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A Boring Day Off6,347 words
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Wandering Figures6,942 words
Not Leaving You Alone?5,290 words
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Without sound6,796 words
Trouble Stirs6,429 words
False Attacker3,901 words

False Attacker

"Dark 3, respond!" Dark 3! Dark 3! Get a rescue team out there!"

None of the Shadowbolts responded to the loud commands of the Shadowbolt commander. They were all dead... Just dead. All three of them lifeless on the floor, or actually one since two of them were dragged into the brush and nowhere to be found.

The photo of Soarin' remained huddled next to the deceased Shadowbolt. The right upper tip of the image flickered as a small gust of wind calmly passed through the forest, echoing in the distance as it continued its journey. A drop of blood on the photo slithered down the smooth cold surface and travelled onto Violet Sword's Shadowbolt uniform.

A few minutes later a recue team arrived. Consisting of an actual Shadowbolt, and two security guards who wore a black collar shirt, a grey colored hat, and aviator shades that were tinted a light yellow; a mere opposite of a Wonderbolt security guard.

"What the hell happened here...?" the Shadowbolt, Ascender Blade, asked in concern.

He could see a single dead body of a Shadowbolt, with slash marks and a nasty bite to the head. The team approached the corpse, all disturbed by the wounds of the unfortunate pegasus. Ascender lowered his head to get a closer look of the bite on Violet Sword.

"What in the name of Equestria bit you?" He asked, bewildered. The bite looked like nothing he had ever seen. It didn't resemble any carnivorous creature that he knew who wondered the area. It was somewhere ranging between a medium and a large bite size.

"Well, I guess we can confirm that something nasty got 'em," Ascender announced to the two security guards. The Shadowbolt went to back to investigating, but in the bottom right corner of his eye he saw something. Ascender noticed a photo next to the neck of Violet Sword.

"Huh? What's this?" he grabbed the photo and closely inspected it. "Who the heck is this? Is this a..." his eyes dilated with shock, then drastically shrank into a menacing size.

"Sir, are you alright?" a guard noticed he was strangely quiet, plus the random photo in his hoof.

Ascender slowly twisted his neck around with an infuriated stare. "A damn Wonderbolt did this!" he yelled, slamming the photo into the ground. He heavily flared his nostrils in anger, the sharp hot air puffing in and out.

"W-What?" the two guards yelped.

"Contact the commander!" Ascender shouted. "We need her to know about this!"

"Right." a security guard radioed in on the Shadowbolt commander.

A few minutes the Shadowbolt Commander spoke through the walkie talkie device.

"What is it Ascender? Did you find Dark 3 and the rest?"

"We did Commander," he replied grimly. "They're all dead."

"Damn..." Commander Shadow Blaze sighed. "Did you find the reason why they're all dead?"

Ascender rubbed his head nervously, he knew the Commander was not going to like the response.

"Uhhmm... we found only Violet Sword. She has some weird wounds, but the other two are gone. We cant find them. But besides that we found a photo of a Wonderbolt. I think his name is Soarin'?"

The Commander did not respond immediately. Ascender and the two guards looked at each other with fear and concern. Every Shadowbolt knew the Commander was a pony not to mess with. Especially if they had to report something she wasn't going to like, because if they did, you might as well call it the end of that pony.

Ascender backed his head away from the radio device, expecting a deafening yell from the Commander. But the radio crackled, and the voice of the mare came through. "Ascender, get back to the HQ immediately. Bring back your fallen Shadowbolt. I think it's time to pay the Wonderbolts a visit," she said calmly.

The Shadowbolt was surprised to see Shadow Blaze not roar at him. "Ma'am, you want us to return to the HQ? And what do you mean 'pay the Wonderbolts a visit'?" he asked.

"Ascender, I've been longing to attack the Wonderbolts. Do you know what day it is tomorrow?" Shadow Blaze randomly asked.

"It's Thursday, isn't it?" The Shadowbolt glanced up to see if there was anything of importance the day tomorrow . "Why? Is something going to happen?"

"Tomorrow is the day the Wonderbolts have their cannon fodder recruits graduate from training."

"So, you're planning to attack them? Commander that has never worked! Especially on a day that means everything to the Equestrian Military!" Ascender reminded. He knew that every time Shadowbolts attacked a military facility, it would always end up in failure. They would either come back battered and bruised or captured. Their defenses were just to strong.

"Shadowbolt, we are in numbers now! We can overwhelm them! Now I want you to return to the HQ!"

"Yes Ma'am..."

The Shadowbolt carefully cradled Violet Sword in his hoofs.

"Alright let's go." he said to the two security guards.

They took off immediately. Ascender glanced down to Violet Sword, feeling the pain of seeing a dead Shadowbolt. His mind, however, was bothering him about something.

He felt his anger toward the Wonderbolts ease up, a frown slowly curved down on his face. Something did not feel right about the death of Violet Sword. Ascender felt something tell him that it wasn't a Wonderbolt responsible for all this. The bite wound... how could a pony do this? It didn't even look near a bite print of a pony's jaws. So why would he blame Soarin' for this.

"Whoever killed you," Ascender said to himself quietly, "probably wasn't a Wonderbolt or a soldier from the Equestrian military. I get the feeling something else did..."

---*****---

"All right, everything is going to resume. Cadets, get in formation outside."

Soarin' ordered to his cadets. The lock down had subsided, every class returned to their original positions before the lock down. Soarin's class made their way out of the mess hall, and into the airstrip. When they got outside, some of the cadets looked around with unsure and frightened looks on their faces.

"Get in formation!" Soarin' shouted. "Come on, we don't have time to waste! Don't ruin everything you've worked for before your final day tomorrow!"

The cadets lined up, Soarin' placed himself in front of him with a firm stare. "Listen up, since nothing was found, and the facility is secured, we're going to continue the obstacle courses. Get with your lead and wingpony now!"

The cadets got in to their assigned group. Soarin' took out his stopwatch from a pocket in his uniform. He lifted his hoof in the air to give the signal to go.

"On my mark... Nightwind, Blue Star, go!"

The first group took off immediately, reaching the obstacle course in a few seconds. Iron Storm and Daisy Rain stepped up next to Soarin'. The captain made sure the first group had gained enough distance to let the second group.

"Ready to do this, Iron?" Daisy Rain whispered to her wingpony.

"Yeah. I just hope we don't mess up," Iron Storm whispered back to her.

"Goodluck," a voice whispered to them.

The two cadets looked down next to Soarin', and saw it was the captain's daughter. "Make him proud. You guys are awesome, you'll do fine," she whispered with an assuring smile.

"Thanks, kid," Iron Storm whispered back with a smile.

"Aww, thanks kiddo." Daisy Rain replied..

"Iron Storm, Daisy Rain, go!" Soarin' announced.

The cadets took off in the blink of an eye. Aurora watched them go to their objective. She could feel some sort of proudness for them, all the training they had to go through, all the sacrifices they had to make. It was all worth it at the end.

"I can't believe they actually made it through all of this," she declared.

"Yeah, they came here for a reason and they fulfilled it." Soarin' responded.

The cadets returned from the obstacle course, landing firmly before their flight instructor. They immediately lined up, and awaited for further orders. Soarin' stared at them ahead on, a determined frown lingered on his lips, then it turned into a smirk.

"Cadets, you've come a long way. It may have been rough and brutal when you arrived, especially with Captain Spitfire yelling into your ear..."

"Yup, Uh hum, yeah," the cadets agreed with Soarin', some nodding their heads.

"But that doesn't matter anymore, or actually it still does," the Wonderbolt continued. "Newbies, I want to congratulate all of you for making through the training."

He could see some of the trainees growing a smile on their faces. "Now you came here for a reason and you finished it. This session is over. I want all of you to report back to the barracks. Sergeant Steel Stone will lead you from there and prepare for tomorrow... " Soarin' made a grin at the ponies before turning around to leave them. "...Wonderbolts."

The cadets cheered, taking off into the air or casually trotting back to the barracks in great excitement.

After all of the cadets disappeared from sight, Soarin' looked back at his daughter with a wide smile. "So what do you wonna do now, Aurory?"

"But you're still working," Aurora said with a bemused expression. "How can we do anything?"

"Oh, don't worry," Soarin' waved a hoof into the air. "Sergeant Stone Steel is now in charge of my class to prepare them for tomorrow."

"So what does that mean...?"

Soarin' smirked with an smug look capturing his face.

"This..."

"Wait, what are y... Waaahh!!"

The filly shrieked as Soarin' bolted at her in lightning speed, picking her up and placing her on his back as he travelled sky high. Aurora eyes lit up as they continued upward toward the wide open sky. The sky was turning dark blue as they increased altitude. Soarin's wings beat against the cold air furiously to keep him going, his breathing kept a steady flow of oxygen to his strong lungs, but he started to feel the dizzy effect of being at a high altitude. He managed to keep strong, though.

Aurora shut her eyes and clung tightly to her father. She could feel the cold winds sting against the slightest opening in her eyes. But suddenly she felt everything stop. She cracked open an eye, and saw they were on of a puffy white cloud high above Equestria.

The filly glanced down and saw her dad just casually laying on the soft surface of the cloud. He had a smile of relief and his eyes shut like if he was going to fall asleep. Calm, relax, like if he was enjoying a vacation.

"Dad, what are we d-doing up h-h-ere?" Aurora stuttered as she peered down from the side of the clown, noticing that they were way beyond the limit any pegasus would fly up to, or that they would not have the idea of flying up to.

"Just relaxing. It's calm and nice up here," Soarin' said, before a short sigh.

Aurora suddenly felt a hoof around her and she was pulled next to her dad. Soarin' planted a small kiss on her head before gazing upwards at a near dark blue and black sky. She hugged him in return with a giggle before she also looked upward. The sky was clear, nothing obscuring its full nature.

"Woah, dad... I didn't know you could see it from up here." Aurora mouth was agape as her emerald eyes reflected a giant figure in the sky.

"I know, from here you can see it," Soarin' said.

"It" was a galaxy floating lazily in the dark blue sky. It was nearly transparent but some of it was visible, the large puffy white clouds at the distant horizon appeared connected to it and as its base by their appearances. Soarin' could see a few stars glow warmly, the hazy galaxy-like clouds figures also glowing vibrantly.

Aurora was mesmerized as she continued to stare at the fragment of the galaxy. The small winds brimmed through her mane, the clouds passed by them without delay. The universal figure appeared to slightly move along with currents but it did not actually move.

"Dad?" Aurora started.

"Yeah kiddo?"

"Have you ever wondered if something is out there?"

Soarin' raised an eyebrow at the unexpected question. He scratched his chin as the question was nearly familiar to him, and it was very curious for him to answer it. It sounded so close like if it was asked to him before. Soarin' kept his concentration to the celestial object as he thought back to where he had heard it from.

'Now where have I heard that question from? I know somepony asked me that before.'

Soarin' scrunched his eyebrows as it was getting difficult to decipher where the question originated from. It was from somewhere he had been. He was about to give up and turn to his daughter to give her a response, but his eyes widened when he remembered where the question came from.

--------------

Distant in the past...

"Whoa, Dad... I didn't know you could see them from up here." Soarin', who was just a mere colt, said to his father as they were perched on a cloud high above Equestria.

I know, champ. You can see everything from up here.

Soarin' was mesmerized as he stared at the full image of the galaxy. All of its stars glittering and twinkling brighter than anything he had seen. The image made his mouth go agape, his father placed a hoof around his neck with a warm smile. Soarin's father was also a baby blue Pegasus but a shade more darker, his mane black in color.

"There's millions of them. All scattered across the galaxy," he said.

"Millions?" Soarin' asked in awe.

His father nodded. "Yup. Possibly more, you never know. Each star could have planets surrounding them, and they could be homes to anything."

"So there's other ponies living out there?" The colt asked.

"Who knows, Soarin', who knows... Perhaps there is, and possibly ponies that live on another world or maybe they're not even ponies at all."

Soarin's grew amazed as the thought of life somewhere out there in the dark, cold vacuums of space existed.

"Will we ever meet or see any of them?"

"One day we might... One day."

--------------

"Dad?"

"Who knows," Soarin' mumbled to himself. "Who knows..."

"Dad." Aurora called her father again, but got nothing but a mumble of words from him. All he did was just stare at the sky with a confused and awed expression.

"Dad!"

"Huh?"

Soarin' snapped out of his trance and noticed his foal was staring at him. "Dad, are you alright?" she asked. "You were just mumbling words to yourself all weirdly."

"Oh, uhmm, sorry," he sheepishly smiled. "I was just remembering something."

"Okay, but you didn't answer my question."

Soarin' remembered the question his daughter asked, he rubbed the side of his head as he tried to think of something to say. As he thought, his father's words continued to sound off in his head. It was a little mixed up for him, his thoughts on what was out there beyond their world, the thought of life elsewhere than just being alone in the universe.

"I think," Soarin' started, "there might be. What made you ask that?" He looked back to Aurora.

"Oh, I don't know. Just a curious question."

Both pegasi glanced upward once more to see the transparent galaxy again.

"They're out there..."

Soarin' lifted his head up when a faint voice whisper from behind. He turned his head around, and saw nothing. He shrugged it off and went back to gazing, which should have not been taken lightly.

---*****---

The area was an extreme bright white. There was nothing to provide a barrier or an impassable route in it, no walls, no sound. Nothing. Just an endless white environment that had no end.

But one thing did stand in the bright area, one small figure: a pegasus.

He simply wore a light grey tactical vest, which was pretty the only clothing he had on him. His fur coat was a silver-like grey, his eyes a turquoise color, his mane dark brown. The cutie mark on his flank was a rook symbol with a pair of wings spread widely behind it and two stars hovering by its sides. He just calmly stood there in the bright environment and waited for anything.

"Growing bored yet?" a voice asked, its tone very calm. A light brown unicorn with a black beret and the ranking symbol of major on his black vest appeared by his side. " I hope you didn't."

"Corporal," the unicorn continued, which was the rank of the pegasus, "you know what you're here for, right?"

The pegasus nodded as a response.

"Good. Well then, lets get started," the unicorn said. "Being a security guard can be nothing. But a security guard of highly advanced and classified facility can be something, right?" He placed himself in front of the pegasus and stared at him straight with his deep blue eyes.

The Major circled around him and disappeared from behind.

A wall raised 10 meters in front of the pegasus in silence. Dark grey shadings covered the upper edges but it was just as bright like the environment near the middle and bottom. It was kind of difficult to tell it was there if it wasn't for the dark shadings at the top. Either it was designed this way to confuse the person and camouflage it or it was just simply the way it was made. Then other walls formed around to him form a room.

There was no ceiling but the white sky (or any sky). Three more wall pieces formed behind the one that stood in front of the pegasus, two on the left and right and one in the very back, each forming an equal 12 meter spread from on another, forming an empty area in the middle of them.

"Corporal," the unicorn with the black beret announced. The pegasus turned around when he heard his voice, but there was no one there. His voice sounded like if he was right next to him, just clear. The Corporal glanced around to locate the Major, but the unicorn relieved him, "Hey I know this is weird but just play along. So there's a wall in front of you. You what to do?" he asked randomly.

The Corporal approached the wall ahead cautiously. This was all so random to him. Walls appearing out of nowhere, the Major's voice talking to him even though he wasn't next to him, himself somewhere unknown and empty. But to get it over with he simply complied with the higher official's orders.

He reached the wall and placed himself by its right side, he slowly peeked his head around the corner to check what lay beyond. There was nothing there but only a small, standing photo frame placed above a metal coffee table. The pegasus arched an eyebrow in a perplexed look. He trotted around the wall and approached the two random objects. When he got there he only grew more confused of what the photo displayed to him.

The photo was black and white, and slightly distorted to confuse the viewer. The image was a forest but with a silhouette figure exposing half its body behind a tree in the center of the photo.

"Corporal, you ever wonder about the mysteries of this world?" the Major asked out of nowhere. "Like the Gem Pegasi, the ancient civilization that disappeared out of nowhere. The 75th Crystal Empire Platoon that disappeared in the Crystal Mountains a little bit up north of the Crystal Empire on an expedition to explore the Frozen North, about half a decade ago, believed to have vanished by unknown creatures." The pegasus shook his head as he continued to observed the image. The Major continued, "Well that's alright, we don't think a lot about certain things. But the photo you're staring at is a wonder of the world. Tell me, Corporal... Have you ever heard about Tall Ones? Most likely the ones held responsible for the fate of the 75th Platoon."

The pegasus tilted his to the side. He did recall hearing that name somewhere but it was faint in his memory. The pegasus shook and nodded his head in somewhat agreement.

"The figure you see behind the tree is believed to be a Tall One. The photo is all distorted and fazed out because the pony that captured the image reported that he was actually being stalked and observed by it, so he ran in a hurry went he left fear control his actions. But the next test will be very interesting. Prepare."

The Corporal took his eyes off the image and awaited for the next obstacle to overcome. A few minutes passed by and nothing occurred, just the brightness and silence of the environment hovered around him. He was beginning to think it was a test of patience which seemed likely at the moment. He glanced to the left and right, and still nothing came to view.

The pegasus gave a light kick to the white floor with his left foreleg, his patience was about to run dry on him.

"Hmm?" the Corporal noticed a tall, looming shadow casting over him. He turned around to check what stood behind him, and could not believe what he saw. His body locked in position, his breathing slowed and became distant between each breath, his turquoise eyes shrunk to the size of pebbles.

"So, Corporal... If you want to work here with us you need to know how to handle any type of threats," the Major announced. "Starting off with this one. This is a Tall One... What do you do?"

Author's Note:

Uhhh..... update, yeah! How long has it been? Oh well...

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