Author's Notes:

Thanks to birdy for editing this story! Without him this wouldn't be nearly as good as it is now! Also: I'm back baby

I regained consciousness slowly. The room I was confined to was what appeared to be part of an apartment complex, but if it was it had since been abandoned. I pulled tightly on my right hoof, but it went nowhere.

'What?' I thought to myself.

Something was against the hoof, as I looked towards it realized that I was strapped down with plastic zip tie restraints. They're cheap little things, but still sturdy. If I had my knife I could cut through them. It was then I noticed that I was actually on a bed, and on the other side of the room rest my rucksack. It was too dark to see anything else.

The door flew open and slammed against the wall, the light pouring through it blinded me. Once my eyes had adjusted, I was face to face with a pony I'd never seen before. He was a rugged looking pony; heavily built and stronger than a ox. I didn't know what to think at first, so I started thrashing in my restraints. They didn't budge.

He cleared his throat.

"You're lucky we got to you first you know." His accent was heavily tainted with a Teutonic feel. He must've been German.

"What do you mean?"

"You mean Equestria didn't tell anypony about the lockdown? Makes sense, they wouldn't want any panic."

"Start from the beginning, where's Octavia?"

"Don't worry, she's fully conscious."

"And her condition?"

"Good for a pony that got shot four times."

'Four? But there was one in the ear? Where were the rest?'

"Well listen buddy, we're friends here. That is as long as you don't do anything with them."

"Who is this them?"

There was a pause between this, he must've been thinking of how to explain this.

"You see, things aren't normal around here. The Mayor has sent National guard forces to secure the borders around the city."

"This is an issue how?"

"You probably already noticed, but they aren't letting anypony inside of the city or outside of the city. They've cut most access to the outside world, so we really have no way of reporting this to anypony."

This couldn't be good.

"Well if it's of any compensation, this sounds like top level corruption. I happen to be the go-to pony for this."

"I already know who you are, Cloud Dasher. I have some idea of what you do based on how you got in here. We need your help."

"Who's we?"

"The resistance is trying to break the Mayor's hold on the city, giving us the chance to instill a new pony that would lift the restrictions."

"So let's get this strait, you want to overthrow her?"

"Eyup."

"Sounds good enough, I'm going to need some things though."

"And those are?"

"My restraints, I need them gone now."

"They aren't fully tightened you know..."

I pulled backwards and what he said revealed to be true. My hoofs and legs slipped out of the restraints nicely.

"Well, what are the other things you needed?"

"Simple, my weapons."

"They're in the bag."

I approached the bag and kept an eye on the pony, if he tried anything I'd be in real trouble. I opened the bag and pulled out the Glock, it was scratched and dinged, but it still looked like it'd work. The other weapons were all broken. The AK-74 had snapped in half, alongside the 1911 ripping from barrel to the trigger. There was no getting those back in working order.

"You already noticed that only two of your weapons had survived."

"What?"

"Look deeper."

At the very bottom was my switchblade, in perfect condition. I put my leather jacket on, which was in the bag as well, and slipped the Glock through a shoulder holster and the knife in a pocket.

"What do you need done?" I asked.

"First thing is first. There is another resistance movement. They support some 'Moonlight Shimmer' chick. At least I think that's what her name was. They are opposed to us, we need them to be dealt with before we can make a secure move on the mayor without the rest of the world knowing the struggle."

'He must be thinking of 'Starlight Glimmer'. What would she be doing in the picture? Could it be the same as Ponyville?'

"Alright, so you're using the blackout while it's still useful?"

"Exactly, we can't let the Equestrian government know of this or they'll just throw more stallions into the city and overrun us."

"Wouldn't they do that when they find out that they mysteriously have a new mayor?"

"Don't worry, that's covered."

He was about to go through the door as he turned to his way out, but then stopped. He did a about face and looked at me. Then he threw down a folder.

"This is where you start. I'm Yegor by the way."

He did another about face and left the room. Well that was over, and now it was time to find Octavia. Where could she be? This is definitely an apartment complex, so sweeping room to room would be a easy way to do it, but it'd get me a lot of unwanted attention. I took the mag out of the Glock, it was fully loaded save for two rounds. Perfect.

I opened the door and was led to a living room/kitchen. I stepped out of the apartment and walked down the long, shady, dirty hall. It was barely lit and smelt like piss. I used a cloth to cover my mouth as I moved through. I heard a scream come from a door. More importantly, it was a mare's.

I stepped back, then ran towards the door. My shoulder braced forward, when I made impact the door fell to the ground. I looked up through the cloud of dust that it had created to see a familiar face. Octavia lay strapped to a couch in a similar manner as to how I was. Only difference was how Yegor treated her.

His hoof was raised, and Octy's face was covered in blood. They both looked at me, Yegor spoke first.

"Listen, you want to see her alive again? You better do that job."

Octavia had her turn.

"Help." It was a weak cry, one the German pony couldn't understand. I take Octy over a stranger any day.

I ran towards Yegor, who had then punched Octavia in her shot ear. The blood leaked through the bandage that was over it. He had signed his death warrant. I tackled him off of Octavia, and through the wall separating the living room from the bedroom. We landed on the floor next to the bed.

Before I could get back up, Yegor was already throwing swings into my head. He knew he was on the losing side of the fight unless he could roll me over, that wasn't happening. I grabbed him by his neck and threw a solid swing into his groin. Then I pulled him onto his rear. He was sitting upright, holding his precious parts. I threw a kick straight into his face, he flew back into a nightstand. I grabbed him by his neck and threw a solid hit into his nose, which broke it.

I threw another swing back into his groin, then one more into his ribs. He stumbled backwards, trying to get away from me. I ran after him and punched him in the throat, which made him cough some blood out. Throwing another two punches into his mouth, he lost one tooth. I kept at him with hits to the ribs until I could feel at least two ribs give in under the pressure.

I pulled him back to his feet and wrapped my hoofs around his neck. I wasn't going to kill him yet, I ran him into the kitchen and slammed his face against the fridge. He tackled me and ran until I hit the door, I flew out of it and then through the next door into the next room.

In that room he had kept pushing me until I slammed my back against a brick wall. I felt the pain rush through my spine, and before I could think he was throwing swings into my ribs. At this point I was sick of him.

I pulled my knife and stabbed him in his right hoof. He stumbled back and screamed. I then kicked him in the face. As soon as he was on the floor I pulled my Glock and fired a shot into his head. He lost the upper half of his head. His brains were splattered across the room. I ran into the room Octavia was in, where she was more then happy to see me. She hugged me and kissed my cheek, which I wasn't expecting. With a little blush I picked her up and carried her over my shoulder, we had to get out of here. I already heard voices coming from the floor under me.

We had to have been on the top floor. So I ran past the room where Yegor's body was and kept moving until I reached the staircase. It was on the far end of the hall, it only led downward. I had my Glock in my other hoof, so I was ready to kill any motherfucker that attempted to move up em.

Two shadows just passed through the stairs, I fired two shots into one of their chests, he flew down the flight of stairs, the next one was already on the top. Standing directly next to a fire extinguisher. I shot the red container, which sprayed it's contents all over the pony, who shot what sounded like a shotgun in the air. I ran into the smoke with my knife in my mouth. As soon as he was less than a foot from me I rammed the knife through his head.

He was dead, lifeless at the blade of my knife. I kept running down the stairs, but as soon as I was on the lower floor I kicked the body down the flight of stairs. This was followed by a set of screams in German. I waited by the stairs, but then noticed something in the corner of my eye. A open door leading to a kitchen, if that body stalled them long enough I could get an edge...

I ran toward the kitchen and placed Octavia in a safe area, then I pulled a bottle of water out from the fridge and emptied it on the floor. Then I rushed and grabbed some baking soda and vinegar. I filled the bottle halfway with vinegar and wrapped a lot of baking soda in a paper towel. Then I poured a nearby box of nails into the bottle. I placed the paper towel in the area where the cap would be and re-screwed the cap back on. As I approached the exit of the room, there were four ponies, all clad with shotguns. They all fired at the same time, but I was already behind a fridge, I shook the bottle.

As soon as it fuzzed, I threw it in the face of one of the gunners. It instantly exploded and sent nails flying in every direction. I had built a homemade fragmentation grenade using the pressure buildup from vinegar and baking soda. The hall had been a bloody mess, and wounded screams could be heard from the outside of the building.

The bodies had been found the next day, but nopony spoke of it. Crime was normal in this city now. I sat on the couch of a much nicer apartment, reading the mission briefing that I was given by Yegor.