Ottoman Life

I walked down the path with my head low. The town was quiet; the light poles illuminated with their faint lights small parts of what I supposed it was, a principal street. The place appears to have absolutely no signs of modern infrastructure, not a single block of concrete on the floor, nor it seems they support their constructions with any technique of German, French, Austrian, or Russian architecture. It was like travelling back in time, or like if I was in a villa up in the Swiss mountains. The rest of the journey to her cottage was mostly quiet, I only asked minor questions about their… life. She always responded with no signs of lies, nevertheless, as they say, the best lier is the one that believes its own lies.

And because this place was not real. Then they can suck my mental notes into their animalistic and primitive heads.

She opened the door of her cottage and motioned for me to enter.

I stepped back and raised a hoof, “ladies first, Ms Fluttershy.”

She blushed and quietly entered the place with me following her from behind.

My eyes softened at the cosy interior. It was quite simple, and it didn’t look any different from a normal European house. The floor comprises green wooden planks, and its covered on a blue carpet. Small birdhouses were hanging from the ceiling, quite strange, that’s literally the worst place you could put that.

With an oil lamp on one of her wings, she stopped by the fireplace and dropped some fresh logs in the dying embers. The fire began crackling, and the sweet aroma of the wood filled my nostrils in delight. I wish I could live in a place like this, away from the war, up in the mountains, where the chilly breeze would be one of the first things that I’ll encounter in the morning.
I kept staring at her wings; they looked so weird and normal at the same time. It’s like if you’ve taken the wings of a merry little bird and placed them on a horse. Now that sounds silly.

But wait a second.

Is she a..

“Uh excuse me,” she said while hiding her face on one of her wings. She timidly raised her voice again, “why were you staring at my wings.”

I tilted and shook my head, blinking several times before answering her question, “I uh, can I ask you a question, Miss Fluttershy.”

A pair of eyes peeked over her wings, looking at me with curiosity.

“Are you a pegasus?”

She slowly lowered them, “Uh yes, I am….”

“I uh,” I tried formulating words as I rubbed my neck with one hoof, “never seen a pegasus before in my entire life.”

“What?!” for the first time, she almost spoke in a normal tone, “what are you talking about?”

“I mean, yeah, it’s not common to see a pegasus from where I’m from,” I finished with a small smile, even thinking of it would be hilarious.

Her face became alarmingly worried. She stepped forward as her eyes softened, “b-b-but sir, you are a pegasus.”

My smile, in less or so, faltered. A frown made its way to my features as I turned my head. I suddenly felt a small pinch on my back, and that’s when I noticed…

It was true.

I felt two limbs right there; I thought it was just another weird thingy that happens when you change bodies.

Too much of my horror, but it was true. I now have a pair of wings on my back, demonic wings like the ones of a demon.

Or the ones of an angel.

I wanted to scream; I wanted to just curl up in a corner and die. It was too much, but I couldn’t make a show with a lady looking at me. I sucked a lungful of air and exhaled. Over and over again.

“Uhhh are you feeling right, sir?”

No, I wasn’t, I couldn’t feel my limbs, my eyes turned into pinpricks as I hyperventilated.

“Nothing…. Nothing, it’s all fine, it’s all fine, it’s his plan…. Help me lord.”

“Who is he?”

“I-I give me a moment,” I said this while stumbling back on my haunches. I stayed there for several minutes, just thinking of everything that’s happened.

She walked next to me, and looked at me with concern, though, her apologetic eyes disgusted me without a doubt. Only with Allah good things will come, not with some animals.

She cleared her throat. I turned to look at her with a small glare, and she jumped a bit at this.

“H-h-h-how didn’t you know that you were a pegasus.”

My eyes softened, “I uhhh.”

“Ohhhh poor stallion,” in a blink of an eye, she wrapped her legs around me, “you surely hit your head and…. You forgot everything!”

I jerked back, “what.”

“Of course,” she said as she went for a brown book with a big cross on it, “memory loss, it appears you have memory loss.”

“Excuse me, I-”

“The weird name, that place you said you came from, everything makes-”

“Excuse me!”

She cowered behind a wooden chair. When the peace settled, she fearfully made her way back at me.

I angrily raised a hoof, I needed to know where exactly I was, even if I was in my imagination, “do you have a map.”

“I uhhh but-”

“I asked, do you have a map?”

She stopped and continued by turning back while nodding timidly. My eyes narrowed as I watch every movement. She went to some drawers, and from there, she took a white scroll, and made her way back at me. She sat on her haunches and extended the map on the floor.

I was quite shocked to notice something. This was not Earth.

My breathings quickened. My eyes analysed the entire document, trying to find something, a landmark, anything that could be useful.

“No...no...no...no!” I shook my head as I stomped a hoof on the ground, “this is not a correct map! Are you trying to joke with me?”

“I uhh, I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she relaxed her wings, “this is the most accurate map we have now.”

“What, no!” I tapped my chin with one hoof, and that’s when an idea sparked, “do you have something to write?”

“What.”

“Something to write, a pencil, a quill, anything.”

“I uhh, sure,” she said as she stood up, and ran to get a yellow pencil. She left it in front of me and went back to where she was.

I quickly took it, with my hooves I sloppily turned the map to the backside ignoring Fluttershy’s cries, and started drawing the map of Europe. At least this imaginary version needed to recognise that…. If she is imaginary of course.

What if this is real?

I felt chills of even thinking about it. I ignored it and finished my work with pride. It was hard. The pencil constantly fell from my shake hooves at the first try. In the second try, I used my head and realised that writing with my mouth is much easier than with some hooves.

“See, now this is a map of Europe at least.”

She tilted her head as she looked down at my not so accurate drawing that even so, anyone who went to school should be able to recognise what I was trying to make out of this.

“I’ve never seen something like this, and what are those symbols over the... borders?”

Even if she didn’t notice my ears pressing against my head for my sun helmet, she noticed her answer upset me.

I pointed at a random country in Europe, “do you know what’s this country.”

“Uhh no?”

“France!”

“You mean Prance,” she smiled awkwardly.

I swear that I almost teared down right there, “what the hell if Prance, look here,” I pointed at another country, “and this one?”

She shook her head.

“Spain!” my eyes travelled along the map again, “and this one.”

“I’m sorry,” she barely whispered.

“It is- the German Empire,” I began randomly pointing at countries on the map, reciting their name afterwards, “the United Kingdom…. Sweden… Norway…. the Kingdom of Italy… the Austro-Hungarian Empire…. Russia….. Morocco…. Greece… Algeria… Switzerland...”

My hoof finally fell on my homeland, “the Ottoman Empire?”

She shook her head.

Now what’s happening.

I stepped back while breathing deeply. Everything seems to be ... crumbling.

“Ahmet,” she began in a soothing tone, “I’m sorry if I didn’t know… this land, but it’s getting pretty late, maybe in the morning you can see what’s up with it.”

I lowered my head as I tried to suppress those voices of… killing everyone here; they are all animals.

But I couldn’t. If I wanted answers, I needed to hold it once more.

I nodded, “yeah, sure.”

Unknown to me, she was planning to make me visit a certain alicorn in the morning to talk about my case.

What a busy day it was for Roseluck, fighting with her sisters, being the only one who is competent enough to run the business.

You know, the usual.

It was 1:36 am, and thanks to her sisters, she was up at that hour because she needed to take the trash out. She grumbled under her breath while carrying the bag filled with death flowers outside of her house. She had eye bags, and her day long makeup was ruined.

"Why.. me again..." she said as she left the bag next to a wooden pole. At the moment she was going to turn back, something caught her eye.

The moonlight was making something to glimmer, even in the town's midst's darkness. She looked to the sides and quickened her pace. Now, she didn't consider herself to be a lucky pony, if anything, her two sisters were the luckiest of them all. They had the charisma to pick a stallion, something that she sadly lacked.

But this, this was different. A collar-like thingy made of a precious stone in Equestria, amber bakelite.

She raised her head and tried finding the owner of such a precious jewellery. When the silence continued in the town, she picked the collar up, and went back to her house with new intrigue.

Only someone like Princess Twilight could afford for something like that...

Could it be of hers?

She was going to make sure of it, it's not the best idea to steal of a Royal Monarch. With a confident nod, she knew just what to do. Go to the castle of Friendship and give back the jewellery to the proper owner.

In the morning of course, in the morning.