Prologue - The Coincidence
20 years. 20 years had passed since the civil war ended. Almost everything you saw 10 years ago were gone. The Captain Eclipse that I used to be is no more. The national defence system was changed, just like everything else.
I am General Eclipse, the direct commander of all Wonderbolts assets, including Weather Control and Deployment (WC&D), Royal Air Force (RAF), Civil Aid Service (CAS) and Acrobatics Unit (AU). With the gifted powers of dark magic, I am also the Prince of the Shadow Realm, with the title “The Shadow of Unseen”.
Being an immortal is kind of a big deal for me. According to the calendars I should be 22 years old today, and turning 23 2 days later, while I still look like a typical 18-year-old just like the day I was born. Lieutenant Colonel Sky Lannister, now 39 years old, had recovered from PTSD, and once again serves the nation under my command. He got a lot older than when he first joined the war almost 2 decades ago. He looked much more mature and strong now.
Today is a normal day for me. Once again sitting in my office, dealing with paper works and supervising trainings. Since the civil war ended, I didn’t really have much field actions to attend. Sometimes I feel like, things are just so peaceful to a point where things really got boring.
Whatever. I have a little filly to take care of at the same time. I don’t really fear my relationship with Bolt would end up running out of time, since we don’t age at all. I was glad that I now have a little filly now, which we agreed to name her Nova Shade, after the Nightmare Moon Incident. It was quite embarrassing to mention though. Nova is 10 years old this year, and she is an immortal just like us. She’s a pegasus, with holy magic that can also tolerate dark magic.
She really like sticking around with her mom and dad, as she would fly around the Wonderbolts Compound as long as I allow her to do so. She is an elite flyer among her age group, and I guess under the influence that her parents being soldiers, she started to like fighting too. She doesn’t really try to bully other young ponies, but acts more like a protector for the weak.
Yes. Everything is so peaceful, and quiet.
That was until 10 seconds later, someone knocked, more like banged on my door violently, almost as if he was trying to break my door.
“Come in.” I replied with my usual commanding tone.
The door opened as a stallion stepped inside my office. He had neon blue fur, yellow mane, and wore a commissioner of police uniform with a fancy white brim cap.
“General.” He greeted me.
“Good Morning, how may I help you?” I asked. Normally law enforcement units never even talk with the military, so the fact that he was in my office was enough to make me question. We do have military police, but they are considered as police rather than soldiers.
“Thank you, sir. I know we police and you soldiers barely contact each other, but this is a big deal. I had been receiving multiple reports that there are underground criminal activities thriving in Equestria, and some involving organisations and guilds.”
“Criminal Activities? Well, I thought it is supposed to be you police’s business that we soldiers were clearly informed not to interfere with.”
“That is the problem, general. You see, I had my colts sent to investigate the guilds before, not just once, but every time when they arrived at the scene to investigate, nothing could be found. I assume some one in my unit are tipping those guys off.”
“So what does it have to do with my unit then? Aren’t you supposed to be the one of finding out who’s the spies?”
“You have bigger guns and more assets than me. I think you can handle the investigation before the activities infest to all of Equestria. I just hope that you don’t have any spies in your units too. We struck an aircraft graveyard in Vanhoover a few days ago, nothing much but a few pistols were found.”
“Sounds interesting.”
“Thank you, general. I’ll be in your debt.”
“You’re welcomed.”
“Eclipse! General!” I could hear Sky Lannister running and yelling as he arrived at my office, panting.
“What is it Colonel? Calm down, brother. You’re not that young anymore.” I joked, just to levitate the serious mood in my office.
“Yeah, really funny, general. Here is a delivery to you from literally the other side of Equestria. Not sure who sent this, but he said it is important and for your eyes only. I was told to send this to you.”
“Did you make sure nothing inside of this thing is gonna kill me?”
“No bombs, no Sarin gas, no poison, no electric shocking. And hopefully nothing else.”
“Alright, thank you Lannister.”
“So, I guess I’ll take my leave then.” The commissioner left my office as we spoke. I didn’t really care about his rude leave, but I didn’t like that guy anyways, meh.
After he left, I checked my delivery. It was a big envelope, made of specialised aluminium foil that was tough to rip apart by bare hoof. It wrote crudely on the envelope with a black marker pen “To Eclipse, the Commander of the Air Force.”
I opened the envelope cautiously with a knife, nothing but a piece of paper was inside, which it wrote in poor writing,
“Dear Eclipse,
I know everything about the underground guilds, and we could surely share some information.
Vanhoover, 1930 03 02 32 2CE, Your Alias will be “Finsternis”.
Come Alone, and keep this secret. Destroy this paper.
-Crisys”
Crisys? What kind of name is that? Come alone? Vanhoover? Alias? The numbers? There were just so many question in my head.
Sounded just like those fishy scam mails, maybe trying to kidnap me and net himself a few billion bits?
But he said he knew what is with the guilds? The same thing that dumb commissioner was asking me to help him with? Coincidence? Could it be?
But what if Crisys was lying? Or what if that dumb head was lying?
Only one way to find out.
