//------------------------------// // Chapter Five: The Duchess of Russia // Story: Fate of the Lostbelt Kingdoms // by ElementBrigade //------------------------------// Fate of The Lostbelt Kingdoms Chapter Five The Duchess of Russia “Listen up everypony, we need some ideas on how to get the Tsar out of the room he’s stuck in. Normally I would use my magic to get him out, but for some reason my magic isn’t working at this time. So we will need to think of an idea to get the injured Tsar out of the room.” Luna said, which caught the attention of the royal guards and some of the Yagas in the village who were talking with the ponies of Equestria. “Does anypony have an idea? There are no dumb answers.” “Why not cover him in butter and push him out of the room?” asked a male guard as it caused Luna to deadpan at him. “Okay besides that dumb idea, anypony have an idea where it doesn’t involve causing harm to the poor...elephant man creature?” “Why not fire him out of a cannon?” said a female guard as Luna’s deadpan deepens. “And how are we going to do that when I have no magic. And even if we were able to do that, that would hurt him even more than how he is right now. Come on, ponies. Take this seriously.” “Why don’t we tie ropes around him so we can carry him by air lift?” asked a male guard as it got Luna thinking. “That might work. But we would need a lot of pegasi to carry him...he’s rather big….like the Tierk if he was fused with an elephant...which kinda is ironic given the Tsar’s appearance.” “If you ponies need help, maybe Anastasia can help with getting him out the room.” said a child yaga, which caused some of the adult yaga to wince at the idea. “Who’s Anastasia?” Luna asked as an elderly male yaga spoke up. “The Tsar’s former wife.” He said before walking up to Princess Luna and showed her a picture of Anastasia, which took her by surprise to see that she was a human, not a yaga. “This is the Tsar’s ex-wife?” Luna asked as he nodded. “But...how? I mean I’m not judging or anything, but how can she...and him?” “It’s best that you don’t think too hard about it.” He said before placing the picture back into his pocket, and pointed over to the house off to the side of the entrance of the village. “She lives in that house to your left near the entrance of the village. Be warned. She may act harsh and cold, but she is caring and protective of us Yagas.” “I’ll make a note of that.” Luna said before looking at the royal guards. “Continue coming up with ideas...one that doesn’t involve hurting Ivan like coating him in butter or firing him out of a cannon.” She said as the two ponies lowered their heads in embarrassment. The dark blue alicorn turned to walk over to the direction of Anastasia’s house. Once she was there, she knocked on the door to see if she was inside. “Hello, is anypony in there?” There was a moment of silence behind the door before the princess heard the sounds of someone making their way towards the door. The door soon opens up to reveal a young girl with silvery-white long hair, aqua-blue eyes, pale white skin, and was wearing clothing that looked like it was more suited for a light snow storm. “...Can I...help you?” Anastasia asked as she blinked at Princess Luna. The moment the door was open, Anastasia was taken by surprise by who it was that was standing in front of her. She was expecting one of the yagas at her door who might need her help with something, not a rather tall horse with flowing cosmic mane and crown on her head. “Greetings, human. I am Princess Luna. Co-Ruler of Equestria along with my sister, Princess Celestia. I, along with my subjects, would like to welcome you to our fair lands.” Luna said as she bowed to Anastasia. The servant looked at her for a moment, then back at the group of ponies and yagas who were currently gathering supplies of woods, nails, metals, and ropes. The servant soon looked over at Luna with a slight smile on her face before speaking up. “It’s a pleasure to meet you. I am Anastasia Nikolaevna Romanova. I welcome you to the village with a feast, but I wasn’t expecting the inhabitants of this world to be...well ponies.” “And we are surprised to see that you’re the only human in this land of wolf people and weird elephant man creatures.” She said before noticing Anastasia’s facial expression turned from happy to trying to stifle a laughter from the last part. “Is something wrong?” “N-No, no. I-It’s nothing Princess.” The servant said as she calmed herself down. “Why don’t you come in so we can talk more, if you don’t mind that is?” “I wouldn’t mind.” Luna said as the snow duchess moved back inside and let the princess of the night enter. Upon entering her home, she was surprised at how warm it was along with how nicely light and clean it was compared to Ivan’s home. “Would you like some tea and cookies Princess? It may not be the best way to welcome you to the village, but it’s better than nothing.” “Well I can’t pass up an offer like that.” Luna said as she followed Anastasia into the kitchen. The kitchen looked almost the same as the one in Sugar Cube Corner back in Ponyville, but was bigger to suit the servant’s height and possibly someone else's height and width, similar to that of Ivan’s. The alicorn took a seat at the table as she noticed Anastasia pouring tea in a cup for the two along with making a tray of cookies. “I hope you don’t mind me asking a few questions.” “I take it because of the way things are in this land.” The servant said as the alicorn nodded. “Understandable, I’m going to assume that you never heard of Russia or the word Lostbelt before have you?” “We...have not. Our friend Twilight might know of Russia, but not one where wolf people, king elephant Tsar, or one lone human inhabits this frozen land of snow and ice.” “I’ll try to make it simple for you to understand so as not to get confused. In a different timeline, on a different planet where magic existed and was a normal thing. This land of snow and frost is named Russia. Russia is a very cold and unforgiving country for those who are not prepared to live in. Compared to most places on the planet earth, Russia was becoming extremely cold. So cold that it was nearly impossible for humans to live in. It was abnormal for something like this to happen. So as a means to adapt to Mother Russia’s harsh cold environment, the people used magic to fuse themselves with demonic beasts that could survive the cold. As you can tell by the Yagas outside and...Ivan’s appearance.” “Yes, I have noticed.” She said before noticing Anastasia walking over with her tea and cookies as the servant took a seat next to her. “So your subject turned themselves into wolves and an elephant as a means to combat the elements.” “Yes, but in doing so created a problem. Because of them fusing their D.N.A with demonic beasts, the world that we lived on deemed it unsuitable for humans to live in. Thus, the word lostbelt comes into play. Lostbelts are failed timelines of the Proper Human History that were deemed failures. And so the planet decided to erase the failure.” She said which caused Luna to have a confused expression on her face. “Hm, how about this. Think of a story with two endings. One is good, while the other is bad. The Author of the story can only pick the one that has a good ending. While the other is erased or thrown in the trash.” “....Mother of me! You mean that the planet you’re from deemed this place unworthy of existence!?” The alicorn yelled as the duchess nodded. “But...why? Surely with enough hard work and perseverance this place could be a place for humans to live in.” “It could, but given the dark history of this lostbelt. It wouldn’t pan out well.” Anastasia said before taking a sip from her tea as she looked out the window off to their left. “During my time in the lostbelt as Ivan’t wife, things have become much worse. Food shortages, yaga’s fighting against each other for survival, Ivan killing his subjects due to his so called advisors helping him...this lostbelt’s history is dark and bathed in blood. But I’m no better than Ivan. I have killed my fair share of people to get what I needed.” She said as the lunar princess noticed a disgusted and angry expression on her face. “Why is it that we were given a second chance to live, I don’t know. But I don’t think I’m worthy of being given that chance.” “You wouldn’t be the only one who's done things in their past they’re not proud of.” Luna said which caught Anastasia’s attention. “It may not be the same as yours, but it might well be had I not been stopped.” “What do you mean by that?” “I may not look it, but I am one-thousand years old.” Luna said which caused the servant to blink in surprise by this. “I know, hard to believe that I look so young for my age~” she said which caused the caster servant to roll her eyes and a small smile appeared on her face from the joke Luna made. “One-thousand years ago, I became a creature known as Nightmare Moon out of jealousy and hatred towards my sister. Mainly because our subject favored her more than me. For she is The Princess that raised the sun, while I am The Princess that raised the moon.” “So that would mean your subject would see more of your sister’s work, but not yours due to them being asleep when night time came.” “Correct, I tried talking to my sister about this. But it was ignored or pushed off to the side as if it was nothing. Over time this keeped on being a thing until I had enough. If my sister wasn’t going to listen to what I have to say, then I will take over Equestria and show her that the night is better than the daylight...needless to say, that didn’t pan out so well and got me imprisoned on the moon for one-thousand years.” “...Wow...you do know that what you did would possibly end up making Equestria a lostbelt. I mean having it be nighttime for all eternity would cause a lot of problems for the planet. Granted you could adapt to the night, but not everything can survive in darkness forever.” “I know, I was young and stupid at the time! I just wanted to be appreciated more for my work.” Luna said before slumping her head onto the table. “I know my sister messed up, but I also messed up on my end in doing that. It left my sister to rule over Equestria for all those years during my banishment. When I returned I tried to do it again, but was stopped by Twilight and her friends.” she said before pulling her head up to look at Anastasia. “My point is, ruling a kingdom is never easy. No pony is perfect, we’re going to end up making mistakes later on in life. We just need to learn from it.” “I suppose...still.” “If you want to make up for your past mistakes, then make them up now by helping your subject. Ivan is doing that by letting us help the yagas in getting medical treatment and fixing the town.” “H...He is?” Anastasia asked as Luna nodded. “The planet you may have come from may have deemed you not worthy of being part of it Proper Human History, but you’re in Equestria now. Where we’ll accept you no matter your past sins!” “By that you mean some will accept us while some will judge us?” “In fairness, that’s the way with everypony, no?” “...Fair enough, you’re not wrong about that.” The caster servant said before taking a bite out of the cookies she made. “I will accept the olive branch of friendship, Princess Luna.” “Please, call me Luna, friend.” The alicorn said as Anastasia gave her a small smile. “I know this might be a bit sudden, but I would like for you to help with something involving your...um, ex-coltfriend.” “Ex-coltfriend?” She asked before suddenly realising what Luna meant. “Ah, you mean my ex-husband...I only pretended to be his wife so that I could overthrow him as King of the lostbelt..not my best moment during that time. But what is it that you need help with involving him?” “...How good are you at getting a giant elephant injured man out of a room without the use of butter or cannon fodder?”