Conversion Bureau: Papers, please

                                                ( Somewhere off the coast of Equestria, 38 hours after arrival )

Mikhail stood at the bow of the ship, watching the sunrise and looking for any sign of an island. Not seeing one, he started to think his brothers-in-arms were going crazy, or maybe he was just in denial. He wasn't to sure how he felt about this situation, but he heard walking behind him and turned to confront whoever it was.

"Mikhail," it was his CO. "Downstairs, now. Briefing in five minutes."

"Yes sir, right away sir." he responded, making his way to the hatch to go downstairs. On his way his shipmate Yegor walked up to him.

"Mikhail, what do you think the briefing is about?"

He huffed and opened up the hatch door and started walking down the stairs, slightly lagging on the response. "I do not know Yegor, use your imagination. My best guess is we're being deployed onto the coast as generic as it sounds."

"Nah!" Yegor responded, throwing his arm forward. "We are Arstotzkan! we will do something much more fabulous and wonderful than landing on mysterious beach."

"Whatever you say my friend." The rest of the one minute walk was quiet, all the crewmen seemed to be in their specified locations and all the marines were assumed in the briefing room. Mikhail walked up to the half open hatch and pushed it open, revealing 8 marines and a Platoon leader.

"You two are late." The platoon leader said.

Mikhail didn't respond and walked to the back of the room with Yegor, waiting for the platoon leader to announce whatever it was.

"Today my friends, is a day that will most likely be put in the books, so lets make one for the records." he said enthusiastically."Now I am just as surprised at an island appearing as the rest of you, but this new obstacle means new ways of dealing with it. There is a massive mountain chain cutting us off from landing on the beach."

Yegor nudged Mikhail, "What did I tell you, huh Mikhail?" and smirked.

The platoon leader continued. "We will be doing a helicopter insertion on the outskirts of a city that satellites have found, this city is a direct overpass through the mountains. This team will go by the call sign of 'Watchdog,' while the other team we're landing with is call sign 'Apex', you eight and the other team will initiate first contact and check the surrounding area. Welcome to recon duty Watchdog. Any questions?" The room was silent, but everybody knew that they were ready. "Glory to Arstotzka." He finished.

"Glory to Arstotzka!" the group of marines said in unison, and started their way to the top-deck to stack inside the helicopter.

"We get to go on marvelous helicopter ride Mikhail! So wonderful!" Yegor announced to his friend.

"All in due time my friend."

Once they got to the top of the deck they walked to the helipad, revealing an Mi-8 with a pilot who seemed anxious to take off. The platoon leader was at the loading ramp and made a gesture to hurry everyone on-board, and almost on queue the helicopter engines started up with a hiss.

Mikhail walked into the Mi-8 and sat next to the door gunner who was busy loading his KORD, so he decided not to start conversation. He sat in the cargo seat and secured himself, and once everyone else did so the helicopter began to lift off.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

                               ( Half a mile outside of Arstotzkan airspace, 39 hours after arrival )

Twilight looked out into the horizon, watching the sunrise while leaning on the edge of the air chariot. It eased her fear of meeting a new species that was technically alien, and the colors were actually quite sedating. She wasn't sure if they were friend or foe, but she knew she had to read the script that Celestia gave her on the scroll. She read over it constantly to make sure she could read it right, but the script itself seemed very aggressive for Celestia's standards, it was practically a declaration of war. The sunrise started to make her feel drowsy and she went into a trance-like state for a few minutes, admiring the beauty of the alien star.

Although she started to hear something in the distance. She wasn't consciously aware of it for a few seconds but it started to get louder and snapped her out of her trance. It sounded like... a roar? No, it didn't sound natural. She saw something a little ahead of her, that seemed to be where the noise was also coming from. It looked to her like a gray bird, but it wasn't moving its wings? What was it?

It moved closer, at a rapid speed. She wasn't sure to panic or to not worry at all, but she did start to panic right when it was about to fly by her.

She didn't know what it was, but it flew right past the air chariot and screamed louder than any noise she had ever heard. She put her hooves to her ears and closed her eyes. She was shivering and shaking due to the noise but she removed her hooves, hearing the echo of the weird bird that just flew by, but she saw it circling around to face her again.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

                                               ( Paradizna Military Airfield, 39 hours after arrival )

The radar operator sat in his chair, smoking a cigarette. He was bored, nothing ever happened on radar duty. He could of become a flight control operator, or maybe even a pilot! But noooo he had to sit in a chair for hours and watch a green radar screen do nothing all day. Seeing that his cigarette was out, he grabbed another one to light up.

"You should stop chain-smoking so much, it is not the healthiest." One of his friendly radar operators said.

"Bah!" He replied. "It's the only thing to do in this damned building. It is more entertaining than watching green screen do nothing."

His friend pointed at him. "Got me there."

Right before he lit the cigarette, his friend interrupted him. 'What's that?"

"What's what?"

"That! On the damned radar!"

The operator looked at the screen. There was a small blip right on the edge, a few miles from the coast. "I do not know..." It seemed to be too slow to be an aircraft, but too fast to be a helicopter. He picked up a phone with a direct line that sat next to him. "Mission control we have an unknown aircraft picked up by sector scan two miles off the coast, vector one seven, over."

"Solid copy radar we are intercepting now."

/ / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /

The pilot walked through the airport corridor and opened a hatch that led to the hangar, revealing a recently cleaned Sukhoi model 27. "My beautiful baby." he said to himself while walking towards it. "Today we get to fly!" He walked to the ladder and the air crew removed the orange cones in front of the aircraft. He climbed up and sat inside the pilot seat, equipping his helmet and respirator, speaking into the comms while starting the Sukhoi's twin engines.

"Air control this is Sabre 1-1 requesting clearance for runway 17, over."

"Solid copy Sabre 1-1 you are clear for takeoff, over." Air control responded while Sabre was pulling into the runway.

"This is Sabre 1-1, initiating takeoff runway 17, pucker factor 2-7"

"Roger Sabre, the runway is all yours."

'Thank you control." The pilot flipped a few switches in the cabin of his Sukhoi and increased throttle. The aircraft pushed forward and accelerated at high speeds, eventually lifting off the ground.

"We are off the ground control, over."

"Roger that, have a good fly sabre, over and out."

Sabre increased throttle and pulled the nose of the aircraft up to gain altitude, unconsciously wondering what he was going to encounter on this flight.