//------------------------------// // Chapter 8 - So It Begins // Story: Equestria's First... Russian? // by I Brained My Damage //------------------------------// Equestria’s First… Russian? Chapter Eight So It Begins Twilight stared blankly at the letter she received from Princess Celestia. After hearing the news of what they had to do, all ponies present sighed heavily and wore an expression of either anger or annoyance. “Can we request a chariot from the princess?” Rarity asked. “Wait, let me re-read this. I stopped after the part saying we had to bring Andrei to Canterlot.” She re-read the letter and saw a post script at the end of the letter stating that transports were not available at the time because of all troops being busy preparing for something important. Twilight sighed heavily. “Nope; all troops are busy at the moment.” “I take it we’ll start moving him in the morning?” Applejack asked. “I guess so if she wants us in Canterlot as soon as possible. We’ll plan everything else in the morning.” The ponies and one human in the room fell asleep. Ponies from exhaustion, and human because he had absolutely nothing else better to do. * * * * * Alexander could tell by looking out the hospital windows that the entire day had come and went. He still couldn’t believe that the pony was alive, even after who-knows-how-much time having been wounded like that. He had been sitting in the same waiting room chair for hours, doing nothing but soaking in his surroundings. The tiles that made up the floor he walked upon were all either blue, white, or a sickening shade of green. The lights were all shining dimly, except for one magic-powered light that flickered ever few seconds probably due to a shortage of magic to power it. Everything smelled like it had been sterilized. Oh how he hated that smell. After hours upon hours of waiting, the head doctor walked out of the emergency room; the door being the only sound made in hours other than Alexander’s breathing. He got up from his seat and walked over to the doctor. “Is he alive?” he asked. The doctor sighed, preparing to give an explanation. “Yes, he’s alive. You brought him in just in time, too. Any later and he wouldn’t have made it.” “Thanks,” Alexander said while looking at a clock on the other side of the room, “wow, it’s really getting late. I guess I will get out of your mane for tonight.” “Okay, and thanks again for finding Mr. Snapple. I’ll be sure to inform his family that you were the one who found him.” “Okay. Goodbye.” * * * * * The morning sun slowly rose from below the distant horizon, creating more and more bright rays of morning sunlight that pierced through the windows of Twilight tree adobe. They eventually stretched far enough across the floor to reach each ponies’ eyelids, irritating them into their awake state. Twilight lifted herself from the ground and said with a yawn, “Good morning, everypony.” She stretched her joints as each pony and Solovyov responded with a dreary ‘good morning’ as well. “Are you feeling okay, Andrei?” Twilight asked in concern. “Yes… I’m fine… my back is… a little stiff though…” he said with a weak chuckle. “Har har, very funny,” Twilight replied. “We have to get you to Canterlot somehow, which might be a big problem.” “Sorry.” “Why are you apologizing?” “For being such an… inconvenience to everyb-“ “You’re not an inconvenience, Andrei, and we’re leaving it at that. We’re getting you to Canterlot one way or another. We just need help.” She muttered under her breath so nobody could hear her, “And a lot of it…” “Twilight,” Rainbow interrupted, “aren’t construction workers working on building a housing complex nearby? Couldn’t we ask them for help?” “Rainbow, they actually have a job to do. But… I suppose asking never hurt anypony. I believe that they should be here by now, so I’ll go and see if I can get a few stallions to help.” With that, Twilight left her, her friends and Solovyov at her home after a quick breakfast of oats. Twilight approached what looked to be a five-story housing complex that appeared to be mainly completed, save for windows, doors, and roofing. Three stallions were carefully looking over very detailed blueprints. “Excuse me, sirs?” Twilight asked, slightly intimidated. The three stallions directed their attention from the blueprints to the young mare who called to them. “Yes? Can we help you?” “I was um… just wondering if you had a few stallions that are free to do some moving work for me? What I’m moving is extremely heavy and even with the help of five other mares and magic, it was nearly impossible for all of us to move it. Now I’ve been informed we have to move it to Canterlot.” The stallion on the left sighed as he observed his crew working on the building. “Well, I believe we have a few lackeys we could lend you,” he said while trying to look into each individual room of the building. “Hey! Steel Beams!” he shouted. A head that belonged to a dark brown stallion poked his head out of a window on the other end of the building. “Yeah, boss?” “I’ve got a job for you lackeys! Get you and your two friends over here pronto!” “On it!” Steel shouted back. Within thirty seconds, the brown stallion named Steel, and his two friends – Copper Wire and Iron Hammer – arrived to see a smaller, lavender mare standing near his boss. “What do ya need, boss?” “It’s not what I need, lass, it’s what she needs. She has some moving business that she and her friends are having difficulty with that they need to get to Canterlot. Care to help her out?” “Sure thing,” Steel said with sarcasm. This obviously wasn’t going to be a good day for him. “What are you trying to move, Miss?” “Oh, um… a statue.” “Big one?” “Uh… yeah, pretty big.” Steel sighed in annoyance, “Okay; lead the way, Miss.” With that, the three stallions followed Twilight to her home. Twilight arrived at her home with the three stallions to see her friends loafing around waiting for Twilight to get back. “I’m back,” Twilight stated to get her friends’ attention. “Ready to get moving?” Twilight’s friends released a sigh of disappointment as they all got up to get ready to move the statue of Solovyov. “Wait, Pinkie? Can you do me a favor?” “Yeah, Twilight?” Pinkie replied. “Would you do whatever you do to get from one place to another very quickly, and go to Alexander’s house to see if he’s home? If he is, get him to come help if he isn’t busy.” “Oki Doki Loki!” she said and she jumped behind a potted plant and disappeared from existence. “How she does that, I’ll never know.” * * * * * Through the rifts of time and space, Pinkie flew from behind the potted plant to Alexander’s front door and knocked three times. He answer the door. “Hello, Pinkie. How are you?” “I’m fine, thanks. Twilight and we need your help moving something from her house to Canterlot. It’s really heavy, so could you help us out here?” “Sure; no problem,” he said. “When are you moving it?” “Now!” Pinkie yelled as she grabbed a hold of Alexander’s hand and jumped behind tree near their location. * * * * * “When is Pinkie getting back? She only takes about three minutes with this and she still isn’t back! It’s been five minutes!” Rainbow said leading against Solovyov. “Rainbow, if there’s one thing I’ve learned being friends with Pinkie, it’s to never question her.” Twilight replied. As Twilight finished saying this to Rainbow, Pinkie appeared with Alexander from behind the same potted plant she jumped into to leave. “What has been seen cannot be unseen,” Alexander murmured, lying on the ground. He turned his head towards Solovyov. “Andrei? What happened to you?” “I’m fine…” he muttered. “He’s the reason why we need you here, Alex. We’ve been requested by Princess Celestia to bring him to Canterlot for an important matter.” Twilight explained. “Are there any group transp-“ “No, there aren’t; they’re all busy,” she said, cutting off Alexander. “Let’s just get this done and over with before we all pass out from exhaustion.” The three stallions, Alexander, and the Main Six all pushed their maximum effort onto the statue of Solovyov. Surprisingly, it was much easier to push along the ground than Twilight anticipated, although it was still quite a challenge to move. Three hours later “God, finally!” Alexander exclaimed as they managed to reach Ponyville’s local train station. Alexander being the largest being on the moving team, he exerted the most force in moving Solovyov. “Now time to… take a much… deserved break…” Rainbow Dash said between breaths. “Not yet Rainbow,” Twilight said, equally exhausted, “just need to get him… on the train.” All ponies and the human were still in moving position on the statue. “All right everybody, push!” Alexander exclaimed as he and the others pushed with all their might on the statue to get it on the train. Alexander and the others breathed a sigh of relief as they got the statue form of Solovyov onto the train. His back was turned towards the rest of the car, and he turned around to find at least twenty-five ponies staring at him. He could tell some of them came from very far off lands. He thought they have probably heard about the human stories, but have never actually seen one in person. It was quite a sight to see a human, three stallion construction workers, and all bearers of the Elements of Harmony pushing a statue onto a train to most ponies there. “Um…” Alexander said in thought, “d-don’t mind us; we’re only making a delivery.” As he said this, the ponies’ gazes slowly turned away from the human to anything else that could grasp their attention. A four-hour train ride later The train filled with ponies was stalled behind an odd grouping consisting of the Elements of Harmony, three random construction workers and a human as said group slowly pushed Solovyov out of the train. After a good few minutes of maneuvering him, they got Solovyov outside the train car and momentarily gazed upon the city of Canterlot. “So… exactly how far is the castle from here?” Alexander asked. “I haven’t visited Canterlot before.” For Twilight, she always thought the castle was relatively close to the train station, but that was just her mind being used to traveling to it constantly. Now that she was moving a very heavy statue with eight other ponies and a human, she realized how far the castle really was. Twilight sighted heavily. “It’s… on the other side of the city.” “And from the rate we’re moving… that’s going to take all day. Might as well get started.” Because Canterlot was, well, Canterlot, there were many ponies roaming the streets going about their daily business. Grunting, gasping for breath, and sweating came nine ponies and a human down the street, which stopped some in their tracks to look at the odd sight. Ten hours later “Finally… the front gates…” Applejack said between pants of breath. “Well, we’ve made it all this way… we can’t stop now,” Alexander said as he looked towards the sun that was now setting, leaving behind a variety of red, yellow, and even a hint of purple in the evening sky. After twenty minutes, they were able to push Solovyov into the front doors of the castle. Solovyov hadn’t really visited any very large buildings in his lifetime, and as a substitute searched pictures of large buildings and tried to imagine himself there. Since his vision was taken from him temporarily, being turned to stone and such, he tried to use his ear to listen to how long echoes took to reach him to determine how tall the interior was. He wasn’t very successful in doing so. “Come on guys; we’re almost there,” Alexander grunted. * * * * * Princess Celestia and Princess Luna were in the throne room of the castle, the former pacing back and forth in constant worry and panic. “Why isn’t Twilight here yet?” Celestia asked. “Maybe they got her along with the other Elements of Harmony?” “Sister, relax and calm down. I’m sure they will arrive shortly. When would Twilight ever disobey you?” Celestia stopped and raised her head from its slightly slumped position, as if focusing on something. Her ear twitched slightly, and in turn she turned her head toward the grand doors that shielded the throne room from the rest of the castle. “Do you hear that?” Celestia asked. “Hear what?” Luna asked as a low, dull stone-against-stone grinding could be heard from afar. Afraid of what it might have been, Celestia stiffened her standing position facing towards the door, preparing for an attack. Luna also became alert and stiffened her sitting position. No guards entered through any of the many entrances to the throne room. Luna thought that this could be either nothing at all, or something very disastrous if no guards entered. “They must be not be coming in because it’s either not a threat, or they’re all trying their best to defend us. This agony is killing me!” Luna thought. Minutes passed which felt like hours to the royal alicorns. After each minute, the grinding noise continued to get louder, even to a point where the floor shook slightly from the widespread vibrations. At last, after fifteen minutes of waiting, the grinding noise stopped at what sounded like just outside the throne room doors. After a moment, three light, weak-sounding knocks echoed from the grand, mahogany doors trimmed with gold. Celestia and Luna looked at each other in total confusion as to why somebody would knock at the throne room door. Wouldn’t the guards have opened the door for them? “Come… in?” Celestia said, not sure of what she should be saying. The door budged a few inches at a time with every shove. It was opened to reveal Twilight, her friends, three random construction workers, and one of the three civilized humans in Equestria. “My word,” Celestia gasped. “What in Equestria are you moving?” “Andrei, Princess,” Twilight responded weakly. “You wanted him to come here… but you didn’t-”she coughed for a moment. “You said you didn’t have any spare chariots for him… so we had to push him all the way here.” “Twilight, if you would have told me the situation you were in, I would have gladly lent you a chariot,” the princess replied almost jokingly. Twilight sighed loudly. “Well, too late now, I suppose. Before we discuss anything, please tell me you have a spell that can undo this?” she said gesturing to Solovyov. “Hm…” Celestia hummed as she moved her eyes back and forth, as if she was trying to scan her memory. “Actually, yes, I do have a spell to reverse Cockatrice magic. Give me one moment, and stand back.” Everybody around Solovyov moved away as Celestia’s horn glowed its magnificent, golden yellow aura, forming a golf ball-sized ball of magic at the tip of her horn. It emitted beams of blinding light before she lowered her head and released the magic towards Solovyov. Every human’s and pony’s vision oddly went black afterwards, despite Celesta’s magic creating the blinding white glow. Vision slowly but surely returned, and they saw Andrei lying motionless on the floor. Twilight gasped in shock, as she thought the magic had killed him. After a few seconds, Solovyov’s arm started to twitch while he tried moving it. “Ugh,” Solovyov grunted. “My arm feels like it’s made of lead.” He slowly and grogily lifted himself from the floor to get used to moving again. He got up too quickly and his head throbbed in pain, which he cradled with his right hand. Instead of feeling coarse human flesh against his temple, he felt solid rock. He positioned his hand in front of his eyes, twisting it in every direction to get a better look at it. “What the hell?” he mumbled. “Oh, well that hasn’t happened for a while,” Celestia said in amusement as she looked him over. “This is in the name of science, but could you please take off all of your clothes, except for your undergarments?” “Um… okay?” Solovyov said, and complied to take off most of his clothing. What everybody saw amazed them. Every region of his body from his thighs to his neck was not solid stone. Amazed and highly confused, Solovyov ‘experimented’ with his skin, pinching and pulling it in every which direction. Surprisingly, his skin still moved like regular human skin, but didn’t stretch as far. Celestia took a drastic mood change as she started to tell everyone of the impending disaster. “Twilight, do you know the reason why I have assembled you all here today? Hold that thought,” she said as she turned towards the three construction workers. “You three need to leave. We all appreciate your help in transporting this human here.” The construction ponies were still a little shell-shocked from earlier, knowing that the ‘statue’ was apparently a human. “Right away, Your Highness,” one of them said as they all turned to leave. As soon as the door closed behind them, Celestia spoke again with worry written over her face, “So do you know why I have assembled you all here today?” “No I don’t, Princess,” Twilight replied. “I’ve… never seen you look this worked up before. Is something serious happening?” “Yes, my student, there is. You remember how I wrote to you about the magical pulses I feel whenever a human enters Equestria, right?” Twilight nodded in response. “I have been feeling odd and strong pulses in my head for the past two days. I predict that there will be a large group of humans arriving soon, and I fear the worst of what they may do.” “Excuse my interruption, Princess,” Solovyov stated, “But by any mystical chance, do you know any… characteristics of what they look like, or if they have anything with them?” Celestia sighed. “If I did, I wouldn’t have called upon the bearers of the Elements of Harmony. I have no idea what’s going to happen, exactly where they will appear, or even if they have appeared yet. I can give an estimated range based upon the strength of the pulses, but I can’t say for certain.” “So you’re telling us that a group of humans is possibly in Equestria, and you don’t know where they are?” Twilight asked to make sure she heard everything correctly. “Yes, that is correct. I called upon you and your friends to keep vigil over Ponyville, along with other ponies. I’ve sent out around fifty Pegasus scouts around Equestria to look for anything out of the ordinary. No word has been sent back yet.” Fear was present among everyone as they listened to Celestia explain how dire the situation was. Through the fear in Twilight, determination emerged. “Princess, I swear that we as the bearers of the Elements of Harmony will protect Ponyville at all costs.” Each pony and human repeated exactly what Twilight had said, giving them the feeling of strength in numbers. “Thank you all, my little ponies… and humans,” she praised, and then smirked. “I will send you all home on a royal chariot. Good luck; I fear we will need plenty of it.”