I walked Octavia out of the bloodbath that once was a train station carefully. She was terrified, more than I'd seen her since I pulled her out of that club. She was silent as we marched on. We just kept walking, it was almost gallant. Almost. The ponies we had to thank for our lives were dead, dead and gone. I kept marching.

She was under my shoulder, crying to herself. I listened to my iPod as I walked on.

'Stand tall for the beast of Equestria, stand tall of a pony next door. Stand tall for the beast of Equestria, for they can't live on the government's dime.'

It was quiet, which gave me some time to think. Well it WAS quiet until the guitar riff came into play. I marched to the top stair, Octavia pulled herself out from under my arm and stood tall. She was beautiful in the light of a new day, but out ahead we had another sight. There was a gate set up around the top stair, and behind it was a set of three more Marines, they probably thought the shooting was coming from far away, seeing as they were tending to a massive crowd of ponies.

"You are hereby under the Equestrian Quarantine, and disbalance of population will result in immediate questioning."

It had already begun. They were putting the rest of the city under martial law in order to prevent a communist advance. They didn't have the time to evacuate, not yet. Should they try now the Communist artillery (or air force, whatever came first) would strike down their motion.

I pulled the leather jacket on, taking my vest off and putting it in my backpack. Something slipped out of the side of it. A balaclava. A million memories rushed to my head. I had an idea.

I pulled it over my head and moved on. One of the Marines turned around and saw me, he went in for a tackle, but instead I dropped low and thrusted upwards when he was over me. He rolled down the stairs. The other Marine noticed the noise and turned around, I swung my Cz75 upwards into his jaw, then the pony with the megaphone caught sight of me. He dropped the megaphone and got into a fighting position, then was hit in the back of the head by Octavia. He fell to the floor and I stepped on him as I picked up the megaphone.

The crowd was in awe at what they saw. I was their masked crusader, their hero.

"Freedom isn't free, if you want it you gotta fight for it." The crowd nodded, and was silent.

"The Communist oppressors seek to destroy that freedom! They seek one thing and one thing only: Power and control. The soldiers are being manipulated to do somepony's dirty work. Who am I? I am the voice of reason, the voice of peace, the voice of freedom. If you want peace you better brace for a war. This war is one we fight together. It is no longer everypony for themselves, we fight for eachother! Take whatever you need and run them out of your city! Out of your country!"

The crowd bursted and rushed the gates, they were looking to fight the communists and that's what they'd do. I pushed through the crowd and avoided getting trampled by the stampede. Once out of the way the streets were empty, and that was when a shot rang out. It hit a window behind me, so I jumped through where that window once was.

Another shot came from the distance, it was a sniper obviously. I couldn't pinpoint where it was coming from, that was until I saw a flash come from the third floor of the building across the street from me. I swapped the leather jacket and balaclava out for the vest, I ran as a shot went by my face, Octavia was pinned down behind a car, a shot bounced off the hood as I ran, Octavia stuck low to the ground.

"Third window on the left!" She screamed as a round went right through the driver's side window. I was already at the door when another shot rang out. I opened the door and was greeted by a grenade coming down from the stairs. It was a spiral staircase with no separation between floors, so it was possible to throw something directly down. I ran out the building and covered right by the door, when the grenade went off I re-entered the building.

The are was scorched, the wallpaper was on fire and there were holes all over the building's walls. A crater where the grenade once was had been visible I ran past it and up the stairs. I had to jump from the third stair to the base of the next flight due to missing steps. As soon as I landed on the pad, I took fire. It was fast, too fast to be an assault rifle. The rounds rang all over the area, one of them bounced off of my vest, I had ran along the stairs, the sniper was unable to get a clear shot on me. I got to the pad of the third floor, and aimed directly at the pad that had a clear view on me, a black maned red pony passed by with a MP9 in his hoofs and a Mosin Nagant on his back. He turned at me, but I had already pulled the trigger.

Nothing.

It clicked, he lifted the MP9, and it too clicked. He dropped the machine pistol and went for the rifle, I had thrown the Cz75 at his face, it slammed a little low into his chest, fazing him a little. I climbed onto the rail and jumped towards the rail of the floor he was on. I grabbed the floor and climbed until I was at the rail's edge. He swung at my face, and I dodged right and wrapped my arm around his. I pulled downwards, snapping it in half.

He threw another swing with the unused hoof, it hit me right in the face, I let go out of shock. I quickly grabbed the guard rail for the second floor, jerking it nearly off of it's proper position. It creaked backwards, but I heard the sound of a magazine drop from the floor above me. He was reloading his MP9. The bars fell off and I used the force I had built up to fling myself back onto the third floor pad.

Trudging on up the stairs I recieved a burst of fire. They missed by a little bit, just a little high that's all. I got on my face and crawled up the stairs as he kept firing. I ran at him and grabbed him by the neck as soon as he was outta rounds.

"God's gonna cut you down son!" I said through gritted teeth as I got on top of him. I pinned him, putting extra pressure on the broken arm. He screamed like hell but I threw solid punches to his face as he was there. Once he was barely conscious I pulled him to the edge of the rail. Then I threw him off. When he hit the ground blood sprayed all over the scorched room. Octavia was behind me, she probably came to help right as I was about to go for the first hit.

She said nothing as we walked down to the third floor. Once we were there we did a search for any clues. The door that lead to the third floor was just one big, long, empty room. On the third window down the line, there was a table and chair. On the table was a image of me and Octavia, alongside five empty shells and two spare magazines.

I picked the images up, they were on top of a document. I picked the document up and read through it.

It was a contract. 6,000 for me to be dead. They really did want me out of the way. I re-read it and it gave a location of meeting and a number to call. I stuffed it away and went moving out the building, that was when I noticed that the pony I had assumed dead had moved to the far end of the room.

I walked towards him, he just looked up at me, covered in blood.

I pulled his phone out. I dialed the number and put it on speaker.

"You're going to tell her I'm dead, do you understand?"

He spit in my face. I put my knife against his leg.

"Or I'll bleed you like a dog, are we clear?"

"Crystal." He said in a heavily accented voice. Prussian.

The phone was picked up.

A feminine voice responded. It was probably Starlight's.

"Is it done?" She asked.

"It is." The pony responded.

"You know where to go."

She hung up.

I was a little confused. I pressed the knife into his coat.

"Where are you meeting?"

He spit in my face again. I stabbed him in the throat, I could figure it out myself. We made our way out of the building, leaving the body there.