//------------------------------// // Chapter Two: Expedition Groups // Story: Fate of the Lostbelt Kingdoms // by ElementBrigade //------------------------------// Fate of The Lostbelt Kingdoms Chapter Two Expedition Groups (Ponyville, Castle of Friendship) “What’s the status of Ponyville? Was anypony hurt or injured during the earthquake?” Twilight asked as she and her friends were inside the alicorn’s home. Specifically the map room. “So far, everypony in town is doing okay. A little shake from the sudden earthquake, but other than that, no major damages or injuries.” Applejack answered. “What on earth just happened?” “An earthquake just happened, Applejack. Weren’t you paying attention?” Rainbow Dash said as the farm pony rolled her eyes. “I know an earthquake just happened. I’m asking what caused the earthquake?” “Maybe that weird plant thing off in the distance is the cause of all it?” Pinkie Pie said as she noticed the same plant that was outside appear on the crystal map in the badlands area. “Oh, pretty!” “Pinkie Pie is right about it being the cause of the earthquake.” Twilight said before focusing her attention onto it. “While I was busy searching for something around the Treehouse, it started to glow for a moment before firing off a magical beam towards the sky. Seconds later, this tree flower thing appeared out of nowhere.” “Y-You think this might be a sign from the tree of harmony?” Fluttershy asked as Twilight pondered the idea of this. “Maybe, but it’s hard to tell if it is a sign from the tree of harmony.” The alicorn said as she noticed Her and her friends’ cutie marks floating over to where the fantasy tree was located. “I think that might be a clear sign, don’t you think?” Rainbow Dash asked as a smirk appeared on her face. “Looks like we’re going on another adventure!” “I do hope that it’s not as dangerous as last time?” Rarity asked as she shivers a bit from her last experience with going on an adventure. “I prefer not to have somepony take my cutie mark...no offence Starlight.” “N-None taken.” Starlight said before examining the area of where their marks were glowing at. “Weird...Aren't the badlands supposed to be a barren wasteland?” “Yeah, it’s basically a desert of shorts. Why do you ask?” Twilight asked as she looked over at the area of the make slowly being covered in snow. “Then how come it’s slowly being covered in snow and ice?” “You think that tree thing might be the cause of it?” Applejack suggested as she noticed Twilight writing something before having Spike set it on fire. “I take it you're getting the Princesses involved in this matter?” “I have a feeling that everypony in Equestria felt the earthquake. And given what is on the make, it makes sense that it would cause something like this.” She said after sending off two more letters. “Given how this tree is the same color as the element of magic, I can only assume that this is a friendship problem much bigger than anything we had faced before in the past.” “You mean this new area might be a threat to Equestria?” Fluttershy asked as Twilight shook her head. “We can’t assume that until we investigate this new area. For all we know, this might be a second of the Crystal Empire that was lost when King Sombra rained over the Crystal Empire. Hence I sent a letter to Cadence along with Celestia and Luna to help us in this matter.” “Is it that dangerous that we need the help of the princesses? I mean, not that I’m against asking them for help or anything.” Rarity asked. “We’re dealing with an area that caused a massive earthquake throughout Equestria. It’s better to play it safe then sorry.” Twilight said before looking over her friends. “We’ll take the friendship express over to the halfway point. Once there, we’ll walk on hoof until we make it to the area pointed out on the map. Be ready girls, we don’t know what we might face once we get there.” (Lostbelt, Russia) The lostbelt of russia. Home to the inhabitants that called themselves Yaga. This land of snow and frost was once a place that was hard to survive in. Mainly due to the constant snow storms, blizzards, demonic beast, law of the land, and it’s former Tsar Ivan The Terrible. This land was a cold and harsh land that only followed one thing above all else. Only the strong survive. It wasn’t always like this for this country. The Yaga’s used to be humans at one point in the past, but in order to survive the harshness of the frost and snow, they had to alter their physical bodies to adapt to their environment. Thus because of this, they were deemed unworthy to be part of the proper human history and were made into a lostbelt. Within this lostbelt, a pack of Yagas were making their way through the easy to walk snow. Leading them was an anthropomorphic purple and white wolf with bandages covering parts of his upper body. Following behind the pack were a group of humanoid like beings dressed in black clothes as if they were the rear guard for the pack of yagas. Their leader stopped once they were on the top of a nearby snow mount as he pulled out a pair of binoculars to assess the area they were in. While he was doing this, he noticed that the borderline that reached the end of the lostbelt they were in had desert stretching for miles on end. “Same as everywhere else, Patxi?” asked a female yaga as he simply nodded. “From the looks of it, yes.” he said before placing the binoculars back into his coat. “With the blizzard gone, more unexplored areas are starting to open up. This means we’ll be able to reach anyone else outside of Russia.” “I still have my doubts that we’ll find anyone outside of this place.” said a male yaga. “For all we know, they might attack us so they can eat us.” “We don’t really have much choice in the matter now do we?” Patxi said as he winced a bit from his injuries. “We have a lot of injured Yagas back home, myself included.and the Tsar isn’t doing so well either. It’s a miracle that he’s even alive given the wound he has on his chest.” “Which still bugs me as to why we’re helping the Tsar? Isn’t he the one that killed a lot of our kind and put this place through hell?” asked another female Yaga. “Shouldn’t we just kill him for the crimes he’s done to us as payback?” “The Tsar agreed to help us in exchange we patch him up. Given the state Russia is in, we do all the help we can get if we’re going to bring help.” Patxi answered which caused the female yaga to huff in annoyance. “You make a valid point...I still don’t trust him though.” She said before looking over at the oprichnik. “Though I can say that having the Tsar’s royal guard is really helpful with killing the demonic beast that ambushed us along the way.” “I’m wondering what they are. I mean, are they Yagas trained to defend the Tsar, or what?” asked a male yaga as he tried to touch one of them, only to get a light bap on his nose from the oprichnik causing him to yelp in surprise. “We’ve been over this before. They’re Yagas trained to defend the Tsar, also don’t touch them unless you want them to do that again to you.” Patxi said with a smirk on his face, as the male Yaga rubbed his snout and glared at him. He was about to say something, but soon heard something flying off in the distance. “Something’s flying above us.” He said as the group readied their guns and swords before looking up at the sky. Patxi pulled out his binoculars again to see what was flying above. From what he could tell, it was three weird but colorful looking horse creatures flying over them as they headed towards the borderline that connects the desert to the lostbelt. “What do you see?” “....I might’ve found a means of traveling long distances.” He said before looking back at the group. “Those demonic beasts are heading over to where the edge of the snow ends. If we can try and capture three of them, then we can use them to carry supplies from long distances via air.” “Is that even possible?” asked another female yaga as Patxi shrugs. “We won’t know until we find out. Let’s hide in the snow and make our way to them.” He said before looking over at the oprichnik. “You guys get the capturing rope ready.” “At once sir.” One of the oprichnik said as they quickly hid underneath the snow as well and headed towards where the alicorn princesses were flying off to. Before Patxi could follow after them, he looked up at the vast blue sky in both wonder and amazement. From the time he was born till the end of his life, he never once thought of what the sky would look like behind the blister cold of the blizzard. Now that he was able to see it...he couldn’t help but stare in awe and wonder. “Ritsuka Fujimaru...I wonder if you did manage to bring your world back.” he said before following his pack into the snow. “....Okay, bad idea to go into the snow with somewhat open wounds!”