Chapters Spitfire was not having the best of days. At least, that was her team’s general idea.
The young, twenty four year old Captain of The Wonderbolts had just walked across the cafeteria in their headquarters on the Wonderbolt Academy before kicking two chairs -- one of them containing her childhood friend Soarin -- before stomping upstairs to her office. She slammed the door so hard that the former Captain of the Wonderbolts’ portrait fell off the wall and shattered onto the floor below.
Fleetfoot turned her eyes away from the coffee she had been sipping idly from, and stared at the staircase where Spitfire had just stomped up. Her cloud white hair suffering from a rather bad case of bedhead.
“Uh...What's up with her?” She asked out loud, looking around to see looks of confusion on her teammates faces, or in Soarin’s case, a look of pain as he picked himself off the floor, before tripping over a chair. Spitfire had very rarely been mad before. Sure, she joked around a lot, but that was normal. But her actually being mad ?
She only ever got that way when she was around one person ...
“My expert opinion, is that she may be slightly mad.” Lightning Streak added smugly, earning several snickers from several of his teammates, his blonde hair was perched on his head in a ‘I don’t really care’ fashion.
“Good job there, Sherlock. Want a cookie for your hard work?” Fleetfoot answered back in the most sarcastic tone she could -- which was quite sarcastic -- before grabbing her mug of coffee and sitting down on a couch.
“Uh... Maybe one of us should go see what's wrong?” Blaze responded, her voice filled with actual concern over her Captain’s sudden burst of rage.
“Do you really think that is such a smart idea?” Fire Streak said as he put down the magazine he had been browsing.
“On second thought, you do have a point there.” Blaze confirmed as she took an enormous bite out of her bagel.
“Oh, for the love of Celestia, I’ll be the big man here and go talk to her.” Soarin said as he flew towards the staircase.
“Never had a girl say that to you I guess Soarin?” Surprise yelled out, her blonde hair bouncing up and down as she laughed. Soarin’s cheeks took on color akin to a tomato, which triggered the rest of the team to burst out laughing at Soarin’s expense.
Sorain mumbled something incomprehensible to himself, before flying up to the entrance to Spitfire’s office. He looked down at the broken glass and gulped, having nearly stepped in it with no shoes on. He was about to open the door, before stopping when he heard the sound of something being thrown against a wall quite hard, and a scream of anger that sounded a lot like Spitfire.
“THOSE SONS OF BITCHES! HOW COULD THEY DO THAT?!” Spitfire yelled at the top of her lungs, shaking the walls.
“Oh yeah, this was totally a good idea,” Soarin muttered to himself as he knocked on the door, mentally making sure his funeral preparations and will were both in good order.
“Hey, Spits. You alright? I heard some yelling and I wanted to make sure-” He was cut off by the door opening, and a hand reaching out and grabbing him. Before he could blink, it was yanking him inside the office before slamming the door shut.
“Uh... Nice to see you too, Spits?” Soarin asked nervously as he sat down in the chair opposite Spitfire’s desk. Spitfire herself was currently staring outside through a window. She gave no response at first, electing instead to just continuing to stare out the window.
Which only made Soarin’s fear, and nervousness rise very quickly.
“Soarin, can you tell me what this is?” Spitfire asked in a monotone voice, finally turning around to face Soarin while holding a piece of parchment. Her hair was in its usual blazing style, accented by her bright-red cheeks and folded wings against her back. She looked like she was getting ready to go and gut someone. Or multiple someones...
She tossed Soarin the paper; an official looking letter; one that he had seen dozens of times. The official seal of the Cloudsdale Aerodrome on top of the letter shone brightly in the daylight streaming into the room. The Aerodrome was The Wonderbolts most popular and most visited venue. Soarin quirked an eyebrow at his superior. “We get one of these about once a month. There should really be no reason for Spitfire to be mad,” he thought to himself as looked at the letter.
“Spits, I don’t see why this could make you do...” Soarin paused, before gesturing at the trashed office around him with a motion of his hand “...well, this.” He suddenly pointed towards one of her shelves in dismay. “You even broke the nick-nack I bought for you last Hearth’s Warming!”
“Soarin, take that thing in your head called a brain and actually use it for once.” She retorted as stared at the letter in repressed aggression, before going back to blankly examining Equestria outside the window. Soarin mentally shrugged, before beginning to read the letter aloud.
Thank you for submitting your request for having a show at the Cloudsdale Aerodrome two weeks from now. You have performed here many times before, and we thank you for so.
However, we are sorry to... inform you that your request to perform has been denied, due to that week already being excluded for another team that has requested to perform on that week as well. After a deliberation between the Board of the National Equestrian Flight Association, we have chosen to use them over you. We understand that your team is of top-notch flight level, and we hope to have you back soon! The team that is preforming has graciously donated an entire box suite for you, so I hope you can enjoy the performance by. ..”
“The Shadowbolts?!” Soarin stood up in disbelief, his voice showing the emotion quite clear. “They booked the Shadowbolts, over US?! ARE THEY INSANE?” Spitfire didn’t even bother turning around.
Her team, the greatest flying team in Equestria, had been basically kicked out of their home.
“We have to go talk to them about this. The Wonderbolts have been performing there for decades, way before we were even born. Why are they changing it suddenly, now of all times?” Soarin asked her. Spitfire could only sigh, and once again turned around to face Soarin. For Soarin, he knew he had to say something further. He cleared his voice and began hesitantly.
“...Is this what all this was about? All the raging, the slamming, and throwing of large objects was about? Spits, did you go and ask them why they did this?”
“I don’t fucking know, Soarin. Maybe they thought it would be good for business to go and book someone else, but...Gah, the team is going to have a riot when they hear about this. Guess I’ll go and tell them. Feel free to stay here and mope, Soarin,” Spitfire said in a joking tone, electing a small laugh and grin from Soarin.
“Me, moping? Never! Now... shall we go and get this over with?”
“Sure, Soarin.” A light pause cut her off, before she continued with a devious smile. “But first; clean up the mess in the hallway. We don’t want anyone to step in it, now do we?”
“... I really do hate you sometimes...”
“THEY DID WHAT?” As soon as Spitfire told her team what had happened, it was like opening of a very angry and confused flood gate. Half of the team had jumped up in anger, and the rest got angry in their chairs, not wanting to spill their assorted breakfast food.
“Spitfire, they can’t do this! That has been our home for generations!” Fleetfoot whined, earning several ‘I agree with you’ and ‘As always, she’s right’.
“Are they fucking drunk? Why the in the name of Celestia would they book our well known rivals to our own home stadium? Are they fucking with us?” Lighting Streak added, the rage in his voice pretty clear.
“I agree with Lightning, this is fucking nuts. Spitfire, are you sure you got the right letter?” Fire Streak added, earning himself a glare from Spitfire.
“Yes, I am quite sure what I read was for us. Even Soarin read it and told me the same thing. You want to know the real smack in the face? They gave all of us tickets for a box suite at the performance!” Spitfire added, venom pouring from her last words like a cobra.
The entire team was speechless, and for good reason. Now, to the average pegasus person, this would have been a very nice thing to do, getting an awesome ticket to a show. Now to a flying team, it was a completely different thing. It originated a long time ago, shortly before Nightmare Moon's attack. The legend goes on to say that after a particularly nasty encounter between the first Wonderbolts and the Black Suns, the Wonderbolts bought the Black Suns tickets to their next game, to show them how a real team performed.
Ever since that day, whenever an opposing flying team wished to disgrace their rival team or teams, they would buy them a ticket to their next performance. And the better the seat, the more of an insult was intended. So, you can imagine the insult that was being made. The Wonderbolts most heated rival in hundreds of years had booked their home stadium the same week that they were supposed to perform, bought them the best seats in the entire house, and had them delivered in the official message back to them.
“They did...what?” Fleetfoot whispered out, not believing a word of what she just heard. The entire team was silent, that was before the Streak brothers got up and began walking toward the the lobby.
“Uh guys, where are you going?” Fleetfoot asked, but no response was given, and the entire team watched as they walked out the door and took flight, heading off into the sunrise.
“Leave them be, they are probably going to go take a flight to go calm down.” Spitfire reassured Fleetfoot as she headed towards the coffee maker to get a cup of coffee to try to calm herself down.
“So uh...Are we going to go?” A small voice squeaked out among the quiet Wonderbolts. Everyone turned around to look at Misty Fly, now blushing so hard she could act as a second sun.
“What? They are free seats, and besides...Who says we can’t have a little bit of fun while we are there?” She said sheepishly with a grin. Everyone on the team, save Spitfire joined her with a grin.
“So Cap, what do you think? Should we have a little bit of fun with our dear friends The Shadowbolts?” Fleetfoot grinned as she asked. The rest of the team, still grinning, began to put on puppy dog face.
Spitfire just sighed, not really knowing what to do. As much as she wanted to go and pull a epic prank on the Shadowbolts, the consequences for the teams actions would be far worse than the moment of happiness of whatever prank would happen. There team could be heavily fined for it, and even worse, could be suspended if the Flying Board thought so.
“I’m sorry, but I really don’t think that it would be smart for us to try and pull a prank in the middle of a show. And besides, that would be stooping down to their level, which would not be a bad thing, but I think the consequences would be a bitch. ” Spitfire proclaimed, feeling rather like a buzzkill as most of her teammates grins suddenly went down the drain at the realization of what could happen. She loved having fun with her team, pranking each other, trolling fans, and just well...living her life to the fullest.
“So that’s a no on the pranking then?” Misty asked innocently.
“Yeah, no on the pranking, but I have a better idea. Someone go get Lightning and Fire, I have a small idea...” Spitfire teased as the group moved in closer to her, ready to hear her plan. The door the lobby ringed as Soarin went outside to find the Streak brothers.
“Now, this is not technically pranking more as-”
On the completely other side of Cloudsdale, a completely other spectacle was unfolding from The Wonderbolts surprising morning. The sun was rising of the Dark mansion that was not unlike something you would see in a old horror movie, but it was the Headquarters for Princesses Lunas flying team, and the direct rival to The Wonderbolts, The Shadowbolts.
The youngest flying team currently performing right now, they were less than three years old. They were formed when Luna had returned to her royal duties, had visited a Wonderbolts performance and was amazed with them, and had requested a her own team to be formed. Needless to say, the request was granted and soon, a new team had entered the playing field. But, like all things in every universe, there had to be a problem.
The one that Princess Luna faced, along with her advisers, was who to ask or to hire to join the team. Now, you may think that this would be an easy feat, which is what Luna thought, but it turned out to be an adventure on its own right, and a rather interesting one at that. So, by this time, nearly all the expert flyers were either on their own team, like The Wonderbolts, Black Arrows, Screaming Eagles and so on.
And the recruitment problem was not getting any help from the legends of Nightmare moon, even though they had been proven wrong, most people still feared Princess Luna. The only good flyers left were very, and I mean very hesitant to accept an invitation for the team.
And the rumors, Dear Celestia the rumors. Cloudsdale is a very social place, and between the rumors that had formed in Canterlot about Luna met the rumors from Cloudsdale about the team, it combined to form something that if it would have had a physical form, it would have looked demonic it could have had Cerberus cowering in fear like a scared pup from a thunderstorm.
The rumors told stories of how anyone that joined the team would be cursed to all eternity, and how they would all turn into vampires and other really untrue things. But, Cloudsdale, its people, and most of Equestria went for it hook, line, sinker and even the boat.
Nearly five months after the bill to have the team formed had passed, not a single application had been received, and it was beginning to take its toll on Luna. She had been so excited to have her very own team, but that dream was quickly not becoming a reality, Celestia had tried to cheer up her sister, but to no use. It was beginning to look like the team would never become a reality, until a fateful tuesday afternoon.
Three years ago...
Starry Night was in the middle of another boring day at the ‘Shadowbolts’ HQ, if you could even call it that. From the rumors that had been going around, there is probably not going to be a Shadowbolts HQ anymore, which means she might be in the job market once again.
She became lost in her thoughts, before the sound of a the door to the lobby opening up. She quickly tried to look busy, or rather that she tried to make it look like she had been doing something all day, instead of playing solitare for an hour and a half, before going and doodling on random application sheets.
She expected some inspector, or an advisor of Luna, or even a lost pizza delivery flyer, but the Pegasus person that walked in was like nothing she had ever seen. The Pegasus person at the door was quite unique looking. Her hair was a navy blue, and her wings from what she could see, were the same color. Navy blue was quite a rare color to see in a persons hair, and even more rare in their wings. She stood at around five foot six inches, and looked to be in very good shape. She wore a simple plain black t-shirt, with a pair of torn black jeans on her legs. Her shoes looked a lot like something you would see on a soldier. Her eyes were a dark green, a sharp contrast to her dark clothing.
“Hello, how may I help you on this...fine day?” Starry asked, trying to keep a straight face. The woman in front of her was quite intimidating.
“Is this the Shadowbolts recruitment place?” She asked, looking around the room. Her voice was surprisingly clear, but it had a hidden layer of malice in it.
“Why yes, it is! May I help you with something?” Starry responded, being slightly confused. She had never had someone come into this place actually looking for it.
“Can I have one of those...applications for the team?” The woman asked in a somewhat demanding tone.
“Uh...You want what miss?” Starry stuttered out, not believing her ears. Someone was asking for a recruitment application? Was she under a magic spell? Did she hit her head?
“Did I stutter ma’am? I want a recruitment application for The Shadowbolts, Princess Lunas new flight team, so that I can join said team, Please. Oh, and my name is Nightshade by the way.” The woman, or rather Nightshade asked, with some emphasis on the please part at the end. Starry, wordlessly, handed a quite dusty clipboard to her with the form on it. Nightshade thanked her, before sitting down on one of the Cloud couches and began to fill it out.
Starry could not believe her eyes, the someone was really signing up for The Shadowbolts. And that is when lightning struck twice in the same spot, the door to the lobby opened, and four Pegasus people walked in, they were quite literally, the oddest collection of people she had ever seen. Nightshade looked up from her form, before clearing her voice.
“Oh, I brought some more people to come and sign up, hope that is alright.” She said before going back to filling out her form. Starry gave a forced smile, before looking back to the group that just walked in. They all sat down next to, or around Nightshade, and began whispering to her. One of them could not keep still, and kept looking around the room, a strange grin on her face. She watched the scene for about five minutes, before one them walked toward her. It was a man, standing at around six foot two, and had a scar going across his right eye. He had icy white hair with streaks of light blue. His wings could not been seen, due to them being folded up against his back. He was built like a royal guard, and had the attitude to meet it.
“Excuse me Miss, we need some more of these application sheets, do you have any more? We all want to sign up for the team.” He spoke in a rough, but controlled voice. Starry nodded before taking out the sheets and handing the lot to him. He thanked her before walking away towards his friends. The one that had the grin began to laugh randomly, sending chills down Starrys back.
“Blitz, please at least try to act non crazy.” Someone said from within the circle. The person laughing simply snickered, before going back to ‘filling’ out the form. Starry looked at the people that were signing up for the team, then realising that they were probably going to be the only ones on the team for a long, long time.
“Well, at least I’m keeping my job... On second thought, not sure if that is a good thing or not.”
Three years later
As the sun rose over the Shadowbolts headquarters, Captain Nightshade slowly woke up from her bed, before falling ungracefully off the bed onto the floor.
“Urgh...Well, that is one way to wake up in the morning...” She groaned out before attempting to get up, before falling back down to the floor. Nightshade was not known for being the happiest person in the morning, and that was saying a lot compared to her team.
“Yo Cap, you alive up there? Or do I need to call the cops?” A voice yelled down from the floor below her. She recognized the voice as Stratus, her second in command to the team.
“Calm your tits Stratus, I’m fine. Just took a bit of a tumble.” She yelled back down, angry that she had been disturbed. Knowing that she would not be able to go back to sleep, she slowly got up, before nearly tripping over her blanket. She cursed under her breath, before standing back up and going into the shower to try and wake up. She took of her t-shirt and pants before stepping into the shower.
Now, she began a species old tradition of thinking about whatever was on her mind, or contemplating life and the universe. She choose the first option, and then broke out in a grin when she remembered what she had sent and done to her dear friends the Wonderbolts. She imagined the look on the bitch Spitfires face as she read over that letter, realising that she had been beat again by Nightshade.
She allowed herself a bit of a fantasy of Spitfire screaming and breaking into a mad rage, screaming at everyone she saw. The ‘best’, most pompous flying team in the world, had been ripped from their home field and tossed aside like the garbage they were, by a team that had only been here for a couple of years, unlike the millennium old Wonderbolts.
When the team found out that they had gotten the gig, oh boy.The party that was achieved would have made Vinyl Scratch jealous, along with setting the new world record for worst hangover of all time, but it was worth it. Soon, the Wonderbolts would be out of the running, and the Shadowbolts will be the new best flying team in the world. This made Nightshade happier than anything else in the world, even more than making Spitfire feel horrible, not that she did not deserve it.
Nightshade smiled once more, before stepping out of the shower to dry off, being extra careful to get her wings nice and perfect. Satisfied with her work, she put on her official Shadowbolts robe and walked out of her room, before running back in to get some shoes on. With the performance of her life coming up in two weeks, she was not going to be kicked out of it due to some stupid thing getting in her foot.
As soon as she made sure no random stuff was going to go in her foot, she walked out of her room and shut the door, before walking down the staircase towards the team's unofficial meeting place, the small kitchen.
She turned the corner, and was greeted by two of her team members sitting down, eating some breakfast. Starry Skies was devouring an apple, her azure hair in a bed head fashion, with her identical colored wings tucked against her back. Sitting next to her was Charger, one of her oldest friends. She had met the Silver haired guy in a bar, and the two of them had hit it off. She told asked him if he was a good flyer, which he responded to “Best in the world.” Never the less, she took him up on the challenge, and kicked his ass. Needless to say, they shortly became very good friends.
“What is up you dirty lot?” She joked as she took some cereal out of the cabinet, humming to herself quite happily.
“Hello Cap, you seem to be in good mood.” Charger grumbled out as he began eating some hot cereal.
“Yeah, what made you so happy Night? Last time I remember, you were planning a double murder...Wait, that was last night.” Starry asked as she continued to eat from her fruit bowl, reading a newspaper as well. Nightshade conunited to hum to herself, pouring her cereal into a bowl and taking a seat across from the two.
“Oh, nothing much. Just remembering what we did to the Wonderbolts...” She smiled as she ate her cereal, drawing a giggle from Starry and a chuckle from Charger, both of them remembering the little thing they had done to their rivals.
“Oh that, well, we all know there is more to come, am I right?” Starry asked the group sitting around her, in which they all responded by simply nodding. They sat in silence for a minute, before Nightshade remembered something.
“Uh, have any of you seen Blitz? She is usually up by now, correction, she is always up by now.” Nightshade asked, drawing glancing looks from both Starry and Charger.
“Sorry Cap, have not seen her all morning.” Charger responded, getting up to put his plate in the dishwasher.
“Same Night, see might be asleep...Oh who am I kidding, the chances of that are so low they could be in tartarus. Hell, she may be outside flying around, which may be a problem.” Starry got out of her chair as well, putting her bowl in the dishwasher. She looked out the window to see if she could see Blitz, but no such luck.
Suddenly, a face appeared on the opposite side of the window, causing Starry to scream and fall down onto the kitchen floor, scaring Nightshade and waking up anyone in the surrounding five miles.
“The fuck are you yelling about Starry!?” Nightshade yelled as she tried to catch her breath from the sudden scream of terror. She walked over to where Starry was still laying down on the kitchen floor, her wings fully spread out, before looking out the window and realising what had freaked her out.
“Blitz, what the hell are you doing?” Nightshade yelled from inside the kitchen, directing it towards the person currently rolling on a cloud below the window with laughter.
“STARRY, YOU SHOULD HAVE SEEN THE LOOK ON YOUR FACE!” Blitz cried out as she continued to laugh her ass off. Starry turned as red as a tomato, causing Charger to start laughing with Blitz. Nightshade slowly turned a smile, before joining them in laughter, and shortly after, everyone was laughing at Starrys sake.
“SHUT THE HELL UP, ALL OF YOU!” Starry yelled embarrassed, but it only fed the fire as the laughter only increased, causing Starry to think about where she could hide three bodies. Nightshade, still laughing, came up and patted her on the back, making Starry whip around to face her.
“Relax Stars, it was just a harmless prank, which you fell for epicly. Boy, I have not laughed like that for awhile.” Starry hit Nightshades hand away before flying outside to go get Blitz, or murder Blitz, one or the other would be acceptable.
“I wonder if our new recruit is awake yet.” Charger asked Nightshade after she had finally stopped laughing.
“I guess not...We should probably go give her the ‘special’ Shadowbolt wake up.” Nightshade smiled devilishly with a teasing tone in her voice. This was going to be fun.
“And that, Ladies and Gentleman, is our plan. It is simple, clean, surprisingly elegant and one hundred percent legal. What do you think?” Spitfire asked the group of people circled around her.
“It’s beautiful. I’ve seen some plans like this before, but this takes the cake.” Fleetfoot remarked as she admired the plan Spitfire had told them.
“I have to agree with her for once, this is a thing of beauty.” Blaze joked, earning a her a glare from Fleet.
“Remember, this does not leave this circle. Got it?” Spitfire told the group. They all responded with varying forms of yes.
In two weeks, the Shadowbolts were going to be the laughing stock of Cloudsdale, and the Wonderbolts would have their place back.
In two weeks, all her problems will be solved...
Nightshade and Charger quickly ran out of the recruits room, laughing as they hid in a closet.
“Ok, that has to be one of the funniest, yet evil thing I have ever done!” Nightshade exclaimed as she tried to hold in her laughter.
“Have to agree with ya there Captain. This whole Wonderbolt thing must have put you in one hell of a good mood.”
“Oh? I’m not usually in a loving, caring mood all the time?” She said with dead seriousness, making Charger sweat slightly.
“Uh...You see- What I really meant was-” He was cut off by Night slugging him in the arm, a smile on her face.
“Relax buddy, I ain’t gonna hurt you. Besides, the last thing we need is you to be hurt before our big day hotshot.” She joked and Charger laughed with her, before they heard the sound of a door slamming open and someone screaming their name.
Nightshade and Charger looked at each other, before bolting out of the closet and flying towards the front door.
Nightshade could credit one thing right now to her good mood.
In two weeks, all her problems will be solved...
But, little did the know, in two weeks, their problems would not be solved one bit. For two weeks, on the day of the show, the entire planet would be changed. For better or for worse is for you to decide. But, nevertheless, in two weeks...
Something came from beyond the Event Horizon...
“Urgh...Do I really have to do another one of these?” A man in a chair complained, his head banging onto said desk. He raised his head back up, his brown hair covering his head in a classic bed head pattern. He had some bags under his eyes, but those were not odd with his sleep patterns. He was in a command center like room, with a bunch of consoles lining the wall behind him, and an office like area in front of him. There were quite a lot of windows looking out into space.
“You know the rules, as dumb as they are. Besides, this is like what, your five hundred and sixteenth time doing this?” A cool, feminine voice answered him.
“Thanks for reminding me...Urgh, fuck it. Let’s get this shit done with! Lily, you know the drill.” A male voice answered back, filled with pure annoyance. A floating screen suddenly appeared in front of him.
“Of course I know the bloody drill, I’m programmed into it.” Lily answered back, a bit more sarcastic.
“Just start the transmission already.” The man groaned again, clearly not looking forward to this.
Beginning Transmission...
Finding signal...
Signal found...
Ready
Here we go again...
“This is Logan Hawthorne of the deep space station Gamma fifty three. There has been no changes with Black Hole NC1-589, and the data that we have collected over the last twenty four hours will be, as usual, included...Which is pretty much the same as the last three weeks.” He paused, thinking if anything had changed at all in the last six months, let alone the last three weeks... Yeah, nothing had changed at all.
“Next week, shuttle twelve should be arriving on schedule for resupply. Hopefully you lot got the order right this time. I mean really, how did you get ‘dozen fresh oranges’ confused with ‘dozen frozen simulation octopus’. So, hopefully that will be fixed. Ending update log number five hundred seventeen. Sending it now...”
Ending Transmission...
Compressing log...
Sending...
“There we go, now...What to do?” Logan leaned back in his chair, putting his arms on his head and staring at the ceiling. After a moment of thinking, he came up with nothing.
“You know what Lily, after five hundred and seventeen days, I am starting to regret taking this job.” He finally spoke, still leaning back in his chair.
“Oh? And why is that?’ Lily answered back.
“Well, there are several reasons. Sure the pay is good, and the view of a real black hole is kinda something that not everyone in the galaxy gets to view on a daily basis.” He thought at loud, spinning around in his chair, before stopping and staring outside threw a window, at the spinning mass of gas, radiation, and pure strangeness nearly two billion miles away. Well, you can’t really see a black hole, but you could see the thin bands of gas and matter orbiting it. So, quite a view indeed. The station he lived on was far enough from the black hole
“Oh, and I forgot about the free ship...Yeah, that thing is epic.” He gazed, remembering the ship currently parked in the hanger at the bottom of the station. It was Halsey Division Mark XII four person deep space ship, equipped with a tunneling drive and the whole nine yards. He could not even have imagined how much that thing must have cost.
“And me? Are you forgetting about someone?” A young woman with brown hair, wearing a lab coat suddenly appeared out of thin air next to him. She looked quite pouty, but that turned into a smile when Logan ‘patted’ her on her head.
“And yes, you too Lily.” She laughed before walking over towards one of the many science stations and began typing things into the console.
“Thanks, and now, why are you starting to regret taking this job?” She said without turning around.
“Well for one the ‘food’.” He said, getting up out of his spinny chair and walking over to a nearby counter, picking up a protein bar. He open up the package, sniffed it, then took a bit out of it.
“Gah, have to love the taste of those in the morning, day and or night thingy.” He said, eating the rest of the bar, with only a slight grimace on his face.
“Good thing I don't have to eat those things...Then again, I don’t, and can’t really eat at all.” Lily said as she conunited to type who knows what into one of the many consoles. “Perks of being an AI I suppose, and the down side of it...I have always wanted to try a coconut.”
“Why a coconut? I mean, that is kinda an odd craving when ya think about it. And besides, are coconuts still growing?” Logan replied as he sat back down in his chair, and began spinning around once more. Lily finally turned away from her console, and walked over to where he was spinning.
“Well for one, they are pretty healthy for you. And two, they have been described as having a ‘sweet yet savory taste.’ I have no idea what any of those are like, but they sound cool.” She continued to watch him spin around and around, it was very quite hypnotic.
“So, the proper term to what you are having is a craving? Never heard of those in AI before.” He said absentmindedly as he stopped spinning, and tried to stand up, before falling down onto the carpeted floor below. Lily facepalmed hard before starting to laugh.
“Great job there Logan, are you trying to imitate a dancer?” She said as she giggled watching him try to get up.
“Shut up, I never knew that you could get that dizzy from just a chair.” He said, finally standing up without falling over too much. A lightbulb went off in his said as he remembered that he had to check something. He walked over towards one of the consoles and checked a very important thing.
“Ahh, just like old. Lily, the internet is down once again.” He groaned as he tried to boost the signal, but to no luck. He sighed in defeat, before slowly walking away in shame towards his desk again.
“What it is with humans and the internet I will never get, but dancing cats are funny as hell... Logan, can I have a cat?” Lily asked him with a tone of dead seriousness. He turned around and looked at the projection of her staring at him.
“Why do you suddenly want a cat? A month ago it was a Harmony Toad, and the month after that, it was a Harvest water lily. Well, I kinda understand the water lily, but the toad and now a cat? You are sure one weird as hell AI, and that is why I like you.” Logan said, getting up and patting the AI on her head again.
“Oh, I nearly forgot how this conversation started. I think the real reason I am regretting this job is the just the sheer...Boredom and loneliness. I mean, when I took this job, I thought I would be learning and discovering all this brand new things about black holes, which sounded really damn cool. And of course, my eager as hell self did not bother reading the terms and conditions, in which it stated that I would be the sole human on board for three years, and that the only other person on board was going to be you Lily, not that I am complaining.” He said, remembering that fateful day when he made his choice.
“Why thank you. And I am grateful I got you instead of some arrogant hillybilly that would have basically treated me like just another service AI. So, have to thank you for that. But, I can sorta understand the loneliness part of being stuck out here, it is kinda far out there. But how can you be bored?” Lily asked him, walking back over to where he was and sitting on a chair that spontaneously appeared next to his.
“How can I be bored? Lily, lets be fair now, who does all the experiments, takes all the readings, and basically does all the stuff here that matters?” He stated, looking at the woman sitting across from him.
“Me...” She sighed, knowing where this conversation was going.
“Not that I am complaining on how you do those, which you do fantastically, but there is really not much for me to do here. I mean, there is only so much dicking around you can do before you sorta run out of things to do...” Logan stated, his voice sounding somewhat depressed.
“Oh come on, there has to be some more things for you around here to do. And besides, you know that if you ever wanted to run any kind of of experiment thingy, you could have asked me and I would have done it!” Lily said defensively, trying to cheer him up somewhat. She still did not understand fully why he was this bored, but she was getting a better and better idea of it.
“That would have been great six months ago, but both you and I know that the Gary has not been admitting anything different for the last six months.”
“Uh...Gary? Did I miss something?” Lily asked, quite confused. Who the hell was Gary? Had he gone nuts in the last five minutes?
“Oh...I kinda forgot to mention it, I renamed the black hole Gary.” He said with no tone of sarcasm, leading to a very confused Lily.
“Uh..Ok? Why?”
“Because after nearly a year and a half of saying NC1-589, I got bored of it and decided to come up with a nickname for it.”
“And your first choice is...Gary?”
“Shush you, I was bored and could not think of anything else.” He said, a little bit annoyed. He was back to trying to get the internet back up. Lily walked over to where he was working, and leaned next to him.
“I mean, could you have at least named it something cooler?” She said in a teasing voice. Logan turned around and looked at her.
“What do you mean by a cooler name! Gary is a great name for a black hole! Why, what would the great and powerful Lily have named it?” Lily thought about this for a second, before coming out with about one thousand different names.
“Well...Ethereal, James, flower, Rose, Requiem, Dreamscape, Cerberus.. I like Requiem the best out of them, it sounds pretty.” Lily said, only naming a view of the massive list that she had come up with.
“Requiem...I like it, but I will still call it Gary.” Logan said with a sly grin on his face, earning himself a ‘punch’ in the shoulder. They both looked at each other before bursting out laughing for no reason whatsoever.
“Well then. I believe that I am going to go and try to find something to do for the next seven hours! As much as I love debating you with what to call the black hole, I can’t really do that for seven hours, even though you could probably. See you later.” And with that, he turned around, and stepped into the elevator, and began to descend into a deeper part of the station.
Lily sighed, before turning off her physical form and began working once again. She felt bad for the guy. She knew humans, like some AI, needed to have contact with other people or they would slowly begin to get unstable over a large amount of time. She tried her best to keep him happy and somewhat entertained, and that worked rather well. The two of them had gotten along great the moment that they had met each other. He treated her like a real person, not that she was not real in the first place, and thus she looked out for him like a sister.
Well...I guess that it’s time to go back to what I was doing before hand.
I wonder if I should tell him that I got the internet back up...
Nah, let the boy play with his space toys, besides, I have very important things to do, things that no one else can...
Oh my gosh...That kitten is soooo cute!
Meanwhile, it has been nearly two weeks in Equestria since Spitfire had gotten that fateful letter, and now the show was only a day away. To say that both teams were nervous was an understatement to say the least, but both teams were not exactly nervous about the exact same thing...
Wonderbolt HQ
Twenty four hours until the show begins
Spitfire could not stop pacing around her office. It was nearing 7:30 PM, and the Shadowbolts show was now only one full day away. One full day until her team's future could be decided, and along with that, the risk that the plan they had spent nearly a full week perfecting could backfire, or worse even, they very low chance that they would get caught doing it, but even if they did, it was not even that bad considering the insult that they had been dealt.
“Urgh...I need a drink, or multiple drinks.” Spitfire groaned as she put her down on her desk. trying to stop herself from overthinking, but to no use. She leaned back up, before opening a secret drawer on her desk, taking out a flask of whisky and taking a small shot of it.
It did absolutely nothing but make her a little bit warmer inside. She groaned once again, putting her drink back before putting her head back down on the desk, thoughts racing through her mind.
Why did I come up with this stupid plan?
Uh..To get back at the Shadowbolts?
No shit, but what if it goes wrong?
What if the sky falls? What if a fucking meteor crashes into this place? You know that you can’t live a life if if comes up every other sentence.
Of course I know that, but this matters. Perhaps I should go and ask the team if we should call if off, and donate the tickets like Fire suggested.
Then go and do that, but don’t sit here and try to answer all your questions. If it will make you feel better, then do it.
“And now I am arguing with myself, this is just fantastic.” She said, her head still down on the desk.
I need to do something to take my mind off all of this...
Then she remembered what was in the other drawer of her desk, that was kept under lock and key. She quickly stood up, before opening the door and peeking outside, making sure the coast was clear. She quickly closed the door again, before putting shutting the windows and putting down the blinds, turning her office into a mini fortress .
She took the key that was tapped to the underside of the desk, and slid it into the lock on the drawer, opening it with a small pop. She quickly put her head up, making sure that no one was in the room, not even a ghost. Feeling rather safe, she took the object inside of the drawer and slid it into the dvd slot on her television.
She turned the volume down until she could barely hear it, having left her headphones in her room. She got the remote and quickly turned on the video, before leaning back in her chair, ready to enjoy her own secret pleasure.
“Space: the final frontier. These are the voyages of the-”
‘Hey Spits! Want to come with me and-” Soarin called, opening the unlocked door to the office and walking inside, not knowing what was about to happen.
“AHHH!” Spitfire screamed, falling out of her chair in a full blown panic attack, her arms and legs flailing about, trying to get some sort of balance, before smacking her head onto the carpeted floor below.
Owwwww...
Shit shit shit shtit, turn off the TV!
She fumbled around the floor, trying to find the remote to turn the tv off, but she could not seem to find it.
Where is the remote!!!!
She felt something under her, before reaching and grabbing the remote that she had been sitting on. She turned off the TV, before jumping up to look at the confused looking Soarin. Her shirt was wrinkled, and she had a massive blush on her face.
“What in the name of Celestia did I just witness?” Soarin asked, trying to hold in laughs.
“Nothing, nothing at all.” Spitfire lied, her face getting redder by the second.
Oh fuck, I knew this was a mistake...Calm down Spits, maybe he didn't see-
“Oh really? Spits...Were you watching what I think you were watching?” Soarin asked, a grin on his face. Spitfire was blushing so hard that she had the same color as a tomato.
“Soarin, I swear to Celestia if you say what I think you are about to say, I am going to cut you open and incinerate you.” Spitfire hissed out through clenched teeth, her wings spread out to their fullest.
“Relax Spits, I was just joking around. Sorry about interrupting your...fun, but I was going to ask if you want to come with me, Fleet, Wave Chill and Misty to go get something to eat at the Winged Eagle?” Soarin asked, his stomach rumbling in agreement. Spitfire was taken off by the sudden change in conversation, but was happy that she did not have to go into any details about what just happened.
“Sure, I would love to go! When are we leaving?” Spitfire said in a happy tone, her own stomach rumbling as well. She had been so focused and stressed this entire day that she had forgotten to eat at all.
“In about five minutes, we’ll meet ya in the lobby.” Soarin said before leaving the room, leaving the door open. Spitfire quickly grabbed the DVD from the player and slid it back into its case, before locking it back up in the drawer. After putting her chair back up, she walked out of her office and towards the lobby, before remembering to go and grab a jacket. After she was settled, she walked out into the lobby, where she was greeted by her friends.
“You guys ready to go?”
“Of course we are, why the hell would we be standing out here if we weren’t?” Wave Chill responded in a sarcastic tone, drawing another glare from Fleet.
“Going to take that as a yes...Last one there gets the bill!” Spitfire called as she zoomed outside, followed by the rest of her team.
Maybe tomorrow won’t be that bad...
Shadowbolts HQ
Twenty four hours until the show begins
“Watch out!” Starry yelled as loud as she could, trying to catch Chargers attention, trying to grab his attention due to the diving Blueball Blitz heading right for him. She yelled the message several times, finally catching this attention, but sadly it was way too late. She grimaced as she watched Blitz slam into Charger, knocking them both out of the sky.
The rest of the team turned around and dove after the two falling members, catching them and landing on a cloud, trying to catch their breath. Nightshade was the first to catch it, and she used it to yell.
“What in the name of tartarus was that? ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND BLITZ?” Nightshade yelled, grabbing Blitz and shaker her. Blitz only laughed, a massive grin on her face
“What? I thought he looked like a butterfly and I wanted to hug him!” She said happily, an insane look on her face. Nightshade could only facepalm at her slightly broken friend. She suddenly remembered that she had hit Charger, and turned around to make sure he was alright.
Starry was tending to Charger, making sure that nothing was broken. After a quick checkup, she sighed in relief.
“Nothing is broken, he’s fine. Right man?” She turned toward Charger, who was looking a bit dazed.
“Fine Cap, just a bit scrambled up. Nothing to worry about.” He said, a weak smile on his face.
“You sure? The last thing we need is for you to get hurt one day before the show that will change everything?” Nightshade said, stressing the change everything part. The entire team knew how much rided on the show, and someone getting hurt one day beforehand would pretty much cancel the show.
“Cap, with all due respect, we have been practicing all day, maybe it is time to call it quits for the day?” Stratus asked, trying to use the most professional tone he could. Nightshade turned around and faced him, drawing a sweat from Stratus. His body was telling him to fly away very fast, but he could not move.
“You know what...That is a tough call, we should let the rookie call this one.” Nightshade spoke in a dead serious tone, looking with the rest of the team over to the Shadowbolts rookie, catching their breath on the other side of the cloud.
“What do you say rookie? Should we practice for another hour, or should we head back and get some shuteye and dinner? Your call.” Nightshade asked, waiting to see what her response would be. She pretty much already knew the answer, giving the rookies past on this matter.
The rookie thought about it for a moment, considering their options. On one hand, going home and having something to eat and getting some shut eye would be great, but the extra practice would be so much better for the team.
“Ma’am, I am going to have to say that we should practice for the extra time allowed to improve our performance for the show tomorrow!” The rookie said proudly, sounding very professional with her choice. Status and Starry moaned before collapsing onto the cloud, while Charger and Blitz just looked at each other. Nightshade had a smile on her lips, already knowing that this was going to happen.
“Well, you heard the rookie! All of you, we are going to rehearse the Entire show one more time, and it better be DAMN GOOD!” Nightshade barked, drawing moans once again from the group, spare Blitz and the Rookie.
This was going to be a long night...
Two hours later
The door to the Shadowbolts Mansion opened very slowly, before Starry and Charger collapsed onto the front porch, refusing to get up. An exhausted looking Stratus and Nightshade looked at their collapsed friends laying on the carpet of the mansion.
“That was a fucking workout, even for us.” Stratus said, breathing quite heavily, sweat running down his face.
“I know what you mean, I thought it was going to be somewhat easier, but sweet Celestia.” Nightshade gasped out, trying to catch her own breath. She looked down and heard snoring coming from the two members knocked out cold on the floor. She looked at Stratus, the same thought on their minds.
“Well...Should we just leave them out here? I really don’t want to fucking take them up two flights of stairs to their rooms, or I might go and join them on the way there...” Stratus said, trying not to fall asleep standing up.
“I agree with you there, maybe we should just leave them here...Or, hey Blitz! Come over here!” Nightshade called to the still awake member of the Shadowbolts, who was currently jumping around outside. She raced in, before stopping inches in front of Nightshades face.
“What can I do for ya?” She said eagerly, literally bouncing up and down with energy.
“Take these two up to their rooms will ya, we’ll be up there shortly. Can you handle tha-” She was cut off by Blitz lifting up Charger and zooming upstairs, before zooming back down and grabbing Starry and carrying her upstairs as well.
“How the...You know what, fuck this. I am going to bed, see you Status.” Nightshade said, slowly walking upstairs and into her master bedroom, before getting under the blankets and falling asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.
Meanwhile on the Deep space station
The elevator door opened with a happy ding, and Logan stepped out of the elevator, watching the doors close followed by the zip of the elevator going back up. Logan turned back around, and looked at the T shaped intersection he had arrived at.
He was in the bottom part of the space station according to the levels, but it could be the top if you were upside down or coming in from another line of approach.
Down here, there was only three places you could really go. If you went straight, you would arrive at the Type 500Y Fusion reactor, the powersource that made this entire place run. It was about the size of a small hover car, and gave off surprising amount of power considering its size. The only real thing he could do in there was make sure the automated system was working fine, but that would only really take around ten minutes to do.
On the other hand, if he went to the right passage, he would eventually end up in the stations living quarters, otherwise known as the place where he slept, ate, and tried to do things to occupy his mind while trying not to go insane with boredom.
So, he spent a lot of time in there in other words.
And finally, the passage on the left led to the hangar and cargo bays. The cargo bay was where the unmanned ship that tried to supply the entire station came in. It usually had some more scientific equipment he and Lily had ordered, along with some supplies to help keep the station maintained that they could not make themselves, and finally, where the ‘food’, if you could call it that, and the drinks came in.
And the other one, the other one was where one of the most advanced ships of its size currently available for purchase outside of the military sat. It was his one of his most prized possessions, as when he got done with this job in another year, he got to keep the beauty. That alone, along with Lily, were some of the only that reasons he did not go and quit suddenly.
“Alright then...What the hell am I going to do for the next seven hours?” He said out loud, unable to decide what to do. The reactor thing was out of the question, so that only left going around and fucking around in his house if you could call it that, or going and seeing his baby in the hanger. Due to his job sadly, he had very limited times that he could actually go and fly the thing outside, due to Gary. The last thing he wanted to do was to suddenly get sucked into it sometime, that would be one hell of a death.
“Decisions decisions...I have no idea what I want to do...Fuck it, off to the hanger for a bit, then I’ll head over to the house and see if the internet is back!” He said happily, before running off to the left passage, his feet pounding off the carpet covered hallway. He arrived at a gray door, which opened and allowed him to walk into an airlock.
The airlock consisted of two plasma barriers, operating so that one of them was always closed to prevent any chance of a breach happening. Covering the barriers so that no one could get a burn were two extremely lightweight, but nearly indestructible doors made of material that could pretty much be hit with an old fashion nuke and live to tell the tale. The door opened with a small wizz, allowing him to enter the hangar bay.
“Oh there you are my beauty...” Logan breathed out, looking in awe at the beautiful ship in front of him that took up a good portion of the bay.
The ship was shaped in the classic design that the Halsey Division was famous for. The idea came from the ancient jet fighters from old, with two wings on either side of the ship, with them going down at a 25 degree angle, giving it a swept look. The hull was shaped like an arrow, with the cockpit being positioned where the end of the ‘arrow head’ would meet the hull. It was a dull gray, due to the color not really being a priority, as the paint would sometime interfere with the hull plating.
It was equipped with the latest technology, such as a brand new type of tunneling drive, Antiproton engines, and a backup solar sail in case of a breakdown. The hull was made of the same material as the doors, bouncing off cosmic rays and blocking a great deal of the background radiation that existed in space. It was made of carbon nanotubes, combined with a super lightweight alloy, then compressed to insane amounts to form the material. You would have thought that something like that would be rigid and straight, but in reality, it was as flexible and as smooth as silk.
It was all in all around 50 meters long, and at its widest, around 20 meters long. The ship was absolutely sexy in Logans eye, as with most other humans, and even some AI. Logan walked over to the rear of the ship, and unlocked, dropping a small ramp that allowed access to the interior. As he was about to walk in, a sudden humming noise appeared, then shortly stopped. He turned around to see nothing. Shrugging it off, he turned back to go up the ramp when suddenly.
“Boo!”
“SON OF A BIT-” Logan yelled, losing his balance and rolling off the ramp. stopping when he hit the metal floor of the hanger. After laying there for a bit, he heard the sound of someone laughing like there was no tomorrow. He looked up to see Lily literally rolling on the floor laughing, tears flowing from her eyes
“HAHAHAHA! The look on your face!” She kept going and going, laughing like she was about to die. Logan cracked a smile, before joining her in laughing.
In a matter of moments, both of them were laughing their asses off, before they suddenly began to stop laughing.
“Lily, that was mean.” Logan said with a smile on his face, looking at Lily who had just managed to get off the floor.
“I know! But really, the face you made...” She sniffled, nearly starting to laugh again.
‘Lily, I hate you so much.”
“Oh shut up, you know you love me.” She joked, coming over and giving him a slight punch in the arm.
“So, what are you doing down here? Never seen you here before.” Logan asked, wondering why she was down here.
“Eh, I got bored watching cat videos, I mean working, and decided to come down here and check this place out.” She replied, looking around the hanger, admiring it.
“Oh, okay? That is kinda odd, but I guess-” He was cut off by the entire station suddenly shaking, knocking him off his feet once again. He could hear the groans of the stations skeleton groaning, trying to keep itself intact. From the books he had read, he would have described it as an earthquake. He looked over to see Lily flickering, her image frozen with a very odd look on her face.
Suddenly, some of the ceiling panels fell down, crashing onto the floor below. And suddenly, it was all quiet, like nothing had ever happened. He looked over to see Lilys image, still stuck in the same position.
“What the absolute fuck just happened? Lily, are you alright?” He asked, waiting for a reply, but none came. He walked up and slowly walked towards the frozen image.
“Lily? Hey, are you alright?” Suddenly, the image un-froze and Lily began coughing heavily. She suddenly lurched forward, surprising Logan as he caught her. He had never seen her like this, and he was scared for her.
“Lily, Lily! What's wrong?” Logan said, still holding up the coughing AI. She coughed several more times, before standing back up. She had a look of pure horror on her face, something that shook Logan to his core.
“Logan, you have to come up to the command center now. I’ll meet you up their.” She said this with a tone of dead seriousness. She suddenly disappeared, so Logan guessed he was off to the bridge. He looked at his beauty, before running out of the hanger and into the hallway, his footsteps pounding off the carpet.
He arrived at the intersection with the elevator. He ran up and called the elevator down, before another massive round of shaking knocked him off his feet, slamming him into the wall. He could hear the station groaning again, as though a giant monster was trying to tear it apart. The rumbling slowly stopped, before the ding of the elevator echoed around. All of a sudden, the entire stations lights suddenly began flickering, then stopped working altogether . Emergency lights lit up, casting the hallway in an eerie red glow. He looked at the chaos surrounding him, before stepping into the elevator and zipping up into the control room. The doors opened up and he walked in on hell on earth.
Nearly every alarm that could be on was on, even the ones that he did not know could go off. And the sound, it sounded like an entire parking lot of hover cars decided to go nuts trying to conduct an orchestra.
“Lily, what the hell is happening?” Logan yelled, trying to get his voice heard over the insane noise.
“Something very very very bad!” Lilys voice answered back, her physical form not on. The station suddenly rocked back and forth again, forcing logan to grab onto on of the consoles.
“And that would be!?” Logan yelled, hanging on for dear life.
“I have no idea, never seen anything like this. It’s as if the black hole is...exploding!? What the hell!” Lily yelled, her voice in absolute disbelief.
‘I’m sorry, GARY IS GOING TO EXPLODE!?” Logan yelled in disbelief, knowing that this must be breaking one of the laws of physics
“Logan, we have to get out of here. If my calculations are correct, which they never aren't, then this entire sector is going to go bye bye very fast!” Lily said, panic very clear in her voice.
“Alright! Let me-” The station suddenly shook like it had been hit with an AntiMatter bomb, knocking out all the lights, and sending Logan flying into a console. Most of the alarms stopped, leaving only a couple ones. And one of them was the evacuation alarm, also known as the get the fuck out of here alarm.
“Lily! We have to get out of here!” Logan yelled as he opened up a closet, and very quickly putting on his evac suit. It was made of the same material as the ship and the door, and was built in with features to survive falling and landing onto a planet.
“Logan! Take me with you, PLEASE! I DON’T WANT TO DIE!” Lily answered back, her voice filled with fear and panic.
“Of course I am! Do you really think I would leave you here to die!?” He yelled back, diving under a console and taking out the emergency AI storage device. It was an object the size of a watch, and it contained a hologram projector, and a place where an AI could live for quite a while. He put the object in his pocket, before connecting it to his neural net in this suit.
“Lily! Are you alright?” He said, waiting for a response.
“Yes! I’m fine, now get the hell out of dodge!” She answered back, some of the panic gone in her voice. Logan did not even bother responding, running towards the elevator and stepping inside. The doors shut, and they zoomed down to the lower levels. Somehow, the elevator still worked and they arrived into a scene of chaos.
The entire right section was engulfed in fire, and the hallway to the reactor was filled with debris He looked to the left, and saw that there was a small opening to get to the hangar bay.
He jumped over some debris, before running into the airlock. The plasma barriers were down, so there must have been a failure in the station reactor, which usually meant something bad was going to happen. The doors however, were still intact, but they were not opening.
“Shit!” Logan cursed, before remembering how light doors were. He gripped both of his hands on the door, and pushed, pulling the doors apart. He did it one the other ones too, gaining access to the hangar bay, or rather what was left of the hangar bay.
The cargo section of the bay was gone, leaving just a gaping hole. The atmosphere was contained by a working plasma barrier, containing the atmosphere, but not for long. He ran over to the ship, opening up the back door and running in, closing it on his way out. He ran to the very front of the ship, and sat down in the cockpit.
“Lily, I am going to give you access to the tunneling drive! Can you set a course to jump us out?” Logan yelled, firing up the engines to the ship and turning on most of the other systems.
“Yeah, just get us the hell out of here!” Lily said, accessing the computer system and begging the calculations for a jump. Logan wasted no time, piloting the ship up and out of the hanger into space.
Logan finally got a chance to look at the station, and he was greeted with a view. One side of the station had some massive holes in it, with the wreckage of the station floating around in space. He then turned around, and looked at the now swirling ball that was where the black hole used to be. It looked like a sun, but much much smaller and with small jets of energy spiking out of it.
Thats when he noticed the massive amount of something heading right towards the ship, and he nearly jumped out of his seat in surprise.
“LILY, ARE THE COORDINATES SET??” He yelled, still staring at the mega wave of energy heading towards the ship.
“YES, JUMP JUMP JUMP!” She yelled back, her voice filled with panic once again. He slammed his hand down on the button, and at the same time the wave hit him.
A massive force slammed into him, and suddenly the entire view glowed white. And all was quiet...
The birds chirped, the sun shone, and people began their day.
Thud
And Spitfire fell out of her bed with a nasty hangover.
“Uhhhh.” She moaned, covering her head with her hands. Her head pounded with the intensity of a small marching band.
“That was not smart Spits. Oh that was not smart...Uhhhhh,” she groaned, climbing back onto her bed and going into the fetal position under the covers. She felt like she had been hit with a baseball bat a dozen or so times She stayed under the covers, mumbling and complaining while trying to go back to bed.
Knock knock knock
Spitfire mumbled some more, then turned around and put a pillow over her head to try to stop the sound of the knocking.
“Spits, you alive in there?” A voice asked outside the door. The person sounded like they were right next to her, screaming in her ear.
“Hello? Spits, are you dead? Am I going to have to deal with a zombie?” The person asked in a joking tone. Spitfire responded by moaning again, trying to go back to sleep.
“Well, everyone sent me up here to wake you up, so ready or not, I’m coming in.” The voice said, opening the door. Spitfire grabbed a pillow, before flinging it where she thought the door was. She heard a small thud as the pillow slammed into something, hopefully the person trying to wake her up.
“Uh, why did you throw a pillow at your window?” The person asked again, a confused tone in their voice.
“I was trying to hit you, whoever you are. You woke me up!” Spitfire groaned, sitting up in her bed. Her eyes began to focus, trying to see who it was that woke her up. She slowly began to see the person, then laughed a bit.
“Sweet Celestia, how drunk did I get last night, Fleet?” She asked, looking around at her slightly trashed room. Fleet walked over at sat next to Spitfire, looking around at the messy room.
“Uh...To be honest, you only had like a couple of shots. You were fine when you got home, then you walked up and here and went to sleep.” Fleet said, recounting the events of last night. Spitfire was surprised by this, usually she could handle alcohol pretty well, and a couple of shots never gave her this much of a hangover.
“You said something about coming to wake me up, right?” She said, still feeling pretty crappy.
“Yeah, when we all woke up and found that you were still asleep at around noon, the team sent me up here to make sure you were alive.” Fleet responded.
“How nice of them...Say, do you something in your arsenal of Anti-Hangover supplies to get rid of this damn one?” Spitfire stated, her head still pounding less hard. Fleet turned and laughed a bit.
“Yeah, I should have something to fix it. Get up and follow me down to the cafe.” She said, standing up and grabbing a robe for her friend. She walked back over and helped her out of the bed, before being slapped away.
“I am not eighty years old yet, I can put on a robe for Lunas sake.” She said rather grumpily, in which Fleet just laughed a bit.
“Alright then, see you in the cafe Spits. Oh, and you have the robe on backwards by the way.” She pointed out, snickering as she walked out of the room and shutting the door. Spitfire looked down and sure enough, her robe as on backwards.
“I knew that..Damn it Fleet.” She mumbled under her breath as she fixed her robe and got up, before nearly falling over as a sudden wave of dizziness took over. She sat back down on the bed, waiting for the wave of if to pass.
“The fuck did I drink last night?” She said as she managed to stand up, before taking baby steps to the door. She reached the door and opened it, stepping out into the hallway. She slowly walked down the hallway, hearing some commotion down in the cafe. She reached the staircase, and put her foot out before misstepping and nearly falling down the entire staircase, only stopping herself by grabbing onto one of the side rails and hanging on for dear life.
“Easy Spits, easy. If you can be the Captain of the Wonderbolts, you can go down a flight of stairs.” She slowly got her balance back, before stepping very carefully on the next one, before repeating the pattern again.
“Ok, I think I got the hang of this. Of course I do, it’s stairs!” She said as she stepped down once again in the same manner, then another, and another before reaching the flat middle ground of the staircase. She could see the floor of the cafe, and the commotion of her friends. She took another careful step, not wanting to mess it up this close to being done, and right in front of them. She took another step, and another, before getting confident enough to take a big step, missing, and falling down four steps and landing on the cafe floor.
“The hell was that?” She heard someone call, followed by the sound of chairs moving.
“Uh Spits, why are you laying down?” Soarin said, sounding a bit confused.
“I’m admiring the floor! No really, I fell down some stairs, now could someone help me up?” Spits said, her cheeks red with embarrassment.
“Ohhh, that what that noise was. How did you fall down the stairs anyway?” Soarin asked again, chuckling a bit.
“I fucking teleported Soarin, now please get me up before I kick you in a place you don’t want to be kicked.” Spitfire growled, not in a mood right now to joke around. Soarin knew she wasn’t joking, so he went and picked her up, helping her to her feet.
“Thanks.” Spitfire acknowledged, regaining her balance again.
“Sweet Celestia, Spits, are you sick?” Blaze asked, walking over with the rest of the team to come and make sure she was okay, and to maybe get some laughs in.
“I feel like it, this is the worst hangover I have ever had.”
“We can see that. Fleet, get over here with that witch doctor cure of yours.” Misty called, turning her head to see Fleet standing by a table, stirring something into a cup.
“How bad do I look?” Spitfire asked, a worried tone in her voice.
“Take a look for yourself.” Misty replied, turning a mirror around. Spitfire gasped at the reflection that she saw. It was her alright, the fire like hair always gave it away. But her face looked like someone that should belong in the Hospital, or in her teams case, their Care Center two floors below them. Her eyes were bloodshot, and her face looked as if she just flew to Baltimore and back six times.
“Uh...FLEET! HURRY YOUR ASS UP!” Spitfire yelled, wanting that cure more than anything else in the world right now, even more than getting back at the Shadowbolts, but not by much.
“I’m going as fast as I can! There! Done, now wait a second.” Fleet yelled back, getting up and speed walking over to her, carrying a cup of something. Spitfire looked at the cup, and reached back at the smell, along with the team/
‘What the hell do you have in that? Why does it smell like the locker room on a bad day?” Spitfire asked, covering her nose with her hand.
“Do you want to keep feeling like shit? No, then DRINK it!” Fleet yelled back, feeling slightly offended. Spitfire cursed under her breach, before grabbing the cub and gulping it down. It tasted nearly as bad as it smelled, nearly throwing up twice while trying to drink it.
“I swear, if this fails Fleet, I am going to hide a fish in your room.” Spitfire growled, trying to think about something else than the horrible taste.
“It ain’t going to fail. Do you really think I would give you something that nasty if it didn't work? Maybe to Soarin yes, but not to you.” Fleet said, getting a laugh from the team. She and Soarin had been having a prank war since they had joined, and it was probably never going to end.
“True. Hey, this might be working. I feel a little bit less hungover.” Spitfire said, a smile on her face. She was starting to feel a bit better., and that was getting better and better by the second.
“Fleet, your room is safe from Fish for a long time now.”
“Told you it would work. If there is one thing I know how to do, it’s how to get rid of hangovers.” Fleet said, laughing a bit. Spitfire laughed as well, before standing up and slowly walking down towards the nearest chair, sitting down and letting the drink do its thing.
“So, did I miss anything?” Spitfire asked, yawning a bit. The rest of the team had come back over and were sitting around again.
“Not much, just making sure everyone has the plan down and set.” Blaze said, taking a bite out of a blueberry bagel.
“Alright, does everyone have it down?” Spitfire asked, getting the response of everyone having their hands up.
“Good, then let’s let the Shadowbolts know that we are, and will be the best team!” Blaze said happily, getting some cheers from everyone else, save Spitfire. For some reason, a reason she couldn't put a finger on, she knew that the plan they had was going to be overshadowed by something else.
Shadowbolts HQ
Twelve hours till the show
The birds chirped, the sun shone, and people began their day.
And Nightshade walked out of her room feeling more nervous and excited then she had ever been. Today was the day, when all of her and her teams hard work and planning would finally pay off.
She closed the door to her room, before looking at herself in one of the mirrors in the hallway. She looked as always, nice and for how hard she worked last night, she did not look tired at all. Her slender body was its usual tone, and she thought she looked good, as did quite a lot of people, although good is not what they would use. Smoking hot would be the more accurate one, but she prefered the term smoking cold.
After admiring her image for a bit, she walked down the stairs, not flying to conserve her energy incase anything out of the ordinary happened. She walked in with the full team, rookie in tow, eating a light breakfast.
“Morning Captain, want something to eat?” Charger asked, moving a chair out so that she could sit down.
“Sure.” She said happily, taking a seat. Charger got up and came back with another small fruit bowl, which she accepted with a thanks. She took a fork and began eating it.
“Captain, I would like to talk to you about something please!” The rookie said, her voice in her usual tone. Nightshade raised her eyebrows at this.
“Go ahead, also, where were you last night? I don’t remember you coming back here with us.” Nightshade remembered, the thought just now crossing her mind,
‘Hey, she’s right! Where were you last night rookie?” Blitz said, her eyes narrowing in suspicion. The rest of the team turned and looked at the rookie, a bit curious.
‘Well Ma’am, I went to a...restaurant afterwards, but I heard something-” She was cut off by Nightshade raising her hand, motioning her to stop.
“You went to a restaurant? After that hell of a practice? I’m impressed, but keep going.’ She said to the rookie, honestly impressed with her stamina.
‘Thank you Ma’am, but that is not why I am telling you this, When I went there, she and her sorry excuse for a team where th-” She was cut off by Nightshade standing up and leaning over the table.
“You saw her ?” She said in a venomous tone, looking at the rookie with a stare that made her begin to sweat. The rest of the team backed up a bit, trying not to be in the blast zone.
“Y...Yes Ma...Ma’am. She and her friends were drinking at the bar, and I heard something.” The rookie stuttered out, feeling very small at the moment.
“What did you hear?” Nightshade said in the same tone, leaning even more forwards. The entire table was silent, even Blitz. The rookie gulped before continuing.
“I didn't hear that much due to the noise, but I heard some snips about a plan and attending something today. That’s all Ma’am.” The entire table was at a silence, waiting for Nightshades response, but none came. She just stood up, and calmly put her bowl in the sink, before turning around and facing the group.
“Rookie, thank you a lot for this information. So...The great Spitfire is planning something and it has to do with attending an Event...I wonder what that would be.” She said, her voice barely above as whisper as thoughts raced in her mind.
“Why does that not surprise me? I mean really, we get our little revenge and get our first major opening, and of course she has to come in and try to have the last laugh, like always.That little bitch, but what kind of plan would it be?” She asked out loud to her team, not knowing the answer herself.
“Captain, we both know that if she tries to pull something, she and her team, which I am guessing will show up, will be kicked out. We all know the rules, remember two years ago?” Starry said, recalling with the rest of the team, save the rookie, remember the incident that happened two years ago.
“I know this Starry, and I know for a fact she knows it as well, and that is what is bothering me. She won’t do anything stupid to jeopardize her precious team, so I’m guessing that it won’t be something very obvious at all.’ She said in a cold, calculating voice. Her thoughts were interrupted by Blitz laughing. She turned around, as well as everyone else, to see her laughing like there was no tomorrow.
“Silly Nightshade, they won’t be able to get the plan done tomorrow.” She said with a massive grin on her face.
‘What do you mean?” Nightshade said, looking right at her crazy eyes. Blitz just laughed again, making the rookie a bit scared.
“Something is going to happen that is going to make her little plan tiny compared to it.” She said, stopping her laughter by humming.
‘What is going to happen??” Nightshade said, walking over to Blitz and pulling her up, looking right at her. Blitz just laughed again, angering Nightshade.
“Something that is going to change the world forever! Or maybe not... Heh, I don’t know, we’ll have to find out!” She said, laughing again as Nightshade let go of her, The entire team was in silence, not knowing what to believe.
“Uh Captain, I am the only one worried a bit about this? I mean, she has said shit like this before and it’s come true, creepy enough.” Charger said, knowing what the team was thinking, save the rookie.
“I know, but we have to put that aside. In less than 12 hours, we are going to put on the best damn show the world has ever seen, and nothing is going to get in our way. Not the Wonderbolts, not even Discord. Hell, not even an alien is going to get in our way!” She said proudly, drawing a cheer from the entire team. The thought of an alien suddenly arriving at their show was a funny one. Nightshade chuckled a bit at that thought.
“So,beyond what just happened, here is the schedule for today, so listen up good. We are going to be leaving at Noon precisely, so you guys have around two hours to go and do what you want, but you have to stay here, and no flying. You all know the rules.” Nightshade said in full order mode. The team listened to every word she said, not wanting to anger her, even if she had calmed down alot.
“After we arrive, we all have two hour to unload our stuff, eat some food and do some stretches. At 2:30, we are going to do a very light warm up, nothing like last night don’t worry. That should last for around an hour and a half. Then at four, You guys have around two hours until the people begin arriving for the show, so basically try to chill. At 6:15, we suit up and go over the show again, then at seven, it’s showtime!” She said proudly, determined not to let anything get in her team's way. She snickered again at the alien thought, for some reason she couldn't get it out of her head.
In fact, she would never get it out of her head...
Meanwhile, the rest of the team high fived each other and got pumped up for the show. However, something else was on the rookies mind entirely. Most of it was relief, easing the worrying that had been building that Nightshade would have asked if the rookie had stayed, or gone home after seeing them, because the rookie most certainly did not.
The rookie probably held the next biggest grudge, maybe even the biggest due to Nightshades history with them was rather murky as best, at the Wonderbolts, and at the bitch Spitfire. After all, the rookies whole dream had been ruined for the most part by her.
So when the rookie saw her and her friends get up to go talk to some fans, the rookie wasted little time in adding something special to her drink and her alone. The rest of them were not the rookies time to fuck with, they would get more than their share later.
It brought a smile to the rookies face as they pictured Spitfire waking up, stumbling around drunker than a newborn baby. And since it would last for at least twenty four hours, her and her plan would be taken out as well. Like the old saying goes, hitting two birds with one stone, or drug in that matter.
And it was only the beginning of the whole deal...
Wonderbolts HQ
Two hours till the show starts
Spitfire was standing on the balcony in her room, looking up at the great city of Cloudsdale that was her home. Memories were coming back to her, some great that made her heart sore, and some terrible that made her heart ache, and she had no idea why they were coming up.
“Hey Spits, were thinking of leaving a bit early to get everything set up.” Fleet asked, suddenly hoovering up onto the balcony, joining her.
“Alright, give me a minute to do some stuff and I’ll join you guys in a minute.”
“Deal, see you out front in a bit.” Fleet said as she took flight again, disappearing from view.
Spitfire kept staring outside, more zoning out than actually thinking about something, She could not seem to concentrate on one thing in particular, something very odd for her.
“Woah, zoned out there for a second.” She suddenly said out loud, remembering that she had to go out and meet the team. She quickly looked at herself in a mirror. After deciding that she looked good as always, she walked out her door and arrived at the front of the Wonderbolts HQ a few moments later, where the rest of the team was gathered.
“You guys ready to go?” Spitfire asked, already knowing the answer. They all replied with some sort of yes, some more excited than others.
‘Everybody have the supplies for our little revenge?” Spitfire said, going through the necessary questions. The members with several small objects replied back, letting her know that they had them.
“Alright, final check. Do you have the tickets?” Everyone looked at each other, and Spitfire facepalmed. Oh you have got to be kidding me
“I think Blaze has them.” Someone said, drawing agreements from several people in the crowd.
“I can assure you, Blaze does not have the tickets. I had them at first, then I gave them to Fleet.” Blaze retorted, getting several that’s right and I knew that.
“Uh, I don’t have the tickets. And you never gave them to me, I think. Yeah, pretty sure you never gave them to me.” Fleet fired back, the crowd responding again.
“You think? Woman, I gave them to you in a sealed envelope. You went and put it in your sock drawer to keep it save.” Blaze stated, the tone of her voice changing slightly.
“Da hell you calling ‘woman’? And I can tell you for sure that I don’t keep stuff like that in my sock drawer, I’m not twelve.” Fleet argued back, getting closer to Blaze.
“I’m calling you ‘woman’ due to the fact that you are a woman last time I checked. And I gave those tickets to you, and I saw you put them in your sock drawer.” Blaze said back, getting closer to Fleet.
“What are you not getting firebrain! I never got the tickets and I never put them in my sock drawer!” Fleet said, practically yelling now.
“The hell you calling firebrain? And even if you did not put the tickets in your drawer, I still gave you the tickets Coldheart!”
The two of them stared daggers at each other, waiting for the other to say something more. Misty leaned over and whispered into Spitfires ear.
“Should we do something about this?”
“Probably, but first we should find the tickets.Then we can stop them from killing each other.” Spitfire whispered back, looking back to the standoff still going on.
“Uh Fleet...” Fire Streak said, moving towards the standoff.
“Kinda busy right now, but what?”
“I have the tickets in my pocket right now...” Everyone turned to look, even Blaze and Fleet, at Fire who was slowly backing up, an envelope in his right hand.
“How the hell did you get those?” Fleet asked, walking over to Fire and taking the envelope, making sure that all the tickets were there, which they were.
“I found them under a table in the kitchen. No idea how they got there, so don’t bring me into this.” Fire said, grabbing the tickets back from Fleet who looked really embarrassed.
“Uh...I guess I owe you a sorry Blaze.” Fleet said with a sheepish grin on her face.
“No problem Fleet, and sorry for calling you Coldheart.” Blaze said back in a happy tone. They gave each other a smile before looking at Spitfire who was watching it with a smile on her face, an evil thought on her mind.
“You two would be a cute couple, just saying. Now, everyone, let’s go back to our stadium!” The team gave off a mighty cheer, save for Blaze and Fleet, who were now the color of tomatoes. The team took flight at the same time, flying up through the clouds and into the city of Cloudsdale itself.
Cloudsdale was the team favorite city, not due to most of them being born there, but to the relaxed attitude of the city. It was one of the very few places that flying teams could go, hang out like and be a regular person without being bothered every two minutes by a fan, which most teams didn't mind, but it did get very old pretty fast. The city treated you like pretty much any other person, albeit with some minor discounts, but that was pretty much it.
As the team flew threw the streets, they got several hellos and cheers by the people, but that was pretty much usual. As they neared the Aerodrome, Spitfire suddenly flew to a stop.
“What’s happening Spits?” Soarin said, hovering next to her as the team caught up. She simply went and pointed a finger at the Aerodrome, where a huge crowd of people were in line to get into the stadium. Shadowbolts posters hung up around the massive stadium, giving a very odd look.
“Sweet Celestia, that is huge crowd, even for us.” Soarin remarked as he looked in awe at the crowd. The rest of the team showed up and had similar reactions.
“Why are there so many people?” Fleet asked in shock as the team hovered.
“Uh, I think I found out. Look there.” Misty pointed at a small convoy of guards slowly moving towards the stadium due to people trying to talk to the person in the middle of it.
The Royal Princess of the Night, Luna had come to see her team's first performance, and that of course brought a lot of people with her, either on purpose or accident. And from what the team could see with the crowd, she was having the time of her life.
“This is going to put a kink in our plan, a royal kink.” Spitfire sadly said as she realised that with this size of a crowd and a Princess, they might have to call off the plan.
‘I have to agree with you on that, but let's first try to get into the stadium before the show starts.” Lighting Streak stated, surprisingly not that bothered by these turn of events. The team nodded, before flying close to the crowd to see if there was a VIP entrance for them, due to their tickets.
However, they did not make it that far. Someone called them out, and soon a lot of people were yelling at them to come down and sign something. But then, someone really called them down, someone you can’t really ignore.
“Hello Wonderbolts! I did not expect you all to be here! trying to at least try to hold people back. The team swooped down and hovered by Luna, who had a massive grin on her face, clearly enjoying herself.
“Hello Luna, how are you today?” Spitfire ask with a genuine tone, coming over and greeting the princess with a hug.
“I am doing quite well as you can see! I never would have guessed that you and your team would show up to this, granting your...relationship.” She stated, knowing Spitfires problem.
“Well, they did send us free tickets to a great spot, so we decided to say, screw it, let’s go!” Spitfire said sheepishly, not telling a full lie.
“Ah, that is quite unusual, as of the tradition, but I guess things change. Also, their is a VIP entrance open on the other side of the crowd, but my...lovely nephew decided to come with me, but he went in that way to avoid the ‘common’ folk.” She said with gritted teeth, giving the Wonderbolts a small warning. She also gave Spitfire a odd look, but she did not act on it.
“Thank you for the warning your Majesty, now we have to sadly leave you now. I hope you have fun!”
“Oh, you bet I will.” And with that, Luna went back to talking with people and the Wonderbolts flew off to the VIP entrance, a lot more on their minds. How could they have completely forgotten about Luna?
The team flew around the massive crowd, and somehow they either avoided the entire crowd, or simply the crowd really did not care. They saw a big banner that said ‘VIP and Suite Entrance’, with several Aerodrome employees standing around, looking rather angry. Their looks of anger quickly changed to looks of surprise as they saw the team fly down and land outside the gates, walking towards them.
“Uh...Is anyone else seeing what I am seeing.” One of the employees asked, wiping at his eyes.
“Thank Celestia I am not the only one. Why the hell are they here?” Another one asked, very confused. Fleetfoot walked up to him and handed him an envelope.
“Uh...Please forgive my forwardness, but why are you guys here? Aren't the Shadowbolts supposed to be your bitter rivals?” He said, opening up the envelope, and pulling out enough tickets for the entire team. He quickly went and called over the two other people with him.
“We have our reasons, can you guys let us in please?” Blaze said with a quiet voice, trying not to attract attention.
“Sure, sorry if I was intruding. Just go in and go up the right staircase to the top, then take a left and your box should be there. Hope you enjoy the show...I think.” He said rather awkwardly, opening the gate and allowing the team to enter. They flashed them smiles, to which they received some smiles as well.The Wonderbolts climbed up the posh wooden staircase that led up to the box level, passing several Canterlot nobility on the way up. Several of them tried to say something, but the team just kept moving along, not stopping for anything.
As they reached the top of the staircase, they were greeted by another gate with some more Aerodrome employees, who had similar reactions to the ones on the ground. They asked to see their ticket again, in which they handed over and were allowed to enter the box level once again.
“Huh, in all the times we’ve performed here, I don’t think I’ve ever been in one of these.” Lighting Streak thought out loud, getting some agreements from the team. They passed a room guarded by two of Lunas Night Guard, so they guessed that is where the princess was going to be. They went down several more boxes before coming to box number thirteen.
“Box thirteen, here we go.” Spitfire said as she took the key out of her pocket and inserted it into the keyhole It opened with a click and the team walked inside.
“Wow, this is pretty nice.” Soarin remarked as he admired the fully stocked box suite. The room was separated into two different levels. The kitchen and dining room was the first thing you saw when you came in, as it took up nearly the entire level where the door was. There was a small ramp leading down to the second level, where a bunch of seats and couches were positioned directly in front of a window, so you could see outside if it was raining or you didn't want to go outside and sit on the main seats on the balcony outside.
The kitchen had a hardwood floor, and the rest of the place was covered in a soft carpet. Unlike the young flyers stadium, which was made completely out of clouds, the Aerodrome was made out of materials that everyone could walk on. It was an amazing place for it to still be floating, but made of wood and other materials such as that.
“I have to agree with you on that Soarin, this place is nice.” Misty said as she flopped on one of the couches. The rest of the team made themselves at home, climbing into chairs, getting some food and flopping onto the couches.
After everyone was settled in, Spitfire got the groups attention.
“Ok, we are going to take a vote. Since Luna is here, I very much doubt that she would be a fan of the plan we have, so here is my proposal. We put the plan on pause, and try to do it at a later time when she is not around, and when there is a slightly less chance of being caught, even though it’s legal. Luna is a great friend of mine, and the last thing I want is to have her mad at us.”
“And the second option?” Fleet asked, lying down on a couch.
“Uh...We go ahead with the plan...?” Spitfire said a bit awkwardly. After waiting a minute for everyone to come up with a decision, she called the vote.
‘All in favor of delaying the plan raise your hand.” Spitfire, Soarin, Surprise, Misty and Fleetfoot put their hands up.
“All in favor of doing the plan right now raise your hand.” Blaze, Fire and Lightning Streak and Wavechill raised their hands.
“Well then, looks like the plan will be on hold until another day.” The people that voted to delay it high fived each other a bit, while the people that wanted to do it today groaned and went back to doing what they were doing.
“So...We have about an hour and thirty minutes to spare, anybody got an idea to pass the time?” Blaze asked, a bit annoyed that the plan was not going to happen.
“Star Trek?”
“Shut up Soarin.”
Team Meeting Rom
Cloudsdale Aerodrome
Knock Knock Knock
“Someone is at the door Captain.” Charger said, cracking his knuckles out of boredom. The team had gone through all of the stuff Nightshade had assigned them, and were now waiting until it was time to suit up and begin.
“It’s probably Starry, go and let her in.” Nightshade called from another room. Charger sighed before standing up and walking over towards the door and opening it.
“Thanks Charger. So, I need to talk to Nightshade, any idea where she is?”
“I think in the other room over there.” He said, pointing to a door where he thought her voice had come from. Starry thanked him before walking over and knocking on the door.
“Hey Night, it’s me. I need to tell you something.” Starry called, ceasing her knocking.
“I know it’s you, what do you need to tell me?” She called back, the door still shut.
“The Wonderbolts just arrived and-” She was cut off by Nightshade laughing.
“Did they really now? Oh that’s funny.” Nightshade exclaimed, still laughing. It took her a minute to stop laughing for Starry to continue.
‘Also...Princess Luna is coming to the show. Her and her royal entourage out trying to get in right now, but with the sheer amount of people outside, they aren’t going to get here anytime soon.” Nightshade stopped snickering, and an awkward silence followed. Starry heard the sound of footsteps before the door opened and Nightshade walked out. She had a surprised look on her face.
“What do you mean she’s having trouble getting in? How many blasted people are coming to this?” Nightshade asked in wonder, walking over towards one of the many windows.
‘Take a look. I’ve never seen a crowd this big for the first show of a flight team.” Starry said absentmindedly, looking at her nails. Nightshade looked out the window before gasping and hiding against a wall, drawing a small giggle from Starry.
“Sweet Celestia! How many people are out there?! Where did they come from?” Nightshade said, a bit panicked by all of this. She was expecting some people to come, but was just insane. You would only see this amount of people at the Wonderbolts yearly opener, or if two teams were performing together.
“Hey guys, come here! Were on the TV.” Blitz called from yet another room, drawing the entire team in. The TV was set to the Equestria Broadcasting Corporation, one of the five major TV networks, with quite a good deal of smaller stations scattered about.
“And lastly, Princess Luna will be attending the opening of the newest flying team today, the Shadowbolts. The Shadowbolts are lead by the mysterious Nightshade, a former Wonderbolt and five time young flyer runner up. Coverage of the Event will be on our sister station, the Equestria Flyer. Hope to see you there, I know will be tuning in.”
‘Well what do you know, this whole thing is going to be televised. Heh, I think our little friends ‘plan’ is going to have a small dent in it.” Charger stated, a smug grin on his face. The team shared a small laugh, before going back to what they were doing originally. The rookie however, had something else on their mind.
What did she say? Nightshade was a former Wonderbolt? And five time young flyer runner up? I know she is an amazing flyer, but I never knew this...
“Alright, since this is going to get way more attention than I thought it would,which is awesome, we are going to start going over the show now.” Nightshade said, looking outside at the massive crowd trying to get in the stadium. The team, for most of them having an escape from their boredom, sat around at the table where Nightshade had sat down.
“Okay, here we go. The show starts off with us flying through our symbol in the diamond formation, then turning up and going into a starburst, landing behind our symbol once again. Then, the announcer announces us individually, and you guys do the trick that you choose and I reviewed, so no problem with that. After that, the real show can begin...”
A short time later...
“So, everyone got that down?” Nightshade asked to her bored looking team. They responded with something along the lines of yes, all in a bored tone save the rookie. Nightshade looked at the clock and saw that there was an hour to show time. She was getting kind of nervous, something that very rarely came up.
“Ok, we got one hour left, so that means time to get changed. See you in the locker room.” And with that, the team was off to get ready for the most important show of their lives so far.
‘Wait, go back to that.” Blaze said as he stood up, pointing at the flat screen television that hung on the wall. Fleet flicked back to the station, wondering what he had saw.
“And lastly, Princess Luna will be attending the opening of the newest flying team today, the Shadowbolts. The Shadowbolts are lead by the mysterious Nightshade, a former Wonderbolt and five time young flyer runner up. Coverage of the Event will be on our sister station, the Equestria Flyer. Hope to see you there, I know will be tuning in.”
“Well well well...Their first show and they are getting all this? I’m kind of jealous to be honest. What?” Misty said, drawing some looks from her teammates.
“Don’t rub it in.” Fire Streak said grumpily, taking a big bite out of an apple.
“I’m not, I’m just saying that this is pretty amazing for their first performance.” Misty said back, throwing a paper ball into the trash can.
“Hey Spits, I never knew that Nightshade was a former Wonderbolt. When was she here?” Blaze said, looking at her, Spitfire took a swig of her drink.
“You wouldn't, she left the year before you got accepted on the team. Ironically, you took her spot, that was also the year I got promoted to Captain when Frosty left.” Spitfire said, recounting the memories of that time. It was only four years ago, but it felt like yesterday,
‘Why did she leave?” Blaze asked, wondering why someone would leave this family.
“Complications that I really don’t want to talk about right now. Hey, who wants to go check to see if Luna is still out there? Getting kind of bored of sitting around.” Spitfire said, jumping up and walking towards the door, being joined by the Streak brothers and Wave. The rest of the team was either watching TV, eating, or asleep. She closed the door and walked out into the deserted hallway, looking to see if she could see anyone walking or coming out of any rooms.
‘But Aunt...Why do I have to go and say hello? It’s not Air continued and I really don’t want to be around the common folk.” A high pitched, wheezy voice said.
“Welp, guess she got in.” Wave said quietly as the voices slowly got closer.
“All in favor of going back inside for the sake of sanity?” Spitfire said, not wanting to get near Blueblood at all. She had meet him at last year's gala, and had hated him ever since he had mistaken Soarin for a fanboy and had tried to embarrass him in front of everyone.
“Aye!” Everyone said and they quickly walked back into the room, locking the door from the inside so no one could just walk in.
“Well, that was fast.” Soarin joked as he walked over to the group.
“Luna got in alright, and she has someone with her that is testing her self control to the fullest.” Wave said as he pulled a drink out of the mini bar.
‘And who would that be?”
“Why, his royal highness Prince Blueballs of course.” Lightning joked as he sat down on one of the bar stools. The entire team burst out laughing at their private name for the Prince. Fleet was laughing the hardest, rolling off her couch and onto the floor.
“I swear, that was the best nickname we have ever come up with.” She breathed out, laughing way too hard.
“Agreed, but it fits so well!” Surprise said as she started laughing again, drawing even more laughter from the team. The laughter was only broken up by a massive cheer echoing from outside.
“Well, looks like something is happening.”
“Let us go see what said something is happening.” Soarin said with an odd accent as he opened the door to the balcony and stepped outside, the team following him close behind. The stadium was packed to the brink, and as far as they could see, there were no empty seats. Ironically enough, the cheer had stopped as soon as the Wonderbolts went outside. Spitfire checked her watch to make sure the show had not started early.
There was still forty five minutes left until the officially began, but with her level of experience, it was really about thirty minutes so that the team could have a couple of practice laps, then they would go back inside to excite the crowd some more, then the real show would begin.
So, it was time for the waiting game once again, but this time with a countdown if that mattered.
35 Minutes Later
“Ladies and Gentleman!” A booming voice echoed across the stadium, silencing the crowd, including the chattering Wonderbolts.
“Thank you all for coming to tonights show! The show will start as soon our special Guest gives a small speech, so don’t fret! Please welcome, Princess Luna!” The voice boomed out again, which was met with a thunderous applause as her majesty made her way to the platform. There was no microphone, and for good reason.
“Hello spectators! It is I, Princess Luna !” She boomed, a visible shock wave emanating from her mouth. The crowd stopped talking and began to listen to what Luna had to say.
“Exactly three years ago today, the Shadowbolts were officially created. It was through myself, my close friends, and even Celestia that all this is possible. But, I would like to thank you most importantly !” She said, getting a roar of approval from the massive crowd.
“Without your help, this would have never happened! So, thank you all for making this all possible, and without further ado! May I present, the Shadowbolts!” The crowd roared once again, ready to see how good this team was going to be. Luna raised her hand, disappearing suddenly and leaving a smokey symbol of a skull with a deep purple, smokey like fire on top in her place.
“Well then, let’s see what they are made of.” Fleetfoot said as she leaned back in her lounge chair, and folded her arms across her chest.
The lights in the stadium suddenly went out, spare a few spotlights, giving the stadium a creepy glow. With Celestia's sun going down, Luna had probably teleported to raise the moon, which would explain her sudden exit.
The spotlights began spinning around the stadium, then one by one, they all stopped and pointed at the symbol, giving it an even odder look. The suspense was rising higher and higher, a trick that most flying teams used to rouse up a crowd, in which the Wonderbolts were a member of.
“Ladies and Gentleman, we will start off the night by introducing the members of the team one by one! In no particular order, here we go!” The crowd roared to life once again, ready to see the infamous team.
“The first member of the Shadowbolts, Starry Skies!” A figure zoomed out of the skull, with the spotlights following her around as she flew around the stadium, before flying straight up, performing a series of impressive flips, and landing in a handstand on the skull itself.
“The second member of the Shadowbolts, Charger!” Another figure zoomed out of behind the skull, the spotlights following him around the stadium as zoomed around in a circle, going faster and faster, before suddenly stopping, forming a small wall of fire behind him, as he flew down and landed on the skull as well, joining Starry.
“The third member of the Shadowbolts, Blueball Blitz!” A neon blur zipped out from behind the skull, the spotlights trying to keep up with her but failing. A line of electricity followed behind her as she got faster and faster, doing flips and other acrobatic stunts, before flying straight up, turning around and diving straight down. The crowd held its breath, before at the last moment, she turned at a ninety degree angle, with a static shockwave going down through the cloud floor of the stadium. She whizzed back to the skull, joining her comrades.
“The fourth member of the Shadowbolts, Stratus!” A slower figure zoomed out of the skull, but still at a fast speed. He had a trail of something that looked like smoke and small bolts of white lightning. He performed several hard aerial maneuvers, did several flips, before landing onto the skull.
“And now, the Captain of the Shadowbolts, Nightshade!” The crowd began cheering at the name, and for good reason. A black like blur zoomed out of the skull, nearing the speed of Blitz. Nightshade began to spin in a circle, getting closer and closer together, while getting faster at the same time. Clouds began to form around her as she gathered more and more speed, spinning around until they began to form a funnel. As soon as the funnel was complete, Nightshade zoomed up and stopped. The funnel suddenly shook, before turning into a shape that strongly resembled a black flower with a pair of wings adorning it. It stayed there for a second, before dissipating as Nightshade gracefully landed in the middle of her team.
The crowd gave a massive cheer at the spectacular trick, and even Soarin admitted that it was pretty nice. Most of the crowd thought that the team was complete, but that was not the case. The spotlights began to spin again, drawing confusion from the crowd, and the Wonderbolts.
“And now, the last member of the Shadowbolts!” The announcer said, drawing murmurs from the crowd.
“The hell? I thought it was only those five.” Wave Chill remarked, looking confused. The rest of the team shared his confusion. Last time they had checked, there was only five members of the Shadowbolts.
“Yeah, that is what I thought as well.” Soarin said, trying to think of who would join the Shadowbolts. His mind racked up zero people, so this was going to be one big surprise.
“The Rookie, Lightning Dust!” Every single Wonderbolt froze at that name. They couldn't believe their ears.
Nearly instantly after her name was called, Dust zoomed out from behind the skull at speeds slightly below Blitzes speed. Her all too familiar trail followed her as she performed several flips and ninety degree turns, before flying up, then turning around and diving straight at where the Wonderbolts were sitting. She made several zigs and zags, before turning at the last minute, sending a small shockwave at the Wonderbolts, knocking Soarin out of his chair. She landed on the skull as well, looking back at the recognizable shape of her cutie mark.
“Did not see that one coming at all. Need some help Soarin?” Fleet asked as she got up out of her seat and walked over to Soarin, who gladly took her hand to get up. He dusted himself off, before sitting back in his seat.
“Thanks, but I never saw that one coming. You alright there Spits?” Soarin said as he looked at his friend, who had the same expression that she had seen a ghost and been punched in the stomach at the same time.
“Yeah, I’m fine...” She stumbled out, staring at the floor. The Wonderbolts attention was brought back to the stadium as the entire crowd stood up and cheered. The Shadowbolts bowed, before jumping up and flying together, before pulling apart in a trick called the starburst.
The crowd cheered again, before sitting back down in their seats and preparing for the show that was going to happen. Drinks were purchased, along with peanuts and all other sorts of food.
This was going to be a show that no one was going to forget for a long time.
High above the planet known as Equie
A massive burst of light lit up the dark reaches of space, sending waves of particles and energy in all directions. Through the light, a small object zoomed out at high speeds as the light source stopped admitting light, and space returned to its usual black.
As the object continued to move through the silence of space, a completely unsilent problem was occurring in the object.
In the inside of the spaceship, every alarm imaginable, plus the two that Logan never knew existed, was currently attempting to perform a symphony of chaos, and it was going pretty well. All in all, it sounded like a car alarm from hell.
“Can you please turn them off!” Logan yelled above the alarms, putting his hands over his helmet in habi, even though it did nothing. After a few more moments of musical hell, the alarms shut off.
“Thank you! What is the status of the ship?” Logan said, looking at the flashing panel of lights in front of him that closely resembled a rave he had been at.
“Status? This thing is pretty much destroyed. I have no idea what we just went through, but it fried and broke nearly everything save for life support, reactor containment systems and artificial gravity, not that it is really going to do us any good. With RCS and the main engines out, we are currently flying straight towards the planet.” Lily responded from inside Logans suit.
“Planet?”
“Yeah, sensors are picking up a planet, though they can’t tell what it is due to them being damaged.”
“How close are we to it?” Logan asked, concerned that they may have been dropped off in the middle of gas giant's atmosphere.
“No idea. I’m getting readings that say one hundred meters, to four A.U.” Lily responded back, trying to understand the readings.
“Can I undim the main window? Maybe we could just look outside.” Lily thought about this for a minute.
“Don’t really see why not. Undimming the screen now.” Lily said, turning off material that protected the crew from high levels of sudden light.
“Good we can see-” Logan stopped talking as he looked at the view that he was being presented with.
“Lily...Where the hell are we?” Logan breathed out, as he looked at the blue planet in front of him, with bands of white clouds circling about.
“I have no literally idea. The navigation is down, and this planet doesn't match any records.” Lily said, sounding quite amazed at the spectacle in front of her. She was using the camera in the helmet of the suit, and was quite amazed at the planet in front of her.
Logan began to notice that the planet was rapidly getting bigger and closer to him, and that did not bode well.
“Lily, how close are we to the planet?” Logan said, the planet getting closer and closer.
“We’re about ten thosand kilometers away, and closing rapidly. Oh no...” Lily said, genuine worry in her voice.
“What is it now?”
“With the engines off line, we are going to literally slam into the atmosphere unless we find a way to slow down.” Logan eyes opened up a bit more in surprise.
“Wait, we are going to slam into it?” He said in a hushed voice, the planet getting bigger and bigger.
“In about thirty seconds we are! The ship has multiple hull breaches, and the only engine that is working right now is the emergency RCS in the front. If we send all power to it, it should be able to slow the ship down enough to get into orbit, but the problem is that we are going to need to send everything to it. Life support, artificial Gravity, pressurizers, and a lot more.” Lily said on a somber, but hopeful note.
“Wait, WHAT!? Can’t we teleport down or something like that?”
“No good, teleporter is down, and without a stable beacon down there, you and I will become dust if we try to. Twenty seconds till impact.” Lily said, a bit more panic in her voice. Logan began to think of any way he could get out without doing an orbital drop, but none came to mind.
“Ten seconds!” Lily pretty much yelled. Logan made up his mind right then and there, he was going to jump. He grabbed the emergency cockpit release lever and pulled, the roof the cockpit opening up, exposing the insides of the ship to the vacuum of space. He took one look behind, before grabbing and pulling himself out of the ship, and into the dead calmness of space.
At least, before he hit the atmosphere, which he would describe as hitting an invisible carpet that was trying to burn you alive. Fire and friction burned around the suit, trying to stop him from entering the planet.
He and Lily were pretty much screaming the entire time this was going on, due to the fact that not everyday you dive onto a unknown M class planet.
This was going to hurt.
Cloudsdale Aerodrome
The crowd cheered again as the Shadowbolts pulled off a perfectly executed sunset simmer, before turning around and going into a delta wing and performing a one hundred and eighty degree backwards night dive, gathering even more cheers from the audience, and more envy and worry from the Wonderbolts.
Their fears were slowly becoming a reality. The Shadowbolts were very, very good for the size of their team. They were crisp, clean, and nearly perfect on all of their moves and tricks, and that was worrying the team.
“How the hell...Hey, what’s everybody pointing at?” Fire Streak said, noticing that several dozen members of the crowd were looking up into the now night sky, and were pointing at something.
“The hell if I know. Hey guys, I think we should leave.” Blaze said in an angry tone, clearly not wanting to sit and watch the show any longer.
“I’m kinda with him on this. I’m not going to sit here and be well...” Fleet said, standing up and walking towards the door that led to the inside box.
“No guys, really. What the hell is that?” Blaze said, standing up and pointing to a object in the sky. The rest of the Wonderbolts finally noticed, as did most of the crowd. High up in the night sky, a small light was present, and was moving at a very high speed.
:”The hell is that?” Soarin asked, squinting his eyes to try to see the light better
“It looks like a meteor.” They heard someone in the box next to them say, drawing several more agreements. The light was getting closer and closer, drawing even more attention as most of the stadium was now watching it instead of the show.
The Shadowbolts stopped mid trick as they began to notice that they were not the ones being stared at now, and looked at the light getting closer and closer to their position.
“He he he, here it comes!” Blitz suddenly giggled out, causing the team to stop and look back at her, before it dawned on them that she maybe was right about this. The object was getting closer and closer, and now you could truly see the red hot heat on it.
And now, the crowd began to get restless. People were talking, and some were even getting out of their seats, walking or flying out of the open.
“Hey Spits, that thing seems to be heading towards the staduim.” Soarin said in slight panic as the object seemed like it was going to hit him right in the head.
“It does...Fleet, going to take you up on the leave offer!” Spitfire yelled as the crowd began to panic, with the announcer and some security trying to get order. The light was getting closer and closer, before it quite literally flew right through the middle of the stadium, silencing the entire crowd.
The light zoomed through the cloud floor, punching a hole in it. Spitfire could feel the intense heat coming off of it, but the thing that was the kicker was the massive shockwave and boom seconds after it had arrived. Half of the lights in the stadium went off as a noise that would have made the weather factory’s best storm jealous. The visible shockwave slammed into everyone and everything milliseconds afterwards, knocking people out of their seats, or in the Shadowbolts case, blasting them back into a protective cloud barrier on the walls of the stadium that had amazingly withstood the heat. As the noise, heat, and shock wave disappeared, the stadium was left with an odd silence.
“What the fuck was that?” Soarin said, getting up after have been getting knocked down by the massive shockwave. Fleetfoot, holding her head, gave no answer.
Spitfire turned her attention towards the hole in the cloud floor that the meteor had punched open. It was not going straight down, but it was at a steep angle. The few medical teams that were there were trying to see if anyone was seriously hurt, but it seemed that no one had really gotten any life threatening injuries.
And that is when Spitfires phone began ringing.
She put her hand in her jeans and pulled out her phone, and answered the call.
“Hello?” She said hesitantly, wondering who the hell was calling her. A panicked voice answered her.
“Spitfire! I need you to come down to base as fast as you can!” The voice of Doctor Heartbeat said in a panic.
“Were a little bit busy up here!” Spitfire said, watching as her team was preparing to take off and see if anyone was hurt.
“Listen to me! Something just slammed into the hangar and I need you guys to come down here, please!” Heartbeat said, a slight panic in her voice.
“Oh you have gotta be kidding me! Sigh, we’ll be down as fast as we can.” Spitfire sighed, not believing her luck. She put the phone back into her jeans, before looking at her teammates, who were ready to go and help people.
“Guys, you are not going to believe this, but that meteor, it just slammed into our hangar, so we need to go down there and help.” Spitfire said, still in shock about her luck.
“You’re kidding me right!? These people need our help, and we are just going to go and run down to the hangar?” Misty said furiously, wanting nothing to go and help.
“You can stay here if you want, but I have to go and make sure the base is alright. Soarin, Fleet and Blaze, can you come with me?” They looked at each other, before agreeing to go with Spitfire down to the hangar, while the rest of the team would go and try to help anyone that was hurt.
Moments Later
As the four man team flew down to their base, they noticed the massive hole in the closed door of the hangar where the meteor had punched through it, smoke pouring through the hole
“Sweet Celestia, Heartbeat wasn’t kidding.” Spitfire said as she landed on the lobby entrance, opening the door and being greeted by Heartbeat and the head of groundskeeping, Green Thumb.
“Heartbeat, what do you need us to do?” Fleetfoot said, noting a few broken windows.
“I need all four of you to come with us right away, and not to panic that much.” Heartbeat said, turning around and basically running towards the staircase that led down to the hangar, followed closely by the four and the Green.
As they got closer to the hangar, they noticed that Heartbeat was carrying a medical bag slung on her back, and Green was carrying a fold up stretcher on his back.
Why in the name of Luna would they have a medical bag and a stretcher for a rock? The hell are they going to do, turn it into a pet?
As they neared the door that led directly into the hangar, Heartbeat put her arms out, stopping Soarin from opening the door.
“All of you, listen to me. You are going to promise me that you four are not going to freak out and run screaming away, understand?” Heartbeat said in a serious voice.
“Why? What, was there a super intergalactic alien rock that crashed?” Soarin joked, drawing a couple of laughs from the Wonderbolts. Heartbeat did not look amused as she opened the door and let some of the smoke escape. As soon as enough of it had cleared, she carefully walked inside, the rest of the group behind her.
As soon as Spitfire walked into the dark, smokey hangar, her gut told her that someone, not something, was in here, and that creeped her out. Which is why when she saw a black figure laying in the middle of the room where the meteor would have hit, did she put two and two together.
And then she screamed.
“Heart, what in the name of all sane things is that?” Fleetfoot said, backing up out the door and hiding behind the wall, having been joined by Soarin, Blaze and Spitfire, their heads peeking out at different levels like something out of a kids cartoon.
“I have no idea. I haven't really gotten close to whatever it is due to the smoke, and the occasional fire. Now, I need you guys to come and help us, it may be hurt, or dead.” Heartbeat said, having retreated behind the wall as well due to the smoke returning.
“What about this! We close the door, go outside, and go get something to drink, forgetting this ever happened?” Blaze said, having already started walking up the staircase before Heartbeat grabbed her by the collar of her Wonderbolt polo, pulling her back down to where the group was.
“Not so fast there tiger. You’re going to stay here, and help us, and that means all if you,” Heartbeat stated, letting go of Blaze’s collar, before standing on the stairs to prevent anyone else from trying to escape. “Now, I am going to need you guys to use your wings to push some of the smoke out of the way-”
“Wait, how do you know that whatever in there is alive?” Soarin asked, peering back into the hanger, but unable to see anything due to the massive amount of smoke that had suddenly returned.
“Well...I thought that the large, black object in the middle of the hanger that does not look like a rock would seal the deal, but I’m not really that positive, which is why I need you to move the smoke away. So, are the brave Wonderbolts done hiding now?” Heartbeat said, smirking at her choice of words. Soarin and Blaze looked at each other, before Spitfire and Fleetfoot groaned in annoyance and walked into the hangar, each of their powerful wings forcing a path into the smoke.
Blaze and Soarin looked at each other, then pretty much ran flat out to join their Captain and teammate in helping moving the smoke, not wanting to be left out, even though they were scared beyond belief that the creature inside the smoke might wake up and eat them.
The smoke had gotten very thick in the last minute, and was putting up a fight as they tried to push it out of the way, but slowly they pushed the smoke away enough to make a path, and then the shadowy object became visible once again, forcing the four of them, even Spitfire into a cold sweat. As they got closer and closer, the shadowy object began to get less and less shadowy, and more and more clear.
“Spits, this is a bad idea,” Blaze said, the butterflies in her stomach now turning into angry hornets, which was not a pleasant feeling.
“Blaze, just keep moving your wings,” Spitfire said, having the same feeling in her stomach but not to the angry hornets stage just yet.
The smoke had finally admitted defeat for the most part, and the four, with Heartbeat right behind them, got their first clear look at it, and were shocked to put it lightly.
Instead of seeing some black rock, or an alien with massive tentacles and fangs ready to suck the life out of anything that it wanted to, the creature they were looking at was rather...normal looking, if the shape was its true shape and it did not morph into a shape.
It had exactly the same body shape as them, with two legs and two arms, and a head. But unlike them, it did not appear to have any wings, but it was covered in this midnight black suit covering from head to toe. As much as it gave them a breath of relief that it was not the terrifying tentacle creature that they thought it was, it did raise a lot more questions.
“Uh...Does anyone else feel really stupid for thinking that this person was an alien?” Blaze said, chuckling a bit. The rest of the group looked at him, then back at the ‘person’ lying on the ground, not moving a single muscle.
“Uh Blaze, could you tell me how you figured out that this thing is not an alien?” Fleetfoot said, wondering how Blaze knew this. “Because I don’t see it wearing a flashing neon sign that says ‘Don’t worry, I am not an alien’.”
“Because what kind of alien would look exactly like us? I mean, the chances of that are insanely low, like smaller than-” He did not get to finish his joke before Spitfire cut him off.
“It may have the same body shape of us, but since we can’t look at what it really looks like directly to the suit on it, it may have an entirely different body than us. You know the saying, don’t judge a book by its cover.” Spitfire said, mentally thanking herself for watching all those Sci-fi shows.
“Huh, I never would have thought about that one...How do you know so much about this stuff Spits?” Blaze asked, looking at the slight grin on Soarin’s face. Spitfire gave no answer, but Blazes quest for the answer was cut off by Heartbeat pushing him out of the way and taking a seat next to the creature, unslinging the medical bag off her back and beginning her work.
“Hey, can you two help me get this thing on it off its face...I think.” Heartbeat said, pointing to Blaze and Soarin.
“Uh... I ain’t touching that thing,” Soarin said, getting a nod of approval from Blaze as both of them moved back a bit.
“Why not?”
“Because I have no idea where the hell that thing has been, or what it has on it,” Soarin explained, wishing he had a stick to try to poke it.
“Oh for the love of Celestia, I’ll do it,” Spitfire exclaimed, walking over and sitting down next to Heartbeat. They got ready, counted to three, and then carefully flipped the creature onto its back, exposing a brand new view of it.
The helmet on its head had a piece of black, glass like material on it on this side. Spitfire guessed that it was a visor to allow the creature to look out, while not being able to be seen from the outside. Heartbeat wasted no time, laying her head on its chest, trying to hear a heartbeat of some kind.
“What are you doing there Doctor?” Soarin asked, having returned from walking away.
“Trying to see if I can hear a heartbeat of some kind to tell me if this thing is still alive,” Heartbeat said, trying to concentrate on hearing it, but Soarin was still talking.
“If this is the same thing that flew down through the stadium, and from that massive hole it probably is the same thing, I really really doubt that this thing is still alive. The force of that must have been insane-” Soarins little rant was cut off by Heartbeat raising her right arm. She put her head back on its chest, trying to see if what she heard was something else.
Ta thump....Ta thump
A smile broke out on her face, and she slowly stood up, a grin on her face. The rest of her group stared at her, before realising why she was smiling.
“You have got to be kidding me! That thing is alive?” Fleetfoot said, shocked at these turn of events.
“Yeah, come here and listen,” Heartbeat offered, which Blaze, Soarin, Spitfire and Fleet turned their heads and scratched their necks, still somewhat turned down by the offer to touch it, even though Spitfire just had.
“Well, you guys are going to need to help me and Green load it onto the stretcher,” Heartbeat said, motioning Green Thumb to come on in. He had been standing in the stairwell due to him as an earth person having a similar problem as Heartbeat with the smoke.
“Uh...Care to explain why we are loading it onto a stretcher?” Soarin asked, backing up a bit more.
“Because we are bringing this thing up to the medical center so I can check to see if it is alright, and to get this suit off it?” Heartbeat said, guiding Green on where to put down the stretcher.
“Uh, you do realize that this is our base, and I don’t think having an alien here is a good idea. What if it tries to kill us? Or eat us? Or...probe us?” Blaze shuttered, trying to think about something happier.
“And as the teams head doctor, I have the right to allow any and all creatures to stay in the medical area in which are in need of medical help, and I say it qualifies as one. Now, I am going to need your help opening doors alright?” Heartbeat said, having showed Green where to put the stretcher and now guiding it into position.
“Wait, she can do that Spitfire?” Fleet asked, turning towards her captain.
“Yes, she can. And besides, I was going to allow her to take care of it anyway. Now, what do you need us to do Heart?” Spitfire said, shocking her teammates.
In the time Spitfire and Fleet had talked, Heart and Green had managed to get alien onto the stretcher. During this process, Heart had noted that one of its ‘arms’ and a ‘leg’ were in odd positions, possibly meaning that they were broken during the fall, but she had to get the suit open to make sure.
“Can you guys open the door for us?” Heartbeat said as she picked up one side of the stretcher, with Green wordlessly picking it up as well.
Soarin and Blaze looked at each other for about the tenth time in the last five minutes, before admitting defeat and opening the door while keeping as far of a distance away as they could from the thing, because the last thing they wanted was for it to suddenly wake up.
After climbing up the staircase, and nearly dropping it four times, Heart had finally reached the fairly dark hallway which led out of the hanger. Since it was nearing around eight PM at night and most of the lights were off, it gave the place a creepy feel.
“Uh...Maybe we should go and turn on some of these lights?” Fleetfoot suggested, a bit creeped out herself even with the creature feet away from her.
“That would be a good idea...Also, how are you going to explain the massive hole in the hangar door Spits? I mean, it is not exactly the most invisible of things,” Soarin asked, opening the main door the led to the Medical part of the base.
This surprised Spitfire in a way. With everything that had been going on, she had completely forgotten about the hole in the hangar door.
“Uh...Oh! If no one saw it hit, then we can just cover it up with some plywood, or get a Magic person up here to fix it quickly before the press finds out,” Spitfire said, saying the first thing that came to mind.
“Plywood?” Soarin responded with a laugh.
“Yeah. Spray paint it grey, then tape it to the door until someone can come and fix it. It’s genius!”
“...You know what, go ahead Captain. As soon as this is done, I am going to go and take a very, very long shower and try to un-mind fuck myself. And yes Heart, I know about the door,” Soarin said with annoyance, opening the door that led to the ICU of the medical base, a place that he was very happy that he had not yet been a patient there.
“Alright, thank you guys helping. Now, I am going to ask that you let me do my Job, and you guys do wha ever it is that you are going to do.”
“Wait, don’t you think that someone should at least say outside here to make sure that if that thing does wake up, that you can subdue it. Also, where is Dr. Stitch? I have not seen him all day,” Blaze remembered, wondering where the other Doctor was.
“He called in sick today, and I have Green with me. I think I will be fine,” Heart said with a small smile as she closed the door to the ICU, leaving the four Wonderbolts standing outside in the hallway.
“So...Anyone up for creeping on them?" Blaze asked as he motioned the classic 'put your ear on the door and listen'.
Four smiles suddenly appeared.
With a sealing zip the door to the ICU closed, separating Green and Heart from the outside world. Green had already laid the alien onto the table, while Heart started on grabbing some tools and instruments that would be needed.
Once she had gathered the tools that she needed, she set them down in several places next to the table for easy reach for her to grab. Since she was one of the few Unicorn people on the Wonderbolts medical team, she could easily grab most of the stuff next to her and safely lay them down on the counter.
“Green, I am going to need you to act as a somewhat nurse for me. Up for it?”
“Uh...I guess. Is it like taking care of trees?” Green said, looking a bit confused at the question. The Earth person was known as one of the best groundskeepers in all of Equestria, and for a good reason.
“Uh...I guess?”
“Alright then, what do you need help with Doc?" Green asked, acting very calm compared to everyone else.
"First off, do you have any idea on what tools or things we should use to try to get this suit open? If we can't get it open, then there is pretty much nothing that I can do from out here to help it at all," Heart stated very professionally, having already begun to magically disinfect some of the tools that she knew that she was going to need to use.
"How the hell would I know what tools to use on a space suit? I'm a groundskeeper, not a space suit opener. Why don't you go and open it up with magic?"
"Because for one, I have no idea how magic will affect it. It could kill it, or injure it even more. So, I am going to be using to old fashion techniques on it. On that note, before we cut open anything, I am going to put a quarantine field around it so that if it carrying any foreign bacteria or viruses on it, we will be safe."
"Going to take your word on that and not argue. Also, you should try a regular old knife first, then go from there," Green said, slowly backing up as he was not fond of catching an alien plague of doom.
"Alrighty then, regular knife it is. Now, I would suggest that you back up a bit, unless you would like to be in the quarantine field as well," Heart said as she backed up herself, with Green joining her.
All the tools and medicine that she might or would use was currently next to the bed so that she could use them while the field was up, and safely work on it without the risk of contamination.
Heart mentally prepared herself for the spell that she was going to cast, and soon a clear, but visible barrier had been erected sounding the creature. It offered a perfect view for the operator, as a magnifying spell had also been added to it.
"Wow. Never seen one of these before," Green remarked in awe at the spell. Heart turned to Green, a slight smile on her face.
"You can leave if you want Green, this might get a bit messy."
"As much as I would like to say yes to that offer, I think I am going to watch this," Green said, sitting down in one of the Doctors chairs that was in the room.
"Your choice. Now the careful, but really fun part begins," She said with a grin on her face as she magically grabbed a knife, which accidentally gave her the look of a mad Doctor you would see in a B-rated horror movie.
The knife floated up as Heart concentrated on positioning the knife in the perfect position to attempt to open the suit. She slowly moved the knife down, before it was only an inch away from the suit.
The green aura of her magic danced off the void like color of the midnight black suit. She took a big breath, not wanting to mess up.
The knife touched the suit as close as she safely could to the same midnight black helmet. Heart opened up a magnified view of the contact. She took one more big breath, before pulling the knife toward her. The suit, which she assumed would be hard and immobile, surprised her as it stretched with the knife which denied the knife a straight and easy way to cut. She moved the knife back up, before sitting it back down and pulling it with a bit more force, but to her disappointment she got the same results.
"Well, this is working fantastically."
"Ah...Heart. Instead of trying to cut the space suit, maybe you can just unzip it."
Heart tuned to face Green with a look on her face that Green could not really recognize. It could be anger, or sadness, or 'I'm going to throw you off a cliff.'
"A zipper?"
"Yes, a zipper. Like the one that I am looking at right now zipper," Green stated, pointing his finger towards what was by their standards, a zipper of some sort. It was the same midnight color as the rest of the suit, and you could barely see it unless you were looking right at it. It ran down the middle of the suit, stopping where it separated into the creature’s 'legs'. As Heart inspected the zipper more, she saw that it was nearly a fingers width from where she had attempted to cut the suit open.
"You know, that does make this entire thing a lot easier. Nice catch Green, I knew letting you be my nurse so to speak was a good idea. Now, the hard part begins," Heart said after swallowing her pride.
"That was the easy part?"
"Yeah, now I need to begin the part that is not as easy as zipping a zipper, but a hell of a lot more exciting."
"And that part would be?"
"Green, unless I am mistaken, the rest of our little group is sitting outside. Please go ask them if they want to come in watch this for a short moment of time please,” Heart said as she turned to face a confused looking Green Thumb
"Ok...? Can you stop being so cryptic and tell me what you want me to tell them," Green remarked, a tad bit annoyed at the cryptic messages Heart kept telling him.
"Ask them if they want to come and watch me open it, followed by if they wish, to watch me try to heal it," Heart said, a twisted grin on her face. As soon as she said that, she heard a small noise from outside the door to the room. As Green walked over to open the door to go ask them to come in, Heart swore she heard a small mumbling before Green opened the door...
And four Wonderbolts crashed onto the floor below, scaring the crap out of Heart and taking Green down with them into an awkward hug with the floor.
Heart, having taken cover behind the office chair in a panic looked down at the pile of wings, legs, arms and other body parts that were currently on the floor in a big, moving and complaining pile.
"What the hell was that?"
"Whose wing is that?"
"Blaze! Move your foot, we aren't on a date!"
"Sorry Fleet."
"Echo and Blaze, doing stuff with feet."
"Pfft."
"Shut up Soarin!"
"Hey, Spits laughed too."
"What, it was funny...somewhat."
"Hey, here is a idea. What about we try to get untangled?" Green said, not very amused with the current situation.
"That would probably be for the best. One, two, three, everyone try to stand up," Spitfire exclaimed as she and the group somehow managed to get out of the pile without falling over again. Everyone dusted themselves off, some in different places than others.
"Mother of Celestia Blaze, that hurt," Fleet said as she massaged the side of her breast where Blazes foot had attempted to tunnel through.
"Heh, sorry about that Fleet," Blaze murmured with a slight blush on her face, matching the one on Fleets face.
"Pfffft...Soarin, you need to clean your feathers," Spitfire said as she spit out one of Soarin’s white feathers from her mouth.
"Heart, you can stop hiding behind the chair now, I think," Green said as he moved away from the arguing Wonderbolts. Heart stood up from behind the chair, a not so happy look on her face.
"Were you really doing the old lean against the doorway trick?" Heart stated in an angry tone, catching the groups attention.
"Uh...It was Soarin’s idea!" Blaze said as she pointed a finger at Soarin.
"Like hell it was! It was Blazes idea."
"Will you all shut up...please?" Heart exclaimed, ceasing the talking from all parties.
"So...I may or may not have heard that you are going to open up the suit?" Blaze said in a odd tone.
"Yeah, Green was going to go get you guys, but I guess that you heard that as well?"
"You have guessed correctly."
"So Heart, what is up with this barrier thing?" Fleet asked, reaching her hand out to touch it. Before Heart could explain, she was interrupted.
"It's a quarantine spell Fleet. It keeps things from getting in, or getting out," Spitfire said as she stared at the suit within the barrier.
"Oh. Why is it in there?"
"Probably because Heart is being smart and preventing any foreign viruses and bacteria from infecting it, or us," Spitfire responded again, still starting at the suit.
"Oh...Should I go wash my hands?"
"Nah, don't worry about it. So Heart, are you going to open it?" Spitfire said, breaking eye contact with the suit and looking at a rather impressed Heart.
"Yeah." She turned around to face Blaze, Soarin and Fleet.
"So, are you guys going to watch this?"
"Yeah, we are. Isn't that right guys," Fleet said as she wrapped an arm and a wing behind both Soarin’s and Blazes, preventing them from moving.
"In that case, let's get ready to make history. Now one last warning before I do this. I have no idea what is going to be under this suit. It could be any sort of creature, so...let's try not to jump out of a window if it looks like Soarin after that party." The group, minus Soarin laughed as they remembered that morning.
Taking the laugh as the unofficial cue to get this party started, Heart raised her hand as she concentrated on making a small bubble of magic inside of the quarantine field, a task that was not easy on any standard.
Soon, a green glow formed around the zipper, which was zipped all the way to the creatures helmet, casting a odd green glow on them midnight black suit and same color helmet. Heart took a big breath to ready herself, before pulling with a tiny amount of force.
As soon as she moved a micrometer, a hissing notice suddenly came to life, starling herself and the rest of the people in the room. Blaze began to noticeably twitch and look at the door behind her, a sign that he was starting to get close to a panic stage.
The hissing noise kept hissing before stopping, a sign that Spitfire noticed as the same hissing noise as when something was decompressing.
Heart took another breath, before pulling the zipper back some more. She could still not see anything different due to her having just unzipped it a millimeter.
She took another big breath, before pulling on the zipper with more force. Before she could see if there was any change, a rather familiar motion came on.
"Uhhhhhhhhh." The creatures chest rose up in the same fashion as theirs, before lowering back down in the same fashion, before repeating the process several times.
"Mother of Celestia, it's breathing!"
"We can see that Soarin."
"Oh."
"Can I carry on?" Heart said with anticipation in her voice. She took the silence as a yes, and slowly zipped it down a bit more, revealing a bit color that was nearly a complete opposite to the midnight black, plain, good old fashioned yellow. As she zipped it down even more, it became clear that the creature had either yellow colored skin, or it was wearing some kind of yellow shit.
And it was about ten inches down when Heart something that confirmed her suspicion, but also shocked both her and and everyone else. There was a bright, very familiar blood red stain just to the right of where Heart had zipped. Heart slowly zipped a bit more, confirming her suspicions that there was a large stain of blood right over where the lower left ribcage would be on a regular person.
"Uh...That is really, really odd," Heart said as she magnified the wound with the spell.
"So...it's bleeding after falling a really long way.... Kinda makes sense," Blaze stated.
"Of course it's bleeding, the odd thing is that if this thing is really an alien, than it means that it is an oxygen breathing life form," Heart said as she zipped down the zipper to where the legs would go, confirming that the yellow shirt was indeed clothes.
"Alright, let's get this thing off."
Some time later.
"And now.... We do the head," Heart said as she switched her focus away from stuffing the very, very light and flexible suit into a sealed medical bag.
This was the moment Spitfire and everyone else was waiting for. So far, the creature was very, very similar to them, in fact too similar. The hands were identical to their own, even the same peach skin tone, save for a beautiful ring on the creatures right hand that Soarin had called dibs on if the creature were to die. But, everyone was starting to thing that was probably not an Alien, and more or less a very, very weird earth person.
"Here we go, undo the latch and...the hidden latch over here," Heart said as she undid the other latch on the back of the creatures neck. The helmet was turning out to be much more annoying to get off than the suit had. It has several latches and seals, with all of them having a backup that was even harder to release than the latter.
Another hiss came out, confusing Heart even more and also signaling the fact that the last latch was indeed the final seal.
"The helmet is separately pressurized?" Heart asked as she took a big breath and carefully began to pull the helmet off.
No one in the room made a sound or movement as they all watched like hawks the helmet came off revealing a....
"Woah, don't mind me saying so, but he is quite good looking," Fleet said out loud, drawing a dirty look from Blaze. Spitfire did not say it out loud, but she had to agree with her friend. The person under the mask was pretty good looking indeed. She was certain he was a he due to the rather nice jawline he had, but his eyes were still closed. His brown hair had no recognizable style, as it just sat on his head in a messy pattern.
"Goddamn it. I wanted to see an alien, not a regular old person," Soarin moaned.
"Wait a minute. Now that we've seen the outside, let's look at the inside," Heart said as she prepared to use the scanning spell. Since this spell just sent waves of magic to recreate three dimensional picture of the insides of someone, it was safe to use on him, but the spell only allowed the caster to see the information, due to how it was designed. Hearts eyes began to glow a neon green, the same color as her magic as she began to scan the body.
As soon as she cast the skill, the mental image image began to form of a floating three dimensional shape, she noticed at once some odd things. Since she had started at the head to make sure there was no concussion or brain damage, she was very surprised to a very small, but noticeable computer chip fused to the brain stem, a process that would have killed the patient for sure. As she contained down, she noticed another very, very alien thing. The bones were not of the design or makeup of a Pegasus, magical or earth person.
They did not have the hollow, but very strong makeup of a Pegasus, nor did it have the heavy density and makeup of an earth persons, and it certainly did not have the magical conducting center of a magical person. It instead had a spongy center, something that none of the races had.
"Soarin, you are looking at an alien right now. This is no Equis person at all," Heart said, shocking the group.
"How?! He looks exactly like us, right down to the fingernails."
"His bones are unlike anything I have ever seen. As much as he looks like us, he is not from these neck of the woods, that I am sure."
An awkward silence fell over the group as they realized that they had just made history as being the first people that they knew to have found an alien that happened to look identical to them.
He may be an alien, but he is still pretty good looking. Spitfire thought as sudden...odd thoughts came to her mind.
“Come on, just because it has a different bone structure does not mean it is an alien...Does it? I mean, for all we know, it could just be someone from a faraway land,” Soarin pleaded, a odd look in his eyes.
“Soarin, I think being an alien automatically qualifies you as the faraway land champion.”
“Have to agree with Spitfire on that,” Blaze said.
Ringgggg
Ringgggg
Ringgggg
“Uh, whose phone is that?” Spitfire asked, knowing that she had turned hers off after Misty has called her.
The rest of the group, minus Heart, each check their own pockets to see if theirs was the one that was ringing. One by one, Blaze, Echo, Green, and Spitfire made sure it was not their phone ringing, which left one person left. And that lucky contestant, was none other than mister Soarin Skies.
Soarin took his phone out of his pocket and checked to see who was calling him. It was Misty, and from the the two missed calls that he was just now noticing, this was not the first time she had called in the last hour.
Wait, we’ve been here for over an hour? Oh no. Soarin gulped as he clicked the accept call button on his phone and prepared himself for the possible onslaught.
“Uh, hi there Misty,” He said with a forced smile.
“Where the fuck are you?! I've been trying to get ahold of your ass for the past thirty minuets!” Mistys voice screamed into the little speaker, forcing Soarin to move it away from his ear to try to save his hearing.
“Heh, funny you should ask about that, because I have one hell of a very true story for you.”
“I could give a flying fuck about your stories. Just let me and everyone else into the building.” The dull sound of the hangup tone rang out from Soarins phone, signaling the others that something happened.
“So...who wants to go let in Misty and the rest of the gang?” Everyone but Heart gave Soarin the classic ‘get your ass out there look.’ Soarin, knowing that arguing would just result in him being thrown out decided to take the painless route and walk out of the ICU, closing the door on the way out.
Several minutes passed without any sign of Soarin, or the rest of the group. But that was not to last, for Spitfire began to hear the sounds of arguing in the distance. As it slowly got closer and closer, she was able to understand it.
“Really? Dude, I’m impressed that you would put all that effort into a lie, even for you,” Wave Chill said as he remembered some of Soarins tall tales.
“It is not a lie," Soarin hissed out with his jaw clenched closed in silent anger. He may be a trickster and a prankster, but he was not a liar.
“Oh really? Please, tell it to me again," Wave Chill said as he laughed.
“What about instead of that, I show you it. Hey guys, can you please come out here and tell them that I am not lying about all this....please?” The group inside the room heard this right outside the door.
“Yeah, can you guys in the room come out here for a minute and explain what exactly is going on? And I mean you too Heart,” Misty called from outside the door. Heart, knowing no matter what she said was not going to work deactivated the spell and prepared herself for how to explain the situation to them without sounding like an insane person.
“Alright, let’s go,” Heart said depressed. She walked out of the room, with Fleet, Green and Blaze following close behind. However, Spitfire stayed behind for a moment to take a look at the unconscious person currently sitting peacefully on the bed. She sighed as she walked towards the door and stepped outside, waiting to hear Hearts explanation of what the hell was going on.
The group that they had left at the stadium did look very happy, with Misty looking the angriest out of all of them. Her wings were fully flared out, which gave the usual small looking person look a lot bigger.
“Now, you are going to go and explain why the hell you left. Now.” Misty tapped her foot as she dared daggers at them. Misty was known as the really quiet and caring member of the Wonderbolts, but she was known for having a temper that was unsurpassed by only Nightshade and Spitfire on very rare occasions.
“Well, you see Misty, I called them down here to come and help me take care of a very special patient, like Soarin told you about,” Heart said as professionally as she could manage as she stepped between Soarin and Misty to defused the situation.
“Soarin told us that you found, and I quote, ‘an alien that looks exactly like us.’ We thought Soarin may have hit his head a bit too hard. Also Soarin, why the the hell did you not pick up the phone when I called you twice?” Misty said as she turned herself to face Soarin, who was trying to appear as small of a target as possible.
Spitfire, even though she did somewhat care for Soarins well being, had lost track of the conversation and had found herself staring into the window that was on the ICU door. The ICU had a window on the door, and one on the right hand side of the door that Spitfire could barely see through to view the bed. Suddenly, something moved from one side of the window to the other at high speeds. Spitfire blinked, before starring at it again but with no sign of any movement.
“And with the different bone...”
Spitfire walked forward until she was nearly touching the window. She looked around the room, but there was nothing there in the room. She knew that she had seen something, so she blinked again as if it would reset the shadow or something.
She looked around the room, making sure to check any nook and cranny. There was nothing in the corner, nothing on the bed, nothing sitting or on the chairs, nothing in the other corner except for the girl in the lab coat staring at her with glowing yellow eyes. Nothing on the bed except the-.
Wait. What?
Spitfire screamed and jumped back, landing very ungracefully on her ass while scaring the crap out of everyone else that was currently to hear Hearts explanation. She scampered back on the cold vinyl tiles until she was hitting the wall on the other side of the hallway, her wings fully extended to accompany her whole body shaking
“Uh Spitfire, are you alright? I mean, it really is not normal for people to suddenly go flying across the room,” Fleet said as she laughed a bit. Her laughter was stopped when she looked at the look of pure terror on her friends face, and her trembling finger pointing towards the room where the alien was. Her face was as white as a sheet, and sweat was already pouring of her body.
“Echo...There...Someone, no, something is in the room,” Spitfire said in a hoarse whisper, her trembling finger still pointing at the empty looking room.
“What do you mean something is in the room? I don't see anything.” Fleet said with concern as she backed away from the door to the room, her nerves starting to act up. The rest of the group had began to move over to them to try to comfort their captain who had clearly seen something. Heart went and knelled down so that she was directly facing her. She put her hands on both of her shoulders, trying to add a bit of support and comfort her shaking friend. She closed her eyes and scanned the room for any other life signs. And like she thought, only one came up.
“Spitfire, no one else is in that room. The spell is detecting no other life forms in there right now. Tell me, what did you see?”
"I- I saw a girl. She was just standing in the corner by the bed...Staring at me with glowing eyes." Spitfire chocked at as she tried to calm herself down, but the twitches and sweat was not fooling anyone.
"You saw a girl? Spitfire, no one else is in that room. Perhaps you saw a shadow or something else." As Heart said this, the lights in the room suddenly went out, turning up the freak factor up. As fast as they had turned off, they turned back on, but flickering on and off. The group backed up even more from the door as their own nerves began to jump. Scenes from poorly done sci-fi stories came to mind for some, and for others horror movies came to mind.
“There is no one in the room. Listen to me, the spell detects all life forms in that room, and it is only detecting one other life form.” Heart said as she tried to calm Spitfire down, as well as herself by summoning a magical fan and well...fanning.
“Well, there is a problem with that 'spell' of yours Doctor Heartbeat of the Wonderbolts Flying Team, if I am reading this correctly, which I am...I hope.” A female voice suddenly rang out with no noticeable location or source. The voice had a cool, feminine tone to it, but it had an accent that none of them knew. It was not as posh as a Canterlot accent, nor as twangy as an appaloosan. It was...different to say the least, and it caused a large alarm.
“Who. Fucking. Said that!” Fleet cried as she reached for the six shot revolver in her bag and cocked the hammer. The lights in the hallway that the group was currently panic standing in suddenly began to dim heavily for a moment, like something was draining all the power from the base.
And then, the freaky shit began to happen, and I mean really freaky. Like something out of a discordian nightmare, a hand reached out of the ICU door, which slowly turned into an arm, which in turn turned into a body walking through a door. The body that walked through the door was a young girl in her twenties. She had brown hair that went down to her shoulders, and she was wearing a pair of light grey slacks along with a dull light blue polo. To top it all off, she was wearing a pure white lab coat with the name ‘Lily’ stitched into the coat. To be honest, she was not that scary looking, but the sudden surprise of someone walking through a door was enough to make people go a wee bit panicky.
"You see, the problem is-"
BBoom
Boom
Boom Boom Boom
Echo held her smoking revolver, her left hand trembling as she tried to catch her breath. The girl she had just unloaded on showed no signs of any bleeding, or puncture wounds. In fact, it looked like she had not even been hit at all. She turned her head to look Echo Fleetfoot dead in the eyes, a confused look in her eyes.
“Well, that was a hell of a welcome if I do say so myself Ms Echo Fleetfoot. Anyway, the problem with your ‘spell’ is that it only detects biological life forms Dr. Heartbeat, and from what your friend just showed, I don’t qualify for that list."
“Uh...Why are you guys staring at me like that?” Lily asked as one of her eyebrows went up in the classic confused human look that she had practiced one time.
“I...I just shot you six times. Wha...What in the name of Celestia are you?” Echo held her still smoking revolver in her shaking hand, all of the rounds spent.
“Maybe it’s a ghost. It would make sense on why the bullets went through it,” Soarin blurred out. In normal conditions, there would be some ridicule for the comment that he just blurred out, but this was an exception.
“You know, if I was not scared shitless right now Soarin, I would slap you for saying something like that,” Blaze said with a scared tone that was not familiar to her.
“You know that ghosts don’t exist...And the spell is still saying that there is nothing in front of us!” The girl in front of the terrified group shocked them by facepalming and groaning, almost as if she was annoyed or something.
“I just explained why that spell of yours was not working. Are you sure you're a real Doctor? Or are you just not listening?”
“I’m sorry, but I’m a bit scared to all hell right now,” Heart said in a sharp tone, having just been offended by a ghost.
“Oh nevermind. Say, why did you waste those shots? A antique revolver in that good of a condition and working could sell for a lot of credits in an auction!”
“Wha...What do you mean by a ‘antique’ revolver? I bought this thing brand new a month ago for five hundred and fifty bits, not ‘credits’.” The groups level of fear was slowly taken down a notch by the very odd question that the thing had asked. The revolver that Echo had showed off when she had just brought it a month ago was brand new and the best you could buy at the time. So why was this ghost person telling them that it was an ‘antique’?
“Uh...What do you mean you bought that brand new? They stopped making gunpowder revolvers in the twenty third century. Either you got ripped off, or you got yourself the deal of a lifetime. Also, is bits the local jargon for Alliance Credits around wherever this place is.” The ghost answered it back in a surprised tone in her voice as her face took on a look of confusion.
The group looked around at each other, the looks of fear gone and the looks of confusion having replaced them.
“Twenty third century? Alliance Credits? You know what, I don’t think that this is a ghost ,” Spitfire thought to herself. That thought in and of itself was terrifying. She could right now be metting the
“What the hell is an ‘Alliance Credit’?” The girls eyes widened in surprise, before narrowing in suspicion. The ghost stared at her with another look of confusion and suspicion , before she did something quite unexpected.
“Heh...Haha ha ha ha. Either that is one of the worst jokes I have ever heard, or I’m in a black hole! So, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that you’re joking about that. So, can you tell me what colony this is? I’m know that this can’t be Earth or Alpha... Are we on Harmony by chance? That would explain some things. On that note as well, can I talk to your Governor as well? I need to get in contact with someone,” Lily put her hand on her chin in the classic human thinking position.
The rest of the group, now nearly free of all their fears for the most part had been replaced by confusion. Colony? Earth? Harmony? Twenty fourth century? Governor? What the hell was this ghost talking about?
“Uh...The planet you’re on is called Equis, not Harmony or Earth... And were not a ‘colony’, whatever that is, and we don’t have a governor,” Echo recalled, a bit taken back at the girls very odd response. The girl just gave them an odd stare, like she was trying to decide if they were lying or not, in which ironically was just what Lily was attempting to calculate.
This can’t be right. They have to be lying to me, they just have too. The sensor data in Logans suit identified them all as Human, all Fifteen million, five hundred thousand, fifty two of them, quite small of a colony on that note. But, this is no right. None of them knew which colony they were on, or what a colony was for that matter. And the ‘bit’ thing; does that mean they have a different economy here than in the entirety of the Alliance?
Then the things that Lily had dismissed as errors began to make sense. When she had first scanned the planet when they had arrived at wherever this is and detected and viewed their Internet, the massive lack of data and just weird data that was there, was originally dismissed as a error on the ships scanners part and filed away, but now it began to make sense in Lily's mind.
There was also the whole ‘wings’ thing. Lily had originally passed it off as a new trend that they had not become aware of on the Station, like the whole tail incident that she did not want to remember again. That was one weird trend to say the least.
“This does not make any sense whatsoever, but I can’t discount it. It is very possible that the sensors on the ship were heavily damaged during the physics breaking trip that we just went through. They look identical to us, minus the usual body modifications, but they are lacking so far behind when it comes to tech level. They can’t be the 2 that we are, it almost seems like they are .07. But that can’t be right, that would make them...”
Unknowing to Lily, the A.I had started mumbling this out loud and the entire group had heard every word she had said.
“Uh, I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I can guarantee to whatever you are that the thing in the room behind you is an alien, Heart said it herself. It...It did not have the same bone structure as us.” Spitfire said this as she stood up and slowly walked forward to the mumbling girl, which she had connected to the supposed alien guy in the room behind her. The girls head suddenly and immediately looked up and right at her, zero emotion on her face.
“Repeat what you just said. Now!”
“The alien behind you that I’m pretty sure you know, he has a different bone structure than us,” Spitfire said in a calm voice, not trying to spook whatever she was talking to.
“Different bone structure? That would mean...No, that is impossible. There is no possible way that...” And that is when all the data and ideas came together to form a very simple, but universe breaking conclusion.
She and Logan were not on a human colony like they had thought, well rather she had thought. Logan had been knocked solidly unconscious by the fall, even with the suits technology. From the damage that she had seen and sensed, he had a broken arm and a broken leg along with a small armada of cuts and bruises, which meant that he was going to be unconscious for at least a day, possibly more.
But back to the main, universe breaking point though.
They had landed on a human planet, but it was not a colony. Life, in all its mysterious and odd ways, had decided to go and pretty much break every evolutionary rule by forming life intelligent life that was exactly like humanity. This was supposed to be impossible by all standards, but here it was.
And she had just gone and made first contact with them while breaking every single first contact protocol that was programmed into her.
In less than proper words, she had just fucked up to a planetary, or possibly universal degree.
And that would not look good on most resumes.
The correct way to have done this would have taken much more time and would have involved a ton of planning and research into the civilization below, then the decision would be made whether or not to initiate first contact.
“Oh fuck. Oh shit shit shit.”
“Uh...Are you alright Miss Ghostlady?” Surprise asked with concern, her usual happiness returned to her.
“Oh I’m just fine ,” she said with sarcasm dripping from her voice.
“You don’t sound fine,” Surprise said as she got up and walked towards the clearly distressed ghost person thingy.
“I’m not fine, now please back away before even more damage is done!” The girl said as she held up her hand to try to tell Surprise to stop moving towards her. Lily’s processors were beginning to get very hot as she began to think more and more.
“Okay, I’ll stand right here then,” Surprise said as she stopped moving and somewhat stood her ground. Meanwhile, Spitfire had regained her composure completely and had stood up and was now standing next to Surprise, bent on helping the poor girl.
“Hey, can I help you?”
“Yeah, yeah you can. You can start by letting me take the person in the room behind me, and then forgetting everything that you just saw, and heard. That is how you can help me,” Lily said in a much more serious tone, her usual happy tone gone. She had nearly overloaded her main CPU thinking about how this could have happened, and had inadvertently activated an emergency ‘cool down’ program.
“He is in no condition to move right now,” Heart snapped back as she stood up and moved towards the girl.
“So, because you have treated him for what, an hour, you know more about him?” Lily snapped back, very annoyed at Hearts arrogant sounding tone.
“Woah, let’s try to not have a massive brawl here. Now, can you tell us your name?” Spitfire asked, trying to keep the peace and also attempting to stop a possible intergalactic war.
“Why do you want to know?”
“Because I’d rather not call you ‘ghost’ or ‘thing’ anymore. Do you even have a name?”
“Of course I have a name.”
“And it would be…?
“Lily.”
“That’s a nice name. Now, Lily, what exactly do you want from us?”
“And what are you!”
“Soarin, I am five feet from you, you do not need to yell that loud,” Echo said as she lightly smacked Soarin in the back of the head.
“What I want has not changed in the last five minutes. I want the person in the room behind me to come with me, and for you to forget and never tell anyone about what you saw. I’m not trying to be rude, but that is what I want from you,” Lily said with a very firm tone as she crossed her ‘arms’ to further cement her point.
“Uh… Why?”
“...” Lily gave no answer at all, her face still in the same stone etched look. Spitfire was confused this by this.
Why the hell can’t she tell me why she needs him? She must know that we know that he is an alien, but what is she in all this?
“You’re not going to tell me?”
“I’m really not trying to sound rude, but why do you need to know?”
“Because I want to know what we’re dealing with before we both do something that both of us regret,” Spitfire said with the thought of an intergalactic war still on her mind.
Lily thought about this for a second, before sighing in agreement. The amount of protocol that was going to be broken was immense, but it was better for that for protocol to be broken than someone to be broken.
“Sigh… Alright, it’s no use lying when you already know so much. If I can answer it, I’ll try. What do you want to know?”
“I want to know for one, who you are, what and who he is, and why you’re here. Is that alright? I’m not going to start any intergalactic wars now am I?” Spitfire asked, surprised at how well this was going. All those boring diplomatic scifi shows she had watched were finally being useful.
Lily looked at her oddly for a moment, before bursting out in a surprisingly happy laugh. “Heh… That’s a good one, I should probably save it. But all jokes aside, unless you do something massively wrong, you don’t have to worry about some intergalactic war. Also, what you are hear is not going to leave this group, do you understand me?” An uneasy laugh was echoed by the group, still a bit concerned at the current situation.
“Ah, so you want to know who I am? Hmm… How would I describe this the best? My ‘proper’ title is Chief Science Officer, and you know my name,” she replied, a bit happier about how this situation was going.
“You’re the Chief Science Officer for what exactly?”
“That… is something that I can’t tell you exactly,” Lily said calmly, not wanting to break one of the biggest rules that existed in the Alliance Government… But then again, she was technically never a part of the Alliance Government, and this was a class one discovery.
Does that mean I could possibly break the Prime Directive?
Meanwhile, Spitfire was confused. If they already knew and had established that the guy in the room was an Alien, and that Lily was connected to him somehow, but why couldn't she tell her what she did for a living? Heck, there was a very good chance that Lily was probably an Alien her self, but that would not explain how she was able to let six bullets go right through her.
Urgh, the people on Star Voyage have it so much easier than this.
“...What about we talk about that later. So… What exactly are you?”
Lily paused for a moment, trying to think of a way to tell her… and not to tell her at the same time. As much as she was beginning to like this flame haired Alien but identical human girl thingy, she still did not want to tell her and her group everything there was about them right now.
She could go and lie and say she that she just performed a small illusion to make it seem like the bullets had gone through her, or she could just say it was magic or something along the lines of that…
Crap, I forgot I did the door thing by accident… Fuck, what the hell do I do now? Wait, what would Logan do in this circumstance? He would probably make promise to an extent to get them off his back so that he could do his job until the problem was fixed, then confront the person and go from there… That may possibly work a lot better than the whole massive lying plan that I was going to do. Fuck it, let’s do it!
“To fully explain what I am, and everything else you are going to ask is going to take time, and time something I really don’t have at the moment, so here is my deal for you guys,” she paused for a moment to let what she said sink in. “Instead of questioning just me right now, you wait for my friend to wake up, and then you can ask both of us. Sound better to you Miss…?”
“Wait, you knew Echo’s and Hearts name,” Soarin said.
“Yes, I knew theirs because they left their badges on the floor of the room when you guys walked out. Wait, how did you think I knew?” Lily asked, wondering how they thought she had found them.
“Uh...I may, or may not have thought that you downloaded our entire internet or something like that,” Soarin said with surprising confidence.
“Uh...No,” Lily said in a deadpanned tone. She also noted in her head that
“Oh, then forget what I just said,” Soarin mumbled out, his cheeks red with embarrassment
“Forgive him, he’s a little bit stupid. Anyway, my names Spitfire,” Spitfire said, reaching her arm out to shake the hand of Lily in the all so common greeting. Lily looked at her awkwardly for a moment, before reaching her hand out and shaking her hand in return. As soon as she felt her hand, goosebumps went up her back. Her hand didn't not feel… living. Her hand had no pulse that she could feel in anyone elses hand. It also had no real weight behind it, even though she was able to move Spitfires hand. Her hand jerked away from her, drawing an odd look from Lily. She gave her a sheepish smile, trying not to look freaked out but failing.
What Spitfire did not know was that this moment was the start of a friendship that would span decades, and would cause adventures beyond anything she could imagine, and cause moments of happiness, and also despair that would make even the best drama writers jealous.
But first, they had to come to an agreement, and that could be a problem.
“So, Miss Spitfire, do we have an agreement?” Lily asked in a questioning tone, hoping that she would accept and not have to use the other option.
Spitfire thought about this for a moment. She had no idea who or what these people, aliens, were or what they were doing, or what they would do to them later. But at the same time, she would still be leaving someone injured and someone who clearly cared about him for no other reason than she was scared of the unknown. Letting them stay would also get her some questions answered, and maybe some more stuff that she did not know at the time.
“...I accept your deal then Lily. You can stay here for the night, or until your friend wakes up, but I do intend for you to keep your promise, but you’re going to have to stay hidden for a bit until we can get some stuff clear,” Spitfire said with confidence.
“And that I will do. Thank you very much for letting me stay here Spitfire. In Fact, you won’t even know I’m here,” And with that, Lily disabled her physical form and disappeared, sending one last wave of shock through the team. Soarin looked around, before standing up and walking towards the doors that led to the exit of the building.
“Soarin, where are ya going?” Echo asked as she got up and followed behind him, the rest of the team joining her.
“This day has been too damn fucking nuts. I’m going to go and drink large amounts of alcohol and hopefully have a nice, drunken slumber. Feel free to join me,” And with that, he pushed the door open and walked out, leaving the doors swinging behind him.
“As much as I’m going to regret to say this, I’m going to go with him,” Blaze said as she walked toward the door, with all other members save for Spitfire, Heart and Echo. Echo looked at Spitfire with puppy eyes, in which Spitfire replied by simply waving her hand to signal her that she could go. She flashed her a huge smile, before running off and going through the door, trying to catch up with the group.
You know… Large amounts of alcohol does sound nice… Let’s see if the old Puppy eyes still got that charm.
Spitfire turned to Heart, who was busy staring at the door that led to the Aliens room took notice of her puppy eyed look and sighed. She knew that she was, as usual, was going to be the only one doing their job. She waved her hand in the same manner Spitfire did to Echo, and the results were about the same. Spitfire bolted out the door, leaving Heart standing there alone.
“I swear, if this thing tries to kill me, I am going to haunt the ever you for all of eternity Captain, and a day.”
