Lifetime Quarantine

In a land devoid of hope far away from Equestria, a crisis brews...

From the quiet sandy shores of Skalisty Island whose sole inhabitants is it’s lone castle ruins. To the far off northwest regions of the black rocked mountains and forested lands of the Grozovoy Pass. The South Zagoria district of the Republic of Chernarus and her people have witnessed countless horrible acts that have been committed upon it's ex-Soviet soil. In fact the whole country and it’s millions of inhabitants outside of the region have too had unspeakable atrocities committed against them in the past by their Russian soviet leaders. Yet at the same time they too have knowingly committed horrendous crimes against themselves and others. Said acts against nature were overlooked by the civilized world, because they had no idea it was happening to begin with, as most media was censored inside the Iron Curtain. Genocides, cultural cleansings, and humanitarian atrocities were forced upon the civilian population by the Chernarussian Government or rebel faction groups. All of this happened without any repercussions from their leaders in Moscow, or the members of the United Nations.

For sixty nine long terrible years a cavalcade of endless violence had marched it’s villainy from one end of Chernarus to the other. The destruction of the country had progressed so far in it’s later years, that these deplorable acts of war were now commonplace. It was no longer a surprise to hear about a protest turned riot in the nation's capital, which resulted in the injuring and deaths of dozens, maybe even hundreds. It was no longer a shock to people when they witnessed a car bombing outside a police station, or a fortified government building. And no longer did the citizenry bat an eye when their youth radicalized or signed up for the military to fight one another in their bloody brother wars. It had become the norm for so many innocent people living day by day leading up to the country's independence, after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Of course the nation gaining its own autonomy from the motherland only changed one thing, and that is to whom the blame would be directed to if there was ever another crisis that happened on it’s newly liberated soil. The rump state that was implanted by the soviets during the cold war couldn’t be held responsible for the crimes they committed against its people, as they were only puppets to their soviet commanders back in Russia.

But now? With their newly elected parties in power, and not to mention their immediate possession of former Soviet military installations and stockpiles? They, and them alone would be the ones responsible for anything that happened within its borders, and the people knew this.

With this new modern age of change and revolution arriving in the war torn slavic state, came a very important component of the western world's 21st century. It wasn’t American hamburgers or Pepsi Cola that radically changed the country, it was the internet and all of it’s infinite possibilities. In the first couple years of the nation's independence, and after the government established and accepted trade routes from the west based on the demands of their people, and multimillion dollar companies, the country was connected to the world wide web. Thousands of home computers and cell phones came flooding into the country as new Chernarussian internet and cell phone service providers were born from the people's new desires. Companies like Spektr and Graz Telefon quickly tapped into this newly opened market and erected communication towers all across the nation so the people could connect with one another, and connect with the world abroad.

Quickly after the nation was updated with internet service, stories and reports came in and flooded the web, all written by civil war survivors, and ex-military personnel as they detailed their experiences living within, and serving in Chernarus. The whole nation, outside of the government and the current Chernarussian Defence Forces, had something to say about what happened to their lives whilst living in this literal hell on Earth. News articles, photographic proof, video documentation, and all sorts of coverage of their blight began to circulate around the globe. For the first time in forever, Billions of ears and eyes were pointed towards Chernarus. The world bared witness to the mass graves, the torture, the grevious occupation and destruction of civilian settlements for the sole purpose of warding off enemy attacks, fire bombings and the razing of homes, farms, and factories, that were all committed evil men devoid of morality. Both the government and the defunct militias were at fault. Of course, none were more hated than the Chernarussian Movement of the Red Star or the ChDKZ.

The “Chedaki,” as they were commonly referred to, were the ones behind most of the conflict in the country, specifically in the South Zagoria region. They had been around as a political movement since the collapse of the soviet union, but it was only in early 2009 did they really begin physical anti-Chernarussian acts, by openly plunging the country into civil war yet again. Of course to the people living within the small pocket nation, this was commonplace, they had always had to deal with civil wars popping with nobody out there knowing about their pain. Only now, they had an outlet. They finally had the opportunity to show the rest of the world what was happening inside their country.

And this outlet would not go underutilized.

What started out in the mid 1990’s as a group known as the Working Man's Defence Alliance, founded by Gregori Lopotev and several other members of the Solnichniy Quarry Corporation, had later manifested into something much greater. The Chedaki truly came into their own when in 1999 Lopotev organized a violent protest over working and pay conditions at one of their mines, which led to the death of three protesters. After this the WMDA was dissolved by the government, and Lopotev went into hiding for several years. This was the turning point for what would soon become the ChDKZ, which would be formed from the ashes of the WMDA with one clear goal: the re-integration of Chernarus with the Russian Federation.

On the 27th of July in 2009, almost a full decade after the incident at the Solnichniy Quarry, Gregori Lopotev made his first moves against the Chernarussian government and her defence forces after coming out of hiding. They quickly occupied the northern half of the South Zagoria region, which is bordered by Russia, and held territory that was strategically important to their cause. With seized military stockpiles they secured by defeating the local Chernarussian Defence Force garrisons, they quickly got their hands on plenty of tanks and APC’s, which allowed them to steamroll all the way to the southern coast of South Zagoria by late August.

Barely a month after the crisis began, ChDKZ-backed militiamen stormed the town hall in downtown Chernogorsk and captured the incumbent Prime Minister of Chernarus, Alexander Baranov. The ChDKZ issued a public statement demanding that the Russian government accept their requests to be re-integrated with the Russian Federation. Their request was denied however, and Baranov was personally executed by Lopotev in retaliation; afterwards declaring the country as the "Chernarussian Socialistic Republic'' instead. Of course, the rest of the country beyond the South Zagoria Region was now without a government, so mass hysteria ensued with the general population as the government-in-exile tried to maintain an iota of control.

This event was well documented online, and was shared with the world, who responded with cries of sympathy and furious anger at the ChDKZ. New articles and reports were run in major news networks across the globe, and a demand to do something from people and even governments surfaced almost immediately, especially in the United States. The United States of America had already been at war in the middle east for roughly six years at this point, following the September 11th terrorist attacks in New York, and the nation's capital. They were accustomed to dealing with insurgent, guerilla, and asymmetrical type warfare. So at the request of the Chernarussian government-in-exile, to the United Nations for help, the United States Marine Corps was deployed to the country to aid in quelling the insurgency, under the guise that it was a peacekeeping operation.

But make no mistake, the USMC was out here for blood.

The remnants of the Chernarussian Defence Forces, and the Marines from the 27th Marine Expeditionary Unit, launched multiple invasions all across the South Zagorian coast, retaking both the island of Utes and the regional capital Chernogorsk, forcing the ChDKZ to retreat into the mountains in the north of the region immediately after facing defeats on all fronts. During the Battle of Chernogorsk, Lopotev is captured by the USMC after being ambushed during their hasty evacuation attempt from the city. Before they could be brought back to government lines however, a Chernarussian Defence Force double agent working for the ChDKZ rescues their leader, and Lopotev is safely evacuated from the area before additional U.S. forces could arrive. Regrouping into the northern regions of the province, the ChDKZ slowly assembled a new force with (what the CDF/USMC were unaware of at the time) covert Russian support from a fanatical Spetsnaz operative known only as "Karelin". But even with Karelin's support, the ChDKZ were on the brink of defeat.

Their fortunes are suddenly reversed after Karelin detonates a bomb in the heart of the Russian capital Moscow. Codenamed as "Operation Cobalt", the bombing kills fifty three and injures more than two hundred people. The terrorist attack is blamed squarely on the National Party (NAPA), a group of anti-Russian guerillas who constantly engaged in bitter warfare against both government forces and the ChDKZ. Not much is known about NAPA, only that they were an underground movement formed in the wake of the civil war. Much to their luck, the Russian government forces the withdrawal of all American forces from the country, and also demands that Chernarussian Defence Force troops return to their pre-intervention lines back at Zelenogorsk. With both the Americans and government forces out of the way, the ChDKZ quickly retake their lost territories throughout the northern regions.

What they weren't aware of however, was that a small team of USMC Force Recon operatives were still in the country providing support to the Chernarussian Defence Forces and eventually, NAPA as well. Despite their recent gains thanks to the "ceasefire" arranged by the Russians, the ChDKZ were still being slowly beaten back by government forces. Eventually, a large-scale offensive is conducted by joint CDF/NAPA forces against the ChDKZ. Striking eastward from the base of operations in Zelenogorsk, allied forces struck all ChDKZ-held towns and slowly drove them back again. It didn't help that despite their intervention, Russian forces refused to mobilise against the CDF. And if things couldn't get any more difficult for the ChDKZ, Lopotev himself is captured by the Force Recon team after they discover his whereabouts on Skalisty island.

With Karelin dead, being killed by an elite Spetsnaz unit, and Lopotev gone, the once-seemingly unstoppable insurgent army had become leaderless in a single stroke. Because of this, their results on the battlefield showed. The Russian military is forced to withdraw after their intervention mandate is revoked, and the USMC is even authorised to redeploy into Chernarus following unanimous approval in the UN Security Council. Now forced into a defensive war, the ChDKZ retreated on all fronts back to their main base of operations in Msta. This didn't go unnoticed by allied forces, who eventually tracked down the location of the main base and launched one final attack on it. Despite throwing everything they had at allied forces, the ChDKZ were overrun and their only remaining headquarters in the region was destroyed within five hours.

Small cells throughout the northern countryside continued to remain defiant and resisted the government forces, but ultimately lacked the leadership or manpower to challenge the allied offensive. What was left of the ChDKZ would be wiped out, and cleaned up by the end of October 2009. The whole conflict lasted roughly two to three months, depending on who you ask, and in that time, the world had their eyes glued to their computer and television screens. The whole incident was painstakingly documented on major news networks and online for everyone to gawk at as attention was only briefly taken off the conflicts in the middle east. Some people say it was the most well documented war in the whole ex-Soviet bloc at the time. But with the civil war over, and the region slowly licking its wounds as the casualty counts started coming in, and people started returning to their homes, and their normal lives, did something much larger, and much more terrible than a three month long civil war arrive on the horizon.

And here is where our story takes place, one year after the conflict and in another universe far, far away from Earth. It takes place in the magical land of Equestria, where friendship is magic, and all is well. In this world there is no concept of war, or genocides, or mass graves, or anything outside cartoon violence. This utopia is populated not by humans, but by little ponies that wouldn’t even come up to a standard man's waistband, if he were to stand beside one. Within this magical land there are many different kinds of ponies. Earth ponies can run very fast and are super strong. Pegasi can fly incredibly high and at speeds that can break the sound barrier. And unicorns, that can bend the fabric of reality to their whim with arcane magic. They live together in harmony and only have to face danger once in a blue moon, which to them seems like a lot. But to anyone else viewing their world from the outside, would see this as nothing more than minor inconveniences. It is truly a paradise.

Our story will be following one of these ponies, a Unicorn in fact, whose name is Starlight Glimmer. This is the story of how Starlight Glimmer, came to fear the human race, possibly even hate. Not because of what they've done in the past, but because of the things they are capable of doing to one another.