35 MILES FROM THE EASTERN EQUESTRIAN SHORE
1130 HOURS
Red Sky hated lifeboats. He despised them, not because they had crackers made out of cardboard for a food supply, not because the amount of fresh water in those supplies was so small, and not because they had no cover from the blistering heat.
No, he hated the lifeboat he was in because it would not stop rocking back and forth. Though he supposed that those other points were definitely valid reasons to hate lifeboats.
The last week had been the worst one of his life, by far. He was completely alone in a small boat in the middle of the ocean, with no way of telling how far he was from land, and with the knowledge that something had come out of the water, had killed one of his friends, destroyed his life's work, and snapped a state-of-the-art ship like it was made of balsa wood. A small portion of his time adrift had been spent trying to figure out just what that thing was. A dragon? Well, that might be, but to his knowledge dragons didn't live underwater or have their backs glow blue when they breathed fire. A dinosaur? But how would it have survived so long if that were the case? Some freak of nature Discord had created? That was entirely possible, but surely it would've popped up before now...
He had gone through this little guessing game for a day before he ran out of ideas. Then he actually thought about what had happened. His good friend Buzzy, whom he'd known since his days in the university, was gone. Not on vacation. Not visiting her parents. Gone. He knew it wasn't his fault, after all, nopony knew what would be down in the trench, but Goddesses did it feel like he had sent Buzzy to her death. The ponies on the Mir might be gone. He didn't really know for sure. All he knew was that he wanted to go home.
He wanted to talk to Chalky, to joke around with his little brother like he always did. Tell him how right he was not to go on this trip. Tease him about his crush on that waitress. Hay, he wanted to drink a cup of the coffee they served at that cafe. He wanted to sleep in the fold-out bed he had in his apartment. Red wanted to go see that musical on Bridleway he had heard so much about. He wanted to do anything other than lie in the bottom of a lifeboat in the middle of the ocean.
But the fact remained that he was lying in a lifeboat in the middle of the ocean. He was going to be in that boat for days. And, he had realized, if he ever wanted to see Chalky and do any of those things, he needed to buck up and survive long enough for a rescue team to come and find him. So he had rationed his supplies, and had kept a constant watch for any sign of a passing ship, keeping the small flares from the boat's supply chest close to him at all times. And his vigilance payed off today.
Because today, he saw the sleek form of a patrol boat a short distance away.
***
PATROL BOAT 24109
20 MILES FROM THE EASTERN EQUESTRIAN SHORE
1245 HOURS
"So, you're telling me you saw a gigantic, black, lizard-thing with glowing scales sticking out of its back, it breathed a jet of blue fire, and that's what destroyed the Mir?"
"Yes, captain, that's right...Are you sure you haven't seen any other lifeboats?" Red asked the orange and blue pegasus sitting at the opposite end of the small table inside the patrol boat's cabin. The captain responded,
"No, Mr. Sky. Your lifeboat is the only one we've found this whole week. I'm sorry, but we've searched the entire area where the Mir went down."
Red's eyes looked at the floor, and his ears drooped back. He had hoped that at least some of the ponies on the ship had made it. Now that he knew he was the only survivor... His eyes snapped back up to look at the pegasus. He'd missed a question.
"I'm sorry sir, could you repeat that?"
The captain sighed. "I said, are you absolutely certain about what you saw? It sounds a bit far-fetched to me."
Red was starting to get annoyed with how many times the captain had asked him about the monster. There were only so many ways he could say it. Red wondered if the stallion across from him was hard of hearing.
"Yes. I am absolutely, one hundred percent sure about what I saw. I thought we established that some time ago. Now, can we please talk about something else?"
"Certainly. Since you're the only pony to survive, I think you'd better talk to a psyc-" A unicorn stallion ran into the room, stopping once he was next to the captain. Hastily performing what even Red would call a sloppy excuse for a salute, he stammered out,
"Cap-ptain Ironclad, s-sir, you, uh, y-you may want to, uh, take a look at this," The stallion levitated a small scroll he had with him over to Ironclad. Red looked on as Ironclad's eyes rapidly moved left to right, growing wider as they flicked from line to line. Ironclad hoofed the paper back to the unicorn, thanking him, before the unicorn left the room just as quickly as he had appeared. Captain Ironclad returned his attention to the now thoroughly confused Red Sky.
"Well, Mr. Sky, it seems like this, ah, 'monster' of yours has attacked the city of Manehatten."
Red's eyes almost popped out of his head.
***
MANEHATTAN DOCKYARDS
1400 HOURS
Ironclad, now wearing the armor issued to him by the military, led Red Sky onto the one pier that wasn't a pile of crushed planks littering the water around the patrol boat. They, along with the twenty or so ponies from the crew, started walking into the devastated city. Once he was on the little street the docks were next to and saw the ruins of Manehattan, Red's mind finally caught up with what was happening and he frantically asked the captain,
"Where's the refugee camp you mentioned?"
Ironclad looked at the nervous earth pony, and said, "It's downtown, by the Bridleway theaters, wh-" Red galloped off into the city, ignoring the shouts of the soldiers as he weaved his way through a literal concrete jungle.
The streets were covered with all manner of debris, and Red had to take an extensive detour around the top half of the Glass tower, now lying across several streets and carving its way into an apartment complex. He didn't feel the broken glass embedding itself into his hooves. Nor did he care that several of the buildings he ran by were missing large chunks of their foundation. The only thing he was thinking about was that he had to get to that camp, as fast as he could. He passed the apartment building he called home, now little more than a crater with some piles of bricks in four spots.
He passed the little cafe on seventh street, a short, friendly little beacon amidst the destruction, somehow standing in pristine condition.
He turned the corner, and found himself on main street, with the Bridleway theaters in sight. In front of the theaters there were rows upon rows of white tents, the refugee camp that he was looking for. He slowed to a brisk trot as he entered the camp, looking for someone in charge. He moved down the rows, apologizing to anypony he knocked aside in his haste. Eventually he came across a square tent larger than the others, and stepped inside it, figuring it would be where the ponies in charge would be. Once he was inside, he froze.
Two rows of cots were laid out in front of him, all filled with the forms of injured ponies. The ones that didn't have missing limbs or hooves set in casts were burned beyond recognition. And the noise, sweet Celestia, the noise! He hadn't heard it before walking in thanks to the bustle of the refugees outside, but inside this, this field hospital... He would've immediately left the horrid place had he not seen the brown unicorn mare in a nurse's uniform tending to them. Red steeled himself, and walked towards her.
She turned her head when she heard his hoofsteps, and when she spotted him she turned to face him.
"C-can I help you, sir?"
Red paused, feeling an odd stinging in his hooves, and said,
"Yeah, I'm Red Sky," - The mare's eyes widened- "and I'm looking for my brother, Chalky. I was wondering if, uh, you'd seen him anywhere?" The stinging sensation in Red's hooves was getting worse.
The unicorn's mouth opened and closed for a few seconds, and then she said,
"I-I'm sorry sir, but...Chalky Sky died in the attack. I-I saw it happen while I was running from the monster..."
Red's mouth slightly opened, and his rear hooves slid out from under him. He said, in a wavering tone,
"What?"
"I...I said Chalky Sky's dead."
Red stared at the tent wall behind the nurse. His mind was on the verge of a total collapse.
Chalky was dead.
His little brother was dead. The little foal who used to build model skyscrapers out of toothpicks and earned his cutie mark helping Red build a boat. The colt who had been so proud of working on a real skyscraper not three weeks ago, who could never work up the nerve to ask out that waitress.
Dead.
Red could feel his eyes watering. He blinked, and felt the tears roll down his face. He didn't care about the stinging in his hooves anymore, not even when the brown unicorn gasped at the glass sticking out of his bleeding hooves and led him to a cot.
All he could think about as he lay there was the fact that if he had never designed that stupid submarine, that abomination never would have been found, and his little brother would still be alive...