Princess 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"