Carrot Top ran, because her life depended on it.

She was on top of one of Stalliongrad's office buildings, a twelve-story structure situated on the southern border of the downtown area. The building ahead of her, fortunately, was eleven stories tall, so she'd have somewhere to go when she ran out of roof. Or, for that matter, when the roof she was on caught on fire. Carrot Top glanced at the southern end of the city to see pillars of smoke rising from the remains of houses and shops. And Corona isn't even here yet...

"Carrot Top!" It was Raindrops, whom Carrot Top had last seen trying to rescue the workers in the weather factory above the city. Her voice buzzed in the communicator crystal jammed into Carrot Top's ear. "Run! You've got three on your tail!"

"I'm going as fast as I can!" yelled Carrot Top.

"Well, go faster!"

Carrot Top leapt to the next building, thankful for once that Stalliongrad was such a dense, cramped city. The street below her was full of debris that had been knocked out of the buildings, but she didn't have time to look down. She landed on the next roof, took a fraction of a second to ensure that nothing was broken, and was off again.

Wings beat behind her. Carrot Top looked behind her to see a large pegasus pulling ahead of her companions, two thin longma, and preparing to swoop. The knight glanced ahead of her and saw a taller building to her right... one that had a blasted window at about her height. She raced for it, trying to outdistance the pegasus. "Come on, come on..."

She leapt at the last minute, timing her jump so that she passed through the window as high as she could without slamming her head into the concrete wall and falling eleven stories. The pegasus chasing her froze for one crucial moment as she worked out whether to break off or duck and follow the knight. Carrot Top winced as she heard the pony smash into the wall behind her. "Clear. For a moment."

"Get over here now. We've got to bail out as soon as the civilians are gone."

"How close are we on that?" Carrot Top heard wings behind her and knew that the two longma had entered the building and were in fast pursuit. She raced up two flights of stairs and burst onto another roof, then ran for the next skyscraper. Some wit had scrawled, in block letters several feet high, 'STALLIONGRAD IS OUT OF TIME.' "Because I'm--"

"This city's got a million ponies in it," snapped Raindrops. "And, despite the best efforts of Corona and the maniacs running this place, most of them aren't dead yet. We're working on it."

Carrot Top would have said something else, but she heard sounds from above her and looked to see another unit of longmas peeling off and diving down. Gritting her teeth, she pressed on, but the ones who were diving were faster and she knew they were about to catch her. She tensed--

"HELLO!"

The voice blasted from a speaker a few feet to Carrot Top's left, as well as hundreds of others in the city, and was loud enough to startle the knight and almost send her plummeting off the building. The diving longmas weren't so lucky and plowed into the roof, and Carrot Top raced on.

The voice continued. "Welcome back to the live destruction of STALLIONGRAD! I'm your host, Radiomare, and this is your hourly update!" There was a pause. "Yep, we're still all gonna die! But the jury's still out on how. I'm going with burning, myself, though I gotta say, exposure's looking more and more likely. Junkers, thoughts?"

Carrot Top tuned out Radiomare's calmer, but equally insane, cohost Junkers. It wasn't like anything could be done to stop them, anyway. She instead looked ahead and found that she had reached the end of another roof, this one too far away to jump to. She skidded to a halt and took a few deep, shuddering breaths as she worked out her next move. "Um, girls--"

"That's her!" Carrot Top looked behind her to see the two longmas who had been following her for several minutes. They looked just as winded as her, but they put on a burst of speed and approached.

There was a raised structure several feet tall next to Carrot Top on the roof; Carrot Top didn't know what it was for, but she did not that someone had removed most of the screws and bolts connecting it to the roof. She didn't know why--trading the metal on the black market was her best guess--but it gave her a chance. She turned and gave the structure a mighty kick, sending it leaning over the roof, then quickly climbed on top of it. As the longmas blasted closer, she ran out to the edge of the structure, her weight bending it just a little bit closer to the next building. Talons snapped at her tail, the structure snapped and began to fall down, and Carrot Top jumped...

And barely grasped onto the ledge of the next rooftop. One longma hit the wall next to her, then slowly dropped down to the ground. The other overshot and passed out of Carrot Top's sight. The mare opened her mouth to take a single deep breath.

Which, of course, was when a huge explosion rocked the building.

"Oh, by the way!" chirped Radiomare as the building began to tilt at an unpleasant angle. "We'd just like to remind you that those explosions you're hearing from the south part of the downtown are not, in fact, Corona's arm dropping sunfire on the city. Those are the Demolition Unit dropping buildings on Corona's troops." Pause. "Now, if you're in the north part of town, yeah. That's probably Corona's army."

Carrot Top squeaked as the building tilted backwards. She hauled herself up and ran towards the opposite side of the roof, but did no better than keep pace as the building tilted and the roof descended. Then she found herself standing at the opposite side, perched over empty space on a crumbling building, and for one moment she thought she was about to die.

But then she saw the longma next to her, staring at the falling building in stupefaction, and she seized the pony as the building fell away beneath her, to crush whoever lay around it. The longma immediately began trying to buck Carrot Top off, then knock her off by banging itself against other buildings, but Carrot Top hung on until she could jump down to another roof. And then the chase resumed again.

"Hey everypony!" called Radiomare. "Corona just entered the city from the north side! Flew right on over the walls. Hey, Tyrant! Do you like what we did with the place?" Something blew up, loud enough to rattle the speakers. "We redecorated just for you!"

"Oh, shut up," muttered Raindrops.

"This looks like a job for the Elements of Harmony, don't it?" continued Radiomare. "Too bad we executed the Element of Generosity last week!" She laughed. "Wow, that sure was boneheaded, wasn't it?"

"What?!" Carrot Top yelled into her communication crystal. "Nopony executed me!"

"Don't complain," said Lyra. "If they think you're dead, they won't chase you."

"They are chasing me!"

There was more fire in the city now, and Carrot Top heard the longma screaming that one of the Elements of Harmony was in her area. Above her, more of Corona's forces -- and now she saw griffins, the mercenaries the Shadowbolts had warned her about, as well as some ponies, flying with the longma-- broke off from other parts of the fighting to descend. The smoke was increasingly filling the air and making it hard to breathe; the weather factory was clearly nonfunctional; but Carrot Top wasn't dead yet and so she pressed on. And, after several minutes of running (and increasingly dire updates from Radiomare) she did seem to be making real progress. The skyscrapers were thinning out ahead of her as she neared the western portion of the downtown area. Ahead of her, to the right of one last big office building, she could see Castle Stalliongrad. It was the biggest structure in Stalliongrad's historical district, and it was being used for its original purpose for the first time in hundreds of years. Carrot Top saw lines of magic crisscrossing as they blasted out at the attackers. A kirin was leading the assault against it, but to no avail.

"Maybe we're already dead," said a new voice, as Carrot Top turned and bucked a pursuing griffon. Bonbon's voice, she thought. "Maybe we've been dead all this time."

"Bonnie--" Lyra began.

"Maybe the train crashed," whispered the confectioner. "I mean, Stalliongrad is where bad ponies go when they die. Isn't that what everypony says? Were we bad, Lyra?"

The graffiti certainly agreed with her. The building west to Carrot Top--the farmer was now running north along the western side of the downtown, trying to keep at least one building between her and the historical district, so the forces at the castle couldn't see her--had, written on its side, "STALLIONGRAD IS WHERE BAD PONIES GO WHEN THEY DIE."

"We weren't this bad!" yelled Raindrops, and then Castle Stalliongrad exploded.

The castle vanished in a purple blast that swept out, destroying everything in its path. Stone blocks the size of Carrot Top's living room blasted into the buildings around her, battering the western row of skyscrapers, almost knocking Carrot Top down to the street, and driving away the flyers pursuing her. When Carrot Top looked again, there was a gigantic crater standing where the castle had been... and one battered kirin who seemed to be screaming in rage.

"Woah," said Radiomare, actually sounding shocked for a moment. But then the moment passed. "Come on, guys. Did you have to destroy that building? It was only, like, two days from retirement!"

In the name of Luna, shut up, thought Carrot Top.

"I wish Trixie were here," said Lyra, suddenly. "She'd know what to do so we all get through this."

"She doesn't deserve this," gasped Carrot Top. It was a feeble joke, but the other two did laugh. "I wouldn't wish this place on my worst enemy."

"I would," said Raindrops. "Take Greengrass or Zizanie, for instance. I wish they were here."

"What? Why?" asked Lyra.

"Fisher would have executed them by now."

"...point," managed Lyra.

The next building's roof didn't have any of Corona's forces on it, but it was occupied by wild combat nonetheless. Carrot Top saw a dozen ponies in the yellow-gold of the sun cult struggling against a half-dozen soldiers--their blue uniforms visible, though tattered--with three of the anarchists, wearing red, fighting as well. None seemed to have noticed or cared about Castle Stalliongrad vaporizing. Carrot Top stopped before she reached the roof and chose to take a detour. None of those groups would have been happy to see her.

At least two of them would probably just drag me to Corona to be executed. Carrot Top wondered, not for the first time, if Corona was happy about the suffering and destruction in the city. She doubted it. But then again, Fisher and Hirsute probably weren't thrilled either, and it wasn't like they could stop it any more than she could.

She was running by more buildings, including the radio tower, a monstrosity that shouldn't even be able to stand up, yet somehow did. Radiomare and Junkers were inside, protected from capture by a bunch of staircases that literally went nowhere. Carrot Top didn't understand how the building worked, except that strange Chaos magic was likely involved. At this point, it wouldn't surprise her if the whole city ran on it.

This was a bad city, she thought. And I think everypony here knew it.

When her legs began to tremble so badly that she could no longer run, she had found herself in the heart of downtown. There was an open space before her, the central park of the city, which had City Hall at its own center. City Hall, like most of the buildings, was on fire and partially ruined, as mobs fought at its door--including Corona's forces, though to Carrot Top's eyes they looked like they were trying to break things up and stop the fighting rather than actually destroy the enemy forces. But Carrot Top didn't care about what was going on down on the ground. She craned her neck and found the floating weather factory hovering above the city. Its cloud was lopsided and sinking, and on its side, somepony had scrawled, 'NO HELP IS COMING.' "Um, Raindrops? You okay?"

"Working on it." Raindrops' voice was tight. " Gotta land this thing. If this factory crashes the entire downtown'll be uninhabitable."

"The entire downtown's on fire."

"Look, this thing's got all the crap it's filtered out of the city's factories since the siege began--it's almost bursting. You let that stuff get out, there won't be anypony left to rescue, cause they'll choke to death. Give me a..."

Her voice trailed off. When it came back, it was flat and harsh. "Carrot Top. You need to run."

"I can't." Carrot Top looked down at the burning city and felt like she'd collapsed. I tried, she thought to herself. I tried my best... I gave everything I had to help everypony. I tried! But--

"Doesn't matter." Raindrops was silent for another moment. "Carrot Top, behind you."

Carrot Top froze, then turned--and almost jumped out of her skin.

She was looking at The Volk.

The Volk was strong and burly, with a build akin to Big Macintosh's and the personality of Parlay, the mafia stallion who had tried to abduct Dinky over a year ago. The Volk carried a battle-ax, which he had since Carrot Top had known him, although it was now tinged red, which was knew. Carrot Top chose to believe that was rust. The Volk smiled with the good half of his face, then turned the burned side to the knight. "Heya, knight."

"Volk," Carrot Top whispered.

"The Volk. Only one of me." He tossed his battle-ax from side to side. A longma above swooped down towards them, but he casually smashed it aside with the flat of his blade without even looking behind him.

"Right." The knight hesitated. "I--what happened to your face wasn't my fault."

"I know." The Volk's voice was unusually calm.

"None of this is my fault."

"I know."

"I just want to keep everypony alive, and--"

"Carrot Top." The Volk smiled easily. "I told you, I know."

Carrot Top exhaled. Maybe, she thought, even a crazy pony like The Volk could put aside his... thuggishness... in circumstances like this.

But then The Volk swept up the ax. "I just don't care."

"But--"

The Volk laughed and charged. "LET'S JOUST, KNIGHT!"

Carrot Top forced herself to keep running, but The Volk was an elite fighter and she knew she couldn't delay him for long. She scrambled from rooftop to rooftop, chest heaving, heart pounding, hooves slapping the roof at odd angles because she couldn't focus enough to hit it right. Half the time she was skidding on ice; the weather team hadn't stuck it out any better than the rest of the city, and until the battles had lit half of it on fire, the city had been almost completely snowbound. She almost pitched off a roof to plummit fifteen stories, but caught herself at the last moment and jumped instead. And behind her, The Volk gave chase, running at an almost leasurely rate.

"Hey girls," called Lyra's voice. "Finished evacuating the southern quadrant of the city. That just leaves--"

"Busy!" gasped Carrot Top. "Later!"

The next voice she heard was Radiomare's. "Now, I'll bet all you little ponies thought you'd seen every disaster known to ponykind," she rambled. "But I gotta admit, this one's new to me. Junkers, how would you describe it?"

"It appears to be an ice storm," said the calm, serene voice of Junkers. "But what's unusual is that it's banking. Like it's chasing somepony."

"Ice storms that chase you. Who'd a thunk it, huh?"

"Certainly not me, but on the plus side, anypony wishing to avoid being incinerated by the Tyrant Sun should feel free to seek shelter within the storm, as--if they aren't crushed to death by flying chunks of ice--the freezing temperatures may stymie even the Tyrant's fire."

Carrot Top looked behind her. The Volk was gaining. Then she looked down at her winter coat, the one possession she had left in the city. It was designed to be perfect for Stalliongrad--impervious to the fires of even the hottest factories, yet warm enough to fend off the worst cold. It was the kind of coat everypony in Stalliongrad could use, now that they were down to the last few hours of fuel and the city was burning down on top of them. Unfortunately, there were only four such coats in existance.

But Carrot Top had one, and she thought it just might save her life. "Where's that ice storm, girls?"

"Three blocks east. It's moving fast," said Raindrops. "Why?"

"I'm going in," said Carrot Top, and ignoring Raindrops' protests (as well as those of her own sanity, which told her that ice storms didn't bank), she used the last of her strength to press on. Meanwhile, on the speakers, Junkers was providing a musical interlude:

Fly, mare, fly, mare, fly, mare, fly.
The flames will kill you mare, fly mare, fly.
The ice will kill you mare, fly, mare, fly.
Fly, mare, fly, mare, fly or die...

But Carrot Top ran, working harder than she ever had, even harder than she had during the increasingly dangerous and draining days of the siege. And, somehow, she reached the edge of the storm--a swirling mass of chunks of ice, devastating whatever remained in its path.

Carrot Top ran in. And The Volk followed.

Little could be heard within the storm. Little more could be seen. Carrot Top stumbled around, trying to avoid falling off the roof and hoping that The Volk was as lost as she was. She heard what sounded like Archduke Fisher's voice--he was still alive, though given what his last few orders had been, that was a definite negative for every pony still within the city limits--but she couldn't make out what. And then she was stumbling through the storm. Another building was across from her, she jumped...

And missed. One hoof barely managed to wrap around a drainage pipe, which immediately began to crack away from the wall. Carrot Top screamed.

The Volk jumped over the gap, then turned, and raised his ax high. "Knights out," he joked.

"No," hissed Carrot Top. "Lyra, Bonbon, Raindrops, Vinyl... somepony... please--"

The Volk hacked his ax at the drainage pipe. A chunk split off and the whole structure shuddered.

"By the way," said Junkers, suddenly. "We have been informed that the remaining Elements of Harmony, as well as such citizens as have not given up completely, are attempting to organize an evacuation. We would just like to inform you that, thanks to Corona cutting the rail lines, there is no place to evacuate to. Attempting to walk from Stalliongrad to any neighboring community will only result in you dying of exposure or starvation on the frozen steppe."

The Volk hacked at the pipe again.

"But look on the bright side!" yelled Radiomare. "Based on her performance thus far, Corona isn't strong enough to rescue her troops either. They'll starve and freeze right alongside us!"

Radiomare's laughter degenerated into hysterical shrieks, and then The Volk split off the pipe and sent Carrot Top falling to the ground.

And as she plummeted, falling past a frozen city that was burning down and knowing that there was nothing more she could give to save anypony, even herself, Carrot Top had time for one final thought.

I hate this city.

***

DRAMATIS PERSONAE:

From Ponyville:

Bonbon, confectioner
Carrot Top, farmer, Element of Generosity, and knight of the realm
Lyra Heartstrings, musician, Element of Loyalty, and knight of the realm
Raindrops, weathermare, Element of Honesty, and knight of the realm
Vinyl Scratch, DJ

From Stalliongrad:

Bobbing Fisher, CEO of Fisher Industries and Archduke of Rushia
Sweet Heart, clinic manager
Hirsute Lord, Mayor of Stalliongrad
Svelte Lord, Representative of the Night Court of Luna to Stalliongrad
Majordomo, butler
Thundering Storm, garrison general
Stryker, Storm's subordinate
How Sun, airship operator (engine room)
Faqzak Taks, journalist
Tank, security chief
Volk, bodyguard
Widgeteer, airship engineer
Shining Zephyr, CEO of Zephyr Incorporated

From elsewhere:

Corona, deposed princess of Equestria
Diggity Doggy, treasure hunter
Fiddlesticks, musician
Gloriosis, kirin general
Agent Piledriver, Agent Suplex, and Agent Uppercut, Shadowbolt operatives
Dusty Tomes, historian

Historical:

Platinum, princess of the Unicorn Kingdom

Her advisor, Clover the Clever

***

Many days earlier...

Carrot Top knocked on the door of Bonbon's Confectionarium. "Good afternoon!" she called as she entered. "I'd like--um, am I interrupting?"

A few suitcases were spread out on the confectionary floor, and Lyra raced from shelf to shelf, apparently having a lot of trouble deciding what to pack. Bonbon was smiling bemusedly as she worked the register for a group of six foals that had all chipped in to by her Chocolate Bunny Deluxe. "Not at all," said Bonbon. "Afternoon, Carrot Top."

Lyra tilted her head up. "Hi!" She smiled. "How's it going, CT?"

"Going good. Packing for a trip?"

"Uh huh!" Lyra nodded. "Bonnie's cousin got a big promotion, and we're heading up to Stalliongrad to throw her a party!"

Bonbon grinned. "Yeah. Sweet Heart just got put in charge of her entire clinic. It's pretty awesome. She's been working there ever since it opened, and I guess they finally noticed how great she is at it." She nodded at Lyra. "So yes, we're heading up there... although, as I keep pointing out, they do sell candy in Stalliongrad. We don't need to bring half my shop."

"But it's not like yours!" protested Lyra. "Your cousin deserves only the best!" She paused. "And so do I, when I'm snacking on the train!"

"Stalliongrad?" Carrot Top went to one shelf and selected a big crunch bar. "But it's... winter. Won't it be cold? And, uh, boring?"

"Maybe a little," conceded Lyra. "But who cares? This is a big celebration! We can bundle up for a few days!"

Bonbon nodded. "I've been to Stalliongrad before. It's not all that much fun in winter, but it's certainly liveable. Plus, there's a lot of stuff to do indoors there. When we're not with my cousin, we'll check out the castle and the rest of the historical district. And the surrounding suburbs have their own cool stuff."

"Want to come with?" asked Lyra. "You're not doing much on the farm in the dead of winter, right? Could be fun to get away for a few days. Eat new foods, see new things..."

"And try new hypothermias?" joked Carrot Top. "No thanks."

Lyra rolled her eyes. "Aw, come on. It's not that cold. Plus, the trip's free as long as you do something knight-ly, helping somepony or the like. So there's no cost as long as you can find a little old mare who needs help crossing the street, or a foal who can't find her puppy or something. And weren't you just saying last week that you want to see more of the world?"

Carrot Top blushed. "I was drunk. And was... annoyed that Cheerilee had all these great stories, and the most interesting pre-Element thing that happened to me was the time I fell into a big carrot hole and somepony watered my tail." Still, she couldn't deny that it was tempting. Seeing new things was the most fun part of being a knight, at least for her...

"Actually," said Bonbon. "Remember how you had so much fun looking at those magical plants on the train ride to Noam? Stalliongrad's where they do the research. Maybe you could check out their main facility. Or the other agricultural operations. I heard they're trying something called 'hydroponics', growing stuff without soil. Could be cool."

Carrot Top blinked. "I'll believe that when I see it," she said. "But... honestly, I kind of want to see it." She was a farmer, after all, and she'd react to the prospect of radical farming innovations like Twilight Sparkle might react to a book she hadn't read yet. "Okay, I'm in."

"Great!" Lyra began tossing her stuff. "You'll need half a dozen mixes of hot chocolate, two pounds of gummi worms, three crunch bars..."

Carrot Top laughed as she caught the candy. "I will?"

"Trust me." Lyra winked. "When it comes to figuring out exactly how much of Bonbon's candy you'll need per vacation, I'm an expert."

***

And so the three ponies were at the train station bright and early the next morning, waiting for the train that would take them east towards Canterlot, then north to the vast land of Rushia. To their surprise, though, they were soon joined by a fourth.

"Hi," grumbled Raindrops as she flew over to them and dropped a very full bag. "Where are you three headed to?"

"Stalliongrad," said Lyra. "Why?"

Carrot Top expected a joke about traveling to Stalliongrad in the winter, but Raindrops just looked confused. "You too?"

"Wait, you're also going?" said Bonbon. "Why?"

"Rainbow Dash." Raindrops sighed. "Okay, so the weather patrol has this annual meeting thing where captains from every province in Equestria get together and talk about clouds and stuff. This year, it's being held in Stalliongrad."

"...what?" asked Carrot Top. "Why? Nopony's going to want to go to that."

"Officially, Stalliongrad has one of the biggest weather teams of any city. They have their own factory, which doesn't just produce clouds, but also filters out the smoke and stuff from the factories. So their team says they want to show off their factory and give some insight into large weather operations. Real reason, according to Rainbow Dash? If nopony shows up, then the conference budget doesn't get spent, so the Stalliongrad weather team get to spend all the money on hay pizza and cider." Raindrops rolled her eyes. "And she's probably right."

"But you aren't a captain," protested Lyra.

"Sure, but as it turns out, the captain can send a replacement if there's a 'compelling financial reason.' And lucky me, I get my train ticket and hotel paid for since I'm a knight helping Equestria. So Rainbow Dash gets to snooze, and I'm off to the coldest city in the country." Raindrops sighed. "I swear, if the smallest thing goes wrong up there, I'm going to deck her again."

"Don't," said Lyra. "Remember that mess with Neighsure Crane?"

"Unfortunately."

The train came soon, and the four ponies got their gear on. Carrot Top sat down on a bed and took out a book, a murder mystery Trixie had lent her, and smiled. This is going to be so much fun! I can't believe I'm doing this!

"WAIT!"

Just before the train left, a fifty pony--levitating more electronics than Carrot Top would have guessed possible--staggered onto the train. Vinyl dropped her gear and gave a loud sigh of relief. "Okay. Now we can go!"

Carrot Top laughed. "What's up, Vinyl?"

"Got a gig! In a big city this time too." Vinyl grinned. "Journalist named, uh, something I can't pronounce. Faxie Taxes, I think. Hosting a party for his crew and wants me to DJ. Pay's good too, and the exposure--I mean, a Stalliongrad concert's all kinds of awesome. Might even hang around a few days, see what else I can get."

"Wow, so you're going to Stalliongrad too?" said Carrot Top. "This'll be quite the trip."

"Five friends heading to the great white north!" cheered Lyra.

The quintet laughed as the train pulled out of the station.
***

My little pony, My little pony
Ahh ahh ahh ahhh...
My little pony –
Friendship never meant that much to me
My little pony –
But you're all here and now I can see
Stormy weather; Lots to share
A musical bond; With love and care
Teaching laughter; It’s an easy feat,
And magic makes it all complete!
You have my little ponies –
How’d I ever make so many true friends?

Author's Notes:

I don't think the REMM is going to be much help this time.

Nice of Corona to try using her forces to break up all the mob fighting, but I don't think it's going to be enough.

Behold, my first story so complex I need a character list to keep them all straight!

As I've noted before, this story is in part a homage to Spec Ops the line, which means we need the in media res beginning with everything falling apart and the protagonist plummeting to seemingly-certain doom. Radiomare is the other major Spec Ops influence. She's a lot of fun to write, even if she sounds completely and utterly nuts. There are some other shoutouts to multiple pieces of media--and historical incidents--but I'll be discussing those more when they become relevant.

Also, re: Spec Ops, it's worth noting that the first scene--when you play it again, ten levels later, having reached that part of the timeline--has very different overtones than the first time. So just keep that in mind.

A few notes on pronunciation:

Svelte is pronounced Svel-TAY (which isn't how the word itself is pronounced in English, but I need it that way for specific reasons. Plus, I like it better).
How Sun's last name is pronounced Soon (this is based on romanization of a Chinese word).
Faqzak Taks' name is pronounced 'Facts That Tax,' him being a journalist and all.