Celestia felt the onset of a migraine coming on as she reviewed the various and often conflicting reports on her desk. Roughly thirty-six hours ago the fifth largest city in her kingdom seemingly vanished amidst a monsoon overnight. The biggest problem – it hadn’t been swept away; it had burned down. No eyewitnesses could be found, and the only known survivors were all in the intensive care ward of Canterlot’s premier hospital. Of special note was the recovery of Shining Armor, former captain of her guard, King of the Crystal Kingdom, and until recently, husband of Princess Mi Amore Cadenza.

The hollow feeling in her gut seemed to churn as she contemplated the death of her good friend. What made it all worse was that Shining Armor’s condition appeared to be deteriorating rapidly, and none of her doctors could explain why. The news of the whole incident had yet to be released to the public, of course – there was no need to spread unnecessary panic, at least not until she had figured out what was going on.

It had only been last week when she’d been contacted by her handpicked director of scientific affairs, Precision Lathe, in a letter that indicated that project Æther had made some headway in the last few months. The fact that they were dealing with potentially destructive energies in their pursuit of limitless power did not escape her, but she had had complete faith in their ability to handle them properly. Yet, with an entire city now gone, and nearly twelve thousand people without homes, power, or even food (not to mention the twenty-eight thousand dead or unaccounted for), she was beginning to think that her faith was perhaps a little misplaced.

Now she had a potential crisis on her hands and no way of truly knowing what to make of it. Turning again to the only other pony in the room, she inquired, “And this is all we know?” Her guest, a dark eyed pony named Thorough Work, baring a tense expression of neutrality, curtly responded, “I’m afraid so, your majesty – as far as my investigation team could tell, the city appeared to have been struck by several natural disasters at once; I’ve never seen anything like it in my life, to be honest.” This did little to alleviate her stress.

“Was there any sort of magic anomaly present, anything in the wreckage that should not have been there?” – She pressed; from what little could be gleaned from the survivors’ accounts, it was obvious that something other than nature was at work here. A sudden look of uneasiness crossed his usually crafted look of indifference as he turned his eyes away from her. Obviously something had been found. “Please, Thorough, I need to know what goes on in my own kingdom.”

Turning back to her with a slightly unsettled look of pensiveness, the chief investigator of her majesty’s Central Intelligence Bureau answered in a low voice, “To be frank with you, your highness, there were several things that could not be accounted for; things that didn’t quite add up – we’re at wits end to try and explain them.” Latching on to his words, the ruler of equestrian day leaned forward and in an authoritative voice demanded, “Explain.” Taking a deep breath, the auburn haired horse turned to a saddle bag at his side and retrieved a thick manila folder, tossing it on her desk with an air of finality.

Raising an eyebrow, the solar sovereign rhetorically asked, “What is this?” Straightening himself once more into an impassive mask, Thorough Work replied, “Everything we found that wasn’t in the official report, ma’am.” With hesitant hooves, princess Celestia opened the file and perused the contents that spilled forth from its hold. Dozens upon dozens of photos, hundreds of hand written notes and even a magic motion reel. Quickly looking back up at her chief of information, she could scarcely contain the look of silent fury that danced behind her eyes.

“Why was I not informed the minute this information came to light?” Thorough Work visibly blanched as the ire that her ladyship was directing at him. With an audible gulp, he exclaimed, “Forgive me, your majesty, but the analysts who went over the evidence before you could find little in the way of solid fact – we felt that without definite answers we would have been wasting your precious time!” With a growl the diarch silenced him, “Let me make this clear to you – I do not tolerate such matters as this, ever, do I make myself clear?”

With a hurried nod, the pony replied, “Yes ma’am, crystal clear, ma’am.” Directing her attention once more to the papers on her desk, Celestia said, “Good – now, explain to me what it is that I am looking at here, and how it might explain what happened on that island.” With deft hooves, Work pulled various photos and ledgers from the stack and began arranging them on her desk. He began his explanation then, pointing at the various pictures and papers that correlated to his words.

“This is an aerial photo of the island taken the morning after the disaster – from what we’ve surmised, whatever befell the city started on the eastern shores and worked its way inwards.” Pointing to another photo, he continued, “This is where the highest levels of destruction occurred, we believe it to have been caused by the critical failure of the island’s power-core, which is shown here,” he pointed to another photo, “the core had somehow been forcibly uprooted from its housing and then drained of all energy.”

Directing her attention to a string of figures and charts, he added, “The thalmometer readings of the area were so high that the sensors had to be re-calibrated twice over – we’ve taken to labeling it a class seven magical event.” At this her eyes widened; her daily rising of the sun was only a class four magical event! Whatever was confronting her kingdom was indeed powerful. Before she could convey a proper reaction, Thorough Work proffered another photo of the destroyed dynamo, saying, “Upon further examination, a series of deep contusions were found on the core; the asymmetry of the markings exclude natural causes.”

Incredulously, Celestia spat, “You suspect sabotage?” With a pensive frown, her informant responded, “No, my lady,” before pulling out an expansive sheet of rice-paper – the topological survey of the city, written up nearly a decade before – and pointing towards a series of red marks, saying, “What we’ve come to understand is that the city was destroyed piece-meal, in increments that can be traced back to a single line starting from the eastern ‘Shores of Peace’, and ending at the power-station located on the central acropolis of Promised Point.”

Finally taking hold of the reel of film, he somberly intoned, “This film was taken from the corpse of a royal News Corp camera operator; the body was found some two-hundred plus meters from the epicenter of the of the class seven event – if you would, ma’am.” With a nod, the princess conjured forth a projector on her desk and took the reel from him, placing it in the housing before powering the device on. What she saw would haunt her for the rest of her days…

At that same time, at the other end of Canterlot, a young Alicorn was barreling her way through the crowd – ignoring everyone around her as she raced towards the Canterlot Hospital of Life. She had teleported to the city as soon as she had received the letter, and come Hell or high water, she would see her brother. As she reached the front desk, she was instantly greeted by her parents as well as some of her brother’s closest friends. There was no sign of Cadance.

Practically flying towards her mother, with a desperate tone she implored of her parents, “Where is he?” With a grimace, her father couldn’t even look her in the eyes as he began, “Twilight, yo—” Not even listening to him she continued, “Is he alright?” Again, her father tried and failed to gain her attention as she practically yelled, “Where is he – what happened?” Her mother could take no more and broke down into sobs as her father finally grabbed her by the face and forced her to look at him.

“Twilight,” he began, “Your brother – he…” With a shaky breath he tried to compose himself; she took notice of his red-rimmed eyes, and the black bags under them – he looked so much older than he should have. “Shining Armor is very sick, Twilight – the doctors are doing all that they can for him, but they’ve never seen anything like this.” A cold spear of ice seemed to pierce the purple princess’ heart as she slowly asked, “What – what do you mean?” Looking towards the others’ faces, she meekly implored, “He’ll get better, right?”

Her mother’s wailing only intensified, one of her brother’s guard buddies taking her by the shoulders and slowly leading her away from them. Something was crawling into the princess’ mind – something she refused to acknowledge, as her father continued. “Twilight – sweetie –” there, she heard it; a distinctive catch in her father’s voice – he was close to the edge – “They’ve tried to make him as comfortable as possible –” Eyes widening in understanding, all she could do was scream, “What!” before her father pressed on, intent on finishing.

“They’re only now permitting visitors, and for the sake of not only your mother and I, but for his sake; the sake of your brother - I need you to understand that there is nothing that can be done for him.” Closing his eyes to stave of the tears that threatened to pour forth, he failed to see the ones that flowed freely from his daughter’s eyes as, in a tiny voice, she whimpered, “He’s dying?” Forcing his eyes further closed, her father whispered, “Yes, Twilight – he’s dying.” Before the walls finally broke down, her father wrapped her in a bone jarring hug of desperation as the two of them began to weep bitterly.

It seemed like hours before a nurse came towards the group, his eyes full of pity as he approached them. Turning towards the patriarch of the family, he softly announced, “Sir, your son is ready to see visitors now.” With a morose air of sadness, the group proceeded after the nurse as he led them to Shining Armor’s room on the ninth floor. Before taking his leave, the orderly turned towards the group and said, “Please keep in mind that he is incredibly sick, so take care to avoid upsetting him in any way.

With that the party entered the room. What met them was a pitiful sight indeed. A mountain of magical machines and monitors lined the walls. Tubes and wires of every imaginable color snaked forth, covering the floor and ceiling. In the center of it all, on a pristine white bed, lay Shining Armor. His formerly statuesque physique little more than a withered, skeletal ghost of its former self - his once lustrous blue mane was now a dull and lifeless slate, with patches of stark white in various places. What struck Twilight most were his eyes. They were no longer the vivacious pools of life they once were. Instead they were dead and haunted.

With a slight smile and a weak voice, the former guard captain exclaimed, “Hey, this is great – get over here you lot!” He was genuinely surprised and delighted to see his family and friends; that much was clear, but something was off, and the young princess couldn’t quite put here hoof on it. As one the group of visitors gathered round the bed and began casually conversing with him. “How’re you doing, there, Captain?” asked one of his former guardsmen. “Oh, I’ve been better, no doubt,” he replied.

Another of his close friends jokingly exclaimed, “Man, you look like hell – how bad of shape is the other guy in?” With a hollow chuckle, the Unicorn replied, “I feel like hell – as for the other guy, he’s down in the morgue.” This engendered a round of laughter from his friends and a few small smiles from his family. Gently caressing her son’s face, his mother could barely hold on to her brave mask as she gasped, “Hi, baby, it’s so nice to see you.” With a knowing smile he gave her a half hug and said, “Hi mom – you’re looking good.”

With a shaky laugh she riposted, “Oh, that’s my son; charming as ever.” Approaching from his wife’s side, Shining’s father chose that moment to give his son a rare hug. “Hey tiger, you’re looking good – how’s life treating you, huh?” Twilight learned something from her brother’s reaction. Instead of the look of surprise she expected from seeing such an open show of affection from their father, he instead sent a pitying glance over the shoulder towards their mother. He knew. He knew he was dying and here they were worried about upsetting him!

“It’s good, dad – it’s… I’m good.” Giving his father a tight squeeze, he looked over his sires back and directly at his sister, who was tentatively rubbing her arm in that adorably awkward way of hers as she tried to remain unnoticed in the background. With a slight grin he exclaimed, “Hey there, Princess – how’ve things been with you – make any royal edicts while I was away?” All eyes turned towards her.

She was terrible at this whole social interaction thing - but this was her brother; she would do just about anything for him. So, putting on her best smile (which came off looking more forced than genuine) she gently stepped forward and embraced him, saying, “Yeah, I’ve gotten a few things done here and there – I even managed to find some time to visit you.” This garnered a laugh from the bed-ridden stallion, followed by a rather nasty bout of coughing. With a smirk he jokingly said, “Glad to see I could be worked into your busy schedule.

From there things went a lot smoother – they all talked to one another, all laughter and smiles – as if nothing was wrong with the entire situation. It truly bothered Twilight, more so than seeing her strong, noble brother reduced to such a lowly state. As he talked with his friends about old times, she took the chance to once more observe their surroundings. Something was off, and she needed to know what it was; she was missing something here, something that shouldn’t have been missing to begin with.

When she finally recognized what it was, the force of it hit her like a ton of bricks. Without even thinking she exclaimed, “Where’s Cadance?” All noise ceased to exist in that tiny hospital room. With the way the other ponies either looked towards her or towards Shining, she could instantly recognize that she had just wandered into something she may have best avoided. It would appear that she was the only one out of the loop, because her parents were looking at her with aghast looks of horror.

Before she could ask what was wrong, her brother, with a far-off stare, asked in a distant voice, “Could I speak with Twilight in private?” With quiet affirmations, the others silently walked out of the room. Their parents were last to leave, their mother casting a heartbroken glance towards her son one last time before shutting the door behind her. The silence that surrounded them was cold and uncomfortable; broken only by the beeping of monitors and the dull whirring of the ceiling fan.

Closing his eyes and laying his head back on a pillow, Shining Armor looked for all the world to have fallen asleep. Twilight dared not speak, she knew better than to press him – he would answer her questions in due time. Her quiet reverie was broken by her brother’s worn-down voice. “Cadance is dead.” The air was ripped from her lungs as she struggled to come to grips with this information. Cadance, dead – when had this happened, how and why?

Her heart was further bludgeoned by his follow-up statement. “I’ll be dead too, soon enough.” Though she fully understood that he was dying, to hear him say it made it so much more real to her. Immediately she cried, “Don’t say that, Shining.” Opening his eyes, he pierced her with a look of absolute assurance as he rebutted her. “I’m dying and there’s nothing anyone can do for it.” With a hiccup, the princess tried to hold back the tears that threatened to fall at his dour words.

Giving her a look of pity, he sighed, saying, “Twilight, you’ve got to understand this; you need to accept it and move on.” Glaring towards him, she shrieked, “Accept it? Move on? You’re just going to give up and die?” Ignoring her ire, he calmly lamented, “I gave up the moment she died.” “Cadance,” she asked, “what happened to Cadance, Shining?” For a moment there was silence. Then he turned towards his sister and replied. But, Instead of answering her question, he asked, “Do you believe in monsters, Twilight?” This stopped her in her tracks as she tried to comprehend where he was going with this.

“No, of course not,” she replied, already her mind was going into analytical mode as she continued, “monsters aren’t real; they’re social constructs used by parents to keep their children in line.” The deathly haunted look he gave her actually worried her as he slowly spoke. “No, Twilight, they’re real – I’ve seen one.” She wondered if perhaps his sickness was affecting his mind, but the look in his eyes said otherwise. “What happened to Cadance, Shining?” she needed to know – she needed to know what happened to the two of them.

“It killed her – it killed everyone.” She was beginning to get frustrated by his vague answers. “What killed her, Shining?” Looking her in the eye, Shining Armor told her, “The monster that destroyed Promised Point.” This was a further shock to her – Promised Point was home to one of the greatest centers of learning in the world, and to hear that it was somehow destroyed only further fueled her desire to know what happened.

“Shining, that doesn’t make sense – how can you claim such things?” She simply could not reconcile what she knew to be fact against what her brother obviously knew to be truth. With a knowing look her brother responded, “I know it’s hard for you to believe in such things, Twi', and I know that this is all so very difficult for you, but I want you to understand that what happened on Promised Point wasn’t natural, and the thing that did it is still out there.” His conviction was enough to convince her that something more was indeed going on, but she remained skeptical of his story.

“Have you told anyone else about these things?” With another sigh, he confessed, “No – nobody but you.” With a look of absolute confusion she asked, “Why – why are you telling me this?” Reaching up to wrap her in a hug, he quietly said, “Because you’re the only other person I could trust.” Hugging him back, she whispered, “What should I do then, brother – where should I go with this?” Holding her out at arm’s length, he told her, “Go to Princess Celestia; tell her what I’ve told you, and find a way to stop it.”

“But what about you, Shining?” Already seeing where she was going, he shook his head and said, “No, Twi' – I’m too far gone; the doctors have given me two weeks at most to live, and I don’t want those two weeks to be spent worrying about you hurting yourself while looking for a cure that doesn’t exist; one I, frankly, don’t want.” With a haggard gaze, he demanded, “Promise me, Twilight, look me in the eye and give me your word.” Even as she looked him the eye and swore her vow, she knew that she could save him, and while it was dishonest to lie to him, she had to try and save him, no matter what.

“Good girl.” He smiled, before lying once more upon the pillow. “Now go – tell Princess Celestia what I saw, work with everyone you can to try and figure out how to stop that thing.” With that, he fell asleep. Turning around, Princess Twilight Sparkle exited the room, informed her parents that Shining Armor was asleep, and then excused herself to go visit the princess of the Sun. There were a great many things that she needed to find out, and the first step towards answers is always to ask questions. And she had quite a few.

Author's Note

I've had this done for a day or two... I was just too lazy to post it.
The Fifth chapter is almost done as well. I'll get around to posting it some time as well.
On a different note, this chapter comes from personal experience. I've seen friends and loved ones waste away one too many times for my liking, and it's always a shock no matter how many times you come across it. I've come close to that door myself, but God chose otherwise and so I'm still alive. Some of my war buddies weren't so lucky. I'm not going to dedicate this chapter to them or any such nonsense; that would be shallow. Instead, I ask you all to try and read this with an empathetic mindset - it will greatly affect the way you perceive it.
Coming up: Survivors! The soul remainder of the crew of the Happy Dragon No.7 is found, and the creature shall finally be named (Here's a hint - It's Godzilla - shocking, right?). Next chapter deals with the world realizing that something is out there and they've no idea what to do about it. Also, Godzilla wrecks some more shit - that's always fun.
'Til then, Auf Wiedersen.