Sharp Eye sat at his desk, folder in hoof, as he furrowed his brows in concentration. He was a detective, one of the best in Vanhoover, yet that did not help the strange puzzle that he held. After the war, everything that wasn't Equestria had been locked down form civilians, the reason being the utter disrepair the land was in. Forests turned to fields, fields turned to mud, mud then soaked in the blood of soldiers. The first civilian cruise allowed by the Equestrian government had been big news for everypony, but not as big as it was for the mediocre city of Vanhoover, the point of the cruise's departure. The whole city had been in celebration for the entire day, happy that their city had accomplished something worthwhile, making them as noticed as Manehatten and Canterlot.

Now though, it was quite possible that it would not be viewed in a positive light.

The journey to Australia from their departure point would take approximately 30-40 days. Their departure point had been in the south port of the remains of the human nation of Chile. Of course, most did not know of this, as if word got out that it was not a pony place that had sent them off but a formerly human one with human engineered ports, the outrage would be catastrophic. Heck, he didn't even know that the whole departing ceremony held in Vanhoover was just that, a ceremony. After pouring over the file he had been given on everything he needed to know he soon learned that soon after getting out of sight from Vanhoover they had used long range teleportation crystals, used by the Equestrian Military during the war to get to the other side of a continent in a single step.

The range of it just so happened to end at the southern tip of South America.

Of course, while the teleportation had been a success, the following journey wasn't. As pointed out in the file the journey would take about 30-40 days, with no available outside contact other then periodic check ins every 2 days. About day 32 did the cruise stop responding. From the looks of it the cruise simply disappeared, not a single trace left. And, as the most competent detective in Vanhoover, he was to find out what happened to it form his end, while the government tried to find out what happened outside of Equestria.

Running a red hoof through his dark mane, he leaned back in his chair, placing his back hooves on the desk. He simply sat there for awhile, pondering the possibilities. It could simply have been a storm, afterall, the weather on Earth was uncontrolled by external forces and instead ran rampant. He shook his head at the though. No, their would have been some form of a trace, even if it was just some floating wreckage that hadn't manage to sink. Whatever happened definitely wasn't to do with the weather.

He, put a hoof to his chin in thought, trying to think of other reasons. His attention turned back to the file, picking it up as he reread it. As he began to turn the page he stopped, his gaze fixated on a map in the middle of the page. it detailed the route that the cruise was taking, and the approximate area they would have disappeared if they kept on that same route. A bright red circle outlined the possible area of disappearance, being nothing more then big empty ocean. Hopping out of the chair, he grabbed his grey fedora, placing it on his head with a hoof before opening the door to leave.

He had an ocean to research.

"Look I'm telling you, I have special clearance from the government, I need access to those files." Sharp Eye explained in a frustrated tone, the young pegasus officer on the other side of the desk looking at him like one might at a complaining foal.

"And I am telling you, I don't believe you. If you have some sort of proof to show me I could let you in. Even if I wanted to, which I don't by the way, I still need proof of that sort of clearance. Honestly you mud ponies make up the wildest stories sometimes." He sneered back, deeming the conversation over he looked back down to whatever he was doing.

Sharp Eye took a deep breath at the name, calming his nerves, obviously to the amusement of the officer. Before it could go any further however, a deep grizzled voice called out from the left, "HEY! What in Celestia's name is going on here!" HE practically shouted, causing the detective to wince slightly at the volume. The officer immediately snapped to attention, saluting the clearly important unicorn now approaching them, his golden armour having many scratches and marks, while a scar ran down his muzzle.

"Sir! I was just telling this mud pony to leave sir!" The officer yelled in turn, though not nearly as loud as his superior.

The newcomer grunted before turning to Sharp Eye, eyeing him up and down as though one would an enemy combatant, "And just who are you supposed to be?" He said, his voice somehow still being louder than the officer's shout, not even trying.

"Detective Sharp Eye," Sharp Eye replied, tipping his fedora in greeting, "I have been tasked by the government to investigate a...terrible incident at sea." He explained, trying to leave out the disappearance so as not to make it public knowledge, while still hoping the unicorn would recognise what he was talking about.

The unicorn stared into Sharp's eyes for what seemed like an eternity, making Sharp nervously shuffle around, as if trying to gauge whether or not he was lying. Without warning, the unicorn turned to face the officer, an angry look on his face, "WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING MAGGOT! GIVE THIS DETECTIVE WHAT HE WANTS OR I'LL MAKE SURE YOU REGRET REJECTING HIM IN THE FIRST PLACE, DO YOU UNDERSTAND!" He screamed, sending the officer reeling back in his chair, sinking lower and lower into it with each word. At the end he saluted, stammering out an endless amount of apologies as he hurriedly typed the files into the search crystal, said files soon appearing with a *pop* on the desk. Ears ringing, Sharp Eye grabbed the files and turned back to the way he came, yet slightly happy that he would be able to get somewhere.

He was not getting anywhere.

Well sort of. One of the files that he had requisitioned were on the ocean that the cruise disappeared in, which happened to be just the southern part of a bigger ocean, the Pacific. However, instead of finding something useful as to what could have happened, it just detailed the ocean, it's weather, and how good the waters were for ships. The second file was on the military side of things. Apparently the majority of the Australian navy had been situated there, and often clashed with Equestrian ships. How they got there was a mystery however, as according to there intel the human ships could not go out that far without a resupply port, which the ponies held at the time.

This did not stop them however, and the high command dismissed it as bad intel on the human's capabilities. And while it was plausible, something else had also popped up. Apparently, every now and then, a different ship would appear alongside the Australian ones. High command once again dismissed it as just a new ship, but it would soon be revealed that, despite the striking similarities in the flag that was flown, it was not the same. At around this point, the Australian continent had almost completely fallen, with only a few key cities left standing.

He compared the military map with the map he been originally given, finding no difference between the two. Getting out a marker he copied down the most used routes by the Equestrian navy, finding that they would hop to and from the literal hundreds of islands, resupplying and taking down human resistance along the way. He raised an eyebrow, as they noticeably avoided the more direct route toward Australia. Getting an idea, he flipped to the back of the file, detailing ship losses and what caused them in the Pacfic theatre. The majority of them were in combat, either destroyed by enemy ships or jets. What did catch his eye though was the 'MIA' ones.

"HHS Rockville, contact lost at coordinates -39,-172." He muttered to himself, marking it down on the map. Which happened to be smack bang in the middle of the circle in whcih the cruise disappeared.

"HHS Candy Cane, contact lost at coordinates -46, -178." Marking it again he searched until he found another.

"HHS Platinum, contact lost at coordinates -35, -179." This continued on for some while, until finally he had gone through the entire list.

"23 ships, all disappearing without a trace. All search ships disappearing as well." He recited to himself, looking at the sprawling of the dots. One thing was connected with all of them aside from the disappearance. All contact had been lost upon entering a certain area, that being the direct way to Australia. And all disappeared within an oval of sorts, that curved down that specific part of the ocean, as if acting as a sort of barrier. And wouldn't you know it, the circle in which the cruise disappeared was right in the middle of it.

Sighing in exasperation, he grabbed the marker, circling the apparent area that the 'barrier' was protecting. Tapping the marker against his chin he stared at it for ten minutes, feeling like something should be there, yet for some reason wasn't present on the map. He couldn't shake the feeling that something was missing from it, particularly in the circle the 'barrier was protecting, like the map was incomplete.

"What are you?"

Author's Note

Guess what, schools is over so now we may finally get back to one chapter a month. Also please point out any continuity errors, as it is 11:35 pm right now and I don't have the brain power right now to go back and read all the chapters.

Have a nice day and enjoy.