//------------------------------// // And What of Everyone Else? // Story: Aim For The Moon // by CalmAndInsane //------------------------------// For once, Johnathan Smith was smiling while filling out his report. Usually his paperwork was a total bore. At best it was recording what people had thought they’d seen and giving it an inconclusive status. At worst it was reporting a prank call and putting a number on the ‘Do Not Answer’ list. But this time there had been real aliens. Honest to goodness aliens that had crashed on Earth and needed help fixing their ship to return home. One of them was even royalty! Or ex-royalty if they had indeed been banished as he speculated. John pushed back his chair and ran his hand through his hair as he tried to suppress a smile but instead found it growing wider. After all, this was just like an anime. Colorful and crazy hair? Check; three of the four were pastel colored, and the last one’s hair never stayed still. Bizarre personalities? Check; there was the comedic relief, the one that didn’t care, the banished princess, and the straight man. Superhuman abilities? Check; two of them had wings and they all had access to their advanced, magic-like technology. Non-human characters? Check; one was a pony, one was a unicorn, one was a pegasus, and the last was a thing call an Alicorn. It was incredible! … As long as their fleet didn’t come looking for them and blow up the Earth. “So you guys actually believe that Luna is a literal god?” Jessica stared across the break room table at Quick Wit, “Not a descendant of a god, not chosen by a god, but an honest to goodness divine being?” “Why do you think she isn’t?” Quick Wit asked swallowing the core of the apple she was eating, “She has power over the moon and dreams. Not to mention she’s been alive for well over a thousand years. I don’t know about you, but that’s enough proof for me.” “So what? She has a chart for the moon’s phases and locations. Maybe she can predict lunar eclipses. I wouldn’t call that ‘power over the moon’. And dreams? Really? Does that mean she can tell me what my dreams mean? Because anyone that tells you that they can is trying to scam you,” Jessica lectured. “No. It means that she can enter and manipulate dreams. Her main job is to stop nightmares,” Quick Wit countered, “And by power over the moon, I mean that she can move it. I mean come on. Don’t tell me your moon just moves on it’s own. Or maybe you all move it with electricity.” With a look of concentration she picked up another apple in her telekinesis and made it circle Jessica’s head. With a growl, Jessica snatched the apple out of its orbit. “And how the hell are you doing that?” Jessica yelled glaring at the offending fruit, “There is no metal in an apple!” On the other side of the room Double Take and Thomas had gotten fed up with the the argument and stood up to leave. “Is she always like that?” Double Take asked Thomas. “Only when I talk to her,” Thomas replied, “Usually she’s pretty quiet.” “Yeah same for Witty,” Double Take said with a nod. The two of them made their way to the semicircle of chairs in the main room. Thomas noted how, much like a dog or cat, Double Take did a little preparatory bend down to jump onto the chair. He found himself trying not to smile at how cute it was. He wound up failing miserably when Double Take spun around twice before laying down. Double Take tilted his head to the side upon seeing Thomas’s smile and asked, “What?” “Hm?” Thomas was shaken out of his thoughts, “Oh, um. I just find it fascinating how you’re able to use things designed for much larger creatures.” “A couch is a couch. As long as it fits my butt, I can sit on it,” Double Take shrugged. “Yes. Well, of course,” Thomas said, trying to find something else in the room that could capture his attention. He noticed that Russ and Hard Stuff were talking at Russ’s desk. And was Hard Stuff trying to eat a pencil? He wondered exactly what that conversation was about. He couldn’t hear them over Wit and Jessica arguing though. Meanwhile Jonathan was still at his desk, back to typing away at the report he had to fill out. “Heh, real aliens,” He muttered to himself, “This is so awesome.” “Luna is gone!?” Gasped Rainbow Dash, “That is so not awesome!” “We’re doing everything we can to find her,” Twilight assured the other elements of harmony. They had all gathered around the map table in the castle of friendship, with Celestia, Starlight, and Starswirl The Bearded. The last two had books of equations and spell theory laid out across most of the table. Twilight projected an image of the platform angled away to the side of the moon with lines and angles drawn on it “I recorded the launch and the playback shows us the last observable angel of the platform before they blinked.” “Darling, I don’t understand. If you have that then don’t you know where they are?” Rarity asked, “Why not just have somepony teleport out to them?” “Blink, not teleport. And the short answer is distance,” Starlight begin, looking up from the pages scattered about her, “If we had an exact distance and a direction teleportation would theoretically be possible…” Starlight paused to yawn. “But even then it would be too far away,” Starswirl continued, “Why do you think nopony has tried to teleport to the moon before?” Pinkie Pie raised a hoof and chimed in, “I thought it was because there was a Nightmare stuck in it.” “Though I suppose that would be a deterrent, the main reason is that it takes too much magic for anypony to handle to get to the moon,” Starswirl sighed, “The battery on their platform stored more magic in it than any being alive could hope to safely use.” “Really?” Asked Discord prying himself out of the crystal wall across from Starswirl, “Last I checked I was still alive.” With that he put two fingers of his lion paw to his talon wrist. “Hmm… I appear to be keeping time with Money today...” “Discord, I’m glad you were able to join us. I assume the explanation as to why you are late is beyond our comprehension?” Celestia inquired, her smile not faltering, her chipper tone unwavering, “After all my Sister only disappeared last night and I am certain it is well within your powers to get her back.” “Don’t give me that do goody good bullshit, I’m in the high-fidelity first class traveling set,” Discord waved Celestia off as he floated into the air and began to circle the map table, “Besides, Luna is outside my jurisdiction.” “Discord” Celestia growled, her horn now alight, “If you are implying that you can not rescue her because she has a title higher than yours…” “And again you misunderstand me,” Discord sighed, setting his back down on the table, and reaching upwards “I mean that Luna is somewhere I can not reach. There are few places my powers do not work. But she’s in one of the rare gaps that I can’t quite find purchase in.” As he said this his hands slid around and invisible sphere, trying to grab it. “After the fiasco with the changeling hive having an artifact that stopped even my magic, I’ve had to acknowledge that there are things that even I can not affect.” Discord twisted himself upright and met Celestia’s gaze. “I’m late because I traveled as close to where she should be, and while I do not think Luna is dead, I could not feel her magic.” Quick wit sat alone in the break room, watching an apple that she had placed in the middle of the table. Something was wrong with it. Jessica had left a few minutes ago, tired having different things float around her. It had been a relief for Quick Wit. Towards the end it has been hard to keep things in the air. Everything felt normal when she started, but the longer she levitated anything the heavier it had felt. Laughter caused Quick Wit’s ears to twitch. Those in the main room were having fun. Quick Wit was not having fun. Something was wrong. It may have been the apples, it may have been Jessica’s mantra of “magic doesn’t exist”. It may have been that she was stranded on an alien world. Quick Wit wasn’t sure. And that in an of itself bothered her. It felt like she couldn’t put together the pieces. She could always put together the pieces. So why couldn't she do so now? It had to be that she didn’t have all the pieces yet. Johnathan Smith grabbed his report from the printer and slipped it into a manila folder. He may have submitted an electronic copy, but this felt like too big a moment not to hand a physical copy in too. He walked past Thomas and Double Take quoting song lyrics at each other laughing to themselves. John was glad they were enjoying themselves too. As he swiped his card to exit the Project Gardener wing, he looked over to see Rusty and Hard Stuff comparing alphabets. As the door beeped and opened for him John shook his head at how Hard Stuff was writing with his mouth. It was so unbelievable. All of it was unbelievable. He grinned and shook his head again as he unlocked the second set of doors to their wing. Passing through them, John tensed up and gave a little jump. Director Males was in front of him. John figured the Director must have been waiting outside the doors for his report. John steadied himself and held out the folder, “My report for you Director Males.” “Yes. Thank you,” Cainn Males tucked the folder under his arm, “I was hoping to speak to Princess Luna. Is she available?” “She went into her room a while ago. I suspect she’s sleeping,” John answered, “I’ll tell her you were hoping to speak to her when she wakes up.” “See that you do,” Cainn Males nodded. “Yes Sir,” John said, before turning and going back to talk with the real live aliens. Cainn Males stroked his goatee while he watched the door to the Project Gardener wing close. “Magic,” he whispered to himself. And when no eyes were upon him, he disappeared.