The Red Thing in the Sky

Chapter Two: What a Pretty Sunset!

The train left at abruptly 17:18. Two minutes early. Barzano had taken a seat near the back of the train, in a nearly empty car. He had a stack of mail in his bag he needed to read. He yawned as he pulled out the first envelope. ‘Mount Silver Observatory, from Equestria Innovations’ it said. “Junk,” Barzano said as he threw it in the wastebin. ‘Mount Silver Observatory, from Canterlot’ “Pffft, maybe I should have read these before hoof,” he mused. Barzano opened the envelope.

Mr. Barzano

I hope you’re enjoying that book! I heard about your accident, and I am terribly sorry to hear that, but I am glad you’re alright. Anyways, I have a job for you, the archipelago nation of Brismania is in great peril, come see me in Canterlot, and I’ll tell you more about it.

-Princess Celestia

“Hmmm, well that worked out nicely,” Barzano said, looking up from the page. He continued looking through his mail during the trip. After finally arriving at Canterlot Station, Barzano hopped off the train and headed towards the outskirts of the city, towards “Mountainside Engineers,” the large workshop where Barzano would order skyship parts, or in this case, a whole skyship.

“Barzano!” a voice cried out as soon as he walked through the door. “What can we do for ya’ this time?”

“Hello Garret, I need a new ship.”

“What happened to the old one?” Barzano made and explosion noise. “Oh, that’s a real pity. Ya’ got meh some plans eh?”

“Mmmhmm,” Barzano said as he handed the workshop manager a bundle of paper. Garret leafed through them.

“Are ya’ serious? I thought the Constellation was a lil’ rediculous! But this……..this is absurd! I mean, do ya’ have any idea what this stuff costs? Ya’ asking for aluminum, titanium, pure COPPER? Silver linings? Argon and Xenon gas? What’s gotten inta’ ya’?”

“It’s all necessary, here’s a 3500 bit advance,” Barzano dropped a bag of money onto the table.

“W-well then! I guess I’ll get to work, when do ya’ need this?”

“Yesterday”

“Oh, alrighty then! See ya’ soon, Bar,” the manager said as he walked off towards the back of the workshop.

Barzano arrived at the royal palace a few hours later. He checked the time: 19:00 hours. Well, I hope she’s already had dinner. As he walked to the gate, he was expectedly halted by a guard. Barzano produced the letter he had been mailed, and the guard let him by. Barzano finally found the princess’s quarters after some trouble, as he’d only been to the castle once before. “Princess?” He lightly knocked on the door, which was almost immediately opened in front of him.

“Hello Barzano,” Celestia said with a smile.

“You still recognize my voice? It’s been years!”

“You’re silly, I knew you were coming,” Celestia chuckled. “Come on in, we have something to discuss, although, I’m afraid it isn’t good.” Barzano nodded and followed her inside.
“So what’s this about?”

“Take a look at this,” the princess handed him a note. “Read it,” she said softly. Barzano cleared his throat.

“To anypony reading this, while on my voyages to Brismania, I have discovered a very strange phenomenon. At first, I thought it was a sunset off the horizon, but the next morning it was still there. This vast expanse of red. I also noticed that it was getting larger every hour. After a few days worth of sailing, I discovered that it was, in fact, a solid wall of red, as far as the eye could see. One of my sailors foolishly stuck part of his hoof through it, and when he pulled his leg back, the part he had stuck in was gone. He reported no pain or discomfort. With this wall ever expanding towards Equestria, I pray this letter has reached somepony of importance before it’s too late

-Captain Habakuk”

“I’m not sure what to make of this,” Celestia said, showing no emotion.

“It’s….” Barzano stared at the note, shaking.

“What? Do you know what this is Barzano?” Celestia questioned.

“Princess, are you aware that all atoms resonate at a certain, well, frequency, if you will?”
“I-I did not know that, no,” she sputtered, as if she had forced the answer.

“Well, are you aware of the Phasical Theory?”

“Ah! Yes, that I know of. What are you saying Barzano?” Celestia looked at the floor.

“I-if...if you change the resonance of atoms, you can desynchronize atoms, or, put them out of phase, and the more I think about it, the more this “Red Thing” sounds like a resonance wall,” Barzano’s face paled.

“A-a w-what? Barzano! How bad is this?” Celestia asked, again forcing emotion.

“Theoretically, if you desynchronize a large amount of atoms too quickly, the effect can cascade, forming an ever-expanding wall, desynchronizing all it touches”

“Can it be stopped?”

“Y-yes, possibly. It would ta-”

“Could you do it if you had the resources?”

“Possibly! We don’t even know that’s what this is!” Celestia took a slip of paper out of a drawer, wrote down a short memo, and handed it to Barzano.

“Recruit whoever you need, use any resources you can, and go fix this”

“Princess! I can’t be su-”

“Go! The fate of Equestria is in your hooves! I’ll make sure my citizens don’t panic, YOU need to stop this!” Celestia sighed as Barzano backed out of her room. “He better not fail….I’m ruined if he does,” she muttered to herself.