I woke up to a splitting headache and nausea. The sounds of gunfire weren't helping. Rapid fire of submachine guns, single shots, booms of shotguns.
I opened my eyes. My vision was blurry, but I would recognize that dull ceiling with a bulb behind a wire frame cage anytime. Jail again.
There was a sound of a revved-up truck engine, approaching, then a loud crash, metallic clang. Sound of a crowd cheering, more gunfire. Loud curses in the corridor, steps approaching, rattling of a key in the lock. Voices.
“But the manager said...”
“I don't give a shit what the manager said. If he wants to join the chief of the police hanging on a street lamp, his choice. I'm not going to join him.”
I tried to get up, but a wave of nausea forced me back to the cot. The door creaked. A blurry face appeared above me.
“Little help here?”
Two pairs of hands held my arms from two sides, and I was pulled to my legs. The overwhelming wave of nausea forced my breakfast up my throat and all over the floor.
“See? What is he even doing here? He should be in the hospital ward. This is the manager being Tresher's puppet.”
The two holding me under my arms dragged me outside and down the corridor.
Noises approached from the opposite side. Many steps, some shouting. I raised my head, and a blur of colors was approaching us.
“That's him, that's the guy! What did you do to him? Talk, scoundrel!”
“I did nothing! He was brought to us like that! I was bringing him to you, to get him out!”
There were some shouts, some commotion, a hard surface under my back, shifting, being carried.
I blacked out again.
* * *
“He needs to be brought to the hospital now!” I recognized Stargazer's voice.
“No, still no. Every second Tresher has Tia and that purple mare, we are risking the whole world. You awake there?” A hand shook my shoulder. The voice spoke in Polish, but with a strong Russian accent.
I was sitting in a chair. With a good deal of effort, I raised my head and opened my eyes.
I was looking at a blur... no, at a photo, but to decipher its content was a task beyond the capability of my eyes.
“He's concussed.” I heard Jan's voice. “I've got something that should get him on his feet, but he needs to be brought to the hospital soon afterwards.”
Something landed on the table in front of me. My eyes focused on it. A small plastic bag with several pills. I tried to open it, but while my arms worked, my fingers didn't.
A pair of hands opened the bag, and I felt a pill pushed between my lips. I tried to swallow. Someone brought a glass of water to my lips and I drank, swallowing the pill.
The voices grew distant for a while, though I heard the word “amphetamine” float up through the haze like a rock in turbulent waters. The feverish haze lasted for a while, but at a certain point I felt it lifting, the voices becoming recognizable again.
The world was slowly gaining sharpness, and I could see the table again. I lifted my head. My mind began working better too. I looked at the guy who had questioned me. He was wearing the uniform of a Russian army general. I was in some kind of classroom, a school. The light of a late morning was shining through the windows. At about the same time yesterday, Tresher had captured Celestia. At least I hoped it was yesterday...
“What's in the photo?”
I looked at the photo. On dirty planks, some symbols were scratched. They were surrounded by a circle broken in four places, twirling towards inside.
Someone had taken the effort to copy the contents to a paper, which lay next to the photo.
“It's a mandala,” I slurred. “No, not really. It's the message.”
“What does it say?”
“No clue.”
“How can we find out?”
“Celestia knows?”
“We can't find her. Tresher vanished with her and Twilight somewhere."
"So he believed it after all? Anyway... who are you? Where are we?"
"General Blazkov, Russian Army, and please excuse me not introducing myself earlier. Let me explain the situation.
"Tresher deceived everyone. He knew Celestia was no common horse since the moment he reviewed the security recordings of her running from his stable, unlocking the doors from the inside. With data about your reported income he got from his aunt, he learned her full potential. He’s been trying to get her back ever since, careful not to arouse suspicions of anyone more powerful than him. But when she sent the message, he knew he was running out of time. Twilight fell right into his hands, and he revealed her to force you to make a move. When you showed up, he tricked the police into capturing Celestia, then he vanished somewhere with both of them.
"He was controlling much more than we suspected: he had his moles all over the voivodeship, and even a couple of people in the parliament. When the international community demanded Poland to react immediately, he called in favors from his superiors, and the response from your government was so evasive and stinking of delaying tactics that NATO decided to ignore the fact that you're a member state and step in. But while they would need to scramble their forces, Russia was on high alert after the hundred-kiloton explosion seventy kilometers from our border, ready to enter today, and not in two days. We made them an offer, promising to move out when they move in, and with NATO's blessing, we stepped in, and began the search in earnest.”
"Any success? Any traces?"
"We guess she's in his drug lab, but we have no clue where it is.”
“Drug lab?”
“He is a drug lord, one of higher operatives of the mafia that ruled Poland; the head of the drug division. Only after the police chief was hanged by the mob the cops told us Tresher was making ecstasy, meth, amphetamine, and few other synthetic drugs in secret labs they were not allowed to look for. Their job was to keep his competition off the streets.”
The amphetamine was still working its way into my system, and my mind had reached a new level of clarity. The irony of a drug probably from Tresher's lab letting me think of a way to stop him was not lost on me.
“This is the middle of the big mandala which sends a message to Tia's home. It's a letter she wants me to send.”
“Now we've got something! What do we need?”
“Start with thirty kilograms of fine natural ruby dust. Bring me home, we'll take it from there. Find a place to send it out, ten kilometers of explosion radius, eight by eight meters of smooth, flat surface in the middle.”
“Done and done.” I heard two pairs of boots behind me running out of the room.
“We will need more tiles. The ad agency by the Church of St. Joseph will know, the interlocking ones, at least... two hundred pairs. Better make it three, I'm not sure how many we have left.”
“Done.” Another pair of boots thudded, departing the room.
“Actuator, like for opening and closing gates. A car battery and an inverter to power it up. Modify the remote to have ten-kilometer range. The local firm named ‘Tuli-Pan’ handled this once.”
“Done.” The boots thudded in the corridor outside.
“I don't remember the rest of the chemicals. I have the list at my place. They were fairly common, and up to a kilogram of any of them.”
One more set of heavily shod feet sounded, departing.
“Someone skilled at drawing in Inkscape. I never got a hang of it.”
Forcing my aching shoulders, I turned around to see a line of Russian lieutenants standing to attention. One of them ran out of the room.
“Shrink wrap and permanent markers. And transport for almost a ton of tiles to the destination.”
Two more lieutenants ran out even before the order came.
“That would be it, I guess. A couple helping hands would be good. Nimble, good motor skills.”
Another one ran out.
“Then let's get to your home,” the general said.
I stood up. Just a little dizziness. I remembered to take the photo, the pencil copy and the remaining amphetamine pills.
“Come on, Stargazer, Jan. We've got a lot of printing to do.”
Stargazer protested. “You really should go to hospital. A normal concussion doesn't last that long. You may have a brain hemorrhage.”
“After Celestia is safe.”
* * *
From the helicopter circling the valley, I observed how my little farm was turning into a military base: trucks unloading barrels with fuel, two helicopters stationed on two out of three landings marked with white lines on the grass, tents being erected, a hundred of soldiers milling around trucks, unloading equipment. Six machine gun nests built of sandbags were guarding the valley from the hills on both sides. Anti-air missile vehicles were being deployed on the hill opposite from the farm.
The helicopter landed on the third landing, and we got out. Jan went to the lab to prepare it, while Stargazer and I headed to the house. A girl in a uniform, maybe twenty, with her hair in a braid, ran up and saluted.
“Private Svetlana Danilova,” she said in English, with a strong accent. “I know Inkscape.”
“Right, let's go.”
Behind us, two helicopters, one after another, departed, making room for the next two already waiting in the air.
Moments later, we were inside. The house bore some signs of a discreet search – furniture moved a bit, boot prints on the floor. Stargazer offered to make some tea, and I accepted gladly.
As the computer began to start up, I put the photo and the drawing on the table. “Svetlana, can you accurately replicate these symbols?”
She frowned, examining the photo. “It will be difficult. I am not sure about some of them. This line looks like a part of the symbol, but it is not in the drawing. Is it an older scratch, or did they miss it?”
“What if you had drawings of most of the symbols that can occur here?”
“That would certainly help.”
I went to the attic to find my ancient, crappy tablet. Luckily, it was in the first box I checked, along with the charger. I took both and went back downstairs. I plugged the charger into the wall, the tablet it into the charger, and it began starting.
“This will take a while. Let me find the project...”
I typed my password. The desktop loaded in a moment, and I started Inkscape. I loaded the huge, immensely complex mandala.
“Oh... it's beautiful!” Svetlana exclaimed.
I zoomed in on the small circle in the middle. “This is your playground. Wipe everything inside the circle and start copying the symbols.”
She looked around. “Where is the tablet? Digitizer tablet with a pen?”
“Uh…”
I climbed the stairs again and began searching for it in the boxes. I picked up one of the boxes to get access to one below, and a piercing pain exploded in my forehead. I knelt from a wave of nausea. I kept kneeling for a while until the nausea passed, but the headache wouldn't.
There it was, in the newly uncovered box, with the pen taped to the surface. I pulled it out and walked back downstairs.
"You really don't look good," Stargazer said, while setting the cups with tea on the table.
"Celestia needs me."
I sat heavily by the table.
"Here's your tablet, Svetlana. And here..." I flipped through the archive of the scribbles from our early days. "This is their alphabet. Most symbols should be similar to these."
"Thank you," she said in a gentle voice. "This will be sufficient. I will let you know when I finish."
As she plugged the digitizer tablet into a USB port of the PC, I took several sips from the cup, popped an amphetamine pill and gestured Stargazer to follow. "Mixing."
Another helicopter was landing when we reached the door of the barn/lab. An officer jumped out before the helicopter even touched down. He came running to me and saluted. "Sir, we've got the first ten kilograms of the ruby dust. Where do you need us to put it?"
"You're quick. Right here," I pointed by the barn door. "Where are my helping hands?"
"Czar's crown jewels from the Kremlin," he muttered. He whistled at a group of soldiers, and they came running. We entered the lab.
Jan was sitting by the chemistry table with a row of bottles in front of him, the recipe already on the tablet screen.
"Report shortages" I said.
"We're low on sodium hydroxide. We will need at least a liter more, diluted to 30%. Salt, sodium chloride, two kilograms. And someone stole all the ethanol, we had a liter."
The officer dictated the needed resources to his radio.
"That would be it," Jan said. "We can start mixing what we have to start printing now."
* * *
I was standing by the wall of the barn; the pounding in my head had become unbearable. I swallowed another pill and took a swig from a bottle of water.
"What's that?" Stargazer asked.
"Amphetamine. Lets me stay conscious, kills the pain."
"I will handle the assembly. You should go to the hospital."
"No. There were some... alignment problems. You weren't there when Celestia and I were solving them. Bumps on the edges that needed to be filed down and if you do it the wrong way, you damage the mandala. We have one shot at this. I won't be able to handle another try, so we must get it to work."
The soldiers were carrying the shrink-wrapped, numbered packages of tiles to the helicopter. Each tile had to bear a number, or it would all turn into a big jigsaw puzzle. I pushed away from the wall and stumbled after them. I climbed in. The general was waiting inside, along with several soldiers. He greeted me.
"Did you get the actuator device?" I asked.
"It runs on a timer, not on a remote. The company was unable to obtain the necessary parts on such a short notice."
The helicopter started.
"Where did you find a place with an uninhabited ten-kilometer radius?"
The general pointed upwards. "Antonov An-225 is waiting at the airport. The crew will leave it on autopilot, set the timer and jump with parachutes. We will do it over scarcely populated farmland. There shouldn't be any major debris left that could cause harm to people inside their homes. They are being notified to stay indoors as we speak."
* * *
The cargo hold of the airplane felt a bit like a railway tunnel. The mandala set on a big sheet of plywood didn't even occupy the full width.
4...3...2...1...0 The LCD display of the small, robust PLC controller blinked with numbers. The actuator started pushing the tile and fit it snugly with the rest; it pushed itself back against the floor the rest of the way.
"Vot, eta vsyo," said the Russian engineer, pressing some buttons to reset the actuator to the initial position. He detached the strip of duct tape holding the arm to the test tile.
I handed him the right tile with the last piece of the mandala. He put it partially in the gap of the mosaic and attached the actuator arm with another piece of duct tape. He used two more pieces to hold the tile to the floor so that it wouldn't slide in on its own from plane vibrations.
The pilot repeated his instructions in Russian. Detach the two pieces of duct tape, press the yellow button, the timer starts counting six minutes. Jump on the parachute.
The engineer confirmed. We said our goodbyes, and the pilot headed to the cockpit while the engineer and I departed through the cargo ramp, heading to the helicopter. Even before we reached it, the ramp was closed.
The general was waiting for us there.
"What now?" I asked him.
"Now we're taking you to that goddamned hospital."
* * *
Fresh out of MRI, I was lying on a bed in a hospital room, awaiting the surgery. Brain hemorrhaging. Supposedly, I was lucky to be still alive, and without treatment I would have at best several hours of life. But now, with Russians in control of the city, with the curfew and total civilian communication blackout to make Tresher unable to make use of Celestia, the surgeon crew had gone home, and only now were the soldiers seeking them out to bring them back to the hospital.
A TV set was running on the wall opposite. News about the stock market panic, American carriers heading to the Baltic Sea, the Russian invasion.
The screen switched to the prime minister of Russia, giving a speech.
"We want to assure everyone this is only temporary. The moment Princess Celestia tells us to return home, we will. Until then, we are sacrificing all available resources towards locating her and simultaneously investigating the criminal network that held your country in a firm grip. Even if Princess Celestia isn't located within the next two days, the European Parliament will create a commissary government for Poland, and, cooperating with the NATO forces, they will replace us in the search and investigation while our soldiers will return home.
"It wasn't an easy decision for me to order entering Poland, remembering the distrust and wars of the past, but the urgency of the situation forced my hand. The corruption of your government has reached much deeper than anyone thought, and all efforts to locate Princess Celestia by the international community were being sabotaged by the members of the criminal network in positions of power in Poland. Only deposing your government allowed us - and the world community - to progress in search of Princess Celestia, instead of waiting for decisions of hundreds of offices purposely obstructing our efforts with made-up bureaucratic prerequisites. We also couldn't depend on the investigation being conducted by the same police force which was aiding the kidnapper mere hours before."
The image switched to the studio again.
"That was the Prime Minister of Russia, addressing the Polish nation."
"We have received a video footage of activation of the broadcast device. At eight seventeen PM, the replica of a device activated two days ago on the Baltic Sea sent a message left by Princess Celestia at the location, where she was initially held after the kidnapping."
The screen filled with a mugshot of Tresher for a couple seconds. The bounty was two hundred million dollars.
Then came the footage. The camera showed a point in the night sky. Lights of a distant airplane. A bright line extended from the airplane up. It stayed that way for five seconds, then the landscape was lit up like the day as a ball of fire replaced the airplane. Seconds later, everything was dark again, only distorted clouds marking the explosion.
The image switched back to the studio.
“We have more encouraging world news. The number of countries of the Middle East declaring participation in the great peace summit increased again. Syria and Oman just declared their willingness to join. The summit, increasingly often called The Seglawi Congress, seems to be the largest such meeting of the Middle East in history. Of note should be the increasingly common belief in the Muslim community that Princess Celestia is an incarnation of one of Prophet Muhammad's own five mares, and sent by him to Earth to bring peace. While anonymous, she was distrusted by the Muslim community, but since the revelation of her equine form – specifically, that of an Arabian mare – many leaders of Middle East declared their desire to follow her guidance.”
The other presenter spoke.
“Our reporter has reached the arrival spot of Princess Celestia and, later, her student, Twilight Sparkle. Marek, what can you tell us about it?"
The view switched to a night forest, lit by many reflectors.
A man in a suit spoke to the microphone he held, looking into the camera.
"This is where the police dogs lost the track; everything indicates this was the landing place of the extraterrestrial guests."
The camera zoomed in on a hoofprint in the muddy soil.
"This is probably the first hoofprint of Twilight Sparkle. She must have appeared above this place, as the print is deeper than consecutive ones. The place is absolutely non-distinct, just a random location between trees. The forensics crew searched it for any unusual traces, but they found nothing."
The camera zoomed out on the location. Old beeches, young oaks, dry leaves completely covering the forest floor.
Then another light shone from above. The camera turned upwards, and there was a shining circle in the air, just above the spot with the hoofprint.
The circle filled with blue light, and a pink bubble extended from it, like a soap bubble blown from a ring. The bubble grew, reaching the soil, and the ground changed from from the layer of leaves into a plain, green surface with short tufts of grass, as if drawn. As the circle grew, the reporter stumbled back from it, tripped on a tree root and fell on his back. The cameraman was making cautious steps back with the camera. The pink sphere engulfed the reporter... and it changed him.
He stood up, looking at his twiggy, long legs, at his toony outline, his toony, brightly-colored clothes.
The line stopped a short way from the camera; the sphere stopped expanding.
"This is... This is... something new," was all the reporter managed to say.
Then a white, cartoonish pony plopped from the circle onto the grass. Actually, a white unicorn. In a golden armor. With a spear.
He stood up and fixed his helmet, which had become crooked by the fall. A blue mist surrounded his horn and the spear, which levitated into the air. He approached the reporter and spoke something in a melodic language.
"I'm sorry, I don't understand!" The reporter spread his arms helplessly.
The unicorn's horn shone with a blue light, and a symbol of the sun appeared in the air.
The reporter stood confused for a while. "Princess Celestia?" he said. Seeing no reaction, he bowed low to the symbol.
Satisfied with the response, the pony neighed towards the portal overhead.
Several more pony guards swooped in, some white in golden armor, some dark grey in steel-blue armor. Some held spears, some -rossbows attached to their legs. Most of them were pegasi, but there were some earth ponies, and the few unicorns that appeared held their weapons in colored clouds of levitation magic. I noticed that the grey pegasi had bat-like wings. They stood around the perimeter of the bubble.
Then another pony appeared. Majestically descending on wide wings, Princess Luna landed in the center of the circle.
The reporter fell to his knee, bowing low. Luna graced him with a nod, then she called out above. More ponies came.
First, a rainbow blur that swept through the air, passed the pink barrier and crashed into the leaves outside, appearing as a blue-tinted Connemara. She looked at her sides in panic, where a second earlier she had sported a pair of wings, then, giving out a long squeal, she galloped back to the pink sphere. As soon as she crossed the border, she was the cartoon blue pegasus with a multicolored mane again.
Next, an orange mare in a cowboy hat jumped down skillfully. She had a pair of saddlebags on her back. After her, a pink bouncy pony with curled hair. She immediately ran to the edge and peered out, letting her head change into that of a Hucul pony.
Then a white unicorn with a purple mane followed, jumping down gracefully, and finally a yellow pegasus floated down, flapping her wings slowly.
They formed a half-circle in front of Princess Luna, facing her.
Luna's horn glowed blue, and the orange pony's bags opened. Golden necklaces with colored gems floated out and latched onto necks of the five. Last appeared a tiara with a purple star.
Luna's horn glowed brighter, and a rainbow line formed connecting the five mares. The two ends of the line touched the tiara, which suddenly shot outside the barrier, flying far, far away. The rainbow colors of the line vanished past the barrier, but in their place the two bright,white spikes curved away into the night.
Luna bowed her horn down to the line and touched it with the tip. A glare of light expanded into a meter-wide disc.
The white guards ran up to her, forming an orderly line, jumping into the bright light, vanishing one by one. A second after the last of them was gone, the disc vanished. Then the line suddenly contracted, bringing the tiara back - together with its wearer.
Twilight Sparkle was bruised and dirty, her lip and eye badly swollen, but she was alive and well. The spell connecting the gems dissolved, and she ran up to the five. They connected in a hug.
Blue light from Luna's horn surrounded the six, and they floated upwards into the opening. The unicorn and earth pony guards carried by Luna's magic followed next. Then Luna spread her wings and flew into the portal, and the gray, bat-winged pegasi brought the rear.
The pink bubble withdrew, returning the reporter to his original form, and the portal lost its shine and vanished.
The forest looked the same as before.
The camera focused on the reporter.
He lifted the microphone.
"I'm... I'm... I'm speechless."
The camera switched to the studio.
"We have news from the army HQ. Using a spy satellite, they managed to pinpoint the location at the end of the line of light we have just seen, and currently the units of Spetznaz and GROM are racing to the site. Their commanders agreed the first unit to arrive will be the one freeing Princess Celestia... that is, providing she wasn't set free by her own guards yet."
A nurse walked in. She fixed the pillow under my head and gave me a cup of drink. I accepted it and drank greedily.
"The surgeons left the city and are nowhere to be found," she said. "The army is fetching surgeons from another city, but it will take a while. You really should rest now."
I nodded, eliciting an attack of pain in my head, then I gave the cup back, and closed my eyes when she switched the TV off.
* * *
I woke up in a fever. I couldn't think straight, my throat was parched, and I couldn't force my body to move. I was still in the hospital room, though fevered dream-constructs mixed with reality. I was really sick.
Someone wiped sweat off my forehead.
"Hold tight. The helicopter had a malfunction and had to land. They are bringing them with another." It was Jan's raspy voice.
“Tia?” I forced my throat to make the sound.
“She's fine. She went back home to Equestria. Her sister kept reopening the portal every hour, and the third time around, Celestia was there, with her guards. Only one of the guards stayed behind, under the Russians' medical care, wounded by Tresher. He will return to Equestria in a week. And the monster himself is locked up, awaiting extradition to Equestria. Be strong for her. She said she'll be back for you.”
I wished to live. I wanted to see Celestia again. But I felt weaker every minute.
* * *
Bright light pierced through my eyelids. I opened my eyes slowly. I didn't feel any pain, but reality was veiled in a dream-like haze.
The angelic equine face was centimeters from mine. Celestia, her long horn adorning her head, her colorful mane flowing in ethereal wings, and her purple eyes, gazing at me warmly.
"Am I dead?" I muttered.
"Not if I have a say in the matter," she replied, smiling gently.
Her horn glowed with a golden light as she touched my forehead.
The haze cleared.
I was still in the hospital bed. It was cold and windy. The window and a section of the wall around it was missing. Celestia stood over me, and a pink bubble surrounded us. I looked at my hands. They had a toony appearance. Celestia wore a talisman that shone with purple light. Its rays were touching the bubble, reinforcing it wherever it would get thinner.
She leaned down to me.
"When I was imprisoned, I did a lot of thinking. I cannot stay in this world any longer. I'm really needed back home. But is there any specific reason why you couldn't go with me to Equestria?"
I winked to her. "Let me stay there for a year, just to try, and I will answer that."
She leaned closer, and I closed the gap, meeting her lips with mine. A soft, chaste kiss.
She stepped away, and pulled the blanket off me with her teeth, like every morning. "Then get on my back!"
I stood on the bed carefully, but her healing was impeccable: I was back to full strength. I straddled her back, sitting by her withers. I held her neck.
She stood in the corner of the room opposite to the hole in the outer wall.
She galloped ahead, then she jumped into the night, spreading her wings in flight.