ARTICLE 2

by Muppetz


ARTICLE 2 Part VIII

ARTICLE 2

Part VIII

By: Muppetz (!Gsih3Wfnlk)

~~~~~

Twilight was being rushed out by a very unhappy Amethyst Haze. Twilight understood her frustration; she hated it when somepony interfered with her studies, namely Spike, but it seemed to be more than that. Maybe the alien with a razor knife loose in her lab may have had something to do with it. Who knows for sure?
The group retreated out through the changing room and into the main laboratory. Most of the girls took to awkwardly standing around, shuffling here or there aimlessly. This wasn’t how they expected this to go. Granted, none of them knew what to expect in the first place.
Twilight trotted over to Amethyst Haze, who was busy staring apprehensively at the half open door leading back to the morgue.
“Excuse me,” Twilight began slowly, quite certain she was about to make a fool of herself, “but you aren’t... the Amethyst Haze are you?”
Twilight winced, fully expecting the pale unicorn to burst into laughter at the question. No laughter came.
Twilight cracked open an eye only to find Amethyst wearing an amused smile. “Impressive,” she replied in her strange accent, “I did not believe any remnants of my story still remained.”
Twilight’s jaw hung open slightly, “You're her, aren't you?” she breathed. “That can’t be possible, that would mean you would be... over two hundred years old!”
“Many strange things wander this land, no?” Amethyst smiled.
“Welcome to the club,” Luna remarked, “You wouldn’t believe how difficult she was to track down.” Luna mused, shifting her words to Twilight. “I must admit I did not expect to actually find anypony, but as the situation with the human grew desperate, we were forced to resort to more... unconventional avenues.”
“Like chasing old pony tales?” Amethyst teased.
“It wouldn’t be the first time an old pony tale turned out to be true.” Luna winked furtively at Twilight.
“I must admit that I sometimes close my eyes and feel as though I am still trapped in my wooded prison. I am in your debt, highness.”
“After all you’ve done, Ms. Haze, consider that debt paid in full, with interest.”

A small shuffling caught their attention. Pinkie Pie was curiously riffling through some folders she found on one of the tabletops.
The door to the morgue was pushed open and from strode a grim faced Major Doran, followed by very disturbed looking Celestia. Oddly enough, her snow white coat seemed just a bit paler than usual.
Shane once again chose to forgo the chemical showers, instead throwing open the door to the lab and taking long strides toward the exit. “We’re done here,” he curtailed with a small circular swish of the finger. “Let’s go.” His voice was grave, and he was clearly in a hurry to leave.
“Ooh what are these?” Pinkie asked excitedly spilling folder full of tiny square photographs. What were you taking pictur-”
Pinkie stopped mid sentence, her pink face suddenly flushed with a sickly green. She cupped a hoof over her mouth and staggered away from the table clearly disturbed by whatever was in the file.
“Autopsy photos,” Amethyst explained.
Shane froze immediately upon hearing the words leave Amethyst’s mouth. He shut his eyes for a moment with an irritated sigh.
He stalked over to the pile of papers and photos, which Pinkie Pie was studiously avoiding the sight of. He swished a hand across the pile, spreading the photos in a wide arc along the table.
He studied them for a few moments with detached curiosity.
Amethyst Haze joined him somewhat guiltily. “I apologize. I was merely trying to be thorough.”
“It’s ok,” he barely whispered, taking a deep breath, “You get a good look?” he asked pointing at the photos.
“Um… yes. I’ve studied them several times. Why?” she played along, confused.
“Good. They’re coming with me.” He began scooping up the photos, any nearby documents. He jammed them all back into a folder. He tucked the folder under one arm and began collecting any piece of paper within reach with the other.  
“Hey! No, no, no! Wait! What are you doing?!”
“I can’t let you keep this stuff,” he said, still grabbing folders and files, paying little attention to whatever lay inside them.
“This is all my research! You can’t just take it!” she asserted.
“Major, surely there must be something we could work out?” Luna intervened hopefully.
“This is non-negotiable. I apologize for any inconvenience, but this research was conducted without the permission of the U.S. government, and I will be confiscating it. End of story. If you would like to plead your case, feel free to contact the Department of Defense’s Division of Extra-Universal Affairs, but I’ll warn you, their response time is spotty at best, mainly due to the fact that it doesn’t exist and I made it up just now.”
He had already massed a hefty stack of papers and folders, while Amethyst Haze stared daggers into him.
Twilight sympathized with the pale mare. She had once lost weeks worth of research when Spike came down with the hiccups. The loss almost brought her to tears. But at least that was an accident; Amethyst’s work was being forcibly taken from her.
“Is there any more?” he asked, nearly buckling under the bundle as it was.
“No,” she replied automatically.
He fixed her with a flat calculating stare for several seconds.
She sighed and cursed lightly under her breath. Her horn lit with her trademark purple haze, opening a drawer across the room. Another hefty stack of files floated their way over to the human’s already teetering tower of papers.
“Alright then,” he voiced cheerily, which sounded highly unusual for him. “Now all relevant materials have been collected and remanded into my custody, yes?” he directed toward Amethyst.
“Yes,” she growled through her teeth.
“Excellent… Unfortunately, I’m afraid I am not able to provide sufficient care for said materials at present.” He stopped and took in a full circle view of the room. “This facility appears sufficiently secure.” He returned his attention to Amethyst who was eyeing him curiously, wondering what he was playing at. “As these materials may contain some items of value to both myself and foreign parties I have decided to forgo destroying them, in favor of relegating them into your care. Is this agreeable to you?”
“… yes,” Amethyst said with a slowly growing grin as she realized what he was doing.
“Are you willing to accept responsibility of said materials on behalf of the United States Government until such a time at which an official is able to properly relieve you of them?”
“I am,”
“Terrific!” He plopped the enormous stack of papers back down on the steel table. “Thank you for your cooperation, Miss Haze. We look forward to working with you in the future.” He flashed an amiable smile, which she returned.
Shane turned to Celestia and Luna who were both grinning at the human’s rather practiced use of loopholes. “We good to go? Super. Let’s move.” He ordered without waiting for any answers before making a heading for the exit.
Luna shot a puff of air out of her nostrils and shook her head, amused. “Humans,” she summed up as if the word explained all the strangeness of the event.

~~~~~

Celestia cracked the door open and peeked an eye out. It should be here by now, she thought to herself. She sent the summons almost ten minutes ago.
Celestia closed the door, resigning herself to wait. It shouldn’t be too much longer. She went back to the group who were all seated in the long dim hallway they had first entered.
Shane was sitting next to Twilight on the floor, leaning against the wall looking  disinterested. He leaned his head against the concrete wall as he drummed his fingers on his knees.
Celestia sat next to him. He didn’t seem to mind. “You okay?” she asked familiarly.
“Yeah,” he answered after a deep sigh. He scratched at his chin, awkwardly, before quietly adding, “Thank you.” Celestia looked at him, curiously lifting an eyebrow. “… you know… for doing all this,” he explained.
Celestia smiled sadly, “You’re welcome. I wish I could say I was happy to do so.”
“You could’ve said no.”
“Why would I have done that?”
“I would have,” he admitted with a shrug.
Celestia chuckled, “I am not you.” That earned Celestia a twisted smile. “I suppose I should thank you as well.”
“What for?”
“Saving Amethyst’s research. I may be mistaken but I think you may have been bending some of your rules to do so.”
He shrugged, “Probably, but once again, procedure manuals tended to make rules specific to my physical universe. But I’m not in my universe anymore. So I’m kinda making it up as I go. Destroying it would have been the safer option, but… why bother? It’s not like you couldn’t just start over. I could’ve destroyed it for the sake of a technicality, but contrary to popular belief I am rarely a dick just for no reason.”
“Could have fooled me,” Luna teased from down the hall.
“Ouch,” he sighed in mock offense. “Besides, I wasn’t about to go carrying all that shit up those stairs.”
Celestia chuckled. “Still, thank you.”
“Don’t mention it.”

A noticeable rapping came from the exit door, as the guard outside signaled the Princesses their carriage had arrived. Celestia stood, prodding Shane with a hoof to get him up, which he did with a groan.
“Where is this place, again?” Shane asked.
“A few miles outside the city,” Luna explained, "We appropriated the Wonderbolts' old hangar. It was large enough to store the wreckage and well away from prying eyes.”
“What’s a wonderbolt?” he asked confused.
“WHAT!?” Dash jolted from the rear of the group. “You’ve never heard of the Wonderbolts!?”
“Here we go,” Applejack groaned,
“I’m not from around here,” he reminded patronizingly.
“They’re only the greatest team of flyers ever to exist EVER!!”
“Okaaay. Keep your panties on. Jesus.”
Luna pushed open the door, the formerly empty streets now occupied by the princess’ royal carriage, complete with team of pegasus stallions.
“Come along everypony. If we hurry we should be able to make it back before sunrise.”
“How is this discrete?” He asked dubiously, as they began to file out of the building toward the carriage. “Won’t people notice if they see us parading down the street in an oversized cliché?”
“We aren’t going to use the streets.”
“Then how are we getting there?”
The corners of Luna’s mouth lifted

~~~~~

“Breath, Shane.” Twilight suggested comfortingly.
The human was curled into as tight a ball as he could possibly muster in the back of Celestia’s Sky Carriage of Awesomness™ trying desperately not to be sick. He clearly had never flown in a carriage before. It was funny, in a rather mean way. Twilight had to actively try not to giggle at the scene. His eyes were shut tight, and he hugged a bunch of Celestia’s billowing tail to his chest as a drowning colt might cling to a life preserver.
“You can open your eyes if you like, Major. The view is lovely,” Celestia tried.
He violently shook his head; unwilling to move.
“It’s perfectly safe, I promise.”
“It’s a floating platform with no walls or seatbelts. It’s absolutely NOT safe, it’s a deathtrap and I want off!”
“Don’t be such a baby,” Luna teased. “We’re almost there. You act like you’ve never flown before.”
“I have flown before. In planes and helicopters; things that are SUPPOSED to fly. This is a CARRIAGE. It was NEVER meant to leave the ground!”
“That may be true where you come from, Major, but we do things differently here,” Luna explained.
“Well ‘here’ sucks!” he shouted back, still clutching to Celestia’s billowing tail for dear life.
Luna trotted to the edge and stomped lightly, causing the whole carriage to pitch.
Shane gripped the edge of the carriage with white knuckle force, somehow pressing himself closer to the floor than he already was. “I hate you so much right now,” he informed the Lunar princess through gritted teeth.
Luna smiled back at him innocently. “Turbulence,” Luna blamed still smiling.
“I want off.”
“Feel free to jump,” Luna offered.
“You first,” he quipped back.  
“That’s enough, you two,” Celestia interrupted. “We’re close.”
Everypony looked toward the horizon. The moon was barely enough to light the valley. They soared between two monolithic ridges. Ancient rivers had carved a pass through the rolling mountains. The canyon was perfect for the Wonderbolts. The mountains on either side protected from the worst of the elements, allowing them to practice their stunts without the worry of dangerous crosswinds or updrafts. The only drawback was its rather inconvenient distance from the capitol. When construction on their new headquarters finished, this facility became largely abandoned. They sometimes still used the facility for recruit training drills, but otherwise it remained empty.
The transportation of the recovered wreckage had proven difficult, but a few clever unicorns managed the task quite successfully.
The princess’ carriage banked around a bend, and the lights from the hanger could be seen through the darkness. Several white lights lined a small landing pad on the roof.
Celestia’s guards alighted delicately upon the roof of the hangar.  
The very second the carriage landed Shane began to eagerly untangle himself from Celestia’s tail and threw himself over the side, hitting the deck with a very undignified thud.
The rest of the party disembarked much more gracefully.
Applejack trotted over to the prone human. He was still embracing the floor with unbridled relief.
“Ya’ll right, sugarcube?” she asked with a small laugh.
He held up a thumb.
She laughed and poked him with a hoof. “C’mon now, it weren’t that bad.”
He shrugged away from her prodding hoof. He took a deep breath and gently slapped himself on the cheek a few times. He pushed himself to his feet and cracking his neck, causing Twilight to shudder in annoyance. “Alright,” he breathed, “I’m good.”
“So like I was saying,” Dash started, landing next to Shane, “Then there was Tradewind. She was the third Captain of the Wonderbolts. She was supposedly the one that actually patented the Reverse Fire Flash. Ever since, only ten other ponies have ever been able to do it!” she gibbered excitedly. Rainbow polished a hoof against her coat, proudly. “I’m pretty close to doing it myself. Just few more tweaks and I’ll have it nailed.”
“…cool,” he deadpanned, not even bothering to try and sound interested. She didn’t seem to notice though, and continued weaving for him the complete historical tale of the Wonderbolts, and every obscure detail that allowed.
The soft echoing of hoofs on metal stairs rang in the night, attracting everypony’s attention.
Across the empty roof, the soft glow of a lantern pierced through the darkness. The dim yellow lantern light bobbed toward them. The pony that carried the lantern was hardly visible. He was a dark green pegasus stallion with a rusty brown mane.
He approached the group, setting down the lantern, and bowing to the Princesses. “Highness,” he greeted, casting uneasy glances at Shane who still seemed a bit queasy. “Welcome. My name is Chaser. We heard you would be coming. I assume you would like to personally oversee our progress.”
“Something like that, yes.” Celestia answered, remaining intentionally vague.
“Very well. If you’ll please follow me, I’d be happy to show you the way.”
The staircase led down along the outside wall of the hangar. The hangar itself was an enormous rectangular building. The three story high structure had massive doors which could slide in and out of place to seal the hangars shut. The doors alone were taller than Twilight’s library and longer than hoofball field in length.

The forest green pony led the group along the outer walls of the facility. Rather than walk all the way to the front to enter through the large hanger opening, he led them to a more adequately sized side entrance. No guards stood watch outside the door, nor did it seem to be protected by any magical spell Twilight could recognize, for the green stallion pushed it open without hesitation. He wedged a hoof into the base of the door, propping it open and gesturing with a hoof for his party to enter.
Celestia smiled gratefully and stepped inside. A gentle nudge from Twilight prompted Shane to enter next. Twilight followed close behind him, not keen on letting him out of her sight.
“I’ve heard about this place.” Rainbow Dash said in a strangely reverent tone. “I never thought I would actually get to see it. I mean…this is where the Wonderbolts were born.” Rainbow landed softly before squeeing happily and prancing inside the door, joining the others.

The massive hangar was bigger than Twilight expected. It seemed to stretch on forever. The far walls were barely even visible. However, it wasn’t the dimensions of the building that commanded her attention. The hangar was full of unicorns in lab coats, hustling back and forth from ad-hoc stations set up all over the hangar. White tents were pitched here and there, hermetically sealed in protective plastic bubbles. Tables laden with microscopes and petri dishes and all manner of scientific equipment dotted the area. Massive power cables snaked their way throughout the facility.
The center of the room was the massive pile of wreckage. The broken vehicle hardly looked anything like a ship, more so a mountain of twisted steel. The charred steel exoskeleton that made up the exterior of the ship was bent and rippled from the sheer force of the impact. The ship itself seemed to be split into two. Twilight was not sure if that was due to the damage in the crash or if it had been done so that the behemoth would fit through the hangar doors. Several unicorns surrounded the broken vessel, some wielding blow-torches, busily cutting sections of the ship’s exterior off for study. Others were merely taking careful notes or running their own magical tests. A few brave souls clad in respirator suits dared to enter the vessel through a hole that had been cut in the top. Many were hauling out piles of equipment or mechanical devices, anything that they felt warranted study. The alien devices were sorted and sent off to various tables for examination. Most of the unicorns seemed too busy to take notice of the new arrivals.
“Princess!” An excited voice echoed across the room, drawing their attention to an ash-grey pegasus with a charcoal mane. He raced toward them, landing a few yards away. He pushed a set of goggles up unto his forehead and beamed; sweeping a hoof across his chest in a hasty bow, to which the princess inclined her head in return. “Welcome. You’ve arrived at a very exciting time! We’re right in the middle of several major breakthroughs!” His enthusiasm was evidence enough.
Twilight noticed the pegasus’ fur was singed in places and he seemed to be smoking slightly.
“It’s nice to finally have some good news,” Celestia said with a smile. “I apologize for not being able to oversee the project myself, but you seem to be handling it quite well.”
“Thank you, highness. It’s a true honor to be here. The things I’ve learned are…astounding. Some of these technologies are infinitely more advanced than anything I have ever encountered. This is…a whole new level of technology.”
“Well if anypony can figure them out it’s you. You were not selected for this arbitrarily.”
“Thank you, Princess. I promise you won’t be disappointed.”
“Of that I have no doubt,” she assured.
“Goodness, where are my manners?” he started as he noticed the group behind Celestia. “Allow me to introduce myself. I’m Doctor Cornelius Bolt. I’ve been overseeing the recovery project here for the passed few weeks.
“I know you,” Twilight began. “You’re the Director of the Ministry of Technology, aren’t you?”
Bolt smiled, “Impressive, I usually tend to work behind the scenes.”
“You were a guest speaker for one my classes at the university. You gave a lecture on the corporatization of cloud-based mechanical engineering.”
“I can see why you’ve chosen her as your pupil, highness. Not many students manage to stay awake during my lectures,” he noted with a chuckle.
“I thought it was very informative,” Twilight said earnestly.
“You are too kind. But I doubt you came to hear about my university days, especially when there is a bit of an elephant in the room, so to speak.” He nodded toward the alien vessel parked in the center of the hangar.  “It took quite some time to move the wreckage in its entirety so we’ve only recently been able to begin our analyses in earnest, but we’ve already learned a lot. It’s very exciting! If you’d like I would be honored to sho…” he stopped in mid sentence as he apparently took notice of the human in the group. “Oh my. What have we here?” He flapped gently into the air coming to a hover in front of Shane, scratching his chin with a hoof. “Hello, I don’t believe I’ve ever met one of you before. Where are you from exactly?”
Shane didn’t answer outright. Instead he merely raised his arm, pointing a finger at the broken ship in the center of the hangar.
Bolt looked back and forth between the human and the wreckage a few times. His eyes steadily widened as realization dawned upon him. “Could it be true?”
“Director,” Celestia began, “I’d like you to meet Major Shane Doran.”
“Of course! Welcome, Major!” He beamed with excitement. “My goodness, I didn’t think it was possible. I mean, just from looking at the level of damage I never imagined anypony could have…well …lived. I have so many questions for you. You might just be the key to piecing this all together,” he was practically bouncing with excitement. “Please come with me. The sooner we get started the better.”
He motioned toward the pile of wreckage, beckoning the group to follow. Twilight followed close behind him, Shane in tow. They got closer many of the unicorns stopped their work to gawk at the strange bipedal creature.
“Here we are,” Bolt began, “The main attraction. It’s impressive, but I’m afraid it’s been so badly damaged that it’s not much more than a metal shell anymore. Most of the complicated machinery was destroyed or too dangerous to transport. We were still able to map out a decent picture of what it may have looked like whole.”
“What are they doing?” Shane finally spoke, pointing at all the unicorns darting to a fro about the ship.
“Data retrieval, mostly. We’ve been taking a few samples. We salvaged what we could.”
“Clear them out,” Shane ordered dryly.
“I’m sorry, what?” Bolt asked, confused.
Make all these ponies go away,” he clarified, annoyed.
Bolt seemed puzzled but he didn’t object. He shouted a few orders to all the unicorns working around the wreckage, and without hesitation they all began to disperse.
“What are you planning?” Twilight asked Shane sounding worried.
“I’m gonna go inside, and try to find my stuff.” he stated simply. “Why? You wanna come?”
“Yes!” She answered immediately, throwing Shane off guard. Apparently he wasn’t expecting that response. Twilight on the other hoof was more than eager to get a closer look at the human vessel. Even in its broken state she would love to get a look at the inside.

“No, get everypony out,” Bolt barked at one of the nearby unicorns. “Clear the inside as well…I don’t care just tell them to take five or something. But I need this place sealed off for a bit….Don’t worry about why, just do it.”

After the last few ponies emerged from the bowels of the ship in an agitated huff, Shane made his way up to the craft, Twilight directly behind. The actual entrance to the ship was an airlock hatch on the other side near the cockpit, but the vessel was so large neither Shane nor Twilight would be able to reach it, so they made their way to one of the large gashes on the outer shell of the ship. It was large enough for them both to fit through. But still quite a few feet off the ground.
Shane jumped up and pulled himself through first, careful to avoid the sharp edges of the torn metal. Once through, he turned and offered a hand to Twilight. She was grateful for the help. She was, after all, a bit shorter. She stood on her hind legs and reached up toward the proffered hand. Shane leaned out and grabbed onto the lavender mare’s hoof and with little trouble, plucked her off the ground and pulled her through the rent in the side of the ship.
Once through, Twilight took view of the inside. It was dark. Twilight’s eyes took a moment to adjust. They were in some sort of tubular passageway, either side ending in circular hatches. Twilight’s horn began to glow softly, casting a violet glow on the walls, giving them just enough light to see by.
“This way,” Shane said making his way down one end of the passageway. Twilight followed. Evidence of damage was everywhere. Wires and pipes jutted from the walls, the plastic side tiles were cracked or missing, revealing bundles of circuitry and dead machines.
They reached the end of the short tubular passageway. Shane pulled a large yellow lever and the door swung open, squeaking slightly. He ducked his head and stepped through, Twilight stepping directly behind, the light from her horn now the only illumination in the ship.
“Where are we going?” Twilight asked.
“Cargo bay,” Shane answered, “It’s somewhere near the back, just don’t wander off.”
Twilight had absolutely no intention of doing so. The interior of the ship was oppressive and pitch black. Fascinating as it was, she was eager to get back out into the open.
“How long were you stuck in this thing?” Twilight asked.
“Before we jumped? We were sitting in orbit, on standby, for about a week. They had to PMCS the thing like eight million times. Then we just sat around while they ran system checks for like two days.” He ducked under a snapped metal beam. “Fat lotta’ fucking good it did.”
She followed Shane closely through the ship. They were continually forced to maneuver around wreckage and debris, but they reached the cargo bay without too much difficulty. The unicorns must have cleared away most of the obstructions when they were scavenging the ship. The cargo bay itself was fairly empty, and seemed to be one of the most intact rooms. Being near the back of the ship, it must have been spared the brunt of the impact. Several large olive drab shipping containers lay on their side, emptied of whatever contents had once been inside them. The scientists must have decided that they held something interesting because the containers were picked clean. “Looks like your friends were already here.” Shane noted. “Better not have touched my stuff,” he muttered to himself.
Shane directed Twilight toward a bulkhead covered from end to end in black wall lockers. He passed over most of them, stopping at one marked with the number forty-seven in silver numbers. The locker door was bent inward, apparently something slammed into it during the crash. The latch was jammed sideways wedging the door closed. He pulled on the broken handle experimentally, but it didn’t budge. “…awesome,” he muttered angrily.
He looked around the floor. A broken steel bar grabbed his attention. He scooped it up and jammed the sharp end of the pole into the broken handle and began to pry it open. With some strain and one final jerk, the handle broke off with a loud metallic ping.
He discarded the steel bar and opened the locker. First he pulled out a large olive-green sea bag, tossing it behind him with a soft thump. He pulled out another bag. This one was some sort of backpack. The pack was coyote-tan and by the look of it, empty. There were more straps and buckles than Twilight could possibly imagine a use for. The exterior of the pack was almost entirely covered in pals webbing, and two velcro patches adorned the front, one was a flag she did not recognize, the other was a nametape reading “U.S. MARINES”.
He threw the pack on his back and tossed the green duffle bag over a shoulder. “Ready? Or did you wanna explore some more?” he teased.
“No. I think I’m quite ready to leave. There’s nothing left in here anyway. Anything worth studying has probably been scooped out.”
Shane chuckled at her apparent discomfort. He hefted the bags on his back and headed back out the hatch through which they came. They quickly retraced the path to the exit.
Once there Shane tossed both his bags out the hole in the side of the ship, allowing them to fall to the hangar deck. He quickly followed suit, jumping off the edge and down to the ground. He turned and waited for Twilight, who was eyeing the drop uncertainly. It looked much higher from up here.
“You got it?” he asked, amused.
“Yes. Thank you,” she defended. She jumped and immediately tripped on the edge of the jagged entrance. With a small yelp she fell the good six or seven foot drop to the deck below. Luckily she landed on Shane’s green duffle bag, which cushioned her fall somewhat. It still wasn’t exactly a soft landing.
“Smooth,” Shane teased as he picked Twilight up and setting her on her hooves. She dusted herself off, and Shane shouldered his bags.
Most of the others had dispersed. Luna was off with Bolt at one of the stations. Piles of wires and electronics seemed to be their focus.
Celestia and Applejack were inspecting a large pyramid of alien cargo boxes. One of which was open, revealing several sealed brown plastic bags. Celestia scrutinized one, turning it around and carefully reading the tiny black wording that was printed on the outside of the bag. Most of the lettering was too small for Twilight to see form this distance. The only part she could make out was ‘MRE” in bold across the front of the package. She could go study them for herself later.
Rainbow Dash was nowhere in sight. Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie were watching a group of scientists analyze various alien artifacts through a clear plastic window in the side of one of the tents.
Shane scanned the hangar for a few moments.
“What are you doing?” Twilight finally asked.
“Shopping,” he answered simply.
Twilight was just about to ask what he meant but he grabbed his pack and set off towards Luna.

~~~~~

The young stallion’s breath came in heaves. His hooves echoed off the walls of the vacant Canterlot streets. Nopony was ever out this late…or so he would have thought.
 He hadn’t stopped running since it happened. He galloped up to the apartment complex and barreled through the doors, not even slowing to say hello to the doorpony. He hurtled up the stairs, skipping every other step, and doing his best to ignore the burning pain in his legs and lungs. Living on the fifth floor didn’t help. He just had to make it home.
He sprinted down the hallway, his camera bouncing wildly around his neck. He skidded to a halt in front of his apartment, swearing under his breath as he fumbled with the large brass key. He jammed it into the lock, giving it a good twist before barging through and slamming it shut behind him. He leaned himself against the door, still breathing heavily, as he locked every single bolt into place. He even darted to his kitchen nabbing a chair and bracing it under the handle.
Once satisfied that no unwelcome visitors would be coming through the door, he finally stopped to catch his breath. He clutched his camera to his chest, clinging to it as if it might disappear at any moment. He made his way to a room in the back of his apartment, shutting the door behind him. He was instantly surrounded by inky blackness. No trace of light existed in this room. He fumbled along the walls with his still shaking hooves, soon finding the small light switch. He gave the switch a flick, and the room was bathed in an eerie red light, illuminating walls lined with developing photographs.
He dashed over to a small work bench laden with pans of a special fluid. The viscous liquid was expensive but laden with heavy developmental enchantments, which never came cheap. He pulled off his camera, setting it on an empty space on the bench. With trembling hooves he popped the backing off the camera. He pulled out the film strip and delicately laid the film in the enchanted fluid. He shifted impatiently, watching with awe as the strip of film began to reveal a sequence of pictures.
His breath caught as the squares confirmed what his eyes could not. The images were blurry, but there was no denying what he saw. Not just one, but both princesses walking the streets of Canterlot in the middle of the night, but that was not what made these photos unique. What he couldn’t tear his eyes from, was the tall bi-pedal beast that accompanied them.

~~~~~