Another crumpled up star map flew across the large room of the observatory, soaring in the air before soon bouncing off the wall and landing in a steadily rising pile of crumbled paper. Luna furiously paced back and forth on the podium. Her face was so red hot with frustration and anger that even in her own nighttime darkness, her face seemed to glow like an angry firefly. She eventually halted her pacing, sighing deeply to try and calm herself. She brought her face down closer to the table, where another star map lay open and flat. Luna used her magic to levitate a red marker over the star map, taking one more peek through the telescope’s eyepiece before putting a big red circle mere millimeters away from the previous circle she had marked over earlier, which was now crossed out by a big, red X. She sighed once again to shew away the heat of her previous burst of anger.
“Please be there...please be there...pleeease be there...” Luna said to herself as she moved her head to look back into the telescope eyepiece and gazed through it’s silvery lens. She fine tuned the telescope’s position, taking an occasional glance to and from the star map to assure that it was positioned just right. It was a tedious process, for often times she would adjust it by to much or to little, forcing her to move back and forth between the map and telescope to make even the most minimal of adjustments. It must have taken around a full fifteen minutes before the telescope was perfectly aligned, it’s slender form pointing directly at the set coordinates that Luna had spent so many painstakingly long minutes to get right. She had a good feeling that this would be it...
Luna double checked and even triple checked her notes in coordination with the telescope’s position. After breathing a heavy sigh of near hopelessness, she moved her head back over to the eyepiece, resisting the urge to look at her notes for a fourth time.
“Ok, here goes. Oh please let it be there this time...” she said to herself as she looked into the eyepiece. She let her eye adjust to whatever light had gathered in the telescope lens before focusing her attention on a single, black patch of seemingly empty space. Using her magic, she adjusted the telescope’s focusing power, the eyepiece magically zooming in. After a few more arduous seconds of patience, Luna could finally see a glimmer of hope in her quest to look upon the other mysterious object that she and the other astronomers had found earlier, this glimmer being in the form of a bright blue, star-like orb. The glow from the orb was incredibly faint at best, but still visible from a certain extent. From an astronomical standpoint, the second object that had been sitting so mysteriously in the back of Luna’s mind, gained luminescence over the past few hours that she had remained in the observatory, while all the other astronomers had gone home for the day. Luna has also detected multiple energy spikes coming from the object’s relative position, which spiked her curiosity to new heights.
Luna’s magnified gaze drew closer to the possible position of the object of her curiosity. Her face went wide with a smile like that of a taut rubber balloon. Luna gasped with excitement, “Could it be?” she said with a ping of joy and relief. Luna could hardly wait. She applied more force to her powerful magic to zoom the telescope’s view even farther. The view drew closer and closer, the bright ball of blue light drawing ever so close to her gaze. Luna pushed her magic to the max, the telescope moaning under the strain of powerful magic that she was forcing upon it. Luna could exert no more. For fear of damaging the telescope’s delicate form, Luna filed out the last few tidbits of her magic she had left to get. She took a step back away from the eyepiece, giving her eye and tired horn a rest before putting her face back to the eyepiece. There was definitely something else there besides the second object that was discovered earlier. The larger object found earlier was visible as a dark shadow, but the smaller object gave off it’s own light. The excitement in Luna’s mind practically soared to the ceiling. She could see it! No matter how big of a strain she had put upon herself, she decided to apply just a tad bit more of magic to the telescope, just enough so she could see that the object of her frustration and terrors was...
A comet.
Nothing more than a simple, blue comet, soaring through space ever so slowly.
Luna’s unoccupied eye started to twitch, yet her joyful, smiling face did not change. Luna slowly backed away from the eyepiece, slowly taking in another failure. Her smiling, yet rather crooked face turned to the star map. She eyed the area on the map that she had marked earlier, then her face took a deep dive into an angry scowl of disgust. Luna’s horn began to glow a violent bright red as she slowly lifted the star map, crumpled it up, and with all of her might, hurled it towards the nearest wall. She watched as the paper wad hit the wall, then calmly fall to the floor.
Luna could only sigh at the sight of another failure in her relentless quest to look upon the second object of her recent astronomical nightmares. She reset the telescope, then magically brought out another star map from below the table, unrolling it on the table next to her centuries-old abacus.
“Ok. One more try, then I’m done for the night.” After she determined a new set of coordinates, which now lead to a new location mere millimeters away from the previously failed location, she began the first steps necessary for the long and tedious telescope alignment. Yet when she looked through the eyepiece, she caught sight of a grey and foggy substance the was starting to cloud up the telescope’s vision.
Luna sighed with impatience, “Oh what now?”
But before she could go around to check the telescope lens, a loud and thunderous boom caught her off guard, causing her to jump high in the air with fright. She felt deeply embarrassed, thanking her secret, lucky stars that nopony had to see that.
She looked to the open roof of the observatory, where dark clouds were started to clump together to form what looked to be a scheduled late-night rain storm.
Luna grunted in frustration, “This storm is soooo inconvienient!” Just as Luna was about to rant again, she noticed a few drops of rain dropping down onto telescope’s delicate form. Fearing that the water would damage the lens, she quickly turned a nearby valve with her magic, causing the open roof to slowly close just as the rain began to fall harder onto the rooftop.
‘Well...no use continuing now.’ Luna thought to herself, ‘Might as well go have some time for myself I suppose...doing something...’ Luna thought with a sulk.
She exited the observatory, her head low and her hopes of finally looking upon the mysterious object of her curiosity brought to a sad low.
~~~~~
“...Nord...”
“NORD!”
Canderous felt the tell-tale signs of deja-vu coming on when Bendak’s grunt voice woke him from his alcohol induced slumber. Just as he had predicted, Bendak kicked his chair with such force that it sent him spinning slightly in the air before falling hard onto the cold floor, whiskey bottle still in hand. Nord’s eyes sprang open from the sudden stinging pain of his chest. He slowly turned himself over and looked up at Bendak’s chuckling face.
“It’s always the damn whiskey...” said Bendak while he chuckled with a hand to his face. He pro-offered his free hand to Canderous, whereupon accepting, Bendak hoisted him up into the air, Canderous still somehow holding a tight grip on the empty bottle.
“Come on Nord, were about to break warp and land at the moon, and the captain wants us both to be present.” said Bendak.
Canderous followed Bendak out through the lounge door, dropping off the empty bottle in a waste bin next to the doorway, right on top of several other discarded bottles.
~~~~~
Canderous and Bendak pushed their way through the crowd of marines, slowly but surely making their way to the front of the crowd. Upon pushing through the last wall of thick armor plates, they found themselves at the head of it all, standing right next to the captain, who was standing near his personal control console near the edge of the railing. The captain was standing very close to the railing with both hands behind his back. An officer clad in a bright-blue overcoat stood over the captain’s console, waiting there patiently as if expecting the captain’s next set of orders.
“Nord, Bendak, glad you made it. We were just about to start without you.” The captain nose twitched, his senses obviously catching the scent of the strong alcohol on Canderous. “I take it that you enjoyed the whiskey Nord?”
“From the way he was slouching over the barside like your average wench I would say that he enjoyed it too much.” said Bendak in his typical grunt voice.
The captain let out a small snicker of laughter. “Powerful stuff that whiskey. Guaranteed to knock you flat on your ass after just a few shots. Brings back some memories...”
“Sir!” The survey officer that the captain had spoken with earlier pushed his way past a lumbering marine. He drew a few quick pants from the strain of having to push through a large crowd of burly soldiers, until he reached the captain’s side, saluting him before he spoke.
“Sir, the atmospheric probes are prepped and ready. They are ready to be launched at your command.”
“Thank you Vadik.” said the captain. He then leaned over to the left, and said three words to the officer at the console that caused the whole room to go into a deep tone of silence.
“Open the deck.”
Everyone on the crowded bridge, officers, engineers, and marines alike all turned their attentions to the captain’s position. The man standing at the control console pressed a few miscellaneous buttons and entered a passcode, causing the whole bridge to shake a bit. Loud clicks and the shrieking noise of grinding metal caused the whole crowd to advance forward by a few inches closer to the railing. Canderous and Bendak now had to endure the pressure of being squeezed by the cold metal of the advancing marine’s armor. The bridge observation deck slowly began to open, the gap between the metal and the thick glass on the other steadily widening. A thin streak of light-blue luminescence poked through the thin slit of the widening observation deck. That thin streak felt like a sign of heaven’s light. The planet was not yet visible, but as the gap widened, the marines started to move and bunch closer to the rail like a group of muscular, stem-injected cows. The captain was the only one spared of the rough-housing, yet he didn’t do anything about it. Maybe he understood the feel of such excitement that he allowed his men to get as close of a look as possible.
The gap widened far enough to reveal a small sliver of the Earth’s surface. This caused the marines to risk stepping even closer to the rail. Canderous thanked some unknown entity that the rail was made from tough Gallente steel, or else everyone would take a quick and painful trip over the edge.
This was obviously taking too long. The captain leaned over to the man at his control console, and ordered him to increase the speed of the opening mechanism. After a few stops and restarts of the system, the doors started moving again, this time at a much faster speed. More sections of Earth began to appear, showing off large oceans and several landmasses, including two large patches of ice at the North and South poles of the planet.
Just before the panels were fully moved inward, the captain raised his hand and gestured towards the planet. “Ladies and gentlemen, I give you...”
A moment before the panels stopped, he ended off with a single word that sent a wave of mixed emotions soaring through the air.
“Earth.”
Happiness, beauty, thrill and excitement were just some of the words used to describe the blue planet and it’s majesty. It’s oceans spread far and wide, the formations of clouds spreading vast over the water. The polar regions were as white as the fur of a newborn lamb. Mountainous regions and vast plains dotted the continents to the south and east. To say that the planet was of beauty beyond words, would be a complete understatement.
There was only one section on the planet that seemed to have visible cloud cover over it. It was located in the western area of a continent that sat in between a large, snowy region above it, and a large, desert-like area below it. This section was small place, yet covered by dark storm clouds.
“Earth...” Vadik finally broke the awe-inspiring moments of silence, “Mankind’s birthplace. The beginning of humanity. I just can’t believe it...”
“Vadik...” the captain spoke up after Vadik.
“Yes captain?”
“Launch the probes. Let’s see what we got...”
“Yes sir! Of course sir!” said Vadik with a wide smile.
Vadik called out from above to an officer at a forward control console, who was also lost in the spectacle of Earth’s beauty. “Officer Steinman, launch the probes!” The officer did as ordered, pressing a few buttons on his console. The ship began to shake for moment before the voice of the ship’s informative artificial intelligence came around.
Atmospheric Probes loaded into launch tubes. Launching...
Four black specks could be seen shooting out from below the ship. After a few additional seconds, the probes micro-warped towards the planet’s atmosphere.
“We have probe connection over western area of the forward landmass. Starting data cycle now...” said the officer. A few moments passed before he perked up again.
“Atmospheric composition nominal. Breathable oxygen has been detected. Vapor content of the atmosphere, nominal. All seems to fair and well. Yet our own onboard sensors are having trouble with scanning the planet surface...”
“What kind of problems?” asked the captain.
“An unknown form of magnetic and solar interference is covering the entire planet, save that one section of land covered by storm clouds. Those clouds however are very low to the surface. With a rough guess from the probe’s data, they are only a few hundred feet from the surface. They also seem to staying right where they are. No wind or current mass is moving them at all, meaning that some unknown force is holding them in place. Sorry for saying this sir but that one patch of land is our only risk-free option of establishing a forward base on the planet surface.”
“Sir!” Vadik excitedly said to the captain, “With those clouds lying so low to the ground, we can study the strange weather patterns of the planet up close and without risk! This would be a perfect opportunity for us!”
The captain grunted a bit, then moved back to face the giddy survey officer. “Vadik, head to the briefing room and await my arrival. Bendak, Canderous, fetch Thane and Titas and report to the briefing room as well. We will discuss the details there and formulate our next course of action.”
He then moved his head back down below. “Survey officer Steinman, keep those probes in the atmosphere and continue to monitor the data as it comes in. Inform me of any changes in the weather or atmospheric composition as soon as possible.” With those words, the captain started the walk away boasting a happy smile on his face as the marines cleared a path for their leader.
“You heard the captain.” said Bendak to Canderous, “Let’s go round up Thane and Titas then report to the briefing room.” The receding wave of marines stayed clear for Bendak and Canderous to leave and carry out their given orders.
~~~~~
Twilight had her lavender nose buried deep in the pages of a large book in the royal library. The book itself was very large and ancient-looking. It’s title read ‘Orbit: A Pony’s Guide to the Stars’. Twilight knew already that she had read this book several times before when she was a student at the university in Canterlot. After her usual classes, instead of having fun and goofing off like her fellow students, she would come to the library alone to study for upcoming exams. She didn’t mind that her advanced classes were filled with nothing but work and endless lectures. In fact, she enjoyed it sometimes. It made her feel good to unwind at the end of each day with a pot of tea and a good book at her side. The rain outside pattered against the stained glass windows, the occasional roll of thunder accompanying them, setting the perfect, calming mood for reading time.
Twilight set down her book and reached up to grab another before the sound of the library door opening interrupted her. She turned to see who it was, whereupon she caught sight of Fluttershy’s yellow form. A sleeper’s cap was draped over her head and she wore a little white slipper on each hoof.
“Oh, hey there Fluttershy. Is there something you need?” asked Twilight as she turned and stepped down from her chair.
“Oh...um...no thank you Twilight. Me and other girls are about to head to bed, and Princess Celestia thinks that you should to...” said Fluttershy in her usual inside voice.
Twilight thought about it for a minute, taking sleep over knowledge. “Well...” she started, “I guess I can go to bed now. I’ve read all of the books in here anyway, twice I might add. I’ll be up there soon.”
“Oh, ok. I’ll go tell the others.” Fluttershy walked out of the library, each little step just barely making a noise above that of a whisper.
Twilight started re-shelving the books she had already read, making sure of it that each book returns to it’s proper place on the shelf according to the traditional method of the DDS. Once she was finished, she turned and headed for the door, only to stop in her tracks when a faint glimmer of light flashed from the corner of her left eye. She turned around to see what it was before she found herself gazing out of a clear window next to her. She stepped closer to the window, whereupon she saw a blue streak of light careen across the stormy sky. Shooting stars were the product of Princess Luna herself. Twilight knew via trading secrets with her that she sometimes felt like throwing a star or two out of line, just for the fun of it. Twilight smiled warmly at the princess’s rare gesture before turning around and exiting the library, setting off for her nightly chambers.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Another chapter out and another angry cat to deal with...
This story is still without an editor. I don’t mind editing it myself, but having an editor alongside the story sounds nice. :3
Thanks for reading!
-Jonsey