//------------------------------// // The CEO // Story: Lost // by Subject 19 //------------------------------// “Where are my weapons? Why are they still not in production?” Asked a man sitting at the head of a large rectangular table. The man was wearing a black suit and blood red tie. On the shoulders of his suit were the logos of CHECKMATE Arms. Seated around the table were the board of directors for CHECKMATE Arms, which the CEO was very unhappy with. The CEO’s name was Christopher Razka. He was in his mid-thirties, but at first glance he appeared to be about five years older. His hair brushed back was dyed dark brown to hide the gray. His face had a fair amount of wrinkles which giving him a much older appearance. His two brown eyes glared at everyone in the room. “These new weapon designs are proving to be more difficult to create than we originally thought,” the COO answered. “We’re probably going to need a lot more help if we hope to get these new weapons into production before the end of the year.” “Which was exactly my point four months ago,” Razka stated. “But no, you had to do it your way. You didn’t want to hire more employees because you thought it was an unnecessary expense,” he accused, pointing his finger to the CFO. “If we don’t have these weapons in production by the end of the fourth quarter, my company is going to lose millions of dollars on this project alone!” “You’re still evading the real problem at hand, Chris,” the CFO said. He was a man in his early fifties and had snow white hair. “If you want to keep this company going, you need to allow us to expand to new customers.” Razka rolled his eyes in annoyance. He had always held a strong resentment towards George Bradley, his CFO. “I’ve told you this countless times Bradley, yet you never seem to understand. My company makes the most advanced weapons, vehicles, and aircraft in the world. The only country I trust to use this power responsibly is the United States.” “Well, I think the fellow board members will agree that this company has grown as much as it can depending solely on American contracts,” Bradley countered, earning agreeing nods from most of the other directors. “I did not build this company just to hand out these weapons to any nation that’ll pay up. We are not going to give this to other nations, so I suggest you do your fucking job and find a way to fix the mess you’ve gotten yourself in.” Christopher Razka always hated board meetings. But that was the price he had to pay in order to be Chairman and CEO. Thankfully, it was Friday, and a good drive in one of his many cars always seemed to calm him down. As the CEO of CHECKMATE Arms, one of the largest weapons companies in the world, he had an abundance of money. Thus, he owned a collection of very expensive cars, his favorites being the SLR McLaren Sterling Moss Edition, and the Plymouth Superbird. Living in South Carolina and just outside of Charleston had its advantages. His house was in a secluded area, which gave Chris the privacy and isolation he had come to get used to after the years. As far as anyone that knew him was concerned, Razka had no life outside of CHECKMATE. For the most part, they were correct. He never really recovered from losing his parents when he was only twenty-five years old. It was about five in the morning and Chris was fast asleep in his queen size bed. His large bedroom had two dressers, a nightstand, a walk in closet and a TV in it. He was abruptly awoken by a bright flash of light appeared just a few feet away from the foot of his bed. Acting on pure instincts, Chris pulled out a USP .45 pistol from one of his nightstand’s drawers and aimed it at the glowing blue light. When the light faded, Chris got out of his bed and slowly walked towards where it had been. What he saw was beyond his comprehension. “What the hell?” he whispered, not believing what he was seeing in front of him. A dark blue horse of some kind was lying unconscious on the floor. Only thing was, horses didn’t have horns and they sure as hell didn’t have wings. What was even more disturbing was the fact that her mane and tail looked like a clear night sky. She was also wearing a black tiara and necklace with a white crescent moon on it. After what felt like a century of staring, the creature slowly opened its large midnight blue eyes and looked up at him. “Just what the fuck are you?” Chris asked, mostly to himself. “What’s going on?” it asked in a feminine voice. “Who are you? What are you?” Now Chris Razka had a few options. Clearly, whatever this thing was, it wasn’t from Earth. He could just shoot it now and forget about it, but that obviously didn’t sit too well with him. He decided it would be better to figure out what it was and why it was in his room. “My name is Christopher Razka, and you have ten seconds to tell me who the fuck you are and what you’re doing in my damn house,” he said, aiming the gun at her head. “We did not mean to scare you,” she started. “I am Princess Luna of Equestria, and I take it We are not on Equis anymore.” “What are you?” “I think the better question is what are you?” the night princess countered. “I’m human, now answer my question,” Chris demanded as he was starting to get impatient. “My name is Luna and I am an alicorn.” “Why are you here?” “I don’t know, I think something happened while I was teleporting. What it was that caused me to end up here is unknown to me,” Luna said. Razka frowned deeply. He was the billionaire CEO of the largest weapons company in the world and here he was having a conversation with a talking pony that had a horn and wings. Looking at the alarm clock on his nightstand he realized there was no point in going back to bed. “So I take it we’re stuck in this situation until you can find a way to go home,” Razka assumed. Luna let out a heavy sigh. “I suppose you’re right.” “Follow me,” Razka ordered as he walked out of his room and headed down a flight of stairs. Although Razka was a billionaire, he never felt the need to have a huge house like most people would have if they were him. His house sat on an acre yard and had about 3,500 square feet of flooring. For Razka, the size was just right for him. Once the two of them were downstairs and in the kitchen, Razka went to making himself a cinnamon bagel. “So do you have a job, Chris?” Luna curiously asked, hoping to have a friendly conversation with the human in front of her. “I’m the founder and CEO of CHECKMATE Arms, the largest weapons company in the world,” he said, putting the two slices of the bagel in the toaster. “How about you? I take it from all that fancy jewelry you come from wealth.” “I’m the princess of Equestria. I rule alongside my sister, Celestia.” Just then, Razka’s cell phone started ringing. He picked it up from the charger, not taking his eyes from the horse alien. “This is Razka,” he answered. He was silent as he listened to what the person on the other end was saying. “First quarter of next year isn’t good enough… You tell Bradley that if those damn weapons are not in production by the end of fourth quarter, he’s fired! I will not go in front of the Secretary of Defense and tell him that he’s got to wait until first quarter next year when he was told it would be third of this year… I want some fucking results, not excuses.” Chris slammed his phone on counter top. “Jackass,” he muttered. “What is that?” Luna asked, looking at the phone in wonder. “And why are you so mad at it?” Chris rolled his eyes. “I take it your world doesn’t have much, or any technology. That is a cell phone. It allows people to contact others that are far away.” “So what has thou so angry?” “My CFO is this close to putting my company in a very bad position. If he doesn’t fix it, I’m going to send him into third world poverty,” Razka replied, his voice reflecting his anger. “But none of that is really important right now, I suppose.” The two spent most of the morning getting to know each other and their different worlds better. Razka found himself strangely fascinated with the world of Equis the more Luna talked about it. To him, it seemed that because of their ability harness the power of magic, they had no need for the kind of technology humans were so dependent on. Another thing were the Elements of Harmony. Although he didn’t give two shits about the so called magic of friendship, Razka was impressed with the unrivaled power the elements held. What the human couldn’t understand though was how Luna’s world was so peaceful compared to Earth. Their species and the others seemed to always get along with one another. Granted there were a few exceptions to that observation, but other than that these ponies didn’t seem to encounter nearly half the problems humans would. “So tell me more about Earth,” Luna insisted after she finished telling Chris about Equis. “Well for starters, we humans are a divided species. We have formed our own nations and we are constantly fighting each other usually because of our obsession with power,” he began. “We use advanced technology in our everyday lives for various purposes. Because we never know when or where our next war will be, the governments invest a lot of money into defense technology. It ranges from simple weapons to some of the most advanced war machines in the world.” “And here we thought aliens would be an all knowing and perfect society,” Luna said in quiet tone. Chris let out a soft chuckle. “Turns out we’re even worse than all of you.” After a few moments of awkward silence, Chris finally spoke again. “You said you’re a princess. So what exactly do you do?” “I rule over the night and watch over the dreams of my subjects,” Luna answered. “Where I come from, the sun and the moon are raised and lowered by my sister and I. By the way, is there anyone else in this house, like family?” The night princess sounded a bit worried, as she had not taken into consideration that Chris may not live alone. “I live here alone and I don’t have a family. I have no siblings and my parents died when I was twenty-five, so I guess that’s one less thing you need to worry about,” he calmly answered. Luna immediately felt a pang of regret after she heard his answer. “Oh, I’m sorry to hear that.” Chris just looked down at his bagel, his neutral expression replaced by one of sadness. “Hopefully you have a plan on how to get back to your world,” Razka said, changing the subject away from his deceased parents. “I’m going to try and see if I can contact my sister through the dream world tonight,” Luna informed. “I just hope I’ll be able to reach her.” The rest of the day was uneventful for Razka and Luna. Aside from not eating meat, Luna wasn’t a very picky eater, which was a great help to Chris. Lunch and dinner consisted of just a salad since Chris lacked the food necessary for anything better. He made a note to himself to get groceries tomorrow. When it was time to go to bed, Chris gave Luna the guest room, which also had a queen size bed in it. Aside from the bed, the room was entirely empty, owing to the fact that it was never used. “If you need me I’ll be in the bedroom across the hall. The bathroom is right next to your room if you need it,” Chris told the night princess as he led her into the guest room. “Thank you, Chris,” the midnight colored pony said sincerely. “I’ll see you in the morning,” he replied before leaving the room. When Christopher Razka opened his eyes, he saw that he was in some sort of dark featureless space. And he wasn’t alone. Standing in front of him was Princess Luna and another pony he didn’t recognize. This pony was slightly taller than Luna and had a very contrasting appearance to the night princess. This pony’s fur was white and she had a flowing rainbow-like mane and tail. The only similarity Razka saw was that this pony had a horn and wings as well, granted her horn was much longer than Luna’s. “So you’re the human that’s taken my sister in,” the white alicorn stated. “Where in the hell am I and who the fuck are you?” “You’re in the dreamscape right now,” Luna calmly answered. “This is my sister, Celestia.” She pointed a hoof at the Alicorn standing by her side. “What am I doing here?” “I was hoping to learn a few things about the being my little sister is staying with,” Celestia answered. Her voice was calm and strangely soothing. “I’m a thirty-four year old who’s the CEO of the largest weapons manufacturers on Earth. Luna told me that she was going to talk to you to try and figure out a way to get her home. Do either of you have any ideas yet?” Celestia and Luna exchanged worried looks before the younger sister spoke. “We do not have any ideas how I will get back to Equis. My sister will do everything she can to find a way, but it will take time.” “The sooner, the better. If you are discovered, you will never leave Earth. The American government will sure of that,” Razka warned. “I’ll do what I can to keep your presence here under the radar.” “Thank you, Chris,” Luna said, giving him a sincere smile. “My sister and I would like to speak alone for a while. I’ll send you back to your own dreamscape now.” Once Chris was gone, Celestia gave a worried look towards Luna. “There’s something about him I don’t like.” “I will admit he’s not the friendliest individual, but I believe there is a way that can be fixed.” “And what way did you have in mind.” “Friendship. He tries to act uncaring and tough, but I can see through the mask, for it was the same one I wore so many years ago.”