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January - Part 16,282 words
January - Part 26,300 words

January - Part 1

Logan International Airport - Terminal B
Boston, Massachusetts
January 15th, 2014. 7:00PM (Eastern Standard Time)

He had been stuck at this job for two years now and had been working late in the evening for the past nine months. Gilberto was quite certain that the job of checking passengers' tickets as they were leaving for their destination couldn’t get any more mind crushingly boring even if he wished for it, it was just not physically possible. But one must do so to appease the TSA gods, lest they go crazy with their cavity search vengeance. The lack of coffee or any sugar to help him stay awake just made it worse as did having to smile to every single passenger.

As he finished checking tickets and giving the obligatory “Have a safe flight Sir/Ma’am” with the skill of a Walmart greeter, he noticed a bright light leaking out from the window next to the gate he was manning. For a moment Gilberto thought it was the lights of a plane, before it grew brighter and he could see in front of him many passengers and staff suddenly stopping and gazing at something behind him.

He knew full well that couldn't possibly be the sun, as it had set at least an hour ago and the sunrise never made people stop in midstep to begin with. The stares of disbelief on many other people looking behind him finally pushed his curiosity to the breaking point. With a clench of his teeth, he turned and looked out the window to see what the light was, thinking it would be a light from some freak lightning storm. Instead, what he saw was one of the most amazing sights he had ever seen in his 23 years of life.

Up in the sky was a veil of gold with a slight purple tint, it looked like one of those auroras that would appear in the Arctic. But it seemed more alive, like a swarm of serpents dancing in the sky and swimming though the ocean of stars. A dance above the Earth, just for this one moment a special dance that said "come and see, something grand."

“My God that. Is. Amazing.” Gilberto said in between breaths of pure amazement at the formation above, the swirling of colors. His lower jaw twitched and shook in awe as the dance seemed to go faster and faster until it looked like the whole sky was one brilliant shade of light green, almost minty to the point someone who was color blind would confuse it for white.

“I know man. No one is probably ever going to see something like this again.” He heard the voice next to him reply. Gilberto turned his head to see Steven, one of his co-workers, looking up at the lights as well, only he had the clarity of mind to start taking pictures of the sky with his iPhone as was pretty much everyone else in sight who had the mental clarity to do anything other than stare.

Rather than just standing there staring like a daydreaming fool, Gilberto fumbled slightly as he pulled his iPhone 4S out of his pocket and began recording the light, knowing that it wouldn’t be the only video of it and by the morning, such videos would be plastered all over every news network and every Facebook page across Boston if not either all of Massachusetts, or across America, or even across the world.

The veil in the sky started flickering like an old light bulb about two minutes in. The once majestic, dancing bright gold in the sky was becoming dimmer, similar to a dirty dark yellow painted on a New York City taxi cab. The aurora was fading much faster now, as if the night sky was absorbing it back into its infinite darkness. It was succeeding as the veil was disappearing and was nearly invisible to all who had seen it glow as bright as a Hollywood spotlight mere minutes ago.

Then it vanished. There was no spectacular light show, no explosion, no anything. It just faded quietly into the night sky as if it were never there in the first place. That was it. That was the final act. Despite this, Gilberto continued to record the now empty sky for several seconds before realizing that the light wasn’t coming back and turned off his iPhone. He almost felt sad that it was over.

Before he turned it off, Gilberto took a quick look at his phone and noticed that the clock didn’t show the correct time as the time now read 6:55 PM. “What the Hell?” he sighed as he unlocked his phone to try and figure out what was wrong.

After some wasted effort, Gilberto had decided to ask Steven, who was reviewing the many pictures he had taken of the veil that had been in the sky moments ago.

“Yo, Steven. What time is it?” Gilberto called out as Steven turned his head upon hearing his name.

“Uhh it’s…aw you gotta be kidding me? The clock is messed up. Give me a second to fix it.” Steven replied.

After waiting a moment for Steven fix his phone (and appeared to grow slightly more agitated by the second), Gilberto decided to just stop this now before it went on any longer.

“Let me guess, the clock on your phone isn’t showing the right time?” Gilberto asked rhetorically.

“Yeah. How’d you know?” Steven asked.

“Because my phone’s been the same since the aurora went away.”

“Maybe its just our phones? Come on, let’s ask someone else.” Steven said, waving his arm for his friend to follow him as he also tried slapping his phone into his palm, as if giving the device a beating would fix it.

The two looked around for someone who wasn’t too absorbed in the commotion caused by the veil. The two had finally found someone, an older man in a business suit looking up at the plane departure schedule to see if the aurora had delayed his flight. The crotchety old man was scowling and didn’t seem to care much about the lights, just his flight.

“There’s someone.” Steven pointed out who he was talking about. “I’ll ask him.” Steven approached the man, who seemed absorbed in the schedule he was staring up at. His foot was tapping impatiently and he was grumbling rather loudly to himself.

“Excuse me sir but-” Steven started but was interrupted by an announcement over the airport’s intercom system.

“Attention all passengers due to previously…unforeseen circumstances, all um, all flights to and from Logan International will be delayed. We really apologize for the inconvenience.” The announcer said, sounding out of breath and unsure of what exactly to say.

The apology, of course, fell on deaf ears as the entire terminal filled with voices of discontent, frustration, and at least a few of outright anger.

“Oh, come on!”

“Are you telling me my plane is canceled because of some Goddamn light show?! Do you know who I am? I have a very important business meeting tomorrow!”

“I’ve been stuck in this place for five hours, come on I got shit to do!”

Those were just some of the remarks Steven and Gilberto heard as the two looked out at the scene in front of them. The would-be passengers were demanding answers on just why their flights were canceled because of a harmless light in the sky, many convinced that this was the famed TSA genius at work here. A few even going on about aliens or some government conspiracy or some other kind of theory.

Gilberto and Steven looked out at the scene and suddenly, like never before, they felt the life being sucked out of them at the realization that they were going to be one of the many poor bastards that would have to handle this mess and get yelled at.

“There is no way in Hell I’m going to be able to do this without a coffee.” Steven sighed with pure despair, deciding to hold off on his punishment for a little longer by going on a coffee run.

“Wait.” Gilberto said while fishing his hand into his pocket for a couple of dollars. “Bring me back one…With all the sugar!” he continued, handing his friend the money for the drink that just might give enough energy to survive the next few hours.

“Sure. You coming along?” Steven asked, wondering if he would take the opportunity for a quick break.

“No. I’ll just sit here for a minute and rest.” Gilberto replied, taking a seat on one of the nearby benches. Steven only shrugged at his reply and left to get the coffee. Gilberto buried his head into his hands, rubbing his face and wondering just why his night had to degrade into having to deal with what could turn into an angry mob. As he sat there, alone on a bench in an airport, only one thought ran through his mind.

This was going to be a long night.

Camp Phoenix - US Army Base
Kabul, Afghanistan
4:35 AM (7:05 PM EST). Five minutes before veil across America disappears.

“Well…would ya just look at that.” Private James “Sin” Sinclair uttered, nodding his head with an impressed look at the beautiful gold and purple light dancing in the early morning sky above the Afghan desert.

Private James was born in a small town in the Georgian countryside, joining the Army months after he finished high school, mostly to follow the family tradition of first born men in his family joining the Army as soon as they were eligible. That, and spending another four years in school didn’t really appeal to him, but he would never tell his family that.

Despite most people thinking that the general geography of Afghanistan as being nothing more than endless desert, the country actually had several mountains and grassy plains, reminding the young man of home a little when he had the time to reflect. Almost exactly like home, except for occasional group of crazies that try to kill him and his patrol squad or strap bombs on animals that were in their patrol path.

“I know, it looks amazing. I always thought that these, uh, whatever they’re called only appear in Alaska or Antarctica, with the penguins.” the soldier next to him, Private Alex replied.

After a minute with the veil still in the sky, James began to feel a little tired and lightheaded. Odd, considering he had taken a decent nap earlier and had been guarding the gates of the camp at night for about a few months now. The sensation soon began to change to one of pain as he felt pressure being pushed down upon his head.

“Ugh, my head is killing me.” James complained as he rubbed his forehead, hoping to ease the pain. The slight pounding in his head was about as bad as taking a rock upside the head, of which he had the honor of experiencing at least twice in his lifetime.

“Dammit gonna need an aspirin for this.” He said and was about to turn to leave when a scream nearly ruptured his eardrums.

“Argghh! Goddammit, my head!” Private Alex exclaimed in pain, falling to his knees and clutched his head with both hands. The pain going through his head was comparable to a church bell ringing right next to him. His legs kicked wildly, even kicking James by accident, as he thrashed around shouting about the pain.

“Alex!?” James asked before turning his head to shout. “Hey I need some hel-” he stopped before he could finish, seeing a sight that horrified him. Almost everyone that was outside was on the ground or clutching their heads as if they were trying to block out a loud, nonexistent noise. He didn’t know if the ones on the ground were either dead or simply unconscious. He could clearly see a few of them had begun to vomit from the noise, but this was beyond him.

‘Is this some kind of sound gun?’ He thought, he had heard of something similar being used on ships against pirate attacks near Somalia but on this scale. ‘And why am I alright?’ He wondered when his radio began blaring noise.

There was screaming and shouting all around him as everyone on base began to feel the same, either they were awoken from sleep by the noise or the shouting, James began to wonder if the locals were feeling the same or could hear their screams.

James tried to pick up his friend and carry him to the clinic when he fell to the ground. The world had started spinning and the ground felt uneven under his body. A ringing then started in his ears and only got louder and louder. He shouted in pain but couldn’t hear himself over the sound of the ringing.

He was soon on the ground. Despite the pain being so unbearable, he still remained conscious, but not for long. James collapsed to the ground, still conscious but barely. His vision was slowly fading to black, he was truly afraid now. Was this it? Was this how he would die? Not by getting shot or being blown up, but by some invisible force that was causing him unbearable pain?

He would get his answer soon enough. Private James succumbed to the pain and closed his eyes for what he is certain for the last time. Before feeling as if he were in a wind tunnel after feeling his body almost crushed by amazing forces and a sensation of weightlessness. It was like being born again, just colder.

USS Kearsarge (LHD-3)
Gulf of Aqaba
2:08 AM (7:08 PM EST). Two minutes before veil across America disappears. Three minutes after all US Army units pass out.

Seaman Charles Murphy was on the deck of the USS Kearsarge running routine maintenance on a HH-60H, the night breeze feeling refreshing to him. Most of his day had been spent either helping maintain or refuel three of the four AV-8B Harrier II V/STOLs or the six SH-60F “Oceanhawk" and HH-60H “Rescue Hawk” helicopters currently assigned to the Kearsarge or repairing about three hallways worth of light bulbs all around the ship. Except for breakfast and lunch he always had an assignment to do aboard the ship and was expected to do so before it became a problem, no different from anyone else on the ship.

“God I miss waking up in the morning, seeing the sun all gold and smiling. I never did like the night. Plus, nothing good ever happens at night anyway. Ambushes? Almost always happen at night. Someone snuck into your house? It was at night of course. Aliens come to shove an anal probe into you? Nighttime.” Charles said to himself to himself as he tried to make the time he spent on his work go faster and distract himself from the urge to constantly check the time.

He was also the only one working on the HH-60H he was assigned to at the moment, giving him no one to talk to but himself to help pass the time.

“Maybe if I’m lucky I can talk to the Captain and get swapped to a day shift.” He continued, unaware of the event that would make the day shift look much more appealing than it already was to the Seaman.

Compared to the other stars in the sky that night, one star was shining only a little brighter than the others wouldn’t be given much notice beyond a half second look. But when said star starts to glow as bright as a raging inferno, that will grab the attention of anyone who spares it more than a glance. The light from the star grew brighter and brighter by the second until it was the brightest star in the sky.

“Finally.” Charles sighed with relief as he finished up maintenance on the helicopter. “All fini-” He cut himself off as he, along with everyone else on the deck (and likely whoever would be in the bridge at the time) spotted the huge light in the sky, which by now had grown to almost epic proportions.

Despite it feeling like an eternity to all in attendance, thirty seconds of pure silence passed by, as everyone was looking at the light as it continued to glow. Some with their mouths hanging open, doing their best imitation of a fly looking at a bug zapper.

The glow was so bright that it began to feel like sunrise with some of the sailors blinking their eyes as if they were looking at the sun, their only proof that this wasn’t the sun was the position of other stars above and the fact that this new mini sun had only appeared moments ago.

“Holy shit.” Charles said in one short breath right before the light in the sky, for lack of a better word, exploded. Perhaps, exploded wasn’t the right word, but it was the closest one they could think of for what it just did. The light had suddenly turned into a blinding white flash, affecting all who had made eye contact with it. Unlike a normal explosion, it didn’t create an ear shattering boom. Then again, what was normal about the entire situation?

As everyone around him was blinded and disoriented by the light, Charles still had enough sense of mind to wonder just what caused the flash to appear. There was no way it could have been a missile of any kind. Missiles never emit a flash before they explode and it would have been detected before it even reached the ship, everyone on board would’ve been called to battle stations immediately. If Charles thought it were possible, he was sure God himself had opened a portal leading to the gates of Heaven.

‘Shit and I used to talk smack behind Grandma’s back for taking me to church….sorry granny, can you put in a good word for me?’ Charles thought as he fell to his knees, his vision still momentarily blinded by all white light. He couldn't resist the urge to rub his eyes with his hands as hard as he could.

The flash, as fast as it had appeared, had just vanished. Though most of the Kearsarge’s crew was still blind and disoriented, unable to even tell that that light was gone. It had taken a few moments before some of the crew on deck regained their bearings and more crew from within the ship were awoken.

Some tried to comprehend just what had happened. Charles was among the first to recover, only to find that the armament of the Kearsarge had some new additions to it, the ship suddenly groaning from the instantaneous addition of tons and tons of new equipment that wasn’t there before.

“Jesus Christ. How the hell did this get here?” Charles asked aloud, rubbing his left eye which was still blinded, as he spotted a US Army issue M1A2 Abrams resting right in the middle of the runway, its engine still running as if it had been on patrol or maneuvers all this time. Charles also looked around the ship, spotting several other vehicles such as M1126 ICVs and Humvees scattered throughout the deck, with their occupants inside unconscious just like their comrades sprawled across the deck. A few of them were groaning and twitching while some were holding themselves in pain.

“HEY!” Charles heard a voice called out loudly from the ocean. If this were a normal night, he would have just passed it off as nothing, but after the events so far, for all he knew, it was probably a kraken or something trying to lure him to his death.

Despite this thought Charles worked up some courage and jogged to the edge of the ship, where he looked down and felt his pulse quicken.

Instead of a mythical sea monster calling out to him, he could see a US Army soldier waving towards the ship, hoping to get out of the water before a shark came along for a midnight snack.

“Get me outta here!” The soldier yelled out “I’m not the only one here.” he continued, referencing the other soldiers that were either signaling for help as well or those face down in the water, not moving at all. A few unlucky bastards were even sinking slowly below into the dark ocean. The few soldiers that were conscious were doing their best to help keep the still comatose ones from sinking but it seemed to be a difficult fight against the cruel ocean.

“Oh God! Hey, get some lights down there! I see people down below!” Someone yelled, also noticing the soldiers in the ocean. Several others had already complied and turned on the searchlights on the edge of the ship, while others scrambled to the lifeboats on the side of the ship to get them out of the water.

“Man overboard! Man overboard!” another sailor shouted as countless life preserver vests were thrown to the soldiers in the ocean along with any other flotation devices on hand.

“Charles!” the Seaman who yelled out for someone to turn on the lights said to him, “I’ll need your help getting them out of the water. Come on, quick!”

Charles followed closely behind the Seaman as they both ran as fast as they could to the nearest lifeboat to save as many lives as they could.

“Press the button so we can get this thing in the water.” He told Charles, referring to the lift system that would lower the lifeboat into the water.

Charles pressed the button, the boat beginning to lower as soon as he pressed it. Charles quickly got in as the boat began lowering into the dark waters below.

By the time the two had reached the waters, all searchlights aboard the Kearsarge were on, bringing light to the dark waters below and two of the HH-60H Rescue Hawks on board soared into the air to provide assistance to the lifeboats already in the water.

“Only two of them in the air?” Charles wondered, still thinking to himself, despite the important task currently at hand.

“Ehh, their crews must’ve been the closest ones on hand at the moment. Everyone on the ship must still be waking up or can’t see yet.”

Once the boat had touched down onto the water, Charles revved the motor, turning it on after two strong pulls of the cord. They navigated the boat towards the soldiers still in the waters, struggling against the ocean’s current, for the sake of their survival.

“Over here!” One of the soldiers yelled towards Charles’ boat, struggling to keep both himself and an unconscious comrade from being swept away by the waves.

“I got ‘em!” Charles shouted to his shipmate, quickly tossing a life preserver out to the stranded soldiers, the one that was still conscious latched his left arm onto the life preserver, his right arm still holding tightly onto his unconscious friend.

The soldier grabbed the preserver, hanging on for dear life as much as he could with only one arm available to him at the moment. His right arm was already feeling tired from barely keeping his friend’s head above the waves with all the weight he of the equipment he had on him.

As soon as he grabbed firmly onto the life preserver, Charles began to tug them both towards the boat. He struggled a bit in the beginning, he wasn’t expecting the combined weight of both men to be that heavy. This was also his first time performing a water rescue. He had already received training on the basics of rescuing a man overboard during basic of course.

But this was his first opportunity to actually use the training, because usually a SAR (Search And Rescue) team in an HH-60H would be sent out for rescue operations. Nevertheless, Charles still pulled them both towards the boat, determined to save as many lives as he could tonight.

“Almost got ‘em.” Charles informed his shipmate when the rescued soldiers were now at the side of the boat. Once the two soldiers had reached the boat, the one that was still conscious let go of the life preserver he had been holding on to all this time, only to clutch onto the side of the boat to stabilize himself. Charles would have sworn the guy had a damn kung-fu grip with how hard he was squeezing onto the boat.

“Take him first!” the exhausted Soldier shouted, referring to the soldier he had been carrying all this time, who looked like he had stopped breathing. In one swift motion, and a cry of effort, the soldier carefully swung his comrade closer towards the side of the boat. Charles reached out towards the unresponsive soldier, grabbing him from under his arms, and hefting him aboard. The conscious soldier soon followed after.

Once they were both aboard, Charles took a look at the formerly unconscious soldier, who was now lying on his back, unmoving and wasn’t breathing.

“Listen to me.” Charles instructed calmly to the conscious soldier, who aside from still looking a bit confused as to how he had ended up in the middle of the ocean in the first place, didn’t seem to have any injuries.

“I have to get your friend here breathing again. You’re still able to stand and move, so take this” Charles continued while handing the soldier the life preserver he had used to bring him in moments ago. “and throw it as far you can to anyone who looks like they’re about the drown.”

The soldier only nodded as a reply, knowing full well that time was of the essence here and deep down the man was thankful to have a task to focus his mind on other than the possibility his friend might have drowned in his arms. Once he had turned away to assist in the rescuing, Charles quickly turned his attention to the soldier on the floor of the boat.

After confirming that the soldier no longer had a pulse, Charles removed the soldier’s tactical vest and began performing CPR by pressing the heel of his right hand on the center of the soldier’s chest and pressing down on the center of his chest.

‘Come on man, don’t be dead. Let this be a good rescue.’ Charles thought in his mind before he repeated the CPR steps in his mind.

As Charles continued to perform CPR, a dozen thoughts began to fight for dominance of his mind once he began to analyze the situation. Just what the hell caused that light? Where did all these Army soldiers come from? Was any other ship experiencing something like this? Would this guy even make it to tomorrow? Will I make it?

The only thing Charles was truly sure of at the moment was how much more he hated the night even more now.

“Another thing to add to the list.” He mused, almost laughing from stress.

“Bright flash that teleports people to the middle of the ocean? Happens during the fucking night.”

Canterlot Castle
Canterlot, Unified Kingdom of Equestria
12:00 AM. Midnight

Princess Luna had taken the time after her night court tonight to observe her sky from her personal balcony in the castle, the one that was adjacent to her royal chambers and had her telescope. The sky was clear of clouds and the moon was full, allowing for a near perfect view for all of the endless and wonderful expanse of stars. A veritable ocean of them with each star twinkling and shining down upon Equestria. But despite the beauty, something was very wrong.

To the common pony, the night would have looked as majestic as any other. But to Luna, tonight, for some inexplicable reason, felt different to her. Not because of something she had done to it, rather she had the feeling that something far out of either her or her sister’s control was going to occur. Something which had her noticeably on edge.

One of Princess Luna’s personal night guards, Sergeant Night Shade, had noticed Luna’s worried expression and was mentally debating with himself whether or not to ask the Princess of the Night if she was alright or if she needed anything. Normally, a guard’s main duty was laying down their life for either of the princesses, not making small conversation with them, giving a possible assassin a chance to sneak up on them both and take the princess’ life before he could react.

He quickly cleared his head of such dreadful thoughts. As long as he was a guard of the Princess of the Night, nopony (or rather, nobody) with nefarious purposes would ever get that close to her. Deciding that her current slightly distressed expression could imply an impending threat to both the Princess’ and Equestria’s security, combined with how Luna and her sister were usually lenient rulers, he decided to simply take a chance and ask her.

“Princess Luna?” Night Shade had spoken finally which, unknown to him, caused the regal ruler to widen her eyes in surprise at suddenly being taken out of her trance of thought.

“I could not help but notice your distressed appearance. Is everything alright my lady?” Night Shade said in his most respectful tone.

“Umm, uhh… yes Sergeant. I am fine.” Luna answered, putting on a smile but was noticeably disturbed by being interrupted while in deep thought.

“I apologize for disrupting you, your majesty. I only meant to check for your good health.” Night Shade apologized and added a bow of his head, suddenly wondering if his job was now on the line. “I also apologize for overstepping my boundaries as a guard, your highness.” He said and bowed lower, his lips almost touching the polished marble floor.

“It is fine Sergeant Night Shade, please stop apologizing like a foal whose hoof was caught in the cookie jar.” Luna replied, somewhat exasperated as the feeling of lack of control began to occupy her mind more by the minute. But she didn’t want her loyal Night Guards to feel her anger when all they wished to do was help her.

“Of course princess.” Night Shade said simply, rising from his bow and deciding not to push the matter anymore while Luna went back to overlooking her starry night sky. After five minutes of continuous silence however, Luna had decided to speak to the Sergeant once more.

“Sergeant Night Shade.” Luna spoke softly, to which Shade responded to by immediately snapping to attention.

“Yes your highness?”

“Be honest, what exactly made you ask about my condition?” Luna inquired, curious whether or not Night Shade had the same feeling of loss of control as well. It felt almost as if somepony had broken into her home and she didn’t know what had been stolen, or left behind.

“Well Princess,” he began “I simply noticed how conflicted you looked while observing your night sky. I had noticed that the last time you had the particular look, Discord broke free of his prison the following morning. It lead me to wonder if another threat to Equestria was going to return.” He said and kept his eyes forward on the Alicorn whose well-being was his duty.

By the time he had finished, Luna had an impressed look on her face, along with a sly smile. She was impressed that her guard could deduce such a conclusion by simply observing her facial features. She put aside her amazement for now and continued speaking to the Sergeant.

“In all honesty Sergeant.” Luna began but took a moment to pause and fully collect her thoughts further.

“I am not sure what it is. I feel as if an event has happened that shall not only affect Equestria, but the entire world of Equus.” Luna finished, suddenly finding herself scared at the thought of something coming that, for all she knew, could be completely invulnerable to the power of the two regal sisters and the Elements of Harmony. The thought made a small chill run up her spine as fast, as if the weather Pegasi had decided that now would be a good time to lower the temperature. Or like the time she had tried to play a prank on her sister with a bucket of ice water but ended up spilling it all over herself.

“Your majesty, if this event you speak of does indeed turn out be a threat to Equestria, then I along with every single guardspony within the kingdom shall fight to our last breath to defend our homeland.” Shade stated proudly in an attempt to reassure the Alicorn. It was an odd thing having to comfort one so powerful, and did nothing to make Shade feel better about this whole thing if it turned out that something had indeed arrived with the power to threaten to entire world.

“Seems like we have monsters and villains coming out of the woodwork these days.” Shade thought to himself.

Luna smiled, only this time it was a genuine smile, one that represented how proud and grateful she was of her guardsponies, she had zero doubt that the mares and stallions of the Royal Guard would defend Equestria with all their might or die trying.

“Thank you Sergeant Night Shade, for both speaking your concerns and for demonstrating your loyalty to me.” Luna thanked the guard sincerely. Night Shade’s only reply was to bow respectfully, though he beamed with pride on the inside at Luna’s praise and almost felt like giggling like a foal at the praise he was just given by the princess.

After a moment of praise, Night Shade rose back up from his bow, only to witness the Princess with her forelegs perched on the balcony railing along with her wings spread out ready to take off. Before she did however, she turned her head towards Night Shade.

“Sergeant, I am going to for a flight alone to clear my head. I should not be gone for long. You are to stand guard outside of my chambers until you are relieved of your duty or given further orders from your commanding officer. Is that understood?” Luna issued the order, all while casting a neutral look upon her face as she has issued this order thousands of times in her life span.

Night Shade’s only reply was to salute with his right foreleg while proudly standing straight, eyes towards the princess. Luna’s own reply was nothing more than a quick nod of her head and an extension of her wings as she leaped off of the balcony and soared majestically into the night sky, far above the line of sight of anypony on the ground.

Due to a lack of wings, Night Shade could only watch in wonder and awe from the balcony as Luna flew away with amazing speed and grace, the shape of the princess becoming smaller and smaller until she was nothing more than a speck in the night sky which was soon blocked by a passing cloud.

Before he set off to take up his post again at the lunar princess’ bedroom door, Night Shade stopped for a moment to think. He wondered if Luna was overreacting slightly to just some thaumic anomaly, that a simple feeling would mean that an imminent threat Equestria and beyond was on its way sounded rather far-fetched when one thought about it.

Of course, he would never suggest that to Luna herself, for it would be a nice way to surely get demoted both in rank and probably getting assigned to guard Prince Blueblood. The thought of becoming the personal guard of the pretentious snob alone was enough for the experienced guard to want to climb up to the top of the castle and jump off it.

Night Shade put the thoughts away and stood at his position near the entrance to Luna’s room, his mind wandered again to the princess’ worries. He hoped that another threat wasn’t on its way again, there had already been enough craziness going on in this country. What with Nightmare Moon’s return, the release of Discord, a changeling invasion of the capitol, and just recently some maniacal mare had decided that it would be a bright idea to dig up a cursed artifact and take over some backwater farming town in the hope of dominating Celestia’s star student in the field of magic.

‘Next thing we know we’ll be given orders to try and seal the gates of Tartarus to hold back some new long forgotten bad guy.’ Shade thought with a half-smile and shook his head.

‘Better not tempt fate’ his smile faded as he thought and emitted a long and tired sigh once he really realized just how much had happened within the last few years. Even if it was just one time, he just wished something relatively good would happen for once. It’d make his job a hell of a lot easier.

‘Maybe friendly aliens who wish to trade. Yeah that would be nice. Aliens are cool.’ Night Shade thought and stared forward, thinking and hoping things would be better this time.

Author's Note:

Well, here it is. Remember that idea I had a few months ago? I actually wrote it.

~~Also, I'm looking for a secondary editor. Anyone interested?~~ Position filled.

There is also a blog that answers the most common questions posted so far. Please read it before asking a question in the comments.

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GameShowBrony

GameShowBrony #1 · Jul 21st, 2014 · 18 · ·

Let me be the first to say well done. These types of stories are difficult to write. I have read lots of stories where Equestria lands on Earth and 97% were a DISASTER. When I saw this story, I was like 'Oh no, the other way around, this is going to be a train wreck.' Oh my god I was so wrong. This is one of the best fics I am reading. I have very high hopes for this story!

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