The magazines were loaded, which saved me some money and time. I had music from my MP3 player, working to the beat of the music. This time it was a slower pace song, something I wouldn't fight to but just relax with.

"I shall fear no man but god, though I walk through the shadow of death."

I popped the dust cover off the AK, just checking the condition of the bolt carrier and the other internals.

"I suffered through the years, and shed so many tears. Lost so many peers and shed so many tears."

The bolt carrier was doing well, which was expected since it was surrounded by the metal gas piston, the gas piston was a different story though. It was cracked under it, it wasn't safe but it wasn't large enough to harm me either. The most that could happen would be it heating up enough to burn my glove against the trigger. I just put some electrical tape over the part where my glove would make contact with it and the problem was solved.

I pulled the entirety of the gas piston out of the receiver, then pulled the lever just under the rear sight upwards. It clicked into place and I pulled the upper hoofguard and piston cover off. That was about when I pressed the button just under the muzzle break and twisted it clockwise. It came off after some work. Then I pulled the cleaning rod out, which didn't take too much work because I'd already removed the muzzle break. I used the end of the cleaning rod to push the lever on the lower hoffguard upwards, which released the plate keeping it in place.

Once that was off I could see the rust on the barrel, this was obviously black market. That made sense because they probably bought these in large numbers and didn't want Equestria knowing of it. I put the rifle back together and fiddled with the safety and trigger to see if it was where I wanted it. That was when the black market nature of the weapon was confirmed.

I pulled the fire selector lever down halfway, and it stopped in place. I stared at it for a second, to anypony else this would've been normal, to somepony who knew what this meant that's a different story. This was full auto, it must've been imported illegally. I confirmed it's full auto capabilities when I pushed the lever down one more notch, with AKs one notch is full auto, and two is semi. It clicked right where it should, which is just above the trigger.

I locked the rifle back onto safe, then threw the other two magazines into my plate carrier as I wore it under my leather jacket.

The clock read 12 AM, it was time to rock and roll.

There had to be a trend with how Starlight set up the munitions dumps, it'd make no sense for her to put it out at random. Remembering how we did it in the Equestrian Marine Corps gives me the idea that they're placed like this so that one: they can get reinforcements out quickly, 2: they can get supplies through one sector to another discreetly, and 3: To have multiple areas covered with no blind spots.

The trend had to have been with where they were located, they couldn't have just used any building without gaining attention, it had to be done with a vacant building so that nopony would suspect anypony to be in it. That was one lead, they also had to have a diversion, since the first one had that fake door, there's a possibility that the idea was taken up by others. The-

It hit me, a baseball bat to the back of the head. I was too damn caught up in the monologue to really realize that three ponies were trailing me. They started to kick while I was down, I had my ribs guarded pretty well by the plate carrier so they didn't really get far. That was about when one of them kicked the AK magazines.

His hoof started bleeding profusely as he screamed, those AK mags are harder then a bag of hammers. The other ponies looked at him and one started to run, I got up and punched the screaming buck in the face with a right haymaker. He did a limp noodle and collapsed onto the concrete. The other pony then ran with his friend, they were making it easy to follow with their talking. I decided to follow them indirectly, taking alleyways and keeping out of sight, which gave me some hope that they were Starlight's and they'd go over to their hideout.

They look a walk right along the street and kept moving in the same direction. It didn't surprise me when they ran past the last place I shot up. They went north on Hare street, I must've been going to where he came from.

As the addresses got higher one of them went closer to the left side of the road, then one broke off right. He was probably a diversion, since they most likely noticed I was on their tail. The one I was still on ran right between the alleyway, giving me another indication. There was a bang on the door as I approached where he was.

I unzipped my leather jacket, the M70 was on a one point sling with the stock collapsed. It was a lot easier to conceal than I thought. I grabbed the underfold stock and pulled it down, and in turn up later, until it snapped into place. Then I pulled the buttplate down so that it made a steady base for me to rest it against my body.

"You've gotta let me in! Forget the code it's him!"

"Who's him? Slow down just one thing at a time."

"We don't have time! Just let me in and lock the door!"

"What?"

I rounded the corner and looked at the two stallions, they both went silent. One of them was a white on white pony with some type of snow themed mark, the other was a fluffy haired blue pony, for some reason he reminded me of Pinkie. I couldn't put my hoof on why.

"And you must be?"

"Oh I'm that him guy, it's a weird name if you ask me."

"Could I get a name or something?" The blue one was really pushy, I didn't like that.

"The death bringer is good, so would you mind stepping away from the door?"

It didn't register with the blue one, which had something to do with why brains wasn't his cutie mark. I put the balaclava on and raised the M70 to both of them.

"Step away from the door!" I shouted.

They cooperated, probably about to plead for their life or something.

"Hey listen, I know this isn't too convincing but we have nothing to do with that crazy bitch."

Well they confirmed that they did have something to do with that crazy bitch. This was going to get interesting.

"Why should I believe you?" I made a point to deepen my voice, it sounded a bit more threatening. Well, I don't think it did much since I'm the one with the gun.

"Hey, we were the original ponies that lived here!"

"Oh spare me the lecture."

"Wait we can prove it!"

"Alright give it a shot, who came here to get Starlight out in the first place?"

"The princess of friendship and her five friends."

So far so good.

"What was Starlight's fake cutie mark?"

"An equals sign! Like the math one!"

Alright I guess that does it.

The room they led me in was smaller than the one I expected. It was similar to the last bug-out but different at the same time. The layout was the same but the rooms were smaller and set up differently. It was like they were the same but just... off.

"Well this is where we've been living for the last month. Military took our homes so you know."

"Times of war always sucked, what's new."

I had to address the elephant in the room, they were awaiting it anyway.

"Why would you fight for Starlight, of anypony?"

"We didn't choose to, the truth is we were there when she first started with the food strikes. She wouldn't bring any food into the town if we resisted her."

"Scorched-Earth Tactics. I'm familiar with them."

"It didn't stop there, she has outposts set up all over the town, pretty much in any alleyway there's a group set up. There should be a symbol on the door to show what's what."

"That is?"

"Well, the symbol is a little weird. It's a star followed by a blue streak."

So it was her cutie mark, guess that's easy enough. I'll look for it when I leave for some reference.

"You never told me your name?"

"Cloud Dasher, I'm more then positive that you've heard that name."

"I guess you could say you're famous with Starlight."

"And you are?"

They all nodded between eachother, I guess it was a no.

They gave me a map of where the rest of the cache's were, and I got to see the symbol as well. I wasn't surprised that she'd use something like that, hidden in plain sight. I stopped by the medical tent, and spoke to the surgeon. Octavia had been released.

She was waiting for me, leaned up against the door, her eyes were completely black from the painkillers they jacked her up on. I pulled the door open and led her to a bed, she fell asleep instantly. I wish it were the same for me.

I cleaned the M70, and pinned the map to the wall. I was careful to cross off the ones that I had been to and the one they were at. I marked what should be the one the other buck ran to, according to the ponies that were in the last cache they were the only ones that didn't want to fight, so I'll let them live. They were so kind as to turn over their ammunition and weapons. Something I insisted they didn't do.

I fell on the couch and awaited sleep, but it didn't come.