The day was halfway gone, and Flash Sentry was still drinking coffee. There was some sort of compulsion for him to have his coffee with a little extra sugar lately, and he was almost unaware of it. This had been going on for several months now, ever since he was returned and cleared for regular castle guard duty. His stint with an Outland Unit escaped him, and it felt dreadful, as was evidenced by the folder he was staring at on the table.
Outland Unit 7 were the words printed on the front, and stamped in read beneath it: "RESTRICTED". Leafing through the documents within brought up the personnel files. His was relatively normal, but the others all had the same stamp on them.
Night Watch, Blueshift, Roofknock, Firey Tongue, Zeppelin, and Second Wind. M.I.A. Neither he nor anyone else knew what happened to them. The report said Flash was found in a somewhat delirious state, refusing to answer questions and simply staring at walls as they treated whatever wounds he had. He recovered, but even now as he stared at the file he could not remember what happened.
It had begun months earlier when he was given the opportunity to take on one of the most dangerous posts in the Equestrian Royal Guard. The Outland Patrols were simple border sentries that would alert Canterlot of anything mysterious on the nation's borders. There were very few times that any report would actually come in; the last one of any great importance was when The Crystal Empire had been freed from its imprisonment. Some patrols were more exciting than others, however. Mostly ones that patrol the southern border with the Badlands. They were a spot of trouble; it was a matter of sending escaping criminals back, capturing escapees that tried to sneak in for some banditry, and keeping nasty beasts out. It was a hard post, one that only so many volunteered for when the time came.
Naturally, he was one of the guards that volunteered for that duty. He was the lucky number 7 of Unit 7. Too lucky, apparently.
The other six were never found, and nor was the patrolling airship. No debris or any indication of a crash. Nothing. Flash was found half dead and wandering the desert by Unit 6, and the investigation impended, initially suspecting him of sabotage. It became abundantly clear this was not the case, but any further leads were non-existent. By all intents and purposes, the case went cold and became a restricted file.
Some suspected monsters, others suspected a brazen group of bandits. Others pondered the idea that Flash was the one sane stallion on an airship of traitors, who threw him over and fled further into the Badlands to begin a life of crime. Flash didn't think so, but what did he think? He had no memory of what happened. Not a one.
He glanced at the medical report in the file regarding him. Numerous minor lacerations and bruising indicative of a fight and a fall. Amnesia brought on by...
There was a knock on the door of his quarters. He put the report away and set the folder aside and went to the door. Private Flurry was standing there, giving him a quick salute.
"Sergeant Flash Sentry," she started. "Captain Flagstone requires your presence at the airfield."
"I'll be there," he answered with a nod. He turned to retrieve his armor when she interrupted him again.
"He told me to tell you it's about Unit 7."
Flash nodded grimly after a moment before shutting the door and heading off to get ready.
He saluted the officer when he arrived. "Captain."
"Sergeant," the soft-spoken yet firm Captain replied. "Did Private Flurry inform you of the reason for this?"
"She told me this is about Unit 7. Has there been a lead? Is the investigation reopened, Captain?"
"Yes and no, Sergeant." He stepped aside and pointed a hoof towards the airfield. "Do you see that airship?"
Flash Sentry could make out one of the Outland Patrol's airships, docked across the field. "Yes, Captain."
"It arrived this morning. It's Unit 7's."
Flash felt a surge of emotion well up in his chest. "The rest of them are here?" He asked after a moment. "They're back?"
"No, Sergeant." Flash stared at Flagstone in confusion. "We have a mystery on our hooves here at the airfield. That airship just came in for a landing and made all the proper maneuvers, yet not a soul was on board! It seemed as if it was piloting itself.
"We've already investigated the interior. We found neither hide nor hair of the others in the Unit."
Flash felt the surge in his chest drop into his stomach, and his orange coat paled. "That's impossible, Captain."
"We know, Flash," the Captain said. "But it happened. Regardless, this brings up an opportunity."
Flash looked the officer in the face. "What sort of opportunity?"
"The docs that looked you over after they found said your memory loss can be removed if something triggered a memory." The Captain looked grim. "That means seeing the airship from the interior may bring up something we can use to find them."
"Then I'll do it, Captain!" Flash answered nearly instantly.
Flagstone raised a hoof. "I've also been told this may make your situation worse. You might react violently when you remember."
"Doesn't matter. I want... I need to remember, Captain! I need to remember what in Tartarus happened to us out there!"
"Alright, alright! Calm down, Sergeant." The two of them crossed the field and approached the airship. It sat there as if nothing was wrong, as if it being there were perfectly natural. It was anything but, and it gave Flash a creeping feeling up his spine. Like when somepony sees a spider, but the feeling came slower and seemed much worse than that.
"Might wanna be careful about the damage," the Captain said.
"Damage?"
The Captain looked at him. "Well, yes, the damage. Right there." He pointed at the airship. To Flash, it seemed like any of the other airships. It was pristine, without a speck on it.
"I don't see any damage," he said honestly.
The Captain looked at him worriedly. "There's a hole in the top of it and the cabin's windows are gone. Its a miracle its still floating. Are you feeling alright Sergeant?"
Flash squinted at the airship and at the Captain. "I... don't see any damage, Captain. That's the truth."
"But it's not the truth to me," Flagstone said. "There's a lot of damage from what I can see. Can barely make out the ship's number on the fin." He pointed up at the number in question.
"CDF995," Flash read. "I remember that."
"What? That's not it!" The Captain said, perplexed. "It says 'MHN274!'"
Flash shook his head and started marching for the stairs up to the entrance. "That's impossible, Captain." Much like it being here. "We can't be seeing two completely different ships."
"Perhaps," the Captain whispered. "Only way that is likely is if this airship were an illusion."
"Yet you said you climbed aboard, Captain, so it can't be. Right?" Flash's creeping feeling was joined by a tingling on the back of his neck. He looked to the Captain for confirmation. The stallion further down the ramp didn't look convinced. They joined at the top of the stairway, and the Captain did the honors of opening the ship up.
Flash didn't feel anything but the creeping sense of dread as he looked inside. Simple metal and glass, with some beds towards the back that he could see as he stepped inside ahead of the superior officer. The door to the cabin was wide open, the controls in as pristine a condition as the rest of the ship (at least to his eyes).
The fact there wasn't anything obviously wrong made Flash's skin crawl.
"Something's not right. I'm not remembering anything," he said.
"The doc did say you should take your time with this." That wasn't Captain Flagstone's voice. Flash turned around and saw Private Flurry standing where the Captain had been only moments ago.
"Where's Captain Flagstone?" He asked, alarmed.
The Private glanced to the side uncomfortably. "He's back at headquarters, Sergeant."
Flash scowled and shook his head. "He was right there just a second ago! What's going on here?"
"Sergeant, please calm down." She took a cautious step forward. "Captain Flagstone has not been here since before we arrived."
Flash turned and shut his eyes. "That's not true! I saw him, and we talked!"
"I've been here the whole time," Flurry said gently. "I even read the number on the fin with you. LPN589, but..."
"That's not even what he said!" Flash stepped past her and turned, pacing up and down the airship. "Flagstone said... I don't remember what he said, but it wasn't that!"
He stepped towards the starboard windows and looked out on the airfield. He could barely make out his own reflection: his tired and bloodshot eyes looking back at him. He shut them again and leaned his head against the window. "None of this makes sense."
"The airship was gone," he continued. "Night Watch and all of them with it. They were all gone! They've been gone for... for... all that time! And only now it shows up, and no one sees what I see. The number isn't the same, the state of the ship... what did you say?"
"Sergeant?"
"The damage! The ship! Flagstone said it was heavily damaged!"
"Well, that's not true."
Flash couldn't help but feel relief. At least something was matching up to what he saw.
"Only the cabin windshield was shattered."
His heart sank again. "But it's perfectly. Fine!" He turned and looked her in the face. "Ever since I laid eyes on this ship, everything's been going crazy! Am I going crazy, Private?"
Flurry just stared at him, holding her tongue and backing up defensively.
"It's all so normal, except for the details, and then you showed up when it was Captain Flagstone!" Flash turned to the back again. "I still can't remember what happened that day and I just want someone to tell me what in Tartarus is going on!"
There was a sound behind him of a door shutting, the cabin door. Flash turned around and it had, indeed, been closed. A door like that doesn't close in a breeze, and there was no breeze to begin with. He stepped forward, next to Flurry.
"Did you see that?" He asked.
Flurry didn't answer.
"Did you see that?" He pressed again. "Private, answer me--" He turned his head where she had been, and there was no one there. The door to the airfield had been shut.
And from what he could see through the window, the airship was hovering above the desert wasteland of the Badlands.
Flash Sentry suddenly found himself charging the cabin door and throwing it open. As he entered, however, he found himself exiting. The door shut behind him, and he turned around and went through again. Once again, he exited the cabin. He grunted, and continued to try to enter the cabin. Every time he opened the door and went through, he would find himself leaving the cabin, and the door would shut. After the fifth try, he yelled in frustration and punched the wall of the ship. As soon as his hoof connected, he found himself shooting along the length of the airship, next to the bunks in the back. The airship was shaking around him.
The sound of hooves beating against the metal and glass.
He could barely make out forms surrounding the airship. His pounding heart echoed in his ears as he struggled to find something he could do against this madness.
The cabin door opened, and he saw somepony standing their, the light of the sun obscuring their appearance from behind.
"NIght Watch? Roofknock?" Flash got back on his hooves and pressed ahead, bracing himself against the quaking of the airship. "Blueshift?" He made it right in front of the door when it closed once more. "Who is it?" He grabbed the handle and forced the door open...
"Sergeant?" Captain Flagstone stood from his desk, alarmed by the entrance of a crazed Flash Sentry. The stallion began to calm down as he saw the officer, but he suddenly became very confused.
"The airship! Where is it? I was just on it!" He shouted. "I was just there! The answer, it was right in front of me!"
"Son, please!" Flagstone raised a hoof and bid him to calm down. "What airship?"
"Unit 7's! You know! You sent Flurry to my quarters and... and all of that never happened, did it?" Flash's excitement began to die down into a pit of moroseness.
The Captain waved him over and pointed out a seat across the desk. Flash wobbled over and took his seat.
"Sergeant... Flash," Flagstone started. "It's been almost four years since then..."
"Years?" Flash couldn't believe it. It felt like it had been weeks at the very least. It had to have been weeks.
"You don't remember." Flagstone shook his head. "You've had it rather hard for all this time, never speaking about what happened and almost tuning out anypony who brought up what happened to Unit 7."
Flash's exhaustion kept him from leaping to his hooves and leaning across the desk. "You know what happened, Captain?"
Flagstone nodded sadly.
"Please! Tell me! I need to know what happened to them! To me!"
The Captain shut his eyes and sighed before he began:
An airship hovered, patrolling over the barren desert of the souther Equestrian border, running along the Badlands. Their orders were to remain increasingly vigilant of Changeling activity, as the attempt to invade Canterlot had just occurred weeks prior. Everything is clear on this night in particular, or so it seems. Most of the crew, the pilot an exception, were relaxing in the main compartment, probably talking or minding their own business.
The pilot sees something, but only for a moment. Then the windshield is burst from the outside by green magic. Glass from it was later recovered, indicating this was what had occurred and not some other way of entry.
The guards in the back got to their hooves and called to the pilot. One of them rushed for the cabin door, and it burst open. Changelings swarmed into the airship in droves through the hole in the front of the ship, one of them commandeering the controls and keeping her steady. In moments, mind-flaying spells were cast on the guards and the pilot.
One of them struggled against the magic that felt as if it were tearing his skull apart, and leapt to the cabin. For one reason or another, when he jumped out of their entrance, the Changelings did not pursue, and they carried their pirated ship and prisoners deeper into the Badlands.
The guard survived his fall, but the magic was ravaging his mind. He struggled to remember what had happened, but he could barely even say his name by the time morning broke and Outlands Unit 6 recovered him. The presence of Changeling magic was the only tell for what had happened. The guard that had escape also seemed to actively repress the memory of the incident out of shame, presumably, as he would seem to not even register mention of it.
The ship, intact or in pieces, was never recovered. The six other members of Outlands Unit 7 remained M.I.A., and were still considered such.
"...add in that the ship was a new make with some sensitive equipment on board and... you took it very hard."
Flash Sentry stared at - through - the Captain as he digested it. He nodded slowly.
"I... see..." He closed his eyes and stood up. "Thank you, Captain."
Flagstone moved to the other side of the table and placed a hood on Flash's shoulder. "I'll be putting in a few words," he said in his usual soft-spoken tone. "I'd say you need a vacation."
Flash nodded dully and raised a hoof in salute before silently wandering out. The Captain sighed, and sat back down at his desk, pulling out a form, ink, and quill, and began to fill it out.
The off-duty Flash Sentry stood at the edge of the airfield, looking in. He could remember seeing the Unit 7 airship here, just waiting for him to board it. Now, there was another in its place. He closed his eyes and shook his head.
"Where did you go... where did they take you?"
He heard hoofsteps to his right, and he looked up to see Private Flurry. "Private."
"Sergeant," she replied, saluting. "Some of the troops wanted me to give you their well-wishes."
It meant little to him, and he conveyed that with a nod and a change of subject. "What are you up to now?"
She paused and swallowed. "I... volunteered. For Outlands Patrol."
He nodded again. "Where are they sending you?"
"South East."
"Badlands."
She nodded silently, not pushing the fact further. "I've been assigned to Unit 9."
Flash turned to her and smiled a sad, empty smile. "I wish you luck, then," he forced out. "Hop to it, Private."
She saluted. "Yes, Sergeant!" She turned and left, joining the rest of her Unit as they made their way to the very airship he had his eyes on. He stood their, watching it rise up after they all entered and prepared. Moments later it was passing over him, and he followed it all the way, unknowing to the fact a certain Private was watching him through the starboard windows.
"Where will you go? Where will you take her?"
He shook his head and turned around, heading for home.
Author's Note
Based in part on the Twilight Zone episode "The Arrival".
I don't know how Brad or Flash act so he's probably wildly OOC. Although from what I hear he's barely a character to begin with so MYEHfuckit.
This is my first time writing something that can be called a psychological thriller, even though I have written bizarre dream sequences before.
