Akula in equestriaby cicakterbang91ChaptersPilotMeanwhile, in EquestriaYou either die a hero...MemoriesPilotHe has failed. He knew it. From the split second before his adversary’s missile struck his aircraft’s tail, Colonel Andrei Markov knew that he has failed. Moments before, his PAK-FA’s radar had been screaming, warning him of an incoming missile, yet he was too focused on his target to realize that his aircraft had run out of flares to deflect the missile. When he timed the missile to get close enough to be affected by the flares, he pushed the button that would jettison the decoy flares only to be answered, to his horror, by his flight HUD (Heads-up Display) telling him that he has run out of flares. He pressed another button, only this time, frantically and repeatedly following a stream of curses, hoping that it would fire his “special” weapon at his target; a cruise missile with a deadly payload. But his weapon was never fired. All the while, screams of “missile alert” spoken in Russian has been assaulting his ears. There was nothing more he could do but wait for the inevitable as the missile struck. Small pockets of memories flashed before his eyes. He calmly walked up to the podium on the stage. His uniform was clean and neatly pressed, and rightly so, for today, he had to look his best. Below the stage to his right, he could see hundreds of his fellow pilots, most of them did not out-rank him, standing in formation, facing the stage. To his left, a group of what looks to be, from the way that they dressed, high ranking men seated upon chairs that look like they were made for the Tsars themselves. Behind the seated men, was a banner with his face on it and his name, Andrei Markov, written in Cyrillic. Literally nothing made a sound. Not even his own footsteps. During this flashback, he can only see but not hear. His attention suddenly zoomed upon a face that seemed, somehow, oddly familiar to him among those who were seated on the stage. He couldn’t put this feeling into words. He doesn’t remember that man in any memories prior to that day but somehow, he is able to recognize him in some way. Suddenly, it dawned on him. During that day, he would think nothing of that face, just another high ranking officer among the group of several others but during this flashback he recognized him as the man who would be known in the present day as the late General Stagleishov. His attention didn’t linger upon that face for long, however. It shifted to the man who was standing behind the podium he was walking up to. The man smiled as he approached. He sees himself in first-person shaking the man’s hand and standing at attention as the man places a medal on his chest. The medal looked like two thin oblong rings tied together vertically by a short sash that is striped respectively white, blue and red from left to right. A golden five-pointed star hung below the lower ring. He gave a salute to the man after receiving the medal and the man saluted back. This was a very important day for him because it was the day he received the title "Geroy Rossiyskoy Federatsii”. Hero of the Russian Federation The impact from the missile caused his aircraft to spin and rotate violently in the sky. He was marching down a corridor with two men in tow. All three were armed with pistols. There were no guards posted at the door which made it all the more easier for them. As with the previous flashback, he could only see, but not hear. All other senses are just memories from the time. When he heard the news that General Stagleishov was willing to surrender the last of their “special” weapon in order to negotiate a clean surrender, he knew he had to stop it. It was not difficult to find soldiers who, as the Americans would put it, have had their jimmies rustled over the news to join him into putting a stop to the surrender. He approached the building where the good General’s office resides with a fairly large group of soldiers trailing behind him. There were three guards posted at the entrance but luckily for Markov, they also wanted to put a stop to the General’s stupidity. The guards advised that a large number of soldiers entering the building together might spook the General into hiding. After much debating, it was decided that only three were allowed into the building while the rest waited outside. Markov was the first choice since he outranks every single soldier who was present at the time. As for the second and third choice, were two of the high ranking soldiers. After arming themselves, they marched into the building. When the three finally reached the door, they equipped their pistols and assembled themselves into a breaching position. After a silent three-count, Markov kicked open the door and fired a single shot at the room’s lone occupant. General Stagleishov had already armed himself with his own side-arm when he heard the door slam open but was too late to defend himself when one of the intruders shot him in the chest. It wasn’t a fatal shot but the pain from it caused him to drop to the floor. He looked up at the intruders and saw that it was none other than three of his own men, all training their weapons at him. Markov could almost hear the shot that he fired that day. He could almost feel himself pull the trigger. He watched as General Stagleishov dropped to the ground after the bullet hit and the blood that pooled on the carpet. Apparently, General Stagleishov didn’t have enough sense to wear body armor at the time. He was about to think that he wouldn’t be able to hear himself taunt the General but to his surprise, he could hear himself say: “Giving up so soon, General?” It was a strange sensation. He knew he spoke those exact words but it felt as if it was spoken by someone else using his voice. He watched as General Stagleishov’s mouth open and close to form words, yet he could hear nothing. After that, his voice came again: “Your coup means nothing”. He watched as his body walked up to the General’s prone form and knelt on one knee. His voice came again without missing a beat: “This is about revenge”. He stood up and delivered a coup-de-grace, a killing shot to finish off the General once and for all. Time seemed to slow down for him as his aircraft twisted out of control in the sky. During this almost miraculous lapse in the perception of time, he was able to see another aircraft slowly (in real time, it would be a lot faster) approaching his own. He knew who it was behind the cockpit of that aircraft. The pilot was another Ace, his equal, his rival, his adversary and the man who had just bested him. Lieutenant Colonel William Bishop, the leader of Warwolf squadron. Machine gun fire began to chew through his aircraft. He first heard of Colonel Bishop during a mission briefing by General Stagleishov. At the time, he had just finished painting the shark mouth design on the nose of his Su-35BM, earning him the nickname “Akula” or shark in Russian. It was also during that briefing that the General unveiled a new type of weapon, one that has the explosive capabilities of a nuclear warhead but does not leave the target area inhospitable for 1000 years. With a weapon like that on hand, General Stagleishov and several others planned to overthrow the current Russian government, replacing it with something called “The New Russian Federation” He’s now behind the cockpit of his Su-35BM. Stretching for miles below him is the city of Carruth and before him, a mess of fighter jets shooting each other down. He remembers this day as the day he first tested Colonel Bishop’s skill. He sees himself enter the fray after the last of Big Bear squadron was shot down by the NATO jets and Warwolf squadron. He started off by harassing the Colonel’s wingman, Captain Gutierrez. As Colonel Bishop came to his wingman’s aid, Markov, now Akula as he was called whenever he was in the sky, pulled a maneuver called the “Pugachev’s Cobra” that switched the position of his aircraft, previously in front of Colonel Bishop’s, to one that’s directly behind the American Ace. Colonel Bishop’s aircraft was then at his mercy and would have been finished off right then and there had Akula’s own wingman warned him that his aircraft was low on fuel. Just as he was leaving the battlefield, he was able to witness with his own two eyes, the full devastating effect of General Stagleishov’s new weapon, codename: Trinity. Just as it was stated during the mission briefing, the explosion looked, at first, as a ball of light for a second before exploding into a mushroom cloud similar to a nuclear explosion as it ripped and tore through Carruth, turning it from a small city into a large parking lot. His second encounter with Colonel Bishop was from a distance after Warwolf squadron had successfully aided an amphibious assault by Tyuleni units to recapture a fortress in Derbent that was held by NRF (New Russian Federation) forces. He was ordered to launch a cruise missile armed with a Trinity warhead at the fortress and leave, which he did. What he did not expect, however, was for the cruise missile to be shot out of the sky and explode outside of the target area. Apparently, the American Ace was much more skilled than he had given him credit for His third encounter with the Warwolf squadron leader was in the skies over Moscow where a massive war was being fought on the ground and in the air between NRF forces and loyalist Russians aided by Task Force 108 and Warwolf squadron. At the time, Akula was tasked to escort a bomber that was carrying a large Trinity warhead. In order to avoid radar detection, Akula and a few other escorts; along with the bomber in question, were flying at low altitudes. The very minute they were detected, the other escorts were immediately hounded and torn apart by Warwolf squadron. Akula himself had no trouble fending off some of the fighter jets from attacking the bomber but somehow, during the chaos, Colonel Bishop was able to shoot down the bomber. Akula then decided to engage in aerial combat with the American Ace as the Trinity warhead detonated in a secondary explosion after the bomber was shot down. He didn’t remember how long the ensuing dogfight was, with both Aces desperately out-maneuvering each other in the air. He did remember the fact that he lost this battle. As he was preparing for a maneuver that would switch the positions of the two aircrafts, his adversary’s machine gun managed to rupture his fuel line and damage his flight control. Luckily, he was able to eject but not before warning Colonel Bishop that this wasn’t over. During his descent, he overheard through his radio, which he patched into Warwolf’s frequency, that General Stagleishov was willing to surrender the last of the Trinity bombs in order to negotiate a peaceful surrender. He landed near a large group of NRF ground units and after picking himself up off the ground, he told the ground units about what he overheard about General Stagleishov’s new plan. They decided to retreat back to base to make sure that it didn’t happen. His fourth encounter was in the skies over Miami, Florida. After killing General Stagleishov, Markov’s wingman, Major Sergei Illich, managed to secure the last Trinity warhead in addition to two PAK-FA aircrafts. He armed the final Trinity warhead in a cruise missile and after adding a shark mouth motif to the PAK-FA’s nose, he was ready to fly again as Akula. Major Illich has also secured several locations within the United States to be used as checkpoints for refueling. With the remaining NRF soldiers at his command, he planned to launch the Trinity warhead into the White House but to get to his destination he first had to go through Miami airspace. After a massive aerial assault over Miami, Warwolf squadron, in addition to Tiger and Coyote squadron, managed to drive back most of the NRF fighters but had suffered heavy losses and damages on their own end as well. That was when Akula decided to strike. He had Colonel Bishop’s aircraft locked in his sights and after accelerating from a fairly large distance, he launched a quick air-to-air missile at the aircraft that would have finished the American Ace once and for all had his wingman, Captain Gutierrez not taken the missile to save him. Akula then proceeded to harass the other American fighters, taking potshots and deftly out-maneuvering them in the air before returning his attention to Colonel Bishop. From a distance, their two aircrafts were facing each other, at this moment he can hear Colonel Bishop’s voice saying: “Markov!” He acknowledged the American Ace and replied through his radio, hearing his voice once again: “Bishop”. The two Aces then engaged in a head-on combat where machine gun bullets were traded with missile fire until they passed each other. Neither Aces were able to press the attack because for the American, his adversary had flown too far and his aircraft was low on fuel. As for the Russian, he had to leave fast because his adversary’s allies were about to close in on him and the head-on combat had damaged the cruise missile under his wing. He had to fix that. He contacted his allies on the ground, asking them to relay coordinates to the nearest checkpoint and headed straight there. While on the ground, he was greeted with more bad news. It appeared that no one in his employ knew how to fix the cruise missile. Markov suggested replacing the warhead into another missile but the missile he had on hand was so badly damaged that the mechanics feared the warhead could not be removed without a high risk of detonating on the spot. Fortunately, the homing mechanism in the missile still works. He was warned that any number of malfunctions might happen when he tries to launch it but given the circumstances, he had no choice. He was still in Miami when he encountered Colonel Bishop for the fifth time. Akula was heading deeper into the States with Major Illich, both of them flying their coveted PAK-FAs, and a fair number of NRF fighters in tow. He was hoping that there would be no American aircrafts to impede their journey since their flight path led them directly into a hurricane but as fate would have it, they were hounded by a squadron of fighter jets led by the American Ace. In groups, the NRF fighters broke off to distract the Americans and buy their leader more time to escape but they were systematically shot out of the sky by the American fighters while Colonel Bishop kept the pursuit. In the end, Major Illich was forced to break off the formation himself to distract the Americans in order for Akula to escape. It was the last time he saw of his wingman ever again. The rest of the NRF air force had already made a mess of the American ground and air force when Akula arrived in Washington D. C. It was here that he intended to exact his revenge on the United States for what they had done, for his wingman, Illich and most importantly, for her. It was also here that he would engage in aerial combat with Colonel Bishop for the final time. After it was confirmed that all SAM (Surface-to-Air Missile) defense sites have been destroyed, Akula made his move and entered D. C. airspace in full throttle. His target: the White House. The Trinity warhead, still damaged, rests under his wing. As he passed the bridge where the last SAM defense site was destroyed, he was once again hounded by Colonel Bishop. Since he couldn’t fire the cruise missile from afar without the risk of going off-target, he decided to end his rivalry with the American Ace so that he can concentrate on his target better when the time came. The two Aces were once again locked in aerial combat with one trying to gain advantage over the other. This time, Akula has the advantage of maneuverability thanks to the marvel of Russian and Indian engineering known as the PAK-FA. With this advantage on hand, he was able to dance around his adversary’s missile attacks and for the missiles he couldn’t evade, he had his decoy flares. In addition, he was also able shoot down one random fighter after another (and also some ground units and buildings) while still maintaining combat with the American Ace, mocking him the entire time. After deciding that he has done enough property damage, Akula noticed that he may not have enough fuel for more shenanigans. If he was to have his revenge, he had to strike there and then. He flew up, and then descended in a direct course to the White House. He pressed the button that would launch the cruise missile but just as his mechanic warned him, it wouldn’t launch due to some malfunction. All the while, his adversary had been harassing him with missiles which he calmly deflected with decoy flares. He gave the missile deployment button another try. It became his undoing. The world was still moving in slow motion. He watched as his adversary’s aircraft move slowly toward his flying carcass, Vulcan machine gun fire leading the way. He had to hand it to the American. The man is relentless and stubborn. As Colonel Bishop’s aircraft was about to pass, he spoke a word through his aircraft’s radio: “Bishop”. There was no malice or hatred or even a tone behind that word, just a simple acknowledgement. One of the machine gun bullets tore through his canopy and his body flew outside the cockpit. Colonel Bishop then indulged him in his acknowledgement and replied: “Markov”. He is now free falling. Still alive but doomed nonetheless. He couldn’t deploy a parachute because his body was literally sucked out of his seat (which is where the parachute is). The only few things he has with him is his flight suit and his helmet which can still receive transmissions. He could do nothing more than contemplate his failure while waiting for the inevitable impact with the ground. In his mind, he thought about the three people he has failed. Firstly, himself for he had plenty of opportunities to finish off Colonel Bishop yet he never took advantage of them and became the death of him; Secondly, his wingman, who was also his best man at his wedding and from any way anyone viewed the situation, who died for nothing; Last but not least, his darling wife, Krista, who was killed by an American bomber, who was the entire reason behind Markov’s actions. He let his mind linger on the thoughts of her, Krista. From the moment he first laid eyes on her, to the moment he held her lifeless body above a pile of debris on a patch of Bosnian soil. He was about to think of what could have been when his radio received a transmission bearing Colonel Bishop’s voice saying “Trinity!” He couldn’t believe his ears. Another transmission came in with a second voice saying “Colonel, Trinity is still alive!” to which the Colonel frantically responded “I have it. I have it!” It was a miracle. He was actually going to have his revenge. He stabilized himself in the air and looked to his left and sure enough, there was Colonel Bishop’s aircraft desperately trying to shoot down the cruise missile that was getting dangerously closer to the White House by the second. He decided to know no more of this and took off his helmet while still free falling. He was content. He closed his eyes and waited for what lies beyond the veil of death. He was standing in a field of green grass. All around him stood colorful creatures that resembled ponies but some of them had wings while others had singular conical horns. If he recalled his mythology correctly, they were called unicorns and pegasi. He noticed that two of these pony-like creatures, a white one and a dark blue one, bore both horns and wings on their bodies; he didn’t know what to call them. They were all facing him. One of the pegasi, a blue one with a large yellow patch on its chest, spoke to him in Russian. “Most of us may not be here anymore when you get back. Are you sure you don’t wanna stay for a little longer?” it said. Surprisingly, the fact that the pegasus spoke, in his language no less, didn’t bother him at all. He replied “I’m sorry Wonderbolt, but I’ve been away from home for too long. I miss my family.” The pegasus, Wonderbolt, can only sigh in resignation. “We’re sure gonna miss you” it said. “I’m gonna miss you guys too”. At that moment, the white pony that had both horn and wings said in a motherly female voice “Unicorns”. All of the unicorns stepped forward and pointed their horns to him. Despite the threatening display, he didn’t seem the least bothered by it. “If anypony wishes to say their farewells, you may do so now” the white pony said. Upon hearing this, all of the ponies spoke their own goodbyes to him. “Goodbye Andrei!” “We’ll miss you” “Don’t forget about us!” He felt warm tears start to roll down his cheeks. “Goodbye everypony! I’ll never forget you guys!” he said to the herd. He then felt a strange sensation inside his body. He looked at his hands and noticed that they were glowing. His stomach felt as though it was doing backflips inside his guts. He took one final glance at the herd of smiling ponies. “What!?” he screamed. That memory came unbidden. In fact, he didn’t even remember experiencing it at all. He tried to stand up but failed because something felt different about his body. He didn’t remember lying down anywhere because the last thing he remembered was freefalling and waiting for death. Yet, for some strange and magical reason, he awoke inside what looks to be a large abandoned European castle filled with aged tapestries and broken stained glass windows. He tried to get up again with similar results. He looked down on his own body but he discovered, to his horror, that his body is no longer his own. What replaced it is the body of the pegasus that he recalled was named Wonderbolt. His hands were replaced by flexible cylindrical stubs where hard keratin hooves would be on a normal horse. His feet were also replaced by the same and his knees now bend backwards. His entire body is covered in blue fur except for a large patch of yellow on his chest. He looked at his back and noticed that he now has wings. This is too much for him to take in. He gave up trying to stand and instead, crawled to the nearest window to get his bearings. He looked outside and noticed the sun was high in the sky. That would mean that the time is mid-afternoon which makes telling west from east difficult. He contemplated using his new wings to fly out of the castle but before he could do anything, he noticed a large flock of birds approaching his direction. He looked carefully at the closest bird and was given a startling revelation. They are not birds. In fact, they were all pegasi wearing golden armor. Each pegasus carried a spear held by both front limbs. Among the throng of armored pegasi, he noticed that two were bridled and was pulling a carriage behind them. “What the hell?” he asked. He crawled further to a large wooden door but was stopped by a blinding flash of yellow light. When the light cleared, he looked behind him and saw a large unicorn, wearing the same golden armor the pegasi were wearing, standing where the flash of light was previously. “Andrei Markov?” it said. He doesn’t know if the unicorn or the approaching pegasi are hostile but given the circumstances, he’ll have to comply with whatever these creatures have in store for him. “Yeah” he replied. “The Royal Sisters wish to welcome you back to Equestria”. He stared at the unicorn dumbfounded for a few seconds before his brain rediscovered the connection to his mouth. "What?" Meanwhile, in EquestriaPrincess Luna trotted softly towards her private chambers. Earlier, after finishing Night Court, she had found plenty of time for herself after all her subjects had retired for sleep. With all that time in her hooves, she entered her room and opened a magical portal that would transport her into the human world. She used to habitually do this before her banishment but back then, it was for a different reason. A reason that had, somehow, eluded the Princess of the night. This time however, she traversed the portal in order to obtain a video game. When Luna arrived in the human world, it was late afternoon and her form was altered into that of a human woman. The portal that she used not only transported her into a different realm, it also changed her form so that she could blend into said realm. In addition, it also made it so that whenever the Princess spoke Equestrian, it would sound like she was speaking the language of the realm in question and whenever someone from the realm spoke to her, the spell would translate it in her head so that to her, THEY were speaking Equestrian. In the case of the human world, she was transported to Washington DC, USA where the spoken language is English. As for her form, she was transformed into a slender, dark-haired woman sporting a pony-tail and wearing a dark blue hoodie with light blue jeans and blue sneakers. She was careful to open the portal in an area where no one can see. The last time she came to this realm, she opened the portal at the exact same spot: an abandoned construction site and when she returned to Equestria, she brought with her a marvel of human entertainment technology: an Xbox 360 (along with a few games in tow). Now, she has returned for more games, including the one known as Lollipop Chainsaw. As she made her way to the front gate of the site, she thought about how her sister would react when she hears the voice of the game's protagonist. When she looked outside the building, she noticed two things: one, a badly charred and mangled carcass of a fighter jet at the base of the unfinished building and two, DC went to hell. She ran to a nearby group of humans to ask them what happened. She slowed down a bit and approached a human male who was wearing a bright reflective vest and asked her question. "Didn't ya read the news lady? War happened." the human replied "Damn Russians tried to nuke the Capitol" he turned his attention away and continued. "Thankfully, it's over now thanks to that Bishop felle- hey, where'd you go?" As the human turned away and continued speaking, Luna rendered herself invisible and undid part of her transformation spell in order to get her wings back. With that done, she took to the skies before the human could turn his attention back to her. All around the city, she saw collapsed buildings, broken glass, mangled vehicles, more humans in reflective vests picking up the pieces and most prominently, more carcasses of fighter jets littering the streets. She landed, still invisible, near a newspaper stand. She had to know what happened. Thankfully she did not undo the part of the spell that translated writing so, she is perfectly capable of reading the various headlines of the collection of different newspapers that the stand has to offer. In one, she read: "NATIONAL HERO: Lt. Col. Bishop saves USA" the paper shows a picture of a human in a military uniform saluting the cameraman. In another, she read: "WAR OVER: Nation rejoices" and shows a picture of many humans waving the American flag But the one that caught her eye was: "AKULA SLAIN: the death of Col. Andrei Markov spells victory for American Forces". The paper showed a picture of a fighter jet with a shark mouth motif painted on its nose and next to it was a picture of a very angry looking human. She bent closer to the paper to read the article: WASHINGTON: On January 18th 2016, the newly appointed leader of the NRF (New Russian Federation), Colonel Andrei Markov launched a massive aerial assault on our beloved capital. Col. Markov, known to his allies as Akula (shark in Russian) planned to destroy the White House using what appeared to be a nuclear bomb but was thwarted by Lt. Col. William bishop when..... "Andrei Markov" Luna silently mouthed. Where have we heard that name before.... She had a bad feeling at the pit of her stomach. She had to return to Equestria. The video games can wait. She never undid her invisibility spell nor did she get rid of her wings so, she flew back to the portal to her mother realm. When she arrived, it was already morning, which meant that her sister is already up and about. She undid her invisibility spell and flew to the throne room where Celestia is most likely to be. She charged through the double doors of the throne room and saw her sister sitting on the throne with a bored look on her face. "Tia!" she began. "We need to-" "Halt!" her sister's guards raised their spears. "Who-, What are you?" She looked at her body and realized that she still retained her human form. "I'm sorry, I don't believe we've met. I'm Celestia" her sister said to her with an amused grin on her face With an annoyed grunt, Luna changed back into her original form which made Celestia's guards drop their spears for fear of what the Royal Sisters might do to them due to their mishandling of the situation. The sight of her guards bombarding her sister with their most sincere apologies forced Celestia to cover her mouth with her hoof in order to stifle her giggles. "It is fine. Really, it is okay but can you please leave us and our sister. We wish to converse with her in private" Luna said to the guards. With a nod from the Princess of the sun, the guards made their way out the double doors in order to give the two sisters their privacy. "I see you've been visiting the human world again. Where did you go this time? Rome? Mumbai?" Celestia asked. "Washington DC" "Again?" "We planned to purchase more video games but..." Luna could feel her sister's eyes rolling at the mention of video games. "Go on.." Celestia urged. Luna inhaled to continue but then suddenly, both of them felt an extremely large surge of magic flow out of their bodies causing their eyes to glow. Magical surge then manifested itself as a large ball of light that formed when the surge from Luna and Celestia combined. The light ball then proceeded to fly out of the throne room through a window and into the Everfree forest. "Report" Celestia commanded. After the ball of light formed, both of the sisters were rendered unconscious which caused quite the stir in the castle. Even Twilight Sparkle teleported to her mentor's side when the news reached Ponyville. When Celestia awoke, she was in a hospital bed and found her faithful student sleeping at the edge of it. Using telepathy, in order to not wake up Twilight, she ordered the guards to search for the ball of light. By the time they found it, Celestia was already in the throne room waiting for their report. A lone guard entered the throne room to give his report. "With the information we gathered from eyewitnesses and reports from our scouts, we have determined that the ball of light made its way into the Old Palace of The Royal Sisters" "You're sure of this?" She asked. "Yes, your Majesty" the guard replied. Celestia was silent for a few moments, digesting this new information before thanking the guard and dismissing him. She is now alone in the throne room with this new information. Luna is still out for the count and she had already sent Twilight home, ensuring the purple unicorn that she is fully capable of handling this situation on her own. "Tia" a groggy looking Luna called out. "Luna. You're awake" "Not early enough, we suppose" It was already past midnight when the lone guard arrived to give his report and Luna was supposed to be the one that the guard reported to. "It's no trouble sister, I have been doing this for a thousand years. What's a single night compared to that?" Celestia said with a smile. "Have they figured out what that ball of light was?" Luna asked as she re-took her shift on the throne. "No, but they have figured out where it went: the old palace" "Now why would it do that?" "I don't know. The last time we were there, Twilight and her friends had just rescued you from Nightmare Moon. We never went there again because we have no more business there" "What do you mean, no more business?" Luna asked. "The castle holds many memories, sister. But for me, most of them are bad" Celestia lamented. "Your banishment, the wars I waged afterwards, the Elements of Harmony rejecting me. It all happened in that palace. Honestly, the only reason I haven't ordered that place be demolished is because it housed the Elements of Harmony and protected it from unworthy hooves. Well, that and-" she paused. "And....?" Luna urged. A smile suddenly crept up on Celestia's face. A smile that grew bigger with every revelation that pops inside her head. "I know who it is!" she exclaimed excitedly. "Uh... WHO....it is?". Luna has not seen her sister this excited in a long time. "Oh, you remember? Our first battle with Discord? The ONLY human there!?" Celestia asked, the uncharacteristic large smile never leaving her face. Luna tried her best to remember. Their first battle with Discord was over a thousand years ago. Humans don't live that long. While she was mulling it over, Celestia is already discussing with the servants about preparing accommodations for their extra special guest. "Wait, now we remember!" Luna exclaimed, equally as excited as her sister was earlier. "But try as we might, we could not place a hoof on the human's name. Do you remember his name, sister?" "Of course I do. His name is....is......" she paused again. She rubbed her chin on her hoof while looking at the ceiling for a few moments. She would be too excited to notice this but her next words would effectively drain the blood from her younger sister's face. "Now I remember. Markov. His name is Andrei Markov" You either die a hero...The Canterlot castle, more specifically, the throne room, was abuzz with activity the next morning. Normally, it was reserved for the princesses to hold audience with their subjects but on that day, most of the royal servants ran hither and tither preparing it for a private party. To the knowledge of the senior servants, the princesses were apparently welcoming an old friend but due to the complicated nature of this friend, a fact that the princesses were not eager to share yet, the welcoming party was kept private. The light purple walls of the throne room was being decorated with fine tapestries. A red carpet led to the throne and ran parallel to the east wall. Red ribbons spiraled down each of the three pillars that ran alongside the wall, obscuring the papyrus motifs molded at the bottom. The throne itself was spared the decorations for the large flower pots and small waterfalls that embellished the platform below the royal seat was already majestic enough. "Everything is set, your highness," said one of the servants, a lime green earth pony with a red mane and pan cakes for a cutie mark, after the preparations were done "Thank you, Flapjack," replied Princess Celestia. "You are dismissed." The servant pony bowed his head and started after the other servants who were vacating the throne room. "Oh, and Flapjack..." The servant pony turned and once again stood at attention before his princess "Yes, your highness?" "When our guest arrives, please do everything within your power to awaken Princess Luna." Flapjack inwardly blanched at the thought. The last time somepony tried to awaken the night princess during the day, the poor soul was turned to stone. Granted, it was during the first few days after her banishment and she had changed much in the past few years. Add to the fact that she changed the servant pony back to flesh and bone but still, it was a line no servant pony ever wanted to cross again. "Err...well...." Flapjack rubbed his hoof at the back of his head. "Don't worry, she will answer to me if she does anything to you," the princess assured him. It didn't assure him that much. Even if it did, he was faced with another problem: these days, when Princess Luna sleeps during the day, she doesn't sleep, she hibernates; nothing in the world, not even a changeling invasion, could wake her up. How was an earth pony like him supposed to perform this task? "I'm sure you can think of something," said the princess, as if she had been reading the servant's mind. Flapjack inhaled to voice his thoughts but was interrupted by the royal herald who announced the arrival of the guest. "Well, get to work," Princess Celestia implored him with a smile. Markov watched as the royal herald entered the large double doors that led to, what he was told, the throne room. He was being carried on the shoulders of two royal guards, both pegasi, one on either side. From an outsider's point of view, it would have looked like he was a convict being brought to the princesses for judgement but in truth, he was being carried that way because he wasn't used to his new body and the guards were not going to wait for him to learn to walk. "Announcing the arrival of the royal guest to the princesses, Andrei Markov!" he heard the herald say. Two more royal guards, unicorns, appeared and opened the double doors wide with their magic. The two pegasi carrying Markov moved inside with him as he tried desperately to walk himself on his back legs. This entire world looks like a cartoon show. Might as well play along he thought as he was carried into the throne room. Inside, he saw many details that made the throne room stand out such as fine tapestries, a large throne and stained-glass windows with varying depictions but most importantly, he saw a larger version of the white pegasi that were carrying him but it had a particular trait that the pegasi didn't share: a unicorn horn. The larger pony creature approached them, leaving behind a regular wingless, hornless pony that looked, to Markov, like it just heard that its children were going to face a firing squad. The latter sped out the double doors while the former approached them slowly. "Why are you two carrying him like this?" it, or rather, she, due to her feminine voice, asked the pegasus guards "He had trouble walking, your highness," the pegasus on the right answered "And we all remember how long it took for Whiplash to walk again after he'd been cured from that cockatrice episode. We figured the same might have happened to him. That's why we offered to carry him here like this." "I... see." the larger one mused. She turned her attention to Markov "It's been a while, my old friend. I'm sure you have a lot of questions on your mind." Markov took a second look at his surroundings You have no idea I am going to die. Yes, that's it. Today, I die. How? Who cares! the tornado of negative thoughts swirled in his mind as Flapjack made his way to awaken the night princess After minutes of walking, he had finally arrived at Princess Luna's chambers. "Your highness?" he called out after knocking on the door. Silence answered him "P-princess Celestia.....DEMANDSyouraudience-" he facehoofed at his choice of words. All he could think was this is how I die But once again, silence greeted him "Your highness?" Thinking that she might be asleep, he softly pushed the door open "Hello-o-o." He started moving inside The interior of the room was dark due to the closed curtains but he could still make out where the furniture were so that he wouldn't bump into them. He slowly made his way to the princess' bed. "Um...your highness, are you awake?" he asked aloud as he approached the bed. This is a bad idea..... "We are awake, Flapjack," Princess Luna answered.... from the shadows to his left Oh f- Markov was left alone with the large pony (whom the guards identified as Princess Celestia). She had dismissed the guards earlier after she explained the real situation to them and offered to take him off their....hooves. She had also asked them not to divulge any of the new information to anyone outside the throne room. The guards eventually left but not before helping Markov to stand up straight and giving him a proper salute. "That was weird," Markov said after the guards shut the double doors "Be nice, old friend. They were just flustered to see a hero from the old days," she explained. The larger pony turned her head to look at his wings and his rear. "And your cutie mark is a dead giveaway to your deed." She smiled as she made her way to a marble bench. Cutie mark? he thought. Maybe I misheard "My what?" "Cutie mark. It's a mark on a pony that symbolizes their special talent. It's on your flank." The pony princess pointed to his rear with her hoof after she settled herself on the bench. There's that word again. Hearing it was like listening to a steel fork grate against a chalkboard. He shuddered as he turned his head to look at the area on his body where the white pony pointed. Oh God, please do not let it be some gingerbread cookie or a dolphin swimming in rainbows. Thankfully, what he saw was hardly whimsy or childish. In fact, it suited his talents just nicely. On his flank, a silhouette of a shark with wings was emblazoned and a silver streak was superimposed diagonally over the shark. Well, I guess it could've been worse. At least this... cutie... mark matches my talent. He looked over to the larger pony and saw that she was beaming, like a mother who was watching her child take his first steps. It bothered him greatly. Knowing what he knows to be his special talent, this pegasus-unicorn hybrid might be bad news but with his amount of options, which were few, he might have to humor whatever this creature had in mind. Besides, he still had questions to be answered and his quadrapedal skills enabled him to relate to the old Bambi movie he used to watch. He's not going anywhere "About those questions." Markov inquired. "Oh, yes. I'm sorry. It must have slipped my mind," she apologized with a sheepish grin. "I was hoping to wait for Luna to arrive for that but seems that she is content with sleeping the day away." She beckoned him to join her on the seat. Guess there's more than one of these things Markov thought. He walked awkwardly with his new legs to join the larger pony on the bench and when he finally reached his destination, he sat it with his back straight and his back legs hanging from the edge; a typical human way of sitting on a bench. "What is it that you wanted to know, my friend?" "Well, to start, who are you and how do you know my name?" The large pony's jaw dropped for a second but as quickly as it happened, she regained her composure and gave him her answer. "My name is Princess Celestia..... and since it seems that you do not remember, we used to be friends." She gave him a rather quizzical look. "Before you ask your next question, please humor mine: do you remember your time here? When you were in Equestria?" Markov was about to tell her that he remembers nothing but then he thought about the flashback he saw after he made sure that the Trinity cruise missile was on target. "I'm... not sure. I remember.... something before I..." Markov started to say, but stopped himself. "Well, what is it?" she questioned.... in that familiarly motherly tone Green field... surrounded by technicolor horses.... one of them named Wonderbolt...... I guess I take after the one they call Wonderbolt....one of them is large and... "Wait, you were there" he finally said. Celestia smiled. "You were the one that.... did that thing to me.... and made everyone of them say goodbye..." Her smile slowly died. "Well, it's a start," she said after a few seconds of silence. "So it really happened then? It wasn't a dream?" Markov asked, but in truth he was stating. "Yes and no, respectively." Markov was quiet for a few minutes. He then asked "What happened that day? I remember bits and pieces but the whole picture escapes me." "Since you do not remember, and all this is relatively new to you, I will tell you the short version and fill in any blanks and answer any questions you may have," she said and so, she did. She told him the story of how a much younger Markov was brought into Equestria with chaos magic by a creature known as Discord. She told him of how the younger Markov participated in a battle against said creature with the help of a pegasus named Wonderbolt (with whom his new form resembled). And last, but not least, she told about how she and the other unicorns combined their magic to send him back to the human realm but not before she cast a certain spell on him. "The spell was to bring you back here in Equestria in a new form whenever your life is threatened to the point of death. But for some reason, maybe the difference of the laws of time and space between our realms or the fact that you were brought here with chaos magic to begin with and affected the transport spell, you were brought here more than a thousand years after the spell was cast," she explained. Awkward silence filled the air between them as Markov tried to digest what the Princess just told him. "This is probably too much for you to take in in a single day," she said. "Why don't we hold off the celebration until you can finally wrap your head around it?" "What celebration?" She pointed her hoof to the decorations in the room. "Earlier, we had the servants decorate the entire throne room so that we could celebrate your arrival but, it seems that you might require some... acclimatizing." "Oh... I'm sorry," he apologized. "It's alright. I know what it's like to travel to another universe and how hard it is to adapt to new surroundings," she said. While she talked, she also smiled because it seemed that he was finally getting more comfortable around her. "Now, is there anything else do you wish to know?" she inquired. "Yes actually, does everyone here speak Russian?" "Russian?" "Yes, Russian. The language you're using now" Celestia thought about it for a while. "Oh... right. The spell," she whispered to herself "You see, Andrei, what you're hearing is.... Russian. But What you and I are speaking is Equestrian," she answered after a brief moment of silence. "Equestrian?" "Yes, That is the local language. It's the effects of the spell I cast on you. It's the reason it sounds like the Russian language. It makes any language sound like the one you're used to and turns the language you speak sound like the language the creature you're speaking to is used to. I use it all the time for political negotiations." ".... I see" "Anything else?" "Well...." He showed her his hooves and flexed the cylindrical stumps like they were marshmallows. "What of these?" By the time Princess Luna finally emerged from her room, it was already nighttime and her sister had already lowered the sun. In fact, the older sister was still waiting for her on the throne. "Good evening, Tia," Luna said to her. "Good evening," she replied. They stared at each other in silence for a while until Luna's eyes went left and right like a schoolfilly who did not know what she did wrong. "Luna," Celestia finally said. "Yes?" "Where were you this afternoon?" "I... was asleep," she lied. "Really? Because one of my maids reported that the servant that I sent to wake you was found tied to a chair with his mouth taped shut and a rubber udder strapped to his chest." Luna did her best to stifle a giggle. "W-well, it must have been the other servants. You know how they love to pull pranks and how those pranks can go too far." "You are the only one in this castle who owns that... dreaded thing." Celestia shuddered at the memory of having her picture taken with a rubber udder in her sleep. "Which would mean that you were actually awake at the time," Celestia concluded. Again, silence filled the air. "Luna, I don't care if you wanted to sleep or pull pranks with the servants. But you could have at least shown an old friend some courtesy by just greeting him before you go do anything else," she said, close to shouting. Luna, however, suddenly found the floor a more interesting thing to look at. "Tia," she said after a few seconds. "There's something you should know... about him." "What do you mean?" the older sister asked. "Remember when I went to the human world?" Then she told her, everything. Author's Note To anyone who follows this story: I'm very sorry. I know I said I'd not get lazy but I did...and that was last year. Anyway, I started writing the first chapter before knowing what a Gary-stu is and I'd really love some feedback or suggestions on how to un-stu this guy or whether or not I should continue with this story. MemoriesEarlier Markov paced around the royal guest chamber. He was still contemplating what Princess Celestia had told him. The explanations about the lack of language barriers, about his past with these colourful creatures and finally, about the marshmallow stumps they call hooves and how they worked. Of course, he was still at odds about it all. And how could he not be? Everything that the large white pony told him went against everything he was taught when he grew up; magic, colourful talking ponies, and all of it governed by a hybrid sovereignty, two if the sister she mentioned is of the same species as her. After he asked to be excused from the impromptu reunion just hours prior, he was magically teleported to the very room he now paced in. Even then, he still found it hard to believe that actual magic was involved. The room where he was left was beautifully decorated with all things pony. The dark wooden rails for the purple curtains that separated the bedroom from the balcony had prancing unicorns carved at their ends facing away from the curtains, the surface of an oak study table from across the bed had a carved picture of a regular pony holding up a book to its face with its front hooves, the bedpost was carved to look like a Pegasus with its wing open ready to take flight and even the tiles on the floor were arranged to look like a sea-horse with a pony’s face. He thought it all to be funny because he half expected to see a stable instead of a bedroom. Initially, he was left in the room with a servant, a light blue ‘earth pony’ named Belmont, to help him get orientated with his new legs but things got awkward for both of them when nature called and Markov had to ask the unfortunate pony to show him how to use the lavatory. Afterwards, the servant pony surmised that Markov may have had a long day and wanted to be alone. “If there’s any other... inquiries you have to make, just ring the service bell by the bed, and someone will come along and uh... explain. Rest well.” That was the last thing the servant pony had said to him before leaving him alone to begin contemplating his experiences of the past few hours. Since then, his quadrapedal walk had gotten better and allowed him to pace the room while thinking. After a while, he stopped his pacing and made his way towards the balcony. As he parted the curtains with his front hoof, he saw a view that took his breath away. His room was placed on a very high floor in a white marble tower and from his vantage point on the balcony, the colourful land of Equestria spread out in front of him. The thick green vegetation, the jagged range of mountains and the beautiful blue sky presented itself like a surreal piece of artwork that would belong in a museum. In the distance, he could see a group of clouds that could pass as a city due to their formation and a small town in a clearing of the thick forest. For the ordinary man, a view like this would have held his attention just from its sheer majesty, but for Markov, it held him for an entirely different reason. Markov’s arms held on to something... blue, very tightly. His hair whipped along with the turbulent winds. He opened his eyes only to see a jagged mountain range from a bird’s eye view. The sound of wings urgently beating and flapping filled his ears. He closed his eyes again as he tightened his grip on the blue creature. “Ack- I said ‘hold tight’, kid, not ‘cut off my oxygen’!” screamed Wonderbolt Markov could only respond with, “It’s getting closer!” A loud roar came from behind them and Markov turned around to see a large creature bare its sharp teeth and- Markov quickly shook his head and paused. He took a second look at the scenery before him, especially the mountain range. The same one... he thought. He looked up at the tower he was in. This wasn't there in that 'memory'. He thought about the creature that was chasing them. What was that thing? As he struggled with that memory, he thought about the one constant that has been there in both of his flashbacks of the land called Equestria. “Wonderbolt,” he silently mouthed. He marched back inside his room as fast as his four legs could carry him. He approached the bathroom again, but this time it was for a different need. There was something that he had to get off his chest. When he last entered the bathroom, he noticed a large mirror fixed into the wall, thankfully, opposite the wall with the previously used lavatory. How had he instantly known that his now deformed body resembled that of the blue Pegasus and not of anything else? How had he easily accepted all this ‘magic’ nonsense? Does he even look like Wonderbolt? In the flashbacks, he couldn’t get a good look at the pegasus’ face so, would the mirror reveal the pony’s face? These questions played in his mind as he made his way towards the mirror. When he finally reached it, his eyes studied the blue pony in the reflection. He first studied the mark with the emasculating name. His was a greyish silhouette of a shark with wings on its back flexing its body so that it forms a ‘C’ and silver streak cutting diagonally from top-left to the lower right over the shark. He then lifted his front hooves to see if the reflection did the same. When his eyes settled on his face, he had the shock of a lifetime. Where he had expected to see the face of a certain blue pony, he saw something else entirely. He saw his own. Although the face was elongated to fit in with the pony populace, he could tell that he was looking at the face that he once had as a human. He recognized his deep set brown eyes, his thin full beard and buzz cut, although they were now dark blue in colour, was still familiar to him. The reflection mirrored his expression of horror. At first, he attributed all the immediate weirdness as a dream but after seeing his own face, everything; the magic, the talking horse things, the flashbacks, started to seem very real. His heart started beating faster. His breathing became laboured. He could feel cold sweat covering his now furry body. He reached his forearm to wipe his forehead with his palm but when he tried to flex his fingers, he remembered. He no longer had fingers. He looked in horror at the stumps where his hands used to be and then where his feet used to be. All the while the pony in the mirror reflected every move, every expression of terror as if taunting the poor man. Suddenly, he felt an odd sensation on his back. It was as if he was stretching a muscle that wasn’t supposed to be there. No… He looked into the mirror. NO…. The wings at his back flared and he could feel every muscle in them. He could feel the tickle of the feathers, his feathers, as they brush against each other. The winged pony in the reflection reared in terror. “NO!” he screamed. In denial, he smashed the mirror with his front hooves. He felt the fragile glass break and heard the shards rain down to the floor. What little hope he had of breaking whatever hold this dream may have on him shattered along with the mirror as some of the falling shards cut painfully into his front foreleg. He had hoped that the pain would awaken him elsewhere but no. He was still there, in a bathroom, in a tower in this strange land. Still in denial, he started biting his foreleg where the wound was, hoping against hope that more pain would somehow end the illusion. “Wake up, wake up,” he repeatedly told himself while his teeth broke the skin and he started to bleed. “Wake up, damn it!” He looked back at the mirror- Wait, didn’t I… The large mirror stood before him, intact and undamaged. The reflection still imitated his actions but a few things were different. Firstly, he noticed that the cutie mark on the reflection was yellow thunderbolt with white wings. Secondly, its face was no longer his. The reflection had hooded eyes with yellow irises and a longer, shaggy, dark blue mane. It stared back disdainfully at Markov. He could still feel the sting where he bit himself but he didn’t care. He was feeling too uneasy from the reflection’s stare. Without thinking, he smashed the mirror again and again he watched the shards fall to the floor. To his surprise, the shards lifted themselves off the floor and floated themselves back into their position on the wall. They melded back together, removing the cracks, and got him looking back at the yellow eyed reflection. He smashed the mirror again and again only to get the same results every time. With every hit, his wound stung more. After the eighth attempt, bite mark stung so badly, he curled up in a fetal position, nursing the injured leg. He looked up at the mirror and saw that the reflection did not imitate his actions. In fact, it was looking down at him in pity. “Damn you!” he cried. He tried to rise up, to break the mirror just one more time but he realized the futility of it. He resumed his curled position knowing that there was no way he could escape. He was trapped, helpless, and truly hated feeling this way. When he was a pilot, he felt like he could force the very hand of fate and break through all barriers to get what he wanted. For a brief moment, he did. But here, he was impotent. He was deformed. Again he looked up at the pony in the reflection, and realised that this was no longer his domain, it was theirs. He was trapped in their world, in their form, at their mercy and as their guest. Present “What in the world…?” Celestia asked out loud. Her sister, Luna, stood beside her, both staring dumbfounded at the apparently injured pony sleeping on the shards of a mirror that used to decorate the wall next to him. The light from the candle they brought broke through the night time darkness and illuminated the bathroom they were in and showed them the extent of Markov’s injury. “Why didn’t anypony hear anything?” asked the lunar regent. She levitated the candle closer to the former mirror housing and saw hoof marks in the wall. “We should tend to his wound. Tia-,” “No. Not yet,” Celestia interjected. “A healing spell would awaken him.” “Sister, his wound may already be infected. For crying out loud, do you even see the pool of dried blood he is sleeping in?” “He’ll live, Luna. For now, I need to know if what you told me about him is true.” “Couldn’t we just-.” “Now,” Celestia said with finality. Luna could only sigh in resignation. She had the ability to look into ponies’ dreams and memories but only when they are asleep. She could also bring another pony into the dream world, to see what she sees. Her sister needed this ability to confirm for herself the things that Luna saw in the human world. Unfortunately, Celestia was not her usual patient self, especially after what she had heard about their old friend. “Are you ready, Celestia?” The older sister nodded. Luna’s horn started to glow as she focused her magic. She felt a prickling sensation at the back of her head, indicating that the spell she had chosen was ready but first, she had to establish an extra link with her sister in order to bring her along. She pictured in her mind, the spell as a glowing thread looping around her sister’s head before coming to rest at Markov’s forehead and then, she cast the spell. Luna and Celestia floated above a crowd of humans. They were all staring at a large stage where a tall human wearing a military uniform was being saluted by another human in military garb. When the latter turned to address the crowd, they saw that it was in fact, their old friend. Andrei Markov. “What’s going on?” asked Celestia. “He’s being commemorated.” “How do you know that?” Luna just stared at her sister before saying, “It’s written on the banner right there.” She pointed to the large poster with Markov’s face on it. “I can’t read Cyrillic, sister. What does it say?” “It says ‘Geroy Rossiyskoy Federatsii’, Hero of the Russian Federation.” The scenery suddenly blurred and faded into white. “What are you doing?” asked Luna. “We’d be wasting time if we have to comb through every single memory so, I’m skipping to the most recent,” said Celestia as her horn glowed and the scenery was replaced. “How did you… never mind.” They were now floating just above what appeared to Celestia as a metallic demon, flying at the speed of sound. They were apparently floating along at the same speed as the machine, allowing them to see into the glass dome on its head. Inside, they saw a human fiddling with its innards. “This is called a fighter jet,” Luna explained. “Since humans don’t have wings, they fight their aerial battles with flying machines like these.” Celestia floated herself under the aircraft and saw a shark’s mouth painted on its nose. “Grendel,” she silently mouthed. “Luna, the human in this fighter jet, its Markov isn’t it?” Luna was silent for a few seconds before nodding. If what Luna said about Markov was true, then they were about to see their old friend commit some horrible atrocities. The aircraft hastily approached a small burning city with more fighters tearing each other apart in a deadly aerial dance above it. The shark mouthed one entered the fray and launched a barrage of speedy projectiles at another aircraft from a small tube near the nose. It gave chase to the other fighter, launching more of the projectiles and occasionally launching bigger, slower ones that leave smoky trails. All the while, the pursued jet evaded all if not most of the barrage but it looked as if it wouldn’t end well for it. Suddenly, another aircraft appeared behind Markov’s and launched its own hail of missiles at him. Not to be outdone, he broke off his chase and tilted his aircraft’s nose upwards, making the jet vertical while still maintaining its original trajectory. His momentum slowed drastically, causing Markov’s aircraft to swap positions with the offending aircraft. Instantly, the tables turned for the attacker. Markov gave no quarter to the newcomer and fired more of the speedy missiles and launched one of the slower ones. The slower one exploded when it hit the target aircraft’s rear end and gave Markov every chance to finish it off. Celestia and Luna were both amazed and terrified as they watched everything unfold. They had expected Markov to destroy the weaker aircraft but to their surprise, he broke away and flew off in a different direction, allowing the other fighter to safely fly away. Luna suddenly breathed easier and watched their old friend continue on his trajectory, away from the city. Seeing how Markov spared his attacker, Luna began to have doubts about the newspaper article that she saw on Earth. She wanted to share her thoughts with Celestia but a sudden flash of light stopped her. It came from the city a few distances from the one they were above and looked like a miniature sun had suddenly appeared in the middle of the city. “What…” The ball of sunlight suddenly exploded with such force, the shockwave spread out for miles. Even the pilot that was grounded in the nearer city was knocked off his feet. The sisters looked at the resulting mushroom cloud in fear. Luna was first to react by erasing the scene to white. “That… do you think… that… Was that his doing?” Luna stuttered. Celestia said nothing. She just used her magic to skip to the other memories. Again they were flying along with the sharkmouth. This time, it was carrying a large orange pod under one of its wings. The city they were flying over looked to be in the highlands, not the desert. But just like the previous city, it was torn by war. The pod suddenly detached and propelled itself free of the aircraft. It zipped this way and that before choosing a singular course towards the heart of the city. When it finally hit its target, the pod exploded in another ball of sunlight and the resulting blast levelled the entire city. “So it was him,” said Celestia, tonelessly. Luna witnessed the devastation with disgust. “What in the world would justify this much carnage?” Luna asked aloud. The scenery shifted again. Luna turned towards her sister but she noticed that Celestia’s horn was not glowing. Noticing the shift without giving much thought, Celestia looked around for the imminent memory but instead, she found herself looking at a rain of blue feathers that suddenly appeared from above. In the vast ocean of white, amid the rain of blue, the sisters saw two figures in the distance. One was a tall human wearing a dull grey full body flight suit while the other was a small human child, wearing nothing but a makeshift poncho made from a large, dirty rag. The larger human turned his back on the child and slowly walked away. At that moment, the falling feathers, as if blown by an unseen wind, gathered around the child, engulfing him. The feathers suddenly flew upwards and disappeared, along with the child. The only figure left in the milky void was the larger one. “We must be in his dream,” Luna reckoned. “Why did you bring us here?” “I didn’t. I assumed you were the one who did, until I saw that your horn wasn’t glowing.” Wasting no time, the older sister tried to magically bring out another memory before Luna stopped her. “I think I should do it, sister. We are currently in the dream world, not his memories. You might… damage something.” They returned to the white void and immediately, the surroundings shifted again. They were now in a lavish looking room, looking at Markov who was holding an L shaped weapon with a smoking end with both hands. Behind him were two men in military garb. Markov relaxed his posture and said, “Бросаю так скоро, генеральный?” “What did he say?” asked Celestia. Luna responded by casting a translation spell. “Мы должны сдаться. Переворот не удался,” they heard someone respond. Markov walked over to the other end of the room and it was then that the two princesses saw the prone form of an older man, profusely bleeding from a wound on his chest. The translation spell began to take effect as Markov approached the old man. “ваш переворот means nothing.” Markov knelt at the old man and said “This is about revenge.” He stood up, aimed his weapon at the old man and a sound, like thunder, came from the weapon. Blood sprayed all over the room and the old man went limp. The view blurred to white again as Luna skipped to another memory. They were now floating alongside Markov but this time, he was riding a grounded, four wheeled vehicle and he was accompanied by another man. The surroundings were that of a war zone, similar to the ones they saw when they were in the sky. The vehicle grinded to a halt and Markov and his friend exited with haste. Worry clearly etched on his face as they traversed the rubble that used to be a building, searching for something. Celestia and Luna looked up and saw fighter aircrafts crowding the air space. “Krista!” they heard their old friend scream. He was holding a woman in his arms. She did not stir. He cradled the dead woman’s head and held it close. He looked up and said, “I will never forget this!” His companion could only offer a comforting hand on his shoulder and say, “Yes. Never.” Markov woke up with a gasp. He was hoping that he would get to use his fingers again but alas, he was still in his pony form. All of a sudden, he felt something tightening around his neck. He tried to paw whatever it was off but his hooves found nothing. The choking force lifted him upwards and he was suddenly looking in the eyes of a very angry looking princess. “Tia stop!” he heard someone say but the force tightened itself further. His eyes watered and the edges of his vision started going red. “Stop!” The voice was slowly going distant. Then, just as abruptly as it started, the choking stopped and Markov desperately gasped for air. As he lay gasping on the floor, he felt his body go weightless. He felt around and knew, somehow, that he was floating. From his blurred vision, he could see a blue aura surrounding his extremities. He also saw a large white blur that looked as if it was writing something with a quill. “Dear, Twilight Sparkle…” He could barely make out the words it was saying. And then, everything went black. Author's Note Wow, this one took a while didn't it? As is tradition with every chapter lately, I apologise for my tardiness. If any of you are wondering which English I'm using, it's Malaysian English (at least that's what it said in my Microsoft word). It's kinda like American spelling but with British terminology. Anyways, let me know what you think in the comments. Edit- Yes, I used google translate for the Cyrillic. I'm a fake. You know where the dislike button is.
PilotHe has failed. He knew it. From the split second before his adversary’s missile struck his aircraft’s tail, Colonel Andrei Markov knew that he has failed. Moments before, his PAK-FA’s radar had been screaming, warning him of an incoming missile, yet he was too focused on his target to realize that his aircraft had run out of flares to deflect the missile. When he timed the missile to get close enough to be affected by the flares, he pushed the button that would jettison the decoy flares only to be answered, to his horror, by his flight HUD (Heads-up Display) telling him that he has run out of flares. He pressed another button, only this time, frantically and repeatedly following a stream of curses, hoping that it would fire his “special” weapon at his target; a cruise missile with a deadly payload. But his weapon was never fired. All the while, screams of “missile alert” spoken in Russian has been assaulting his ears. There was nothing more he could do but wait for the inevitable as the missile struck. Small pockets of memories flashed before his eyes. He calmly walked up to the podium on the stage. His uniform was clean and neatly pressed, and rightly so, for today, he had to look his best. Below the stage to his right, he could see hundreds of his fellow pilots, most of them did not out-rank him, standing in formation, facing the stage. To his left, a group of what looks to be, from the way that they dressed, high ranking men seated upon chairs that look like they were made for the Tsars themselves. Behind the seated men, was a banner with his face on it and his name, Andrei Markov, written in Cyrillic. Literally nothing made a sound. Not even his own footsteps. During this flashback, he can only see but not hear. His attention suddenly zoomed upon a face that seemed, somehow, oddly familiar to him among those who were seated on the stage. He couldn’t put this feeling into words. He doesn’t remember that man in any memories prior to that day but somehow, he is able to recognize him in some way. Suddenly, it dawned on him. During that day, he would think nothing of that face, just another high ranking officer among the group of several others but during this flashback he recognized him as the man who would be known in the present day as the late General Stagleishov. His attention didn’t linger upon that face for long, however. It shifted to the man who was standing behind the podium he was walking up to. The man smiled as he approached. He sees himself in first-person shaking the man’s hand and standing at attention as the man places a medal on his chest. The medal looked like two thin oblong rings tied together vertically by a short sash that is striped respectively white, blue and red from left to right. A golden five-pointed star hung below the lower ring. He gave a salute to the man after receiving the medal and the man saluted back. This was a very important day for him because it was the day he received the title "Geroy Rossiyskoy Federatsii”. Hero of the Russian Federation The impact from the missile caused his aircraft to spin and rotate violently in the sky. He was marching down a corridor with two men in tow. All three were armed with pistols. There were no guards posted at the door which made it all the more easier for them. As with the previous flashback, he could only see, but not hear. All other senses are just memories from the time. When he heard the news that General Stagleishov was willing to surrender the last of their “special” weapon in order to negotiate a clean surrender, he knew he had to stop it. It was not difficult to find soldiers who, as the Americans would put it, have had their jimmies rustled over the news to join him into putting a stop to the surrender. He approached the building where the good General’s office resides with a fairly large group of soldiers trailing behind him. There were three guards posted at the entrance but luckily for Markov, they also wanted to put a stop to the General’s stupidity. The guards advised that a large number of soldiers entering the building together might spook the General into hiding. After much debating, it was decided that only three were allowed into the building while the rest waited outside. Markov was the first choice since he outranks every single soldier who was present at the time. As for the second and third choice, were two of the high ranking soldiers. After arming themselves, they marched into the building. When the three finally reached the door, they equipped their pistols and assembled themselves into a breaching position. After a silent three-count, Markov kicked open the door and fired a single shot at the room’s lone occupant. General Stagleishov had already armed himself with his own side-arm when he heard the door slam open but was too late to defend himself when one of the intruders shot him in the chest. It wasn’t a fatal shot but the pain from it caused him to drop to the floor. He looked up at the intruders and saw that it was none other than three of his own men, all training their weapons at him. Markov could almost hear the shot that he fired that day. He could almost feel himself pull the trigger. He watched as General Stagleishov dropped to the ground after the bullet hit and the blood that pooled on the carpet. Apparently, General Stagleishov didn’t have enough sense to wear body armor at the time. He was about to think that he wouldn’t be able to hear himself taunt the General but to his surprise, he could hear himself say: “Giving up so soon, General?” It was a strange sensation. He knew he spoke those exact words but it felt as if it was spoken by someone else using his voice. He watched as General Stagleishov’s mouth open and close to form words, yet he could hear nothing. After that, his voice came again: “Your coup means nothing”. He watched as his body walked up to the General’s prone form and knelt on one knee. His voice came again without missing a beat: “This is about revenge”. He stood up and delivered a coup-de-grace, a killing shot to finish off the General once and for all. Time seemed to slow down for him as his aircraft twisted out of control in the sky. During this almost miraculous lapse in the perception of time, he was able to see another aircraft slowly (in real time, it would be a lot faster) approaching his own. He knew who it was behind the cockpit of that aircraft. The pilot was another Ace, his equal, his rival, his adversary and the man who had just bested him. Lieutenant Colonel William Bishop, the leader of Warwolf squadron. Machine gun fire began to chew through his aircraft. He first heard of Colonel Bishop during a mission briefing by General Stagleishov. At the time, he had just finished painting the shark mouth design on the nose of his Su-35BM, earning him the nickname “Akula” or shark in Russian. It was also during that briefing that the General unveiled a new type of weapon, one that has the explosive capabilities of a nuclear warhead but does not leave the target area inhospitable for 1000 years. With a weapon like that on hand, General Stagleishov and several others planned to overthrow the current Russian government, replacing it with something called “The New Russian Federation” He’s now behind the cockpit of his Su-35BM. Stretching for miles below him is the city of Carruth and before him, a mess of fighter jets shooting each other down. He remembers this day as the day he first tested Colonel Bishop’s skill. He sees himself enter the fray after the last of Big Bear squadron was shot down by the NATO jets and Warwolf squadron. He started off by harassing the Colonel’s wingman, Captain Gutierrez. As Colonel Bishop came to his wingman’s aid, Markov, now Akula as he was called whenever he was in the sky, pulled a maneuver called the “Pugachev’s Cobra” that switched the position of his aircraft, previously in front of Colonel Bishop’s, to one that’s directly behind the American Ace. Colonel Bishop’s aircraft was then at his mercy and would have been finished off right then and there had Akula’s own wingman warned him that his aircraft was low on fuel. Just as he was leaving the battlefield, he was able to witness with his own two eyes, the full devastating effect of General Stagleishov’s new weapon, codename: Trinity. Just as it was stated during the mission briefing, the explosion looked, at first, as a ball of light for a second before exploding into a mushroom cloud similar to a nuclear explosion as it ripped and tore through Carruth, turning it from a small city into a large parking lot. His second encounter with Colonel Bishop was from a distance after Warwolf squadron had successfully aided an amphibious assault by Tyuleni units to recapture a fortress in Derbent that was held by NRF (New Russian Federation) forces. He was ordered to launch a cruise missile armed with a Trinity warhead at the fortress and leave, which he did. What he did not expect, however, was for the cruise missile to be shot out of the sky and explode outside of the target area. Apparently, the American Ace was much more skilled than he had given him credit for His third encounter with the Warwolf squadron leader was in the skies over Moscow where a massive war was being fought on the ground and in the air between NRF forces and loyalist Russians aided by Task Force 108 and Warwolf squadron. At the time, Akula was tasked to escort a bomber that was carrying a large Trinity warhead. In order to avoid radar detection, Akula and a few other escorts; along with the bomber in question, were flying at low altitudes. The very minute they were detected, the other escorts were immediately hounded and torn apart by Warwolf squadron. Akula himself had no trouble fending off some of the fighter jets from attacking the bomber but somehow, during the chaos, Colonel Bishop was able to shoot down the bomber. Akula then decided to engage in aerial combat with the American Ace as the Trinity warhead detonated in a secondary explosion after the bomber was shot down. He didn’t remember how long the ensuing dogfight was, with both Aces desperately out-maneuvering each other in the air. He did remember the fact that he lost this battle. As he was preparing for a maneuver that would switch the positions of the two aircrafts, his adversary’s machine gun managed to rupture his fuel line and damage his flight control. Luckily, he was able to eject but not before warning Colonel Bishop that this wasn’t over. During his descent, he overheard through his radio, which he patched into Warwolf’s frequency, that General Stagleishov was willing to surrender the last of the Trinity bombs in order to negotiate a peaceful surrender. He landed near a large group of NRF ground units and after picking himself up off the ground, he told the ground units about what he overheard about General Stagleishov’s new plan. They decided to retreat back to base to make sure that it didn’t happen. His fourth encounter was in the skies over Miami, Florida. After killing General Stagleishov, Markov’s wingman, Major Sergei Illich, managed to secure the last Trinity warhead in addition to two PAK-FA aircrafts. He armed the final Trinity warhead in a cruise missile and after adding a shark mouth motif to the PAK-FA’s nose, he was ready to fly again as Akula. Major Illich has also secured several locations within the United States to be used as checkpoints for refueling. With the remaining NRF soldiers at his command, he planned to launch the Trinity warhead into the White House but to get to his destination he first had to go through Miami airspace. After a massive aerial assault over Miami, Warwolf squadron, in addition to Tiger and Coyote squadron, managed to drive back most of the NRF fighters but had suffered heavy losses and damages on their own end as well. That was when Akula decided to strike. He had Colonel Bishop’s aircraft locked in his sights and after accelerating from a fairly large distance, he launched a quick air-to-air missile at the aircraft that would have finished the American Ace once and for all had his wingman, Captain Gutierrez not taken the missile to save him. Akula then proceeded to harass the other American fighters, taking potshots and deftly out-maneuvering them in the air before returning his attention to Colonel Bishop. From a distance, their two aircrafts were facing each other, at this moment he can hear Colonel Bishop’s voice saying: “Markov!” He acknowledged the American Ace and replied through his radio, hearing his voice once again: “Bishop”. The two Aces then engaged in a head-on combat where machine gun bullets were traded with missile fire until they passed each other. Neither Aces were able to press the attack because for the American, his adversary had flown too far and his aircraft was low on fuel. As for the Russian, he had to leave fast because his adversary’s allies were about to close in on him and the head-on combat had damaged the cruise missile under his wing. He had to fix that. He contacted his allies on the ground, asking them to relay coordinates to the nearest checkpoint and headed straight there. While on the ground, he was greeted with more bad news. It appeared that no one in his employ knew how to fix the cruise missile. Markov suggested replacing the warhead into another missile but the missile he had on hand was so badly damaged that the mechanics feared the warhead could not be removed without a high risk of detonating on the spot. Fortunately, the homing mechanism in the missile still works. He was warned that any number of malfunctions might happen when he tries to launch it but given the circumstances, he had no choice. He was still in Miami when he encountered Colonel Bishop for the fifth time. Akula was heading deeper into the States with Major Illich, both of them flying their coveted PAK-FAs, and a fair number of NRF fighters in tow. He was hoping that there would be no American aircrafts to impede their journey since their flight path led them directly into a hurricane but as fate would have it, they were hounded by a squadron of fighter jets led by the American Ace. In groups, the NRF fighters broke off to distract the Americans and buy their leader more time to escape but they were systematically shot out of the sky by the American fighters while Colonel Bishop kept the pursuit. In the end, Major Illich was forced to break off the formation himself to distract the Americans in order for Akula to escape. It was the last time he saw of his wingman ever again. The rest of the NRF air force had already made a mess of the American ground and air force when Akula arrived in Washington D. C. It was here that he intended to exact his revenge on the United States for what they had done, for his wingman, Illich and most importantly, for her. It was also here that he would engage in aerial combat with Colonel Bishop for the final time. After it was confirmed that all SAM (Surface-to-Air Missile) defense sites have been destroyed, Akula made his move and entered D. C. airspace in full throttle. His target: the White House. The Trinity warhead, still damaged, rests under his wing. As he passed the bridge where the last SAM defense site was destroyed, he was once again hounded by Colonel Bishop. Since he couldn’t fire the cruise missile from afar without the risk of going off-target, he decided to end his rivalry with the American Ace so that he can concentrate on his target better when the time came. The two Aces were once again locked in aerial combat with one trying to gain advantage over the other. This time, Akula has the advantage of maneuverability thanks to the marvel of Russian and Indian engineering known as the PAK-FA. With this advantage on hand, he was able to dance around his adversary’s missile attacks and for the missiles he couldn’t evade, he had his decoy flares. In addition, he was also able shoot down one random fighter after another (and also some ground units and buildings) while still maintaining combat with the American Ace, mocking him the entire time. After deciding that he has done enough property damage, Akula noticed that he may not have enough fuel for more shenanigans. If he was to have his revenge, he had to strike there and then. He flew up, and then descended in a direct course to the White House. He pressed the button that would launch the cruise missile but just as his mechanic warned him, it wouldn’t launch due to some malfunction. All the while, his adversary had been harassing him with missiles which he calmly deflected with decoy flares. He gave the missile deployment button another try. It became his undoing. The world was still moving in slow motion. He watched as his adversary’s aircraft move slowly toward his flying carcass, Vulcan machine gun fire leading the way. He had to hand it to the American. The man is relentless and stubborn. As Colonel Bishop’s aircraft was about to pass, he spoke a word through his aircraft’s radio: “Bishop”. There was no malice or hatred or even a tone behind that word, just a simple acknowledgement. One of the machine gun bullets tore through his canopy and his body flew outside the cockpit. Colonel Bishop then indulged him in his acknowledgement and replied: “Markov”. He is now free falling. Still alive but doomed nonetheless. He couldn’t deploy a parachute because his body was literally sucked out of his seat (which is where the parachute is). The only few things he has with him is his flight suit and his helmet which can still receive transmissions. He could do nothing more than contemplate his failure while waiting for the inevitable impact with the ground. In his mind, he thought about the three people he has failed. Firstly, himself for he had plenty of opportunities to finish off Colonel Bishop yet he never took advantage of them and became the death of him; Secondly, his wingman, who was also his best man at his wedding and from any way anyone viewed the situation, who died for nothing; Last but not least, his darling wife, Krista, who was killed by an American bomber, who was the entire reason behind Markov’s actions. He let his mind linger on the thoughts of her, Krista. From the moment he first laid eyes on her, to the moment he held her lifeless body above a pile of debris on a patch of Bosnian soil. He was about to think of what could have been when his radio received a transmission bearing Colonel Bishop’s voice saying “Trinity!” He couldn’t believe his ears. Another transmission came in with a second voice saying “Colonel, Trinity is still alive!” to which the Colonel frantically responded “I have it. I have it!” It was a miracle. He was actually going to have his revenge. He stabilized himself in the air and looked to his left and sure enough, there was Colonel Bishop’s aircraft desperately trying to shoot down the cruise missile that was getting dangerously closer to the White House by the second. He decided to know no more of this and took off his helmet while still free falling. He was content. He closed his eyes and waited for what lies beyond the veil of death. He was standing in a field of green grass. All around him stood colorful creatures that resembled ponies but some of them had wings while others had singular conical horns. If he recalled his mythology correctly, they were called unicorns and pegasi. He noticed that two of these pony-like creatures, a white one and a dark blue one, bore both horns and wings on their bodies; he didn’t know what to call them. They were all facing him. One of the pegasi, a blue one with a large yellow patch on its chest, spoke to him in Russian. “Most of us may not be here anymore when you get back. Are you sure you don’t wanna stay for a little longer?” it said. Surprisingly, the fact that the pegasus spoke, in his language no less, didn’t bother him at all. He replied “I’m sorry Wonderbolt, but I’ve been away from home for too long. I miss my family.” The pegasus, Wonderbolt, can only sigh in resignation. “We’re sure gonna miss you” it said. “I’m gonna miss you guys too”. At that moment, the white pony that had both horn and wings said in a motherly female voice “Unicorns”. All of the unicorns stepped forward and pointed their horns to him. Despite the threatening display, he didn’t seem the least bothered by it. “If anypony wishes to say their farewells, you may do so now” the white pony said. Upon hearing this, all of the ponies spoke their own goodbyes to him. “Goodbye Andrei!” “We’ll miss you” “Don’t forget about us!” He felt warm tears start to roll down his cheeks. “Goodbye everypony! I’ll never forget you guys!” he said to the herd. He then felt a strange sensation inside his body. He looked at his hands and noticed that they were glowing. His stomach felt as though it was doing backflips inside his guts. He took one final glance at the herd of smiling ponies. “What!?” he screamed. That memory came unbidden. In fact, he didn’t even remember experiencing it at all. He tried to stand up but failed because something felt different about his body. He didn’t remember lying down anywhere because the last thing he remembered was freefalling and waiting for death. Yet, for some strange and magical reason, he awoke inside what looks to be a large abandoned European castle filled with aged tapestries and broken stained glass windows. He tried to get up again with similar results. He looked down on his own body but he discovered, to his horror, that his body is no longer his own. What replaced it is the body of the pegasus that he recalled was named Wonderbolt. His hands were replaced by flexible cylindrical stubs where hard keratin hooves would be on a normal horse. His feet were also replaced by the same and his knees now bend backwards. His entire body is covered in blue fur except for a large patch of yellow on his chest. He looked at his back and noticed that he now has wings. This is too much for him to take in. He gave up trying to stand and instead, crawled to the nearest window to get his bearings. He looked outside and noticed the sun was high in the sky. That would mean that the time is mid-afternoon which makes telling west from east difficult. He contemplated using his new wings to fly out of the castle but before he could do anything, he noticed a large flock of birds approaching his direction. He looked carefully at the closest bird and was given a startling revelation. They are not birds. In fact, they were all pegasi wearing golden armor. Each pegasus carried a spear held by both front limbs. Among the throng of armored pegasi, he noticed that two were bridled and was pulling a carriage behind them. “What the hell?” he asked. He crawled further to a large wooden door but was stopped by a blinding flash of yellow light. When the light cleared, he looked behind him and saw a large unicorn, wearing the same golden armor the pegasi were wearing, standing where the flash of light was previously. “Andrei Markov?” it said. He doesn’t know if the unicorn or the approaching pegasi are hostile but given the circumstances, he’ll have to comply with whatever these creatures have in store for him. “Yeah” he replied. “The Royal Sisters wish to welcome you back to Equestria”. He stared at the unicorn dumbfounded for a few seconds before his brain rediscovered the connection to his mouth. "What?"
Meanwhile, in EquestriaPrincess Luna trotted softly towards her private chambers. Earlier, after finishing Night Court, she had found plenty of time for herself after all her subjects had retired for sleep. With all that time in her hooves, she entered her room and opened a magical portal that would transport her into the human world. She used to habitually do this before her banishment but back then, it was for a different reason. A reason that had, somehow, eluded the Princess of the night. This time however, she traversed the portal in order to obtain a video game. When Luna arrived in the human world, it was late afternoon and her form was altered into that of a human woman. The portal that she used not only transported her into a different realm, it also changed her form so that she could blend into said realm. In addition, it also made it so that whenever the Princess spoke Equestrian, it would sound like she was speaking the language of the realm in question and whenever someone from the realm spoke to her, the spell would translate it in her head so that to her, THEY were speaking Equestrian. In the case of the human world, she was transported to Washington DC, USA where the spoken language is English. As for her form, she was transformed into a slender, dark-haired woman sporting a pony-tail and wearing a dark blue hoodie with light blue jeans and blue sneakers. She was careful to open the portal in an area where no one can see. The last time she came to this realm, she opened the portal at the exact same spot: an abandoned construction site and when she returned to Equestria, she brought with her a marvel of human entertainment technology: an Xbox 360 (along with a few games in tow). Now, she has returned for more games, including the one known as Lollipop Chainsaw. As she made her way to the front gate of the site, she thought about how her sister would react when she hears the voice of the game's protagonist. When she looked outside the building, she noticed two things: one, a badly charred and mangled carcass of a fighter jet at the base of the unfinished building and two, DC went to hell. She ran to a nearby group of humans to ask them what happened. She slowed down a bit and approached a human male who was wearing a bright reflective vest and asked her question. "Didn't ya read the news lady? War happened." the human replied "Damn Russians tried to nuke the Capitol" he turned his attention away and continued. "Thankfully, it's over now thanks to that Bishop felle- hey, where'd you go?" As the human turned away and continued speaking, Luna rendered herself invisible and undid part of her transformation spell in order to get her wings back. With that done, she took to the skies before the human could turn his attention back to her. All around the city, she saw collapsed buildings, broken glass, mangled vehicles, more humans in reflective vests picking up the pieces and most prominently, more carcasses of fighter jets littering the streets. She landed, still invisible, near a newspaper stand. She had to know what happened. Thankfully she did not undo the part of the spell that translated writing so, she is perfectly capable of reading the various headlines of the collection of different newspapers that the stand has to offer. In one, she read: "NATIONAL HERO: Lt. Col. Bishop saves USA" the paper shows a picture of a human in a military uniform saluting the cameraman. In another, she read: "WAR OVER: Nation rejoices" and shows a picture of many humans waving the American flag But the one that caught her eye was: "AKULA SLAIN: the death of Col. Andrei Markov spells victory for American Forces". The paper showed a picture of a fighter jet with a shark mouth motif painted on its nose and next to it was a picture of a very angry looking human. She bent closer to the paper to read the article: WASHINGTON: On January 18th 2016, the newly appointed leader of the NRF (New Russian Federation), Colonel Andrei Markov launched a massive aerial assault on our beloved capital. Col. Markov, known to his allies as Akula (shark in Russian) planned to destroy the White House using what appeared to be a nuclear bomb but was thwarted by Lt. Col. William bishop when..... "Andrei Markov" Luna silently mouthed. Where have we heard that name before.... She had a bad feeling at the pit of her stomach. She had to return to Equestria. The video games can wait. She never undid her invisibility spell nor did she get rid of her wings so, she flew back to the portal to her mother realm. When she arrived, it was already morning, which meant that her sister is already up and about. She undid her invisibility spell and flew to the throne room where Celestia is most likely to be. She charged through the double doors of the throne room and saw her sister sitting on the throne with a bored look on her face. "Tia!" she began. "We need to-" "Halt!" her sister's guards raised their spears. "Who-, What are you?" She looked at her body and realized that she still retained her human form. "I'm sorry, I don't believe we've met. I'm Celestia" her sister said to her with an amused grin on her face With an annoyed grunt, Luna changed back into her original form which made Celestia's guards drop their spears for fear of what the Royal Sisters might do to them due to their mishandling of the situation. The sight of her guards bombarding her sister with their most sincere apologies forced Celestia to cover her mouth with her hoof in order to stifle her giggles. "It is fine. Really, it is okay but can you please leave us and our sister. We wish to converse with her in private" Luna said to the guards. With a nod from the Princess of the sun, the guards made their way out the double doors in order to give the two sisters their privacy. "I see you've been visiting the human world again. Where did you go this time? Rome? Mumbai?" Celestia asked. "Washington DC" "Again?" "We planned to purchase more video games but..." Luna could feel her sister's eyes rolling at the mention of video games. "Go on.." Celestia urged. Luna inhaled to continue but then suddenly, both of them felt an extremely large surge of magic flow out of their bodies causing their eyes to glow. Magical surge then manifested itself as a large ball of light that formed when the surge from Luna and Celestia combined. The light ball then proceeded to fly out of the throne room through a window and into the Everfree forest. "Report" Celestia commanded. After the ball of light formed, both of the sisters were rendered unconscious which caused quite the stir in the castle. Even Twilight Sparkle teleported to her mentor's side when the news reached Ponyville. When Celestia awoke, she was in a hospital bed and found her faithful student sleeping at the edge of it. Using telepathy, in order to not wake up Twilight, she ordered the guards to search for the ball of light. By the time they found it, Celestia was already in the throne room waiting for their report. A lone guard entered the throne room to give his report. "With the information we gathered from eyewitnesses and reports from our scouts, we have determined that the ball of light made its way into the Old Palace of The Royal Sisters" "You're sure of this?" She asked. "Yes, your Majesty" the guard replied. Celestia was silent for a few moments, digesting this new information before thanking the guard and dismissing him. She is now alone in the throne room with this new information. Luna is still out for the count and she had already sent Twilight home, ensuring the purple unicorn that she is fully capable of handling this situation on her own. "Tia" a groggy looking Luna called out. "Luna. You're awake" "Not early enough, we suppose" It was already past midnight when the lone guard arrived to give his report and Luna was supposed to be the one that the guard reported to. "It's no trouble sister, I have been doing this for a thousand years. What's a single night compared to that?" Celestia said with a smile. "Have they figured out what that ball of light was?" Luna asked as she re-took her shift on the throne. "No, but they have figured out where it went: the old palace" "Now why would it do that?" "I don't know. The last time we were there, Twilight and her friends had just rescued you from Nightmare Moon. We never went there again because we have no more business there" "What do you mean, no more business?" Luna asked. "The castle holds many memories, sister. But for me, most of them are bad" Celestia lamented. "Your banishment, the wars I waged afterwards, the Elements of Harmony rejecting me. It all happened in that palace. Honestly, the only reason I haven't ordered that place be demolished is because it housed the Elements of Harmony and protected it from unworthy hooves. Well, that and-" she paused. "And....?" Luna urged. A smile suddenly crept up on Celestia's face. A smile that grew bigger with every revelation that pops inside her head. "I know who it is!" she exclaimed excitedly. "Uh... WHO....it is?". Luna has not seen her sister this excited in a long time. "Oh, you remember? Our first battle with Discord? The ONLY human there!?" Celestia asked, the uncharacteristic large smile never leaving her face. Luna tried her best to remember. Their first battle with Discord was over a thousand years ago. Humans don't live that long. While she was mulling it over, Celestia is already discussing with the servants about preparing accommodations for their extra special guest. "Wait, now we remember!" Luna exclaimed, equally as excited as her sister was earlier. "But try as we might, we could not place a hoof on the human's name. Do you remember his name, sister?" "Of course I do. His name is....is......" she paused again. She rubbed her chin on her hoof while looking at the ceiling for a few moments. She would be too excited to notice this but her next words would effectively drain the blood from her younger sister's face. "Now I remember. Markov. His name is Andrei Markov"
You either die a hero...The Canterlot castle, more specifically, the throne room, was abuzz with activity the next morning. Normally, it was reserved for the princesses to hold audience with their subjects but on that day, most of the royal servants ran hither and tither preparing it for a private party. To the knowledge of the senior servants, the princesses were apparently welcoming an old friend but due to the complicated nature of this friend, a fact that the princesses were not eager to share yet, the welcoming party was kept private. The light purple walls of the throne room was being decorated with fine tapestries. A red carpet led to the throne and ran parallel to the east wall. Red ribbons spiraled down each of the three pillars that ran alongside the wall, obscuring the papyrus motifs molded at the bottom. The throne itself was spared the decorations for the large flower pots and small waterfalls that embellished the platform below the royal seat was already majestic enough. "Everything is set, your highness," said one of the servants, a lime green earth pony with a red mane and pan cakes for a cutie mark, after the preparations were done "Thank you, Flapjack," replied Princess Celestia. "You are dismissed." The servant pony bowed his head and started after the other servants who were vacating the throne room. "Oh, and Flapjack..." The servant pony turned and once again stood at attention before his princess "Yes, your highness?" "When our guest arrives, please do everything within your power to awaken Princess Luna." Flapjack inwardly blanched at the thought. The last time somepony tried to awaken the night princess during the day, the poor soul was turned to stone. Granted, it was during the first few days after her banishment and she had changed much in the past few years. Add to the fact that she changed the servant pony back to flesh and bone but still, it was a line no servant pony ever wanted to cross again. "Err...well...." Flapjack rubbed his hoof at the back of his head. "Don't worry, she will answer to me if she does anything to you," the princess assured him. It didn't assure him that much. Even if it did, he was faced with another problem: these days, when Princess Luna sleeps during the day, she doesn't sleep, she hibernates; nothing in the world, not even a changeling invasion, could wake her up. How was an earth pony like him supposed to perform this task? "I'm sure you can think of something," said the princess, as if she had been reading the servant's mind. Flapjack inhaled to voice his thoughts but was interrupted by the royal herald who announced the arrival of the guest. "Well, get to work," Princess Celestia implored him with a smile. Markov watched as the royal herald entered the large double doors that led to, what he was told, the throne room. He was being carried on the shoulders of two royal guards, both pegasi, one on either side. From an outsider's point of view, it would have looked like he was a convict being brought to the princesses for judgement but in truth, he was being carried that way because he wasn't used to his new body and the guards were not going to wait for him to learn to walk. "Announcing the arrival of the royal guest to the princesses, Andrei Markov!" he heard the herald say. Two more royal guards, unicorns, appeared and opened the double doors wide with their magic. The two pegasi carrying Markov moved inside with him as he tried desperately to walk himself on his back legs. This entire world looks like a cartoon show. Might as well play along he thought as he was carried into the throne room. Inside, he saw many details that made the throne room stand out such as fine tapestries, a large throne and stained-glass windows with varying depictions but most importantly, he saw a larger version of the white pegasi that were carrying him but it had a particular trait that the pegasi didn't share: a unicorn horn. The larger pony creature approached them, leaving behind a regular wingless, hornless pony that looked, to Markov, like it just heard that its children were going to face a firing squad. The latter sped out the double doors while the former approached them slowly. "Why are you two carrying him like this?" it, or rather, she, due to her feminine voice, asked the pegasus guards "He had trouble walking, your highness," the pegasus on the right answered "And we all remember how long it took for Whiplash to walk again after he'd been cured from that cockatrice episode. We figured the same might have happened to him. That's why we offered to carry him here like this." "I... see." the larger one mused. She turned her attention to Markov "It's been a while, my old friend. I'm sure you have a lot of questions on your mind." Markov took a second look at his surroundings You have no idea I am going to die. Yes, that's it. Today, I die. How? Who cares! the tornado of negative thoughts swirled in his mind as Flapjack made his way to awaken the night princess After minutes of walking, he had finally arrived at Princess Luna's chambers. "Your highness?" he called out after knocking on the door. Silence answered him "P-princess Celestia.....DEMANDSyouraudience-" he facehoofed at his choice of words. All he could think was this is how I die But once again, silence greeted him "Your highness?" Thinking that she might be asleep, he softly pushed the door open "Hello-o-o." He started moving inside The interior of the room was dark due to the closed curtains but he could still make out where the furniture were so that he wouldn't bump into them. He slowly made his way to the princess' bed. "Um...your highness, are you awake?" he asked aloud as he approached the bed. This is a bad idea..... "We are awake, Flapjack," Princess Luna answered.... from the shadows to his left Oh f- Markov was left alone with the large pony (whom the guards identified as Princess Celestia). She had dismissed the guards earlier after she explained the real situation to them and offered to take him off their....hooves. She had also asked them not to divulge any of the new information to anyone outside the throne room. The guards eventually left but not before helping Markov to stand up straight and giving him a proper salute. "That was weird," Markov said after the guards shut the double doors "Be nice, old friend. They were just flustered to see a hero from the old days," she explained. The larger pony turned her head to look at his wings and his rear. "And your cutie mark is a dead giveaway to your deed." She smiled as she made her way to a marble bench. Cutie mark? he thought. Maybe I misheard "My what?" "Cutie mark. It's a mark on a pony that symbolizes their special talent. It's on your flank." The pony princess pointed to his rear with her hoof after she settled herself on the bench. There's that word again. Hearing it was like listening to a steel fork grate against a chalkboard. He shuddered as he turned his head to look at the area on his body where the white pony pointed. Oh God, please do not let it be some gingerbread cookie or a dolphin swimming in rainbows. Thankfully, what he saw was hardly whimsy or childish. In fact, it suited his talents just nicely. On his flank, a silhouette of a shark with wings was emblazoned and a silver streak was superimposed diagonally over the shark. Well, I guess it could've been worse. At least this... cutie... mark matches my talent. He looked over to the larger pony and saw that she was beaming, like a mother who was watching her child take his first steps. It bothered him greatly. Knowing what he knows to be his special talent, this pegasus-unicorn hybrid might be bad news but with his amount of options, which were few, he might have to humor whatever this creature had in mind. Besides, he still had questions to be answered and his quadrapedal skills enabled him to relate to the old Bambi movie he used to watch. He's not going anywhere "About those questions." Markov inquired. "Oh, yes. I'm sorry. It must have slipped my mind," she apologized with a sheepish grin. "I was hoping to wait for Luna to arrive for that but seems that she is content with sleeping the day away." She beckoned him to join her on the seat. Guess there's more than one of these things Markov thought. He walked awkwardly with his new legs to join the larger pony on the bench and when he finally reached his destination, he sat it with his back straight and his back legs hanging from the edge; a typical human way of sitting on a bench. "What is it that you wanted to know, my friend?" "Well, to start, who are you and how do you know my name?" The large pony's jaw dropped for a second but as quickly as it happened, she regained her composure and gave him her answer. "My name is Princess Celestia..... and since it seems that you do not remember, we used to be friends." She gave him a rather quizzical look. "Before you ask your next question, please humor mine: do you remember your time here? When you were in Equestria?" Markov was about to tell her that he remembers nothing but then he thought about the flashback he saw after he made sure that the Trinity cruise missile was on target. "I'm... not sure. I remember.... something before I..." Markov started to say, but stopped himself. "Well, what is it?" she questioned.... in that familiarly motherly tone Green field... surrounded by technicolor horses.... one of them named Wonderbolt...... I guess I take after the one they call Wonderbolt....one of them is large and... "Wait, you were there" he finally said. Celestia smiled. "You were the one that.... did that thing to me.... and made everyone of them say goodbye..." Her smile slowly died. "Well, it's a start," she said after a few seconds of silence. "So it really happened then? It wasn't a dream?" Markov asked, but in truth he was stating. "Yes and no, respectively." Markov was quiet for a few minutes. He then asked "What happened that day? I remember bits and pieces but the whole picture escapes me." "Since you do not remember, and all this is relatively new to you, I will tell you the short version and fill in any blanks and answer any questions you may have," she said and so, she did. She told him the story of how a much younger Markov was brought into Equestria with chaos magic by a creature known as Discord. She told him of how the younger Markov participated in a battle against said creature with the help of a pegasus named Wonderbolt (with whom his new form resembled). And last, but not least, she told about how she and the other unicorns combined their magic to send him back to the human realm but not before she cast a certain spell on him. "The spell was to bring you back here in Equestria in a new form whenever your life is threatened to the point of death. But for some reason, maybe the difference of the laws of time and space between our realms or the fact that you were brought here with chaos magic to begin with and affected the transport spell, you were brought here more than a thousand years after the spell was cast," she explained. Awkward silence filled the air between them as Markov tried to digest what the Princess just told him. "This is probably too much for you to take in in a single day," she said. "Why don't we hold off the celebration until you can finally wrap your head around it?" "What celebration?" She pointed her hoof to the decorations in the room. "Earlier, we had the servants decorate the entire throne room so that we could celebrate your arrival but, it seems that you might require some... acclimatizing." "Oh... I'm sorry," he apologized. "It's alright. I know what it's like to travel to another universe and how hard it is to adapt to new surroundings," she said. While she talked, she also smiled because it seemed that he was finally getting more comfortable around her. "Now, is there anything else do you wish to know?" she inquired. "Yes actually, does everyone here speak Russian?" "Russian?" "Yes, Russian. The language you're using now" Celestia thought about it for a while. "Oh... right. The spell," she whispered to herself "You see, Andrei, what you're hearing is.... Russian. But What you and I are speaking is Equestrian," she answered after a brief moment of silence. "Equestrian?" "Yes, That is the local language. It's the effects of the spell I cast on you. It's the reason it sounds like the Russian language. It makes any language sound like the one you're used to and turns the language you speak sound like the language the creature you're speaking to is used to. I use it all the time for political negotiations." ".... I see" "Anything else?" "Well...." He showed her his hooves and flexed the cylindrical stumps like they were marshmallows. "What of these?" By the time Princess Luna finally emerged from her room, it was already nighttime and her sister had already lowered the sun. In fact, the older sister was still waiting for her on the throne. "Good evening, Tia," Luna said to her. "Good evening," she replied. They stared at each other in silence for a while until Luna's eyes went left and right like a schoolfilly who did not know what she did wrong. "Luna," Celestia finally said. "Yes?" "Where were you this afternoon?" "I... was asleep," she lied. "Really? Because one of my maids reported that the servant that I sent to wake you was found tied to a chair with his mouth taped shut and a rubber udder strapped to his chest." Luna did her best to stifle a giggle. "W-well, it must have been the other servants. You know how they love to pull pranks and how those pranks can go too far." "You are the only one in this castle who owns that... dreaded thing." Celestia shuddered at the memory of having her picture taken with a rubber udder in her sleep. "Which would mean that you were actually awake at the time," Celestia concluded. Again, silence filled the air. "Luna, I don't care if you wanted to sleep or pull pranks with the servants. But you could have at least shown an old friend some courtesy by just greeting him before you go do anything else," she said, close to shouting. Luna, however, suddenly found the floor a more interesting thing to look at. "Tia," she said after a few seconds. "There's something you should know... about him." "What do you mean?" the older sister asked. "Remember when I went to the human world?" Then she told her, everything. Author's Note To anyone who follows this story: I'm very sorry. I know I said I'd not get lazy but I did...and that was last year. Anyway, I started writing the first chapter before knowing what a Gary-stu is and I'd really love some feedback or suggestions on how to un-stu this guy or whether or not I should continue with this story.
MemoriesEarlier Markov paced around the royal guest chamber. He was still contemplating what Princess Celestia had told him. The explanations about the lack of language barriers, about his past with these colourful creatures and finally, about the marshmallow stumps they call hooves and how they worked. Of course, he was still at odds about it all. And how could he not be? Everything that the large white pony told him went against everything he was taught when he grew up; magic, colourful talking ponies, and all of it governed by a hybrid sovereignty, two if the sister she mentioned is of the same species as her. After he asked to be excused from the impromptu reunion just hours prior, he was magically teleported to the very room he now paced in. Even then, he still found it hard to believe that actual magic was involved. The room where he was left was beautifully decorated with all things pony. The dark wooden rails for the purple curtains that separated the bedroom from the balcony had prancing unicorns carved at their ends facing away from the curtains, the surface of an oak study table from across the bed had a carved picture of a regular pony holding up a book to its face with its front hooves, the bedpost was carved to look like a Pegasus with its wing open ready to take flight and even the tiles on the floor were arranged to look like a sea-horse with a pony’s face. He thought it all to be funny because he half expected to see a stable instead of a bedroom. Initially, he was left in the room with a servant, a light blue ‘earth pony’ named Belmont, to help him get orientated with his new legs but things got awkward for both of them when nature called and Markov had to ask the unfortunate pony to show him how to use the lavatory. Afterwards, the servant pony surmised that Markov may have had a long day and wanted to be alone. “If there’s any other... inquiries you have to make, just ring the service bell by the bed, and someone will come along and uh... explain. Rest well.” That was the last thing the servant pony had said to him before leaving him alone to begin contemplating his experiences of the past few hours. Since then, his quadrapedal walk had gotten better and allowed him to pace the room while thinking. After a while, he stopped his pacing and made his way towards the balcony. As he parted the curtains with his front hoof, he saw a view that took his breath away. His room was placed on a very high floor in a white marble tower and from his vantage point on the balcony, the colourful land of Equestria spread out in front of him. The thick green vegetation, the jagged range of mountains and the beautiful blue sky presented itself like a surreal piece of artwork that would belong in a museum. In the distance, he could see a group of clouds that could pass as a city due to their formation and a small town in a clearing of the thick forest. For the ordinary man, a view like this would have held his attention just from its sheer majesty, but for Markov, it held him for an entirely different reason. Markov’s arms held on to something... blue, very tightly. His hair whipped along with the turbulent winds. He opened his eyes only to see a jagged mountain range from a bird’s eye view. The sound of wings urgently beating and flapping filled his ears. He closed his eyes again as he tightened his grip on the blue creature. “Ack- I said ‘hold tight’, kid, not ‘cut off my oxygen’!” screamed Wonderbolt Markov could only respond with, “It’s getting closer!” A loud roar came from behind them and Markov turned around to see a large creature bare its sharp teeth and- Markov quickly shook his head and paused. He took a second look at the scenery before him, especially the mountain range. The same one... he thought. He looked up at the tower he was in. This wasn't there in that 'memory'. He thought about the creature that was chasing them. What was that thing? As he struggled with that memory, he thought about the one constant that has been there in both of his flashbacks of the land called Equestria. “Wonderbolt,” he silently mouthed. He marched back inside his room as fast as his four legs could carry him. He approached the bathroom again, but this time it was for a different need. There was something that he had to get off his chest. When he last entered the bathroom, he noticed a large mirror fixed into the wall, thankfully, opposite the wall with the previously used lavatory. How had he instantly known that his now deformed body resembled that of the blue Pegasus and not of anything else? How had he easily accepted all this ‘magic’ nonsense? Does he even look like Wonderbolt? In the flashbacks, he couldn’t get a good look at the pegasus’ face so, would the mirror reveal the pony’s face? These questions played in his mind as he made his way towards the mirror. When he finally reached it, his eyes studied the blue pony in the reflection. He first studied the mark with the emasculating name. His was a greyish silhouette of a shark with wings on its back flexing its body so that it forms a ‘C’ and silver streak cutting diagonally from top-left to the lower right over the shark. He then lifted his front hooves to see if the reflection did the same. When his eyes settled on his face, he had the shock of a lifetime. Where he had expected to see the face of a certain blue pony, he saw something else entirely. He saw his own. Although the face was elongated to fit in with the pony populace, he could tell that he was looking at the face that he once had as a human. He recognized his deep set brown eyes, his thin full beard and buzz cut, although they were now dark blue in colour, was still familiar to him. The reflection mirrored his expression of horror. At first, he attributed all the immediate weirdness as a dream but after seeing his own face, everything; the magic, the talking horse things, the flashbacks, started to seem very real. His heart started beating faster. His breathing became laboured. He could feel cold sweat covering his now furry body. He reached his forearm to wipe his forehead with his palm but when he tried to flex his fingers, he remembered. He no longer had fingers. He looked in horror at the stumps where his hands used to be and then where his feet used to be. All the while the pony in the mirror reflected every move, every expression of terror as if taunting the poor man. Suddenly, he felt an odd sensation on his back. It was as if he was stretching a muscle that wasn’t supposed to be there. No… He looked into the mirror. NO…. The wings at his back flared and he could feel every muscle in them. He could feel the tickle of the feathers, his feathers, as they brush against each other. The winged pony in the reflection reared in terror. “NO!” he screamed. In denial, he smashed the mirror with his front hooves. He felt the fragile glass break and heard the shards rain down to the floor. What little hope he had of breaking whatever hold this dream may have on him shattered along with the mirror as some of the falling shards cut painfully into his front foreleg. He had hoped that the pain would awaken him elsewhere but no. He was still there, in a bathroom, in a tower in this strange land. Still in denial, he started biting his foreleg where the wound was, hoping against hope that more pain would somehow end the illusion. “Wake up, wake up,” he repeatedly told himself while his teeth broke the skin and he started to bleed. “Wake up, damn it!” He looked back at the mirror- Wait, didn’t I… The large mirror stood before him, intact and undamaged. The reflection still imitated his actions but a few things were different. Firstly, he noticed that the cutie mark on the reflection was yellow thunderbolt with white wings. Secondly, its face was no longer his. The reflection had hooded eyes with yellow irises and a longer, shaggy, dark blue mane. It stared back disdainfully at Markov. He could still feel the sting where he bit himself but he didn’t care. He was feeling too uneasy from the reflection’s stare. Without thinking, he smashed the mirror again and again he watched the shards fall to the floor. To his surprise, the shards lifted themselves off the floor and floated themselves back into their position on the wall. They melded back together, removing the cracks, and got him looking back at the yellow eyed reflection. He smashed the mirror again and again only to get the same results every time. With every hit, his wound stung more. After the eighth attempt, bite mark stung so badly, he curled up in a fetal position, nursing the injured leg. He looked up at the mirror and saw that the reflection did not imitate his actions. In fact, it was looking down at him in pity. “Damn you!” he cried. He tried to rise up, to break the mirror just one more time but he realized the futility of it. He resumed his curled position knowing that there was no way he could escape. He was trapped, helpless, and truly hated feeling this way. When he was a pilot, he felt like he could force the very hand of fate and break through all barriers to get what he wanted. For a brief moment, he did. But here, he was impotent. He was deformed. Again he looked up at the pony in the reflection, and realised that this was no longer his domain, it was theirs. He was trapped in their world, in their form, at their mercy and as their guest. Present “What in the world…?” Celestia asked out loud. Her sister, Luna, stood beside her, both staring dumbfounded at the apparently injured pony sleeping on the shards of a mirror that used to decorate the wall next to him. The light from the candle they brought broke through the night time darkness and illuminated the bathroom they were in and showed them the extent of Markov’s injury. “Why didn’t anypony hear anything?” asked the lunar regent. She levitated the candle closer to the former mirror housing and saw hoof marks in the wall. “We should tend to his wound. Tia-,” “No. Not yet,” Celestia interjected. “A healing spell would awaken him.” “Sister, his wound may already be infected. For crying out loud, do you even see the pool of dried blood he is sleeping in?” “He’ll live, Luna. For now, I need to know if what you told me about him is true.” “Couldn’t we just-.” “Now,” Celestia said with finality. Luna could only sigh in resignation. She had the ability to look into ponies’ dreams and memories but only when they are asleep. She could also bring another pony into the dream world, to see what she sees. Her sister needed this ability to confirm for herself the things that Luna saw in the human world. Unfortunately, Celestia was not her usual patient self, especially after what she had heard about their old friend. “Are you ready, Celestia?” The older sister nodded. Luna’s horn started to glow as she focused her magic. She felt a prickling sensation at the back of her head, indicating that the spell she had chosen was ready but first, she had to establish an extra link with her sister in order to bring her along. She pictured in her mind, the spell as a glowing thread looping around her sister’s head before coming to rest at Markov’s forehead and then, she cast the spell. Luna and Celestia floated above a crowd of humans. They were all staring at a large stage where a tall human wearing a military uniform was being saluted by another human in military garb. When the latter turned to address the crowd, they saw that it was in fact, their old friend. Andrei Markov. “What’s going on?” asked Celestia. “He’s being commemorated.” “How do you know that?” Luna just stared at her sister before saying, “It’s written on the banner right there.” She pointed to the large poster with Markov’s face on it. “I can’t read Cyrillic, sister. What does it say?” “It says ‘Geroy Rossiyskoy Federatsii’, Hero of the Russian Federation.” The scenery suddenly blurred and faded into white. “What are you doing?” asked Luna. “We’d be wasting time if we have to comb through every single memory so, I’m skipping to the most recent,” said Celestia as her horn glowed and the scenery was replaced. “How did you… never mind.” They were now floating just above what appeared to Celestia as a metallic demon, flying at the speed of sound. They were apparently floating along at the same speed as the machine, allowing them to see into the glass dome on its head. Inside, they saw a human fiddling with its innards. “This is called a fighter jet,” Luna explained. “Since humans don’t have wings, they fight their aerial battles with flying machines like these.” Celestia floated herself under the aircraft and saw a shark’s mouth painted on its nose. “Grendel,” she silently mouthed. “Luna, the human in this fighter jet, its Markov isn’t it?” Luna was silent for a few seconds before nodding. If what Luna said about Markov was true, then they were about to see their old friend commit some horrible atrocities. The aircraft hastily approached a small burning city with more fighters tearing each other apart in a deadly aerial dance above it. The shark mouthed one entered the fray and launched a barrage of speedy projectiles at another aircraft from a small tube near the nose. It gave chase to the other fighter, launching more of the projectiles and occasionally launching bigger, slower ones that leave smoky trails. All the while, the pursued jet evaded all if not most of the barrage but it looked as if it wouldn’t end well for it. Suddenly, another aircraft appeared behind Markov’s and launched its own hail of missiles at him. Not to be outdone, he broke off his chase and tilted his aircraft’s nose upwards, making the jet vertical while still maintaining its original trajectory. His momentum slowed drastically, causing Markov’s aircraft to swap positions with the offending aircraft. Instantly, the tables turned for the attacker. Markov gave no quarter to the newcomer and fired more of the speedy missiles and launched one of the slower ones. The slower one exploded when it hit the target aircraft’s rear end and gave Markov every chance to finish it off. Celestia and Luna were both amazed and terrified as they watched everything unfold. They had expected Markov to destroy the weaker aircraft but to their surprise, he broke away and flew off in a different direction, allowing the other fighter to safely fly away. Luna suddenly breathed easier and watched their old friend continue on his trajectory, away from the city. Seeing how Markov spared his attacker, Luna began to have doubts about the newspaper article that she saw on Earth. She wanted to share her thoughts with Celestia but a sudden flash of light stopped her. It came from the city a few distances from the one they were above and looked like a miniature sun had suddenly appeared in the middle of the city. “What…” The ball of sunlight suddenly exploded with such force, the shockwave spread out for miles. Even the pilot that was grounded in the nearer city was knocked off his feet. The sisters looked at the resulting mushroom cloud in fear. Luna was first to react by erasing the scene to white. “That… do you think… that… Was that his doing?” Luna stuttered. Celestia said nothing. She just used her magic to skip to the other memories. Again they were flying along with the sharkmouth. This time, it was carrying a large orange pod under one of its wings. The city they were flying over looked to be in the highlands, not the desert. But just like the previous city, it was torn by war. The pod suddenly detached and propelled itself free of the aircraft. It zipped this way and that before choosing a singular course towards the heart of the city. When it finally hit its target, the pod exploded in another ball of sunlight and the resulting blast levelled the entire city. “So it was him,” said Celestia, tonelessly. Luna witnessed the devastation with disgust. “What in the world would justify this much carnage?” Luna asked aloud. The scenery shifted again. Luna turned towards her sister but she noticed that Celestia’s horn was not glowing. Noticing the shift without giving much thought, Celestia looked around for the imminent memory but instead, she found herself looking at a rain of blue feathers that suddenly appeared from above. In the vast ocean of white, amid the rain of blue, the sisters saw two figures in the distance. One was a tall human wearing a dull grey full body flight suit while the other was a small human child, wearing nothing but a makeshift poncho made from a large, dirty rag. The larger human turned his back on the child and slowly walked away. At that moment, the falling feathers, as if blown by an unseen wind, gathered around the child, engulfing him. The feathers suddenly flew upwards and disappeared, along with the child. The only figure left in the milky void was the larger one. “We must be in his dream,” Luna reckoned. “Why did you bring us here?” “I didn’t. I assumed you were the one who did, until I saw that your horn wasn’t glowing.” Wasting no time, the older sister tried to magically bring out another memory before Luna stopped her. “I think I should do it, sister. We are currently in the dream world, not his memories. You might… damage something.” They returned to the white void and immediately, the surroundings shifted again. They were now in a lavish looking room, looking at Markov who was holding an L shaped weapon with a smoking end with both hands. Behind him were two men in military garb. Markov relaxed his posture and said, “Бросаю так скоро, генеральный?” “What did he say?” asked Celestia. Luna responded by casting a translation spell. “Мы должны сдаться. Переворот не удался,” they heard someone respond. Markov walked over to the other end of the room and it was then that the two princesses saw the prone form of an older man, profusely bleeding from a wound on his chest. The translation spell began to take effect as Markov approached the old man. “ваш переворот means nothing.” Markov knelt at the old man and said “This is about revenge.” He stood up, aimed his weapon at the old man and a sound, like thunder, came from the weapon. Blood sprayed all over the room and the old man went limp. The view blurred to white again as Luna skipped to another memory. They were now floating alongside Markov but this time, he was riding a grounded, four wheeled vehicle and he was accompanied by another man. The surroundings were that of a war zone, similar to the ones they saw when they were in the sky. The vehicle grinded to a halt and Markov and his friend exited with haste. Worry clearly etched on his face as they traversed the rubble that used to be a building, searching for something. Celestia and Luna looked up and saw fighter aircrafts crowding the air space. “Krista!” they heard their old friend scream. He was holding a woman in his arms. She did not stir. He cradled the dead woman’s head and held it close. He looked up and said, “I will never forget this!” His companion could only offer a comforting hand on his shoulder and say, “Yes. Never.” Markov woke up with a gasp. He was hoping that he would get to use his fingers again but alas, he was still in his pony form. All of a sudden, he felt something tightening around his neck. He tried to paw whatever it was off but his hooves found nothing. The choking force lifted him upwards and he was suddenly looking in the eyes of a very angry looking princess. “Tia stop!” he heard someone say but the force tightened itself further. His eyes watered and the edges of his vision started going red. “Stop!” The voice was slowly going distant. Then, just as abruptly as it started, the choking stopped and Markov desperately gasped for air. As he lay gasping on the floor, he felt his body go weightless. He felt around and knew, somehow, that he was floating. From his blurred vision, he could see a blue aura surrounding his extremities. He also saw a large white blur that looked as if it was writing something with a quill. “Dear, Twilight Sparkle…” He could barely make out the words it was saying. And then, everything went black. Author's Note Wow, this one took a while didn't it? As is tradition with every chapter lately, I apologise for my tardiness. If any of you are wondering which English I'm using, it's Malaysian English (at least that's what it said in my Microsoft word). It's kinda like American spelling but with British terminology. Anyways, let me know what you think in the comments. Edit- Yes, I used google translate for the Cyrillic. I'm a fake. You know where the dislike button is.
