Dark Days

“Move, move, MOVE!” A medic yelled as he guided his colleagues towards the wounded. It was almost drowned out in cacophony of the hustle and bustle of relieve work, compounded by the fact that there weren’t many disasters in Equestria, increasing confusion and stress. A purple Dragon with a green stomach was one of few things keeping everything from falling apart.

There probably wasn’t a Pony in Equestria who didn’t hear the explosion, at least that’s what Spike and Twilight thought. Twilight had spent about five minutes teleporting around Equestria with her insane Alicorn magic, looking for the cause, before coming back to the palace and tasked her Number One Assistant with managing the relieve effort while she warped supplies and emergency workers from around the country to the crash site.

Years spent helping Twilight with school projects that made her school professors and, on occasion, Princess Celestia’s head spin added with years of helping Twilight with her ever expanding personal library had made Spike the perfect choice for tracking supplies, staff, and recovered passengers from the Angel Wing. Not to mention the insane amount of work the young Dragon had helped mother figure with in the twenty years since she became a Princess. Spike being a Dragon also gave him the ability to give out shouts that rivaled the Royal Canterlot Voice when he needed to.

“MEDICAL SUPPLIES TO INBOUND ZONE ONE IN THIRTY SECONDS! MEDICS: ROUTE PATIENTS TO OUTBOUND ZONE 5! FIRE CREWS: PRIORITIZE THE EASTERN SIDE OF THE SHIP, BUT KEEP THE PRESSURE ON THE SOUTH!”

The years had allowed Spike to grow into more Pony like proportions, elongating his legs, tail, neck and snout. The latter taking on more of an arrow shape, similar to venomous snakes or older Dragons. Spike’s ears had also grown in length and ever so slightly in width, taking on the appearance of fish fins. He was a head shorter than an adult Mare on all fours but could hold himself steady on his hind legs, making him tower over even Celestia herself when he did stand up right. Regular exercise had given definition to his muscles that made them visible even through his countless scales, though he couldn’t hope to match the raw strength of Earth-Pony farmers like Applejack and especially not Big Macintosh.

Spike started coughing profusely. While he could indeed give Luna a run for her bits when it came to shouting, he had never had to be so loud for so long as he did today. He downed a whole bottle of water in a single sitting and put the empty plastic in a bag with all of the others. The Dragon was waiting on a Wonderbolt report on the fire that had spread into the dry grass when he saw a bright, almost pink, purple flash. Spike turned his head away just in time for the Princess of Friendship to bend space-time in a bright flash next to him.

Twilight’s ascension had made her grow roughly three inches taller and extended her magnificent horn by half an inch. Her slender wings had soft thick feathers that pillow companies would have killed for if they didn’t fade away into the ether minutes after molting, though the wings themselves weren’t much different in size to that of a regular Pegasus. Twilight had started cutting her mane to a third of the length she did when she first came to Ponyville and kept it in a Ponytail, curling it slightly so that pink stripe in blue-violet mane was dead center in the tail with the purple stripe parallel to it. She actually let her tail grow out a little more than she used too so that it just barely didn’t touch the ground, kept so well that it was similar to appearance of robes licking the floor as she walked.

“Do we need anything more?” Twilight asked with great concern. Any Unicorn would have fainted from Mana Exhaustion ten times over from the sheer amount of magic alone Twilight had used in the last hour, but Twilight herself wasn’t even phased by it.

“I don’t think so,” The diligent drake replied, “We don’t even have a whole one hundred passengers or crew MIA. With that payload you just brought in, we should have enough supplies to help anypony that isn’t dead. And we have more than enough staff to treat them.”

Spike was good at hiding, but he winced internally when he so causally mentioned the possible casualties. He had already written of almost two hundred and sixty casualties, but he knew he had to put his actual feelings on the matter aside or he wouldn’t be able to everypony that needed it.

A strong gust accompanied by a thud made the Dragon/Alicorn duo look over. A Pegasus Mare in a Wonderbolt uniform had just landed next to them. The uniform would have blended in perfectly with the Mare’s sky-blue coat if it weren’t for the yellow lightning bolt patterns on it. Even without the lightning bolts, the Mare’s rainbow-colored mane and tail would have made her stand out enough to not be mistaken for a part of the sky.

“We were able to put out the fires before they could even get close to the Galloping Gorge Nature Reserve. Spitfire is tasking the others with drenching the surround areas so that the heat from that massive firepit can’t spark any more fires.”

“Thank you, Rainbow Dash,” Twilight said as she embraced her long-time friend, “Tell the captain that her unit did a good job and that she has the compliments of the crown for her initiative.” Rainbow nodded and flew back into the air with a rainbow trail close behind.

The duo was about to get into the logistics of the relieve effort again, when they heard a loud whistle. The two looked up into the sky above the Angel Wing to see a SARS-G Wonderbolt in the sky waving a strobing red and white Mana-Flare, reusable toys made for raves with customizable colors created by magic. It had actually been Sweetie Belle that sent the petition to the crown suggesting that emergency responders could use these in their jobs. Red and White strobes meant that there were injured nearby.

Twilight looked around quickly, “Manehatten Unit one-three-seven!” The medical team stopped in their tracks when Twilight called out their service number, “Form a circle around me now, no more than six inches away.”

The medical staff did as they were told, and Twilight teleported directly underneath the Wonderbolt and the medics rushed inside the crashed ship and to the injured. Twilight was about to head over to the passengers as well, when somepony called for her.

The lilac Alicorn looked over to see a tan Unicorn in a SARS-G uniform holding a swaddled Colt, “Princess, we have a situation here.”

Twilight never liked it when people, Pony or otherwise, called her Princess or any other honorific, but didn’t correct the Unicorn given that there were more important things to tend to, “Is the Colt injured?”

“No, but I found him crying over his parents,” Explained the relieve worker, “They’re both dead.”

Twilight paled. Orphaned Foals have been unheard of since the third century of Celestia’s sole reign. Twilight didn’t know of any orphanages and most towns and cities didn’t have a policy beyond sending the Foals to distant relatives. With the Earth-Pony being so young, he probably didn’t know how to contact his relatives, if he had them to start with. Twilight bite her lip. All of the passengers aboard the Angel Wing were Canterlot natives. Canterlot was entirely unique, making it difficult to adjust to and from it. Not to mention that the public mail service has to deliver so much information concerning matters of state, that they had to refuse taking mail to and from Canterlot sent by the average citizen. The private courier services that existed were expensive, as they mainly dealt with valuable gems or equipment. This meant that this Colt would be completely separated from his friends if he was made to leave Canterlot.

“Triage him with the others. I’ll talk with the others about him,” Twilight ordered. There has to be a way to keep him in Canterlot.

The Princess of the Sun sighed deeply. That was close the Diarch thought. Celestia had just finished an impromptu press conference with the citizens of Canterlot. The Royal Summit was about to begin when that explosion shattered windows in Northern Canterlot. Fearing another attack from something like Chrysalis or Tirek: Ponies, Griffons, and everything else that called Equestria’s capital home rushed to the palace to seek refuge. Canterlot was about to riot when Celestia herself flew to the top of the palace and used her Royal Canterlot Voice so that the whole city could hear her. While the people were calm, they were still afraid.

From her vantage point, Celestia tried to see if she could find the source of the noise. Her heart sank the second she lifted her gaze from the crowded streets around the palace. She saw the wreckage of what she knew to be the TMV Angel Wing. Of the ten cruises that the crown and airline companies founded, only the Angel Wing had a course Northward, set for the Crystal Empire. The Airship was also the single largest to ever be created, being founded by not only the crown and Fancy Flight Airlines but her wealthy nephew Prince Blueblood. The Angel Wing was designed to carry a quarter million passengers and a crew of one hundred thousand.

Given the lack of scorched fields or a roaring blaze, the Sun Princess surmised that the Wonderbolts and what other aid Twilight managed to warp to the crash site. Celestia couldn’t help but smile when thinking about her former student. While Luna and herself were stunned by the unexpected noise, Twilight had already recovered and teleported herself back to the palace to retrieve Spike and asked him to organize relief efforts. Her smile dropped drastically when thought of the relief efforts. Celestia knew that the loud noise, that she now knew for a fact was an explosion, wasn’t anything good, but had been hopeful that it didn’t involve one of the Airships.

While private Airships had been built in the past three hundred years, they were privately owned and used for personal use by their wealthy owners. These so called ‘Commercial Airlines’ were meant to revolutionize travel and trade, making it easier to commune with the distant countries Equestria were proud to call allies and friends. Twilight had pointed out the possibility of building Airships for other countries as signs of friendship and to boost the Equestrian economy. But with the single largest Airship suffering a catastrophic failure, who knows how long it will be before Equestria’s allies would trust Equestrian Airships. Not to mention how this incident will affect views on Equestrian manufacturing.

Celestia shook her head and scolded herself Damnit Tia, now is not the time to be thinking of politics. Your Ponies could be dying over there.

Celestia had to resist her knee jerk reaction to teleport to the crash site and do what she could. Luna’s popular opinion was still low from her decent into madness and a few minor incidents involving customs that her sister didn’t know had died and/or were now considered offensive. Rolling her eyes at the accusations that people had made about Luna since her return, Celestia warped back into the Royal Conference Hall.

The alabaster Alicorn found herself on a Teleportation Pad, a marvelous union of technology and magic developed by Ministry of Development and Research. The Teleportation Pads were made to make Teleportation safer, acting as beacons in the trans-dimensional rifts in the fabric of space time in order to prevent people from teleporting themselves into walls, floors, or fates forbid, each other.

Stepping off of the embellished block of metal, Celestia looked to see where her sister was. The Solar Sovereigness couldn’t help but notice that her sister had excused all of the guards and government officials that were in the room and was now sitting at one of two chairs at the head of the table, rubbing her temples.

“Don’t tell me you had another argument over how much authority you actual have,” While Celestia had publicly announced her sister as her equal in government upon her return, Luna didn’t actually assume any responsibilities aside from raising and lowering her Moon until after her first visit to Ponyville. Luna did need time to familiarize herself with new laws and what were considered manners. She did well for somepony that was isolated from civilization for a thousand years.

“Pfft,” Luna raised her and faced her older sister, “Somepony in the Ministry of Inquiry accused me of botching an assassination attempt.”

“Really?” Asked Celestia, “It usually takes a few hours before somepony is bold enough to say that to your face.”

The Eternal Sisters shared a laugh before Luna spoke again, “Deputy Director Fine Comb did actually accuse me of trying to kill you.”

Celestia’s widened, “Again? I thought that talk we had those years ago had moved him,” Said talk was actually Celestia ordering the stubborn Unicorn to her office and yelling at him for three and half hours when he was caught putting spies in Luna’s guard detail when she first came back. The orange bastard openly suspected Luna being involved in everything from Celestia accidentally ordering meals that had kumquats in them, the only thing Celestia is allergic to, to hexing her bathroom tiles that one-time Celestia had slipped onto the floor getting out of the tub.

“Do we know what that was?” Asked Luna, getting back to business.

Celestia nodded her head solemnly, “The Angel Wing has crash landed about a dozen miles East of Galloping Gorge.”

Luna put her knees on the table and grasped her head as she took a deep breath, “By the Fates,” The Lunar Diarch’s eyes widened at the implications, “How much of the ship is left?”

“Almost all of it, from what I could see atop the palace,” Celestia replied, “We can’t rule out sabotage or terrorism yet, but if it was attacked, it didn’t do much more damage than what was needed to make the Angel Wing crash.”

“All of those people…” Luna said to herself softly, “You should order the Ministry of Inquiry to go investigate everything that’s left of the ship.”

“Do you want to come with me? It will help remind people that you’re my equal if we make a joint command,” Celestia pointed out.

Luna nodded her head, “Fine Comb and his minions need time to settle down before they see me in Pony again. But I would appreciate it if you could yell at that maniac in public this time.

“And you’re certain that there’s no one left aboard the Angel Wing?” Asked Twilight Sparkle.

It had been five hours after the crash landing of the Angel Wing. Both SARS-G and MOI: DCI (Ministry of Inquiry: Department of Criminal Investigation) had been ordered to go through the wreckage to look for survivors within the Airship and to determine the cause of the crash. SARS-G naturally finished their search first, only having to look for warm bodies whereas MOI: DCI had to investigate every room in the downed vessel for forensic evidence. Both gathering and analyzing potential evidence would take several days.

“Yes ma’am,” Replied the SARS-G commander, “Between our Unicorns using their magic to scan the ship for survivors and the rest of our units searching the ship manually, I am confident that there are no more Fancy Flights personnel or passengers aboard the Angel Wing.”

Twilight nodded her head, “Thank you commander, I will be heading back to Canterlot with my seneschal. That will put you and Chief Inquisitor Big Picture in joint command over the relief efforts.” Knowing Twilight’s aversion to formalities, the SARS-G commander merely nodded before leaving.

Content that the wounded were in safe hooves, the Princess of Friendship began preparations for leaving, “Spike! Do you have copies of the records you took?”

The young Dragon held up a huge mass of papers, “Right here, but there’s someone else we need to talk to before we go,” Spike gestured to the Mare next to him.

Examining the Pegasus; Twilight realized that the uniform the gray Pony was wearing did not belong to any government organization but was a Fancy Flights officer uniform.

“Hello Princess Twilight,” Started the Pony with a voice much too deep to be a Mare, “I was the captain of the TMV Angel Wing.”

Wait a second. Effeminate appearance, light gray coat, black mane and tail, purple eyes. Twilight realized that she knew this Pony, “Rumble!? Is that you.”

Rumble smiled at her, “I’m glad that you remember me Twilight, though I wish we were speaking under better circumstances.”

“No kidding,” Said Twilight, thanking her lucky stars that her coat hid her blush from Apple Bloom’s fiancé, “Spike and I need to get back to Canterlot, what was it you wanted to talk about.”

The young Stallion adopted a serious expression, “I think I know what caused the Angel Wing to crash.”