It didn't take long for me to get a good idea of what the mayor was up to with Starlight. Starlight had made a deal somewhat similar to a war bond. With war bonds, when somepony lends money to the country during a war, they get what they paid and a bit more when the war is over. She was promising that if the mayor of Whinny paid her a cut of taxes, she'd return the favor and a bit more when her city is developed. Something told me there was more to it. Why did she feel the need to put the entire city in the black?

There wasn't much of an idea to it. Maybe it was blatant abuse of power that she didn't want getting out? She reminds me of Mayor Mare, she wants to do well but she just doesn't know what to do. She wants the place she's funding to grow, but instead it's probably just going to slap her across the face. She is a target nonetheless.

I underestimated Starlight in the beginning, but that's not going to happen again. She had the power to corrupt entire cities, but only be convincing one pony. Power like that is only possessed by a few ponies, she was one of them. Now I just needed to establish a routine for the mayor. I needed to know where she was, what she was doing, and where she did it.

If I could know these things, locating the town would be easy. I just needed to start somewhere...

The government building of Whinnyapolis is a sturdy brick building. Rather classy as well, with it's gold plated roof. You couldn't miss it, that is if you knew where to start looking. There surely had to be a block glorified for the Government. The thing is that she may not be there. With the way the government of this city is looking, that building would be a death trap. Civilians everywhere, wanting to know what happened. Wanting to know why. Why had their lives all gone to shit like this?

The radio came on, out of nowhere. Somepony had control over it.

"These are dark times indeed" The voice was female "They don't need to be this way though. Look into yourselves, do you want to see the ponies you love living in here? The reason why you live like this is because of the corruption of your own, twisted, sideways, misguided government. They don't take you into priority, they don't care about you! They don't care about Equestria! They seek for their own benefit! Tell me: Why hasn't Celestia done anything about this? Why hasn't she intervened in this hell? Why hasn't she spread 'Friendship' here? Your answer is simple: She doesn't care. The profit of the city isn't worth saving it. You, however, can do what she has not. You can save yourselves. Follow the light. Follow the bright! Follow Starlight and fight the good fight!"

The radio cut off. Things became clearer with that said. Maybe, just maybe, the governor wasn't in control. There was no way that she would've let this happen. Something hadn't been right from the start. This was it.

"Octavia, did you hear that?"

"Crystal clear."

"I have an idea of where she is."

The government building was, surely enough, an ancient ruin. That can't be all to it though.

"Why are we here again?"

"Octy, remember our issue with the Prussians about 30 years back? You weren't alive but I'm sure you know the gist of it."

"They threatened us with megaspells and we had a whole standoff. Yes I'm familiar with it."

"Yea, well in most government buildings, such as this one, they had bomb shelters installed. They did have radios with broadcasting capabilities."

"So you're saying that it came from here?"

"Good of a guess as any. It's secure, it's safe, and it's got radio tools."

The door as gone, so we just walked through the gaping hole. The sound of radio static could be heard well throughout the area. There were spots on the wall where pictures once were, they were long gone. I stepped on something under me. Upon further inspection it was a picture frame. Inside it was an image of the Whinnyapolis mayor and Celestia. Somepony had written on the image.

'Where are you now?'

It was written in red marker, just over Celestia's face.

'He's got a point, why hasn't she intervened yet?' The thought was unnerving. Something more important had to be going on.

All doors were open or non-existent. That is all but one. The door was locked shut, it had to be it. I braced my shoulder and made a beam line at the door. The first hit had no avail. I ran back and tried again, repeating the process until the door had finally broken off it's hinges. I was thrown down a flight of stairs.

I broke the fall by grabbing the hoof rail. At the bottom of the stairs was another door, this one was blast proof. One problem, however, was that it was open. The radio static was louder then ever in this hallway. I took the first step down the stairs. The hoofstep echoed throughout the building for what felt like forever. A shadow shifted in the room, looking at the door. It looked back and continued doing whatever it was.

I took it a lot slower than before, making sure not to make a sound. Halfway down I heard a crack. I looked down, a shattered bottle lay under my hoof. I wasn't cut, but I had alerted the shadowy figure. It ran towards the hallway, I pulled the Glock. The pony had crossed the corner with a Tokarev TT-33 in hoof. It was certainly an unusual handgun, Prussia hadn't produced it in years.

I shot a few rounds in the pony's direction. It fell to the ground. We both rushed towards it. On the floor lay a dying mare. She bore a Olive drab BDU, along with a pair of Olive Drab pants. It was a perfect uniform. That wasn't what caught my eye, it was the symbol on the uniform. A red star with a golden hammer and sickle.

It can be immediately recognized as the symbol of the Communist party, one ponies everywhere were familiar with. Knowing Starlight's political views, she probably knew where to find things like this.

"Where's Starlight?" I said to her, pressing my Glock to her temple.

"Kill me you pig!"

I hit her in the head with the weapon, she lost a tooth from the hit.

"Where is she dammit!"

"Listen you Equestrian pig! You'll get nothing from me!"

"That's great really, now where is she?"

She chewed on something, and the life was slowly pulled from her.

"It's all over now, so it's fair game. In the North, there's a city, it's name is-" She was cut off by a fit of coughing. She died after.

Cyanide, how classic.

The radio came back on.

"Natasha? Natasha come in? This is Bolshoi one, I repeat this is Bolshoi one."

I picked the radio up.

"Natasha is out at the moment, this is her assistant. What is your status?"

"Natasha had an assistant? She mentioned one but I never heard from him."

"Well that is me, now what is your status?"

"What is the code?"

"One moment please."

I put a hoof over the phones receiver and rumaged through all her belongings at the desk. In the very last drawer was a sticky note.

'Tsar 1642'

I repeated it into the radio.

"We're bringing the force, we're approaching Whinnyapolis now. Consider Operation Rising storm complete. Consider Operation Sundown done. Our evacuation force is out to pick you up, they should be there any moment now."

"Understood, over and out."

The radio crackled and soon enough returned to static. I looked over at Octavia, she had the Tokarev in her hoofs, pointed at the door. She was terrified, around her neck she wore something I never knew she had. I hadn't seen one in a long time.

A cross.

"Octavia, I didn't know you had one of those?"

"One of what?"

"The cross, you never were religious."

"Well, sometimes I need forgiveness. You need it to."

I couldn't really disagree. I still had my cross in my pocket.

A car pulled up, it was running on Diesel fuel. It was left running, the ponies who were exiting the heavy vehicle were not planning on staying long. The hoofsteps followed soon after. I counted at least 5 sets of hoofs. They were weighed down by armor. Not heavy armor, nothing advanced. The first pony to clear the corner was dressed in the same uniform as Natasha, and he saw the body. He was about to say something when Octavia swung a fist into his throat. He suffocated on the floor. I pulled my knife, flipping it to the point.

"Lisnyesky? Give me a situation report!"

"We got nothing here commander!"

"Artyom?"

No response.

"Artyom? What's in the bunker?"

Artyom must have been the pony we killed. With the realization of this, I braced by the door.

"I'll check it out commander!" Another pony said. He made haste in the direction of the stairs, he spotted the bodies and stopped before me or Octavia could do anything.

"They're dead sir!"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean they're dead sir!"

They all ran to the stairs. I put the knife in my left hoof, and the Glock in my right. As soon as I heard them get to the first stair I motioned to Octavia to move from cover. We both spun from cover and emptied a magazine down the range. One of my shots made contact with a riflepony, who fell to the ground. Octavia had dispatched the rest with deadly precision, she didn't fool around with trick shots. She went for the body. She shot the rest 2 times each, she had used all her rounds.

She searched Natasha and found three more Tokarev magazines, upon loading one in she was ready to fight again. I walked up stairs and picked up one of the rifles. They were all AKMs, 7.62x39mm rifles built in Prussia. I pulled all the magazines I could and hauled them with me.

We got to the car and sped back to the home, we needed to get out of this city as soon as possible. As soon as we were there we gathered our belongings, that was when it started.

There was a whistling in the air. Octavia stopped and listened, she never heard that sound before.

I had known the sound, I knew it all too well.

"Octavia get here now!"

She didn't hear me, she was confused by the noise. She was still, like a stone statue.

I grabbed her by the waist and dragged her out. The shell made impact with a nearby building. Half of the house we stayed in was obliterated. The smoke filled our lungs and the screams of ponies could be heard everywhere. I pulled Octavia into the car's passenger seat and drove off as ruble fell from the sky like rain.

I looked over to her, concerned on her health, she had cuts on her head and chest. The cross was still there, wrapped around her neck. I never stopped once, speeding through and around traffic. EMT and police cars passed by, they were probably too late already. I kept going, not looking back. More shells rang in and I could hear them in the distance. As I was driving, as luck would have it, I heard it. It was coming in fast, the whistle. The shell made impact with a nearby building, the force pushed my car on it's side. I kicked in the windshield and made my way out. Octavia was bleeding heavily, she would make it. I dragged her out and carried her on my back.

We made haste for another building, survivors of the previous strike were waiting there.

They all had the same question.

"Why us? What did we do? Who is this? What is going on?"

They were kind, letting us in. Soon enough 2 Mi-8 helicopters passed over, loaded to the brim with ponies. They weren't Equestrian.

Surely enough sirens went off, and the artillery continued. I made my way building to building, Octavia on my shoulder and Glock in my hoof. I passed ponies, all suffering alike. The streets were hell, rioters being shot and blown to bits alike. I looked over my shoulder to see another artillery shell hit the building with the survivors. None of them would possibly survive.

The shelling stopped an hour later, and that was when the infantry started giving support.

The streets were filled with UAZ trucks, all filled with ponies. They would flood out and secure buildings. Some civilians were fighting back, I passed a destroyed UAZ. It was set ablaze by presumably a molotov cocktail.

I kept walking until I passed by a group of police ponies. They were under fire by the Communists. They stood no chance. They cowered behind the engine block of a car. Soon enough a RPG rung out in their direction. They died on impact.

I kept going, that was when they spotted me. The ponies that launched the RPG were armed primarily with AKMs, but even more scary was the BTR-80 that they had with them. The APC turned it's turret towards us and opened fire with it's main MG. I ducked under the window of a brick building, the shots could penetrate the brick. I kept crawling with Octavia on my back as shots flew through the wall. They ran out of ammo, so I fired a few rounds blind through the window. As soon as I got to the next door I was hit in the head with a wooden stock.

I awoke with my back against a brick wall, Octavia next to me. There were a few ponies next to me, they were blindfolded.

"Cloud Dasher, I see."

The voice was accented, Prussian accent clearly.

"Hm, you guys must love me." I said back.

"I guess you could say that."

He fired a shot into the head of the first pony in line at point blank range with a Nagant revolver.

"You've been quite troublesome wouldn't you agree?"

He shot the next one.

"After all, it takes guts to do what you've done."

I stared at him, the barrel was now to my head. It was covered in blood from the last two, and I'm pretty sure some of their brains were on my face. He walked by me.

"Consider it a warning." he said, raising the barrel to Octavia's head.

"No, you can't do this!"

"What can't I do?"

"You can't kill her! You're a murder and you know it!"

"Oh isn't that ironic? What do you call yourself hmm? A modern vigilante? A hero? Oh no, you're hardly that. More blood has been spilled by your hoofs than mine my friend."

"That may be true, but none of those I killed were innocent!"

"What about the filly?"

I was silent.

He pulled the hammer back, I was at my wits end. That was when a shot rang out. Blood spilled everywhere, over me, over Octavia, and him.

"Sniper!"

His head blown in half. The Communists were confused, looking frantically for the gunpony. Another shot was fired, this one entered the chest of another pony.

He fell to the ground screaming. His blood spilled on the APC. The sniper fired another shot, which made a direct hit on another Communist.

The pony with the RPG was frantically looking for the sniper, he fired a shot into a nearby building. The sniper's fire stopped.

Then another shot went right into that ponies arm. He fell to the ground in a fit of screaming. Another shot was fired into his head. The brains spilled all over the street. That was when a green pony with a white mane ran from the building behind me. That APC was in for a shock.

It turned it's turret at him and fired, but it missed every shot. The green pony stuck a triangular shaped charge onto the back of the tank and pulled a pin. He ran back towards us and jumped through the window. The APC was trying to get a shot on him, that was when the APC bursted into a ball of flames.

The once superb fighting machine was now a coffin made of molten metal and flames. A pony crawled out of the top of it. He was on fire. Running in all directions and swatting himself, the flame wouldn't put out. The anti tank grenade must have been placed on a fuel tank. The pony was charred to a crisp.

The door next to me swung open, and two ponies in full Equestrian military armor grabbed us and pulled us into the building.

Author's Notes:

I suddenly want to hear the song 'City' by 'Hollywood undead'. I think it's pretty fitting for this chapter. You know in the original prompt Octavia dies, but a friend of mine thought that was too cruel to do to y'all. See I'm a nice guy... right?