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I. Soyuz XII-E1,680 words
II. Displaced1,343 words

II. Displaced

Equestria; a true example of a perfect world. There was only one problem; Yuri wasn't exactly in this perfect world; in more ways than one.

The mid-day Sun struck the grassy landscape, gleaming it a bright golden colour. There was not a tree, bush or scrub in sight, the land was completely bare to all except for a few tufts of short, golden grass; offering no shade to whoever would desperately need it as protection from the sweltering heat of the Sun. A long and narrow dirt track cut through the plain, showing a dark and contrasting brown colour to the surrounding grass. The brown road was the only example of civilisation in this harsh, desolate wilderness.

A white leg struck the dirt track with enormous force, cracking the hard baked soil around the hoof. Another hoof struck nearby almost a split second after the first. A third, then fourth slammed down as the first two were lifted from the hard-baked ground.

Eyes of dark green; focusing on navigating through the winding path, which seemed to last forever, cutting through the desolate grasses. A neatly trimmed crimson coloured mane and tail; turned scruffy by the furious blowing of the wind. A saddlebag donned the stallion's left side, half of a golden coloured scroll was hanging out. Such a colour proved whatever he was carrying must be important.

Fear consumed the escaping pony's eyes. Two distant moving objects were pursuing him.

He couldn't see them clearly; turning his head back to see his pursuers would make him unable to see what is in front of him. I might trip over, then they'd catch me. The fearful stallion thought to himself.

The two gryphons snapped their wings out into a mode of readiness as soon as they realised catching up to the speed of the stallion would be nearly impossible to do by hoof.

They had both realised this instantly, and in a split second they had gained flight, soaring up and over the plain.

The running stallion darted his head left and right, eyeing for a sight of his pursuers. They had disappeared completely from his sight, which was fixated on the ground around him.

A shrieking eagle-like cry came from above; the stallion glanced up, hoping to meet the source of the cry with his long ears.

I shouldn't have done that. The stallion thought as he immediately regret his decision to look up.

The bright mid-day Sun had shone directly into his curious eyes as he looked up. He glanced down as soon as he could, shutting his eyes from the burning sensation the Sun had brought to him.

A swooping maneuver, the shadow of a majestic gryphon landed less than four feet directly in front of the stallion. As quickly as it landed, it braced and prepared to strike.

"You're comin' with us now."

As quickly as those words registered in the pony's head; he felt a large crack above his snout. Nothing was felt; just the draining of his conscious and the decaying image of the world that was fading fast from him. The pony collapsed on his front toward the ground, with his head landing directly into a dirt pile on the track, blowing dust all over his face.

The gryphon that had swooped down and struck the fleeing pony was met by the second gryphon, who had glided down and landed nearby.

"That's what you get for breakin' into our country an' snoopin' around!"

The first gryphon had uttered those words and spat on the dust-caked forehead of the unconscious pony. He was joined by the second gryphon, who couldn't have cared less about the sleeping pony and was more concerned by the saddlebag, not taking his curious and eager eye off of it in case something were to happen.

"Has he got it?"

The second gryphon eyed the first towards the saddlebag, hinting an order for him to go and check for 'it'.

The gryphon knelt down and rummaged around in the saddlebag; two golden scrolls lied at the bottom. Apart from small clumps of dirt that had caught in the bag during the earlier chase, there was nothing else of value.

"Ugh!"

The first gryphon pulled his sharp talon out of the saddlebag, clutching the two gold scrolls in disappointment.

"No, these are the only two." The first gryphon spoke as he hung his head in shame.

"There just has to be more of 'em thieves, they've probably made off with the other three. They could be anywhere by now."

The second gryphon stamped his right talon onto the baked ground in anger, spewing dust up and around his legs.

"What'll we do with....this one?" The first gryphon pointed to the sleeping stallion and spoke out, hoping to salvage at least a small prize from the large failure.

"You can carry him."

The first gryphon's expression changed from one of hope to one of frustration, he hated being the one that had to carry everything. Particularly because he had injured his spine a few months previous from 'The Talon's Claws', an annual challenge of strength in the Kingdom of Gryphonia.

"Worst part of the job." The first gryphon muttered to himself as he shoved the unconscious stallion onto his back with ease, gryphons were known for their superior strength to ponies.

The two gryphons walked along the path, unfolded their enormous wings and flew off into the mid-day Sun, leaving no trace of their encounter behind.

It was all quiet, Yuri was falling; spinning, ever so slowly.

The pain of a massive headache was beginning to be felt as Yuri became conscious. He awoke; startled at the fact that his body was no longer in the position it was when he lost all feeling of what was going on.

How did it get like this? Yuri thought as he questioned his body transition.

Yuri finally tried to see if he could piece together what exactly was going on. Trying to get more information that he could see; Yuri began to open his left eye.

Too fast, the bright mid-day Sun lied above where Yuri was lying. This bright array of light had overwhelmed Yuri's eye which was delicate and confused at the time.

Yuri slammed his eye shut and covered it with his hand, trying to help some of the pain away. Moving his arm; Yuri felt the need to breathe in through his nose.

As he breathed in, the shock caused him to sit up completely.

It was a burning smell, like the smell of cinnamon roasting. The small caused him to recall a memory from his childhood; where Yuri would travel with his two brothers Fedyenka and Stanislov to the Siberian wood and roast a hand-crafted cinnamon pie over an open log fire. The pie always tasted good, and Yuri would always enjoy the experience. It was a very strong memory, but for the past few years it could only do to cause him pain.

Feeling more comfortable at being upright; Yuri decided to open his eyes.

Trees, lots of...trees. Yuri thought to himself as he saw a surrounding army of long pine-like trees. Yuri noticed the short green-coloured grass; he was in the middle of a forest clearing, certainly not aboard a spacecraft.

Chto za huy, I must be dreaming!

Yuri was in complete disbelief, Baikonur's specialists had trained him how to operate the Reaction Control System during docking latch failure with rapidly falling pressure aboard the Soyuz, but they hadn't trained him at all for what Yuri was beholding.

What? No...gravity? How is there...never been here. In space, no...gravity. Here, gravity? Need know...where am I? Pyotr would know, he knows... everything. Roman, nothing. Where Pyotr and Roman?

Yuri's internal conflict between his brain and his brainstem was making them both talk through his mouth at the same time. Hundreds of questions were being asked in Yuri's mind, yet none of them could be answered.

He simply sat there staring at the trees, oblivious to his surroundings.

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