“How can humans even live here? It’s nothing but snow and ice in the winter, and summer doesn’t look much better,” Firebrand remarked, his teeth chattering. He and Blizzard were both bundled up in specially made jackets that had holes in the back for their wings. “The Crystal Empire didn’t even look anywhere this cold.”

“Just be glad we’re not in Oymyakon,” Melnik agreed. “Coldest place I’ve ever been…”

“And on the other side of things, there’s deserts like Arizona,” Yon-Soo added. “I once shot a music video in the desert, and I was sweating everyday.”

“You’d be surprised at some of the temperatures we can live in,” Porter replied. “Still, the weather’s really weird. At this time of the year…”

“It is fascinating to see what a world without pegasus weather control looks like. It’s like a whole planet being the Everfree Forest,” Blizzard Flurry admitted, apparently handling the chill better than Firebrand. “I can see why humans had to be a hardy species; to live in such a brutal place and not be able to control the weather would make anyone have to be as tough as possible to survive day-to-day.”

Blizzard indeed brought up a good point. Yon-Soo himself had heard only a few bits and pieces of Equestria’s history from Firebrand and other ponies he had encountered, but it was clear that the ponies were, in a way, lucky. They had powers that allowed them to be able to manipulate their environments and, of course, Celestia had been around to solve problems for them and, according to legend, even burned most common predators to ash. Early humans were little more than hunters that had to be ruthless and resourceful to survive an inhospitable planet, and even still humans had a difficult time with extreme weather phenomena.

“So where do we go first?” Hyong-Jin asked as he tried to warm up his pinkened ears. The plane ride from Nizhny Novgorod to the outpost in Lesosibirsk wasn’t anything hospitable, but it had been a warm and toasty paradise compared to this. While it still was technically summer coming on autumn, given the geography, it seemed like the weather decided to be cruel today. The clouds were so thick the sunlight couldn’t penetrate it, and the air felt wet. And the wind was practically howling, which made the plane trip even more difficult. In fact, Firebird and Blizzard had been clinging to something the whole ride, afraid that the plane would, in Firebird’s words, “shake itself apart.”

While Yon-Soo had assured him that yes, it was normal for the plane to shake, he had to admit it had been awhile since it had gotten that bad.

“We have to retrieve some spare equipment first, and maybe a GPS too, just in case. We have a mission to do and it could take us pretty deep into the wilderness,” Porter replied.

Dread washed over Yon-Soo. Even before his old pampered existence as a celebrity, he never liked the “great outdoors,” and it took ungodly amounts of willpower from him to go through that DMZ walkthrough without complaining. And with how the weather was acting up, it would only add to the unpleasantness. Might as well get it over with…

“Alright,” Yon-Soo said, “let’s get going!”

This. Was not. Going well.

At all.

The rain had only gotten worse, the droplets beating down on them with merciless force. It felt like a bunch of tiny daggers made of water stabbing into whatever skin was exposed. The ground was slippery and saturated, the mud almost sinking under their boots with every step they took.

Yon-Soo had promised himself and Porter that he would not complain, but right now, this situation kind of warranted some frustration.

“This is not what I had in mind!” the South Korean soldier growled angrily, trying not to trip when his boot got stuck in some very thick, gooey mud.

“I have to agree,” Melnik begrudgingly added. “This rain is not helping us in any way to be brutally honest.”

“Wait a second! You two are pegasi, and you can control the weather, right?” Hyong-Jin asked Firebrand and Blizzard, who both nodded. “Why not use your powers to clear up this storm?”

Both ponies shook their heads, Blizzard replying, “While we can do stuff with the weather on earth, we’d have to mold it, and that takes a lot of magic. Earth lacks magic, and moreover, just two of us would barely put a dent in clouds this thick and heavy, even in Equestria. I’m sorry, guys, but there really isn’t anything Firebrand and I can do in this regard.”

“Oh well,” Hyong-Jin grumbled in an utterly dejected tone, “it was worth a shot.”

“We have to keep going at least,” Porter said, clearly trying his best not to let the rain get to him. Someone had to put on a good face for everyone in this miserable weather, after all. But it was clear even he wasn’t liking this either. Blizzard flew upwards to try scouting ahead, as it never hurt to know what may lie ahead.

“That’s weird…” she said over the radio.

“What exactly?” Aitmatov asked her.

“There’s a spot of completely clear, sunny weather up north west. Like someone cut a hole out of the clouds.”

Firebrand looked genuinely surprised at that. “It would take a lot of ponies and work just to cut a hole into clouds this thick, so that’d would have to be a large group...” the realization dawned on him.

It didn’t take much to put two and two together. Porter immediately said, “PER. I’m more than sure of that.”

“Wait,” Blizzard added. “I’m seeing what looks like people fighting.”

Porter turned to Firebrand and asked, “Would you be able to fly one of us up there?”

Firebrand nodded and said, “You’d probably have to lighten yourself up a bit, but I should be able to get one of you up there.”

“I’ll go up,” Hyong-Jin offered as he took his backpack, extra weapons and ammo magazines off. Firebrand nodded, let Hyong-Jin on his back and spread out his wings, flying up. They, along with Blizzard, flew closer to the clear spot to get a better look, but they were still far enough not to be seen by any pegasi. Blizzard and Hyong-Jin looked through the binoculars

“What’s the whole situation?” Yon-Soo asked them over the walkie talkie.

“Definitely HLF and PER fighting against each other. They’re both giving as good as the other’s got,” Blizzard replied, spotting a group of people on one side shooting at a group of mainly ponies and a couple humans that were tossing bottles of the familiar purple liquid at each other.

“That gives me an idea,” Aitmatov said. “Sit back and enjoy the destruction, and then we swoop in, and mop up the survivors. Kill or detain in custody, either way, it makes the job a little easier for us.”

“Actually, that doesn’t sound too bad,” Yon-Soo agreed. “Less work for us at any rate.”

“Let’s move in closer then,” said Porter. “We have plenty of hiding spots to take advantage of as well; just in case any pegasi might be on the look-out.”

“I don’t think that's going to matter anymore…” Hyong-Jin said with a tone that screamed ‘oh crap,’ as the group watched the surrounding clouds erupted with at least a hundred of pegasi, all of them diving down to the fighting group.

“God damn it…” Sergei watched as the HLF members shift fire, taking down scores of them as they drew closer. “That’s too neat. I don't think we dealing with your run of the mill crazies.”

“No kidding,” Porter muttered as he watched the air-cavalry get decimated. Aitmatov grunted as he watched the group reacted to threats, their movements all but screaming military precision.

“What now? We are a group of eight against a small army!” Yon-Soo hissed as Blizzard and Firebrand dropped Hyong-Jin back off. “This isn’t going to be like those mercenary wannabes we faced back in Nizhny Novgorod.”

“Show the humans the light!” a voice echoed to their right, and the group hit the ground, their muddy brown and green camouflage blending into the ground, while Firebrand and Blizzard covered themselves up with mud and nearby leaves. The soldiers watched as a stampede of newfoals rushed by, missing them by mere meters. But most unsettling were the scatterings of Royal Guard cadets in their midst. The stampede ran at the group with zealous intent, their smiles bright as they got closer. The HLF were still struggling with the dozen or so pegasi when they found themselves being overrun on their flank, the dozens of unicorns and earth ponies taking them by surprise.

The group reacted well enough, but the damage was done. Ever so slowly, both groups were being whittled down to a mere dozen on each side.

An earth pony newfoal tackled a human, the vial in his mouth shattering and dosing the human on the ground, followed by the HLF members riddling both of them with bullets.

Another HLF member wearing a military grade hazmat suit found himself being lifted up by a unicorn cadet, his suit being ripped to shreds before he was drenched in potion, only to explode a second later when he managed to pull the pin off one of his grenades.

“Come on,” Porter growled as he hefted his AK-12. It was a civilian model, and most Russian military personnel still carried the AK-74, but he’d liked the AK-12’s balanced recoil and the AN94 was too expensive and unreliable. “Aitmatov, can you give us some sniper support?”

“Sure can,” Aitmatov smirked as he set himself up, unlimbering his SVN2015 sniper. It was essentially a Dragunov, but with an AN94’s blowback-shifted pulse and hyper-burst systems. He’d also taken to carrying at least four drum magazines for the thing, and a few American-made 20-round box magazines, in case he had to use it for medium-range combat. “As long as Blizzard can be my eyes in the sky.”

“Do you have to ask, old man?” Blizzard smiled before taking flight. “I’ll make sure they never see you coming.”

“Good, the rest of us will go in and secure the area. Try keep some of them alive,” Porter said as he looked to the group, then give a rather dark look. “Doesn’t mean we have to be nice about it. Move out.”

“Kind of excessive, don’t you think?” Yon-Soo whispered to Porter, only to flinch at the vicious look Porter gave him.

“This particular branch of HLF has something that some of the others don’t have,” Porter grumbled as he checked his weapon. “They have military personnel on board. And that means they have access to more powerful weapons. I read the full report of this group. The Premier has sent for these men to help in the war effort, help the PHL in trying to secure the country. A group of ten was attached and all of them were killed, but not before they were tortured and violated in every way before being killed by the very soldiers that was suppose to help them.”

The look on Porter’s face became even grimmer as he added, “And I mean violated in every sense of the word.”

“Holy shit…” Yon-Soo whispered, looking up to Firebrand as he took flight. “That’s why you didn’t say anything to Blizzard or Firebrand?”

Porter nodded his head before looking at the group. “Aitmatov, take out the cadets and heavy weapons. We’ll strike the HLF members from behind. Firebrand, you see an opening to take the leader, you go for it and drag the bastard back here, and we’ll back you up. Got it?”

Aitmatov nodded while Blizzard flew upwards to perch on a tree to be his spotter.

Firebrand replied over the radio, “Read you loud and clear, Porter.”

“Alright. Keep yourself hidden. We don’t want anyone thinking you’re with PER agents,” Porter said.

“Roger,” Firebrand replied.

As Yon-Soo watched the battle between the PER and the HLF through the ironsight of his battered old Daewoo K2 rifle, he was struck by the feelings he felt toward the battle.

Or rather, the lack thereof. Both sides believed they were doing the right thing, and hundreds of ponies were simply throwing themselves at the HLF guns. The PER were so viciously dogmatic that they were gleefully sacrificing themselves to save humanity from itself in a banzai charge. Optimistically speaking, the HLF members thought they were the brave underdogs, the gallant multinational human resistance.

Neither of them were right. The battle wasn’t even between actual military forces. It was an exercise in futility, two children of opposing parents fighting a battle that would solve nothing. While nobody was likely to shed tears over dead PER members, that didn’t change that it was an utter waste.

Blizzard said over the radio, “Khan, some PER are trying to flank the HLF on your right. They’re coming dangerously close, they think I’m a scout.”

“Alright. Porter?” Aitmatov asked. “I have a silencer for my rifle. Want me to take care of them?”

“Go ahead. Just don’t use that revolver, that’s a damn hand cannon,” Porter muttered as he looked to the trees.

"If I use it, I doubt anyone would notice," Aitmatov remarked, striding off into the woods.

Porter looked up to see the ponies begin to fall, all of them attempting to find cover only to be taken out before they got far. Apparently, their cries of surprise got the attention of someone else.

Porter held up his hand, watching as a BMP came into view, its treads melted and fused together, leaving the heavy infantry vehicle stuck in its place. The turret however, was still working.

"Damn." Melnik groused as he watched the flanking new foals get ripped apart. "What now, team leader? That heavy armor will tear us apart, it's still manned and running."

Porter stared at the armored vehicle before looking at Melnik. "Think you can work it?"

Melnik blinked once before smiling. "Yes. Yes I can."

"Then procure me a BMP."

“I’ll cover him soon as I get those PER opooscheny,” Aitmatov said, staring up into the sky. “Suka! I almost wish I had something shorter-ranged.”

“Hey! I have something!” Blizzard said over the radio. "I see a guy with a red beret barking orders to everyone else, near the Tigr in the center."

"Der’mo, please tell me you don't see a golden star with wreaths around it," Aitmatov groaned as he lined up the shot to get a look. "Ohooiet! Never mind I see him. Porter, we have a Spetsnaz officer leading the group.”

"You have got to be fucking kidding me," Porter growled with a mixture of dread and disbelief as he got behind a tree to hide himself. "Damn it. This mission got a lot harder."

"Uh... for some of us that don’t understand, what does that word mean?" Hyong-Jin whispered as he laid down behind a rock.

"They are like North Koreans Special Operation Force," Porter answered as he looked to see a new foal get in close and use its brawny body to overcome the humans, only to get ripped apart by the guns. "Only ten times better than the NKSOF."

"O-oh... ssibal..." Hyong-Jin muttered as he looked back the fighting.

"Taking him down will not be easy," Porter grumbled as he looked out. He watched as the turret turned to lay waste to another group of new foals, "Melnik."

"Moving," Melnik answered as he rushed forward.

Aitmatov stared down his scope again. “Damn. Is that… those sons of bitches, how does this not surprise me.”

“What?” Yon-Soo asked.

“Fucking Neo-Nazis,” Aitmatov said. “Well. There goes my guilt for the rest of the day.”

"Chto za hui?!" the BMP operator growled as he looked away from his screen, the sound of someone banging on the exit gaining his attention.

"Ey ! My rabotayet v usloviyakh nekhvatki boyepripasov ! Boris skazal, chto yest' zapasnoy boyepripasy v BMP ! Eti chertovy urody delayut budem tratit' patrony , kak sumasshedshiy ... " a voice called out. The operator grumbled, not at all concerned for trickery due to the cursing voice. He looked around the troop bay and saw a spare box of ammo sitting near the exit.

" Khorosho khorosho . Pozvol'te mne dver'," the operator sighed, opening the door, only to stare at an unfamiliar man standing before him. “zhdat' , kto-URK!”

The man gave a gurgling cry as the nine inch blade slammed into his throat, shredding any hope of warning his compatriots. Melnik stepped over him as he placed his knife back in its sheath, ignoring the weak grasping of his legs of the dying man. "Thank you, comrade," he said mockingly. "Team Leader, I'm in. BMP is under our control."

"Good. The PER and new foals are almost out of the way." Porter growled as he hid behind the armor vehicle. "Yon-Soo, Hyong-Jin, Sergei! Ready yourselves!"

"Yes sir!"

"Melnik, if you will start us off please." Porter pulled up out of cover, taking aim at the closest HLF fanatic and pulling the trigger, which was drowned out by the BMP heavy anti-infantry gun.

*BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM!*

Yon-Soo watched as the HLF members get torn apart, shocked looks forming on their faces as one of their own seemingly turned against them. One or two even held out their arms and waved at them, in an attempt to make Melnik stop firing at them, believing that he was in the middle of friendly fire.

The turret quickly zeroed in and blasted them apart, causing every HLF to scatter and hide behind cover. This had the unfortunate side effect of exposing them to the surviving new foals.

"Flanking!" Hyong-Jin yelled out as he raced towards a Tigr.

"On your six," Sergei replied as he followed right behind him as they rounded a Tigr, before they found themselves staring at a HLF member standing at the edge of the vehicle.

Caught off guard by her appearance, both Sergei and Hyong-Jin both stumbled back from her as she leveled a Saiga shotgun with a drum magazine at them.

“...Sonovabitch!” Sergei roared out as he stumbled back, dragging Hyong-Jin behind him.

Hyong-Jin and Sergei knew they were dead as the young woman scowled and began to pull the trigger, only to vanish in a flash of red and orange, the Saiga clattering uselessly onto the ground, and a scream of pain quickly distancing away from them.

"I got your back guys!" Firebrand grunted as he let go of the screaming woman, watching as she plummeted to the earth, her body skipping over the ground at high speeds before impacting a tree. Bullets sped past him, forcing him to use evasive maneuvers. "Luna's ass!" he swore, swooping, weaving from side to side as erratically as he could manage without HLF bullets shooting off his wings.

"Don't worry, Firebrand," Blizzard said calmly as she watched the gunner on the Tigr keep his sights on Firebrand, "We got you covered. Got him, Khan?"

The gunner slumped over, his gun swinging wildly and taking out both PER and HLF in the trail of bullets before the body fell off. Aitmatov only grunted as he sighted in the next target. "Da! Next target?"

"Two Targets, both one o'clock, one near Tigr, second target on Tigr gun, target one Royal Cadet, target two heavy vehicle gunner."

"Da! one o'clock, near Tigr and Tigr gun, Royal Cadet and heavy gunner, Targets confirmed."

"Ninety yards for target one, seventy yards for target two, wind from five o'clock to one o'clock, three mph."

"Ready."

"Send it." Blizzard’s eyes narrowed as she watched the cadet's shield flicker as the rest of the HLF began to spray at him. The converted new foals jumped in front of him to protect him as they dove at the humans. The cadet only had a chance to smile before his entire left side of his face vanished in a mist of blood. A heavy gunner cheered before a giant hole tore through his armor and chest.

"Reloading," Aitmatov said, watching as Blizzard jumped to a different branch.

"I have one trying to get past Porter and take out Yon-Soo," Blizzard responded as she watched a HLF member avoid the BMP and Porter’s combined assault, Yon-Soo struggling with his weapon as it jammed on him.

Yon-Soo’s eyes widened as he pulled back while the man fired at him, bullets bouncing off the armor plating. The man turned the corner, only for the gun to be kicked out of his hand. The man scowled as he attempted to pull his sidearm, only to grunt as Yon-Soo hit him in the gut with the butt of his rifle and then slammed his knee into his face, causing him to tumble and fall onto his back. Yon-Soo pulled out his own sidearm and fired off several rounds and dropping him. "Hostile down!"

Firebrand shot past him in an upward motion, plowing through a new foal pegasus, its ribs shattered with a sickening crack as he slammed into him. Once the pegasus was dispatched he looked down to the ground. His eyes widen as he watched as the red beret wearing Spetsnaz reached into a Tigr and pulled out a RPG-16 and tossed it to a nearby HLF and began to scream at them as he pointed at the BMP.

"RPG!" Firebrand called out and was going to dive in, only to turn away as a bullet bit into his shoulder. Firebrand pulled away, hissing in pain as he turned to glare at the scowling Spetsnaz as he continued to at Firebrand to drive him away. "Melnik! Get out of there!"

Melnik barely heard the warning, confusion on his face as the turret finally settled on a new group of targets.

One of them aiming a RPG-16 at him.

"Ebat kopat'!" Melnik yelled, struggling out of the seat and racing for the exit.

Porter was too busy to hear the warning and only had a chance to bring up his weapon before he saw the rocket propelled grenade head straight for the BMP he was hiding behind.

"SHIT!" Porter threw himself back, the explosion ripping the BMP apart and the force of the blast tossed him away.

Yon-Soo heard the warning and took cover behind a small boulder, watching just in time to see Melnik jump from the armor vehicle before he was engulfed in flames and tossed away. "Melnik! Man down! I need cover fire!"

"Covering!" Sergei yelled.

"Get him out of there!"

Yon-Soo raced towards him, Hyong-Jin and Sergei covering him as he raced to the crawling soldier. He gasped and a wave of nausea hit him at the sight of Melnik raising his left arm, revealing it had been shattered right below the elbow. Yon-Soo scrambled back up and quickly grabbed Melnik’s good arm, dragging him back into cover.

"Ostav'te menya ... ne umeret' za starika ..." Melnik moaned out, his face full of pain as he gripped his missing arm.

"Porter!"

Porter’s head jerked up, ringing in his ears slowly petered out as the sounds of battle and screams came back in full force. "Porter! Melnik is down! I need help putting a tourniquet on his arm! Get him out before the PER find him!"

Porter barely nodded his head to Yon-Soo as he dragged himself to them before the sound of a man screaming caught his attention. His eyes widened in shock as a man raced towards him with a large knife in hand. Porter clutched blindly for his AK-12 before the top of the man's head vanished in a burst of blood and gore.

“Tebe pizd'ets! YA ub'yu vas vsekh, vy suka!” Aitmatov roared. “Nikto ne bolit moikh druzey!”

“Don’t worry!” one pegasus newfoal yelled, flying down at Melnik. “Once you get the potion, you’ll be all-”

“Suka poshel nakhuy uyebok!” Aitmatov yelled, staring through the scope and firing.

The heavy 7.62x54 round hit the newfoal in the flank, severing one leg and utterly obliterating its stomach. The pegasus fell to the ground, crying as it asked why they were rejecting their Queen’s “gifts,” only to be abruptly cut off as its bandolier of potion vials shattered when it hit the ground, the glass shards shredding through its body.

“Wait, please, friend!” an earth pony yelled. “He just wanted to-”

Aitmatov sighted him in and fired, severing the pony’s head like he’d been put through the guillotine.

“Come on, you bastards!” Aitmatov yelled, shooting an HLF man with an incongruous leather jacket, blood exploding out of the curiously small hole he’d made. Aitmatov decided he was better off not knowing what that jacket was made of, and hoped to God it had been made from cowhides.

Blizzard landed lightly behind him and began to shake him. “Khan!” she yelled, tears in her eyes. “We have to go! We’re-”

But Khan didn’t listen, firing a two-round hyperburst, killing four PER ponies. “I’m gonna save my friend or die trying!”

“Or get turned into a newfoal, or killed trying?!” Blizzard asked angrily.

That gave Aitmatov pause, even as he picked out a new target. “I have to try!”

He set his eyes on a rocketeer, pulling the trigger as he zeroed in on him.

*click*

Aitmatov ejected the magazine and reached for a spare, only to grip at nothing, his eyes widening in horror as he realized he’d burned through his entire supply. He looked back to the rocketeer as he loaded another rocket and took aim at the destroyed BMP which held his possibly dying friend and his new fellow soldiers that were doing what they could to save Melnik's life.

It wouldn't protect them from another rocket attack.

There was no more time. There was no more ammo in the SVN2015. Just… his pistol? It was like everything had gone into slow motion, his body reacting before he could make a logical decision.

The sniper rifle fell from his grasp as he went for his RSH-12 revolver, the world slowing to a crawl.

He had no choice but to use it. The RSH-12, so much like one of those big American handcannons, had a barrel in the 6 o’clock position, so he had to be careful…

He lined up the shot and squeezed the trigger.

The bullet flew out of the barrel, the force necessary to push the bullet out of the chamber belching out powdered explosive, the heavy revolver kicking back into Aitmatov's hands. The bullet sailed through the air, past the branches and trees, cutting a path through the leaves. Once it reached open air, it flew past the bodies of falling new foals and scores of other bullets racing through their own paths before finally reaching its target.

But it didn’t hit the other man.

What it did hit, however, was the rocket. Said rocket had barely began to burst from its operator's weapon before the bullet hit the tip and ignited the explosive payload.

A one in a million chance shot.

“Zdorovo,” Khan whispered. “That’s one for Zaitsev right there.”

Hyong-Jin opened his mouth to cry out a warning to Porter, Melnik, and Yon-Soo before the RPG exploded.

“What the fuck?!” Sergei's jaw dropped as the rocketeer and the remaining HLF sans the Spetsnaz officer were killed in a fiery explosion. A new foal corpse slammed into the ground. He looked up to see Firebrand lashing out with his hooves against the last three new foals.

Firebrand growled as a newfoal wrapped its forelegs around his neck, uncharacteristically snarling as it attempted to stop him. Firebrand jerked his back, slamming the back of his head into its snout, releasing himself from the hold. While he might have had the strength of an insane pony, the newfoal was no match for a pegasus trained to fly practically from birth, and Firebrand was going to exploit the hell out of that.

He snapped his wings open before kicking with his hindlegs, crushing the newfoal's ribs and heart and kicking off of him. He pulled his foreleg back, unloading a devastating uppercut on the second new foal floating above him, relishing the feeling of bones breaking underneath his hoof. He turned to see the last newfoal roaring in anger at his defiance of the Tyrant’s rule, only for her to jerk as bullets ripped through her body before falling. He looked down to see Yon-Soo smiling up at him and waving.

Firebrand waved back before a flash of red caught his eyes. He turned to see the HLF Spetsnaz officer running into the field, causing Firebrand to grit his teeth at the bullet wound on his shoulder. He snapped his wings shut as he dived to the ground to get some speed.

The group watched as Firebrand dove to the ground before his wings flared open, followed by speeding away from them. Sergei looked on with concern as he kept watch for anymore PER or HLF.

"Where is he going?"

"Getting our informer," Blizzard said as she landed next to them.

Firebrand skimmed over the ground, inches to spare as he zeroed in on his target. The Spetsnaz officer turned his body, pistol in hand, and fired off several shots at him, only to miss as Firebrand weaved through the bullets before he flew by him, lashing out and catching the human in the leg with a crack. The human howled in pain, screaming obscenities at Firebrand, practically spraying and praying with his pistol, but the pegasus wasn't making it easy for him. His wings beat powerfully as he flew faster and faster, in a tight red and orange circle.

Pistol rounds fired at the red blur as it spun around the officer, but was unable to hit anything as the flying pegasus began to pick up the pace.

Before the human knew it, he was in a magically made tornado, the winds heating up within by unknown means and began to lift him off the ground.

Firebrand flew out of the tornado, skidding across the ground as he landed, his eyes narrowing as the pony made tornado began to peter out and tossed the human, sending flying across the ground. A small part of himself wanted the human to die for what he and his group had done to his people, but orders were orders. He gave a tired sigh as he bolted forward and caught the falling human, only to receive an elbow to the jaw for his trouble.

"Son of a-" Firebrand growled as he threw the human away from himself.

The human realized his mistake far too late, as he barely had time to cover his face as he fell to the ground, with an audible crack.

Surprisingly, he was still alive.

The battlefield was littered with corpses, human and pony alike, with more than a few HLF men shot in the throes of ponification. The soil, blades of grass, all ran red and purple with blood and potion. Spent shell casings dotted the grass, and discarded weapons which were currently under inspection by Sergei and Hyong-Jin, was spread everywhere.

“That a PTRD?” Aitmatov asked, staring at a rather large sniper rifle, all metal and wood. “Gonna need one of those.”

“You already have a sniper rifle,” Blizzard pointed out.

“But it’s not 14.5mm, so it can’t take out tanks,” Aitmatov argued, hefting the anti-materiel rifle.

“...How… can you even lift that with one hand?” Melnik asked, clutching the stump of his arm.

“Years of practice, Ivan,” Aitmatov said. “Tell you what. If you get on the battlefield, I’m giving this to you. You always wanted an antimateriel rifle.”

“How the hell can I get back out?!” Melnik asked. “Only one arm, remember? Can’t reload, can’t fire, can’t-”

“Equestrian magic,” Blizzard suggested. “You could have somepony cast a regrowing spell on it. It will take very long time because of how dangerous magic is to your human body. Or magical prosthetic. ”

“That… that sounds nice,” Melnik said. “So, where’s our informant?”

“Up there, getting stomped on by Firebrand if he so much as looks at him funny,” Blizzard explained.

“Poluchit' ot menya vy, blin, mutiroval zhivotnykh ! Ya sobirayus' sorvat' svoi kryl'ya i bit' tebya do smerti s nimi!” he yelled as he struggled to break free from the pegasus.

“...Solokow?!” Aitmatov asked, staring down at the Spetsnaz officer. “Damn. This is really beneath you.”

“You know him?” Blizzard asked, confused.

“Know him?” Aitmatov asked back. “We served together plenty of times, but he dropped off the radar right before the war. So this is what you were up to!”

“Aitmatov, you traitorous prick!” Solokow yelled. “Can’t you see what you’re doing?! You’re playing right into their hands, you horsefucker!”

"What the fuck have you been smoking? The PHL are here to help us!" Khan said through clenched teeth.

"Fuck them! They’re spies of the queen bitch! The fate of humanity depends on us, the Human Liberation Front, and we’ve had enough of those goddamn geldos’ ideas of ‘helping’ us! Once the barrier is down we’ll nuke the horses back to the stone age!"

“Tell me something, you goddamn jumped-up KKK member,” Porter said. “What the fuck have you accomplished? Have you saved civilians? Been in the presence of Lyra Heartstrings?! Of course not! You’re the poor deluded fucks that don’t know what story they’re in, and just keep on acting like they’re heroes. The scared, angry, vengeful children that torture ponies strapped to chairs.”

"Yeah well, they deserved it. We are going to have our revenge and we will kill every single last pony down to the last child."

“Right,” Hyong-Jin said. “And for that to happen, you need the barrier to collapse. So how the fuck are you going to do that?!”

"Don’t you realize you’re kinda not helping humanity’s case?" asked Firebrand.

Solokow simply growled in response.

"Not all us ponies are against you. Many good ponies are fighting on your side," Blizzard tried to say.

He simply growled in response again.

Hyong-Jin tried again, appealing to the man’s anger by admitting his own pain. "Look, I can understand why you are so angry, but don’t let that anger consu--"

Solokow angrily interrupted, "You do not understand! You’ll never understand. I lost my family, my city, every goddamn thing I’ve ever loved to the pony’s so called ‘help’. And don’t get all preachy with your petty notions of morality. This is war! A war of no compromise. There is no room for pity nor mercy against the enemy. They aren’t human! So why should we treat them as such?"

“That mindset is going to bite you in the ass later,” Melnik said. “What happens when two thirds of the world is gone, and maybe, just maybe…. if magic made the Barrier, maybe magic’s the only way to beat it."

"Damn, that’s pessimistic,” Solokow said. “You haven’t changed at all, have you Ivan? So, you are asking us to make friends with the very people that are out to destroy us?"

"Seriously, are you stupid or something?! Not all us ponies want to destroy humanity! Get that into your thick skull!" Blizzard yelled.

"Well, it sure feels like most of you do..." he said quietly.

“No. We’re not,” Firebrand replied. “Don’t trust the Solar Empire, ‘cause we sure don’t. Just… trust the ponies that are actually willing to help, without using potions.”

“Trust me, Imperials are nowhere near smart enough for that,” Blizzard added. “It’s like somepony overwrote their brains. I think there’s some American and PHL neuroscientists working on it.”

"So, do ponies fighting on the human side have some sort of freaky human fetish or something?! Are we attractive to you?!"

"Seriously?" Porter stared at the Spetsnaz in utter confusion. "Are you just fishing for some reason to hate them?"

"No… I… What does it matter if some ponies like humans that way?!" Blizzard yelled, blushing slightly. Though nobody was entirely sure how they could tell she was blushing - they just had a general impression of a pinkening around the cheeks.

"Fucking freaks!" Solokow yelled.

“Alright, enough moralizing,” Yon-Soo said. “Now. We’re with the Russian military, and you’re doing far more harm than good. From what we can tell, most of the soldiers here were part of a special operation group, one that went missing a few months ago along with an attachment of PHL members. What happened-"

Yon-Soo's eyes widened as he felt himself being yanked back, finding himself staring at the utterly gobsmacked face of Porter. "What are you doing!?" Porter hissed under his breath.

Yon-Soo stared at him in confusion before realizing what he said. He turned to look at Blizzard and Firebrand who themselves were looking off in the distance. They both had such horrible looks on their faces, as if the world had been pulled out from under them, or they’d suddenly discovered they couldn’t walk on clouds.

"W-what? PHL attachment?" Blizzard uttered in shock.

Yon-Soo quickly realized what he'd just said. Any ponies or people those two would have known could have likely been killed. Or worse...

“You evil son of a -” Blizzard growled before being interrupted by Solokow .

“Hah, calling me evil? You’re one to talk my fat dumb little horse,” he said mockingly. “I’m not the one mutilating children to turn them into mindless drones.”

Blizzard half raised a hoof to strike him, but she decided against it and lowered her hoof back down.

“You know, unless you give us good intel on the HLF base, I think we’re better off just ignoring you for the time being,” Firebrand groaned through gritted teeth. “One of us is just going to do something stupid, anyway.”

“So now what do we do?” Hyong-Jin asked. “There’s probably many more and I think we all know he’s not going to talk. And to be honest, I'm uncomfortable with the thought of torturing the info out of him."

That didn't completely surprise Yon-Soo. While Hyong-Jin was certainly not merciful towards any enemies, even he was aware that torture was not a reliable way to get information. Plus, not to sound high and mighty, they were actual official soldiers and needed to be above that kind of thing.

“We could tickle him until he talks,“ Blizzard suggested.

For a long moment, no one said a word as they stared at her, even Solokow stared at her in confusion.

"W-well we can't hurt him," Blizzard stammered out as she explained her idea. "And well... tickling somepony always got what you needed. My dad always did it and..."

Blizzard blushed as she looked away, Solokow snorted before giving a bark of laughter.

"What a fucking stupid-"

"Let's try it." Yon-Soo interrupted.

"What?!"

"I mean, it’s better than dragging him all the way back to the airport and sending him back to Nizhny Novogorod and wait for a response." Yon-Soo’s face then flushed. "And it’s kind of true about being tickled."

“Eh, fair enough,” Aitmatov said. “Never liked torture. Goddamned pointless cruelty.”

"Dad?" Blizzard turned to Yon-Soo and asked with a cheeky smile.

"Mom actually. And my grandparents, and older cousins..." Yon-Soo answered bashfully face blushed brightly as he looked away from the group.

Porter tilted his head while grinning, a chuckle escaping his lips. "Why the fuck not? You two can go on ahead, I heard feathers can do wonders. Sergei, strip the jacket off."

Sergei shrugged before he roughly pulled Solokow’s jacket off to reveal his plain white short sleeved t-shirt.

“Do you seriously expect me to... Hahaahah!“ The two pegasi began tickling him under the armpits with the feathers of their wings. “Hahaahahahaha! Ahahaah haahahaha haahahah! Stop it! Ya nikogda ne budu govorit'!“

One hour later

"Part of me should call out that this is inhumane and forbidden," Yon-Soo muttered to Porter as the two tended to Melnik. The sounds of painful laughter echoed not too far from their spot.

"I read that the tickle sensation is actually a form of pain." Porter adopted a thoughtful look as he said this. "I'm not sure where though."

"I got to admit, it is better than a pain-filled scream echoing out," Melnik grunted as Porter examined his stump. The pain of having heated metal pressed against the stump to cauterize the opening was unbearable, but it was something Melnik insisted upon when they realized the closest towns were either PER or HLF strongholds, so they couldn’t exactly go to the nearest hospital and ask for assistance. Aitmatov and Hyong-Jin were keeping watch, and so far, no one showed up. Still, didn't hurt to be prepared.

Finally, as Yon-Soo wrapped a bandage around Melnik's arm, Sokolow yelled in between his uncontrollable laughter, "v poryadke, v poryadke! YA pogovoryu ! YA pogovoryu ! Please, just stop! I can't stand it, I'll tell you everything you want! Please, it tickles!"

Porter remarked, "I would say that's our cue to go in."

Sokolow was twitching, still laughing even after the two pegasi stopped tickling him. He was breathing heavily as he found his voice.

"Okay, the base is about thirty kilometers northwest of here. We hold ourselves up in an abandoned town."

"And how many are out there?" Yon-Soo asked him.

"About fifteen are there."

"You're not lying, right?" Porter asked, glaring at Sokolow with a degree of suspicion.

"Come on, would I?! After that?" Sokolow asked desperately, massaging his sides.

Porter turned to Yon-Soo, who nodded and said, "Alright. Let's get going."

Aitmatov then said, "A couple of us should stay here to keep watch on Melnik and make sure Sokolow doesn't try anything funny."

Hyong-Jin stepped in and declared, "I'll help you out on that."

Sergei, Firebrand and Blizzard nodded and walked up to Porter and Yon-Soo.

"Alright, let's get moving. We need to hurry," Yon-Soo noted as he looked to the setting sun. "The remaining HLF could probably be wondering where the rest of the group are right now and might come here. We need to stop them."

Porter agreed. "And there could even be prisoners with them, human and pony. We need to get there before anything happens to them."

"Well then, what are we waiting for? Let's go!" Blizzard barked.

"That motherfucking prick lied! Fuck my life!" Yon-Soo bemoaned angrily as he and Porter took refuge in an alleyway.

They went in thinking there were only about fifteen HLF members in the settlement, only to see there were a lot more. At least fifty from Firebrand's count. The dark and cloudy night sky wasn't helping in the slightest.

"Gee, you don't say," Porter grumbled. Gunshots rang through the air, several of the HLF members screaming and calling the group "horsefucking traitors" as they tried to kill Firebrand and Blizzard.

“They’re not going to stop yelling that, are they?!” Firebrand asked over the radio.

“I don’t think so,” Blizzard groaned.

The worst part about this especially was the fact that, unlike the newfoals, the people in the HLF actually possessed some self-preservation. They could hide, duck for cover, conserve their resources.

Yon-Soo had to admit, it was a lot easier to shoot at something that couldn’t really fight back so much as it just wanted to change you into one of them. On top of that, killing newfoals… It just didn’t quite make him feel that guilty, much as he hated to admit it. They charged on masse, sponging up so many bullets that their compatriots would trip over their mangled corpses, and considering what the potion did to a person’s mind, it almost came across as a mercy.

“Got these poloinik,” Sergei said, firing one of the spare PTRD rifles Aitmatov had found on the battlefield. He’d insisted that they keep them in the event that they ran into more shielded ponies.

“Isn’t that kind of overkill for antipersonnel work?” Blizzard asked, safely hidden in the clouds, wearing a pair of thermal goggles that Aitmatov had smuggled from somewhere.

“It certainly is, and I don’t give a fuck,” Sergei replied, and fired. “Bastards hurt Aitmatov’s friend, and they’ve done things that make that look like poking a puppy. If any humans on earth deserve a 14.5mm round to the gut, it’s them.”

“MOYA RUKA!” one HLF member screamed.

“Was that a miss?” Blizzard asked.

“Maybe. I’m not as good as Aitmatov or Melnik might be with this thing,” Sergei admitted. “But it’s a damn antivehicle round. Look at the soldiers behind him.”

Blizzard grimaced as she looked a little further. “Ow and yuck.”

“Poluchite, chto chlenosos snayperskoy vintovki!” shrieked one Russian woman, probably high-ranking. “YA khochu, chtoby loshad' chertovski!”

Yon-Soo tossed a grenade up which went over the alleyway, bouncing it off the wall of a building that had to be several decades old, and probably past several safety codes. There were screams from all directions. In the confusion, Yon-Soo fired off three rounds from his battered old K2 rifle, the short burst practically decapitating one HLF member. He fired again, catching another in the leg, another in the head, before ducking into cover.

A 7.62 round grazed his shoulder, just as another rammed into his chest, his body armor taking the brunt of the blow.

“Geh shaangnom seki, that hurt!” Yon-Soo managed to gasped out, feeling as if he just got punched in the chest. “They’re closing in!”

“I got this one!” Blizzard yelled, and abruptly dropped out of cloud cover, what looked like a bottle of cheap beer in her mouth “Enjoy enlightenment!”

She threw the bottle down into the HLF, and swooped away, even as they turned their various rifles in her direction.

“Ona ponifying nas!” one HLF member yelled. “protivogazy n-”

It said a lot about the inherent cruelty of the Ponification Potion that the contents of the bottle were actually an improvement over it. Specifically, it was full of rags soaked in gas from the BMP, and there was a small timed fuse attached, using a digital watch stolen from an HLF member.

The gas masks didn’t help, for the simple reason that gas masks can’t protect you from the terrible condition known simply as being on fucking fire.

The HLF screamed, flailing about and rolling on the ground, desperately trying to put out the blaze.

"Did you see the light?" Blizzard scathingly asked as she watched them burn. "I sure did."

“Go time?” Yon-Soo asked.

Porter nodded. “Go time.”

Porter kept low as he carefully, yet quickly crouched down while going behind any cover he could find even flimsy trashcans, as he made his way to the side of the building parallel to Yon-Soo. The two of them opened fire, rifles firing in short, controlled bursts at the few members who weren’t on fire or didn’t have firearms out. The loud, heavy metallic percussion of Porter’s 7.62mm AK12 practically drowned out Yon-Soo’s lighter 5.56mm K2 rifle, though the explosion as both of them fired off their grenade launchers into the group of HLF members drowned out even that.

Porter looked down the alleyway. “This doesn’t feel safe yet. Hug the walls, and keep quiet.”

“No, you’re clear,” Blizzard said. “Most of them are firing off into the clouds since you just killed an officer. Much as they actually have officers.”

“Got it,” Yon-Soo said. “Should we keep silent and get to the prisoners, or-”

“We have a bunch of HLF members that’re distracted. You know what they’ve done to prisoners,” Porter said. “Fuck ‘em.”

“Right. Let’s not get carried away, though,” Yon-Soo agreed. “Speaking of which, is that an LMG?” He pointed at a large black machinegun, one that looked like a bigger, meaner Kalashnikov with a belt feed. It was stuck in the hand of an HLF member, who had been charred by the molotov cocktail and pulped by the grenade.

“Yeah, it is,” Porter said. “PKM. I say we hose down the HLF.”

Speakers all over the town started blaring. “U nas yest' zloumyshlennikov ! PER, skoreye vsego . U nikh yest' neskol'ko pegas s nimi , tak chto sledite nebo! A vot soobshcheniye dlya tekh zloumyshlennikov - vy sukiny deti obrekayete chelovechestvo! My pytayemsya , chtoby spasti chelovechestvo , i vy .... U menya net slov dlya moyego otvrashcheniya so vsemi vami ! Ty pozor dlya chelovechestva!”

Blizzard sighed. “Can we get whoever that was over the intercom?”

“Sure,” Porter said. “Those canned orders are just going to get more and more annoying.” He picked up the PKM, and stared down the sights, looking for a target. Finally he found one, an HLF member with an old AK-74.

He fired.

The rounds exploded out the HLF member’s chest.

And with that, the HLF were essentially doomed.

Porter ignored everything he’d ever heard about using LMGs in support roles, firing full auto in irregular bursts, cutting through any HLF members that entered his view, as Yon-Soo covered him. From the back, Sergei fired off that huge anti-tank rifle, punching through even the heaviest cover to kill HLF members.

“Kakogo cherta?!” the voice on the loudspeaker yelled. “Oni vsego lish' tri muzhchiny i dve chertovy karuseli, kruglyye igrushki ! Kak vy vse tak bespolezno?!”

There was a pause.

“Zat-knees, ee-dee na khu?! Oni ne ostanovit'?!” the voice on the loudspeaker yelled. “Nuzhno li mne povtoryat'sya?!”

A very heavy rifle round, presumably a 14.5mm from Sergei’s PTRD, punched through one loudspeaker. Sparks showered everywhere, as it dropped to the ground in shattered pieces. Someone screamed in pain as the antitank round utterly ignored their armor.

“Sorry, I thought you’d have gotten sick of listening to that bitch,” Sergei said, his voice crackling over their earpieces. “It’s pretty hard to find him. I think he’s down in one of the bunkers here. Or a basement. Either way, I can’t see him. Damn town is like a rat warren for them… Either of you guys have shotguns?”

“Yes, we have shotguns,” Yon-Soo said, sighing at the seemingly inane question.

“Well, you’re gonna want to keep em handy. It looks like there’s a lot of HLF scurrying around this town. They’ll probably jump out at you, because revenge usually lends itself to getting up close and personal.”

"Scratch that." Firebrand interrupted. "I see a lot of movement heading to one area. Looks like a school."

"Damn." Porter growled in irritation. "Schools are more or less to keep people out or in. Very defensible and lots of sniper position."

"Not counting the close quarters once we get inside." Sergei growled. "What we need is several teams, Porter. We can't do this on our own."

"We don't have time to wait!" Yon-Soo exclaimed. "What about the prisoners they are holding? They will kill them when they realize we might come back with back up."

"Porter?" Firebrand's voice drifted into the conversation, sounding distracted.

"What is it, Firebrand?" Porter asked as he raced down the alley towards the school.

"I see two guards on the second floor, they are guarding a pair of doors. Heavy chains wrapped around the handles and they are looking pretty antsy." Firebrand reported.

"I see them too." Blizzard replied, "You think they are holding them in there, Firebrand?"

"I don't see any other way in, no windows or other doors that could lead inside. Completely sealed." Firebrand's voice adopted a thoughtful tone.

"Probably the main supply closet for the school." Porter supplied as he lean against the wall, Yon-Soo by his side and his weapon raised and watching their back. "A good place if any to make into a makeshift prison. You have an idea?"

Yon-Soo then had an idea hit him. He didn’t think it’d be a popular one, but it was one he could throw out. "I do. You probably won't like it though."

"Hit me with it, can’t be any worse than the other plans."

“You’ll need to do that fire tornado, Firebrand" Yon-Soo answered. “Send it to the school and get them scrambling away.”

For a long moment, no one said anything before Porter answered, "You're right. I hate it." But then he added, "Do it."

"Are you serious?! I can't control it once I am out of the tornado, and they will shoot at it to get me,” Firebrand supplied, worry lacing his words.

"We don’t really have a choice. Either we do a suicide run or we could try to scare them off," Porter sighed as he leaned against the wall, weariness seeping into his stance. "We just have to hope they survive. Get it done, Firebrand."

"Yes sir," Firebrand replied quietly.

“Davay!” the 'lieutenant' shouted as he pointed his rifle out the window, rallying the others to him. “My dolzhny imet' preimushchestvo v tsifrakh ! Statistika te suki!!”

“Sledite na siney Pegasus ! Ona dostala neskol'ko muzhchin s Molotovym!” the loudspeaker blared out.

“Molotovy ?! PER ne ispol'zuyet Molotova!"

"Yego , veroyatno, chto gruppa iz poni sukin ot Velikobritanii. Chto oni...” the HLF’s member’s tongue stumbled over the unfamiliar words. “...PHL?”

"Chertovy shpiony dlya ikh shlyukha lidera!"

“U nas bylo dostatochnoye kolichestvo proklyatykh geldos pytayutsya "pomoch',” growled another HLF member.

"Tikho! Derzhite vashi glaza dlya nikh. Yego tol'ko tri soldaty i para goryachikh kryl'yev . My yedim khorosho segodnya , mal'chiki i devochki!" Cheers erupted with that. “Mozhet byt', my dazhe poluchit' nekotoryye novyye pal'to, tozhe!!”

Now, it’s not to say that the HLF weren’t a decently fearsome group. Any group of men and women with access to suitably large amounts of rugged Soviet hardware and armaments is reasonably threatening. But the one disadvantage they had was that most of them weren’t soldiers. Most of them were just angry. And anger was a poor substitute for training, outright destroying any prior knowledge or making you do downright stupid decisions.

Case in point, the HLF who had been searching for Porter, Yon-Soo, Sergei, Firebrand, and Blizzard had left themselves out in the open, confident that they’d be able to find their enemies.

They did not count on their enemies finding them. Or Porter opening fire on them with his PKM, firing in 8-round bursts that shredded through them, because that last sentence about using ponies for coats and meat had simply been too disgusting for him to remain stealthy.

“Von tam!”

The few HLF members that Porter hadn’t killed or immobilized flattened themselves against walls, firing off their rifles, most of which were Kalashnikovs of one stripe or another.

Unfortunately for them, Porter had simply been a distraction. A heavily-armed, well-emplaced distraction with a belt-fed light machinegun, several grenades, and claymores scattered around his impromptu machine-gun nest, but a distraction nonetheless.

From the other end of the street, the opposite to Porter, Yon-Soo fired off his K2 semiautomatically, aiming for their upper bodies, or other lightly-armored areas. When the HLF were fortunate enough to have armor, anyway. He didn’t score headshots, at least not too often, but that wasn’t to say he was ineffective at all. The 5.56 rounds, which had become increasingly expensive and rarer to come by, punctured arteries and veins, shearing through muscle, and exploded out through throats and heads.

One HLF pulled out an RPK that looked like it had been to hell and back, and was about to subdue the two men before his head exploded, the 14.5mm round punching through his face. Several HLF members panicked at the sight of the headless body as it toppled over, death twitches running through its body. The weapon gripped in its hand involuntary pulling the trigger, spraying bullets down the hall. A young boy that was doing an ammo-run for the group ran out an open door and was riddled with bullets as he crossed into its field of fire.

"Damn! Good shot, Sergei!" Porter congratulated him.

"I was aiming for the guy next to him. Still, that’s one heavy gun out, so I’d call that a win anyway. And… that kid was carrying a lot of ammo. Tough luck kid, hope you are in a better place now instead of this hell hole. Those bastards are getting pretty trigger happy, their guns are practically eating it up. And...” there was a grunt of recognition from Sergei. “Hey. Some of these poor bastards have Borz pistols. Well, this qualifies as a mercy killing, then.” He fired again. “I would not trust one of those things for a suicide attempt.”

“What’s a Borz pistol, anyway?” Blizzard asked, swooping down with another molotov, dropping it into another alleyway.

“Cheap, ugly machine pistol,” Sergei said. “They don’t have sights, and they’re made of awful metal, usually - after awhile, the thing goes to shit, and it just spits out bullets. Sometimes unfired.”

"Doesn’t matter what they have, keep them busy for Firebrand to do his stuff!" Porter ordered as he ducked behind cover to reload. "Let’s hope these bastards start running for the hills."

Firebrand couldn’t remember the last time he had flown this fast. One innate part of pegasus physiology was that their own magic protected them from air friction; he was one of those rare pegasi whose ability created an odd effect - the faster he flew, the less air friction could harm him, but he could still affect particles close enough to him. He was grateful most of the HLF were lousy shots, and his friends were helping to keep them distracted from what he was doing.

He could feel the fire blazing around him, the center of the vortex sucking up air at speeds exceeding a hundred miles per hour. Heat built up as he focused on the task at hand. It took a lot of concentration to fly in such a pattern to create a tornado, to maintain the speed and keep the heat centered.

But he did it. In a blast of blistering heat and flame, he did it. For the first time in years, he created the fire tornado.

‘Alright, time to steer this beast just right…’ Firebrand thought to himself. ‘Luna help me, this will take a miracle.’

As Hyong-Jin examined and polished his rifle to check for any defects or scratches, something caught the corner of his eye. A slight flash of orange.

Melnik, who was massaging his still hurting stump, pointed over the distance with awe. “What the hell? You don’t think…?”

“No,” Aitmatov answered, “they’re not going down so easily. I know that much.”

The large column of fire was moving away, and Hyong-Jin scrambled to get out his binoculars. Melnik asked, “What do you see out there?”

“I don’t believe it… Guys, I think Firebrand just made that fire tornado he talked about before!” Hyong-Jin replied, nearly squealing with the excitement of a child. “He’s looking like he can control it too!”

“No!” Sokolow, who was now tied up, yelled. “You realize you’re killing my companions?!”

Aitmatov rolled his eyes at that and answered, “If you didn’t want your ‘companions’ to die, then you shouldn’t have secluded yourselves away in an abandoned town and killed every random pony you saw. Or maybe you could have just listened to what Lyra had to say about what her land had become. She had wonderful things to say, you know that?”

“Fuck you, Khan. You’ve always been a pretentious ass.”

“And which one of us turned himself into a self-styled defender of humanity, going behind everyone’s back and joining a militia of thieves, psychopaths, neo-Nazis, and people I wouldn’t trust in a penal army?” Khan asked. “I mean, I don’t… think I did that. Did I do that?” he looked over at Melnik, who shook his head. “And you call me pretentious,” Khan sighed. “On top of that, why the fuck would you think that working with neo-Nazis is a good idea? They’re a disgrace to our country! Do you even grasp the fucking hypocrisy?!”

“Alright guys!” Firebrand said over the radio. “I got this thing going and I’m about to steer it towards the school. I recommend you get out of the way.”

“Would you look at that…” Porter marveled. “Your idea was insane enough to work, Yon-Soo.”

“That’s good to know,” Yon-Soo noted with relief. “What do you suggest we do as he steers that thing?”

“Personally, I’d sit back and watch it burn,” Sergei announced.

It wasn’t a bad suggestion. The tornado shot little fireballs out that scorched and destroyed whatever they impacted with. HLF were screaming and running for cover as the tornado advanced upon the school building they had converted into a warehouse.

Aside from burning everything it touched, the funnel of fire also sucked in objects it touched, frying them to a crisp. Firebrand knew it was time to let it go free, and so in a quick flash, he flew straight up into the sky, letting the tornado go and do its thing.

He had to admit, he felt bad having to resort to this, but it was clear the HLF weren’t going to listen to reason. Not to mention they had gleefully killed ponies, plenty of good ponies that legitimately wanted to help humanity. And he himself would have been no exception.

The tornado advanced upon the school building sucking up and charring debris and HLF members in its wake. Any person unlucky enough to be in that thing’s way got picked up like a rag doll and then quickly burnt up worse than unattended bacon.

Porter and Yon-Soo watched on with wide eyes at the insanity, unable to believe the sheer power of this one pony’s unique ability.

"Uh... is it just me or is it getting bigger?" Sergei asked nervously.

Porter and Yon-Soo stared with growing dread as an old abandoned car skidded across the pavement, its semi-flat tires squealing as it was dragged towards the flaming death, before being sucked up by the growing magical phenomena. The two men watched as the vehicle flew through the air before its gas tank exploded, pieces of it swirling through the tornado.

Yon-Soo and Porter watched as the tornado threw away the rest of the car, the flaming wreck flying over Porter's head and landing into the side of the building behind him.

“... Yeah, we’re going to need some way to get rid of that thing…” Porter said, his voice shaking slightly after that close call.

"Too late! Incoming!" Yon-Soo ran for his life, rushing inside the building for cover as another car was launched and crashed through the wall, nearly hitting him. Porter leaned out to see if Yon-Soo was alright, only to yelp in shock as red hot steel slammed into the wall beside him.

"Fall back!"

"Don't have to tell me twice!"

“Firebrand, how did it get so large!?” Sergei asked.

“I’m not completely sure, but it could be that some of the materials here could have added fuel to it!”

“It could also be because of the latent magic still floating around from all those PER and newfoal ponies from back there,” Blizzard suggested.

“Well whatever the cause is, we need to get that tornado under control, or it could kill all of us!” Yon-Soo sharply said.

Sergei watched as the tornado roared closer to the building, sucking up abandoned vehicles and used them as battering rams to slam into the school. HLF members screamed in terror as several of them were sucked up by the out of control tornado, even seeing flashes of flames racing down the halls and scorching the terrified humans.

"Got it covered guys, one small, super dense, winter cloud coming up." Blizzard said as she pushed a rather large cloud towards the tornado. The cloud was quickly swallowed by the spinning fiery vortex and Blizzard barely had a chance to pull away before she was sucked up as well. "The coldest winter cloud I could muster, I am talking about reaching almost zero degree cold here. It should be enough to destabilize it!"

Firebrand watched as his out-of-control whirlwind of fiery death sputtered out, the flames snuffing out due to the extreme cold temperature that was introduced into the atmosphere.

Steam practically exploded out of the tornado like geysers, shattering windows, slicing through the limbs of unfortunate HLF members, and slicing through trees.

“...Ah, what the hell? What’s more property damage, right?” Firebrand nervously chuckled out loud.

Another nearby car exploded.

Then a truck.

Then a fire hydrant ruptured, water spraying up into the remnants of the tornado, causing even more steam.

Then another car exploded.

From what Firebrand could tell, the tornado had left the streets in ruins, little more than large strips of rebar and gravel.

“...A lot more property damage?” Firebrand asked sheepishly, rubbing a hoof on the back of his head, a power pole groaning as it slowly fell over and smashed another vehicle flat.

“...I think we should quit while we’re ahead,” Sergei said.

“Agreed,” Yon-Soo said, unable to take his eyes off the tornado’s trail of destruction. “Let’s get to the school then.”

“Ya ne chuvstvuyu sobstvennuyu bol'!!” one HLF member yelled somewhere.

It was as if the school was mocking them. Warning them. Somehow aware that they were going to find something really terrible. There was a picture of a fox, possibly drawn by a particularly talented child, which had been pasted to the wall, and simply left there as everyone vacated the town.

It seemed to stare at them, watching them. While its eyes were probably intended to be welcoming and cartoonish, the expression wasn’t quite right. Instead of a surprised smile, it looked almost sly, as if it was waiting for something.

“Why do schools always feel so weird when they’re empty, anyway?” Yon-Soo asked.

“Well, they’re supposed to be filled with kids, I guess,” Porter replied, trying to talk casually to stave off any sense of paranoia he had that there could still be more stalking them in the shadows.

The tornado had been extremely destructive, carving a swathe of desolation through the town. Though the school hadn’t been too badly hit, several small sections had been broken and burnt in the carnage of the tornado.

“Looks like this could be the library,” Yon-Soo noted. There was a pair of double doors, the handles kept together by some chains and a lock. Judging from that, there had to be something valuable in there.

“Huh, guess I was wrong. Alright, let’s open this up and see what’s inside,” said Porter as he aimed his pistol and shot the lock, destroying it. He undid the chains around the double doors and opened it up.

A horrible stench wafted out. Not just any horrible stench, though; it was a truly malodorous musk that nauseated Yon-Soo, his eyes watering from the pure disgustingness of the stench. Even Porter, an experienced soldier who had probably encountered this sort of thing in the past, was shaken, coughing and choking as he quickly pulled a handkerchief up over his nose and mouth. It reeked of death and filth in there, and the sights inside were no better.

There were several ponies in there, most of them clearly dead. They had been chained up to the wall, bleeding and broken from what was clearly weeks of torture being inflicted upon them. No words could describe how horrifyingly depraved those things had to be, judging from the condition of their bodies. In fact, to Yon-Soo’s horror, he realized that he couldn’t tell what kind of pony they’d ever been, or who they could have been. Their cutie marks had been stripped off, and there were massive gouges in their backs and on their skulls, likely ripped out horns and wings. It explained why some of those soldiers had necklaces and belts with what looked like severed horns and wings, Yon-Soo realized. They were so drenched in blood, missing so much fur, that he couldn’t even tell what color they had been.

He hoped to God that they hadn’t been alive while this happened.

The two that were still alive were huddled in a corner, clinging to each other for dear life. The older pony was a unicorn with turquoise colored fur, purple eyes, and a deep blue mane with a single stripe of light blue going through. She held to a younger one, a little pegasus filly with a pink coat, a short straight brown mane and matching purple eyes.

"Please don't kill us!" the unicorn mare cried out desperately. "We're not newfoals! We’re not with the Empire either!"

It was easy to see that they weren't newfoals. For one thing, they were actually scared for their lives, and the unicorn had a cutie mark. The filly was obviously young enough to look like she just hadn't found her special talent yet, and her eyes were wide and horrified enough that she simply couldn’t be a newfoal - they rarely displayed that level of any emotion. Both of them clearly had seen better days, their coats dirty and patchy looking, as if someone had pulled chunks of it out. That was probably not the fullest extent of their injuries but they were still alive; plus the unicorn still had her horn and the pegasus filly's wings were still attached to her back, so Yon-Soo had to guess they hadn't been in the HLF's clutches for very long.

Firebrand decided to step out in front of Porter and Yon-Soo and said in a reassuring tone, “Hey don’t worry, these guys here are good! They’re not like the Human Liberation Front crazies; they’re here to rescue you.”

The mare was still shaking with fear, but seeing that there was a pony with the soldiers that didn’t look to be tortured or forced into anything he didn't want to do seemed to calm her enough. She stuttered out, “W-who a-are you?”

“My name’s Firebrand. I was a bodyguard for Ambassador Lyra Heartstrings for a while. And they’re Yon-Soo and Porter. There’s another one of us a ways back with a big sniper rifle - his name is Sergei. Don’t worry, miss, you’re safe with us.”

Porter lowered his rifle and slowly approached them, holding a hand out. He calmly but reassuringly said, "You don't have to worry about us, ma'am. We are with the military, officially at least, and have been sent to deal with the people that captured you. Are there more ponies kept around here?"

She swallowed a lump in her throat, shakingly replying, "To be honest, I don't think so. In fact, I'm pretty sure my daughter and I are the only survivors here."

The little filly still looked apprehensive, shaking like a leaf in her mother's hold. Yon-Soo also took his rifle off, laying it down on the floor. He reached out a hand and said, "Hey there, little one, don't be scared of us. We're the good guys. Why don't you and your mom come on out with us and leave this nasty smelly room?"

The filly's eyes narrowed as she replied in a gentle squeaky voice, "I'm not little. My name is Comet Tail.” She whimpered slightly, edging away from Yon-Soo’s hand.

Yon-Soo smiled and said, "I see. Okay Comet Tail, how about you come with us? We'll take you both to a nice hospital, where you will be safe and maybe even eat a nice meal. Our friends Blizzard Flurry and Firebrand can tell you all about it."

“Don’t worry, they’re good people,” Firebrand reaffirmed. “Not like any of these… what’s the word?”

“Petukh?” Sergei suggested over their earpieces.

On the other end of the radio, they could hear Khan bursting into what sounded for all the world like a poorly concealed coughing fit, then short wheezing laughter.

“Yes…. petukh. All they want is to help,” Firebrand continued. “Don’t worry. You’ll be safe with them - they can take you somewhere with people and ponies that’ll help.”

“I won’t lie - I’m scared,” the mare admitted. “Of all of you. But… much as I’m scared, no way I’m staying here. With murderers, torturers, people so… people so horrible that we don’t have words for them.”

Yon-Soo couldn’t blame her. As short as their time with the HLF presumably was, they were still no doubt going to have nightmares for weeks, have a hard time trusting anyone for a while. Nonetheless, he and Porter looked at each other, wordlessly agreeing they’d do whatever it took to help them and earn their trust.

The mare then turned to Comet Tail and said, "How about it sweetheart? Don't you want to get out of this dingy room? They look nice at least."

Firebrand said, "They really are. They're actually some of the best friends I've ever had. You can trust all of us."

Comet Tail shrugged and said, "Okay then." She tried to walk, but it was clear her injuries kept her from being able to do much. Yon-Soo gingerly picked her up in his arms, while Firebrand took the mare, propping one of her forelegs up over his shoulders, helping her to walk alongside him.

"What's your name by the way?" the red pegasus asked the unicorn.

"My name is Aquamarine Glimmer," she replied.

Porter glanced back at them, careful to still stay alert as he walked. He asked, "So, how did you and your daughter end up in this situation?"

Aquamarine sighed, "It's really not something I would like to recount right now. Maybe once I get some rest and a good meal..."

Firebrand beamed, "Oh a good meal is more than guaranteed here! The humans have some of the oddest salad combinations, but they've all been delicious! And soda too, and khachapuri!"

She managed a small smile and replied, "I bet it will be good."

“It will be,” Porter said. “See, that’s this delicious cheese pastry…”

Meanwhile Yon-Soo just couldn't quite get over how Comet Tail was so small. Compared to an earth horse foal, she was miniscule. About the same weight as a medium sized dog probably.

"So," Comet Tail said to Yon-Soo, "if humans don't get cutie marks, how do you know what your special talent is?"

Yon-Soo thought about that for a moment before he answered, "Well, usually we figure them out as we grow up. Some of us figure it out early, and others later on. And sometimes, we'll even learn new things we're good at."

"Have you been a soldier for a long time?"

"Eh, not really long. I actually was an actor before the war, but I learned how to be a good soldier thanks to Porter over there. He's been doing this for a very long time."

"Hey, come on," Porter called out, "I have done other stuff too!"

"Like what?" the filly and South Korean soldier asked in unison. Yon-Soo was especially curious; even after knowing Porter for about a year, he still hadn't seen Porter do much besides soldier duties. He hadn't really revealed too much about himself, though Yon-Soo did see the American soldier did seem to love fantasy novels.

"Well, for one thing, I was a pretty avid guitar player in high school," he answered in a rather fond nostalgic tone. "Haven't had much of a chance to brush up lately..."

Firebrand looked shocked as he looked at Porter, crying out, "What?! Dude, you really should get back into that! I love human rock music!"

"Well I might be rusty."

"So? You should try to get back into the spirit of that!"

Comet Tail giggled and looked up at Yon-Soo with a wide toothy smile on her face, remarking "Your friends are funny!"

'Oh dear God,' Yon-Soo thought to himself,this little pony is going to make me get diabetes...

It was pretty miraculous too that Comet Tail wasn't too badly traumatized by what undoubtedly were some bad experiences from her time with the HLF and possibly before, yet still maintain a pretty cheerful outlook in general. Still he noticed how she cringed at seeing dead bodies, the charred remains and scorched marks of Firebrand’s tornado.

“What happened out here?” Aquamarine asked. “We heard shots and screaming, but how did that fire happen?”

"Firebrand happened," Yon-Soo replied, causing Firebrand to look away with embarrassment.

"Well it was-"

“Ubeyte ikh!" a voice echoed out from behind them. Porter only had time to turn around before the sounds of gunfire roared out. ‘Dammit, this is a stupid place to die!’ Porter thought, before…

Before…

He felt suspiciously not dead. A faint blue glow had materialized in front of him, before he felt himself being pulled into a classroom for cover. Porter watched as the shield flickered and died, allowing a stream of bullets to whizz past him through the empty hallway.

Aquamarine panted as she fell down, sweat dripping from her brow. She weakly muttered, “I should’ve known… that would’ve taken everything out of me.”

Porter breathed, “Still, you managed to save my life.”

“It was only fair,” she replied as she gave him a pained smile. She rubbed her horn with her hoof, and Yon-Soo couldn’t really blame her for being so drained.

"Vykhodi , gde by vy ni byli, vy suka..." a woman's voice echoed down the hall. Porter looked to Yon-Soo before sliding closer to the door. "Vash malen'kiy ogon' tryuk ne ubit' nas vsekh . YA bol'she, chem vam 5 - 1 . I yest' tol'ko tri iz vas s oruzhiyem i dlinnyy koridor mezhdu nami."

"Is that so?" Porter called out, a smirk on his face.

"Hmph. Americans. Why am I not surprised? Always thinking you are the heroes. Give up now... Or don't. I don't care. Be like every other stubborn and idiot American and come out blazing with your guns." The woman chided him in English, causing Porter to roll his eyes.

"Hm... Nah! How about you come over here and we can settle this face to face?" Porter called out, giving the group a small nod.

"Your funeral, boy. Go get them!"

"Light the barbecue boys! We’re going to eat their fucking ponies," shouted a HLF member with a deep voice. The sounds of whooping and hollering drew closer.

"Too bad you can't count for shit," Porter chuckled as he leaned out to see fifteen men and women running down the hall, only for something to come sailing through the shattered window and land in between them.

*Boom!*

Porter pulled back just as the hall exploded thanks to the M433 HEDP grenade, taking out the charging humans in a blast of fire and shrapnel.

"Good shot, Sergei," Porter coughed out as he raised his AK -12 and aimed it down the hall while kneeling, Yon-Soo’s own K2 over him, using his crouching form to stabilize his aim.

"Thank you for the M320. You been holding out on us," Sergei replied cheekily.

"Eh, I like to keep back up just in case. Plus I know you would keep it and polish it until it shines." Porter felt Yon-Soo pat his head and both men slowly made their way down the devastated hall.

"You know me too well already. I see movement by the way."

The sound of painful wheezing caught their attention as they walked by the whimpering death cries and eviscerated corpses. Yon-Soo fought to keep his stomach from voiding everything it had as he saw several bodies belonging to children.

“My .... byli ... pytayutsya ... do ... spasti chelovechestvo” whispered one soldier, a teenager who looked like he should have been starting high school. “Vy… Shluha vokzal'naja...”

"Keep your eyes ahead," Porter whispered to him.

"How do you get used to this?" Yon-Soo asked, swallowing acid reflux down as he looked away. He’d eagerly followed Porter’s advice, if only because he didn’t want to keep looking at them. There was… there… No, that just didn’t bear thinking on.

Porter paused before looking back to him. "You don't."

Yon-Soo sighed as he moved forward once more. They passed a mountain of a man, leaving a trail of blood as he crawled across the ground, he gave a painful moan before he stopped, breathing his last as he glared at Porter and Yon-Soo hatefully.

"Wha....why?" Porter and Yon-Soo turned to see the same woman as she clutched her arm.

"Damn. Kind of hoping you were part of the charge," Porter grumbled as he walked up to her. She raised her arm with a Borz in hand, only for it to get kicked out of her grasp. "Because I am so loving of your personality."

"Fucking... Americans." She growled. "Always getting in... other people's business."

"FYI," Yon-Soo butted in. "I'm South Korean."

"Don't care. Go on and kill me," she spat at Porter as he began to search her for hidden weapons. "I will tell you nothing. I fight for humanity's future. What do you fight for?"

"I fight for the same, but unlike you, I’ve actually done things of worth. I’ve evacuated civilians. I’ve kept them safe, unlike you, who thinks it’s a good idea to throw untrained teenagers with rifles into the meat grinder. You’re in the wrong fucking story for that bullshit to be any kind of okay," Porter growled at her as he hefted her to her feet. "We’ll let the Russian military handle you and Solokow."

As they began leaving, Yon-Soo helped Aquamarine up while Sergei took Comet into his arms. He asked the turquoise unicorn, “How did you know how to cast a shield spell? Mostly from what I’ve heard, military fighters know those kinds of spells.”

Aquamarine grumbled, “Thank my daughter for being born a pegasus. When she was a baby, she would whizz past and above me with bursts of energy and would try to go places she shouldn’t have been. I had to teach myself for the most part. I had to get her off the fridge so many times… and most of them were before she could start using her wings.”

“Ah,” Yon-Soo nodded. “The energy of children…”

“Hey, you’re all alive! Thank God you’re all here!” Hyong-Jin beamed as he rushed towards them.

“Well, it wasn’t very easy, but we made it out, with a couple refugees and a prisoner too,” Yon-Soo replied, pointing out Porter, who had the woman slung over his shoulder. Firebrand was supporting Aquamarine while Sergei held Comet in his arms.

Hyong-Jin then rushed over to Firebrand like an excited kid, asking feverishly, “You did the fire tornado, didn’t you? We could see it from our position! I bet it looked awesome!”

Firebrand sheepishly admitted, “Well it worked a little too well actually; kinda got out of control but Blizzard managed to stop it. Can’t say it’s something I’ll use all the time, to be honest.”

Blizzard meanwhile rushed over to Aitmatov, whom she hugged with relief, and looked towards Melnik with concern. “Well, what do you suggest we do now?” she asked them.

“I’d say we go back to base,” Aitmatov answered. “We need to get Ivan over to a better hospital. If I’m correct, the base of operations in Yekaterinberg should be one of the closest from here.”

“What about us?” Comet asked.

“Come with us,” Hyong-Jin suggested.

The two of them looked at him.

“What? There aren’t many other places you can go,” he pointed out. “We can connect you with some PHL members, get you somewhere safe… the PHL’s surprisingly popular with most governments, and I don’t think any that are HLF-aligned are going to last long. You can thank Colonel Renee and Ambassador Heartstrings for that. We even got to meet them, and even let Firebrand stay with us.”

“We were told… told she was a traitor,” Aquamarine recalled, shuddering. “A… a vile, soulless betrayer, or something like that. But, from what we’ve seen on this side of the barrier, the Queen’s one to talk.”

“It still feels better than back home,” Comet added.

Firebrand looked at her. “Even with...”

She nodded.

“Damn. I am glad I was kicked out when I was,” Firebrand said, shivering. “Urgh.”

“Let’s get going,” Melnik said, surprising everyone. “We have a long drive to the nearest settlement that isn’t full of psychopaths, and I have a stump that needs treating. Maybe also a new arm sometime.”

“You’re… sure that can work?” Aquamarine Glimmer asked. “I mean, I’ve heard about what magic could do, but-”

“The crap we’ve been through...” Porter sighed. “If magic was as harmful as the Tyrant would have us believe, we’d all be lumps of organic jelly just from you using that shield to protect me before. I think we’re allowed some leeway.”

“That, and I think that if we get too paranoid about it, we either end up as those goddamn zombies… or that over there,” Khan said, pointing at the smoking ruins of the HLF settlement off in the distance.

Neither option sounded pleasant.

“They have a train over there,” Comet Tail suggested. “Maybe we could-”

“Nah, the railroads in this part of Russia aren’t too reliable,” Melnik said. “Probably haven’t been maintained in… decades, I think. We’ll just take another truck and make our way to civilization.”

“From the basement of the house party, I crawl up three flights of stairs like half a zombie…”

It was forced levity, they were all incredibly drained from the day’s events, but the song on the stolen truck’s radio was incredibly catchy. And it seemed to be keeping Comet Tail happy, and even Aquamarine had joined in, wearing a tired expression that could quite possibly be considered a smile.

“First heard this one about 6 years ago,” Khan explained to the two of them. “They were pretty obscure, but then they made this great music video… and then another, so I bought all their albums, then watched that movie the frontman made. Thankfully, they were on tour, so the Barrier hasn’t gotten them...”

“I love human music, mommy,” Comet Tail sighed, a contented smile on her face. “A wasted skater, told me the name later… before this, to music I was a hater…”

She was slightly off-key, and her voice was somewhat wobbly, but that just made it better somehow.

"Where to next after Yekaterinberg, Porter?" Yon-Soo asked as Porter drove the beaten truck down the road, his K2 in his grip as he kept a tired watched for threats from both PER or HLF.

Porter said nothing as he watched the road, his eyes trained on the distance for threats. The light glow coming from the east indicated the rising dawn of a new day. He turned to Yon-Soo with a small smile on his face as the sunshine filled the cab.

"To wherever they need us the most."

"I'll drink to that!" Melnik slurred as he downed another vodka bottle in attempt to drown out the pain in his arm. The truck bounced over a pothole, causing the bottle to flip out Melnik's hand and tumble out the side. “Sonovabitch! I better get a new arm soon… this is fucking unbearable!”

While Aquamarine covered Comet’s ears, shooting a glare at Melnik for using such language around her daughter, this caused a round of laughter from the sheer unlikely acrobatics the bottle had made, as Melnik mourned the loss before reaching for another bottle. “I… I should get one with a hidden knife. And recoil compensators, anna rotating fist… and punch through walls… an’ increased carrying capacity. Imma call it Musselback.”

“...How do mechanical arms translate to increased carrying capacity?” Yon-soo asked.

“And why musselback?” Comet Tail put in, before anyone else could add that same question.

“The devs never explained that one,” Melnik slurred. “Sides, I could… I could have a gun I’d hide ‘n it. Too close, an…. an bang.”

While he was so smashed that nobody was sure whether he’d just said ‘in’ or ‘on’, it was an interesting idea. Aitmatov, Blizzard, and Firebrand all chuckled together as Melnik toppled over, landing on Solokow and the HLF woman, causing them to sputter in outrage of having the drunk ontop of them.

Porter gave a grin as he watched the group interact with one another from the rearview mirror, lightly patting Yon-Soo shoulder as they made their down the road, the morning sun revealing the beautiful countryside.

'We will win...' Yon-Soo thought to himself as he looked at the countryside before looking to Comet as she gave a tired yawn before falling asleep. 'We took down a group four times our size. But we did it working together. Both humans and ponies.’

That had to count as a win - without Blizzard, Aitmatov wouldn’t have been able to snipe so many HLF from a distance. Without Firebrand, they would have probably been killed taking over the town. Without Aquamarine Glimmer, he and Porter would have been riddled with 5.45mm and 7.62mm rounds. And without all of them, Aquamarine Glimmer and Comet Tail would have been dead. Or worse. On top of that, they had practically stuffed the truck with guns. Khan had been rather excited to find a couple assault rifles, and at least two guns he claimed were sniper rifles that looked more like assault rifles.

Yon-Soo smiled as he leaned back in his seat, the truck giving a roar of its engine as it drove off into the distance to its destination. The clear blue sky high above with a bright sun, clear of overcasting clouds and bitter cold winds. A nice little moment of clarity.

It was not a perfect day, but it sure was an improvement over everything that had come before.

He sighed, letting the tension in his system go, closed his eyes, and took a well-earned and deserved rest.

Author's Notes:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlmECL2ED2I

In a strange twist of fate, it is I! Redskin122004, to upload this chapter for Kizuna Tallis.

This chapter was a beast to finish, as we had to do a lot of thinking, researching, and general editing to get this done.

With us is Fluffy as always... and with his pleasurable viewpoints of blood, guts, and general nause- *Barfs*... Nauseous descriptions.

Proudtobe came on board to help out with general tactics and weapon knowledge.

Me? I just helped them along. I am the nobody here.

Kizuna can't post due to her busy schedule, but she will no doubt add something to the end of this Author Note.

I will be working on Spectrum soon, so keep a look out for my future blogs, okay?

Laterz~ Redskin122004

Coming soon to a chapter near you!

"GOD DAMN IT SERGEI! I TOLD YOU NOT TO BLOW UP THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA!"

"But Porter! Hyong-Jin dared me though!"

"You can never back down from a dare, Porter."

"He's right, you know."

"Shut up, Yon-Soo."

COMING SOON!