to attract attention, opening it slowly to peek outside.
A loud CRACK suddenly rent the silence as a bullet thudded into the wall near Elusive’s head.  He let out an involuntary yelp and Rarity cried out his name before Blitz roughly grabbed him and pulled him back into the hospital, shutting the heavy metal door with his other hand.  Everyone else raised their rifles immediately at the sound while Rarity hurried over.

"Are you alright darling?" Rarity worriedly asked while Dusk took stock of the situation.
'The corridor we're in has no windows, but the same can't be said for the rest of the floor.  We can't afford to be pinned here.'
"I'm fine, my dear," Elusive answered, putting on a brave face despite his trembling.  "Of course, nothing at all to worry about.  Just took me by surprise is all."
“Did anypony see who shot at us?” Twilight asked the others.
“Ah think ah know," AJ the mare offered.  As per an earlier arrangement, they had all decided to call the stallion by his full name and abbreviate her's.  "There's a tall building across from us, kind of looks like a hotel."
"Judging by the trajectory, I'd say AJ's right," Blitz confirmed.  "That shot almost hit the wall sideways."
Hawkeye nodded.  “I saw that building, it has a good line of sight on us.  If we'd tried to go out the front door, it would nail us head-on.  Same can be said if we try any of the side exits, and the back just leads out of town.  With no buildings to cover us, we'll be stuck behind the hospital itself."
"What if we sneak in there and catch him off guard?" Rainbow Dash theorized.  "I know I'm fast enough to get in there without being hit," she said with her usual cockiness.
"And I'm faster than her, so we should be fine." Blitz added, earning himself a glare from Dash.
"And then what?" Twilight countered.  "We don't know how many of these thugs are in there, you could get in serious trouble."
"We need to get to higher ground and engage him," Dusk said.  Everyone turned to him, knowing by now that his silence had meant a plan forming.  "There's a good spot on the second floor where we can all fire at the same time without being so exposed, while still presenting a tempting target.  When we draw his attention, that's when you snipe him from the floor above," he told Hawkeye.
"Sounds like a plan."  The third floor would put him at about halfway up both buildings, just high enough to shoot straight into the upper windows of the hotel without being so high as to be at a disadvantageous angle while shooting at the lower ones.
"Let's go."  With that, they moved out, careful not to be in sight of any windows as they ascended.

As the Marine headed to the third floor, the other twelve set up their position.  There were about eight windows, each opened conveniently to the cool night breeze.  Twilight and Dusk each took the second one to the left and right from the center while Blitz and Rainbow had their backs next to the innermost windows.  Everypony else paired up with their double and headed for the remaining openings, still careful not to be seen.  When Hawkeye was ready, he pounded three times on the floor of the building with the butt of his rifle, the signal to start.

"On the count of three," Dusk whispered, holding up three fingers as he counted off.  "One…"
Twilight and the others gripped their firearms in anticipation.  This wasn't the first firefight either squad had been in, and it wasn't nearly the last, but the trepidation always came to them in that calm before the storm.  Fluttershy and Butterscotch trembled on opposite sides of their glass portal.  AJ snuck in a leery, sidelong glance at her companion, Applejack, who tried his best to avoid her gaze.  Rarity and Elusive shared a small smile, each promising and reassuring the other, while also laughing at the situation; had they not been soldiers, they would have gone into far more theatrical expressions of concern, a fact that both knew and found funny.

"Two…"

The twelve ponies clicked off their safeties and laid their fingers on the triggers.  Pinkie and Bubble were ominously still as each tried to ignore the itching in their knees.  Their demeanor shifted into serious mode, though they tried to retain a semblance of their usual air about them: they were at their best when playing games, and what was this but the most extreme game of whack-a-mole?  The double Rainbows were tense and ready to spring, like they always felt before the flag dropped and the race was on.  Combat after all was just another competition, and it never failed to give them that little thrill, that little shot of adrenaline that wound them tighter than a mousetrap yet let them snap twice as fast.  Twilight and Dusk each had their faces set, their bodies rigid, like a predator waiting for the moment to pounce.  They were commanders, and a commander was what was expected of both of them.  In truth they were nervous, more so than their companions.  Less than a year ago, they'd been students learning about the magic of friendship, neurotic and unsure of themselves.  The same feeling always persisted, but they had learned by now to suppress that anxiety.  The only reaction they gave to the situation was one of cold, hard calculation.  Just another test to pass.  And this one was a cakewalk.

"Three."

Dusk pivoted on his feet to face the hotel and fired once, with everyone else following suit.  They all shot at the first window in their sights, quickly drawing the attention of the enemy sniper, as well as everything else within earshot. Hopefully, that everything else would just stay away.  Dusk fired another shot at another random window before ducking back into cover.  After a few moments of silence, he slowly turned his head to peak out of the window.  He cast his eyes about, searching for any opening along the surface of the building that the sniper might fire from.

A mighty CRACK once again tore through the night as a shot from the renegade tore a chunk out of Twilight's wall, who leapt to the side with a cry.

"Twilight!" he called.  She got up, showing no signs of harm, though her heart had begun hammering at the near miss.  She forced herself to calm down and took her position.  The others had already started shooting.  Dusk peaked out again to see where the assailant was, but ducked back quickly when he didn't see him.  He stayed there as more shots were fired from both sides, each pony taking it in turns to pop up when they thought they weren't being targeted.  'Hawk sure is taking his sweet time.'  Dusk looked around the corridor, noticing a large mirror fixed to the wall, and pried it loose with his magic.  He rotated it in midair until he could see the hotels reflection, just in time to see a shadow disappear from one of the windows.

"Get up everypony, and keep an eye out," he ordered, "he's switching positions."
"We can see that Dusk," Blitz said.  "That's what happens when you don't hide behind a wall the whole time," he continued jokingly.
Dusk ignored the jab and kept his eyes glued to the hotel, waiting for the sniper to reappear.

"You really shouldn't talk to him like that," Rainbow Dash whispered mockingly.  "After all, it sure would suck if you got even lower then you are on the chain of command."  She started chuckling quietly, much to her partner's chagrin.  At least for a moment.
"Well, maybe that's how it works in your group, but us stallions can actually take a joke," Blitz countered with a smile of his own as he trained his eagle eyes through his sights.  'Come out, come out, wherever you are…'

Rainbow glared at him.  "And what's that supposed to mean?" she asked indignantly.
"Oh, nothing," he responded innocently.  "Just that maybe the famous Elements of Harmony can't handle the a little joke, what with how stressful battle seems to be for you gals.  No one would blame you, what with a name like that.  Hey, relax!  I'm just kidding," he said when he saw the peeved look on her face.  "You need to lighten up."
"This is a warzone.  Maybe you stallions just don't know how to take things seriously."
"Says the pilot who fell asleep on the job."
"Like you don't ever take naps on duty."
"Not while I'm flying a helicopter.  How many is it you've crashed now anyways?"
"Why you little…  I swear, if we weren't on a mission, I'd strangle you."  Blitz ignored her and kept up his watch.
A small glint of light in one of the windows caught his eye, like some metallic object had hit the scant moonlight.  He smiled.  'Forgot to factor in reflection, dumbass'  He steadied his rifle and saw as the sniper brought his own to bear.  It was a long shot, as his Car-15 wasn't built for military-grade accuracy, but he figured there was no harm.  'Well, if Hawk's just going to let anyone take it…' he thought giddily.  As he was lining up the shot, finger on the trigger, he saw the mysterious gunman point his rifle towards him, but to the left a few degrees.  His eyes went wide as saucer plates.

"Get down!" Blitz yelled as he flung himself toward Rainbow Dash, who let out a grunt as they fell to the floor, narrowly allowing the bullet to miss.
"Ow!" she exclaimed through clenched teeth at the rough tackle.  Her mind quickly got over the initial surprise as she noticed the bullet hole in the wall adjacent to hers.  She looked back up at Blitz, who got off her and offered her a hand, staying out of the window's sight.

“Thanks for the save," she said sincerely, more shocked than anything, as she took his arm, hauled herself up, and moved back to her cover, all thoughts of their rivalry temporarily forgotten.

He handed back her CAR-15.  “No problem Dash.” he reciprocated with a smile, before the smile quickly changed into a smirk.  "I suppose you owe me now."
"In your dreams," she scoffed.  She rolled her eyes at Blitz's continued smirking.  'He'll never let me hear the end of it.'  The pair got back to locating their target, who promptly opened fire again.  Blitz leapt out and let off a few rounds of his own before ducking back into cover.
"Hawk, just where in the hay are you…" Blitz muttered as he tried his best to avoid the wall-piercing rounds.

“Wait for it…" Hawkeye muttered to himself as he saw the scoundrel pop out of a window and take a shot before popping back in.  'That's the fourth,' Hawkeye thought, finger ready on the trigger.  'He always waits five seconds after the fourth shot.'  "Wait for it… Gotcha!”  The M24A3 let loose a huge CRACK, releasing a .338 Lapua magnum bullet from the chamber that drilled into the sniper’s head, just as he popped back up.  Hawk pulled back the bolt, ejecting the empty cartridge, and re-chambered the rifle, scanning for any movement.  Applejack the stallion reached up and struck the ceiling with his rifle to get his attention.

“Nice shot Hawk." he yelled up out his window, figuring that any more noise wouldn't matter at this point.  "Come on down, we’re gonna check out the bandit’s body.”  Hawk stowed his rifle on his back and drew his pistol, a Colt Brothers Single Action Army.  It was focused on power and accuracy instead of range, but range didn't really matter when clearing a building.

He jogged back downstairs and met up with the others.  They had all taken stock of what was left of their ammo, which, thanks to their efforts to conserve, was still within a safe range.  They descended and, exercising extreme caution on the street, headed towards the hotel building.  Once inside, they headed to the fourth floor, where the sniper was shooting from.  They entered the level with guns at the ready, and made for the only closed room.  They broke down the door, finding the dead sniper inside.  Hawk advanced first.

“Griffon, looks like he was a civilian." Hawk said as he moved to check the body before finding a pair of dog-tags.  “Scratch that, guerilla forces.”  Hawk pulled a pair of night vision goggles from his backpack.  “NVGs, looks like he had two pairs.”  He handed one of them to Blitz, who whistled.
“Military grade, how’d he get these?”
Hawk shrugged.  “Probably took them off a dead zombie."  The sniper had an SVDS sniper rifle, which Rarity held onto, and a Makarov pistol, which Dusk gave to Fluttershy, who had no weapon. She was as reluctant to wield a firearm as Butterscotch, but the Elements convinced her eventually.

"Y'know," Blitz began, "we could just stay here for the night.  It's pretty defensible, so long as we keep the curtains drawn," he said with a laugh.
He was heading the group as normal as they walked away from hotel, Bubble Berry helping Pinkie limp along, with the intent of checking the town out a bit more before finding shelter.  The whole purpose in going there was to catch their breath after all, and there were bound to be caches of useful supplies hidden around.  They remained vigilant, but the victory had helped ease the tension and they loosened up a bit.

"What do you think Twilight?" Dusk asked.
"I think that we've made enough noise around here to attract a lot of attention, and the last thing we need is a territory dispute," she analyzed, ever cautious.
Dusk was partially of the same mind, but couldn't ignore it's tactical superiority.  "All the same, Blitz is right on how easily we could defend this place.  The thirteen of us could watch all approaches, and there are plenty of routes to retreat through in a bind."
"It does seem like the logical choice," Hawkeye added, "but only at a glance.  There are plenty of exploitable qualities as well."
"Like what?" Applejack asked.  "Seems pretty solid to me."
"Well for one, it's too tall, and has too many windows.  Too many floors and entrances to cover without a small army, and each are completely accessible to anyone with wings.  We don't have the time or materials to cover those up.  And even if we did, it would be simple enough to break through."
"We could have a lookout stationed on the roof." Dusk countered.
"Then he'd be the first to go.  Way too exposed."  Hawkeye turned to Dusk.  "You ever shot at a pegasus before, Dusk?"
"What?" he asked incredulously, completely taken back.  "N-No, that's… why would I do that?"
"Thought so.  It's harder than you think.  It's not just their speed, they're also incredibly agile.  Best of 'em can practically turn on a dime.  Griffons might not be as fancy, but they can be just as hard to hit.  Besides, we can't ignore the possibility of any rogue pegasi desperate to survive either."  He noticed the look of shock on Dusk's face.  "Don't get me wrong.  The hotel might be as good as any place here.  You just have to plan for these sorts of things.  Your tactics are too ground-based," he ended with a smile, obscured with the rest of his face by the hood on his gillie suit.

Dusk and the others were more than a little perturbed at his explanation.  There was a small awkward silence as they continued walking, finding themselves crossing a three-way intersection surrounded by abandoned shops.  "Uh, have you actually-"  Dusk cut himself off as Blitz, almost instantly followed by himself and the others, turned his head and directed his ears towards the road.  "I hear it too."

There was a loud roaring coming from the countryside.  Blitz put on the night vision goggles and gazed down the road.  "There's a column of vehicles coming our way."
"Numbers?" Dusk asked as the group readied their weapons.
"Two Urals, side by side.  Aaaaaand…" he said as he flew up a bit to see behind them.  "…a jeep, and a white pickup truck.  Griffon drivers.  Wait…"
"That could mean a lot of trouble." Twilight calculated.
"We should probably go hide," Fluttershy timidly suggested, eyes wide.  "That sounds like a lot of griffons."
"That's a great idea, Fluttershy," Rainbow Dash agreed with a glint in her eye.
"It is?" Fluttershy asked, surprised.
"We could ambush them as they roll by!" she continued enthusiastically, hitting her palm with a fist. 
"Um, that's not really, exactly what I-"
"We've got a problem guys," Blitz informed them as he touched back down.
"What I meant…" Fluttershy finished quietly, unbeknownst to anypony.
"They've got a prisoner.  Female Pegasus, bound and gagged in the back of the pickup.  There're two griffins watching her, both with a barrel to her head.  We start any shootouts and she could get killed."
Everypony turned to Twilight and Dusk.

That extra bit of information put Dusk in a dilemma.  'Let the convoy go and risk that pony's life, or attack and risk everyone's?  I have a duty to my team, but what about everypony else?  Don't I have a duty to them too?'  He looked around for anything that might be of use, any sort of environmental advantages, but the convoy was getting louder by the second.  No time for plans.  'We could be seriously outnumbered here.  If we start a fight we'll have the element of surprise, but the prisoner might get killed, or used as a shield, or a bargaining chip.  We don't know what kind of weapons they have, this could be a really bad idea…  But we can't let them take her.'  He glanced over at Twilight, who was deep in similar thoughts.  She raised her head and nodded.  Dusk nodded back.  No pony left behind.  “Alright," Dusk began, pointing at the various shop fronts along the road, "garrison these buildings.  Bubble, you help Pinkie over to that restaurant, it'll give you some good cover.  Everypony else, spread out.  Get down, stay quiet, and watch your fire.  If we're careful, we can save this pony."  They all moved briskly to the fronts of the various stores bordering the streets.

The vehicles soon slowed to a halt in the middle of the intersection, much to the surprise of the group lying in wait.  The engines continued rumbling, presumably while the griffons checked if everything was clear, before they died down and the headlights flicked off.  The griffons exited the trucks, stepping out and standing up, proud and tall on their five-toed lion paws.  They were donned in Spetsnaz gear over their brown feathers, with two large holes in the back to accommodate their large wings.  Their guns were at the ready in their wicked talons, scanning in all directions.  The concealed squad of thirteen ponies ducked down to avoid being seen.  The pony, a marine, was dragged off the pickup unceremoniously by a pair of grey griffons who carried suppressed Bizon PP-19 submachine guns.  There were a total of nineteen, a whole platoon of operators, armed with various assault rifles.  'Nothing heavy, and not as many as there could be.  Trouble along the road, or are they all just scattered?' Dusk mused as he risked a peek.  'Good to know the freaking zombie apocalypse is capable of finally disrupting their war effort.'

The griffons made their kingdom in a mountain range north of Equestria, in a wild section of the world where nature ran its course.  They didn't even have weather control, though not for lack of trying.  The griffons could walk on clouds, but had great difficulty moving or shaping them, and it was completely impossible to tell them when to rain or snow.  Still, they were a hardy species from living in the mountains and didn't mind their ineptitude: they preferred the lawless feel that nature had and, in their opinion, it meant they were tougher than their "soft pony neighbors".  Unfortunately, they were right.  The average griffon was more than a match for the average pony physically, and it was only with the invention and rapid development of firearms over the years of peace that the ponies had found an edge, where speed and maneuverability of their armies, as well as new schools of tactics, mattered more than the strength of individual soldiers.  Over the centuries, griffons had depleted their metal reserves, meaning they had limited resources in the way of production for the modern brand of warfare.  But the griffons were tenacious and adaptable, and learned now, as they had done since their kingdom's inception, to make do with what they had, and what they lacked in resources and development they made up for in determination and stamina.  Coupled with the fact that their generals were quick studies when it came to the arts of war, the griffons had fought their Equestrian neighbors to a stalemate.

“Ok Spetsnaz, listen up," a griffon, apparently the leader, said in a deep, gruff voice, showing off his Equestrian to intimidate his prisoner.  "You know the drill.  Search the town for supplies, grab any ponies you see, and get back to the convoy."  Just as the first few griffons spread their wings to take off, the ponies moved into action.  Hawk was the first to squeeze off a bullet and dispatched one of the prisoner's guards from the bushes nearby.  Surprised, the other guard took his focus off of the Pegasus, who broke out of his grip and leapt to the ground.  Hawk shifted his aim to the leader next, and one loud bang later, he hit the floor.  The griffons began turning franticly to locate him in the darkness before the others popped up, set on automatic.  With the prisoner safely on the ground and bullets coming from every direction, the griffons were cut down in seconds.  Any shots they fired went wide and the last one, the second guard, resorted to grabbing the captive marine in a headlock and held her close in front of him, his back to the large Ural.

“COME OUT YOU SUKAS!" he bellowed, wild-eyed and breathing heavily.  The others stared him down through their sights.  "Hands in the air!  Throw your weapons away or I shoot!" he yelled at the ponies he could barely see.  They contemplated shooting the weapon out of his hand, but couldn't get the right angle.  He turned constantly, sweeping his shield in their firing paths.  If they fired and missed, that pony was dead.  Even if they hit him, the trigger was pulled to within a hair's breadth of firing.  Hawk got up and silently moved behind the griffon's back, on the other side of the Ural.  "I said weapons down!  I'll shoot!"  Hawk appeared around the Ural's front, brandishing his SAA at the feathery target.

“Leave her," he began, making the griffon jump and face him, "and I'll let you walk.”

"You expect me to trust the word of a pony?" he asked.

He pulled back the action on the revolver.  "I expect I'll shoot you if you don't."
The griffon considered his options for a second.  “…Ok, ok, I’m going.”  The griffon released his captive, who walked slowly over to Hawk, and backed away towards the Jeep, his arm holding the Bizon in the air.  The griffon tossed the weapon inside, started up the jeep, and drove off, back towards Electro.  The rest of the squad came out of cover and came together in the road to check the vehicles, Elusive and Rarity leading the way with lit horns.

“Think we should warn him about the sniper?” Bubble Berry asked Dusk.

“Nah, let him find out for himself.”  Butterscotch looked at Blitz, who merely shrugged.  In the meantime, Hawk and the other Marine were gathering up ammunition from the dead griffons.  Dusk and Twilight went to talk with the marine, horns also alight.

“So what’s your name corporal?" Twilight asked, noting her rank.  Bathed in the violet light of her illumination spell, the Pegasus could be seen properly: her face was covered in pale blue fur, her mane was silvery-white and cut to medium length, which she was now bobbing up into a ponytail, and her tail was cropped short at 5 inches long, as per regulation.  On her sleeve, she wore a patch of her cutie mark, a snowflake with a small gust of wind flowing from each point.

“Stormy Winters ma'am, Fox Company, designated marksmare," she answered in a light Prench accent and saluted Twilight.

"Hey Rarity!" Dusk called.  The white unicorn stuck her head out of the Ural's window.  "Our marine friend over here is a sniper, she could use your SVDS."
"Aw, and I was beginning to like this rifle," she responded sullenly.  She sighed and tossed it to Dusk, who caught it with a levitation spell and presented it to Stormy.
“Here, you look like you’ll need a weapon.”
“Thank you sir.  I must say, I’ve never used a Griffon rifle before.”  She gazed down the sights of the rifle and started fiddling with the scope.  After about two minutes of scavenging the dead griffons for their weapons and ammunition, they split up into four groups.  Hawk was on top of the hospital, guarding the guys in the hospital wards, and Winters was on top of the hotel with girls below in a room, both of them equipped with the NVGs.

While the others slept, Twilight found herself kept awake by a worrying observation: the behavior of the two Applejacks towards each other.  It was a subtle thing to notice, but it was there.  'It could be nothing…' she thought to herself, but she couldn't deny that the stallion Applejack was rather skittish around her Applejack, and she decided to get an answer.  She got up from her place on the floor, having given Dash, Pinkie, Fluttershy, and Rarity the two beds in the room, slowly walked over to the window, and lightly nudged the orange mare, who was helping to keep an eye out with whatever light the moon and stars could provide.  Not much, but it beat laying there and leaving the outside to her imagination, in her opinion.

“Hey, AJ?”  She turned her head towards Twilight, keeping her Car-15 aimed down the street towards a couple of zombies.  "Mind if I ask you something?"
“What’s up Twi?” AJ asked.
“I just noticed that whenever you’re with Applejack, he acts kinda nervous.  Is there a reason why?”
Applejack took a few moments to respond.  “Twilight, ah really don’t think this is a good time to be askin’ me somethin’ like that."
"I beg to differ.  This is about as peaceful as it's going to get," Twilight reasoned.
AJ just became more uncomfortable.  "Well, it's…  Uh, this is somethin' that needs to be worked out between the two of us.  Family business.  I shouldn't be tellin' anypony."
"There's no need to keep secrets, AJ.  Maybe we can help."  She was silent.  "And if it's affecting how the two of you work together, I think I deserve to know.  So does Dusk."
"Ah just don't think ah have the right to tell ya is all.  It's personal, to both of us."
"We can't have personal problems on this team AJ," Twilight said, growing stern.  "There's no such thing."  Again, she was silent. "Applejack, I don't want to pull rank on you but I will."
AJ sighed.  “Ok, fine, ah’ll tell ya," she surrendered.  "But… whatever you hear," she said nervously, "ah want ya to promise that ya won't change your view o' me.  And ya can't tell the others, either."
"Why not?"
"You'll get it once ah say my piece, Twi," AJ answered almost desperately.  "Please, promise me."
Twilight was confused, but changed her expression to one of sympathy.  "You have my word Applejack," Twilight said comfortingly, laying a hand on her shoulder, before enacting their customary oath.  "Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye."
"Thanks," AJ said, a little relieved.  Then she sighed again.  "Well," she began, "the thing is… ah don’t trust him."
"What?" Twilight asked in shock.  "You two seemed to get along perfectly after that whole… misadventure we had."
"We did.  But the thing is he came to the farm a few months back, 'afore the war.  It was s'pose ta be a surprise for y'all, that our doubles were here in Equestria.  Wouldn't even tell me how or why he got here.  But the mornin' after he arrived, he volunteered to help Big Macintosh with some chores.  They went into the Everfree Forest ta check out a new potion Zecora had for us to help with the orchard.  All of a sudden, bam!  They're in a fight with a couple timber wolves.  And Applejack just goes and leaves Big Mac to fight 'em himself!"
"Really?" Twilight asked.  "That doesn't sound like him at all."
"Well, that's what happened.  He came back to the farm half-draggin' Big Mac along with 'im.  Mac had tons of scrapes and scratches, his legs were bruised up real bad, and he was barely awake.  Looked exactly like timber wolf work ta me.  There's was even some bark stuck in some of 'em.  That's when Applejack basically says, 'I was scared!  I left 'im!'" she mockingly imitated.  "Then he has the gall to start spinnin' some yarn about some kinda giant he saw that made 'im take off.  Says he ran for a while before the guilt got to 'im, and he came back.  Mac was unconscious, bleeding, and the 'giant' was gone."  AJ's tone suddenly became somber, and she dipped her head slightly as she talked.  "We got into a huge fight about what he did, and he stuck to his garbage of a story, sayin' I'da done the same if I were him.  Well, that tore it for me.  Ah told him right then and there to leave and… that if ah ever saw him near my farm again, I'd…"
"That must have been hard," Twilight said gently, only imagining what AJ could have said when she was that angry.
"We were just so worried…  I mean, for a minute, it looked like Mac could've been crippled.  And to think that he'd just turn tail and run!  And then come back with some cockamamie conspiracy theory!  We're supposed to be family!"  
"We all get scared sometimes, AJ," Twilight said, trying to defuse the earth pony.  "We all do things we regret.  He is sorry, isn't he?"
"Oh, he says he felt just awful," Applejack remarked sarcastically.  "He was so ashamed, he hasn't even told any of his friends.  Said he swore never to speak of it."  AJ again switched to a more serious tone.  "But that ain't the point.  Ya didn't see how crazed he was.  I've never seen anypony that scared before."  AJ lifted her head and looked Twilight straight in the eyes.  "Now I'm nervous he’ll do the same here, and leave us fer dead.”
“I’ll make sure Dusk knows, so we can keep an eye on him.  Ok?”  The mare nodded, turning back to her Car-15.  "And try to understand why he did it.  You two are family, and family members forgive each other.
“Thanks Twi."  She paused for a few moments.  "And ya ain't mad that I didn't tell y'all the good news, about our doubles bein' here?  It was mighty selfish of me to keep that from everypony.  Ya had a right to know," she apologized guiltily.
"Applejack, it sounds like you went through a very trying ordeal.  I can understand you not wanting to talk about him or any of them for a while."
"Well, that makes me feel a tad better."  She smiled faintly, then continued watching the Zombies shuffle around a few yards away.  Despite having gotten the incident off her chest and telling someone, she still felt uneasy when she thought of Applejack.  The mysterious rifle fired several more shots that night, louder than ever now, which did nothing to help AJ calm her already worried mind.
-------------
After a night's rest, the ponies returned to the main road and set off towards Stary Sobor, where an Equestrian military base was set up outside of town.  Being on foot meant traveling alongside the road in order to avoid the mountainous foothills that flanked it, or else spend several extra hours walking, something they couldn't afford.  Blitz was on point again with his shotgun, followed by Hawk, with Stormy bringing up the rear this time.  While the vehicles would have been faster than walking, there was always the worry of the strange rifle-like weapon that seemed to be tracking them.  The survivors were about half a kilometer out from Stary when they heard the steady thrum of a helicopter.  Looking up, Blitz's eyes grew wide in fear: a Griffonian Hind helicopter was rapidly approaching.

“SHIT!  Hind on our six Dusk!”  Blitz roared, grabbing the closest pony to him, Butterscotch, and flying into the hills, which served as the only available protection, while Dash did the same with Fluttershy.  The remaining survivors ran for cover as the Hind began to fire its forty millimeter machine gun at the ponies scrambling on the ground. The pilot of the Hind looked through his helmet’s HUD and gained a lock on the small white unicorn mare that held a Car-15.  The griffon grinned broadly, but the smile soon fell from his face as he took a bullet through the chest, accompanied by the loudest noise that the mysterious rifle had made yet.  He grunted and slumped over the controls, sending the chopper into a wild spin. The ponies had stopped after hearing the strange rifle go off and set up a defensive perimeter, watching the helicopter crash into a nearby forest.

"Did you guys here the sound it made?" Blitz asked nervously, worried about the proximity of the unseen gunman.
"That definitely wasn't a normal rifle," Elusive agreed.  "Bubble, Pinkie, any thoughts?"
The two pink ponies looked at each other and shrugged.  "I got nothin'," came the simultaneous reply.
"Well that's definitely the loudest it's ever been," Hawkeye observed.  "Wherever that son of a bitch is hiding, it's close."
"In that case, we should go check that crash out.  Perhaps our mystery sniper will be there confirming their kill," Stormy spoke up, clicking the safety off of her SVDS rifle.

Dusk and Twilight considered the idea.  "Ok, Hawk, Dusk, Stormy and I will go check it out.  Everypony else, try and get out of sight in the tree line, we’ll be back within the hour," Twilight ordered, checking the clip on her L85 TWS for the bullet count – twenty three, with two extra clips in her backpack.  The four ponies started off towards the crash site, towards the east of the road in a clearing.  They didn't have to walk for long before finding the crater it made.  They watched it from the trees, and saw an earth pony with an odd looking rifle strapped to his back.  He was wearing a plaid shirt and some blue jeans, a battered black Stetson resting on his head.  In his hands he carried a Lee Manefield rifle, and he was trying to pry open the cockpit, which had been jammed shut by the crash.  The four ponies started over to him stealthily, and crept up behind him.

"Howdy there," the pony called out neighborly, making the ponies freeze in their tracks, before finally prying open the cockpit of the Hind with a groan of the metal.
“Uh…  Hi?”  Dusk released his finger from the Car-15’s trigger guard and flicked the safety on.  “I’m Command Sergeant Major Dusk Shine," he introduced formally.  "Are you the pony that shot down this helicopter?” he asked the pony, who stood up and turned to them with a nod.  With the pony facing them, Dusk could finally get a good look at their haunting gunman.  The pony was white but Dusk could also see a black splotch sticking out of his left sleeve.  'A spotted pony?' Dusk thought to himself with amusement.  His mane and tail were both jet black, with matching gloves on his hands.

“Sure did!  This gun will take out all kinds of cars n' stuff.  There’s only three vehicles ah haven’t destroyed in a single shot: a tank, a bus, and a cargo plane.  Never have found out why those damned buses won’t blow up…" he said in contemplation, looking away from the group.  Twilight and Dusk looked at each other and Hawkeye raised an eyebrow.  "Anyway," he said, returning to ponies in front of him, "ah was waitin’ fer you to start thunderin’ through the forest, but when ya’ll stuck to the road, ah got giddy, ‘cuz the griffs like ta use their choppers to watch the road. Ah hate ta break it to ya’ll, but you’re about as stealthy as a sugared-up filly in a room full'a horns."  He extended his right hand to Dusk, who shook it.  "Name’s Wild Karde.  Ah moved out here afore the war started, ta settle down somewhere quiet.  Used ta live down in Dodge junction.  Now with the war over an’ all them zombies runnin’ around, I hunt them and the griffs.  Ah’m jus’ using you as bait ‘cuz yer loud enough to wake half of Tartarus," he readily insulted.  Dusk decided he didn't like this guy.

“Hey, my flank we’re loud!  I’ve been keeping everypony quiet the whole way to Stary," Hawk fumed, flicking the safety on his M24 off.  Nopony insulted the stealth abilities of Hawkeye Archer.  Karde merely chuckled.
“If that’s what ya call stealth then paint me white and call me Celestia. I’ve heard you since back before Electrozadversk...Vask…Elctrovads…Electro. Thank ya kindly for drawing those griffons in the Ural towards town by the way, they’d been stealing my ammunition stashes.  So, what are ya army types doin’ out here instead of up at Stary?”
Dusk decided to answer from now on, as it didn’t seem like letting Hawkeye, who looked ready to commit murder, talk any longer.  “We were shot down near Electro, and we’re trying to push through Stary up to Namalsk to use the radio there.  We need to get reinforcements and get the princesses to deal with this plague or… whatever the hay is happening around here.”
"Army types, I'm a marine you uneducated hick," Hawk muttered venomously.

“Ha, good luck gettin’ the princesses ta get off of their plots ta help us outta here," he said amusedly, to Twilight's shock.  "Don’t ya think that if they were gonna send us reinforcements, they would a sent ‘em already?  Naw, we’re alone in this fight.  Anyways, good luck with your mission, ah’ll be watchin’.  Happy Trails!”
It was as the pony turned to walk away that Dusk noticed an image on his gloves: two shovels super-imposed onto an arrowhead.  "Wait a minute…" he whispered in disbelief.  "Hey!" he shouted in shock.  "Where did you get those gloves?"  Karde stopped.  "Those gloves are from the Engineering and Breaching Corps.  Equestrian military.  Where did a civilian like you get those from?" he asked.  'If someone from the Corps is down here, we might not be alone in this!'  Dusk and his squad had made many new comrades during their time in the Engineering Corps, and they needed friends more than ever right now.

Without turning around, Karde replied, "Now that there's my own damn business, now ain't it?"
"It's mine as well," Dusk replied, more seriously this time.  "I was in that branch.  And I want to know where those came from."  'I won't let this lead go.  If there are others down here, we have to find them.'
"And why should I tell a pryin' little soldier boy like you, huh?" Karde retaliated defensively, turning around to look Dusk in the eye.  "What business is it o'yours what gloves I'm wearin'?  Maybe I should ask why your 'sneaky' li'l sniper there has his ridiculous get-up."
"What'd you say to me!?"
"Hawk, stand down," Twilight ordered, doing her best to suppress her own annoyance.
"Maybe you should mind yourself, Sergeant Major, and do your buckin' job instead of questionin' us simple folk down here about our choice in gloves.  Maybe I took 'em off a zombie, maybe a corpse.  Maybe I made a corpse and then took 'em.  Why should I tell ya?"

"Because you're outnumbered," Stormy threatened, standing back with her SVDS pointed straight at him.  "Now answer the question.  I don't like disrespect to my superior officers, trouduce.
"Ferme ta bouche, soldat de dame," he shot back, much to everypony's surprise, especially Stormy's, who lowered her weapon.  "And don't try ta threaten me.  I've got the big scary gauss gun, remember?"
'So that's what it is,' Dusk noted.  'But that kind of technology is still in the works.  How'd this guy get a hold of a gauss rifle?'  Either way, Dusk wasn't about to let this Wilde Karde test such a weapon against his men.

"Look, we all need to calm down here," Dusk said, stepping out between Karde and Hawkeye.  "We have enough enemies as it is."  He decided to try a more diplomatic approach.  "I need to know where those gloves came from.  If there are any other soldiers out here, we could help each other get out of this mess, get a message to Canterlot.  Anyone wearing those gloves'll know me and my men."
"Well ah hate ta break it to ya, but the pony who wore these is dead.  If it helps, ah ain't the one who killed him.  And a word a' advice: stick to yourselves.  The only other ponies out here are lookin' out fer themselves and nopony else."
"We'll take our chances," Twilight stated seriously.  Hawk and Stormy’s weren't the only ones rubbed the wrong way by Karde's mouth.  "Even if we could, we aren't going to leave any of our friends here to die."
Wilde Karde laughed darkly.  "Well, ain't that the most sentimental thing I ever heard.  That kinda thinkin'll get y'all killed.  You get a chance to get outta here, you take it, and everypony else be damned.  Now if you'll excuse me, ah got some feather faces to hunt.  Good day to ya," he spat.  The southern pegasus then headed off towards the east, disappearing into the trees.  The squad turned to each other.

"Who votes we hunt down that arrogant bastard?" Hawk asked.
"I'll second that," Stormy agreed.
"You two get back to the others," Twilight ordered.  "Tell Blitz and Dash to fly back and get the Ural.  I don't think Wilde Karde is going to shoot us, so long as we keep attracting targets for him.  We could use the transportation.  Dusk and I will try to find him.  There are some more questions I want answered."  Hawk and Stormy nodded, and started walking back to the convoy.
"You really meant that, Twilight?" Dusk asked when they were out of earshot.  "About my friends?"
"Of course, Dusk.  Any friends of yours are friends of mine, and I don't let my friends down.  If they're here, we'll find them."  She smiled softly at him.  "That's a promise, bro."

He smiled back at the word.  They did consider themselves siblings, and he had a feeling that this war would only strengthen that bond, no matter what some crazy pony said.  "Thanks sis."  They started following the direction Karde had gone.  "You don't think he was serious about the princesses, do you?"
"Absolutely not," replied immediately.  "You can trust the princesses as much as you trust your princes.  I'm telling you, they must've heard that our squads never arrived, and is marshaling a rescue as we speak."  But Twilight, as ticked as she was at Wilde Karde's words, she couldn't hide a hint of doubt from herself.
After looking for fifteen minutes, the pair of unicorns gave up and teleported out of the forest, making their way to the waiting Ural truck.  They then continued on towards Stary, Twilight still pretty angry about the earth pony’s words about the princesses, with Hawk angry at the insults to his stealth.  He grumbled all the way into Stary Sobor about stupid earth ponies who didn't even know the concept of stealth.

“He’s absolutely wrong," Twilight reassured herself, sitting in the back of the Ural.  "The reinforcements are probably on their way at this moment.
“He has a point though," Stormy admitted, polishing the barrel of her Dragunov SVDS rifle with a rag that had been in the pickup’s glove box.  She sat across from Twilight.  "It would only take a day or two for a marine combat force to get here, half that for the SEALs.  It’s been two days.”  Twilight bit her lip, knowing the Marine was right. “Still though,” Stormy continued, “they’ll probably send reinforcements soon.  They might just have been notified late due to issues with the communications relays. The ESS Khe Sahn’s probably on its way right now.”  That re-assured Twilight slightly, but she still couldn’t shake Karde’s words from her mind.

'Who is this guy?' she wondered.  'He's obviously a giant jerk, and he acted so idiotic and hot-headed, like he was daring us all to attack.  But then he got serious…  All because of those gloves.  He even spoke freaking PRENCH; where did that even come from?'  She shook her head.  'It can't just be the gloves.  He has some connection to the Engineering and Breaching Corps.  Maybe I should ask Dusk…'  She glanced at her look-a-like who sat just to her left, thinking almost the exact same thing.  What Twilight hadn't told Applejack earlier was that she already knew their doppelgängers were in Equestria: Celestia had told her she had requisitioned several companies’ worth of ponies, almost all colts, from Dusk's universe to supplement their army, a fact that the Princess and now Dusk and his companions wanted kept a secret.  Twilight knew she never would have told her that unless Dusk and his friends were among them.  Save for a few exceptions, they had all been gathered to form the Engineering and Breaching Corps.  'He said he doesn't remember Karde from the Corps, though.  Was Karde even there, or did he just know someone?'  She sighed internally.  'Either way, there's definitely more to this guy than just a simple scavenger.'

“Hey, we’re approaching Stary.  Get ready for anything," Elusive called from his position in the Ural’s driver seat.  Twilight shook herself out of her almost meditative state and prepared her equipment.  The ponies began to check their weapons, making ammo counts and flicking their safeties off.  They were more than ready.
----

> Act I Chapter 3: The Red Devils (NO EDITS)
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

PonyZ: Radio Zed
Chapter 3: The Red Devils
Outside Stary Sobor, Day-Z +2; 4:32 P.M.
"To beat death, you've got to know death."
- Schatzi, Night of the Dead: Leben Tod (2006)

The survivors snuck their way closer to the edge of town, seeing a large amount of zombies roaming the streets. “Jeez, I’ve never seen this many of them in one place before.” Stormy whispered to Rarity, who nodded and clicked the safety off of her Car-15.
“It’s very peculiar. From what we’ve seen so far, there’s usually only one or two at one place at a certain time. I can count nearly thirty here.” She replied, mentally counting the undead. A shot rang out from a DMR, and one of the zombies’ heads exploded. Hawk scoped in with his rifle, scanning for the sniper.
“Church tower, about four fifty away; clear shot.” He flicked off his safety, zeroing the rifle up to four hundred meters and aiming half a mill dot up in his sight. He settled his sights on a pony’s head.
“Hold your fire, we don’t know if they’re friendly or not.” Twilight said, pushing his rifle barrel skywards. Hawk nodded silently, flicking the safety back on as he glared at the captain from under his hood, as no other pony could see his eyes. The group started sneaking towards the church, weapons at the ready. They were just outside the church when the doors of the church opened and a platoon of twenty ponies, all wearing red berets, aimed weapons at them.
“Drop ‘em! Drop ‘em or we shoot!” The survivors complied, slowly placing their rifles on the ground. This seemed to satisfy the red berets, who holstered their weapons. “Sorry about that, we were just making sure you weren’t those shoot on sight bandit assholes. You can grab your weapons now.” The head pony, a unicorn stallion with a colonel’s bird on his beret, spoke up, l85 AWS on his back. The survivors grabbed their weapons and headed inside before the zombies could get any closer, with the red berets closing the door behind them. “I’m Colonel Firestorm, you?”
“I’m Captain Twilight Sparkle, of the 82nd Airborne. The paratroopers are mine, and the rangers are Captain Dusk Shine of the third rangers’. The two marines are scout-snipers we picked up. Nice to meet friendly faces out here colonel.” The colonel smirked. 
“It’s always a good thing to meet friendlies out here. We’re from the Special Air Service. We had been on base here at Stary when the outbreak began. We had to exfiltrate the base because we were getting overrun. The marines on station stayed, and were systematically slaughtered by the undead. The base is pretty much FUBAR right now.”
“Fubar?” Rainbow Dash asked, having not heard the term before.
“Effed up beyond all repair; Fubar.” The colonel supplied, taking a swigger from his flask, which was filled with coca-cola. “Ah, good old Coca-cola, not a better drink in all of Equestria. Anyhow, you’ll want to talk to General Light Speed, he’s in the crow’s nest. Big M107 on his back; can’t miss him.” Firestorm nodded towards a wooden ladder leading up to the roof of the church.
Dusk and Twilight ordered the survivors to stay down below, and headed up to the roof. Up top were two ponies, one resting, and the DMR sniper from before. The resting pony was a blue pegasus with a yellow mane and tail, and had an M107 Anti Material Rifle on his back, and was reading the only Equine book on the roof, Sun Tzu’s Art Of War. Beside him was a pack of bubblegum, a fragmentation grenade, and a box of ammunition, containing DMR and M107 magazines.
“General Light Speed, I presume?” Dusk asked the blue pegasus with a yellow mane. The pegasus looked up from his book at the two, placing a bookmark and setting it by the bubblegum.
“That’d be me, Captain. What do you need?” He cracked his neck, which was stiff from his position against the wall of the tower.
“We need help getting into the base so we can get military grade hardware. Then we’re headed up to Namalsk so we can get access to Namalsk’s Radio tower, and from there we’re going to try and radio in some backup from the Communications array there.” The general laughed in their face for a couple seconds before regaining composure and wiping a tear from his eye. 
“You’re serious, aren’t you? Well, I’d like to help, but we have our own problems currently.” The general pulled a map from  his jacket and unfolded it. There was a place marked “Devil’s Castle” on the map, with a big black X circled on it. “This is the Devil’s Castle area. We used to have control over it, but earlier today a bunch of Griffonian Spetsnaz, about a company of them, took it from us and drove us down here, where we’ve been cooped up for the better part of three hours. One of the SOBs has been strafing us with a Hind, but he must have seen a better target ‘cuz he pulled off and headed towards the southern road into town. You help us take back the Devil’s Castle and I’ll help you get in the base. You scratch my back I scratch yours. Deal?”
Dusk shook his hand, grinning. “Deal. That was us hiking our way here, by the way. A…associate of ours shot him down with a sniper rifle southeast of here. We’ve got nothing but our two feet. Have you got any transport?” The general nodded, pointing at a bus parked nearby the church.
“Yep, the guys call it “The S.A.S Party Bus”. That should hold your platoon, along with mine, so transport’s no issue. We can head out within the hour, are your ponies ready?” The two nodded, and the General smirked. “Good. Now, how good of shots are your snipers?”
---
The castle itself was very Germane gothic in design. It had probably been some rich Chenarussian prince’s commissioned castle built by a Germane castle builder. It had been built out of the surrounding mountains’ natural rock, which had weathered over the many years until nearly pitch black. Speaking of mountains though, Hawk was sitting on top of a comms antenna built on top of a mountain about 1.1 kilometers away from the castle with a L115A3 .338 Lapua Magnum sniper rifle. The rifle had been retooled by the Red Devils’ gunsmith, Silver Smith, to mount an AS50 enhanced zoom scope, for even longer distance shots. The rifle now had an operating range of 1.8 miles, and could fire less effective .300 magnum ammunition, but the .300 ammo was only rated for shots up to 730 meters and closer, less than half the range. The scope, however, only assisted Hawk for up to 1.3 kilometers, and the castle itself was only 1.1 kilometers from his position. To a markspony trained for long distance shooting, this was a walk in the park. Target in a sparsely wooded dip, no crosswinds, higher elevation for better targeting, this would be rather simple.
Stormy was sitting slightly lower down on the hill, aiming towards the target with her SVDS rifle, which had been retooled to fire at distances of 1.2 kilometers, compared to its original 923 meters, and had a dual band scope attached which allowed her to swap between her normal scope and a night vision scope. Closer to the castle, about 450 meters out, was the assault team. The platoon of survivors and the Red Devils had mixed together into two teams, one led by General Light Speed, the other by Colonel Firestorm. Firestorm’s team would flank around the back through the brush and sneak into the castle from the back while Gen. Light Speed’s team provided distraction through heavy rifle fire at the front of the base.
Hawk gazed at his watch. -0920- The attack began at 0930, so he had ten minutes to relax. Gazing through his scope, he zoomed in on Stormy Winters. She was a pegasus, and a fellow marine at that, all good things in Hawk’s books. He had nothing against the other species, but pegasi? Well, could unicorns or earth ponies fly? No. Alicorns could too, but Alicorns? They’re perfect. Perfection breeds insanity. When you are perfect, nothing will ever go wrong; it’s unnatural. Hawk shook the stray thoughts from his head, clearing his mind. He was really missing his medication right now, but he could deal without it for a few days. Hopefully they’d reach the Marine base in Stary by then… his base… He thought back to when he and Cloudy had retreated from the base, during the final minutes of the marines’ frantic defense. The Devils were right, the defense had failed… ‘And it failed because you bucked up and left them to die.’ The little pony in Hawk’s head, taking on the smooth, velvety tone of Pvt. Cloudy Skies-Archer spoke in hushed whispers in his mind. 
‘SHUT UP. We had to leave; they…they were going to die anyway. We were running low on ammo as it was… It was your idea anyway Cloudy, remember?’ The pony in his head shut up at that comment…She wouldn’t drive him over the edge, yet, but he desperately needed his medication; he’d run out yesterday, downing the last pill while the others were busy trying to find the pony with the gauss rifle; Karde was his name? Flipping plothole made fun of his stealth. HIS STEALTH… Hawk shook his head again and cleared his traitorous thoughts. He gazed at his watch once more. -0930- Stormy fired a shot from her SVDS rifle, and Hawk returned his scope’s gaze to the castle, picking out a griffon trying to set up a mounted machine gun - a DKSHM-41. The bullet exploded out of Hawk’s rifle, thudding itself into the Special Forces griffon’s skull. The griffon slumped over the low battlements of the roof, the discarded mounted machine gun falling to the ground below.
Hawk watched as the ground team in front began to enter the castle. Blitz and a Red Devils pony stacked up on either side of the front door, which had been changed from a giant portcullis gate to a rather small bullet-resistant locked door. Apparently, the lock on the door wasn’t very bullet resistant, as Blitz blew the lock open with his Trotington, and the Red Devils pony peeked inside with an M14 AIM rifle, sending four shots into the castle’s first room. Hawk watched the ponies pile into the castle, behind Blitz and the Red Devil pointmare. Hawk was glad that the red devils hadn’t recognized him underneath his ghillie suit, as he had only put it on when he and Cloudy had been sneaking out of the base, so zombies didn’t catch them. He really didn’t want to go into the depths of his personal life with the Rangers and the Airborne ponies, it was…well…personal, after all. Another griffon popped up on the battlements, probably trying to sneak to the ground level to flank the survivors. He got about a foot into the air when two nearly simultaneous rifle shots, with Hawk firing half a second or so faster, blew chunks out of his skull, red mist floating for a few seconds and the dead Spetsnaz griffon’s body fell to the ground. Heh… cake.
---
Blitz peered around one of the corners inside the castle, looking down a long hallway, with two griffons at the end. One held an AK-103/GP-25 automatic rifle, and the other held an RPK squad machine gun. He yanked his head back behind the wall, narrowly dodging an untimely demise due to half a clip of machine gun bullets. He then groaned in pain, as a stray bullet had ricocheted off the wall and embedded itself into his left wing. ‘Right. Mister Spetsnaz, meet mister Trotington.’ Blitz thought to himself, holding the shotgun out around the corner, blind firing a full eight rounds at the griffons. Peering around the corner, he smirked with grim satisfaction, seeing the two griffons on the ground, multiple shotgun wounds throughout their bodies. “Clear, let’s move up!” He shouted back to the Red Devils pointmare, a light opal pegasus mare, with an amber mane and tail, who had just exited a barracks room, reloading her M14. She nodded, cocking the rifle. They trotted down the hallway to the dead bodies, stacking up on the door. Blitz blew it open with his shotgun, and she tossed a fragmentation grenade inside. An explosion rang out, and a dead griffon came flying out of the door into the hallway.
Inside the room was another dead griffon and a ladder leading upwards, the stairs leading upwards having been collapsed with rubble. Blitz and the mare shared a nod, and he began to ascend the ladder, her rifle covering Blitz’s ascent. About halfway up, there was a loud explosion, and the castle shook. “Must be Bravo group making their entry on the far side of the castle!” She yelled up to Blitz, keeping her M14 aimed at the top of the ladder. After another tense minute, Blitz was at the top, and staring at yet another locked door.
“ Come on up, we’ve got another friggin’ locked door. I swear, it’s like this place is tryin’ to make me waste ammo. There needs to be a key that opens every door, and we should have it.” He grumbled as the mare clambered up the ladder.
“If we did that though, all it’d take is one griffon to steal the key and we’d be screwed. Instant access to everywhere in the base. This was ours before the griffs took it.” She stated, stacking up on the other side of the door.
“Oh. Must have been daydreaming about an ace during that.”
“A what now?” She raised an eyebrow
He recovered quickly, stammering out an answer. “I-I-I mean an uh… ace of spades…heh… CLEARING!” He blasted the door off its hinges with a single powerful blast of shotgun ammunition. The pointmare rolled her eyes, and was about to enter when the door got up and groaned… Make that a griffon that was hit by a flying door, and was trying to get up. He took a M14 bullet to the face before he could do anything hazardous to a pony’s health, and the two continued on, as the rest of the team reached the ladder. The two scouts continued on through the castle, and the mare stopped to examine a slightly skewed painting.
“Hey, this looks nice. Wonder why it’s sideways though. I wonder…” Blitz quickly tackled her, before she could do anything, and she began to blush, with him laying on top of her.
“Hey, sorry about that,” he began, getting off of her and helping her up, before continuing. “My buddy Bubble told me about something similar to this, the Germanes used to use them a ton of times back during the Equestrian-Germane civil war; the uh… second world war. We uh, fought the first war against the Griffs. It’s a trap; skewed painting’s covering a wire that when it gets stretched…” He made a small explosion gesture with his hands. “Poof, no more pointmare.” They backed up to a safe distance, and Blitz used a twelve foot pike from one of the old suits of armor to move the painting. There was a click, and the painting exploded outwards with the force of a C4 plastic explosive, as the two watched from around the corner.
“Uhm… Thanks. I...Uh…I...Thanks for not getting me killed.” She quietly stammered out, blushing profusely.
“Eh, no problem, uh…” He still didn’t know her name, he realized.
“Private first class Lightning Dust, third S.A.S reconnaissance.” She quickly provided, the red fading from her cheeks. He tossed away the broken piece of pike, and the two continued down the hallway, reaching a set of actual stairs.
“FAUST, finally! STAIRS!” Blitz whooped, doing a little happy dance as Lightning rolled her eyes. “Hardy har. You know, we’re both pegasi, why don’t we just fly up?” Blitz gestured to his wing, which was missing some of the primary feathers.
“Took a bullet and the muscle won’t move right. I’m grounded, but I dunno why you don’t just fly up. You look fine to me, but I’m not the medic, that’d be ‘Scotch and Fluttershy.” She shrugged, having no good excuses for not flying. Blitz rolled his eyes and the two began to climb the stairs. The stairs exited out to the battlements, where a single griffon in Spetsnaz officer’s uniform was lying behind the battlements wall, trying not to get shot. Dust aimed at him with her M14, and the rifle made a resounding click – the bullet had jammed in the barrel. The griffon’s head shot up, and he aimed an AKM rifle at Dust. Blitz acting quickly, jumped in front of her, firing his Trotington as the officer fired a burst from his AKM, the shotgun tore the officer’s face off, and the AKM shots went wide, with two of them missing completely, the other one burying itself into the side of Blitz’s shotgun, jamming the Pump action.
“Jeez Blitz, that’s twice now you’ve saved my life. You my guardian Angel or something?” She smiled, rubbing a hand across her forehead. Now, Blitz began to blush as he tried to un-jam his shotgun.
“Yeah yeah, whatever…” He muttered, trying to dig the bullet out with his Ka-Bar combat knife. The bullet remained adamantly stuck in the action, rendering it useless. Blitz swore to all things Faust-related under his breath and tossed the weapon away, taking the officer’s AKM rifle and a couple clips of ammunition. After a few minutes, the second team, minus a couple Red Devils who were scavenging for ammunition, reached the battlements. Another few minutes and Hawk and Stormy trotted up to the battlements, having hiked the whole way. Dusk noticed that Blitz was holding the AKM, instead of his shotgun, as he chatted with Lightning Dust.
“Hey Blitz, where’d your shotgun go?” Dusk raised an eyebrow, pointing to the Griffonian assault rifle. Blitz spat off the edge of the castle and holstered the rifle.
“Piece of crap got jammed by a bullet and it broke the action. I’ll have to grab a new one at the base.”  Then, of all the ponies to notice Lightning Dust, Rainbow saw her out of the corner of her eye.
“Hey, what the buck are YOU doing here?” She pointed her Car-15 at Dust, and every Red Devil commando and Blitz pointed their motley assortment of weapons at Rainbow.
Dusk and Twilight jumped between the two groups. “Woah woah woah, calm the Buck down everypony!” The two groups, Survivors on one side, Red devils and Blitz on the other, grumbled and ever so slowly lowered their rifles. Then, Twilight turned to Rainbow, looking ready to scream bloody murder. “What the Hay is wrong with you?” She whispered angrily in Rainbow’s ear.
“But, Twi, it’s” She began.
“I know good and Freaking well who it is, and can’t you see she’s stuck in this with us too? They all are. We need friends right now, not enemies. I don’t care who she is or what she did, Equestrian is Equestrian is Equestrian. We stick together. END.OF.STORY. Now go make nice.” She pushed Dash towards Dust and Blitz, the latter watching her like a Hawk, finger resting over the AKM’s trigger.
“Hey, uh…Dust…”

> Act 1 Chapter 4: Secrets
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

		PonyZ Radio Zed
Chapter 4: Secrets
“Hey, you ever get the feeling that there’s something Richtofen ain’t telling us?” –Tank Dempsey
Stary Military base, DayZ+3 
The base was practically overrun with rotting, undead ponies and griffons; there were hundreds of them. The survivors and the Red Devils watched them mill about from the wall surrounding the base. One bullet and they’d all go into a frenzy, running around and trying to reach the survivors. To remedy this, each pony on the wall primed a fragmentation grenade. Within six seconds, nearly forty fragmentation grenades exploded inside the perimeter of the base, sending deadly shrapnel into the undead ponies. While a good chunk of the undead were killed, there was still over eighty of the undead still alive. The earth ponies and unicorns tried to jump up the side of the fourteen foot wall, to no avail. What scared the survivors was that griffons and pegasi zombies retained flight capabilities, though their feathers were rotting or were rotted away. The Red Devils seemed to already know this, having probably dealt with them during their stay in the church. The living ponies frantically shot down the zombies, but they got to one unlucky Red Devil, and started to rip him apart. His friends quickly shot the zombies off of him, then shot him as a mercy killing, as it would only be a matter of time before he turned into one of the undead.
With the dead soldier came the stark reminder of how dangerous the undead really were. Now, the ponies fought even harder, wiping out the massive horde of undead within the base after an hour or so of burning through stores of ammunition. Then, the ponies lowered a ladder over the wall, slowly sliding down it into the base. “After the marines were infected, we snuck in and set off some explosives to draw them into the base. Then we sealed the entryway off with whatever we could grab.” Lightning explained, her M14 AIM warily watching the open barracks building.
“Ooooooh! What’d you use? AT-4s, C4, Semtex?” Bubble practically hopped around everywhere, trying to find the armory, which undoubtedly held explosivey goodness inside. He stopped mid-bounce as his and pinkie’s tails began to twitch. “Quick, hide everypony!” The ponies took cover, and slowly from the barracks came a very large zombie. There was something…off…about it. Dusk and Twilight observed it stumble and plod around the courtyard. From the armory building, Elusive ran out screaming as he blasted the strange zombie with an AT-4 rocket. The rocket detonated across the zombie’s face, but the massive earth pony, now a pale, rotting yellow, paid no attention and simply kept plodding around, passing by Elusive as the poor pony’s mouth gaped open. The soldiers slowly stood up from their positions, staring at the strange zombie in amazement.
Then, the most curious thing happened. The chunk of flesh that Elusive had torn out of the large zombie’s face with the AT-4 began to regenerate itself. “…What the buck?” Gen. Light Speed said, scratching his head in wonder. “What sick colt of a mare come up with that…thing?”  Dusk shrugged, keeping his rifle pointed at the humongous pony. Blitz gulped audibly, and slowly snuck up to the zombie’s left side. 
“Hey, there’s something tattooed here, over where his cutie mark should be. Says… THETA-0011; Project StormFront. What’s that?” General Light Speed’s jaw went tight, his body rigid.
“Did you say…StormFront?” Blitz nodded, and Speed’s head fell visibly. “Those sick bastards…” He whispered to himself, Blitz and Rainbow just barely making it out. “StormFront was a super soldier program, designed after an old Germane gruppe 473 project that was found in one of the V1 facilities we discovered. They were trying to make a soldier that was strong, never surrendered, and never got emotional from battle; the soldier that looked at death in the eye and treated him as an equal. It was scrapped due to lack of funding. When we got a hold of it, Celestia ordered it to be locked away in the Vaults, and when we went to war with the Griffs again here in Chenarus, She had it re-opened, and the army scientists were made to work on it, at a place over in Taviana, which was friendly territory. I think it was called…object all?” He pondered.
“Hey, isn’t that where the Gauss rifles were being developed?” Dusk asked the General, who nodded in confirmation.
“What the hay was going on during this war? There’s so many secrets going around.” Hawk gulped beneath his ghillie suit, but nopony noticed him. Well, almost nopony. Applejack saw him shuffle slightly, and put that into the back of his head, mentally reminding himself to ask the sniper what was wrong, among other things, like what species he was. “Secret weapons, secret projects, secret…” Dusk stopped midsentence and caught Hawk’s eye as he scratched his head. Hawk bit his lip. ‘He knows...Ponyfeathers, he knows. But what does he know?’ The Red Devils slowly and cautiously pushed the large zombie back into the first barracks building, blocking the entrance with the party bus. They then entered the armory, except Dusk, Hawk, and Applejack, who gathered in the second barracks building.
“Hawk, what the hay man, do you not trust us or something?” Dusk chastised the gunnery sergeant. “How long did you think it would take us to find out?” Hawk sweated beneath his ghillie.
“Find out what?” He gulped. Dusk shoved the empty vial of Schizophrenia medicine into Hawk’s face. 
“How about that you have medicine for being a Schitzo? Come on man. How long until you go crazy? Huh? Dusk grilled him for answers.
Hawk merely sighed, whether in resignation or relief, Applejack and Dusk couldn’t tell. ‘Great, there may something more.’ Dusk concluded. “I ran out of pills back while you were hunting down that Karde character. I have some more on site here, hidden under my bunk. I have to take them daily. First day without, I hear voices. Next day, I get split personalities, or so I’ve been told; Cloudy knew; Day three…Day three I start to see things. It’s been a day so far.” He trotted over to a bunk that read PFC Skies/ GySgt Archer on the end, reached beneath the bunk, and opened a loose piece of wood. Underneath was several months’ worth of Schizophrenia medication. Hawk grabbed enough medicine for three and a half months, sticking them in his backpack.
Applejack, satisfied, left the barracks to go grab a decent weapon from the armory, but Dusk stayed, trying to grill Hawk for more answers. “Hawk…There’s something else, isn’t there.” Hawk remained silent. “Hawk. As a commanding officer, please, don’t force me to make you tell me.” Dusk didn’t like to pull rank like that, but he needed to know.
“…Ok. But what I tell you, cannot, under any circumstances, leave this room.” Dusk nodded in agreement. Hawk trotted over to the bunk-bed he shared with PFC skies, clambered onto the top bunk, and removed the covers, grabbing a shiny set of silver dog-tags. Then, he handed them to Dusk.
Private First Class Cloudy Skies-Archer
1st Equestrian Marine Corps
B-Company
Scout-Sniper
Dusk stared at the dogtags in shock. “She…She…”
Hawk nodded, removing his ghillie suit once again, this time completely. Underneath the suit, he was a pegasus, his mane and body the same gray it had been. His wings, however, were mangled and decayed, missing most of the feathers. “She was…My wife… She…She never made it away from the base. She wanted the marines to leave with the commandos, but Bucking Colonel Razor refused. We tried to escape, but we got… attacked by those things outside the base. Some marine thought it would be a good idea to throw a grenade at us, and it mangled my wings. She got bitten, and…Faust, she made me shoot her…she…she…she…” He broke down into tears on the floor of the barracks in a ball. “she’s…buried out back, behind the barracks buildings…” He then refused to talk anymore. Dusk locked the door and closed it behind him, leaving the key with Hawk. Behind the barracks was a small wooden cross, with the words “Requesiat et Peace” carved into the wood, and the tattered remains of a ghillie suit in a neat, folded bundle beneath the cross. Dusk removed his helmet and saluted the grave, paying his respects to Hawk’s dead Wife and close friend. He then walked over to the armory, seeing the barracks door open again. Inside, Hawk leaned quietly against a wall, as the other ponies grabbed weaponry.
Dusk nodded respectively to the ghillied up sniper, and grabbed some military grade STANAG ammunition for his Car-15, which he attached a holographic aiming reticule to. Hawk then decided to move from his spot and started grabbing rifle ammunition for his Lapua magnum, grabbing .338 Magnums and .300 magnums. Blitz had found himself a new shotgun, in the form of a M1014 semi-automatic shotgun. Applejack had traded his Car-15 in for an M240 Bravo, and Elusive had traded in his for an M16A3 rifle, with an under-barrel grenade launcher and an ACOG sight. Bubble was stuffing his backpack with all manners of explosives, including Semtexs, Composition B, Satchel Charges, C-4, Claymores, and etcetera. His feminine counterpart had found herself a couple AT-4 rocket launchers, and an M32 semi-automatic Grenade launcher, which she put on her back, along with the AT-4s. Her Car-15 now sported an M203 grenade launcher, as well as a pop-up sight so that she could aim the grenades effectively. 
Fluttershy and Butterscotch were taking medical supplies out of the field hospital and placing them in their respective medical satchels, as Rarity trotted out of the command center. “Twilight, Dusk, there’s an operational computer inside the CC.” The two looked at each other, and ran inside the Command Center. Sure enough, one computer was powered up, and requiring a password. Then, Blitz, Lightning, and AJ trotted in, with AJ sporting a M60 machine gun. Lighting trotted over, and because she had been on the base, picked the lock on the desk they were sitting at, opening it and retrieving the password and entering it into the computer.
PASS: BLITZSCHLAG
ACHTUNG. This computer belongs to the project StormFront, and is to be restricted to only high-ranking StormFront members.
Please insert SF PASS:
Dusk and Twilight looked at Lightning, who shrugged. “Sorry, I just know that’s where Doc. Weimar left his computer password. I used to hack his computer to stalk his Email, and download viruses to piss him off. Then he got transferred up to Taviana, and the computer got locked with an SF Password. Maybe Gen. Speedy knows, but good luck getting him to tell you. Very touchy subject.” 
“How touchy?” Blitz asked Dust.
“It’d be faster to go up to Object All and get the pass off Weimar, or his corpse; whatever’s left of the doctor.” She stated, dead serious.
Dusk sighed, and he, Twilight, and AJ left the room. Blitz and Lightning stayed behind, Lightning bent over the desk trying to find a password. Blitz bit his lip, and tried to think of a way to talk to her. He never was good with mares. Hay, last time he talked to Spitfire, she slapped him with a flight glove. He sighed. They could have been together, but then…well…Stuff happened, between the two. Well…stuff called he pinched her butt. Never knew she’d be so pissy about it though…They had good times together, then he was a friggin dumb flank and screwed it up. “So, uh…what are you gonna do now?” He asked, after a while of going through the good memories he’d had with his old flame. 
“Who knows. Honestly, I’m getting sick of sitting around. Think I could come with you?” He pondered it, then shrugged.
“Not my call, that’s Twilight’s, her being the Captain and all. I’ll ask if you wanna tag along though.”
“Sure, thanks Blitz.”

---
Two hours later, Chenarus foothills, en route to Taviana.
Twilight, much to Rainbow’s chagrin, allowed Dust to stay with the survivors, bumping their group up to fifteen. Safety in numbers, after all. Blitz and Lightning trotted along out front, Blitz with his M1014, Dust with her M14 AIM. Hawk and Stormy brought up the rear, and AJ and Applejack covered the left and right with their heavy machine guns. After an hour of walking, night fell, and the ponies stopped to set up camp. Blitz was first watch as usual, and Dust said she’d accompany him. The two sat, still on edge, but sharing stories.  The time Dust won in the marksmareship competition between the Devils and the Marines, the time Blitz tried to find a pet from Butterscotch, things like that. From a few kilometers away, Karde watched them through the sight of his Gauss rifle, watching their progress. There was a low groan, and he turned around, only to come face to face with a StormFront THETA zombie. Karde fired the Gauss Rifle point blank into his face, causing the survivors a few kilometers away to wake up from their restless slumber. The spent magic round encased in a crystal ejected out of the side of the gun, and Karde replaced it with a fresh crystal. The THETA’s head didn’t regenerate.
---
After a fitful night, the survivors reached the town of Vyshnoye, and entered the large apartment building inside. There was an abundance of STANAG rounds, but not much else, except a colt brothers .38 special revolver, which was pretty much useless compared to the weapons they already had. However, there was another bus in the town, and Karde’s words to Dusk and Twilight came to mind.
“This gun will take out all kinds of cars and planes. There’s only three vehicles ah haven’t destroyed in a single shot. A Tank, a bus, and a cargo plane. Never have found out why those damned buses won’t blow up…” 
The bus was missing several wheels, and it was out of gas. Blitz, Das, Lightning and Applejack trotted back a few kilometers with jerry cans to get some gas for the bus from a gas station they passed on the way to town, and the others began scavenging around town for some wheels. Rainbow still didn’t trust Lightning that much, but they were at least on civil terms now. They watched the gas station, making sure there were no undead ponies shambling around before they went to fill their cans with fuel. Seeing the way clear, they started to fill up the cans with fuel, after a quick trot down to the pumps. There was a slow, steady rumble, and Blitz motioned for them to hide in the station. They dropped the cans and headed inside, watching a griffon driven Ural truck drive up to the station. They looked more like civilians than soldiers, and the Ural was a blue civilian model. There were two lee-Manefield rifles inside the truck, which they grabbed as they got out, as they began speaking in native Griffa. 
Blitz slowly emerged from the station, shotgun stowed on his back. He kept his hands raised up high, and the two lowered the Manefield rifles they had pointed at him. He then began to speak in Griffa to them, as special forces often learned the native languages of the area they were operating in. [Do you speak Equi?] He asked in the low, throaty tone Griffa employed.
[Only a little. I see you speak Griffon though. Are you a soldier?] One asked, holstering the Manefield on his back. Blitz nodded, and the other three ponies came out, after Blitz gave them the go-ahead to keep pumping fuel into the canisters.
[Da, we’re trying to reach our research base in Taviana. We were getting fuel for the bus in town.] He replied calmly, as they continued to fill the gas cans, rifles on safety. The griffons nodded, returning to their truck. They took two jerry cans out of it, and began to fill their own canisters with gasoline from a nearby pump. The ponies finished pumping their gas, and headed back towards town. The griffons must have gone back another way, because the ponies didn’t see them pass by with their truck. Griffon civilians aside, they began to pour the fuel into the bus, and got the tank up to three-quarters full. Then, Twilight and Dusk trotted up, levitating two tires apiece. The bus only needed three tires, so Dusk stuck his extra tire inside the bus. AJ, who was dozing off in the bus, was then woken up and began to work on the bus, with Applejack helping her. The bus was ready within the hour, and the ponies loaded up into the bus.
As they drove along the road, passing shambling zombies and zombies running almost at a full speed trot, Elusive and Rarity tried to tune the old radio built into the bus. Eventually, they found a station that had little static. It was a military frequency.
Any and all ponies of the Royal Equestrian Marines,
The Princesses have abandoned us. The ESS Khe Sahn is being returned to Bucking Utes, and we’re getting left here. I don’t know about the rest of you, but if you want to live, I’d head to Utes as soon as possible. Who knows, maybe they’ll let us on board. Here’s to” There was a buzz, and the radio went silent. No static, no voices, nothing, just pure silence; as if the lines had been cut.
“Ugh, probably another soldier sending out crank radio messages. Bloody marine ponies are always messing around; no offense you two.” Elusive stamped a hoof on the ground. 
“None taken.” Stormy answered, and Hawk nodded in agreement.
The bus continued up the road, until it reached a Griffonian checkpoint, leading to a very long bridge that connected Chenarus to Namalsk region. The ponies readied their weapons and took up positions covering every angle. Dusk levitated his Car-15 as he gripped the wheel with one hand, the stick shift with his other. “Here we go everypony!” He yelled out, as the ponies readied their weapons. He pushed the bus as fast as it could go- 70km/h – and the bus blew right through the barricade, as the ponies whooped and fired at the Griffons defending the checkpoint. One griffon got lucky. A bullet from his AKS assault rifle blew the hinge off of the rear left emergency exit, and Lightning Dust, who had been using it as her firing position, toppled head over heels out of the bus, skidding for a few feet onto the bridge. 
“Stop the bus!” Dash shook her head and yelled for Dusk to keep going. “STOP THE BUS!” Dusk shook his head at Blitz and mouthed, ‘Not worth it!’ Blitz just growled. “Well she is to me! No pony left behind, remember?” He roared over the gunfire, before he somersaulted out of the bus, ignoring the scrapes and bruises he gained from leaping out of a bus as he hit the pavement. Groaning, he staggered to his feet, pulling a USP. 45 SOCOM pistol from his hip, as he had left his M1014 on the bus. He half limped half crawled over to where Lightning lay, turning her onto her back. Under fire from the Griffons, he checked her pulse. She had a steady heart rate, and was unconscious, so he dragged her behind an over-turned civilian vehicle and popped his head and hands out of cover, firing at the gryphons with his pistol.
The outnumbered but not yet outfought Pegasus jumped to action, quick as a flash.  He pulled a fragmentation grenade from his belt, chucking it over the car towards the griffons. The grenade claimed two featherheads and maimed another.
Blitz looked a couple feet behind him, seeing Lightning’s M14 AIM sitting, out in the open. It must have slid along the road when she fell out of the bus. Steeling himself, he ran for it, living up to his name of Blitz. He grabbed the rifle and turned to run back to the car, but a bullet thwacked into his leg, dropping him to the floor.. 
He struggled to get to the M14, but it was kicked away by a griffon, wearing an officer’s uniform. [Look, comrades! A Pony who thought he could beat the best army in the world!] the other five griffon soldiers started to laugh at the pegasus that the officer kicked with a boot. 
[I don’t think I can beat you mudaks, I know I could. Give me a knife and I’ll gut each and every one of you.] Blitz spat in Griffa at the officer, rage filling his vision. The officer laughed and kicked the corporal again.
[Pah! You ponies are all weak fools!] The officer picked Blitz up by his throat.
Blitz proceeded to spit in his face. [Go ahead and torture me you Svolochs. You ain’t gonna break me.] At this, the officer raised an eyebrow.
[Oh?]
The lieutenant suddenly gaped, as Blitz’s Ka-Bar grew out of his midsection. The griffon dropped Blitz, who wasted no time slicing another griffon, this one a sergeant with an RPD machinegun, from his neck to his waist. The Ka-Bar flashed again, and a griffon fell to the ground clutching his throat and gurgling as blood spilled out and stained the black asphalt a darker shade of black. Blitz turned to the other three griffons, who were shakily pointing their Kalashnikov model assault rifles at him, wide-eyed from his show of violence. They started to pull the trigger, but one’s rifle was jammed, and the other had no ammunition. One of the three, a veteran of Takistan, back when the USSG and Equestria pulled off several joint ops, recognized the tactics. He gulped visibly. One thought on his mind. [‘Der’mo.’]
Within seconds of each other, the griffons were on the floor, dead or dying. Blitz picked up Dust’s unconscious body and started to walk across the bridge towards Namalsk, humming to himself a tune he had heard on the bus, which was now in a town in Namalsk. From the Griffonian checkpoint, a single griffon private, who had seen the massacre, curled into a ball, whimpering to himself, hoping the horrible murdering pony of grim reaping and death didn’t come back.
---
Two hours later; Namalsk-Chenarus bridge 
Lightning Dust groaned and began to open her eyes, finding herself on a piece of destroyed car seat. Nearby, Blitz was stoking a fire made from a rubber car tire, Dust’s M14 AIM across his lap. A foot or so away from him, a Blood-stained Ka-Bar combat knife lay, stuck by its point into a crack in the asphalt. He heard her shift in the car seat and looked up at her, smiling faintly. “Oh good, you’re up. How was your nap?” He asked jokingly. His leg wound wasn’t as bothersome now, but it still stung.
She pulled herself off of the destroyed car seat and sat down on the ground next to Blitz. “I feel like I fell out of a bus.”
“Mhm, you did. I jumped out after you ‘cause they wouldn’t go back; weren’t important enough to them. We have one rifle with five clips between us, my Ka-Bar, and our sidearms.” He stated, factually. 
“Well, that sucks. What’s our plan?” She asked, checking her S&W .500 for ammo; it had four shots in the chamber, and she had eleven extras. She slid one round into the empty space in the chamber, closing the cylinder.
“There’s supposed to be a radio tower in Namalsk, right?” Lightning nodded. “The way I see it, the others will head to Object All first, to try and get the pass for Weimar’s computer. After that, they’ll probably head towards the tower to try and radio mainland Equestria. Hopefully, we’ll be there by then, as they have to pass through the Tower to get back to the bridge.” Lightning shot an incredulous look at Blitz. “What?”
“You didn’t strike me as a strategist. You strike me more as a run in guns blazing kind of guy.” Blitz just shrugged, stoking the fire with a stick.
“Yeah well, you learn some things as you go along. Dusk might be the guy who comes up with most of the plans, but me and Applejack are the ones who make sure the plans are followed through correctly, so we have to pick up a few things. Get some rest, we’ll move in the morning; I’ll take first watch.”
“Alright; And Blitz?”
“Yeah lightning?” 
“Thanks for coming back for me.”
“…Don’t mention it.”
---
Party bus, ten minutes earlier
“We have ta go back for ‘em!” AJ yelled towards Dusk, her path blocked by her male counterpart. 
“AJ, let ‘em go; They’re either dead or Griffon POWs.” Applejack said, putting a hand on her shoulder. She knocked it away, glaring at him.
“What, so y’all can leave them again like you did with Mac? Huh Applejack? Huh? Turn this BUCKING bus around Dusk, or Ah will come up there and do it mahself!” She pushed the barrel of her M60E4 into Applejack’s chest, the stallion not budging in the slightest.
“AJ, they’re dead. Let it go.” he hissed into her face, as Elusive leveled his rifle at her head. Guns were drawn, and everypony pointed a weapon at another pony, until Dusk stopped the bus, toppling a couple ponies to the floor.
“EVERYPONY CALM THE TARTARUS DOWN.” He yelled, hair beginning to turn an orange color, but he stopped himself, blowing smoke out of his nostrils. No pony on the bus wanted to see THAT happen… They all wisely put away their weapons. “Now I hate to say it, because Blitz was like a brother to me, but He’s probably dead, and… he’s not gonna be coming back. OK?” The ponies nodded slowly and quietly. “Good. Now come on, let’s get up to Taviana before the griffons come running after my yelling.”
“Or something worse.” Elusive stated, clearly remembering the encounter with the project StormFront zombie. Dusk nodded in agreement, shifting the bus into gear. He then continued off towards Taviana, everypony on edge. They were driving for about ten minutes, when the bus shuddered, and stopped moving. Dusk looked at the fuel meter, which read empty.
“We’re out guys. We’ll have to walk from here. Grab your gear and let’s go.” The ponies started to grab their gear and headed off the bus, setting up a perimeter as the others finished packing their gear. Dusk went to grab his rifle, and then paused, seeing Blitz’s M1014. He paused for a minute, remembering all the good memories the two had made, before and during the war. He sighed, then grabbed his rifle and exited the bus, leaving the shotgun in its resting place, against the back wall. Hawk watched him pass by, then looked back, and grabbed the shotgun, removing the stock so it fit in his backpack. He then grabbed his Lapua Magnum and got off the bus.
On the side of the bus, Bubble was spray painting words. “…Bubble, what are you doing?” Bubble Berry paused, and then turned to Hawk. 
“Well duuuuh, I’m leaving other ponies a message!” Hawk blinked, staring blankly at the very obvious message.
“…I see…” He turned and left, leaving Bubble to his message. Bubble’s message said, “Warning! Brain munchers nearby!” Truer words never spoken, as Elusive dispatched a zombie that shambled out of the woods nearby with his M16. 
--
Namalsk-Chenarus Bridge, two hours earlier
Karde watched the griffons milling about the checkpoint, and saw the party bus go on its ill-fated bum-rush across the bridge from a half a kilometer away through the scope on his Gauss Rifle. Gazing at his now ungloved right hand, he read the words tattooed across the back. “Project StormFront S#: E-0007 Subject Epsilon” Karde grimaced, suppressing the bad memories of StormFront, Object All, and Doctor Weimar. Focusing on a small wooden shack to the far right of the checkpoint, he held out his gloved left hand, a Teal Glyph burning brightly from under the glove. Small technological lines formed along his hand, and he Disappeared, re-appearing outside the shack, on his feet. Opening the shack, he quietly killed the shambling zombie inside with a bowie knife, going over to the ladder inside and sliding down it.
Karde followed the tunnel at the bottom, emptying out to the cliff-face, just underneath the bridge. Stepping onto the walkway built underneath the bridge, he started to creep across, hearing gunfire from Kalashnikov style rifles, and the explosion of an Equestrian made Fragmentation Grenade. He paused for a moment, chuckled to himself, and carried on across the walkway, towards the other side of the bridge. 
Reaching the other end, he opened a door built into the cliff face and entered another tunnel, heading down it and exiting via a ladder. This ladder was significantly taller, and when he exited out of it, he was at the base of the Namalsk radio tower, inside a hollow dumpster. He opened the lid and exited the dumpster, closing it back behind him. He then entered the radio tower and climbed to the top, beginning to wait for the ponies, whom would inevitably come to the radio tower. 

> Act I Chapter 5: Heart Of Darkness
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

PonyZ Radio Zed: Chapter 5
Heart of Darkness
Namalsk Forests, 30 Kilometers South/Southeast of the Namalsk Radio Array, stationed at Namalsk Lighthouse
DayZ +4
“We penetrated deeper and deeper into the heart of darkness” 
― Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness
------
Blitz, his USP .45 at the ready, took point, head on a swivel, watching the forest for zombies. The zombies however, seemed to be more interested in staying near cities and villages, maybe due to reminders of a past life before they died. Looking behind him, Blitz saw Lightning Dust, gripping her M14 so tightly that her opal knuckles were white, a bandage around one leg, and her head constantly turning to their six. Seeing the tree line’s edge approaching, Blitz raised his hand in a fist, the universal pointpony code for halt.
“You see that down there? There’s a village of some kind. I’m counting ten…no, twelve zombies, at least, and those are just the ones I see from up here. Are you feeling good enough to sprint?” Blitz asked Lightning, who shook her head. 
“Sorry Blitz, I’m barely able to trot quickly as is, I’d collapse from sprints.” Blitz nodded his head.
“Alright, we’ll take this nice and slowly, and quietly.” Blitz decided, trying to map out routes in his head to the house that was the closest to the tree line they were crouching in.
“Slowly and quietly? That’s new for you.” Lightning joked.
“Yeah well, I could have made it into the FGC, after Operation Arrowhead.” Lightning reeled back at this bit of info.
“FGC, as in, Flight Ground Control, the Special Ops group of the Air Force,” Blitz nodded. “That only high ranking special operators and very skilled Air Force members get into?” Lightning questioned, slack jawed.
“…Close your mouth, you’ll catch flies. And yeah, the FGC. Back after Op Arrowhead, I had been promoted to a first lieutenant, and Dusk had been a Captain. Blueblood, the commanding General in the Takistan Area of operations, even gave us a recommendation for FGC. But me and Dusk, we wanted to stay with our friends. We fought with them in Takistan. We ate, slept, fought and bled together; we weren’t just going to break that apart. So, we respectfully declined. When Blueblood was wounded in action and returned to sovereign Equestria, General Steele took over for him, starting with Op Crimson Lance in Chenarus. We didn’t follow one of his orders, to shoot at civilians suspected to be insurgents working with the USSG, so we got busted down the ranks.” Blitz chuckled and rubbed the back of his neck. “I was particularly mouthy, so I got busted back to corporal.”
“…Dang. Never knew you had it in you. Alright, I’m ready to move when you are.” Lightning whistled.
Blitz nodded, and began to count down on his fingers. Three, two, one… He waved his hand forward, and the two began to sneak across the field, weapons at the ready. They snuck up to the house without much difficulty, and stacked up by the door. Blitz readied his USP, and nodded to Lightning, who opened the door. The entryway was clear, so the two entered the house. Almost immediately, they were hit with the stench of rotting flesh. 
“Ugh, Faust that’s rank.” Blitz whispered, scrunching his nose and gagging slightly. They checked the kitchen, and saw a zombie crouching over a dead griffon bandit, tearing chunks out of its wing with its arms. Then, it began to eat the griffon. Lightning gagged, and started to puke, as Blitz coolly put two suppressed .45 ACP bullets into the undead pony’s skull. The zombie groaned, and slumped to the ground. Blitz then placed a bullet into the head of the dead bandit, so that he wouldn’t come back as a zombie. 
Nearby on the table, sat two guns, a Mossberg remake of an old Whinnychester 1894 repeater rifle, with a twenty round cartridge case unopened on a cabinet, and a suppressed Ruger M1911 replica, with two full clips of ammunition. Blitz grabbed the Mossberg, and slipped ten rounds into the tube magazine. He then handed Lightning the Ruger. “Take this; it’ll be a lot quieter than your hand cannon of a revolver.” She frowned, and then slipped the Ruger into one of her chest pockets, the ammunition into the other.
Blitz lowered the lever on the bottom of the Mossberg, hearing the satisfying sound of a round being loaded into the gun’s breach. Pushing the lever back into its resting position, he flicked off the safety, making the gun ready to fire. “Rangers lead the way.” He muttered, grinning slightly.
---

Namalsk Radio Array, Top of Namalsk Lighthouse.
Karde sat at the top of the now defunct lighthouse, watching the road that led up to it for any bandits to shoot at with his ERF-7 Gauss Rifle (its unofficial designation). He was, as far as he knew, the only one at the array, and the group of survivors he had met earlier hadn’t passed by. ‘Granted,’ He thought to himself, ‘They could have bypassed the array completely by taking the right fork after the bridge, which would put them at…’ Karde quickly cut off that line of thinking. ‘When I met with Dusk, Twilight, and those two marines, that was too close… I should have taken the gloves off before they reached where I was. Stupid, Stupid, Stupid Wild Karde.’ There was a soft noise, like somebody had scuffed a boot, and Wild popped up from his prone position, swinging his ERF-7 towards the noise.
A tan earth pony with green eyes and a slightly darker mane grabbed the weapon with one hand, pointing a Desert Eagle pistol at Karde’s face with the other. Karde dropped the Gauss rifle and swung a fist at Caramel Apple, who shifted left and blocked the punch with the side of his right hand, knocking Wild to the ground. Wild quickly rolled out of the way as Caramel discharged the Desert Eagle, the fifty caliber AE bullet slamming into the ground where Karde’s head had been a moment before. Karde rolled forward, springing into a flying punch aimed at Caramel’s gut. The punch connected, knocking the breath out of Caramel’s chest. Caramel grunted, then teleported behind Karde and tried to make an open-palmed blow to one of the pressure points in Karde’s neck. Karde teleported a foot away, then teleported back and performed an open palm strike to Caramel’s chest, knocking him through the glass and out of the lighthouse.
Taking a moment to catch his breath, Karde grabbed his Gauss rifle, and leaned over the side, looking for Caramel’s body. Caramel’s body was nowhere to be seen, and quick as a flash, Caramel’s fist flew up through Karde’s rifle, breaking it in half, and into Wild Karde’s face, breaking his nose. Karde stared slack-jawed at the two pieces of his rifle, as Caramel grabbed his Desert Eagle from the ground and pointed it at Karde’s face. The Epsilon began to pull back on the trigger, the sights pointed right between Karde’s eyes.
There was a click, and the pistol jammed. Caramel threw it aside, and started to draw his M107 Anti-Material rifle off of his back. Karde was quicker on the draw; dropping his two pieces of the ERF-7, and slipping a Single Action Army, an ace of spades emblazoned on its grip, into his hand, he fired the revolver from his hip, the .45-70 government center fire round hitting Caramel in the shoulder. Karde slammed his palm down on the hammer and fired again, shooting Caramel in the face, and dropping his dead body to the ground. Karde spun the revolver once in his finger, before placing it back in its holster on his hip. Grabbing the Barrett M107 Anti-Material Rifle, he took all the ammo for it he could find off of Caramel, before tossing his body off the side of the lighthouse, to the forest below. The stallion exhaled a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding.
---
Two Hours later, Taviana border
“Well, welcome to Taviana everypony.” Dusk sighed out, M4 Sophmod slung across his chest. “We’re now officially in friendly territory. Rainbow, take point.” Rainbow Dash nodded, and cocked her M4 CCO assault rifle, slipping a fresh magazine into the bottom of the gun. She then trotted forward to the front of the column, and took over for Stormy, who dropped back to Hawkeye’s position.
They started walking to the Northeast, towards an area marked Object A1 on the map that General Light Speed had given them. Rainbow took out her compass, looked once at the map, and started off in another direction, a few degrees farther east of where they had been heading. 
After a few minutes, there was the sound of gunfire, from what sounded like a Mark 16 assault rifle. There was the thump of a grenade, and a pony screamed out in pain, somewhere off to their left. Rainbow immediately identified the direction, and at Twilight’s approval, started to rush towards where the gunfire had come from. They rushed through the forest towards the noise, eventually reaching a small clearing with several dead zombies, a dead ranger, and a ranger that was dying, clutching a Mk17 assault rifle. The dead ranger, who Butterscotch identified as squad sergeant Harpsy Chord, had a Mark 16 assault rifle held in a death grip, with an under barrel grenade launcher mounted on his rifle.
Dusk began to ask the surviving Ranger what happened, as Butterscotch and Fluttershy worked to seal his wounds, as he had been bit in several places, and was missing a leg. “Gunny, what happened here?”
Gunnery Sergeant Babar coughed up blood, and answered Dusk. “We were heading…for…friendly territory, when we ran into a buncha dead ponies and griffons. Harpsy, he got knocked down, and his rifle went off a bunch of times, before one of the dead ponies hit the side of the gun, and… triggered the M203. I was being mauled by a bunch of ‘em, but we all got hit by the M203 grenade, and they died first. Please, I don’t wanna… wanna…” He stared off into space, as if seeing something in the distance, as his eyes began to fog over. Butterscotch checked for a pulse, before shaking his head.
“W-we lost him.” Fluttershy quietly said, as Butterscotch hung his head downwards.
“Come on, let’s get them buried. We have to get out of here before more of them show up.” Hawk reminded the survivors, as Dusk grabbed their dogtags, glaring at Hawk. The rangers grabbed their entrenching spades off of their kits, and started to dig graves, as the Airborne ponies and the marines began to provide defense, as the rangers buried their fallen brothers.
After their friends were buried, Dusk and Applejack placed the fallen soldiers’ combat helmets over the small crosses they had made out of some sticks, so that anypony or griffon that passed through knew who was buried there.
---

Night soon fell upon the motley group of survivors. Locating a good spot to make camp, Dusk began to pitch his tent. “Alright,” He called out, “Blitz, you’re on first watch.” The girls all stared at Dusk, wondering if he’d lost it.
“Dusk, pardner, Blitz…He’s gone.” Applejack placed a hand on his friend’s shoulder. Dusk shrugged it off, nodding. 
“Right, right. I, uh, I just don’t… Never mind. Elusive, you take first watch.” Elusive nodded, and checked his M16 assault rifle.
Needless to say, Dusk had a very long and sleepless night that night, a pit in his stomach as his blood brother, running along the other side of the mountain, felt the same way, as he and Lightning traveled towards the Namalsk Radio Array.
---
The next morning, the survivors quickly packed up camp, and got ready to continue on towards object all, wondering amongst themselves what was going to be at Object All once they reached it. They moved into their standard formation, and watched for Karde as they passed through the forest. Along the way, something was clearly wrong. Other than the ones in Harpsy’s and Babar’s clearing, there we literally no zombies. Not even the ponies’ long, sensitive ears could pick up the tell-tale shuffle of their rotting legs. There was another large clearing, but this time, there was no soft grass.
The grass simply ended at the edge of the tree line, withered away at some points where it crossed the invisible threshold to the clearing. Butterscotch started to walk forward, only to have a loud crack stop him immediately, a bullet drilling into the ground a few feet to his front.
“Hold it right zhere,” A batpony stallion, decked out in a light gray shirt and pants, a light tan bullet-resistant vest and a matching soft cap, ordered them, brandishing an M14 rifle, with a telescopic sight mounted on its top. “Move another foot forward, und you’ll be corpses.” His voice had a light, but distinct Germane accent.
“Woah, easy there, no reason to start a fight for no reason.”
“This isn’t a fight, or a holdup, it’s a restricted area, Field Webel. You are advised to turn around or I will shoot.”
“Just who are you, anyways?” Rainbow questioned, her M4 rifle flicked off of safety.
“Former Equestrian Marine Corps, Eighteenth brigade, forty company, fifth platoon, Hauptmann Blackout Sight. Now I do Contractor werk.”
“What for? I heard that Forty Coy lost a captain, but I wasn’t told the details. Stormy inquired, being a marine.
“A little somezhingk called Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Saw a lot of crazy sheiße back on Utes, when we took it back from der griffs. Der whole garrison…the villagers…The griffs shot them. All of zhem. Not a single survivor. Zhe most bucked up thing about that? We’d known the Griffs wanted it back the first time we took it, during Operation Arrowhead, back when the big E&B went into Takistan. The whole thing could have been prevented, but someone messed up. Someone higher up than even General Blueblood.” The ex-marine frowned, trying to shake mental images from his mind.
He then turned towards a random spot in the tree line, and cupped his hands. “Hey, Vire, come on out, zhey’re friendlies!” From the trees, a tan unicorn stallion with a brown mane and tail, dressed similarly to Captain Blackout popped up from a small foxhole, a VSS Vintorez suppressed sniper rifle cradled in his arms. 
“If you say so, Blackout. I’m wasting enough ammunition on Zombies anyways!” The unicorn called back, as he trotted towards the survivors. Reaching Twilight, he shook her hand, showing off an Engineering and Breaching Corps Tattoo on his arm of the Crossed Shovels. “Former E&B Markscolt, Live-“ 
“-Wire, Master Sergeant Wire. I thought I recognized your voice.” Dusk cut off, shaking the Sergeant’s hand.
“Oh, good to see ya Sarge. How’s the war going?” The younger sniper cheekily replied, before looking around the group. “…Dusk, where’s Blitz?” Wire questioned his friend, not seeing the pegasus. 
“Vire, ‘meine freude, I don’t think Blitz is around anymore…” Blackout nudged his sniper friend, seeing Dusk’s jaw begin to set.
“Oh… Sorry I asked, Dusk…So…What brings you to Namalsk?” He steered the conversation away from Blitz.
Dusk grunted, and then replied. “We’re looking for answers from the Object All Facility; Stormfront answers, particularly.” Dusk began to explain. “We ran into…something at Stary base. It had Op Stormfront and Theta followed by a number stenciled on its arm. I think it used to be Snowflake.” Elusive shuddered nearby, remembering the incident with the AT-4 launcher.
Blackout grimaced. “Sheisse, that’s where he went; Snowflake broke out of Object All a couple days ago, and we’ve not seen him since. We’ve been keeping ponies and griffs alike away because we don’t anymore outbreaks…but…I don’t fancy staying here, not with the undead walking around. How about this: We find your answers, and then get the hell outta Chenarus? I’ve got a C-130 transport in the hangar at the North West Airfield, back in Chenarus, courtesy of the Forward Ground Control.” 
The ponies huddled together to talk about it. “With Karde not shooting at us that could be our ticket out of here…” Rarity pondered.
“Yeah, and it’d be big enough to hold us and the Red Devils, along with anypony else we find along the way.” Dusk agreed.
“Don’t forget though, there will be Griffs around, they might have an AA battery set up, or could ambush us while we taxi.” Hawk interjected, doubtful. 
“We’ll just ‘ave to chance it, Mon Ami.” Stormy replied, flicking Hawk’s nose, as he grumbled back. 
“Yeah, well, let’s check out this bunker first.” Twilight reminded the disagreeing ponies.
Dusk turned to Blackout, and nodded. “Alright zhen. Get your weapons ready, I’m pretty sure one of the Epsilons got loose during Snowflake’s escape.” Blackout warned them, slipping a fresh magazine into his M14.
“Epsilon?” Twilight questioned, not sure if she really wanted to know what an Epsilon was.
“Jawol, an Epsilon got loose. Epsilons are experiments, like the Thetas, but they have different powers. Whereas the Thetas are nearly impossible to kill Juggernauts, Epsilons, zhey’re more like your sniper friends there. They have enhanced vision, copied out of a mix of Griffonic and Pegasi eye genes. Somehow, those sick freaks working on the ponies changed the inert unicorn, pegasi, and Earth pony magic values inside the test subjects’ bodies, but most of zhat stuff went over my head; you’ll have to talk to Doc Weimar, if he’s still alive.”
“What do you mean, IF he’s alive?” Twilight interjected, cautious.
“Ve locked der bunker up as tight as ve could, and he vasn’t with us, so I’ve got no clue if he’s alive or not.”
This time, AJ had a question. “Why’d y’all lock it up so tight? Epsilons can teleport, can’t they?”
“Well, ja, but not even an Epsilon can teleport through excellent Germane steel und concrete.” Blackout smirked proudly; he was Germane, after all. “Anyvays, not even ve can open it back up, und we don’t have the explosives to blow it open.”

Pinkie and Bubble grinned from ear to ear. “Did you say, ‘explosives’?”
-----
“Hey, um, Frau Sparkle?” Blackout questioned Twilight.
She turned to the batpony, whose fuzzy ears were folded back in fright, as he watched Pinkie and Bubble work. “Yes, Blackout?”
“This icht safe, ja?” He nodded towards the two demolitionists, who were coating the outside of the bunker entrance liberally with explosives. 
Twilight simply shrugged, prompting a frown from the batpony. “Ficken dummkopf shweinhund soldaten” he muttered under his breath, tightening the grip on his M14. 
After a few tense minutes, Bubble and Pinkie began to run back to the safety of the tree line. Live Wire observed the bunker door through his Vintorez’s scope. “Isn’t that a bit much for a door?” He asked Pinkie, who’s hand was on the detonator.
“Well yeah, but you know the saying: There’s no kill like Overkill!” She shouted out, adding extra emphasis on the last word as she hit the switch, and the explosive charges went off, literally making the door fly through the air like a rocket.
“….Meine Gott…” Blackout whispered, as he stared at the door rapidly entering orbit above the planet, slack jawed. The door then came slamming down back into the ground, wedging itself so deeply into the dirt that only the top two inches was sticking out of the ground. Synthetic and Blackout immediately raised their rifles, nervous of what might pop out of the now open bunker. They stared at the opening for a full minute, fingers tense around triggers.
“…Ok,” Blackout lowered his M14. “Let’s hurry, Ja? I don’t vant to stick around for very long.” Blackout was visibly nervous, as the group moved closer to the open door in the side of the mountain, and even Live Wire, usually very talkative and smiling, had quieted down and wore a permanent frown as they inched closer to the gaping hole.
Rainbow and Blackout were the first ones to enter the dark entrance, completely disappearing from the other survivors’ view. There was a minute’s pause, during which time the others kept lookout, the whole situation very tense, like the calm before a large firefight. Finally, Rainbow’s voice called out to them.
“It’s all good guys, you can come in!” She called out to them, as they all visibly relaxed, Applejack releasing the breath he hadn’t known he’d been holding, as he wiped some sweat from his forehead. One by one, the ponies crept in, AJ being the last one to get up and enter the dark bunker.
From the tree line, two glowing, cat like amber eyes watched the ponies enter, as the mouth that belonged to the eyes licked its lips in anticipation, the hand that belonged to the body pulling back the cocking action on the rifle it held. The hunt was on. 
Inside the bunker, the survivors were met with a sign, written in Germane. Blackout translated the foreign words for them. “It says that the laboratories are straight ahead, the holding cells are to our left, the exit is to our rear, obviously, und Doctor Weimar’s office is to our right. It’d probably be a good idea to check his office first. That would be the most logical place to be, ja?” Twilight nodded, and the group made their way down the hall towards Weimar’s office.
Reaching the door, Blackout stood on one side, Twilight stood on the other, and Dusk stood to the front, ready to bust it open. Blackout nodded to Dusk, and the Stallion busted the door in, the three quickly entering the room. Inside was a gray unicorn stallion, holding a small knife. 
“Drop it! Drop it now!” Blackout ordered, and the old unicorn nodded, the knife clattering to the floor. “Name icht Weimar?” Blackout questioned, keeping his M14 pointed at the stallion’s head.
“Ja, Ja, meine name icht Weimar.” The stallion confirmed in Germane.
“Ja o Nein sprechen ze Equestrian?“ Twilight interjected, with one of the few phrases of Germane she knew.
“Ja…yes, I speak Equine. I am Doctor Heinrich Weimar, of Germaney. Who are you und what do you want?” He put a pair of wire frame glasses over his eyes, blinking twice.
“Captain Twilight Sparkle, Eighty-Second Airborne Division.”
“Ahhh, the protégé. I am surprised you took so long. Luna did say you’d probably come by…” He mumbled, mainly to himself. “My apologies, Frau Sparkle, I have been expecting you, but it has been too long, und I was beginning to think you wouldn’t show. Luna had informed me she would have you stop by, but it appears you got…sidetracked.”
Twilight shrugged. “Helicopter problems.” Weimar nodded in understanding.
“I see. I suppose you want my password?”
“…How’d you guess…?” Dusk questioned, suddenly wondering why Twilight knew Weimar.
“Because Dusk, you want to know what her highness is up to. Luna had sent Twilight here because I had knowledge of what she was doing, und…” He paused, ear twitching. “She is back. Quickly, the password is 114228. You must hurry out of here. Go, before-” Weimar only got that far before his head disappeared into red mist. From the other end of the hall, back at the entrance, stood Fleetfoot. The Pegasus mare grinned ferally, her eyes a sickly amber yellow, not bright and cheery like Blackout or Lightning Dust’s. Her fur was matted and filthy, and her teeth were razor sharp. Her fingers held some kind of high-powered rifle, judging by the size of the clip, which was comparable to an AS-50’s clip. 
Fleetfoot slipped the bolt back with his left hand, the .50 caliber Anti-Material casing falling to the ground. The survivors hadn’t even heard the weapon go off, and for good reason – the barrel itself was designed to fire the rounds at subsonic speeds, therefore reducing the noise.  “Ah. I vas afraid she had gotten out. Vell, Icht was nice knowing you, but as you Equestrian soldaten say, ve are screwed.”
Elusive harrumphed. “I can take him easily; he’s just a pony, not even one of those dreadful...things.” The unicorn stallion brought his M16 to bear, and fired a short burst. Fleetfoot nimbly sidestepped…sidestepped bullets… and raising her right arm, fired the rifle. It made a soft roar, like a muted manticore or something similar. The shot tore through the air at sub-sonic speeds, tearing itself into Elusive’s arm and completely ripping the appendage away from the Stallion’s body.
Elusive himself went flying into the other room inside the office, the missing appendage nowhere in sight. “Und zat icht why ve don’t shoot at der Epsilons.” Blackout muttered, cocking his M14.
Bubble and Pinkie nodded to each other, and leapt into action, as Fluttershy, Butterscotch, and Rarity ran to go check on Elusive. Fleetfoot grinned ferally, licking her lips. She’d never tasted pony, after all.
-----
While the events at Taviana were occurring, Blitz and Lightning were approaching the Lighthouse comms array. “Hey, Lightning, grab the heat packs before we head up; It’s bound to be cold up there.” Blitz nodded towards the barren, windswept mountain that led up to the lighthouse, which was perched on top. The Red Devils Pointmare nodded, and produced two white packages, tossing one to the Former FGC. He kneaded the pack with his hands, mixing the chemicals inside with each other to set off a heat reaction. Slipping the pack into his jacket, by his chest, he waited for Lightning to do the same, and the two continued up the mountainside. Cautiously, they approached the base of the tower. Blitz’s ear twitched, and all of a sudden he shoved Lightning to the ground, leaping into a somersault to his left, as a fifty caliber bullet buried itself into the ground where they’d been standing.
Blitz’s gears were turning. ‘I only know two ponies that shoot like that, and one of them is with Dusk and Applejack. He popped his head out of cover. “Crack Shot get your dumb ass down here!” He called up to the top of the lighthouse.
He received no reply. “That’s an order, Gunny.” He called out again. After a few tense minutes, Karde’s face peered over the edge, catching sight of Blitz and Lightning. 
“My bad, Colonel! I thought you wuz a bandito.” 
“Shot, get your Cajun freaking flank down here, I don’t have all day.” Blitz frowned, holstering his Mossberg. 
“Yessir, I’m comin’ down de tower.” Karde aimed at the ground with his hand, and teleported down to Blitz. “Where’s de ozzers? They wuz with Dusk an’ Miz’ Twilight, right?”
Blitz shrugged. “Had a bit of trouble back at the bridge across Namalsk, and we got separated. My best bet is that they’re at object all right now.” Blitz didn’t seem to care that the Cajun Earth Pony had just teleported, while Lightning was still trying to process everything that had been going on. She started with the easiest part first.
“He called you colonel?” 
“Well, um…shit…remember how I said I was a shoe-in for the FGC?” She nodded. “Well, I kinda lied. I was in the FGC, and have been since before op Crimson Lance. I’m technically a brevetted Lieutenant colonel in the Equestrian Forward Ground Control Subsection C.”
Lightning blinked once. “Wait… then why the hay did ya lie to me? Why didn’t you just tell me?” 
Crack Shot chimed in. “Cos ‘e ain’t supposed te jes sling that info ‘round, dem griff batards could ‘ear it, ye know?” Lightning frowned, but otherwise nodded. 
“Okay, I’ll buy that. I served in ESIG for a couple years before we went into Takistan, so I’ll buy that.” ESIG stood for Equestrian Special Intelligence Group. Basically Equestria’s version of the Griffonic KGB, but more focused on internal affairs, rather than those of international origin. “But how in Celestia’s mane did an earth pony teleport?”
Blitz bit his lip, and looked to Crack Shot, who nodded to the lighthouse. “I’ll uh, I’ll tell ya later. Crackers, those old partisan tunnels still around Chenarus?” He nodded. “Oh good; let’s go visit Object All.” 
“Wait, tunnels, Object All, Partisans? Rainbow Cornelius Blitz, you have some explaining to do.” 
“And I will, Lightning, but now is not the time or the place. Now keep up, we’re taking old tunnels dug by partisans after World War Two to get to Object All. We’ll talk there, when I can explain stuff to everyone? Kay? Good, now let’s go. Crack Shot, you’re pointstallion.”
“Ye got it Colonel.” 
---
Fleetfoot was roaring in annoyance, the loud, feral yell reverberating through the hallway. Her rifle discharged, Live Wire barely sliding his body beneath the round, which ricocheted near Dusk’s cranium as he ducked behind a corner to help Fluttershy and Butterscotch stabilize Elusive. The feral epsilon had been firing at Bubble Berry, but the damned pink stallion seemed to know exactly where each round was going to hit. He, along with Pinkie Pie, was goading the enraged mare down the hallway, towards the exit. 
They rounded a corner, Fleetfoot close behind them. She leapt around the corner, staring confusedly as the two pink ponies flew over his head. She then turned forward, and saw it. Directly to her front was an AT-4 launcher tube, covered with several composition B charges, and wired to a tripwire, which Fleetfoot’s outstretched arms triggered. It beeped, and detonated, roaring around the corner, and collapsing the exit tunnel. 
Blackout peered around a corner. “Ist she gone?” 
Stormy gathered up her courage, and walked over to the debris pile, kicking it once. She picked out the rifle Fleetfoot had been carrying, the weapon having been launched into the corridor. The scope was cracked, but otherwise the rifle was fine. “She’s dead.” She called out, causing the other ponies to relax, visibly.
“Hey, uh Blackout, any more of those…things?” Rainbow asked, gripping her rifle tightly.
“Probably in their test tubes, but not loose like der vild monster zhey called Fleetfoot. Ve should be at least somewhat safe, unless ze ceiling collapses from your friends’ massive explosive charge. Rather ingenious though, und a good use for AT-4s inside buildings. Come, zhere’s another exit, through der laboratory.”
Blackout lead the way through the corridor, and the group eventually reached a large door marked laboratory. He used a keycard he’d swiped off Weimar’s dead body, and the door slid open. Inside were ponies. Ponies encased in some sort of water/chemical solution, and floating in test tubes. There were a few familiar faces. Professor Time Turner, Trixie Lulamoon, Derpy Whooves, and Macintosh Apple.
“…What the hay…” Applejack and AJ removed their Stetsons, placing them over their chests. Fluttershy and Butterscotch squeaked, but otherwise kept the half-conscious Elusive stabilized. 
A computer was on nearby, and Twilight checked it out, reading some logs aloud.
“From the desk of Dr. Erwin Weimar. Gained two new test subjects today, from fifth Mountain Division; my regards to General Steele. One Gunnery Sergeant Macintosh Apple, Earth Pony. Recommendation: Theta Protocol. One Sergeant Major Derpy Whooves, Pegasus. Recommendation: Epsilon Protocol. End Report.”
She opened another file. “From the desk of Dr. Erwin Weimar. Several failures in test caused by an outbreak from one of my lab assistants, Dr. Wind Whisper. He’s come down with some sort of…infection. I’m not exactly sure what it is. Anyways, I was able to salvage six of the test subjects: Four Epsilons and Two Thetas. All others are declared mentally dead.  Still operational are Caramel Apple, Crack Shot…wasn’t he one of yours’, Dusk?” The Stallion nodded grimly. “Fleet Foot, Derpy Whooves, Macintosh Apple, and Snowflake… Well, that’s…four accounted for. Where’s Caramel and Crack Shot; both of them are missing.”
“I dunno. Let’s open Derpy and Mac’s tubes though, if there’s an opening protocol or executable file.” Dusk nodded to their tubes. “Get ready with the rifles though… I don’t want another Fleetfoot.” The ponies took up defensive positions throughout the laboratory, as Twilight searched for an opening program.
“…No, that’s… ah, found it. Opening Derpy’s in three…two…one…” The tube hissed, and the chemicals drained, as the cylindrical tube receded into the floor, and Derpy dropped to the floor, as she began to regain consciousness.
“Ohh, my head….” She groaned, blinking a few times. Rainbow also blinked, doing a double-take. Derpy’s eyes weren’t…well…Derpy. Or Amber; They were sapphire blue.
“Hey, Derpy, you okay?” Rainbow poked the former mailmare with her rifle.
“Ugh…Dash, izzat you?” The mare rubbed her eyes, trying to bring them into focus.
“Yeah Derpy, it’s me. You ok?” Rainbow averted her rifle, and held out a hand. Derpy grabbed it, and Rainbow pulled the sergeant to her feet. She then looked over to Twilight. “Go ahead and open Mac’s Twi, Derpy’s fine.” 
Twilight nodded, and keyed Mac’s test tube. It repeated Derpy’s with AJ helping her brother to his feet. Meanwhile, A small piece of the wall clanged to the floor.
“Oh, uhm…shit. Hope no one heard that…” Blitz’s voice muttered, as he peered his head out of the missing section of wall. “Oh, look! It’s the guys!” He popped out of the hole. “C’mon Crack, Lighting, get your flanks out here!”
Applejack leaned over to Dusk. “Hey…’mano, did he say Crack? As in Crack Shot?” Dusk nodded hesitantly. Lightning popped out of the hole next, dusting off her beret, and cracking her neck. The last one out was a familiar pony, wearing plaid and a battered old black Stetson. He stared at the survivors, and dusk, Stormy, Hawk, and Twilight stared back.
“Uhh… well… this is awkward.” Crack Shot scratched the back of his neck. “Blitz…you didn’t tell me who you wuz with…” 
“…Did I miss something?” Lightning blinked. She’d already left the cape of mentality, and the ESS Brain was now sailing to Crazyville, on the continent of Locosia. She just shook off the further confusion.
“Right…uh, well… Let’s go somewhere safer, ye? Like me cabin?” Crack Shot began to back into the tunnel.
“Crack Shot, get out here.” Dusk growled.
“Nope. Not gonna happen Sarge. You wanna talk we talk at my place. Where I can shoot anyone wearing a ghillie suit if he tries te shoot me.” Hawk frowned, as the thought had been along the lines of what he’d been thinking, except his thoughts were more along the lines of dismemberment by automatic shotgun. With explosive incendiary ammunition.
“Oh Faust’s sake. Fine Crack Shot. But I want the whole story when we get to your home. And I mean the whole story. Got it?”
“Yes sir, yes sir buck off, sir.” The Cajun sniper muttered.