--Chapter 1--
Travel
It was an early, quiet Sunday morning. A young man known as Revan, a new policeman in K-9 unit, was just awakening. Like usually he woke up early, at 6:30 and started preparing for a new day, starting with the morning bath and getting some clothes to wear. He never really cared about what he wears until it doesn’t make him feel like an idiot, so he just grabbed first better T-shirt, pants, underwear on top of the pile and put them on.
Revan is a 22 years old and 1.91m tall man. His hair is white due to a certain doctor's mistake. Before he was born his mother had gone to take a vaccine and said ‘medical genius' mixed syringes with the vaccine and a blood sample of some guy with albinism (after the whole ordeal he became friends with Revan's mother, and became Revan's unofficial uncle). That caused his hair to turn white and his right eye to turn red, while left one was blue. (How did he not notice syringe being red? No idea.)
Like every mother in the world would be, his mom was furious, and even though Revan's look was always considered ‘cool and awesome’, she never stopped thinking that this doctor ‘ruined her son's life’.
With isn’t truth at all, since along with his high posture and physical strength, that made his look quite intimidating if he wanted to be, which helped him get a job in Police and of few occasions kept him from finding himself in a middle of a fight. But in her defense, Revan's red eye works about 20% worse than his normal one and he often used glasses to read, or if he didn’t have them with him at the moment, he had to close one eye to read without problems.
And speaking of Police, tomorrow is his first day in traffic police.
Revan walked into the kitchen and was greeted by his dog partner named ‘Mischief’. The dog was German Shepherd with saddle patterns, he was 0,72m tall, which is pretty tall for his race. Mischief, despite his name, is a very calm dog; that is, calm as long as Revan is around. When he isn't, the dog enters into a full panic mode and starts barking like insane, sometimes he even starts to bite whatever is around when Revan's away for too long. That problem used to be so big, that after half of the training ahead, instructors had enough of dog keeping half of police academy awake, and asked Revan to take him home; and they didn't take 'no' for an answer (not that Revan minded).
Normally, for behavior like that, a dog would be kicked out of service unless he could be put back in line. But Mischief's case was a bit different. He was simply too good to be just kicked out. Not only was he noticeably stronger than other dogs but also much smarter (as much as you can call a dog smart). It wasn't unusual for him to change the approach in the middle of a fight, often surprising instructors and making them fall over. That, of course, didn't mean that no one has tried to put him in place, but the results were not really satisfying.
Since then, the bond between these two become stronger, and now they are like a family.
“Hey buddy, wanna eat?” said Revan, lightly ruffling the dog’s head.
*BARK*
“Yeah, stupid question.”
Revan went to Mischief’s box for food and filled his bowl with dog food and few pieces of dried meat his companion adored so much. Even though Mischief was living with Revan he still was maintained by police so there was no need to buy normal food from the shop. But still, Revan often added something more than that.
With the dog happily eating his food Revan began preparing his own breakfast. Today he decided to make scrambled eggs (the usual for him). He added 4 eggs on the pan and turned the gas on. While eggs were scrambling Revan began preparing mint tea.
Tea was always kind of drink he liked. And he drank a lot of it (and when I say ‘a lot' I mean 'using a mug for beer as a glass' kind of a lot).
After eating breakfast Revan went back to his room and turned on his computer. He is starting the work tomorrow and he didn't need to do anything else today, so he could just relax and play something. While 'Windows' was loading with its insanely fast speed, Revan turned to his shelf with games and began looking for a game to play.
His collection was quite an impressive one –nothing mind blowing though- containing titles that weren’t widely available, such as The Neverhood.
After choosing a game to play –which was his favorite game overall, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II- he installed it and began to play.
A few hours later on the Equestrian moon, Nightmare Moon –or like she was now known as, The Mare On The Moon- was waiting for a chance to escape from her lunar prison.
"One day... only one more day and I shall be...free again." Nightmare began. "One day and I...shall destroy you, Celestia, you and your sun shall...fall this time...and with your death, the new era shall begin... ‘The Age of Nightmare' will came...and now ponies will finally see...the night for what it truly is... I shall not be defeated... not this time... you have no control over the elements...they're as useless as you are...my ‘sister'." The Mare On The Moon often talked to herself like that; it's not like anypony was going to hear anyway. Her voice was quiet, tired after years of repeating the same words over and over again.
In just a few hours, stars will allow her to open the portal to Noxus - the center of all dimensions- and escape from her world. When free, she will be floating in the endless sea of dimensions and spell cast by elements of harmony will vanquish. From there she will be sucked back and will and reappear where she was vanquished. Her old castle in the Everfree forest. Then she's going to track down and finally destroy Celestia, bring the eternal night to the world of Equs.
It took her exactly 273 years, 2 months, 9 days, 16 hours, 21 minutes and 49 seconds to collect enough magic to do this. And she counted every second of it. Every. Single. One. And with each second her hate for Celestia grew and grew until she couldn't hate her more.
"One day Celestia... Use it as well as you can... because it shall be your last!!!" Nightmare said while reaching into her sister's mind; she was currently sleeping. She may not be in control over the dreamscape of ponies below, but she and a certain alicorn princess who had banished her to the moon remained bonded.
She made sure that those words will ring in Celestia’s mind. She wanted her to feel her hatred, her anger and she wanted her to know that she cannot do anything to stop her. With that said, Nightmare Moon began her final countdown…
The next day, Revan woke up a bit earlier than usual. He repeated his morning routine and began preparation for his first day of his new job. He made some sandwiches, filled his thermos with tea and packed snacks for Mischief. He also took his old knife, phone, wallet, and Mischief’s bowl.
After 1,5 hour he was sitting in a police car with his formal instructor; 43 years old, black haired man, Warren Hanusko. Those two weren't getting along all that well during the training. Warren has always thought that Revan was allowing Mischief for way too much, or that he simply is not up for the job, on few occasions Revan have thought that the old man was trying to make him quit training with dogs and just remain as a normal police officer.
The car was filled with silence for first minutes of the ride.
“How’s he doing?” Asked Warren, breaking the silence
“Hmm? You mean Mischief?” Warren nodded. “Well, he’s been really happy since he started living with me. There's still a problem of leaving him alone but he doesn’t try to eat my boots anymore, so I guess we have some progress in that regard.”
“Haha, I bet that was a funny thing to see.” He said, trying to lighten up the atmosphere.
"No… not so much… maybe a bit… ok, it was… a bit…" Revan admitted. As much as angry he was the first time when that happened, after some time he started considering the image of a big dog trying to stick his nose in his boot while laying on another one (the one he had already been done with) kinda funny.
“How are you feeling about your first patrol?”
“I guess I’m little nervous, but it should pass away with time.”
"It will" assured Warren. "I remember my first patrol, and let me tell you that you're taking it a lot better than I did. My partner thought that I would pass out at some point. But after the first stopped car, I calmed down. Just let the dog do his job and keep him safe, that's all."
Warren is not acting like he did during the course. I thought he would start talking about how incompetent I am and that I should stay in the car while he’ll do all the work, or simply don’t talk at all. Not to mention the fact that he was just sharing his life stories and that’s something I’ve never expected him to do. Heck, I don’t think anyone from the course would expect that from him. Revan thought.
After few moments of silence, Warren spoke. “Eh, you know... Listen, I want to apologize.”
“Huh? For what?”
"For how I've been treating you during the course. It was a hard time in my life and I got it out on you, and probably on the others as well. Sorry for that." Revan was really surprised. Never in his life would he expect to hear Warren apologizing for anything to him.
Nonetheless, Revan is not kind of person to hold grudge against someone for long; like his father has told him once ‘A true man doesn't hold a grudge for longer than one day, girls do'.
“Well, I don’t see any reason to hold grudge against you. What happened, can’t be changed… Sooo… I guess I forgive you."
“Thanks, kid.” And with that said, Revan saw him smile for the first time, even if it was just a small smile.
“How long are we going to stay there by the way?"
Warren checked his watch. "We should arrive at 12 AM and we will head back around 4 or 5 PM"
The rest of a ride went filled with talks about whatever those two came up with: politics, Mischief, why the sky is blue, what’s the meaning of life, how big is possibility of aliens being a bunch of colorful ponies, the fact that Revan looks like anime character despite never being into anime in the first place and so on.
They arrived at their destination and started observing cars. Until 2 PM they've stopped 5 drivers; four of them received a fine for riding too fast and checked one track. Mischief was acting calm all the time and did his job well. Like Warren said earlier, once they started Revan began to calm down.
Few minutes after letting the track go they decided it's about time to get something to eat. Revan prepared a small bowl he took and gave some food to Mischief, then took his sandwiches and began eating while drinking tea from his thermos. Warren had few potatoes and salad. During the ride, Warren told Revan that he's a vegetarian.
"So, why exactly are you a vegetarian, Warren?" Asked Revan and took a bite of his sandwich. It was still a bit awkward for him to start a conversation with the old man, so he turned his gaze away from him.
"Long time ago, in the galaxy far away, when I was a young kid, I had a really fucked up nightmare. I was laying on some table and family of cows was eating me. My hands and legs were tied, and despite my screams, cows didn’t seem to hear, or simply ignored me. Next day I told my mum that from now on I’m a vegetarian.” Explained Warren and started eating his salad.
“And what? She just allowed you for that?”
“Yeah, why are you surprised? You’re acting as if being vegetarian was uncommon.”
“If I have ever told my mum that I want to be a vegetarian she would probably have called the exorcist. She’s from Poland and polish traditional cooking involves a lot of meat. I never really got much liking to most of it but pretty much every dish I remember had some kind of meat in it. And I’m acting as if that was uncommon, because in the environment I grew up in, it was.”
“Your mother is from Poland?"
“Yes, it’s that country in the middle of Europe. Right between Germany and Russia.” Arguably the worst place to have a country on.
“I know where it is. My great grandfather’s dad was from Poland and I have a family there, haven’t seen them in a while though. Can you speak Polish?”
“Pewnie, że tak ty stary skurwisynu” Answered Revan with small smug on his face.
“...And that means?”
“Of course I do you old motherfucker.”
“Ha-ha, very funny. Feel free to make fun of an old policeman who doesn’t know any languages.” Warren said dryly, though with a little smile on his face.
“Я знаю, то очень смешно.” Warren groaned as Revan laughed. While 2 Police Officers were talking, Mischief finished his meal and sensed something. The dog started sniffing and giving Revan signals that he found something.
“Looks like he has something, you finish eating and keep watching the road, I’ll go check it.”
"It's time!" Stars were in the right position. Finally, after one thousand years of waiting she could escape. Nightmare began channeling magic collected over the years. The dark mare began slowly, not wanting an excess of energy to vaporize her; which would happen if she channeled too much magic energy before preparing her body for it, and considering the amount she has stored, it was very easy.
First, she had to make sure that opening a hole in space will not cause any damage to her surroundings, opening the portal like that could create powerful magic radiations that would kill a normal pony within minutes, and even if somehow it wouldn't, the death that was to follow would be extremely painful; not for alicorns though, and as one, Nightmare was mostly immune to such radiations. She created the magic barrier that would reduce radiations around selected spot to the nondestructive level and began second part.
There was, of course, no pony on the moon save for her, but the radiations themselves can spread over time, and in a vacuum, they can move fast. This would cause them to eventually reach the surface of Equs, where even the smallest amount can lead to a disaster.
Nightmare began forming a small rip in space; not bigger than an atom. That took far more magic than the barrier and once that was done, she moved to the hardest part - making the hole bigger.
That part took most of her magic reserves, even though the spell she used wasn't complicated; she had to simply push edges of the hole in all directions. It was hard but worth of the effort.
Soon the portal was big enough for her to pass through it. She still had to put much effort into sustaining the hole open. If she did not, it would simply collapse and close immediately.
Not wasting any time, Nightmare Moon jumped straight into the portal. Once she stopped channeling her magic portal closed within a split of a second. Now she was free. Last part of her escape plan didn't even require magic so she could save what was left of it. She simply waited until her dimension will pull her back.
That didn't take long. Before she could even notice she was laying on the floor of her castle. Like she expected it was in ruin. Most of the walls were covered in ivies, the roof was practically nonexisting and few columns were collapsed or lying as a pile of rubble.
“Surely, Celestia couldn’t bare living in the place where she lost her ‘dear sister’” Nightmare began to laugh manically as she started to track down Celestia. She has found her in a small town at north from the palace.
She wanted to teleport there in the instant but something caught her eye. Right next to her laid 2 strange creatures. First one looked like some kind of dog but was way too big and she couldn't recall any dog with colors like that.
The second creature was wearing some kind of dark-blue clothing that covered most of its body and where it wasn't, there was bare skin with little hair. Both of them appeared to be asleep or unconscious.
Nightmare thought for a little. "Hmm, it can't be some wild animals, clothing the bland one wears proves that at least this one is sapient... or perhaps its owner simply likes to give his pets clothes. Hmm… I'm intrigued… I will have to look deeper into it. But for now, I shall make sure I won't be disturbed."
Nightmare put the magic barrier around two creatures and teleported herself to town she spotted before. She saw Celestia in front of her, it looked like she was preparing herself for a speech.
"Hello, sister…"
Revan and Mischief walked through the corn field. Plants were almost fully grown and soon will be ready to collect. The dog has been leading Revan between the plants for few minutes until they finally walked into a clearing created the passing tractor. Mischief stopped in the middle, looked up at Revan and began barking, signaling they’re in place.
Revan looked around surprised a little; nothing was there. Why did he lead me here? There’s no way he just took me here for no reason. Something has to be here. Revan began the searching area. He thought there were drugs hidden somewhere, or maybe someone’s blood, but he found nothing of the sort. Mischief was circling around the small area like he awaited something.
After a few minutes of that pointless game of hide and seek, Revan had enough. “Alright, nothing’s here. We’re coming back.”
He took his leash and plugged it into dog’s collar. Revan started to walk away but Mischief didn’t allow him to. He started barking and pulled the surprised human back into the clearing.
Before Revan could have begun to yell at him, the portal opened before him. "The fuck?!". The portal appeared in the exact place Mischief had stopped when they got here. It was also slowly growing bigger.
Revan was looking at the portal like dumb, his mind having problems processing what was happening. That feeling didn't last long, however, as Mischief ran straight into the portal. Revan who still held the dog's leash in his hand lose his balance and ended up falling inside the portal.
His vision got blurred by all possible colors passing from all possible directions. Everything was incredibly bright. Revan closed his eyes but that didn’t stop colors from coming. He also started hearing a certain very annoying sound. He could feel an incredible cold around him, but at the same time felt like he was being melted in the pool of lava. His body began to hurt more than it ever did before, adding more to the overall feeling he was getting. Soon it all proved to be too much for him and he passed out.
Once he woke up his eyes still hurt and vision was out of focus. He started getting up and felt a cold stone under his fingers. Revan's eyes slowly began to get back in the proper shape and he noticed something. He was inside of some strange blue bobble. He said the only thing he had currently in his mind.
“What in the holy fuck just happened?!”
