Equestria’s First… Russian?
Chapter Five
The Reunion
“You still didn’t answer me,” Twilight said. “What do you mean you know him?”
“I’m sorry, Twilight. It’s just that… even though I’ve had many friends, in the past and present, this man was one of my closest. I never had a chance to say goodbye to him. His name is Andrei Solovyov,” Alexander explained looking at the unconscious man lying on his couch.
“Andrei Solovyov,” Twilight repeated. “Could you write that down on this paper for me? I wouldn’t know where to begin on spelling his name.”
“Um, sure,” he replied taking the parchment and quill away from Twilight and writing the man’s name down. “I can’t wait to finally speak to him again. It’s been far too long.”
“I bet it has been,” Twilight replied while taking a quick glance at the clock hanging on Schäfer’s wall, noticing that it was getting rather late. “Oh shoot, I’d better get back to Spike; it’s getting pretty late. Also, one thing before I leave that I forgot to mention. Make sure to speak to him in English if you see he’s awake. Whatever language he hears first he will know as him primary language. His other known language will still be there in his mind, but he won’t speak them commonly.”
“Nothing’s stopping you, and I’ll remember to talk to him in English first,” Alexander said. “Solovyov will still be here next week. I’ll see you then unless something else happens.”
“Okay, I’ll see you then,” she said as she walked out Alexander’s front door. He took one long, hard look at Solovyov lying motionless on his couch, the single tear’s trail still fresh on his cheek.
“It’s only a week,” he whispered to himself, eyes still intently starting at Solovyov, “Just one week, and after six long years… I’ll finally be able to speak to you again.”
* * * * *
The wind was still rushing into Solovyov’s ears just as powerful as it has been, and the silhouettes of his parents still stood before him, just staring.
Mom… Dad… Please, just say something… Solovyov pleaded in his thoughts.
As if the silhouettes of his parents heard his thoughts, they began to move for the first time in what felt like days. His father made a violin appear from thin air. Likewise with his mother, she made a second violin appear from thin air. Like they had many years ago, when Solovyov was only a child, they played the major parts of Johann Pachelbel’s “Canon in D” in perfect harmony to sooth his weary mind and soul.
As they played, Solovyov felt the soothing music slowly cover the sound of the winds blowing into his ears, and exhaustion began to overcome him. A single tear drop escaped from the tear duct of his right eye. He closed his eyes; the image of his parents slowly fading from view.
”I do not know what you both have done… But thank you…” he said as his eyes were nearly shut.
”You’re welcome…” The two silhouettes replied ever so quietly in unison. Hearing his parents’ voices again, for one last time, was enough for him to feel content with his life as it was at this time.
”Maybe now… I can finally be with them for eternity,” Solovyov thought to himself. His consciousness slipped into an ever-expanding black plane, where he retained all of his memories, but was unaware he was practically nowhere in existence.
---Seven days later---
It was late afternoon, and there was a light knock at Alexander’s door. He knew it had been a week, and was expecting Solovyov to wake up at any moment now. He answered the door to reveal a mildly anxious Twilight on the other side of the door.
“Hello, Alex,” She said. “Are you ready to finally be able to talk with your friend?”
“Yes,” Replied Alex. “You have no idea how long this week has felt to me, I’m just glad it’s finally time for him to wake up.”
“…You and me both.”
“Listen… I don’t think either of us knows how Andrei’s going to, well, ‘wake up’ in a sense. I don’t know if he will wake up in panic, or if he will wake up like he just got eight hours of perfect sleep. And who knows, will his memory even be there?”
“You’ve got a point there… The overview of the spell said that the subject should wake up peacefully. If not, you’ll have to do your best to calm him. As you suggested, he may or may not retain all of his memories, so I’ll just go into the other room and stay out of view. If my time estimates are correct, he should be waking up within five minutes. Good luck, and I’ll come out if things start to get out of hand.”
“Okay, thanks,” Alexander replied as he took a seat on the recliner across from the couch on which Solovyov was currently unconscious.
Alexander only stared at Solovyov’s eyes, checking for any movement while occasionally taking glances at the clock in the room. Every second that passed seemed like another minute to him, like time was playing yet another cruel joke.
“Well, I guess a little nap never hurt anybody,” Alexander whisper quietly to himself. He proceeded to close his eyes, just to conserve energy for when Solovyov awakens. He was actually about to fall into his own dreamscape, but was suddenly startled by a loud scream coming from in front of him. He sat up in his recliner in pure shock.
“AAHHH!” Solovyov screamed at the top of his lungs. “Aaeebooovgoohaahzzeerttaahh?!” Because the spell required a language to be spoken in order for the subject to know what language he knew best. Alexander calmly collected himself, and hastily spoke to Solovyov.
“Andrei, get a hold of yourself!” He yelled sternly. “You’re safe now, just relax and stay calm.”
All the gears in Solovyov’s head began to mentally turn as he heard the English spoken by his friend.
“Why can’t I speak Russ-!“He cut off his speech as he heard himself speak like everybody he had seen within the last two days, and grasped his mouth with his hand.
“I… can speak… English? But how do I… even know how to… speak it, or even understand it?” Solovyov stammered through his speech. After the few moments that had passed, Solovyov finally recognized the face of the man to which he was speaking.
“A-Alexander?” He asked. “H-How are you… Is this Heaven? I thought you were… dead…”
Alexander had thought about for a moment whether he should lie to his long-time friend and tell him this was Earth, and the last handful of years of his life was just a dream that occurred in one night. He decided not to make the situation any worse than it was, and told him the truth.
“Andrei… I actually have no idea whether this is a Heaven or not. I somehow… some way ended up here after I died in that horrific accident. I’m not entirely aware of how you came to arrive here-“He was stopped from speaking by Solovyov walking over to him and giving him the biggest hug he had ever given somebody. Alexander hugged back, ignoring the rules of bro hugs.
“It’s been too long, Alexander,” he said in a weary voice, a single teardrop extruding from his eye.
Alexander sighed, “Agreed.” The two separated as they both heard the sound of hoof steps enter the room.
“Well, I’m sorry to separate such a wonderful reunion,” Twilight intervened. “But we still have to get everything straightened out.”
“Like what?” Solovyov asked.
“We need to do with you what we’ve done with every other human that has arrived here: interrogate you, in a nutshell.”
“Oh, is that all?”
“Yes. I’ll go get my other five friends; they love hearing about how the humans come here out of nowhere.” Twilight said. “Oh yeah, I just remembered! Do you still happen to know how to speak your old language?”
“You mean Russian?” Solovyov asked.
“Yes.”
“Well, I still remember how to speak it, but not as well as I did before. It’s a feeling similar to knowing secondary language, but having only studied it for two to three years.”
“Oh well, once we’re all at my library, we’ll get you formally acquainted with you, and you can tell us anything and everything you want to.” Twilight explained. “Alexander?” At the sound of hearing his name, Alexander gave her full attention.
“Yes?”
“I need you to walk Solovyov here to my home, if that’s all right with you.” He nodded. “I’ll be with you two when I’ve rounded up all of my friends,” She said as she walked outside towards Ponyville. The door shut.
“Well, I guess we should start heading towards the library,” Alexander said.
“Okay,” Solovyov replied.
* * * * *
Alexander and Solovyov walked outside, as the evening sun was fairly high over the sunset. It was late, but not ‘sunset turning into night’ late. Only silence lingered between the two, and it was getting rather uncomfortable because one wanted to ask the other about how they got here, to Equestria. Solovyov eventually broke the ice.
“So,” Solovyov said. “Lovely weather we’re having.”
“Yes, the weather is quite nice this evening.” Alexander replied. Silence once again lingered between the two for a few more minutes, and Solovyov spoke again.
“There is just…” Solovyov spoke and paused, “so much I want to ask you, and Twilight.”
“Wait, how do you kno-“He stopped mid-sentence after his train of thought arrived at its destination. “Oh, I forgot. My Little Pony was a show. It’s just been too long since I’ve thought about anything from Earth.”
After a few more minutes of walking, they arrived in the actual town of Ponyville.
“Okay, just to be on the safe side, no more talking about My Little Pony being a television show, okay?” Alexander asked in a quiet whisper. “There are only nine beings in this universe that know this world is a cartoon show: the three humans that live here, and the Main Six.”
“Understood,” Solovyov replied. “When we get to the library, I hope we can get everything settled between me and the ponies.”
“That shouldn’t be a problem; don’t worry about it.” Alexander said in a reassuring tone. The two humans eventually made it to the library, which had a ‘closed’ sign in the window, opened the door and walked in. They saw the main foyer of the library had a couch and two chairs, so Solovyov took one chair, while Alexander sat on the couch.
* * * * *
“Rainbow, you up there?!” Twilight shouted to the cloud home above her.
“Yeah, yeah, what is it?” Rainbow called down.
“We got the new human to speak English!”
“Great! But why are you telling me this, exactly?”
“I’m rounding up all of my friends so we can hear what he has to say. Meet us at the Library, if you could.”
“Okay, I’ll be there soon.”
* * * * *
Twilight knocked four times on the farm houses’ front door, and Applejack appeared.
“Howdy, Twi’,” She said. “How’ve you been?”
“I’m fine, thanks. Listen, I’m gather you and the others at the library so we can see what the new human has to say.”
“Wait, new human?” Applejack asked. “What’s this about a new human?”
“Oh, right. Nopony has told you yet. Well, long story short, a new human arrived today and I think he’s sane enough to stay, unlike the others.”
“Ah.Well, I’ll be at th’ library soon. Meet ya there.”
“Okay.”
Twilight went to Pinkie Pie’s, Fluttershy’s, and Rarity’s house afterwards, and told them all to meet her at the library to listen what the new human had to say. Since Rarity was Twilight’s last stop for the night before going back to the library, she walked with her instead of leaving to meet up with her later.
* * * * *
After about thirty-five minutes, the Main Six eventually arrived at the library one by one, each taking a seat somewhere in the foyer of the library. Alexander took notice that Solovyov was getting more and more nervous with each new pony that entered. Though he knew exactly who they were, he still couldn’t overcome his shyness, even when it was the ponies he’s always wanted to talk to.
“Don’t worry Andrei,” Alexander whispered to him, “These are probably the nicest creatures you will ever meet in your lifetime. There’s no real reason to fear them.” At his words, Solovyov eventually calmed down a bit. At last, everypony arrived, and all eyes were on Solovyov.
Twilight left momentarily to go get refreshments for everybody and pony that was there. She retrieved a platter of cookies and a pitcher lemonade for all present to enjoy for the long talk that await them and placed them on a small coffee table in the center of the room.
“Girls,” Twilight started, “I would like to introduce you to a new human who might possibly be staying with us for a while like Alexander here. Please welcome Equestria’s first…” She paused for dramatic effect, “…Russian.”
All of Twilight’s friends stared at her with a clueless expression, much like how they did whenever she told them anything that had to do with magic or advanced studies.
“Well, go ahead! Go say hello; he won’t bite. Trust me, he isn’t like the others.” One by one, Twilight’s friends got up and went to go properly meet Solovyov. Applejack was first.
“Why hello, sir,” Applejack said. “The name’s Applejack, and I run Sweet Apple Acres down here in Ponyville.”
“Nice to meet you,” said Solovyov in a hardly audible voice, but still comprehendible. Applejack went back to take her seat, and Rarity was next to meet him.
“Hello, darling,” She started. “It’s very nice to meet a new human who isn’t like all of those other nasty ones. Anyway, I run the Carousel Boutique just down the street from here. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“Likewise.”
“Hi! I’m Pinkie Pie! Would you like some cupcakes? I could sure go for some of those right now. OH MY GOSH I just realized! You’re new, and I have to throw a party for every new friend I make! I hope we can become great friends, I just know we will! Oh, and I also run Sugarcube Corner while Mr. and Mrs. Cake aren’t around,” She said at a mile a minute.
“Uh… Yes,” Solovyov replied, not catching all of what Pinkie has said.
“Hi. I’m, uh, Rainbow Dash,” She said feeling slightly ashamed. “I’m a weather Pegasus and I wanted to say that I’m sorry for how I treated you earlier. I was just getting frustrated at the fact I couldn’t speak to you.”
“It’s okay,” Solovyov said, “It’s all in the past now; no need to keep worrying about it.”
“…” Fluttershy stood in front of the sitting Solovyov, and said nothing with her mane slightly covering her eyes. She nor Solovyov had said nothing for a whole minute, and the tension was starting to get think enough to cut with a knife. Neither one could find the courage to speak up first.
“Uhm…” Solovyov started. “I’m Andrei Solovyov. What’s you’re name?” He asked, already knowing her name, but just trying desperately to get this introduction done and over with.
“Um… My name is… Flutthumhm…”
“Come again?”
“My name is Fluttershhumhmm.”
“I’m sorry, one more time please?”
*squeal*
“Her name is Fluttershy,” Twilight intervened, “As you can tell, she’s very shy when meeting new ponies, or people in this case.”
“Ah, I see.”
“Just so that you know, the princess has asked me - as of a few encounters with other humans ago – to send a short bio of each human that arrives here to her. She’s very busy running a country most of the time, and doesn’t have the time to really meet new arrivals first-hand. If she likes the bio I write, then she may or may not take the time out of her schedule to come meet him or her.”
“…Seems reasonable.”
“Okay,” Twilight said, “Care to tell me and my friends a little about you?”
“Okay. Well… My name is Andrei Solovyov and I am a native to the country of Russia on Earth. I used to speak a language by the name of ‘Russian’, but due to recent event I can miraculously speak English as a primary language. I use to work for my government as a physicist and, to be honest, didn’t have much of a social life. I had only one true friend, but he was hundreds of miles away from me. I’ve been living my life one day at a time, just trying to make it without collapsing over my own depression.” He stopped, signaling Twilight that he was finished talking about himself for the time being.
“…Okay, finished!” Twilight said, wrapping the parchment and sealing it with a special royal seal.
“So… I was thinking about how this discussion is going to work. Do you just… ask me questions, and I answer them? Or do you want me to go through my life one day at a time?”
“I was planning on us just asking questions about you and your life, if that’s all right with you,” Twilight said.
“Oh it’s perfectly fine, just try not to dig too deep if something is too painful to talk about- OH YES!” Solovyov stopped midsentence, “I remember that I needed to ask you something: do you have my computer lying about somewhere?”
“Yes, it’s upstairs in my room if you want me to retrieve it for you.”
“Thank you, very much appreciated.” Twilight left the room after Solovyov said his thanks, and came back with a medium-sized bag on her back which contained his laptop. The bag floated with Twilight’s magic into his lap, and he took it out.
“Ever since I figured out this was-“He stopped himself before speaking, “Wait… do you all know that you’re all-“
“-A children’s cartoon television show in your world? Yes. You don’t need to really hide everything from us. The first human that appeared here told us all about… well, us, and just accepted it. Though it was quite an awkward feeling knowing that thousands of people were watching us, it passed fairly quickly. I haven’t even thought about it up until you mentioned it.”
“Ah,” Solovyov said flatly. “Well, as I was saying: ever since I figured out I was in Equestria, I’ve wondered if the rumors were true, that internet wasn’t accessible here.”
“What’s this ‘internet’?” Applejack asked out of the blue.
“Well, let me try and explain. Do you see my computer here?” Applejack nodded in reply. “Good. Well, imagine that millions upon millions of these were connected wirelessly, and information could be exchanged through those wireless connections with hundreds of thousands of other people.”
“I kinda get whatch’er sayin’: so it’s like our telegraphs, but wireless?” She asked.
“Yes, exactly, but it’s just with much, much more data than simple messages,” Solovyov said as he proceeded to power up his laptop. The others present, excluding Alexander, stared in awe as they laid eyes upon the first computer to arrive in Equestria.
“Now, if what I’m thinking will happen does happen-“He stopped short when he saw a small, yellow text bubble appear from the computer icon at the bottom, right hand corner of his screen.
“Sweet mother of all things good and holy…” Solovyov whispered in an anxious tone under his breath.
“What is it?” Pinkie asked. “DID YOU FIND A SURPRISE?! I LOVE SURPRISES!”
“Well… It’s a surprise, all right; just not the surprise I was expecting. Twilight, from what I explained earlier, the internet doesn’t exist here, correct?”
“Right.”
“I don’t even know how this is physically possible! A choodisak ya pokazvam! (Oh the wonders I will show you!)”
“What… was that?” Rarity asked as similarly as Fluttershy, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, but at a different time.
“Oh um… sorry about that. I got carried away for a moment. What you heard in the second half of my previous sentence was my native language, Russian. But, the reason why I was so excited?” Solovyov asked. “I’m excited because I have an internet connection, which should be physically impossible here! Back in my home world, Internet required two things: a modem and a router. In a nutshell, they take in and direct internet traffic, but since they don’t exist here, I’m not entirely sure how this even works at all. Answering your questions have just now become ninety-nice percent easier.”
“Why would the internet make answering questions easier?” Fluttershy asked.
“Why would it become easier?” Solovyov asked in an almost mocking tone, “The answer is simple: I search it.”
“How would you ‘search’ something?”
Solovyov turned his laptop on his lap so that all present could have a view of the screen while he could still see it himself.
“You see, people use a program call an ‘internet browser’. It allows people from all over the world to look through all of the information on the internet, and view whatever they want to see!” He opened his internet browser. “For example, let us just say I wanted to gather information on… let’s use a tree.” He proceeded to type ‘tree’ in the search bar. “When I search a term, this search engine automatically pulls articles, and practically anything that has ‘tree’ in it, and displays it all right here for me to view.”
All ponies present had their mouths agape from what they’ve witnessed. Who knew that information didn’t require the consumption of hours to look through a book?
“Twilight,” Solovyov said, “I want to show you a specific site on the internet I think particularly you will love.” He proceeded to go to the web address bar, and typed in Wikipedia’s web url.
“What exactly is this?” Twilight asked, tilting her head slightly to one side.
“This, Twilight Sparkle, is your new best friend.” Twilight was even more confused at this comparison.
“Why would it be my new best friend?”
“This is a place where you can look up nearly all information on anything you desire. Do you want to know about all dictators known to my race? It’s here. Need information on all species of trees in my world? It’s there. Want to see how the television show that stars you six came to be? All right here on a single page.” Twilight’s irises expanded wider and wider until nearly her entire eye was a black saucer with a slim violet rim.
“I knew you would love it.”
“Andrei?” Rainbow asked. “Would you mine if we watched, well, that television show that stars us? I don’t know about you guys, but I’m really curious to see it and how similar or different we are.”
“Same,” all other ponies agreed.
“Okay, okay, one moment,” Solovyov said as he began to type YouTube’s url and search the first and second episodes of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. After an hour had passed, each ponies’ reactions was a grab bag of emotions: shock, confusion, worry and many others.
“So…” Solovyov trailed, “What do you think?”
“…” They all remained silent.
“It was rather… eye-opening,” Twilight said. “How exactly did they know… that much about us?”
“That I do not know.”
“Let’s not linger on this topic,” Twilight said, “Is there anything else you want to ask us, or have us ask you?”
“Yes, that was another thing I forgot: to whom exactly are you referring when you say ‘other humans’?” Solovyov asked.
Twilight shuttered at his question. “Oh, them. Well, as you can probably tell, we’re referring to the previous humans who somehow made it to Equestria. There were some good… and some which shouldn’t even be mentioned because of what they did. Girls, you know what I’m talking about, right?”
All of Twilight’s friends nodded their heads.
“From what we know, all humans who have been seen here arrived through death. So that leads me to the next question for you: how exactly did you come to be here?”
“You see, when a male and a female love each other very much…” Solovyov said jokingly. Everyone present, including Alexander, laughed until they started to shed tears.
“But in all seriousness,” Solovyov started. “I never really meant to come here at all. Remember how I said I worked for my country’s government as a physicist? We were working on my world’s first trans-dimensional teleportation device, only because of my world’s current situation: the world was being torn apart by the world’s two most powerful countries in war. We had to find a way to save some people by sending them to what we believed would be an alternate Earth, my home planet. Apparently an earthquake just happened to bury the lab in which we were working, and I jumped through the only change I received. I thought I arrived at the promised alternate Earth, but I was overcome with joy I was in Equestria.”
Solovyov paused to think about what to say next.
“And then everything that has happened to me recently happened, so here we are.”
“So what happened to everyone in the lab?” Pinkie asked with a sad expression.
“Well, I’m not sure. I presume they’re all probably dead. Twilight, I also wanted to ask you something. I-In my subconscious, while I was under that thing you placed on me-“
“-Spell.”
“Spell,” Solovyov corrected himself, “I saw something that I’m not sure how to explain…”
“If I read the description of the spell correctly, which I’m sure I did, the receiver of the spell might experience hallucinations. What exactly did you see in your subconscious?”
“…My parents,” Solovyov said, starting to develop tears.
“We’re they that important to you?”
He sighed in sadness, “Yes; they were the most important people I have known in my entire life...”
“It may seem rude of me to ask, but… did they… pass of natural causes?”
He sighed again. “No… far from it…” He began to tell the short story of what exactly happened on that fateful day.
* * * * *
It was a very beautiful and pleasantly warm summer day in Volgograd, Russia. The year in1998, and Andrei Solovyov is with his mother and father, the latter driving the family LADA 110. The sky was as blue as can be; cloudless and filled with sunshine. The birds were chirping their songs, and the mood everywhere was lively. At this time, Solovyov is the age of nine.
Today was the final day Solovyov’s father had before he was required to meet the President of Russia to discuss what was to be done with the Russian-American War. He was a General-Mayor (Equivalent rank of Major General) in the Russian military.
“Say… why don’t we all go out for ice cream?” Solovyov’s father asked in a care-free tone.
“That sounds like a good idea, Andrei?” His mother replied, and then asked.
“Yes please!” He replied in a giddy tone.
“Then it’s settled.” Solovyov’s father took a right on the next street, and drove about seven minutes until they reached the neighborhood ice cream parlor. They all got out of the car, walked inside to the counter, and started to place their orders. Because Mr. Solovyov was wearing his uniform, he was given a special military discount out of the goodwill of the cashier. “Okay, your total is-“She stopped because an armed man charged into the parlor with a loaded .44 magnum in his hand.
“We must not go to war with the Americans!” He shouted at the top of his lungs, “I will go to prison for murder if that is what it takes to spread the word!” He fired four shots from his pistol; one hitting each Solovyov’s mother and father, and one taking a good chunk of Solovyov’s left ear. He was tackled to the ground by a citizen, making the forth shot fire into the ceiling.
“Mother… F-Father!” Solovyov groaned as he crawled his way over to his parents’ sides.
“Oh my little Andrei…” Mr. Solovyov moaned in pain, “It does not… look like we will survive… I… I want you to have this.” He pulled out a small gilded cross on a gold chain from around his neck that was hidden under his coat. Solovyov, at this point, was bawling out his eyes from how much he wanted his parents to stay.
“I’ll hold on to it for my life,” Solovyov said chokingly through his tears. Police officers arrived and arrested the man who shot at him and his parents, paramedics arriving very soon afterwards to take the wounded to the hospital. Solovyov’s parents were pronounced dead on scene, and he himself was told he would have a large portion of his left ear missing, leaving a very noticeable would/scar if not covered by some for of headwear or hair.
Andrei Solovyov was eventually taken to an orphanage, and grew up to become the physicist he is today.
* * * * *
Everybody and pony had at least some tears in their eyes as Solovyov finished his depressing memoir.
“I… I’m sorry for asking…” Twilight said trying her hardest to hold back her tears.
“It’s okay, Twilight.” He sighed, “To this day… I still have that scar and my father’s necklace.” He turned his head to the right and moved his hair behind his ear, revealing an ear with much of the upper portion of it missing. He then revealed the gold cross necklace around his neck, still stained with his father’s blood.
“Uh… Please excuse me, I need a moment,” Solovyov said as he started to well up tears in his eyes and walk outside into the now late night.
“I’ll go talk to him,” Alexander said as he went after Solovyov.