//------------------------------// // Smoke on the Horizon // Story: Danger Close // by CoyoteXray //------------------------------// 'It is going to be an good morning,' she said to herself as she raised her muzzle to the partially open window and enjoyed the fresh breeze that spilled through the gap. She took a moment to check her watch…5:30 am. ‘No sweat’ she thought, ‘I can handle this.’ She’d handled way worse than this over the course of her career; the stench of jungle rot; numerous battles with foes of all kinds; the traps and the numerous death defying escapes; injuries and illness that would try any pony’s will. And then of course, were the other challenges; the deadlines; that cranky publisher and his ridiculous demands; and of course the fans, and all their ridiculous demands. She paused in her thinking and smiled. “Yeah right,” she said to herself with a chuckle, “and what was it the doc used to say about the dangers of buying into your own legend?” She rolled her eyes and looked once again towards the darkness around her. ‘Get your head out of your fifth point of contact’ she thought. That same cranky publisher needed this story, and she needed the peace of mind that would come with getting that favor off of her to do list. ‘Just need to get through the day…and try not to piss anypony off… THAT would be an achievement.’ Finally the carriage rolled to a stop, and the sound of hoof steps was heard as someone approached, opened the door, and peered inside. “Ms. Yearling…?” a uniformed earth pony asked. “Still here,” the mare answered, “So…are we there yet?” “Uh, well, no…not really. But we’re close…or at least as close as WE can get,” the young soldier replied. He stepped to the side, and held out a hoof as the passenger came through the door and carefully stepped off the carriage, accepting the support as she did. There wasn’t much to look at, just a dimly lit guard post, with a double layer of fencing, with corresponding gates behind it. Yearling took a thorough look around, and then turned to the young n.c.o., pausing only for a moment to adjust her glasses. “Thank you sergeant,” she said, “So, I guess I wait here then?” “Yes ma’am,” he answered, “Your guide should be here in a few minutes. Oh and…thanks for the autograph. My…uh…sister is a huge fan.” Yearling smiled and nodded. “My pleasure, and…thank you.” she replied, and she watched as he climbed back aboard the carriage and it sped off down the road. She glanced around once again. With the slowly growing amount of ambient light, she figured that she could if she wanted just do the math and get a decent idea of where she was, as land navigation was never a big issue for her. But she quickly dismissed the idea. Secrets were secrets after all, and she had to admit that she could never be 100 percent certain she could keep this one anyway. Since she was dealing with the military here, she decided to settle in and prepare for a classic example of “hurry up…and wait.” So she settled herself down and once again adjusted her glasses. They were an integral part of her disguise, but she still hated this particular pair. It sucked to think that she actually needed a correction for reading now and that what had been a prop had become a necessity. But, as she was finally getting them settled in, she heard someone approach and quickly sprang to her hoofs as a voice called out from somewhere, “Hello! Are you by chance A.K. Yearling?!?” She turned towards the sound, and spotted a tall thin earth pony in a crisp green uniform approaching, a big smile on his face and a clipboard tucked under his arm. As the guard opened the double gates, he trotted over to her. “Oh wow…uh anyway…Ms. Yearling…this is such an honor. I…I..I’m such a huge fan. I swear I must have read your entire series at least three times. Daring Doo is my absolute favorite character.” He paused. “Oh…uh so…let’s get to it then. Oh…uh…sorry again, my name’s Lieutenant Alydar. I’ll be your escort, and minder.” Yearling replied with a smile, “Minder huh? Well, I’ll try not to give you too much to mind...but I can't promise anything.” Lt. Alydar simply nodded and directed her up the path past the gate. Yearling raised an eyebrow, but kept smiling as she thought to herself, 'well, so much for my first attempt at charming.' “Well, this is all quite a surprise,” Lt. Alydar said as they walked, “You know…given all the security we have, we rarely get any visitors around here, and certainly not journalists.” “Well, I certainly wouldn’t call myself that,” Yearling replied, “And this is not something I would normally do. I just had a slow couple of weeks and I owed my publisher a favor. And apparently he knew that I knew somebody who knew somebody, so here I am.” “Well, I’m certainly glad you came,” Alydar answered, "Oh...uh...right, just follow me please." They moved up a well worn gravel path going up the hillside, eventually stopping at another fence, and another guard post. Lt. Alydar stepped forward and had a brief conversation with the sentry, who then let them pass. Their journey continued steadily upward the increasingly steep incline until they rounded a bend in the trail and came across a grove of trees. Yearling paused, and surveyed what was in front of her. The sudden change back to primeval was a bit startling and she turning towards her escort and asked with a smile, “Hmmm…I’m guessing it’s here…somewhere?” “Uh…well, yes ma’am,” he replied, and he took a few steps forward towards the grove, and suddenly half disappeared into an invisible hole. “It’s a camouflaged entrance ma’am. Given the powers of magic these days, it’s rather hard to keep much of anything secret. But as the general says, that doesn’t give us an excuse to be a bunch of lazy as…” He paused, and cringed a bit before adding, “Oh...I’m sorry about that. It’s…not always a good idea to quote General Black Jack directly. His language can be a bit salty at times.” Yearling just smiled as she followed her minder inside the cave, and down a long dimly lit tunnel, the only sound other then their own hoof steps being the hum of some sort of ventilation system. As the pair continued to advance, the lighting became better and the tunnel widened, and then changed as the walls turned white as the substance changed from a metal lattice to solid granite. Yearling was impressed. She would never have guessed that the Royal Guard’s Corps of Engineers was capable of this. But as she glanced around, a sign on the wall caught her attention, and brought her back to Equis. It was white, with black lettering, with the words, “What you see here…What you hear here…When you leave here…Let it stay here!” She plodded along behind her minder to a large cavern, dominated by a huge steel door in the midst of a steel wall covering the entire stretch in front of her. The pair paused to check with another sentry before passing through the door and moving down a hallway which led to an even larger room, filled with rows of desks, the chatter of teletype machines, and dozens of ponies moving in what seemed like several directions at once. Lining the walls were various whiteboards, each tracking some unknown variable that she couldn't decipher with just a glance. Dominating the scene on a lower level in the middle of the room was a huge table, dominated by a map of Equestria on which were numerous small wooden objects, many of them green, some red; some of them squares and a few of them rectangles, periodically moving about in a mostly linear fashion with the assistance of unicorn magic. She could only guess that the symbols represented larger flying craft, as trying to track individual pegasi would be an exercise in insanity. Still... “Well Ms. Yearling, what would you say is your…I don’t know…first impression?” Lt. Alydar asked. Yearling took another look around. “Hmmm…it’s certainly interesting. I would never have guessed that we even had anything like this,” she answered,” No offense, but given the track record that most ponies are aware of in the kingdom, one could be forgiven for thinking that the Royal Guard’s activities were much more…” “Haphazard…?” came a voice from behind. She quickly turned around towards the sound, and found herself facing a grey older looking earth pony, a bit taller and stockier than most, with dark eyes and a close cropped mane, with three stars on the collar of his green tunic. “…well, I guess that’s understandable…if not also a bit insulting.” He walked around to meet her face to face, and continued, “But we face all sorts of threats, most of which don’t draw much of the kingdom’s attention, at least till some jackass sorcerer’s apprentice comes in and changes half the population into potted plants. So, I have to leave THEM to the alicorns and the Ministry of Magic, and then low and behold everyone’s left wondering “just where in Tartarus IS the damn Royal Guard?” He then smiled and reached out to her and said, “Ms. Yearling I presume?” She smiled and nodded, “You presume correctly sir.” She then reached out and gave a proper hoof shake. “General Black Jack?” “Indeed ma’am,” he answered, “and I do hope you’re enjoying the tour so far; and my little rant of course. Yeah…let’s just say that I’ve been practicing it for a while, usually saving it for princes and bureaucrats. And it does come in handy when the topic of budget cuts comes up.” “Well, indeed,” Yearling answered, “actually, we’ve only just started the tour. But I am curious; just exactly how many of these command posts are there?” “Uh…several,” the general answered, “…dispersed throughout the kingdom as part of several regional commands. It’s our little way of trying to make up for the limitations of modern communications, magical portals not withstanding of course. And we've got plenty of resources to help us coordinate with the others when it’s necessary. It's....hardly perfect, but we've had decent luck with it so far.” “I see, that’s…rather impressive, and actually quite surprising, ” Yearling answered, before another pony caught her eye, a male pegasus wearing a well decorated dark blue uniform. She focused on the sight for a moment before she heard the general laughing behind her. “Well ma’am… can’t say that I’m too surprised that you haven’t seen a pony dressed like that before,” the general said with a note of irony, “See what you’re seeing there is the OTHER great secret we have. It’s what we like to call around here ‘the silent service’, also known to an all too few enlightened outsiders as the Royal Flying Corps.” “Well…I’m rarely called ‘enlightened’”, Yearling answered, looking towards the general with an eyebrow raised, “But I have actually heard of them. I agree though that they do have a serious image problem. It all reminds me of a conversation I had recently at one of my book signings. See, I mentioned the R.F.C. in a story of mine, and I actually had a fan of mine try to correct me on it. He was all '...you mean the Wonderbolts,' and I was saying 'No...I meant the Royal Flying Corps.' Yearling groaned. "Back and forth and back and forth," , she continued "...and the odd part is that this stallion is usually right about everything...and he was just so damn stubborn about it too. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised given my history with this guy, but I swear I just wanted to strangle him before it was over.” General Black Jack chuckled a bit to himself and replied, “Well, I'm actually quite impressed myself. I'm guessing there's probably a good story about how our 'secret' got out. But indeed…you would think that somepony out there might just wonder who is it that actually flies the four biggest zeppelins in the kingdom, or...wonder of wonders, where exactly does that snappy blue uniform that the commander of the Wonderbolts wears come from...like the entire kingdom can be covered by eight full time flyers and a hundred or so reservists.” He paused and added, “One of the little drawbacks of not being in airshows I guess.” “Uh…yes indeed,” Yearling answered, “And one would guess that invisiblity certainly doesn’t help at recruiting time.” “Uh…true,” the general answered, “I suppose you’re right about that. Well…” he started before turning Yearling in a new direction, “…I’m afraid you’ll have to pardon me. Big day ahead…with the ‘Friendship Festival’ and all…” “Oh yes,” Yearling interrupted and circled back the other way, “does that by chance have anything to do with that sign?” She gestured up to a sign on the adjoining wall that read ‘Current Alert Level’ with a small light on next to the number 4 out of a group of five. The general took a look up at the light, then looked back to Yearling, smiled and then replied, “That's a fair question, and the answer, as you no doubt suspect...is yes. We tend to get just a wee bit nervous around here when all five alicorns are in the same place at the same time. History has taught us that such events tend to attract miscreants like flies to stink. But…” he paused and turned her again, “…we should probably let you get back to the tour, just as soon as I have a word with our young stallion here….” He moved to the right and pulled Lt. Alydar aside and said to him, “Remember…no pictures; stay away from the paperwork; and keep her out of the way.” The lieutenant cleared his throat and answered, “Oh…uh, yes sir.” He quickly joined up with his charge and directed her to a different part of the room as the general turned back to his work. He scanned the room and paused when he saw several ponies hovering around a cluster of teleprinters. He looked around, and spotted one particular pony and waved her over. “Captain, is there a problem?” he asked, pointing to the cluster. “We’re not sure sir,” the unicorn mare answered, “It’s a communication failure of some type, apparently on the lines from out west. It’s certainly going to make coordination with the weather ponies a whole lot harder today.” “Yeah...among other things,” the general answered, pondering for a moment before continuing, “Captain, have the techs run some tests on the system and I want YOU," he said pointing to the other officer, "to make damn sure they find out how widespread this outage is, and give me a report when you do.” “Yes sir,” the younger officer answered, and she quickly went back to work, while the general continued to watch for several minutes before he reluctantly went on to other things. The light through the large patio door was finally reaching the opposite end of the bedroom, and was making the whole idea of getting more sleep just too hard to pull off. He reached up and pulled the pillow over his head, trying in vain for the comfort of darkness, before finally concluding that it was futile. It was only then that the stillness caught his attention, and he rolled and looked back behind him to confirm that he was alone. He rolled back the other way, and raised his head, looking over the scene. It still looked like the Los Pegasus hotel room they had occupied two days ago, but there were notable differences, like the obviously disturbed overnight bag, and the rustling of the curtain over the patio door, and what appeared to be the phone cord trailing out to the balcony. He groaned. “Not good…” he thought, and pulled off the covers and got to his hooves, pausing only a moment to stretch his wings before he plodded over and pulled the curtain aside to peer outside. As he suspected, his wife was there, the large bay Pegasus mare leaning up on the handrail, with her trusty field glasses clamped solidly between both front hooves as she watched a distant object disappearing on the horizon. He paused. It was a fetching sight, as the breeze caught her ebony mane and tail sending them drifting across her back and left flank. But the moment was lost as she quickly turned to set down the field glasses and reached for the receiver of the telephone. “O.K.,” she said to someone on the other end of the line, “did they give you any estimate of how long repairs will take?” She paused and listened, and then answered, “I understand. Tell whoever you’re sending that I’ll meet them in the lobby. I’ll try for Manechester and your team should try for Coltlumbus, and if that’s not far enough tell them to keep going. And make sure that someone gets out to the peninsula…copy that? Good… and thank you major. I appreciate the good wishes.” Her husband took a deep breath and stepped out on the patio, and apparently the sound was enough as she turned quickly to face him. The pair just looked at each other for a moment before the husband asked, “Sooo…how long have you been up?” She came down off the ledge, carefully hung up the phone, and came over to him, a strained expression on her face. “Oh…from around 5:30. I woke up at the normal time and I got a little antsy, so...I thought I’d come out for some air. And then I saw THEM…” she paused and gestured out to the open air, “… a whole damn squadron of them! Eight zeppelins, loaded with who knows how many nasty ass furballs, riding by on the R.D.F. signal right straight through the center of the damn Los Pegagsus strip! Sweet Celestia…can you imagine the military genius that came up with THAT plan!?! I swear one of those...jackasses...came so close to the hotel that…dammit I could have spit on them!" She paused as she walked back to the door and went back inside, her husband following, “So…I, of course, got on the line and called out to the aerodrome…you know…make sure that they filed a report…maybe even throw in a few key details. And it turns out that pretty much the entire telegraph system is off line. Can you imagine it!?!” she paused again as she reached the closet and began rifling through it, “Six principal lines, you would think more than enough redundancy, and all, it turns out, trunked through a central switching station, so if you get just the right major malfunction, they all go! Handy as frickin’ hell, don’t you think!?!” “Uh huh...yeah…that sounds about right. I think I got the gist of this,” her husband answered, trying to calm things a bit as his mind still somehow tried to catch up, “Telegraph companies aren’t going to invest in any more infrastructure than absolutely necessary. Brings to mind the question of why a city this size doesn’t yet have telephone service to the rest of the kingdom. And I’ve been in on that conversation. ‘Gee, why would we want to do that? Waste of resources…totally unnecessary...we’ve already got all we really need’ Yeah, we all know how monopolies operate. But," he paused, "…and I almost hate to ask, if there's a problem, there should still be the dedicated government line you could access through the arsenal? I mean please…you can’t be telling me that Equestria’s fifth largest city can’t communicate outside of the damn city limits...right?” He got what seemed like an answer as he watched her retrieve her duffle bag from out of the closet. She looked down at the bag in front of her feet, and then looked to her husband, who met her gaze. He, of course, knew what she kept there, and what locating it at his time implied. He hated that damn thing. He planted his rump, and took a deep breath, and asked, “O.K. Dawn…level with me, are we in trouble?” His wife took a deep breath and answered, “Well…if all goes according to plan, the civilian lines should be back up in an hour. Supposedly it’s mostly a case of resetting the breakers. Of course then we’d have to wait and see how long it takes a potential war warning to get through the system. Or who knows dammit...stupid ass 'Friendship Festival' crap! ” She paused, took a deep breath and then thought out loud, “Can you imagine some little colt, in one of those silly uniforms, rolling up to one of the armories, or the damn ministry? And where the hell would they send him once he got there? I really don’t think they’d let him get within a mile of ‘The Tower’.” “Hey!” he answered, waving his arm to get her attention, “You’re not answering my questions here! O.K…let me try this again. Dawn…sweetheart…are we in danger, and why can’t we communicate?” His wife looked him in the eye, and then looked down towards her bag. She raised her head and gestured towards the patio door and led him outside towards one side of the balcony, grabbing the strap of her field glasses in her mouth as she passed by. She then gave him the glasses and pointed towards something on the far horizon. He hopped up and braced himself on the rail, and leveled the glasses in the direction she indicated. He was silent for a moment, and then said in a low voice, “Grass fire on the cape…looks big. Uh…lightning strike?” He brought the glasses away from his eyes, and looked over for a response, but all he got was her shaking her head. “Not enough cover to account for that they say…and the only thing substantial out there is the lighthouse, and the weather station. They think that probably explains the damage to the government A.D. line. Something, or someone, caused a surge, which started there, ran down the line, and fried the system. The civilian lines were affected too, but their circuit breakers limited the damage. And it’s on those weirdos flight path; and according to the locals, there was no weather around that could have caused that. But, a magical burst could have, because magic is essentially at its heart just another form of energy. It’s all just a matter of how the wielder chooses to use it. ” The stallion nodded his head slowly, as he made his own calculations and came to what he assumed was the same conclusion she had. “I hate to think,” he said in a low voice, “about who or what could generate that kind of power. Do you have an idea who this is?” “Yeah…I’ve got an idea, based on the markings. ” she answered as she made her way back into the room and went over to begin unpacking her duffle bag, “if it’s who I think it is, they're aggressive enough, and I don't think they're here just to visit, but they don’t generally play with high end magic. But, who knows whom they could recruit? All it would take is one idiot.” Her husband watched silently as she unloaded her gear, starting with her flight goggles and commo gear from one end; her two tone grey flight suit from the center compartment, fairly plain except for her squadron crest on each flank where her cutie mark would normally be and her rank insignia on the cuffs; and her sheathed survival knife complete with harness from the other end. “Whatever’s going on,” she continued, “it’s got to be serious and I need to know what's up. I can’t take the chance of having that end up blindsiding Canterlot. So anyway…I...volunteered to try and fly past the break, and get a message off.” Her husband lowered his head, and took a deep breath. “Yeah,” he said, “That’s not too surprising.” He sighed and then added in a quiet voice, “You know, sometimes I really wish that you weren’t such a damn jolly volunteer.” He looked up, and saw the troubled look on his wife’s face. She faced hoofed, and answered in a low voice, “We…really don’t have any time for that conversation...if this is anything like what it looks like.” Her husband closed his eyes and took a couple of deep breaths before replying, “Yeah…O.K, you’re right. I’m sorry, that…that was a crappy thing to say. So, how far are you going?” “As far as I have to, maybe even all the way,” she answered, “I’ve got an escort going along at for at least part from a local recon squadron. After that…well, we’ll see.” “That’s a damn long flight…” he replied mostly to himself, and then turned to her and asked, “Next question…should we get out of here?” She thought about it, and answered, “It just might be the prelude to something bigger. They’re trying to get ready here, but…I’d consider it…maybe like a daytrip…sort of, at least as far as the Manechester garrison.” He nodded. “And now the next question,” he started again, “Could you help me tell the kids?” The mare looked away and sighed, and then raised her head and nodded. “Of course…” she responded. Her husband forced a smile, and moved in close and threw a wing around his wife and held her close, and said, “O.K. Ladybird…final question, for the moment. With help, I think I can make something work in this damn kitchenette. So while you get geared up…coffee?” The mare gave him a skeptical look and answered, “Oh my, on a day like this you actually have to ask?” Her husband just kept smiling and shook his head. And so, twenty minutes later, two strangely dressed pegasi took off from the midst of the crowded street and soared off to the east. But very few took note of the event at the time, and nopony who watched thought much about it.