My Tall Yuri: Mind Control is Panaceaby DaxnChaptersOperation: Mind Games (Prologue)Chapter 1Chapter 2Operation: Mind Games (Prologue)Yuri was running inside the humid and dripping dungeons of his ruined castle in Transylvania, rushing towards the deepest part of the subterraneans. Sounds of explosions, crumbling stones and shouts came from above, constantly reminding Yuri to keep up his fast walking pace. Soon he arrived at the end of the corridor, where a wooden door with a iron deadlock awaited. “Defeated once again, and, this time, right in my last-standing Headquarters,” he muttered to himself, as he rapidly slided away the iron deadbolt of the wooden door in front of him. “It is truly a blessing that I am as savvy as I am, otherwise I would suffer… unpleasantness, in the comrades’ hands.” Once the door was open, he swung it inwards, revealing to himself his greatest acquiring of all, courtesy of a handful of helpful Allied scientists and his (rather small) think tank of great scientists. The Time Machine, built with a similar structure as the one that the Allies had originally installed in San Francisco to wipe out his base there. Yuri quickly walked the stone stairs leading down at the Time Machine’s already-open hatch, closing it down with one swift telekinetic effort, just before sitting down on the black lather seat and strapping himself down. “Everything I need to know is stored in the back, if the clones of myself didn’t lie to me.” Yuri said to himself, as he then started to select a date- 30 of April 1954 to be precise- to go back to. “Easier than just use my own mind, even if exquisite.” As soon as he finished to key in his destination and both of his hands were on the lever, he heard shouts and a steadily-increasing sound of boots coming from outside the room. “I will not waste my time in taking control of them.” He whispered to himself, as he pushed the lever all the way towards himself. As soon as he did that, the air around the machine started to audibly crackle, while the machine itself started to quake intensely and let out a very loud mechanical whine. Yuri closed his eyes, and soon there was a thundercrack-like sound going off, one that echoed inside inside the cockpit. Shortly after, there was another crackling sound and a loud thud, as the machine strongly shook again. “Already at destination, it seems,” he muttered to himself, as he opened his eyes while undoing the straps holding him to the seat. “Not that I mind.” However, as soon as he concentrated on what lied beyond the cockpit’s glass, he was greeted by the sight of a rust red cloudy sky, in the midst of a forest of half-dead trees. Yuri looked up at the display supposed to tell him the time, only see a garbled neon green mess. Yuri stared at it for a few seconds, when he went back to look at the trees. “Something tells me I am everywhere but close to destination.” He said to himself, as he opened up the hatch, before climbing out of the machine onto the grassy ground below. Done so, Yuri walked in circles around the Time Machine, looking around himself to see if he could notice any kind of landmark or location specific characteristic, only to be greeted by contorted shapes of black dead trees all around him. “Somehow, for some reason, I seriously doubt that going in circles is going to bring me anywhere.” With that said, Yuri stopped his walking to look a little better at the forest in front of him. While the trees showed signs to have been luxuriant once upon a time, the branches and the roots protruding from the ground weren’t clustered in a way that could make traveling through them overly difficult for somebody on foot. Noticing that particular, Yuri walked next to a tree and concentrated himself on his index, causing a little flame to form on the tip of fingertip, before slowly writing his monogram on a tree’s bark. “This should be a reference point good enough, should the Time Machine be stolen or broken while I am away… somehow.” Yuri said to himself. He snapped away with ease the few branches that got in his way and dodged the roots quite handily, making his way through the forest. The vegetation’s thickness thinned out as he went on, until, in-between four trees, Yuri spotted in the distance what looked like a wall made out of black wood logs and stone, with several thin streams of gray smoke coming from behind it. “If my own mind does not deceive me, this is a pretty clear sign that I am not anywhere near in time to the Forties. Nor in New Mexico, for that matter” Yuri muttered to himself, leaning on a nearby tree for a minute, before resuming his walk with a hunched back and a slower step. “I shall get closer.” As he walked closer to the structure, he could see more details appearing in his field of view: tower and their embrasures, flags depicting a black crown of spines- with four drops dripping from said crown and a half-open eyes in the middle- on red background, some broken weapons laying scattered next to the wall, and armed equine shapes going around the walls’ boardwalks. Yuri’s eyes briefly widened at the sight of it. “Oh, that is interesting. Equines guarding an encampment’s walls.” He muttered to himself, massaging his goatee as he kept looking. “That is really interesting. To have access to the minds of the ones that have trained these animals to guard duty would be quite an accomplishment. No matter, thought: I will have time to satiate my hunger for knowledge later, now it is time to see if they will be… consensual, in providing me shelter, nourishment and possibly fuel.” Getting a little closer, he could no see more details of the guards, who not only were equines holding up weapons, but were also of colour unusual to the species, as if they had been created by one his counterparts in a moment of boredom. “Interesting. Perhaps I can check if these… ‘horses’, can be actually controlled?” Yuri set his right hand on his temple and used the other hand to point at the encampment, before concentrating in harnessing his mental energies. After a couple of minutes, Yuri’s hand weakly glowed purple and he lifted his head, looking at the wall, until he noticed a black crossbow-carrying stallion passing by right in front of him. Wasting no time, Yuri stretched his hand forward towards the guard, before concentrating his gaze on him. Soon enough, Yuri felt a slight tingle going up his arm, signal that it was time for him to act. “Greetings, soldier. My presence may be rather… unexpected, and so will be my questions. However, due to a series of setbacks, I am in dire need of information. Would you kindly provide them?” “W-what?” Yuri could hear the pony think. “What are you doing in my mind? A-are you one of t-those changeling spies? I-I will n-not betray m-my king!” “King Sombra?” Yuri mused. “Changelings? Pray tell what are you talking about?” “H-how? How.. is this possible?” The soldier’s thought got even more panicky. “What are you?” Yuri let out a sigh. He clenched his fist and squinted his eyes close. “I’m Yuri. Obey me.” He whispered two times to the guard. Soon enough, in Yuri’s field of vision, a rather large field of white and khaki tents seen from the above appeared in his field of vision. Many horses similar to the ones he was controlling were out and about, acting very much like human soldiers would have, between some polishing their weapons rhythmically and obsessively, others betting over either spoils or parts of the rations with card games and dices, and yet more drinking from flasks and lying just outside the tents. “So, this is a military encampment after all. I still do not see any jockey or beastmaster around, thought.” Yuri muttered to himself. He then shifted his focus on the mind-controlled guard. “Bring me to your commander. I have… interest, in having a quick talk with him...” “Yes. I will bring you to my Commander… King Sombra…” Sergeant Pyotr Cservenka trudged along the perimeter of the Soviet military outpost stationed in Helsinki, leading his squad of Tesla Troopers in single file line. Finland was mostly a low priority during the war despite it's relative proximity to the other Allied-aligned Baltic States. He and his squad were only a few weeks ago on the front lines of Corpus Christi providing anti-armor support for tank divisions landing on the shores, but for whatever reason the powers that be in Command felt he and his squad were better suited where he was now, more or less guarding animals due to the outposts relative proximity to the local zoo. Keyword was 'mostly'. Since the Soviet Union annexed Finland in the late thirties, resistance groups had plagued the land. While the insurgency was nowhere near as bad as it was when it peaked during the Allied counteroffensive in the Second World War, a new generation was buying into the empty promises of independence from Yuri and it was deemed second-line and nonessential forces needed to bolster the local garrisons. Tesla Troopers were far from second-line troops or bullet sponges the average conscript inevitably ended up being, and were actually among the elite of Soviet infantry, but orders were orders. Cservenka was as close to to the Russian stereotype of a burly no-nonsense mountain of a man as one could fit inside an insulated rubber suit with a weaponized Tesla coil mounted on the forearm. Tall, bald, and with a muscular build masked by a layer of fat. Out of the four other men in his Tesla Trooper squad, he was the only veteran of the Second World War twenty years prior, fresh out of training when he was selected for the experimental 'Shock Troopers' and he still had the acid burns on his back to prove it. “I just hope some of those partisans show up, I'm looking forward to making some northern lights,” a voice came from the small speakers inside Cservenka's suit, responding to the others. The voice belonging to that of Corporal Moskvin, the only other member of the Sergeant's original squad and by default the most competent under his command. “Focus,” Cservenka replied curtly into the small microphone resting at his chin, and any nonessential chatter died just like that. The Sergeant found it somewhat difficult to peer out of the narrow visor his suit allowed, he always had to stay on edge for sniper fire, especially as he and his squad were out in the open. Their suits were technically bulletproof - albeit that was more a byproduct of making the rubber layers thick and sturdy enough to stand war and not fry the wearer by mistake – but were not invulnerable. The squad continued their patrol in relative silence, the only noise being their rubber boots hitting the ground with each step as they finished it and made their way back to base on the opposite side of the zoo before them a couple blocks away. The silence gave way to the distant but ever present wail of an alarm from the outpost and a general order from their built-in radios. “General order to all units within the vicinity of Helsinki. Reports of fires and large unidentified beasts causing destruction have been reported from the Helsinki Zoo and its immediate surroundings. All nearby units, engage at will. All stations are to report any and all suspicious sightings to Command no matter how insignificant they seem.” “Talk about luck,” Cservenka could not see Moskvin's grin, but he knew it was there. He hated to admit he was as eager to fight long ago, but publicly explaining the exact reason for his attitude change would in the best case scenario have him be lugging a flak cannon over his shoulder instead. “Squad, double-wedge formation,” Cservenka shouted in his sealed suit with enough volume for the other members to hear him anyway. As ordered the five Tesla troopers spread out into a loose W shape, their right forearms outstretched before them ready to throw lightning at an order's notice. Less than fifty meters from the side entrance of the zoo the squad encountered what they collectively assumed was one of the unidentified beasts. It in the vaguest sense resembled a horse with several layers of muscle added onto it. Additional details could not be determined by the squad at that moment, mostly due to the fact that the massive, gray monster was charging straight towards them and priorities needed to be set straight. Acting on instinct, Sergeant Cservenka outstretched his arm, clenching a fist as he looked down the crude iron sights of his Tesla coil and gave the order to fire. A bright flash of electricity burst from the arms of three Tesla Troopers in front, a streak of lightning from each instantly connecting with the massive beast square in the midsection and neck before disappearing only a second later. Tesla weapons in general were powerful enough to disintegrate a man with a direct hit, however, not only did this creature fail to turn into ash, but it still continued it's dash to the squad undaunted roaring wildly despite the widespread third-degree burns all over its body fuming thin white smoke. The second line of Tesla Troopers took their turn firing as the others waited for their weapons to recharge. The beast made a second pained cry and collapsed to the ground mere meters from Cservenka, succumbing to the gruesome burns it sustained. “Was that a Brute we just killed?” asked one of the newer additions in Cservenka's squad, Private Kerensky. His voice full of disbelief, he had probably never seen one in person before, let alone make the killing blow on one. “Da, looks different though. I thought Yuri only used humans for Brutes though,” Moskvin replied. The creature before them was indeed a horse, more specifically a pony swollen to several times its normal size, but its facial features were very unusual. It's eyes were massive in proportion to its head, with saucer-like irises in a faded orange color. The strangest yet most haunting feature seemed to be the symbols that appeared on the flank – the indisputable mark of Yuri that all forces under his control wore. This could have only meant that Yuri managed a way to mutate animals as well for use as anti-armor troops, the petting zoo before them having been made demonstrations of this fact. What this potentially entailed for the Soviets many attack dogs and beloved pets didn't bode well for Cservenka. “Move forward, squad. There is bound to be more. Concentrate fire on individual Brutes when possible, but be wary of enemy support.” A series of 'affirmatives' followed and the squad of Tesla Troopers advanced further down the street. The Allied European Theater Commander Center in Bonn was echoing in bleeps, shouting, rapid walking and radios crackling. Not a single spot of the building could have been considered silent in any shape or form, nor any member of the staff could be seen slacking off. Such amount of chaos had been seen only during the devastating but ultimately brief Soviet invasion of Western Germany in the Second World War, and only few inside the office had the (un)luck to be there at the time. “We are reporting several hostile ground units are coming from all directions inside the cities of Bonn, Cologne and Lyon” The intelligence and communication officer, Elise-Victorie Alleran, said to Commander Valerian Jung, who was- as per his usual- silently listening with his hands held up to form a pyramid with his fingers. “I thought you had said Munich too!” Lieutenant Giles Price said with his head turned towards the communication officer, while covering the phone’s speaker that he was currently using to communicate with Germany’s chancellor. Elise sighed and then turned her head around back towards . “We were saying, the units’ origin is currently unknown and their composition is rather unusual, featuring equine-like beasts of war whose characteristics match with the genetically-modified soldiers our soldiers have nicknamed ‘brutes’ mixed with horned horses with firepower capabilities estimated to be around a Yuri’s initiate. We suspect usage of stolen Chronosphere technology, but there are no reports confirming that just yet.” Valerian nodded. A sweaty staff member went quickly towards Elise, giving her a folder before scurrying away, and, after taking it in her hands, she opened it to read it to him, while he turned on the monitor with a flicker of his index finger on the power button. The monitor slowly came to life, showing a high-quality video map, with a small radar in a corner of the screen. “Currently, we have one infantry platoon fully at our disposal, with another three already engaging the enemy. We are also trying to get an armoured division coming from Düren, which should be enough to drive the hostiles out of the city. Until then, your task is to defend the University of Bonn from the incoming attacks with the available forces.” Valerian once again nodded in silence, as he slowly turned around and fixed his eyes on the monitor nearby, while Elise gestured for somebody to pass the radio transmitter to the Commander, so that he could start to give out commands. “Sir, for the fourth time, we are trying our best to understand what is happening, as well as contain it.” Giles Price said, massaging his forehead, still talking on the phone. “Chancellor, sir, if we are not trying to fool you. Actual, honest-to-God pastel-coloured horses, are attacking us. And it has only begun...” Chapter 1Commander Aleksandr Vascak sat at his small personal desk, wolfing down a bowl of beef stew as quickly as he could. It was, coupled with the lack of sleep marked by his sagging eyes, a habit he was quick to learn at the start of the war with the Allied Nations that stayed with him even with the recent defeat of the traitorous Yuri. Vascak looked at the small set of clocks in the wall set to various timezones, in his case it was 0700 local hours in Helsinki. The Commander was tasked by the Premier himself with dealing with the local resistance groups occupying parts of the capital and beyond. The resources he had in achieving this end were somewhat paltry, but his casualties were in the hundreds - low by Soviet standards - morale was decent and most fighting was restricted to isolated neighborhoods. A buzzer whined throughout the halls of the underground bunker outside his room, yellow lights flashing over him and his meal. Vascak left his stew to go cold as he rushed out of his quarters down the cold concrete halls to the main command center. Passing two reinforced steel doors and the sentries guarding them, Vascak was greeted to a medium sized square shaped room with all four walls dominated by monitors, terminals and staff working them, a single podium stood before a 9x9 slope housing a monitor bearing the old emblem of the Red Army as a screensaver, smaller secondary screens rested at the top corners used for both communications and any other visual needs. The bunker was built in WWII to oversee military operations in Finland, and with few exceptions most of the technology inside the command room was dated as such, but was sufficient in what it was needed to do. Vascak moved to the podium, which held various buttons and switches and a crude touch screen interface with accompanying stylus. Vascak flipped the power switch to one of the small monitors before him and adjusted the frequency as he did with various dials, his intelligence officer, the modestly attractive Lieutenant Zofia appeared on the black-and-white screen. “Report, comrade Zofia,” Vascak ordered into a microphone, his eyes sharp as a hawk despite appearing saggy and sleep-deprived. “Unconfirmed reports of Yuri's forces have been sighted near our main communications hub near Helsinki Zoo,” Zofia replied, “Loss of this outpost would significantly hamper communications for all areas north of Leningrad and security of the region would be at risk.” The normally confident woman had an unusual look of confusion as she spoke, it was being hidden to the best of her ability, but Vascak payed good attention to detail and could still sense it in her body language even through a TV screen. “According to these reports, Yuri's forces consist entirely of cavalry.” “Define 'cavalry.'” “His forces are made up of unicorns and large, mutated ponies,” came the deadpan answer from Zofia, even she had a hard time believing what she just said. A less forgiving Soviet officer would likely think of her assertion as a joke, and seek out punishment for it, but Aleksandr... knew Zofia a bit closer than he likely should and took it at face value. “Set me up with the hub and all forces stationed to it immediately.” The lieutenant nodded, speedily typing at the keyboard before her. “Establishing battlefield control, standby.” The slope screen before Vascak displayed a satellite generated image of Helsinki Zoo and everything around it for a two kilometer radius. The communications hub housed most of the forces available in the area, one company's worth of conscript infantry and a small group of four Rhino tanks, with one Tesla Trooper squad and a few additional squads of conscripts being recalled from patrols already engaging. The infantry were represented by small red blips clustered together with a symbol identifying their status - three bullets denoting the conscripts and a lightning bolt the Tesla Troopers for example - and the the tanks were highlighted red. All in all, Vascak had about a couple hundred men at his disposal. With time of the essence, additional forces were too far away or busy suppressing the partisans elsewhere in the capital. Yuri had demonstrated more than once in the war against the Allies what he could do with metropolitan cities if he can entrench long enough, and if these so called unicorns were not destroyed quickly, Helsinki would be lost and Soviet influence in Finland soon after. The Commander used his stylus to mark areas on the tops of buildings for spotters to observe from, assigning squads and groups for his various sub-commanders in the room to relay the orders to so he could focus on the bigger picture. Private Guglielmo Pennacchini ejected his pistol’s empty magazine, and it ammo bounced and jingled against the layer of spent cartridges that littered the crossroad where his fellow soldiers had deployed their machine guns against the equine assaulters, who were now either lying dead or dying and moaning all over the Nussalee. His platoon, after a rather hasty wake-up call at the wee hours of the morning, had been deployed and ordered to defend Bonn’s University from attacks until further notice. Guglielmo, begin a volunteer pretty much just out of training whose squad had been assigned to guarding duties behind the frontlines up to that point, despite a brief moment of annoyance and confusion due to the early wake-up, had been quite anxious- if not outright excited- by the idea of entering in a real battle for the first time in his career as a soldier. Now, after the battle, he was looking over the landscape left by the partially literal firefight- as the unicorns had thrown fireballs in his and his squadmates’ direction- from the vantaged position of the small elevated marble colonnade serving as entrance to the University. From here, he was seeing mostly burning bushes, scorched houses, a snow-like cover of spent casings, dead equines littering the streets, and the rest of his squad either staring silently at the carnage or disassembling their weapons and undoing their emplacements. “Uh-hu. I didn’t expect this to be over so quickly.” Guglielmo commented, feeling almost confused by the quickness of the fight he just had fought, and by his foes’ bizarre appearance, one that resembled pastel-coloured horses with horns and eyes as big as faceplates; instead of the robe-clad bald men and women that many of squadmates said to Yuri’s standard unit. Corporal Filippo Damiani sighed, as he slowly unhooked the ammo belt and disassembled his machine gun. “Be glad it was quick and that no-one in the squad has been toasted by any of those things,” The corporal said “I still remember when that Yuri guy used to employ only conspiracy theorists, sociopaths and other assorted nutjobs as soldiers, and when they actually shown to have been trained.” “Could they shoot fire from their foreheads?” Guglielmo asked, as he kept looking around him. “More like their hands, but the effect, and I think the way to did that, was pretty much the same.” Filippo let out a sigh, as he strapped the heavy gun on his back. “Only, they had actually managed to torch soldiers and, sometimes, overheat vehicles.” Guglielmo cringed somewhat, but then regained his composure, feeling he needed to not show outwardly what was going on in his head. “Poor bastards.” He simply said and Filippo nodded in response. After what felt like an eternity, the sergeant, a slim and short man with little more than a few tufts of regrown hair peeking out from under his helmet, his name Daniele Broccu, came close with his left hand gripping on the pistol and pointing towards his left, from where they had come from in the first place. “Let’s get moving, the Commander has ordered us to join the Armoured Division currently in the Stadtgarten close to the river.” He said, with his usual gruff voice followed by a boar-like squeal, one that offset his otherwise laughter-worthy hair. Filippo immediately got up and silently followed the sergeant, soon followed by a good chunk of the squad. Guglielmo, after a timid nod, holstered his pistol and followed his squadmates in line, basically begin the last of them before the ones tasked with the unfortunate duty of carrying most of the sandbags. Cservenka's squad advanced up to the side entrance of the zoo, the sound of muffled gunshots and primal roars in their ears and smoke billowing over the walls. With the entrance too narrow for the Tesla Troopers to enter in formation, the two outermost Troopers moved behind the inner two and covered the rear. Now forming a thin M-shape, the squad approached the ticket stand their weapons ready to turn it into ash at the first sign of hostile movement. “Kerensky, search that stand,” Cservenka ordered, the Trooper complied as ordered and swiftly but cautiously walked up to the stand, kicked the door open and peered inside. “It is clear comrade-Sergeant,” Kerensky said. “Affirmative, return to formation.” “Movement on right!” one of the other Trooper's shouted, aiming his Tesla coil at a cage designated for the some exotic bird judging by the picture. Cservenka did not turn fully to see what Kerensky and the other Trooper discharged their weapons at, but when he did he saw a torrent of flame shoot towards them and what was throwing it. Yuri's forces were already highly unconventional and even more unethical, his main infantry unit essentially used a flamethrower - a weapon once used liberally by the Soviets in WWII but since banned under the rules of war - created with their minds for example. But what was even more unconventional about the so-called “Initiates” was that the Initiate throwing fire at them wasn't a man, but a pony, no, a unicorn! Except, this unicorn only vaguely resembled a horse. It had the same oversized eyes as the Brute before, but in contrast its head seemed too big for its body to be able to balance. Its legs did not have hooves so much as furry stumps at the ends and its coat and mane colors were a vivid red and yellow but still bore Yuri's mark on the flanks. ‘What on earth did he do to these animals?’ Cservenka thought. Following a similar course of action to the pony-Brute moments before, Cservenka aimed and struck the unicorn dead. The flames ceased with their source neutralized and their target visibly and thoroughly cooked to the center. Valerian Jung sipped his coffee slowly, as he kept his gaze fixed on the light blue counters representing his units, as they advanced forward into Bonn’s northern suburbs. Much to his bemusement and gladness, Yuri’s assailants hadn’t been particularly fierce or tactically savvy. “Either they were a suicide squad composed by botched animal mutations,” Valerian muttered with a small smirk. “Or Yuri has a major head cold and refuses to calm down. Send initiates one by-one in a narrow street is…” Valerian Jung shook his head. “Just idiotic. The brutes were lucky that they weren’t spotted before they managed to attack and crash one of those IFV in a wall, otherwise this, perhaps, would’ve been one my most successful operations in my entire career.” His self-complacent boast was interrupted by a bleep coming off from the monitor. Almost losing the grip on his cup of coffee, Commander Valerian looked carefully on the screen. He- after putting his cup down- grabbed the radio transmitter and set the speaker close to his mouth. “Gamma-6, why did you stop? I gave order to reach the Nordfriedhof!” “Sir, we’ve just destroyed an hovercraft and…” The Major said on the radio. “What does this had to do with you stopping?” Commander Valerian asked with a groan. “And why would be there an hovercraft hundreds of kilometers from the sea?” “Sorry sir, but we’ve noticed that all of the surviving hostiles were retreating towards that vehicle and that they were entering inside. We assumed that they were getting evacuated, so we tried to shoot them, butut…” “But?” Valerian asked, squinting his eyes somewhat in anticipation. “The hovercraft’s wreckage seems to be completely empty. There are no traces of anyone ever entering in here, not even charred remains.” The Major said. “I, and my subordinates, were thinking whether leave it alone or salvage for study.” Valerian Jung sighed, massaging his forehead. “With the enemy still out?” “Actually, sir, as I have said, we do not detect any kind of hostile activity. They’ve pretty much vanished.” Vascak surveyed the battlefield as the spotters reached their positions and relayed what they saw. Several dozen hostile targets, all infantry, appeared on the map scattered about the zoo's premises, either engaging his forces or just trying to create as much havoc as possible. Yet, there was no obvious explanation for how they could have gotten there. 'Even if he doesn't destroy the hub, he makes us look weak in the eyes of the public and rally support for the partisans. Either way he makes my life more difficult no matter how strong or swift the response is. Clever,' Vascak thought, 'But if he was going to perform terror mission, why would he strike when the zoo is closed instead of a time there would be civilians in it?' That part didn't make sense to the Commander at first, Yuri had no qualms about bringing civilians into his fights or using them for slave labor, but assumed he, or what few of his followers pulling the strings in his wake were trying an unconventional recruitment campaign. In any case, Vascak was having none of it. The Rhino tanks at his disposal would need to go around two corners to meet a driveway into the zoo, the conscripts following suite behind. Preferring a more immediate entrance, he drew a line for the tanks to form up with and marked four spots on the wall in front of them to destroy. The muzzles of the tanks spewed flame as large holes in the wall opened up a split-second later. Knowing that the Brutes could smash up his precious few tanks if allowed to get too close, he split the company of conscripts into four platoons and ordered each of them to go through a different hole and clear the immediate area of hostiles while the tanks followed afterward. Once the area was secure, three of the platoons would search inside the buildings and clear them out while the last guarded the tanks. On the other end of the zoo, the Tesla Troopers were engaging the forces of Yuri around them, and quickly concluded the firefight with only part of the outer rubber layers of one of their suits melted and minor burns. Good, he didn't like to have valuable units go to waste. As the next few minutes went by, Vascak came to the conclusion that the battle went into the Soviets favor as soon as the tanks entered. Yuri's forces failed to act in a cohesive manner and it was just a matter of the Commander's troops cutting them down one by one. The Brutes were somewhat difficult nuts to crack, a bullet from a PPS-41 standard issued to every conscript in the Red Army could down the unicorn Initiates just as easily as their human counterparts, but it was more akin a bugbite for the hypertrophic horses. Of course, anyone could die from bugbites in great enough quality, in such case roughly a couple hundred. Vascak switched back on the communications channel to Zofia and spoke into the microphone. “Comrade Zofia, what have we found, if anything inside?” “According to one of the squads, an archlike structure has been found inside the horse stables for the petting zoo - how ironic. An image will be sent to you now.” The small monitor on the right showed a picture of the stable interior. True enough a silver arch speckled with odd patterns and markings dominated the wall. Zofia continued, “We currently do not know how this arch appeared, but we predict it is some kind of portal Yuri's forces used to enter the zoo. At this time we do not know where it leads, and it appears to have suffered sabotage to prevent us from finding out. Meanwhile, salvage operations are underway and the bodies of these animals will be taken for research, we have even managed to take a few alive. I shall keep you posted as new events unfold, Commander. Zofia out.” She made a wink as she severed the connection. The intelligence officer made sure to return Vascak's control over the front to the citywide level. It seemed while the partisans did not try anything bold while Vascak was focused on dealing with Yuri, word was no doubt already spreading of the attack and he knew he was in for another late-night keeping order. Chapter 2The psychic command chamber of Emerald Crest glowed a faint purple around the servers mentally linking up the unicorn to the forces under her command. Attached to her bald head was a web-like mat of sensors and nodes while a dark green aura rippled around her horn. Her eyes were shut, not that she was using them, all nonessential senses like smell and touch were suppressed to consolidate attention to her tasks. Emerald synced her mind up to those of her fellow commanders, sent by Yuri to carry out his will. In her particular case, she was tasked with securing the human city of Bonn for later use. She did not fully understand what these humans were, only that Yuri was one of them, nor did she even know that there was another world plagued by war or that her own war would meld with it. In any case, she was grateful of Yuri's decision to have her join the best side. After all, if the failed Princess Celestia could not even save her own sister from herself, how could she hope to protect her ponies from Sombra or the Allies and Communists that opposed Yuri? Unfortunately, her mission did not go as planned. “What is the status of your respective operations, fellow commanders?” Emerald asked the other four unicorns sharing the link, their minds and thoughts remained individuals at the psychic conference table, but it was almost impossible for them to think of Yuri as anything besides the boss with the final say. “Helsinki stands with the Soviets, unfortunately.” “Cologne has been taken with minimal casualties.” “The forces defending Ulaanbator are routing, but pockets of resistance remain.” “The Budapest force has been... decimated.” The last mind seemed particularly troubled in relaying the events. “The Bonn invasion has been repulsed,” Emerald said, her physical body rubbing her temples. “These humans are more resilient than expected, but how?” “It is obvious, Yuri is human, it is only fitting that others are like him,” the Ulaanbator commander said. “Perhaps not as powerful, but stronger than a pony. In the way an alicorn is stronger than a typical pony.” “And yet, they do not have magic. Yet they are able to create machines that can disguise themselves as trees and mount weapons powerful enough to burst shield spells,” the Colon commander added. “Their understanding of technology is far beyond anything we know, many of our more machines and electronics are based upon magical principles yet remain inferior.” “Even further is their physical attributes, or lack thereof,” the Helsinki commander said. “These humans, tall and narrow - at least the ones outside the North American continent according to intelligence – they lack the strength of an earth pony, or the musculature of a minotaur or even a wretched diamond dog. Their eyes, are small and forward facing, less acute than that of the griffons. It is indeed their technology that is their advantage and only. “The phrase, mind over matter applies does it not?” The six unicorns in attendance physically twitched in surprise at the sound of Yuri's voice echoing through their subconscious. The group shared a mental image of each standing before a table, represented by shadowy avatars. Yuri made himself appear within the image as a humanoid silhouette with the markings on his head the only detail on its face. Yuri continued, “The human body is perhaps not the most imposing of shells. However, the human brain very much is. Though not the largest, it is nonetheless more advanced than any form of life encountered.” The unicorns did not object to Yuri's words, he had more than proved them to be accurate already. “Master, we did not anticipate that you were present. Shall we inform you of the results of our tasks?” “Indeed, I shall scan your memories and analyze your missions, your successes, your mistakes.” I wonder why he always whispers when he talks, it's so odd, Emerald thought, she knew he could probably hear her comments, but she was curious. “It is because I prefer to speak my mind, comrade-Emerald.” Solid purple eyes appeared on the avatar of Yuri, glowing dimly. “You shall go first.” Emerald Crest's physical body relaxed as she allowed Yuri to scour her thoughts and memories without resistance. The process it self didn't take more than a few seconds and the next thing she knew her master was done and had moved on to the next commander in the group. When Yuri was finished making his psychic rounds he expressed his thoughts to the group. “To those who have succeeded in their tasks, you have performed admirably and have shown a comprehensive understanding of tactics and local climate, political and natural. For that, you may leave and go about your devices until you are called again.” The commanders of the Ulaanbator and Colon fronts severed their link from the group. So long as they ultimately obeyed him without hesitation his successful minions were granted generous freedoms and Yuri could care less of what they did in their free time. “As for you, comrades-Emerald Crest and Nova Cloud, you have failed in your primary objectives. Unlike your comrades, you have not adapted to the opposition in a satisfactory manner. The direct course is not always the smartest, but you have still achieved a secondary condition adequately enough to evade punishment. This time.” Emerald and the commander of the Helsinki operation remained as they were, Yuri did not yet dismiss them. The eyes on the psychic's avatar glowed brighter and turned into sharper shapes as he focused on the last commander. “And then, there is you. Your force had been utterly decimated to the last, yet unlike the two beside you now, you cannot explain it. Your thoughts held nothing but images of dozens of dead equines riddled with bullets and severed limbs, but there is no hint of who or what caused this.” Yuri's most plausible theory on the matter was that the forces encountered a Soviet commando - or perhaps a handful of commandos - that just so happened to be there. Whatever killed the forces certainly did a masterful job of hiding from sight while simultaneously gunning dozen dozens of troops in moments judging by the number of bullet holes in the latter. “All things considered, it is not entirely your fault, I am to be held responsible for failing to account for commandos operating in Hungary, given its proximity to my old estate. Nonetheless, the outcome is complete failure and while you have not necessarily shown incompetence, you must be made an example. May your clone find greater success.” A quick jolt surged from the symbol on Yuri's forehead through the mental conference room and struck the horn on the avatar of the failed commander, who literally melted into an astral puddle, symbolically representing their physical brain turning into soup and leaking out their nose Egyptian-style for the other two commanders to see. “The two of you may leave.” Emerald Crest and Nova Cloud severed the link, leaving Yuri alone to think in the real world. He observed the time machine he entered from. In his short time in the world of colorful equines it came to his attention that there were several other stable alternate timeliness of the world he was in all radically different from each other. Three of these timelines seemed better off from the one he was currently in judging by the lack of apparent war reported by his scouts. Two of the other timelines seemed to be dominated to absurdly powerful beings yet to be encountered in the others, Yuri decided to play it safe and not tamper with them further until he had the means to counter these beings. Yet another timeline seemed to be dominated by shapeshifting insects, and he was in the process of contacting them. The last timeline seemed to be devoid of life, a wasteland far as the eye could see. Perhaps there was more to it than initial impression, but the other 'better off' timelines looked more promising. Specifically one that seemed to show the so-called land of 'Equestria' to be in the midst of advanced industrialization. Already his forces were in the process of setting up psychic beacons to subjugate the nearest cities to his will. With the industry provided from an entire world unmolested by war coupled with the blueprints of most of his technology base, Yuri's war machine would be back up within the month at the latest. Twilight Sparkle, the newest Princess of Equestria, was quite confused. “This is where the Map told us to go…” she said, as she looked around her, seeing mostly tall pines and thorn bushes, only interrupted by dirt paths going inside the pinewood, paths made in a past long forgotten but constantly used as route. “But… where’s anypony?” “Let’s face it, Twi,” Rainbow Dash said, flying close by and handily dodging low-lying branches, an annoyed frown on her face. “The map made a blunder, there’s nothing left that would ever require us seven. I mean, you could take on oh-so-many bad guys alone!” “Dash, your words are flattering to us all, but most likely not true,” Rarity said calmly, walking behind Twilight and at Starlight Glimmer’s side. “The map has never failed us in any circumstance. And, considered what we have faced together, we can never know when our strengths will need to be used in conjunction with one another.” “I agree with Rarity here.” Applejack dryly stated, causing Rainbow Dash to sigh. The march of the seven ponies was accompanied by the sound of the bushes’ leaves and the trees’ fallen branches crackling under their hooves, birdsongs of many varieties, and the occasional gust of wind rustling leaves. “Such a love-” Fluttershy said, only to be interrupted by a loud boom and a odd whooshing sound. Suddenly, the seven went on high alert, quickly forming a skiltron to fce threats from all directions. “What was that? It sounded a lot like Tirek’s magic-draining power!” Rarity said, her horn lighting up rather rapidly to grab a small rock to throw. “I don’t know, but I’m pretty sure that is not a natural-born sound. We shall be watchful of our steps now,” Twilight said, breaking formation and trotting forward. “But we still must move!” The other six rapidly returned to their column-like formation, trotting at the same pace as Twilight and keeping it as best as they could do. As they did so, several flocks of birds flew away, rustling the leaves in an alarming manner, and the animals walking around in the forest produced distress calls at the same time, creating a very loud cacophony sharply contrasting with the previous relative silence of the forest. After several minutes of trotting, the seven ponies arrived in a marsh, greeted by the sight of a silver and purple horseshoe-shaped door frame, coupled with two coat-clad bald figures that Twilight recognized as humans, but with an oddly dull skin colour. A strange silvery object was attached to the backs of their heads and it was seemingly sliding down to the tail end of their spines. “Are those… humans, Twilight, dear?” Rarity asked with a whisper, as she hid behind a nearby bush on Twilight’s silent order. “Yes, those are humans, but they look… eerily similar. Almost as if they were clones...” Twilight whispered, as she forced Pinkie Pie’s head down with her right hoof. “Like the ones born out of the Mirror Pool?” “Yes, Rarity, like the ones that came out of the Mirror Pool.” Twilight muttered, as she spied on the two humans from an opening in the bush behind where she hiding. The two humans went in opposite directions in the marsh, walking with her index finger- which was glowing purple- pointed straight in front of them, before briefly stopping. Both of them, almost simultaneously, turned around towards the bushes, as a faint purple immaterial thread that extended from their fingers and moved towards where the seven mares were hiding. Realizing that, Fluttershy rapidly rushed to hug Rainbow Dash as she stared worried at the threads; Twilight and Rarity watched concerned as they slowly slithered towards them; Pinkie stared in wonder; and Starlight watched and mumbled. “I do think I recognize this kind of magic… mind puppeteering, I believe.” Starlight Glimmer calmly whispered, as the threads started to touch her horn. She then lit it up, causing the threads to retreat off her head. “Sadly for them, I do know how to dispel that.” Soon, Twilight realized that her head was being touched by the figments. However, aside from a sensation akin to tickling on her forehead, she failed to notice anything weird in herself, be it thoughts or actions. twilight stifled a giggled, as she shook her head, watching, as she noticed that the immaterial threads still coming from from their hands. “Why isn’t this working at all?” One of them wondered aloud, as he other huma seemingly exchanged a glare, just before turning his hand back towards the ponies, his fingertips slowly engulfed by flames. “No matter.” The other human said, before throwing a fireball at the bush, which however was handily dodged by the seven ponies, who simply jumped side and let the bush burn to a crisp. "What shall we do Twilight?" Rainbow Dash shouted as she flew away, follwoed close behind by Applejack, Twilight, Fluttershy and Rarity. "I don't know, I have never seen a human using magic as easily as that, much less begin this aggressive!" Twilight shouted back.
Operation: Mind Games (Prologue)Yuri was running inside the humid and dripping dungeons of his ruined castle in Transylvania, rushing towards the deepest part of the subterraneans. Sounds of explosions, crumbling stones and shouts came from above, constantly reminding Yuri to keep up his fast walking pace. Soon he arrived at the end of the corridor, where a wooden door with a iron deadlock awaited. “Defeated once again, and, this time, right in my last-standing Headquarters,” he muttered to himself, as he rapidly slided away the iron deadbolt of the wooden door in front of him. “It is truly a blessing that I am as savvy as I am, otherwise I would suffer… unpleasantness, in the comrades’ hands.” Once the door was open, he swung it inwards, revealing to himself his greatest acquiring of all, courtesy of a handful of helpful Allied scientists and his (rather small) think tank of great scientists. The Time Machine, built with a similar structure as the one that the Allies had originally installed in San Francisco to wipe out his base there. Yuri quickly walked the stone stairs leading down at the Time Machine’s already-open hatch, closing it down with one swift telekinetic effort, just before sitting down on the black lather seat and strapping himself down. “Everything I need to know is stored in the back, if the clones of myself didn’t lie to me.” Yuri said to himself, as he then started to select a date- 30 of April 1954 to be precise- to go back to. “Easier than just use my own mind, even if exquisite.” As soon as he finished to key in his destination and both of his hands were on the lever, he heard shouts and a steadily-increasing sound of boots coming from outside the room. “I will not waste my time in taking control of them.” He whispered to himself, as he pushed the lever all the way towards himself. As soon as he did that, the air around the machine started to audibly crackle, while the machine itself started to quake intensely and let out a very loud mechanical whine. Yuri closed his eyes, and soon there was a thundercrack-like sound going off, one that echoed inside inside the cockpit. Shortly after, there was another crackling sound and a loud thud, as the machine strongly shook again. “Already at destination, it seems,” he muttered to himself, as he opened his eyes while undoing the straps holding him to the seat. “Not that I mind.” However, as soon as he concentrated on what lied beyond the cockpit’s glass, he was greeted by the sight of a rust red cloudy sky, in the midst of a forest of half-dead trees. Yuri looked up at the display supposed to tell him the time, only see a garbled neon green mess. Yuri stared at it for a few seconds, when he went back to look at the trees. “Something tells me I am everywhere but close to destination.” He said to himself, as he opened up the hatch, before climbing out of the machine onto the grassy ground below. Done so, Yuri walked in circles around the Time Machine, looking around himself to see if he could notice any kind of landmark or location specific characteristic, only to be greeted by contorted shapes of black dead trees all around him. “Somehow, for some reason, I seriously doubt that going in circles is going to bring me anywhere.” With that said, Yuri stopped his walking to look a little better at the forest in front of him. While the trees showed signs to have been luxuriant once upon a time, the branches and the roots protruding from the ground weren’t clustered in a way that could make traveling through them overly difficult for somebody on foot. Noticing that particular, Yuri walked next to a tree and concentrated himself on his index, causing a little flame to form on the tip of fingertip, before slowly writing his monogram on a tree’s bark. “This should be a reference point good enough, should the Time Machine be stolen or broken while I am away… somehow.” Yuri said to himself. He snapped away with ease the few branches that got in his way and dodged the roots quite handily, making his way through the forest. The vegetation’s thickness thinned out as he went on, until, in-between four trees, Yuri spotted in the distance what looked like a wall made out of black wood logs and stone, with several thin streams of gray smoke coming from behind it. “If my own mind does not deceive me, this is a pretty clear sign that I am not anywhere near in time to the Forties. Nor in New Mexico, for that matter” Yuri muttered to himself, leaning on a nearby tree for a minute, before resuming his walk with a hunched back and a slower step. “I shall get closer.” As he walked closer to the structure, he could see more details appearing in his field of view: tower and their embrasures, flags depicting a black crown of spines- with four drops dripping from said crown and a half-open eyes in the middle- on red background, some broken weapons laying scattered next to the wall, and armed equine shapes going around the walls’ boardwalks. Yuri’s eyes briefly widened at the sight of it. “Oh, that is interesting. Equines guarding an encampment’s walls.” He muttered to himself, massaging his goatee as he kept looking. “That is really interesting. To have access to the minds of the ones that have trained these animals to guard duty would be quite an accomplishment. No matter, thought: I will have time to satiate my hunger for knowledge later, now it is time to see if they will be… consensual, in providing me shelter, nourishment and possibly fuel.” Getting a little closer, he could no see more details of the guards, who not only were equines holding up weapons, but were also of colour unusual to the species, as if they had been created by one his counterparts in a moment of boredom. “Interesting. Perhaps I can check if these… ‘horses’, can be actually controlled?” Yuri set his right hand on his temple and used the other hand to point at the encampment, before concentrating in harnessing his mental energies. After a couple of minutes, Yuri’s hand weakly glowed purple and he lifted his head, looking at the wall, until he noticed a black crossbow-carrying stallion passing by right in front of him. Wasting no time, Yuri stretched his hand forward towards the guard, before concentrating his gaze on him. Soon enough, Yuri felt a slight tingle going up his arm, signal that it was time for him to act. “Greetings, soldier. My presence may be rather… unexpected, and so will be my questions. However, due to a series of setbacks, I am in dire need of information. Would you kindly provide them?” “W-what?” Yuri could hear the pony think. “What are you doing in my mind? A-are you one of t-those changeling spies? I-I will n-not betray m-my king!” “King Sombra?” Yuri mused. “Changelings? Pray tell what are you talking about?” “H-how? How.. is this possible?” The soldier’s thought got even more panicky. “What are you?” Yuri let out a sigh. He clenched his fist and squinted his eyes close. “I’m Yuri. Obey me.” He whispered two times to the guard. Soon enough, in Yuri’s field of vision, a rather large field of white and khaki tents seen from the above appeared in his field of vision. Many horses similar to the ones he was controlling were out and about, acting very much like human soldiers would have, between some polishing their weapons rhythmically and obsessively, others betting over either spoils or parts of the rations with card games and dices, and yet more drinking from flasks and lying just outside the tents. “So, this is a military encampment after all. I still do not see any jockey or beastmaster around, thought.” Yuri muttered to himself. He then shifted his focus on the mind-controlled guard. “Bring me to your commander. I have… interest, in having a quick talk with him...” “Yes. I will bring you to my Commander… King Sombra…” Sergeant Pyotr Cservenka trudged along the perimeter of the Soviet military outpost stationed in Helsinki, leading his squad of Tesla Troopers in single file line. Finland was mostly a low priority during the war despite it's relative proximity to the other Allied-aligned Baltic States. He and his squad were only a few weeks ago on the front lines of Corpus Christi providing anti-armor support for tank divisions landing on the shores, but for whatever reason the powers that be in Command felt he and his squad were better suited where he was now, more or less guarding animals due to the outposts relative proximity to the local zoo. Keyword was 'mostly'. Since the Soviet Union annexed Finland in the late thirties, resistance groups had plagued the land. While the insurgency was nowhere near as bad as it was when it peaked during the Allied counteroffensive in the Second World War, a new generation was buying into the empty promises of independence from Yuri and it was deemed second-line and nonessential forces needed to bolster the local garrisons. Tesla Troopers were far from second-line troops or bullet sponges the average conscript inevitably ended up being, and were actually among the elite of Soviet infantry, but orders were orders. Cservenka was as close to to the Russian stereotype of a burly no-nonsense mountain of a man as one could fit inside an insulated rubber suit with a weaponized Tesla coil mounted on the forearm. Tall, bald, and with a muscular build masked by a layer of fat. Out of the four other men in his Tesla Trooper squad, he was the only veteran of the Second World War twenty years prior, fresh out of training when he was selected for the experimental 'Shock Troopers' and he still had the acid burns on his back to prove it. “I just hope some of those partisans show up, I'm looking forward to making some northern lights,” a voice came from the small speakers inside Cservenka's suit, responding to the others. The voice belonging to that of Corporal Moskvin, the only other member of the Sergeant's original squad and by default the most competent under his command. “Focus,” Cservenka replied curtly into the small microphone resting at his chin, and any nonessential chatter died just like that. The Sergeant found it somewhat difficult to peer out of the narrow visor his suit allowed, he always had to stay on edge for sniper fire, especially as he and his squad were out in the open. Their suits were technically bulletproof - albeit that was more a byproduct of making the rubber layers thick and sturdy enough to stand war and not fry the wearer by mistake – but were not invulnerable. The squad continued their patrol in relative silence, the only noise being their rubber boots hitting the ground with each step as they finished it and made their way back to base on the opposite side of the zoo before them a couple blocks away. The silence gave way to the distant but ever present wail of an alarm from the outpost and a general order from their built-in radios. “General order to all units within the vicinity of Helsinki. Reports of fires and large unidentified beasts causing destruction have been reported from the Helsinki Zoo and its immediate surroundings. All nearby units, engage at will. All stations are to report any and all suspicious sightings to Command no matter how insignificant they seem.” “Talk about luck,” Cservenka could not see Moskvin's grin, but he knew it was there. He hated to admit he was as eager to fight long ago, but publicly explaining the exact reason for his attitude change would in the best case scenario have him be lugging a flak cannon over his shoulder instead. “Squad, double-wedge formation,” Cservenka shouted in his sealed suit with enough volume for the other members to hear him anyway. As ordered the five Tesla troopers spread out into a loose W shape, their right forearms outstretched before them ready to throw lightning at an order's notice. Less than fifty meters from the side entrance of the zoo the squad encountered what they collectively assumed was one of the unidentified beasts. It in the vaguest sense resembled a horse with several layers of muscle added onto it. Additional details could not be determined by the squad at that moment, mostly due to the fact that the massive, gray monster was charging straight towards them and priorities needed to be set straight. Acting on instinct, Sergeant Cservenka outstretched his arm, clenching a fist as he looked down the crude iron sights of his Tesla coil and gave the order to fire. A bright flash of electricity burst from the arms of three Tesla Troopers in front, a streak of lightning from each instantly connecting with the massive beast square in the midsection and neck before disappearing only a second later. Tesla weapons in general were powerful enough to disintegrate a man with a direct hit, however, not only did this creature fail to turn into ash, but it still continued it's dash to the squad undaunted roaring wildly despite the widespread third-degree burns all over its body fuming thin white smoke. The second line of Tesla Troopers took their turn firing as the others waited for their weapons to recharge. The beast made a second pained cry and collapsed to the ground mere meters from Cservenka, succumbing to the gruesome burns it sustained. “Was that a Brute we just killed?” asked one of the newer additions in Cservenka's squad, Private Kerensky. His voice full of disbelief, he had probably never seen one in person before, let alone make the killing blow on one. “Da, looks different though. I thought Yuri only used humans for Brutes though,” Moskvin replied. The creature before them was indeed a horse, more specifically a pony swollen to several times its normal size, but its facial features were very unusual. It's eyes were massive in proportion to its head, with saucer-like irises in a faded orange color. The strangest yet most haunting feature seemed to be the symbols that appeared on the flank – the indisputable mark of Yuri that all forces under his control wore. This could have only meant that Yuri managed a way to mutate animals as well for use as anti-armor troops, the petting zoo before them having been made demonstrations of this fact. What this potentially entailed for the Soviets many attack dogs and beloved pets didn't bode well for Cservenka. “Move forward, squad. There is bound to be more. Concentrate fire on individual Brutes when possible, but be wary of enemy support.” A series of 'affirmatives' followed and the squad of Tesla Troopers advanced further down the street. The Allied European Theater Commander Center in Bonn was echoing in bleeps, shouting, rapid walking and radios crackling. Not a single spot of the building could have been considered silent in any shape or form, nor any member of the staff could be seen slacking off. Such amount of chaos had been seen only during the devastating but ultimately brief Soviet invasion of Western Germany in the Second World War, and only few inside the office had the (un)luck to be there at the time. “We are reporting several hostile ground units are coming from all directions inside the cities of Bonn, Cologne and Lyon” The intelligence and communication officer, Elise-Victorie Alleran, said to Commander Valerian Jung, who was- as per his usual- silently listening with his hands held up to form a pyramid with his fingers. “I thought you had said Munich too!” Lieutenant Giles Price said with his head turned towards the communication officer, while covering the phone’s speaker that he was currently using to communicate with Germany’s chancellor. Elise sighed and then turned her head around back towards . “We were saying, the units’ origin is currently unknown and their composition is rather unusual, featuring equine-like beasts of war whose characteristics match with the genetically-modified soldiers our soldiers have nicknamed ‘brutes’ mixed with horned horses with firepower capabilities estimated to be around a Yuri’s initiate. We suspect usage of stolen Chronosphere technology, but there are no reports confirming that just yet.” Valerian nodded. A sweaty staff member went quickly towards Elise, giving her a folder before scurrying away, and, after taking it in her hands, she opened it to read it to him, while he turned on the monitor with a flicker of his index finger on the power button. The monitor slowly came to life, showing a high-quality video map, with a small radar in a corner of the screen. “Currently, we have one infantry platoon fully at our disposal, with another three already engaging the enemy. We are also trying to get an armoured division coming from Düren, which should be enough to drive the hostiles out of the city. Until then, your task is to defend the University of Bonn from the incoming attacks with the available forces.” Valerian once again nodded in silence, as he slowly turned around and fixed his eyes on the monitor nearby, while Elise gestured for somebody to pass the radio transmitter to the Commander, so that he could start to give out commands. “Sir, for the fourth time, we are trying our best to understand what is happening, as well as contain it.” Giles Price said, massaging his forehead, still talking on the phone. “Chancellor, sir, if we are not trying to fool you. Actual, honest-to-God pastel-coloured horses, are attacking us. And it has only begun...”
Chapter 1Commander Aleksandr Vascak sat at his small personal desk, wolfing down a bowl of beef stew as quickly as he could. It was, coupled with the lack of sleep marked by his sagging eyes, a habit he was quick to learn at the start of the war with the Allied Nations that stayed with him even with the recent defeat of the traitorous Yuri. Vascak looked at the small set of clocks in the wall set to various timezones, in his case it was 0700 local hours in Helsinki. The Commander was tasked by the Premier himself with dealing with the local resistance groups occupying parts of the capital and beyond. The resources he had in achieving this end were somewhat paltry, but his casualties were in the hundreds - low by Soviet standards - morale was decent and most fighting was restricted to isolated neighborhoods. A buzzer whined throughout the halls of the underground bunker outside his room, yellow lights flashing over him and his meal. Vascak left his stew to go cold as he rushed out of his quarters down the cold concrete halls to the main command center. Passing two reinforced steel doors and the sentries guarding them, Vascak was greeted to a medium sized square shaped room with all four walls dominated by monitors, terminals and staff working them, a single podium stood before a 9x9 slope housing a monitor bearing the old emblem of the Red Army as a screensaver, smaller secondary screens rested at the top corners used for both communications and any other visual needs. The bunker was built in WWII to oversee military operations in Finland, and with few exceptions most of the technology inside the command room was dated as such, but was sufficient in what it was needed to do. Vascak moved to the podium, which held various buttons and switches and a crude touch screen interface with accompanying stylus. Vascak flipped the power switch to one of the small monitors before him and adjusted the frequency as he did with various dials, his intelligence officer, the modestly attractive Lieutenant Zofia appeared on the black-and-white screen. “Report, comrade Zofia,” Vascak ordered into a microphone, his eyes sharp as a hawk despite appearing saggy and sleep-deprived. “Unconfirmed reports of Yuri's forces have been sighted near our main communications hub near Helsinki Zoo,” Zofia replied, “Loss of this outpost would significantly hamper communications for all areas north of Leningrad and security of the region would be at risk.” The normally confident woman had an unusual look of confusion as she spoke, it was being hidden to the best of her ability, but Vascak payed good attention to detail and could still sense it in her body language even through a TV screen. “According to these reports, Yuri's forces consist entirely of cavalry.” “Define 'cavalry.'” “His forces are made up of unicorns and large, mutated ponies,” came the deadpan answer from Zofia, even she had a hard time believing what she just said. A less forgiving Soviet officer would likely think of her assertion as a joke, and seek out punishment for it, but Aleksandr... knew Zofia a bit closer than he likely should and took it at face value. “Set me up with the hub and all forces stationed to it immediately.” The lieutenant nodded, speedily typing at the keyboard before her. “Establishing battlefield control, standby.” The slope screen before Vascak displayed a satellite generated image of Helsinki Zoo and everything around it for a two kilometer radius. The communications hub housed most of the forces available in the area, one company's worth of conscript infantry and a small group of four Rhino tanks, with one Tesla Trooper squad and a few additional squads of conscripts being recalled from patrols already engaging. The infantry were represented by small red blips clustered together with a symbol identifying their status - three bullets denoting the conscripts and a lightning bolt the Tesla Troopers for example - and the the tanks were highlighted red. All in all, Vascak had about a couple hundred men at his disposal. With time of the essence, additional forces were too far away or busy suppressing the partisans elsewhere in the capital. Yuri had demonstrated more than once in the war against the Allies what he could do with metropolitan cities if he can entrench long enough, and if these so called unicorns were not destroyed quickly, Helsinki would be lost and Soviet influence in Finland soon after. The Commander used his stylus to mark areas on the tops of buildings for spotters to observe from, assigning squads and groups for his various sub-commanders in the room to relay the orders to so he could focus on the bigger picture. Private Guglielmo Pennacchini ejected his pistol’s empty magazine, and it ammo bounced and jingled against the layer of spent cartridges that littered the crossroad where his fellow soldiers had deployed their machine guns against the equine assaulters, who were now either lying dead or dying and moaning all over the Nussalee. His platoon, after a rather hasty wake-up call at the wee hours of the morning, had been deployed and ordered to defend Bonn’s University from attacks until further notice. Guglielmo, begin a volunteer pretty much just out of training whose squad had been assigned to guarding duties behind the frontlines up to that point, despite a brief moment of annoyance and confusion due to the early wake-up, had been quite anxious- if not outright excited- by the idea of entering in a real battle for the first time in his career as a soldier. Now, after the battle, he was looking over the landscape left by the partially literal firefight- as the unicorns had thrown fireballs in his and his squadmates’ direction- from the vantaged position of the small elevated marble colonnade serving as entrance to the University. From here, he was seeing mostly burning bushes, scorched houses, a snow-like cover of spent casings, dead equines littering the streets, and the rest of his squad either staring silently at the carnage or disassembling their weapons and undoing their emplacements. “Uh-hu. I didn’t expect this to be over so quickly.” Guglielmo commented, feeling almost confused by the quickness of the fight he just had fought, and by his foes’ bizarre appearance, one that resembled pastel-coloured horses with horns and eyes as big as faceplates; instead of the robe-clad bald men and women that many of squadmates said to Yuri’s standard unit. Corporal Filippo Damiani sighed, as he slowly unhooked the ammo belt and disassembled his machine gun. “Be glad it was quick and that no-one in the squad has been toasted by any of those things,” The corporal said “I still remember when that Yuri guy used to employ only conspiracy theorists, sociopaths and other assorted nutjobs as soldiers, and when they actually shown to have been trained.” “Could they shoot fire from their foreheads?” Guglielmo asked, as he kept looking around him. “More like their hands, but the effect, and I think the way to did that, was pretty much the same.” Filippo let out a sigh, as he strapped the heavy gun on his back. “Only, they had actually managed to torch soldiers and, sometimes, overheat vehicles.” Guglielmo cringed somewhat, but then regained his composure, feeling he needed to not show outwardly what was going on in his head. “Poor bastards.” He simply said and Filippo nodded in response. After what felt like an eternity, the sergeant, a slim and short man with little more than a few tufts of regrown hair peeking out from under his helmet, his name Daniele Broccu, came close with his left hand gripping on the pistol and pointing towards his left, from where they had come from in the first place. “Let’s get moving, the Commander has ordered us to join the Armoured Division currently in the Stadtgarten close to the river.” He said, with his usual gruff voice followed by a boar-like squeal, one that offset his otherwise laughter-worthy hair. Filippo immediately got up and silently followed the sergeant, soon followed by a good chunk of the squad. Guglielmo, after a timid nod, holstered his pistol and followed his squadmates in line, basically begin the last of them before the ones tasked with the unfortunate duty of carrying most of the sandbags. Cservenka's squad advanced up to the side entrance of the zoo, the sound of muffled gunshots and primal roars in their ears and smoke billowing over the walls. With the entrance too narrow for the Tesla Troopers to enter in formation, the two outermost Troopers moved behind the inner two and covered the rear. Now forming a thin M-shape, the squad approached the ticket stand their weapons ready to turn it into ash at the first sign of hostile movement. “Kerensky, search that stand,” Cservenka ordered, the Trooper complied as ordered and swiftly but cautiously walked up to the stand, kicked the door open and peered inside. “It is clear comrade-Sergeant,” Kerensky said. “Affirmative, return to formation.” “Movement on right!” one of the other Trooper's shouted, aiming his Tesla coil at a cage designated for the some exotic bird judging by the picture. Cservenka did not turn fully to see what Kerensky and the other Trooper discharged their weapons at, but when he did he saw a torrent of flame shoot towards them and what was throwing it. Yuri's forces were already highly unconventional and even more unethical, his main infantry unit essentially used a flamethrower - a weapon once used liberally by the Soviets in WWII but since banned under the rules of war - created with their minds for example. But what was even more unconventional about the so-called “Initiates” was that the Initiate throwing fire at them wasn't a man, but a pony, no, a unicorn! Except, this unicorn only vaguely resembled a horse. It had the same oversized eyes as the Brute before, but in contrast its head seemed too big for its body to be able to balance. Its legs did not have hooves so much as furry stumps at the ends and its coat and mane colors were a vivid red and yellow but still bore Yuri's mark on the flanks. ‘What on earth did he do to these animals?’ Cservenka thought. Following a similar course of action to the pony-Brute moments before, Cservenka aimed and struck the unicorn dead. The flames ceased with their source neutralized and their target visibly and thoroughly cooked to the center. Valerian Jung sipped his coffee slowly, as he kept his gaze fixed on the light blue counters representing his units, as they advanced forward into Bonn’s northern suburbs. Much to his bemusement and gladness, Yuri’s assailants hadn’t been particularly fierce or tactically savvy. “Either they were a suicide squad composed by botched animal mutations,” Valerian muttered with a small smirk. “Or Yuri has a major head cold and refuses to calm down. Send initiates one by-one in a narrow street is…” Valerian Jung shook his head. “Just idiotic. The brutes were lucky that they weren’t spotted before they managed to attack and crash one of those IFV in a wall, otherwise this, perhaps, would’ve been one my most successful operations in my entire career.” His self-complacent boast was interrupted by a bleep coming off from the monitor. Almost losing the grip on his cup of coffee, Commander Valerian looked carefully on the screen. He- after putting his cup down- grabbed the radio transmitter and set the speaker close to his mouth. “Gamma-6, why did you stop? I gave order to reach the Nordfriedhof!” “Sir, we’ve just destroyed an hovercraft and…” The Major said on the radio. “What does this had to do with you stopping?” Commander Valerian asked with a groan. “And why would be there an hovercraft hundreds of kilometers from the sea?” “Sorry sir, but we’ve noticed that all of the surviving hostiles were retreating towards that vehicle and that they were entering inside. We assumed that they were getting evacuated, so we tried to shoot them, butut…” “But?” Valerian asked, squinting his eyes somewhat in anticipation. “The hovercraft’s wreckage seems to be completely empty. There are no traces of anyone ever entering in here, not even charred remains.” The Major said. “I, and my subordinates, were thinking whether leave it alone or salvage for study.” Valerian Jung sighed, massaging his forehead. “With the enemy still out?” “Actually, sir, as I have said, we do not detect any kind of hostile activity. They’ve pretty much vanished.” Vascak surveyed the battlefield as the spotters reached their positions and relayed what they saw. Several dozen hostile targets, all infantry, appeared on the map scattered about the zoo's premises, either engaging his forces or just trying to create as much havoc as possible. Yet, there was no obvious explanation for how they could have gotten there. 'Even if he doesn't destroy the hub, he makes us look weak in the eyes of the public and rally support for the partisans. Either way he makes my life more difficult no matter how strong or swift the response is. Clever,' Vascak thought, 'But if he was going to perform terror mission, why would he strike when the zoo is closed instead of a time there would be civilians in it?' That part didn't make sense to the Commander at first, Yuri had no qualms about bringing civilians into his fights or using them for slave labor, but assumed he, or what few of his followers pulling the strings in his wake were trying an unconventional recruitment campaign. In any case, Vascak was having none of it. The Rhino tanks at his disposal would need to go around two corners to meet a driveway into the zoo, the conscripts following suite behind. Preferring a more immediate entrance, he drew a line for the tanks to form up with and marked four spots on the wall in front of them to destroy. The muzzles of the tanks spewed flame as large holes in the wall opened up a split-second later. Knowing that the Brutes could smash up his precious few tanks if allowed to get too close, he split the company of conscripts into four platoons and ordered each of them to go through a different hole and clear the immediate area of hostiles while the tanks followed afterward. Once the area was secure, three of the platoons would search inside the buildings and clear them out while the last guarded the tanks. On the other end of the zoo, the Tesla Troopers were engaging the forces of Yuri around them, and quickly concluded the firefight with only part of the outer rubber layers of one of their suits melted and minor burns. Good, he didn't like to have valuable units go to waste. As the next few minutes went by, Vascak came to the conclusion that the battle went into the Soviets favor as soon as the tanks entered. Yuri's forces failed to act in a cohesive manner and it was just a matter of the Commander's troops cutting them down one by one. The Brutes were somewhat difficult nuts to crack, a bullet from a PPS-41 standard issued to every conscript in the Red Army could down the unicorn Initiates just as easily as their human counterparts, but it was more akin a bugbite for the hypertrophic horses. Of course, anyone could die from bugbites in great enough quality, in such case roughly a couple hundred. Vascak switched back on the communications channel to Zofia and spoke into the microphone. “Comrade Zofia, what have we found, if anything inside?” “According to one of the squads, an archlike structure has been found inside the horse stables for the petting zoo - how ironic. An image will be sent to you now.” The small monitor on the right showed a picture of the stable interior. True enough a silver arch speckled with odd patterns and markings dominated the wall. Zofia continued, “We currently do not know how this arch appeared, but we predict it is some kind of portal Yuri's forces used to enter the zoo. At this time we do not know where it leads, and it appears to have suffered sabotage to prevent us from finding out. Meanwhile, salvage operations are underway and the bodies of these animals will be taken for research, we have even managed to take a few alive. I shall keep you posted as new events unfold, Commander. Zofia out.” She made a wink as she severed the connection. The intelligence officer made sure to return Vascak's control over the front to the citywide level. It seemed while the partisans did not try anything bold while Vascak was focused on dealing with Yuri, word was no doubt already spreading of the attack and he knew he was in for another late-night keeping order.
Chapter 2The psychic command chamber of Emerald Crest glowed a faint purple around the servers mentally linking up the unicorn to the forces under her command. Attached to her bald head was a web-like mat of sensors and nodes while a dark green aura rippled around her horn. Her eyes were shut, not that she was using them, all nonessential senses like smell and touch were suppressed to consolidate attention to her tasks. Emerald synced her mind up to those of her fellow commanders, sent by Yuri to carry out his will. In her particular case, she was tasked with securing the human city of Bonn for later use. She did not fully understand what these humans were, only that Yuri was one of them, nor did she even know that there was another world plagued by war or that her own war would meld with it. In any case, she was grateful of Yuri's decision to have her join the best side. After all, if the failed Princess Celestia could not even save her own sister from herself, how could she hope to protect her ponies from Sombra or the Allies and Communists that opposed Yuri? Unfortunately, her mission did not go as planned. “What is the status of your respective operations, fellow commanders?” Emerald asked the other four unicorns sharing the link, their minds and thoughts remained individuals at the psychic conference table, but it was almost impossible for them to think of Yuri as anything besides the boss with the final say. “Helsinki stands with the Soviets, unfortunately.” “Cologne has been taken with minimal casualties.” “The forces defending Ulaanbator are routing, but pockets of resistance remain.” “The Budapest force has been... decimated.” The last mind seemed particularly troubled in relaying the events. “The Bonn invasion has been repulsed,” Emerald said, her physical body rubbing her temples. “These humans are more resilient than expected, but how?” “It is obvious, Yuri is human, it is only fitting that others are like him,” the Ulaanbator commander said. “Perhaps not as powerful, but stronger than a pony. In the way an alicorn is stronger than a typical pony.” “And yet, they do not have magic. Yet they are able to create machines that can disguise themselves as trees and mount weapons powerful enough to burst shield spells,” the Colon commander added. “Their understanding of technology is far beyond anything we know, many of our more machines and electronics are based upon magical principles yet remain inferior.” “Even further is their physical attributes, or lack thereof,” the Helsinki commander said. “These humans, tall and narrow - at least the ones outside the North American continent according to intelligence – they lack the strength of an earth pony, or the musculature of a minotaur or even a wretched diamond dog. Their eyes, are small and forward facing, less acute than that of the griffons. It is indeed their technology that is their advantage and only. “The phrase, mind over matter applies does it not?” The six unicorns in attendance physically twitched in surprise at the sound of Yuri's voice echoing through their subconscious. The group shared a mental image of each standing before a table, represented by shadowy avatars. Yuri made himself appear within the image as a humanoid silhouette with the markings on his head the only detail on its face. Yuri continued, “The human body is perhaps not the most imposing of shells. However, the human brain very much is. Though not the largest, it is nonetheless more advanced than any form of life encountered.” The unicorns did not object to Yuri's words, he had more than proved them to be accurate already. “Master, we did not anticipate that you were present. Shall we inform you of the results of our tasks?” “Indeed, I shall scan your memories and analyze your missions, your successes, your mistakes.” I wonder why he always whispers when he talks, it's so odd, Emerald thought, she knew he could probably hear her comments, but she was curious. “It is because I prefer to speak my mind, comrade-Emerald.” Solid purple eyes appeared on the avatar of Yuri, glowing dimly. “You shall go first.” Emerald Crest's physical body relaxed as she allowed Yuri to scour her thoughts and memories without resistance. The process it self didn't take more than a few seconds and the next thing she knew her master was done and had moved on to the next commander in the group. When Yuri was finished making his psychic rounds he expressed his thoughts to the group. “To those who have succeeded in their tasks, you have performed admirably and have shown a comprehensive understanding of tactics and local climate, political and natural. For that, you may leave and go about your devices until you are called again.” The commanders of the Ulaanbator and Colon fronts severed their link from the group. So long as they ultimately obeyed him without hesitation his successful minions were granted generous freedoms and Yuri could care less of what they did in their free time. “As for you, comrades-Emerald Crest and Nova Cloud, you have failed in your primary objectives. Unlike your comrades, you have not adapted to the opposition in a satisfactory manner. The direct course is not always the smartest, but you have still achieved a secondary condition adequately enough to evade punishment. This time.” Emerald and the commander of the Helsinki operation remained as they were, Yuri did not yet dismiss them. The eyes on the psychic's avatar glowed brighter and turned into sharper shapes as he focused on the last commander. “And then, there is you. Your force had been utterly decimated to the last, yet unlike the two beside you now, you cannot explain it. Your thoughts held nothing but images of dozens of dead equines riddled with bullets and severed limbs, but there is no hint of who or what caused this.” Yuri's most plausible theory on the matter was that the forces encountered a Soviet commando - or perhaps a handful of commandos - that just so happened to be there. Whatever killed the forces certainly did a masterful job of hiding from sight while simultaneously gunning dozen dozens of troops in moments judging by the number of bullet holes in the latter. “All things considered, it is not entirely your fault, I am to be held responsible for failing to account for commandos operating in Hungary, given its proximity to my old estate. Nonetheless, the outcome is complete failure and while you have not necessarily shown incompetence, you must be made an example. May your clone find greater success.” A quick jolt surged from the symbol on Yuri's forehead through the mental conference room and struck the horn on the avatar of the failed commander, who literally melted into an astral puddle, symbolically representing their physical brain turning into soup and leaking out their nose Egyptian-style for the other two commanders to see. “The two of you may leave.” Emerald Crest and Nova Cloud severed the link, leaving Yuri alone to think in the real world. He observed the time machine he entered from. In his short time in the world of colorful equines it came to his attention that there were several other stable alternate timeliness of the world he was in all radically different from each other. Three of these timelines seemed better off from the one he was currently in judging by the lack of apparent war reported by his scouts. Two of the other timelines seemed to be dominated to absurdly powerful beings yet to be encountered in the others, Yuri decided to play it safe and not tamper with them further until he had the means to counter these beings. Yet another timeline seemed to be dominated by shapeshifting insects, and he was in the process of contacting them. The last timeline seemed to be devoid of life, a wasteland far as the eye could see. Perhaps there was more to it than initial impression, but the other 'better off' timelines looked more promising. Specifically one that seemed to show the so-called land of 'Equestria' to be in the midst of advanced industrialization. Already his forces were in the process of setting up psychic beacons to subjugate the nearest cities to his will. With the industry provided from an entire world unmolested by war coupled with the blueprints of most of his technology base, Yuri's war machine would be back up within the month at the latest. Twilight Sparkle, the newest Princess of Equestria, was quite confused. “This is where the Map told us to go…” she said, as she looked around her, seeing mostly tall pines and thorn bushes, only interrupted by dirt paths going inside the pinewood, paths made in a past long forgotten but constantly used as route. “But… where’s anypony?” “Let’s face it, Twi,” Rainbow Dash said, flying close by and handily dodging low-lying branches, an annoyed frown on her face. “The map made a blunder, there’s nothing left that would ever require us seven. I mean, you could take on oh-so-many bad guys alone!” “Dash, your words are flattering to us all, but most likely not true,” Rarity said calmly, walking behind Twilight and at Starlight Glimmer’s side. “The map has never failed us in any circumstance. And, considered what we have faced together, we can never know when our strengths will need to be used in conjunction with one another.” “I agree with Rarity here.” Applejack dryly stated, causing Rainbow Dash to sigh. The march of the seven ponies was accompanied by the sound of the bushes’ leaves and the trees’ fallen branches crackling under their hooves, birdsongs of many varieties, and the occasional gust of wind rustling leaves. “Such a love-” Fluttershy said, only to be interrupted by a loud boom and a odd whooshing sound. Suddenly, the seven went on high alert, quickly forming a skiltron to fce threats from all directions. “What was that? It sounded a lot like Tirek’s magic-draining power!” Rarity said, her horn lighting up rather rapidly to grab a small rock to throw. “I don’t know, but I’m pretty sure that is not a natural-born sound. We shall be watchful of our steps now,” Twilight said, breaking formation and trotting forward. “But we still must move!” The other six rapidly returned to their column-like formation, trotting at the same pace as Twilight and keeping it as best as they could do. As they did so, several flocks of birds flew away, rustling the leaves in an alarming manner, and the animals walking around in the forest produced distress calls at the same time, creating a very loud cacophony sharply contrasting with the previous relative silence of the forest. After several minutes of trotting, the seven ponies arrived in a marsh, greeted by the sight of a silver and purple horseshoe-shaped door frame, coupled with two coat-clad bald figures that Twilight recognized as humans, but with an oddly dull skin colour. A strange silvery object was attached to the backs of their heads and it was seemingly sliding down to the tail end of their spines. “Are those… humans, Twilight, dear?” Rarity asked with a whisper, as she hid behind a nearby bush on Twilight’s silent order. “Yes, those are humans, but they look… eerily similar. Almost as if they were clones...” Twilight whispered, as she forced Pinkie Pie’s head down with her right hoof. “Like the ones born out of the Mirror Pool?” “Yes, Rarity, like the ones that came out of the Mirror Pool.” Twilight muttered, as she spied on the two humans from an opening in the bush behind where she hiding. The two humans went in opposite directions in the marsh, walking with her index finger- which was glowing purple- pointed straight in front of them, before briefly stopping. Both of them, almost simultaneously, turned around towards the bushes, as a faint purple immaterial thread that extended from their fingers and moved towards where the seven mares were hiding. Realizing that, Fluttershy rapidly rushed to hug Rainbow Dash as she stared worried at the threads; Twilight and Rarity watched concerned as they slowly slithered towards them; Pinkie stared in wonder; and Starlight watched and mumbled. “I do think I recognize this kind of magic… mind puppeteering, I believe.” Starlight Glimmer calmly whispered, as the threads started to touch her horn. She then lit it up, causing the threads to retreat off her head. “Sadly for them, I do know how to dispel that.” Soon, Twilight realized that her head was being touched by the figments. However, aside from a sensation akin to tickling on her forehead, she failed to notice anything weird in herself, be it thoughts or actions. twilight stifled a giggled, as she shook her head, watching, as she noticed that the immaterial threads still coming from from their hands. “Why isn’t this working at all?” One of them wondered aloud, as he other huma seemingly exchanged a glare, just before turning his hand back towards the ponies, his fingertips slowly engulfed by flames. “No matter.” The other human said, before throwing a fireball at the bush, which however was handily dodged by the seven ponies, who simply jumped side and let the bush burn to a crisp. "What shall we do Twilight?" Rainbow Dash shouted as she flew away, follwoed close behind by Applejack, Twilight, Fluttershy and Rarity. "I don't know, I have never seen a human using magic as easily as that, much less begin this aggressive!" Twilight shouted back.
