Chapter 1: Sins of our Past
A barrage of gun fire files over War wolves position. The team had experienced catastrophic casualties and out of the twelve Marines that were with them, only five remained.
“Victor two three, this is War Wolf zero ninner. We are pinned down on grid IP Cadillac 7894 4474 requesting immediate Evac! How copy over.”
“War wolf Zero Ninner, this is victor two three, that’s a negative on the Evac at this time. All air personnel are currently engaged. Do what you can, over.”
Shade looks over to Darkstar, “Darkstar what your status on ammo?” She asked as she puts in the last of her clips into her rifle.
“Everypony is currently black on Ammo! We need to get the buck out of here and regroup with an ammo resupply truck.”
Shade nods as she stands up and opens fire. In the distance an enemy jeep could be seen as it veers off course and begins flipping finally landing upside down. “Dark, get Everypony moving towards the resupply point. I will be the last one to leave since I still have some ammo left”
Darkstar nods and orders the retreat so Everypony could get back to the resupply point. What they did not they know was that the resupply point had already been hit and that they were going to be walking into a trap.
Over the radio “All signs on this net, be advised, break. We are still unable to get a fix on the current attackers. What we do know is that they came from over the seas, after being able to pin point their origins.”
The radios begin to fade as they come up to the supply point and they come under fire. The five Marines immediately take cover.
***
The Presidential family prepares to add a new addition to its ranks. Dazzle glow paces back and forth in the waiting room, waiting for any word on his wife Shining Star. Shimmer Mist was sitting in the chair looking as professional as she should, but deep down, she was very worried.
About an hour before hoof, the doctor had come out and gave some troubling news. “The contractions are still very far apart, but she is still in labor. To make matters worse, we believe that the umbilical cord may be wrapped around the foal’s neck. Things are getting worse in there for Shining Star as well.” The doctor then went back into the delivery room. Over an hour later, Dazzle glow was beginning to have doubts that the foal was going to survive.
Shimmer mist puts a hoof on his shoulder and reassures him. “ Dazzle, it has both yours and Stars genes. It will pull though. Have faith.” Dark star looks at her and then back at the door.
A General comes marching in. “Sir, Sorry to bother you right now. We seem to have a problem. Russia looks like they are trying to build up an Army. But for what we are unable to find out.”
Shimmer Mist looks at him. “Really, Dose this pose a direct threat to us?”
“Well, umm, No, not at the current time. But it could.”
“Keep Monitoring them, and if need be activate our defense protocol with in the border”
The general nods and leaves the room leaving Shimmer Mist and Dazzle alone again.
The Doctor comes back out after another two hours of intense waiting and looks at Dazzle. All the doctor could say was “I’m sorry”
“The foal didn't make it?”
“No, Mr. President, the foal made it. He is a healthy foal colt, despite being delivered C-section, and having the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck, The First lady past away half way through.”
Shimmer Mist looks down looking at Dazzle through the corner of her eye. She thinks to herself “this is not going to be good.”
The President just falls to his knees crying uncontrollably. After a few minutes of sobbing, Dazzle gets up and goes into the delivery room. Inside, the delivery room, the sheets were pulled up and covering Shining Star and the nurses were moving the colt into the nursery.
The doctor comes up beside Dazzle. “Sir, this has never happened as far as I know, but your colt's…” The doctor trails off and dazzle looks at him.
“My colt's what?” Dazzle asked worried.
“The colt is an Alicorn Sir.”
This causes Shimmers ears to perk up next to the door. Dazzle just stares at the Doctor not knowing what to do or say. Shimmer ponders if she should walk over and see but holds her spot, keeping watch.
The doctor walks off leaving Dazzle alone and Dazzle begins walking out of the delivery room.
***
"Shimmer, Come on. We need to get back to the White House." Dazzle said as he walked past her. Shimmer nods and follows behind him.
"Sir...Did he say your son was an...Alicorn?" She asks cautiously.
Without stopping, "Yes, and I am going to be getting the best investigators to find out how this happened. Alicorns are extinct."
She coughs lightly. "Um...sir....you must of forgot that I am an Alicorn..." She says keeping pace.
"You're the only one Shimmer. Not trying to be mean, but you're the last of your kind."
He gets outside and gets into the Limo with the American Flags flying at the front of the vehicle.
She gets in as well. "I understand sir....but....if you wish...when the foal comes of age....I'm more than willing to be his tutor on Alicorn related things." She says respectfully.
"Thank you Shimmer. That would be good." "Driver take us to the Rasika. We need to get something to eat before we go back to the White House." Shimmer looks out of the window.
"Well...Dazzle...it could be possible you or Shining star were long decedents of Alicorns and the genes decided to show up in your child." She says deep in thought.
After leaving Rasika, they return to the White House and Dazzle gets out. "Stay outside and make sure I’m not bothered." Shimmer nods and takes her position, looking around and keeping her ear piece open.
[center***"Hey tom." John said happily as he stepped into his First Sergeants office. John is a Staff sergeant for the United States Marine Corps and he was going to his First Sergeant Toms office to pick up his discharge papers.
"Hey John" Tom Replied back pulling out the papers from a filing cabinet. "You know your papers came into my office this morning and i said 'that can't be right, John doesn't know how to write.' You know, we could always use another lean, mean, typing machine."
"im not built like you Tom, Big, strong, Ugly. I did my twenty years, i know when to get out. Each Marine has a Shelf life.
The First sergeant signs the papers and hands him the file. "Your expired Staff Sergeant. Clear the shelf"
John nods and looks at the file. "everything i know is in here" Grabs the files and leaves.
***
After a while, Darkstar called Shimmer back into his office. She enters the room and begins to close the door.
“Don’t bother closing the door; you’re not going to going to be here that long.” She holds the door right before it latches closed. “I want you to go and find the smartest Investigators and find out why my colt was born an Alicorn.”
She leaves the room and collides with a Major trying to get to the President.
“Ma’am, you need to go back in there and tell the President that we just lost track of the entire Russian fleet.”
She just looks at him. “What do you mean, ‘lost the entire Russian fleet?!’” She turns around and goes back into the office and tells the President what the Major just told her. Before she could tell him though, another Secret Service member rushes into the room and tells them that they have a problem. More agents rush into the room and tell him that they need to get moving to Olympus.
He orders Shade to get to his colt in the hospital and she immediately complies rushing to get the car and speeds to the hospital. She gets the colt and gets back into her car. The ponies in the Hospital could only hear the tires of her car squealing as she speeds away. She was speeding down the highway, making incredible time towards the Evac site.
Meanwhile with the president, the agent yells back at him. “sir, I know that you are all into peace and everything, but I think you might need to get your hands dirty right now. There is a rocket launcher in the back seat.”
Dazzle gets the launcher and sticks it out the window, firing it. the car jerks to the left and dazzle crawls to the front. "I lost the launcher."
"WHAT! How do you lose a launcher?"
"I lost it Theres not really much i can say on that. I just lost it."
"Holy shit, seriously, how the fuck do you do something like that"
The bridge that shimmers was supposed to cross to get to the Evac point blows up. She screeches to a halt and nearly flips and looks at it....then goes about 50 feet then floors it and ramps off some upturned concrete and jumps the gap, clearing it and speeding off.
"This is charley three, I have the eagle. Enroute to Air Force One, Break, Delta four get to the airport, the President wants you to get on with him."
"Copy that! just jumped the bridge to the airport will be there in four mikes!" she says as she swerves to avoid a crater. she arrives at the airport and drives onto the runway full speed making for Air Force One and screeches to a halt and jumps out with Darkstar under her cloak.
“Come on; Get on the Plane, The Presidents about ten minutes away!” She nods and gets on the plane with dark, and takes a defensive position on board. the president comes under fire, and he radios to the Pilots.
"This is the President. Get that plane off the ground if my colt is onboard. We are not going to make it."
The pilots looks out the window to see shimmer holding the colt on her back getting on the plane. The Lieutenant Colonel signals that they are rotating and the ground crew pulls the mobile stairs away from the plane and the onboard Stewarts close the doors.
Shimmer mist notices this. "What about Dazzle!" She calls to the pilots forcing the panic down. The Major shuts and locks the door separating the flight deck and shimmer and jumps back into his seat. on the radios the tower was giving priority clearance for takeoff but was also warning them about enemy troops approaching the airport.
The pilots quickly got to any runway that they could find and started their takeoff roll. just as the plane speed down the runway a hail storm of gunfire started covering the plane.
"One hundred and twenty knots Sir!" the Co-Pilot shouts hout
"V1. Give me full flaps. thirty degrees!"
"yes sir!" The Major switches from ten degrees to thirty degree flaps and in seconds the computers were showing full flaps. "New takeoff speed one hundred and eighty knots sir out of two hundred and twenty. New V2 speed approaching! One hundred and seventy knots Sir!"
"V2! Rotate!" The aircraft begins to lift off the ground in the middle of the gunfire.
Due to the defenses the plane had it was able to get off the ground with little damage. She sits heavily in a chair heavily and sits Dark star on her lap and looks at him sadly. "He's gone....Dazzle's gone....." She whispers to herself as a tear falls for the first time in twenty years.
After getting to the Cruising altitude the pilots come out and check on her. “ I'm sorry we had to leave him, but it was his call. We will be landing in Australia in about 16-17 hours."
What they did not know was that the gun fire from takeoff damaged their systems and instead of going West, they were going South. After 15 hours of silence and normal instruments, the flight deck is bombarded with warnings. She wakes up, at the sound and checks on Dark star, then walks up to the front.
"What the hell is going on?" She asks on high alert herself. "I have no idea! Tower, this is Sam 29000, we are declaring an emergency, I say again. Mayday, mayday, Mayday!"
She goes back to check on Dark star. "Are you okay, Darky?" she asks like a sister. Darkstar begins to cry as the tower responds,
"this is Sydney tower; we copy your Mayday Sam 29000. We do not have you on our scope. Check Transponder and verify that it is set to 22890."
"Copy Sydney tower. we have an incorrect transponder. please advise us when you pick us up."
"this is Sydney tower; we copy your Mayday Sam 29000. We do not have you on our scope. Check Transponder and verify that it is set to 22890."
"Copy Sydney tower. we have an incorrect transponder. please advise us when you pick us up."
"SAM 29000, Sydney tower; We have you on our scope; you are 100 miles east of our position holding at 380,000ft. descend and maintain 10,000ft. hold current heading. We are declaring an emergency and ground crew will be standing by."
The pilots acknowledge this and begin to drop their altitude.
"Sam 29000; Sydney Tower. State Fuel, and souls onboard"
"Sydney Tower, SAM 29000, we have 1/4 of our fuel, estimated to be 32,000 pounds of fuel. Souls onboard is 15, including the first child."
"SAM 29000, Sydney tower Acknowledges, Be advised changing your callsign to Air Force One"
***
Twenty minutes since the Mayday was called everything was returning to normal, but the pilots were not going to be taking any changes. The fuel pump alert for engine one begins to sound warning the pilots that the engine is not receiving enough fuel or that the pump may have gone out.
Soon more alarms are beginning to sound. Pump alerts for engines two, three and four. Then their worst nightmare comes true. Engines one and two shut down. they Immediately trim the plane so that they can have full thrust on the remaining engines and remain flying straight, but they are not long able to hold their altitude and they still have 50 miles to go before they even get to the airport which is right off the coast of the Ocean.
"Mayday, we are unable to maintain altitude, We have a flame out of engine one and two,we are unable to hold her.
"Air Force One, copy, we have you on our scope at forty miles east. You should be seeing the coastline at this time."
"Sydney Tower, thats affirmative. we have the coastline in sight."
"Major, do you see the airport?" the LTC asked concerned when they were ten miles away from the airport and only at two thousand feet. At this height they could only get down no matter where at.
"Negative, Sydney Tower; Air Force One, requesting ILS."
"Air Force one, ILS has you at 10 mile east from airport. you are cleared priority landing. An emergency has been declared and emergency crew are standing by.
After getting to where they can see the coast clearly and not seeing anything,and with only one thousand feet left the LTC makes the final transmission. "We are ejecting the first child. over."
The Major comes running out of the flight deck. "Shimmer mist, you need to get Darkstar on the pod right now. we are going down."
***
On the ground in Canterlot Celestia was warned about something approaching the coast, and she calls in for Shade.
Celestia looks at shade. "My guards have told me that something was flying towards Canterlot. I want you to investigate."
***
After making sure the beacon was active the Major returns to the flight deck and helps keep the now crippled plane in the air. While he was gone helping launch the pod, Auto pilot failed and the Pump warnings for engine 3 was sounding.
"Sydney tower, this is Sam 29000, pod is away and beacon is active."
"Sam 29000 be advised we are not picking up any beacon from the pod."
***
Shade nods and disappears again, appearing just outside the everfree and looked up, noticing the odd, bird like obstruct in the sky.
***
Shimmer closes the pod and punches in the code to launch the pod and covers herself as it launches.
Shade watches this broken off part fall and judges it's trajectory and predicts it will land close to her and keeps watching it. "awe buck....."
The aircraft, now with engine one thru three out and four on fire, flies overhead and flies out of sight.
The pod detects an unsafe landing vector and fires its engines for five minutes. One of the engines fail causing it to lose control and crashe about 25 miles away from shade.
Shade watches the plane then takes off at high speeds towards where the broken off part went and arrives in ten minutes. "hm..."
Shimmer just sighs and pops a bottle of hard whiskey. "A toast....to a life of hell...." She says as she takes a swig before the crash.
Shade reaches the location and faintly hears crying and sends out a ping to Celestia and then looks around the pod for a way to open it and finds a lever and grasps it in her magic and pulls on it.
Celestia responds within minutes and looks at the crater and burn marks around the crash site. Shade had the pod open by then and was rocking a colt back and forth, his hoof bandaged.
"Tia...What the buck took you so long?" She asks as she keeps her eyes on the colt.
Celestia just looks at Shade. "I had to fly from Canterlot to Ponyville. how long did you think it was going to take me?"
"I don't know...maybe a teleportation? anyways...I found a colt inside that tube-thing over there....had a fair gash on his hoof." She says looking up at her.
"you know that it takes a lot of magic to make a teleportation spell of that distance. Did you manage to find out what the thing was that flew over Canterlot?"
She shakes her head. "Nope....lost it over the horizon....." She says, getting lost in thought as she looks at the bundled colt. Celestia looks over the colt in the bundle.
"What is that on his bundle?" She asked pointing at the note.
She looks at the note and hover it over to Celestia. "Can you make out what it says, Tia?" she asks after trying to figure out what it says.
"No, I can’t..." She said.
Something caught her attention on the inside of the pod. She uses her magic to pull out the American Flag. "and what is this supposed to be?"
Shade looks at the flag. "No clue, Tia..." She says as she lets some of her mane fall over Dark star to see if he would play with it.
Celestia folded the flag and put it in her bag. Darkstar looked at the mane and with his good hoof he started to play with the mane hitting it back and forth. She smiles at this and laughs softly. While she smiled, dark star used his magic to pull the hair closer to him and he began to chew on it.
Shade laughs some more and looks over to Tia. "Tia....do you remember how I've been waiting to retire from the spec ops and settle down? I think I found a reason to...if you will permit it..." She asks as she keeps her mane within his grasp easily.
"I think we should get him to the hospital first before we decide anything."
She nods and get's up. "well....guess my retirement will have to wait then..." she mumbles to herslef as she places Dark under her cloak and gave him some of her mane to keep him occupied.
At the hospital Doctor Whooves comes out. "Well princess, nothing to rash. a bad cut to the left hoof is all he has. he is in good health, and surprisingly too being only a day old. but there is one thing that took us for a loop. You told us that he was a unicorn. he is really an Alicorn."
This catches shade off guard and deep down feels a sense of...depression, knowing what Tia will say but keeps her face professional. At this time Luna walks into the room.
Celestia looks at Shade. "Shade, I am granting you early retirement. But Luna will look after the foal" With this she leaves the room and returns to Canterlot leaving Shade, Luna the doctor, and Dark star alone. Shade nods, but still keeps the colt in her view and sits down.
"well....Guess Tia let me look after the colt" Luna says to herself, looking at the colt.
The doctor interrupts Luna thoughts. "Sorry, but what are you going to name the foal?"
She looks at the colt and at the Doctor. "Dark star.....I will name him Dark Star...." she says as she looks back at the colt. Darkstar yawns and curls up into a ball falling asleep.
