//------------------------------// // Duality // Story: Dust to Dust // by Aleksander //------------------------------// “As long as a person is involved with warfare, trying to defend or attack, then his action is not sacred; it is mundane and justified by duality, a battlefield situation.” Day Two The storm was starting to clear. Suvi was continuing his long tread east to regroup with his army regiment, but it was to no avail. He did not see any logic in the whole situation, but for the time being that was not important to him right now. At the moment his orders were much more important, keep heading east. Stop for rest, food and self defense, nothing more. After stopping to rest after his miles of walking, he sat down, taking off his cap and hood which revealed his tired blue eyes while his blonde hair was no longer shining from the sun reflecting off of it. He drank the little water he had remaining in his water pouch that was tucked beneath his greatcoat. He looked up into the cloud ridden sky, seeing the sun barely, but surely starting to pierce the clouds. It reminded him of home. Home. A very vague, but real word. A word that described a place he loved but he was no longer at. A place that he wishes he was. Suvi is only twenty years of age, and had many more years ahead of him to live. He did not understand what probability of fate brought him upon this new land, filled with friendly looking ponies that hunted him. Then again, he thought, maybe he had been killed in some odd way in Finland and woke up here? He didn't know, but he couldn't help but ponder about his lost home. He was born and raised in a small town that was not too far from the Finnish-Russo border. In fact, he was raised only a few kilometers from lake Ladoga. He remembered the Communists forcing his family out of his home, shooting them one by one and then burning the house down. It was mere coincidence that Suvi himself was out exploring the forest, evading escape from the reds. This memory, this event made him hate the oppressor. He never got to say goodbye to his mother, father or his younger sister, and he never found the body of his sister which implied the reds got their hands on her and tainted her body and innocence. This made Suvi angry. Although, he broke himself out of his thought. He controlled his anger and repressed it, and cleared his mind by looking up at the sky again. This was something that his father taught him while hunting out in the tundra, to level out all your thoughts while aiming down the scope, focusing on the present, on the kill. Alongside the prospect that his anger and thoughts were stopping him from heading east. He sat up and stretched, realizing he needed to re up on his water supply. Even though it was winter a few days ago in his home, it seemed to be fall in this land. Looking at where the sun had risen not even an hour ago, he found his direction, and headed east. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Corporal Haste walked through the Everfree forest, accompanied by five militia of lower rank. His initial plan was to go into the forest, find the two Militia ponies, and get the hell out. Although this plan did not seem to be going accordingly. His group was equipped with light armor, spears and the unicorns had crossbows. The spears were hooked onto the side of the armor, while the crossbows had three point slings attached to them which let them hang on the militia's backs without ever falling off. Continuing their tread, they came to an open area of the forest which seemed very muddy. Haste was planning to continue, but one of his companions stopped him. "Corporal!" One of the militia ponies stated. "What is it?" He replied. "There are hoof prints here and it also looks like... blood?" Cpl. Haste wasted no time trotting over to investigate. To his own avail, there was indeed blood and hoof prints, and also the mud seemed to look as if something was dragged across it, into some thick shrubs not even forty feet away. He feared for the worst, and started towards the foliage. His fears were confirmed when he saw the leg of one of his comrades in the foliage. He was so shocked that he just stood there and stared. "...are you okay sir?" He kept staring, then shook his head to get his sanity back for a moment. "Militia!" He yelled, "The bodies of our missing friends have been found. I want their bodies lined up in a dry area so we can determine the cause of death, now!" The militia yelled in unison, 'Yes, sir!" and moved towards the thick brush, clearing it and pulling out the bodies, first being shocked of the amount of blood and their dead friends. With the bodies spread out in perfect comparison, Corporal Haste started his inspection. He could determine that the demise of Private Steel was from a blade, that slit his throat. Haste wondered what kind of sadistic creature would do that, but thinking about that only brought back memories from the conflict with the Gryphon Empire years ago. Although his partner... Haste could not determine what had killed Steel's partner. There was simply a hole in his forehead, and it could not have been an arrow, due to the depth and magnitude of the wound, along with a hole being in helmet. "Militia, search this area until you find something!" "Sir, yes sir!" * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * News of the disappearance was starting to spread throughout Ponyville. First, Roseluck was telling everypony about the "demonic" creature that was lurking around her property, spying on her. Then, one of the militia ended up telling their family about his search and rescue mission and the news spread from there. There was very little information, and even less official information from the government, on what was happening. One of the first ponies to obtain this news was the local Alicorn librarian, Twilight Sparkle. "...thank you, I will definitely look into it!" Twilight politely said to a local pony as she closed the door. "Sheesh, so much commotion over something so little." Twilight was a lot more logical than most ponies, and based on her information it was just another random event happening in Ponyville and hoped she wouldn't be sucked into it. She wanted to stay at her library and chart the stars. It was, in fact, almost the summer solstice. Roseluck had come to her library a few hours ago, explaining how the creature looked and what it was wearing and how it seemed to be acting with the greatest detail she could, but Twilight saw the fear inside of her so she took it with a grain of salt. So she opened her book of creatures who dwelled in the Everfree forest, and started reading. An hour or two into reading she hadn't found anything resembling a two legged creature besides a ghoul, and in itself didn't have light skin and have never been seen wearing clothes. She kept the hypothesis out there though, because she believed in infinite improbability. She kept reading on, eventually finding a new book called "Mythological creatures and other cryptids of Equestria" and dug into it. She was starting to doze off while reading, a common side affect for doing so for hours straight. She was about halfway through the book, and turned the page, revealing a diagram of a bipedal, light skinned creature that matched the description of Roseluck. This shot her awake, and right before she started reading about it there was a knock at her door. She looked at the door, then back at the book, then to the door, then the book, then the visitor knocked again. "One moment!" she yelled to the door, which promptly ended the knocking. She trotted up to the door and let out a breath when she got to it, slowly opening it. "Hello! How may I help you?" Corporal Haste and five other Militia ponies loitered outside, and Haste confronted Twilight. "Hello Ms. Sparkle, I apologize for coming at sundown, but I assume you have heard of the rumors of the new creature on the borders of Ponyville?" He said to her. "Yes, I have heard of the rumors, why do you ask?" She replied, slightly worried at what the response would be. "We found the two missing Militia, and needless to say they aren't with us anymore." He said blankly but professionally to Twilight. Twilight's stomach dropped slightly, "What does this have to do with me Corporal?" She said sheepishly. "Well, Ms. Sparkle, seeing as you're one of the smartest ponies that are the closest, I have come with a request." "What would that be?" "Well, one of the Militia were brought down with a blade, as we could tell through observation, but the other one was brought down by unknown means. To make it blank it was not done by magic nor by any physical weapon that we have seen before." He said, still with a blank face. "Well, I don't see how I can help in this situation..." she said uneasy. The corporal levitated an odd object up in between himself and Twilight. it seemed half the length of a quill and was made by some sort of metal, it looked like copper but she could not determine what, seeming to be a cartridge for something. "I am assuming that this is the fault for our fellow countrypony's death, and I request that you immediately look into it so we can determine what we're dealing with." Twilight did not know what to say, so she took the odd looking and small cartridge and put it on a table next to her. "I will definitely look into it corporal." "Thank you Ms. Sparkle, we will be taking our leave now." They both nodded to each other and Twilight shut the door, levitating the metal object and bringing it to the table where she was reading. "Now lets see what we're dealing with here..." She said, determined, and started reading.