//------------------------------// // Chapter 5 | Formidable Discoveries & Troubles // Story: Golf Echo Bravo // by part time pony //------------------------------// 192 Hours after the disappearance of Golf Echo Bravo Westmann Islands, Iceland Over a week had passed since the last contact with Air Traffic Control was made with the missing aircraft. Since then, there was slow progress. That was until the white unmarked truck arrived last morning. The main room of the warehouse was now a complete mess, since the investigation had begun, little to no cleaning had been done. Which made navigating through the room slightly difficult. Álfur opened the door to the main room as he entered, removing his coat that was soaked by the heavy rainfall outside. By now, the entire initial investigation team had arrived, with Ebba arriving last due to complications with air travel. The volcano that had happened on the same day as the disappearance had only recently stopped shooting out ash and airlines were slowly resuming their routes, during the disappearance she had been on a short trip to Sweden. As for the rookie, who's name is Björn, he had arrived yesterday along with Álfur to receive a short briefing on what to do. "Lovely weather outside surely?" Ebba asked sarcastically. "Oh yes, 30 degrees*, the sun is shining with no clouds at all. Perfect day for the beach with the family I'd say." The completely soaked Álfur said in response. The two shared a short and quiet laugh as Álfur moved towards the big table in the room, containing multiple evidence boxes with ICG labelling. Some of them were already opened, the boxes in question were the items that came with the truck yesterday. The patrol boat had found something suspicious in the water, so it called down some other boats which included scuba divers. After having dived the entire day, they had found items which could help in the investigation. The items in question were a series of different things, some were aeroplane related, and others were unknown to the team. Björn was currently inspecting the items that supposedly came from an aircraft, however, after a quick 30-minute search he made his conclusion. "Sorry boss, these aircraft parts are not the ones from Golf Echo Bravo, registration numbers don't match and the parts are well over 5 years old, and our missing plane is less than a year old," Björn said, he dropped a piece looking like a small fragment from a flaperon into the same evidence box where it came from, then closing the lid. "Well, what are they doing in the ocean then?" Álfur asked. "My guess, related to that engine explosion that happened two years ago over Svalbard, these items must've made their way to the coast of Iceland with the current." The rookie said in response. Álfur nodded, accepting the theory of Björn as possible and went towards the unopened boxes. As he got there, he first examined the orange and white evidence box, on one of the sides there was a small description, likely to be made after a quick assessment by one of the sailors. The description read; "Aircraft part with unknown material painted across" The Lead Investigator opened the lid of the box carefully. Putting the lid aside his attention shifted towards the object inside. A quite large part, looking like it belonged to the hull. It had minor rust on it and towards the right, it had a mysterious material painted over it. Which Álfur thought were burnt parts probably from the engine explosion Björn explained earlier. However, curious still, he put on disposable gloves and ran his hand through the supposedly burnt part of the hull piece, to his surprise, the piece wasn't charred at all but instead, it was some sort of dust that glued itself on the piece. Being convinced this could be a piece from the missing aircraft he turned the object around to see if there was a registration number hidden somewhere. He eventually found one and memorised it as he put the object back in the evidence box without closing it. He threw the disposable gloves into the nearest trash bin, missing it and ran over to his laptop where he checked whether it was a match. It was, and Álfur quickly made an announcement. "Drop what you're doing, right now." He said in a loud voice. He took a short break then continued. "We've got a piece, that matches." he finished, walking back to the evidence box. The others gathered around, and Álfur went through what he discovered so far. Úlrik however, was confused still. "If they found this piece, why didn't they find others? I mean, 8 days isn't long enough for them to drift to the UK or Norway or somewhere in the Atlantic." He said. "I'll call the ICG for them to search around for other pieces but for now, this is what we got and I'm happy we finally may have a clue to what's happened," Álfur answered, he was also confused but he was happy nonetheless to finally start investigating possible theories with actual evidence as to the source and not a hypothesis. The team returned to work. Each and one of them starting their research on their theories, crucial information was still missing, however. The ATC recordings still hadn't arrived and some equipment was still waiting to be shipped from the mainland to the team. At the same time, lab tests needed to be sent to some facilities for examination, and the results would be unknown until they got an answer. With this, the team was limited on what they could call fiction, and what was deemed reasonable. Ponyville, Equestria The sun shined brightly through the afternoon. Mild winds were blowing through the town as today was to be another beautiful day in the land of ponies. The Airbus A318 was now in its 8th day in the Equestrian land, and since that time, no maintenance or inspection at all had been made. This slightly worried Timothy, because if Antoine's ambitious plan was to work, the plane would need to work as well. While Timothy was inspecting the aircraft. Antoine was outside the town. Exploring to see how this land compared to Earth. While wandering through a dirt road he stumbled upon a farm with an enormous apple orchard. Growing up in the south of France he had seen enormous farms producing grapes and wine, the vineyards would sometimes have fields stretching enormous lengths that you couldn't see the end. But the apple orchard here was unlike anything he had seen growing up there. As he wandered through the orchard, passing by the shades of each tree he somewhat felt as if he was back home. Running through his grandfather's vineyards. Continuing to walk through the orchard he decided to stop by one of the trees and sat down. Cooling down from the sun's heat in the shade. His uniform that he wore on flights wasn't the best choice of clothing for a hot sunny day and even though he had spare clothes in his luggage he had left it untouched, it still being in the aircraft. A couple of minutes passed and by now the heat felt less intense, the shade from provided. As he was resting, he felt at peace almost as if he was in another place, well, he was already. The only sound that could be heard were the birds and the leaves being in the way of the mild winds. It was at this time that a new sound arose. Emanating from the small dirt road behind the tree he identified the sound, as a wooden cart rolling about. "Ant-one?" A female voice was heard. The Captain looked to his left and identified the mare as Applejack. An orange pony with green eyes, a blonde mane and tail and a brown hat, typical farm looking. She had been pulling the wooden cart towards an area of the orchard which was fresh for bucking apples. Even though he had already talked with Applejack already in the past, she seemed to always have some difficulties pronouncing his name, which always made him smile. It was likely due to her accent as to why she couldn't. "Hello, Applejack." Antoine greeted the orange pony as she stopped pulled and looked at the Frenchman. "What are you doin' here?" She asked. "Well, Might as well explore a little, don't know when I'll be back, or if even I will be back," Antoine said, sounding slightly sad as he finished his sentence. "Ah see, well. While you're here, treat yourself to a fresh apple." Applejack said. The orange mare went back to her wooden cart and threw an apple towards the Captain. He reacted accordingly and caught with his left hand. He then threw it up weakly and caught it again. "Thank you Applejack," Antoine said. Taking a bite right afterwards. "Oh wow. It's really good." The Frenchman said. "Glad you think so! Anyway, ah gotta continue mah chores. See ya later partner!" The orange mare walked past. Antoine made sure to wave goodbye as she went away to continue the job that she loved. Meanwhile, he then went back to what he was doing before, just sitting and enjoying the summer heat. That was until when Timothy came rushing, wearing his usual uniform but with the addition of a high-visibility vest that was always worn when on the tarmac at the airport, used most of the time for pre-flight checks only, or emergencies. The British man began panting as he arrived at Antoine, looking down at the ground and holding onto his thighs as he spat. Antoine stood up quickly and looked at him, something was up he could tell. Timothy recovered and stood straight back up, looking at the Frenchman as he breathed in and then out. "Antoine, we've got a problem." 262 Hours after the disappearance of Golf Echo Bravo Canterlot, Equestria Night fell upon the land and with that, it was the duty of the Princess of the Moon to carry the duties that her older sister had done during the day. Namely, to simply watch over the land, take care of any paperwork and bills or amendments or similar that would come in late at night. To her, it was no issue. The night was calmer than the day, and thus she had more free time during her peak time of the sidereal day. She had just finished a quick meeting with her older sister and one of the economic advisors to the monarchy while sipping tea. Her head was at the moment full of numbers and factors and multiple things, making it feel stuffed. She needed to unwind, and one of her favourite methods was star gazing. Having recently acquired a new strong portable telescope as a gift from the Royal Canterlot Observatory she intended to put it to good use. However, before she could reach the balcony where the telescope was located she noticed a guard approaching, trying to catch her attention as well. Luna stopped and identified the guard as Lighting Strike, whom she had met a week prior in a similar hallway. The Sergeant bowed down, eyes closed and waiting for the Princess to tell him to rise. "You may rise, Lightning Strike." She said quietly. Looking down as the guard rose back up and looked up at the Princess. "Your highness, the report of the reconnaissance mission you ordered a week ago has arrived. I've left it in your quarters as per policy." Lighting Strike said in the usual guard voice, slow and calm. "Thank you, I shall read it once I get back." Luna smiled as she talked. Thanking the Sergeant. "Is there anything else you need, your highness?" Lighting Strike asked. "No, I am fine for the night. You may resume your duties." Luna finished. The Sergeant bowed down one last time, then rising and taking a right leading to another hallway, his destination was unknown to the Princess, but she didn't feel the need to know. Even when the guards weren't on shift they knew what to do. Some simply took advantage of the breaks and would enjoy it, others mostly recruits would study or practice for the monthly inspections. She changed directions. Making a 180 degree turn towards her private room. She walked slowly but not too slowly. After a few minutes of walking and several turns, she had made it to her room. She opened the door slowly and entered. Seeing a small stack of paper on her desk she trotted over to read. Minutes passed but Luna was feeling disappointed as if her curiosity wasn't for anything good these days. The report kept stating how everything seemed safe but still advised to keep an eye out just in case. Continuing to read through the night she was suddenly shocked and surprised upon hearing a loud noise emanating from the outside. A loud screech was later heard before the sound stopped. She rushed on over to the nearest balcony but saw nothing. She wasn't the only one to have heard something as several ponies outside could be seen wondering what just happened, the younger ones panicking. Walking back to her room she noticed another thing, that most if not all windows in her room were now broken with glass shards spread around. She carefully navigated her way through. She didn't know what that noise was, and what it could've done to cause her windows from shattering. But now she felt even more curious. She went back to the balcony and took off into the night, determined to find out what happened.