Chapter #1 "Starting Somewhere"
Princess Luna Glides through the cool autumn night sky as her bespangled mane and tail flows into the wind as she feels the air ruffle her wings and fur. She sighs with bliss as the wind washes over her. To Luna this wasn’t flying, but merely gliding through the air, on a imaginary feathery cloud suspended thousands of feet above ground, hovering in hoofs length from her starry night sky. She turned her head down and began to survey the ground with wandering eyes, watching as her loyal subjects, that stayed up for the nights festivities, danced around and played in the moons light at the many attractions that had been set up in a weeks advance for Nightmare Night.
The children dressed in many different costumes ranging from doctors to lawyers to police ponies. The grown ups also joined in on the fun as they too played along with their children. Zecora was even there giving her tours around inside the forest, and showing the little fillies Lunas statue. For Zecoras amusement and the fillies as well, she'd scare them from time to time, not trying to hurt them of course, but merely for the fun of the holiday. This was the reason Luna was flying so high in the first place, she knew that her subjects had no reason to fear her anymore and she could come down to see them at anytime. But she figured the safety of the fillies whose lives had barely started yet, was more important to her than public appearance. So she figured she’d keep an eye on the whole festival.
An hour went by as the party really began to kick off. Zecora took a group into the forest as the grown ups hung around with there friends, getting a short break from the children and to enjoy the festival themselves. Seeing how nothing had happen to anypony for an hour, Princess Luna decided that, now would be a good time to come down to the ground and take a break herself. Being a Alicorn did have its perks, but flying for a long time, was not one of the best ones. So, tucking in her wings, she dropped out of the sky as quick as she could and headed for the ground. She watched as the ground began to grow closer and closer as her speed grew.
Nearing the ground she flung open her tremendous set of wings and slowed herself to a rather rough stop, causing the ground to shake a bit. The ponies around her quickly turned their heads and braced their bodies out for fear and confusion. But, seeing how it was Luna and not something dangerous, they dropped all fear and quickly fell into a bow.
Overlooking her subjects, Luna spoke up over the sound of nothingness that had gripped the area since her arrival.
“Residents of Ponyville, no need show show us thy gratitude, we are already, honored to be attending this years Nightmare Night!” Her voice thundered throughout the town as she spoke. The colts and mares, along with the children who stayed behind, all stood up from there bow and began to crowd around the royal mare that stood before them, for this was not a normal occurrence. Besides Twilight, the Ponies of Ponyville never got to see royalty this up close before, besides events like holidays and fairs.
Keeping a fair distance from the Alicorn, the overjoyed ponies began to express in words how much her appearance meant to them by asking her rather casual questions like, “How are you enjoying the festival?” or “Is everything to your liking?” All of these questions she answered without delay as some of the fillies approached her up front, with disapproval from their parents. Though being merely inches away from the goddess of the moon, and they could do anything that they wished, most of them just stared at her, with gaping mouths wide open. As the Childrens parents began to move in to collect there fillies, princess luna held up a hoof to stop them. Putting on a caring smile, she spoke as softly and as kindly as possible.
“It’s okay, I do not blame them for their actions, neither should you, I am not bothered by this, you may stand down.” Hearing her words the parents stopped from interfering with her affairs and stepped away from the bunch. Luna, putting her hoof to the ground, descended to the and tucked her legs away under her getting level with the fillies that to this point still have their mouths gaping wide open. A sense of joy washed over her as the little ones in front of her, suddenly beamed with captivation as they could now truly see they rulers face.
“So young fillies,” She began as even more children gathered around her pushing past the wall of grown ups that had stayed to chaperone there fillies. “Art thou enjoying this years festivities?” she said with a upbeat tone. Most of them said nothing, but merely nodded their heads rapidly, while others spoke out and said yes. After a little while longer of going back and forth with the children, Luna took off into the sky, leaving the festival. Reaching back to normal height again she turned back around and headed towards the town hall.
Since the time she had returned to Equestria many moons ago, it was her job to visit the mayor of ponyville and check in on her, to see if she needed any help with nightmare night, that twilight couldn’t do. Passing over the many buildings of the town she again scanned the ground and looked over the festival keeping everything under check. Nearing her destination, she descended to the top balcony of the building before landing softly, trying not to recreate an accident like earlier. Making her way towards the first door, she looked inside.
She couldn’t see much, only what the light of the moon could reach. The lights were out to the top floor. She opened the door and pushed it open. As it moved inward, it creaked and echoed inside the room. The room was cold and barren of any life. The floor had wooden paneling and large sofas were grouped together in squares, with a little table in the center of them. This was the interviewing room. A light in the far corner of the room, illuminated a staircase that traveled down into the many floors of the government building.
Making her way down a flight of stairs she found herself in a brightly lit hallway the curved to the walls on her left that had windows that shown outside. To her right were doors that had little gold signs outside them showing the outside what this room was for. Passing a few, she found the one she wanted. The door she wanted to access was a large one with lots of access decorations showing it importance. The sign read,
“Mayor Mares Office.”
Pushing open the door she moved inside and looked for the mayor. Luckily for her, it more said than done, for she was sitting behind a large brown wooden desk with golden trimming. With her face in her work a white feather pen twitched rapidly as her eyes darted back and forth along a piece of paper she was currently writing on. Not hearing, or noticing Luna presence, she continued with her work. Mayor Mare was dressed in her signature clown costume she would always wear for Nightmare Night. Unfortunately for her, the suit was very old and needed to be replaced, but not to old so that that had to happen right away.
Luna made her way to the front of the desk and cleared her voice before talking.
“Good evening Mayor, sorry to interrupt, but I am here under order, as you can see.” Mayor Mare quickly stopped writing and jumped a bit to the sudden noise or Lunas speech by putting a hoof to her chest and catching herself in her office chair.
“Heavens above! Princess Luna, I’m so sorry, I had no idea you were here, pardon my ignorance Ma’am.” She said, leaving her chair and rushing over to her side to quickly bow.
“It is okay Mayor Mare, it tis rude of us to just, trot into another ponies business without introducing themselves first.” Mayor stood up from her bow and looked up at the Alicorn.
“It’s quite alright, you have nothing to be sorry about,” Moving back to her desk rather quickly she began shifting through drawers in her desk looking for something. “I assume you’re here for your Nightmare Night Tasks left by Princess Twilight?” She asked not leaving her sight from the drawers and papers.
“Indeed I am, we wish to begin soon so that the rest of this night could be spent watching everypony.” Luna answered as she moved over to the window that overlooked the center of the Village, watching as many Ponies trotted about happily. After about five minutes of searching for the paper she wanted. Mayor Mare began to think of a reason why she couldn’t find it. Because for her, if she couldn’t find a document, she either lost it somewhere, or she was never given it in the first place.
“Your highness,” She said turning to the dazed princess. “I do believe Princess Twilight did not give me any papers for me to give to you.” Luna hearing this was quite surprised. Turning around to the nervous Mayor she cocked her head in disbelief.
“That tis strange, this has never happened before, are you sure thou has checked everywhere?” she asked motioning a hoof towards her desk. Mayor Mare nodded as she began to clean up her desktop and shut the open drawers. Before Luna could say anything else, Mayor Mares eyes opened up and she quickly whipped her head around.
“As a matter of fact,” She began while placing a hoof on her chin, “I don’t believe I’ve seen Princess Twilight at all today, she said she had received an urgent letter from Canterlot and had to leave at once when I asked her for the list, so thats why I don’t have it for you.” Luna was now truly puzzled.She was never informed about this turn of events. Princess Celestia would have told her about this, but for some reason she didn’t. After exchanging a little more small talk with the mayor, she left the building with a confused feeling in her gut, on with more suspicion behind the too formulating something behind her back. After taking to the sky again, just shy of ten minutes later she received a scroll by teleport. After startling her half to death, she quickly opened the parchment that was stamped by her sister and began to quickly read it. It read,
Dearest sister Luna,
I request your appearance at once, leave the Nightmare Night festival and report to the Royal Canterlot Meeting room, we have things to discuss in private away from civilian ears. Princess Twilight and Cadence are already here, we wait upon your arrival to begin. Sorry for the inconvenience, but this is urgent.
From,
Princess Celestia
P.S: Hurry if you can.
After finishing the letter, Luna channeled her magical powers as quick as she could and teleported from the cool open sky, to the main Canterlot hall in the blink of an eye. Whisking away the letter she held with her magic while making her way down the halls as quick as possible, she mentally braced herself for whatever lay ahead. Making her way past dozens of patrolling guards, she found herself bursting through the doors of the meeting room, Magic primed ready to fight. But when she was three started Alicorns sitting at a large oval table staring at her in shock, she stood down and her cheeks turned a dark violet color as she blushed out of embarrassment as a nervous smile replaced her darkest of war faces.
“Umm, we are sorry, for the, “entry” but, it sounded as if you were in distress.” She said closing the now cracked and splintered doors of the meeting room. Celestia and the other two got up from their chairs and made their way over to the embarrassed Alicorn just as the doors, “Shut.”
“Dearest sister, we are not in trouble, and neither are you, we just needed you here to perform something secret.” Celestia said as Luna moved up closer beside her.
“It’s good to see you again Luna,” Princess Cadance began as the bunch turn around towards the end of the table. “I’m glad to be back here in Canterlot, so many sights to see and, ponies to visit.” Saying that she nudged Twilight with her wing and she blush with a small smile.
“Oh Cadence, it’s always a pleasure seeing you, and it’s even better now since i'll be seeing you a lot more often with me bing a princess.” Twilight said as Princess Cadance smiled fully. Luna smiled along with them and shared the two friends joy as she felt there happiness radiate off of them and into the room as they beemed. But remembering her reason for being here she quickly turned to her sister and began asking questions.
“Tia, I must ask a question, what art we doing here and what tis this, “Something Secret” you speak of?” Turning to her as they walked, Celestia began to explain quickly.
“Luna, remember our talking of visiting another world because we figured out away to visit other planets besides, well, our moon with magic and new forms of technology only dreamed about? Well, my scientists and wizards have finally been able to locate a planet that can sustain life such as ours, and may be able to house intelligent life. The best part is that it’s not that far away from us, only about 100 light years away!” Luna and the rest of the group became excited and began to think of the possibilities of a brand new world that they could explore and possibly colonize to expand their existence in the universe.
“Think about it!” Twilight began, “If we can construct a vessel that can take us out into the cosmos and sustain life for that many years, we might be able to see our life spans double by colonizing this planet! Maybe even make a peace agreement with aliens! The scientific possibilities are endless!” Twilight had begun to bounce excitedly as they walked. She almost bounced as high as Pinkie Pie out of her own hype before Princess Celestia broke her with a single sentence.
“Well, we need to get there first Twilight.” As soon as she heard this she floated back down to the ground and hung her head low as the excited alicon that was once there was replaced with a much sadder version.
“Yeah, I guess you’re right.” she said as Cadence placed a hoof over her shoulder, attempting to comfort the young student.
“Don’t worry Twilight, we have the next best thing.” She said as the bunch finally made it to the end of the table. Sitting down with the rest Luna picked up on Cadences words and spoke up again.
“Next best thing? what tis this?” The group all looked over at the Alicorn who now seemed to have sunken into her seat from the pressure from everypony's staring eyes.
“We are going into the minds of the unknown.” Said a rather eccentric Twilight. Luna shifted back up into her seat and looked at her.
“Unknown?” She echoed back. Celestia cut in before Twilight could answer, fearing she could go into a whole explanation.
“Basicly, we are going to use our combined Alicorn powers, and surf the universe until we find this new planet and find host body to watch over.” Suddenly, Candace butted in and added something else.
“Well, we won't be watching over it, instead, we will see what it sees. Sort of like a hands on experience, without doing anything.” Celestia nodded her head in approval.
“Right, thats what I meant to say. Here, Luna take this.” Celestias horn lit up and from the corner of the room floated a large purple book with gold trimming and a red place marker. Giving it to Luna and instructing her to turn to the page the marker was on and read, Luna began remembering the contents of the book. The book was a advanced Alicorn magic spell book, in this case, she was learning how to implement herself into another beings vision and watch what they see.
After remembering the spell rather quickly. She informed the others, and they quickly began. Celestia left the room and informed some guards to not disturb them for an hour or two. Returning to the group, Celestia used her magic to open all the windows in the room, explaining why as she did.
“With these windows open, we will have a better connection with the far side, the less blockage the better.” She stated as the last window flung open, in total 12 windows. Returning to her seat, the group began to channel the spell from their memories. Their horns lit up in their respected colors as gusts of wind began to warp around them. The wind grew and the magical essence in the room grew with it. Soon the ground began to shake as all the Alicons opened to reveal them glowing bright white. The more things shook, the larger the spell became. The guards outside the room began to feel the rumble, and quickly ducked for cover fearing a collapse.
But this did not happen, for just before the whole of canterlot could feel the rumble, the spell was cast and the shaking and the wind stopped as the group fell into the spells dream world and they quickly fell asleep. Inside the dream realm, the four lay there, in a void of epic proportions. Stars and planets wizz by them at neck breaking speeds as they quickly approach their destination set in an advance by Celestia. Reaching the planet, they awoke as the spell intended them to. But as they woke from the spells grasp, a name appeared in all of their heads. The name of the planet they had gone to.
“Earth.” Said Luna. "This planet is called Earth, what a odd name for a planet."
"Yes, it is strange, up we can't do anything about that, we have other things to look for." Came the voice of Princess Celestia.
'Where should we look?" Came Twilight.
After looking for a place to start and finding one, Princess Luna pointed a hoof down a certain spot on the globe. "How about here." She asked.
"Sure, lets go." Came Celestia as the four entities warped to the spot at lighting speed. When they hit the spot, all they saw was darkness, nothing but darkness. It was starting to scare them until they heard a voice. It seemed to be, singing?
Chapter #2 "Suns of Uncertainty,"
Date: March, 5th 2009.
Time: 4:43am.
Location: RC East (Regional Command East), South Eastern Afghanistan, East Paktika District, Combat Outpost Zerok.
P.O.V: Pv2. Andrews, 25th Infantry Division, 4th BCT, 509th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Battalion, Able Company.
“Sparta Lives,” Thats our units motto. It was spoken like second nature at the training grounds of JB Elmendorf-Richardson, back in Alaska, and it was spoken around the COP. Everyday it was said, from my battle buddies, to the platoon Sergeant, even all the way to the TOC. From the newly installed 60mm Mortar pit, to the four towers that looked over the base, and to the lands they watched beyond. It was our saying, those two simple words carried like a burning torch of destiny, and history. Embroiled in tradition, and the blood of the enemies of the United States.
Even if not said, the words were thought, if they weren’t thought, then they would surround around us like phantoms, carried by the wind and dust of Eastern Afghanistan, as if it was our shield, our veil of justice.
Even here now, lying face up at the ceiling of the quickly fashioned barracks building made of wood, rock, and high hopes, it surrounds us, me, and the rest of first squad. It is us and we are it. Frozen warriors from a far away land, here to see the enemies of man fall before us. Knights in shinning armor with great swords that could cut the sky's in half.
The morning is nigh, I hear the sounds of the surrounding wildlife beginning to wake, the cool night shifting ever so slightly, dissipating away. The hot, unforgiving Afghan sun slowly beginning to show its radiance once again, just peaking over the valley, starting a new day of guarding, patrolling, and anxiousness. My eyes, heavy with baggage look slowly around the small barracks. Soldiers twisted every which way, their chests rising up and down slowly, fast asleep, sleeping on makeshift beds, inside their BIVY’s, or on a clean patch of ground. Resting their tired heads on their arms, crossed together making the ground seem like, well, not the ground.
Living conditions aside, being inside the COP and, well, resting was heaven compared to the last few days. Our, “first phase,” operations here at Zerok, have been nonstop. We had help, but, it was every second, of every minute, of every hour, of every damn day. Resting was like a five star vacation in the Bahamas. But luckily after flying in most of our equipment by helicopter, and getting set up, linking our TOC with Forward Operating Base Orgun-E, and other general things…
We hadn’t come under serious fire, at least not yet. By, serious fire, I mean a concentrated attack. Multiple casualties, RPG’s landing inside the COP, OPFOR in the wire sort of thing. We’ve taken hits before now, but, we’ve been able to deal with that, just buy returning with indirect fire and shooting at their general bearing, hopefully wounding, or killing them. Or just waiting them out. Whatever we can take, we take, or miss the opportunity at making the valley just a little bit safer. Any lead, any sighting and report of Taliban in the area, we are to jump on it as quick as we can. Or at least that's what we’re supposed to do here. We haven’t been keeping up on our end of the bargain, mostly because we’ve been setting up these past few days. Building walls, checkpoints, gates, towers, so on and so forth. All while the heat of the Afghan sun beat us down like a hot iron pressed against a wool towel.
But with the Outpost fully constructed, or at least, to the best of our ability, comes the following weeks of patrolling the valley, and guarding the outpost from external attack. We’ve already produced schedules for the months to come, me and my unit 1st Platoon are to patrol for one week, then alternate with 2nd Platoon. While they’re out, we watch over the COP, and likewise for them while we're outside the wire. But everyday is a roll of the dice, we don’t know if it could be a lazy day with no contact, or if we're going to call for a airstrike via Apache gunship. Everyday our house of cards faces a hurricane of uncertainty, and I wouldn’t want it any other way.
Our job is to promote democracy and keep the people of Afghanistan safe while the political gears turn in Washington, and here. Peacekeepers, with a purpose is what I'd like to call us. And as the sun continues to creep above the valleys winding mountain range, casting a shadow of light through the threshold of the barracks, that day of patrolling comes upon us. I ponder amongst myself, thinking of the men around me, sleeping away, as if not wake them. My head was flooded of events that may or may not happen today. But one thing that I know for sure is that, time will tick on, the sun must rise, and it must set, and what we do in that time before the land is filled with darkness again, will determine tomorrow, and the days to come. And to that I say…
“Bring it, were ready.”
