Stranded

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Four hours went by painfully slowly. With the monotone tick-tack of the clock as her only company, Luna yawned and lifted her face from the book she held in her front hooves with an expression of boredom and drowsiness. She rose from the great armchair, stretching all her limbs and trying to take off the heaviness of being for so long in the same position.

Still, for the alicorn, the long court hours at the castle still seemed to be more boring, so spending time reading a good book was much better for her.

"I have to admit that "The Lost World" is an excellent literary work full of adventures." Another yawn escaped from her lips. "But "20,000 Leagues Under The Sea" it’s even more fascinating."

Luna's stomach didn't seemed to agree with her, a slight rumor was heard in the empty library so she decided to go to the kitchen to eat something, but as soon as she was at the door, the sound of voices coming from Jack's office reminded her why she was in the library in the first place.

Glancing sideways from behind the door, she could see that several men and women were chatting in the hall while others read the newspaper, all of them waiting for their turn to speak with Jack.

Luna thought for a moment about her options, after all, she didn't want to spend the rest of the day locked in the library. She considered going down to the basement and spend some time in the Tiberius's laboratory, but the scientist hadn't yet returned home and if by accident she altered some of his experiments, she would surely be in troubles.

After a few minutes, her eyes shone as if she had discovered the cure for the cutiepox. Her horn shone faintly as her body started to fade. Once the invisibility spell took effect, Luna left the library walking out of the house where she stood in the middle of the garden.

Carefully she removed a feather from her wing and buried it in the soft earth beneath a rosebush, the roses that were of a vibrant red like blood color took a deep blue shade that gleamed slightly. "In this way I will not lose the way back home." Luna thought.

Then, with her wings completely extended Luna raised the flight.  Once she was in the air, she felt marveled by the aerial postcard of London. The city seemed like a living being with all the movement that could be observed, the people in their coming and going gave to the great Metropolis its chaotic but continuous rhythm, something that for her was more impressive than most of the cities back in Equestria.

Catching the winds under her wings, Luna flew even higher feeing really free for the first time since she'd arrived to this strange world. It was true that she missed her home with all her heart, but she also had accepted the idea that if Tiberius couldn't find a way for her to return to Equestria, she would gladly spend her life in this world with the one being she loved the most.

Luna's thoughts were interrupted by the thunderous sound of the turbines of an airplane that passed at great speed only a few meters away from her. The plane, a Hawker Hurricane fighter painted with brown and green tones moved rapidly away pirouetting through the air.

As a filly that had discovered something fun, Luna licked her lips and flapped her wings with such force that she launched her body through the air at great speed in pursuit of the plane. It didn't take her long to be side by side with the plane. Unknown to her, the radar of the plane biped marking her position to the pilot who only thought that the device had broken.

Against her own survival instinct, Luna dispelled the spell and circled around the plane for some seconds before she passed it. The pilot was speechless, there was a winged unicorn flying ahead of him, the creature was a beautiful combination of both mythical beings and he wished to have a camera, no one would believe him, more so when he saw the silver flask attached to his belt.

Luna gave one last loop in front of the plane before disappearing from the sight of the pilot. She was smiling and panting while looking at the plane disappear in the distance. She looked up as she heard more engines passing over her, the alicorn ended mesmerized by the group of fifteen planes that moved more slowly while taking different formations. In Equestria she had the opportunity of admire the aerial spectacle of the Wonderbolts, but they were far below against what these mechanical beasts could do.

After the planes vanished into the horizon, Luna descended and ended a few meters above the buildings. She flew a few minutes more until she kind of remembered some of the structures she had seen when Tiberius brought her to Jack's factory. The massive building soon came into her view, she flew over the walls and then finally landed in the middle of the machine’s yard.

The place was silent as a graveyard and Luna felt a chill pass through her body. She started to walk around the place, charred structures and walls welcomed her after she entered into one of the main warehouses where she could see raw materials still in perfect state. Luna walked towards the main building but stopped in front of one of the turbines, at its side she saw something painted in the ground with white chalk, the place where one of Jack's worker and one of the attackers died.

She kept walking, but sadness seeped into her heart. Once she found herself in the main office, the night goddess sat in the cold wooden floor. Her mind was searching for an idea to help her beloved. Money was a priority at the moment if Jack wanted to recover his factory, but Luna had no way to help him... unless...

Her front hooves touched her golden chest plate, her eyes opened wide and she rushed outside the building, smiling from ear to ear she once more flew as fast as she could towards Jack's home. She didn't even noticed the sound the massive doors of the factory being opened and the roar of heavy motors of trucks entering into the building. Several men started to descend from the vehicles and to download wooden boxes from them.

A black car entered into the factory before a couple of men closed its doors. Once the car stopped, one man opened its door and Krause Ornstein descended from it.

"Herr General, All the buildings in a radius of three kilometers have been emptied." One man told to Krause while saluting him.

“Witnesses?”

“Keine, Herr General.”

Krause smiled. “Ausgezeichnet, now, bring our guess, I need to speak with him. ”

“Bringt den gefangenen!” The soldier shouted.

Two men appeared bringing with them a beaten up Samuel Stark, blood was still dripping from the wounds on his face and his white shirt was soaked with dry blood. Krause’s men left him kneeled in front of him, the German general took his gun and used the cannon to raise Samuel's face.

“Look at you, du bist eine schande, but I must admit that I'm surprised, nobody had endured so much torture so far." Krause cocked his weapon. "I almost don't want to do this, but there should be no loose ends."

Samuel wiggled his tongue around his mouth and spat blood on Krause's face. "Go to hell you son of a bitch!”

“Arschloch!”

Krause told him and then pulled the trigger of the gun, Stark fell dead to the ground with a smoking hole in his head.

“Get this piece of shit out of here before it starts to stink.” Krause used a piece of fabric to clean his face. “Bewegen, wir haben viel zu tun.”