The Veins Run Deeper

by Thunderblast

Relations

The obnoxious ringing of an alarm clock, vibrating steadily closer to the edge of his bedside table, woke Night startlingly. Eyes wide and bloodshot, he reached a hoof from beneath the warm covers to tap the clock's metallic button, silencing it after a migraine-inducing minute of ringing, a sound that echoed in his ears for another few more minutes while he remained in bed.

Yawning deeply, yet silently, he forced himself into movement and lifting out of the comfort of his sheets. He blinked slowly, groggily strolling into the bathroom to prepare for the lengthy day ahead.

Throughout the longer-than-average shower, the lights stayed off, saving him the pain of adjusting to sudden brightness. Without windows anywhere in the room, and with the door shut, the bathroom remained in a pitch-black state while Night soaked beneath steamy water. Though, to him, the room had just enough light, equal to that of a small plug-in light.

Having dried himself off, as well as tidied up his mane and brushed his teeth, Night strode around his bed to a tall wardrobe, unhooking a set of dress armor—the type for occasions such as these escort trips outside of Canterlot—and donning it proudly following some thorough examinations.

As stressful as the past week had been in terms of planning the flight path, as well as securing both Luna and Celestia a place for lodging, himself and Skye included, and Celestia's guard detail, he could only hope it would pay off as well as he and everypony else involved anticipate.

Through multiple letters in advance, he informed his parents and sister that before all others, they would set off for the ravaged town. In spite of waking early, no time could be set aside to visit ahead of the daylong journey, a thought that did not rest easy in Night's mind.

On top of that, part of the task included keeping the press from discovering the surprise trip, one he found to be the most difficult of all. The sudden re-migration of his colony was bound to fall under suspicion by many around Canterlot.

While neither princesses admittedly disliked the paparazzi, the effort of searching for a scoop in the local newspaper or magazine would not go undaunted. This only prompted their departure to be set for this early in the morning, ascertaining few ponies will be awake to witness both royal chariots taking to the skies, more so the darkness of predawn providing extra security against detection.

An hour before dawn, he locked up his apartment for the final time over the course of the next four days, then headed off into the darkened hallways to meet up with his wingpony.

***

Through cold corridors and striding down flights of stairs leading underground, Night emerged into the Hangar, an underground attaching facility of the Canterlot Palace.

When expansion came to the city many decades prior, long before even his parents had come in to the world, little space had become available to store Celestia's chariot, as well as Luna's to keep preserved throughout her prolonged banishment.

During this time, architectural and technological advancement exploded across Equestria, and eventually, construction began on a steel-and-concrete basement within the Canterlot Overhang, an anvil-shaped rock formation in which the Palace and parts of the city sat on.

This basement later became the primary landing site for the princesses' chariots, including maintenance, and everything to keep their sole mode of transport in their best shape.

Approaching a dark blue and purple chariot, a pair of thestral or draconic-stylized winglets on the lower edge designed as an added step for climbing in, Night stopped beside a silver-grey stallion, facing the seemingly-distant bay doors of the Hangar. Alike a statue he stood, positioned in front of the chariot in hitching preparation.

Leaning slightly closer, he cleared his throat. The other pegasus flinched with surprise, head snapping in Night's direction. Immediately he jumped into attention stance, hoof raised in a salute. "Captain!"

Night grinned, albeit more tiredly than usual. "At ease. Why so hard, Skye?"

Skye Racer relaxed his muscles. "My apologies, Captain. I was simply waiting for—"

"Don't worry about it, please," Night gestured. "I trust you are locked and braced?"

"Sir?" Skye blinked thrice.

"For the flight, of course."

"Oh! Yes, sir. More than ever."

"Excellent," Night nodded once, glancing ahead of them and examining a pair of ponies off to the side, in the workshop.

"You know, sir, I have never been out west before," Skye began. "Where is... this place we are headed? I have not spotted it on any map."

"It is just east of Vanhoover, in the sky like Cloudsdale if you have ever been, but smaller. Since Luna's return, they've expanded under Equestrian funding to bring us bat ponies up to speed with the rest of the world, if you catch my drift."

Skye's brow furrowed, his ice blue eyes gazing over Night from ear to hoof and back briefly. "Yet after all of these years, I could still be effortlessly convinced you're from elsewhere, if I was not already made aware of your, um... fangs."

Night chuckled. "For a while, we were convinced my parents weren't actually my parents. Countless failed DNA examinations later, one finally came through, confirming all what we wanted to hear."

"That they are your parents?" Skye smiled.

Night nodded, too smiling. "Exactly."

"Raises a lot of questions, though. Did any of your ancestors happen to be pegasi?"

Night's smile faded, he briefly pondered the thought. "You know, I have no clue. Nopony's ever mentioned it before."

Skye glanced at Night, concerned. "Perhaps soon would be a decent time to ask. Whether or not you do, someone would otherwise know."

"I will," Night turned, eyeballing Skye gently. "Another time, though. My parents have enough to be stressed about for the time being."

"I can imagine," Skye nodded. "Leaving home is to—"

"Attention! Princesses on deck!"

At the booming announcement through overhead speakers, all in the room stopped what they were doing and snapped to attention stance, Night and Skye included.

Through a larger corridor, a far different one than what Night used, both the day and night princesses emerged through a pair of sliding doors. Lodestar accompanied a warmly-dressed Luna, only this far, while those hauling Celestia's chariot escorted the sun monarch towards their chariots.

On approach, Night and Skye saluted Princess Luna, who gave a warm smile to either of the respectful stallions. With a nod from her, they lowered their hooves, whilst Lodestar aided her highness carefully up into her seat.

"Thank you, Sergeant, that will be all," Luna nodded to him.

Lodestar returned the nod, stepping away from her chariot, and moving to Night. Even from afar, he could make out the seriousness plastered on his face regarding one reason, and one reason only.

"Make it happen, Cap," Lodestar mumbled just enough for him to hear.

Night acknowledged, posture remaining while a pair of overall-wearing ponies carefully strapped leather harnesses around his and Skye's waists, just below their wings, before attaching the chariot's hitch and locking it in place. Each gave pulls from many angles to ensure nothing was loose.

To their right, Celestia seated herself on her own chariot, a significantly-smaller unicorn, wearing square-framed glasses over her eyes and a simple yet warm sweater, climbed up to sit beside her, carrying a suitcase full of materials for writing.

The guards escorting her now stood ahead of the gold-clad royal wagon, wings spreading to allow the Hangar workers to hook them to the hitch, also tugging as a quick check.

As soon as all seemed fine, ponies cleared a straight way and stood on either sides of the concrete strip leading out through ceiling-high steel doors situated borderline of the facility.

With an echoing heavy metallic clank of the locks uncoupling, gradually the doors split in the center, spreading outward to fully open the hole in the side of the mountain ledge, staring out into a darkened abyss that one could compare to a dark portal.

The temperature inside dropped a whole ten or so degrees while a rushing breeze swept inside. Without massive heaters, the average winter climate inside the Hangar sat at a mild forty-five or fifty degrees, forcing those to wear heavy work jackets provided through unions to keep themselves comfortable on their lengthy shifts.

Wincing at the frigid blast in his eyes, Night briefly squinted, blinking heavily to disperse tears that formed in response. Glancing right, Celestia's escort begun moving, gaining speed the farther down they went.

Only moments after lifting off, Night and Skye grunted in their efforts to catch up, adjusting to the chariot's weight with their forward momentum. About halfway to the end of the strip, they heaved upwards, lifting off gently and exiting the Hangar behind Celestia, the city of Canterlot shrinking behind them.

"Sweet Celestia, it's c-cold!" Skye shivered, eyes wide and air nipping away at his grey coat.

Luna called from behind. "Now, I know you did not just swear in my sister's name!"

***

Some time later that afternoon, just past noon, from above, the ground gradually turned from pure white to a more greyish tinge. The closer they came to the strip of mountains that surrounded the valley, the signs of what was to come became further visible.

Scorched earth reaching down the slopes, former masses of pine trees completely stripped of their branches and needles, and a choking fog that hovered just above the surface, one that stretched on for miles upon miles, as far as the eye could see, even from this height.

"Masks on, we're approaching ground zero," Night ordered to Skye and Princess Luna, slipping on a surgical mask to shield himself from the toxic soot. Despite the dispersed ash clouds, it continued to rain in small amounts, not quite as heavily as last time.

Both followed suit, strapping on the masks with little to no issue. From there, the three began their descent into the valley, clearing the mountains by a hundred or so feet.

Heartache met Night the moment what remained of the surface village came within his line of sight. Bits of snapped wooden planks poking just out of the ash, along with shattered stone and torn fabric flapping in the wind. All of the hard work put into accommodating ponies unable to reach the main city, gone.

"Princess, there's no place to land. Ash is too deep. We'll have to land in the main city," Skye spoke, muffled by the mask.

With that, Night and Skye turned skyward, focusing on the looming shadow of a single cloud mass locked in place, high above the mountain tops.

Batsburg itself, much to Night's relief, remained standing for the most part. Some structures suffered partial collapse, and very few had been totally destroyed in the ensuing fiery cloud that engulfed the city.

However, much alike the surrounding region, the city had a stark landscape. Beneath the dusty atmosphere, very little sunlight broke through. Compared to the cloud's thick composition previously, much improved over the span of three weeks. Though, months would pass until the air would be fully clear again.

On the Citadel's central plaza was where Luna's chariot landed, soon followed by Celestia's alongside. The first sight anypony noticed from this angle was a waterless fountain, instead filled with a thin layer of erupted rock. Its contents were either evaporated, or completely blown away by the blast of heat from the explosion.

Night took a glance at the Citadel, shadowed by the grey of the sky. He shuddered, ears pinning as he remembered it to likely be the Governor's final resting place. For whoever would discover his remains he felt deep remorse.

Carefully, he and Skye unhitched themselves from Luna's chariot, Skye helping her highness down on solid ground.

"This place has most certainly changed since our previous visit, beyond the destruction it faced," Luna said behind her mask, slowly scanning around her and taking note of the damage to every structure, big or small. Anything not built on a foundation or bolted down had been tossed through windows, walls, or blown off the edge of the city entirely.

Princess Celestia, steadily making her way in the direction of the Citadel's doors, eventually stopped. She closed her eyes, sighing softly.

"For centuries I have feared pony kind, ponies of any race, being forced to experience such a terrifying and nearly-inescapable catastrophe. It truly is a miracle how many survived," Celestia spoke with much grief in her voice.

Luna moved up beside the older alicorn, gently nuzzling above her shoulder. "There was nothing either of us could do, dear sister. These are some of the few things even we cannot prevent."

"I... understand. That simply does not provide any means of comfort, Luna. Just like all of that time ago, when I was forced to banish you to the moon. It pained me to come to the conclusion of having to do just that, when my attempts to reason with you failed terribly."

Noticeable to all, tears fell across Celestia's cheeks. She opened a wing, wrapping it carefully yet tightly around her younger sibling, holding her closer than ever.

"There is a lot I am regretful for doing, or guilty for not being able to do. This is one of those times, Luna. Perhaps if I—"

"Sister! There was nothing either of us could do to stop it. Nopony knew what would happen. Much like many other anomalies in this world, it could not have been predicted. All anypony could do was ensure as many evacuated as possible," Luna broke free from Celestia's wing, jumping in front of her.

"You need to understand that even us alicorns cannot control how the world works. Our expansive knowledge of spells and magic, all we have ever learned, you and I could not have prevented such a disaster."

Celestia reached a hoof up, wiping the tears off of her cheek. "I... I understand, Luna. It will not change how I feel..."

Luna slowly wrapped her hooves around her elder sister, squeezing in the embrace. "Nor shall it alter my feelings. All there is to do now is clean up, and help these poor ponies return to their normal lives."

Returning the tightened hug, Celestia nuzzled Luna's forehead, sniffling. "Then let us aid these ponies... together."

Author's Note:

Sorry this chapter took so long, and because it's so short. The week I was hoping to finish it by was extremely busy and full of crazy stuff.

Comments

[Valiant Charge]

The volcano isn't active anymore right?

[Thunderblast]

7928525 Not as of this chapter, no. But the dust still lingers, mostly from what's fallen that's kinda affecting the air.

[Valiant Charge]

7928570 i can just imagine. The mummified bodies covered by the ash like at mt vesuvius.

[Thunderblast]

7928576 Well, considering a few in this story died before the pyroclastic flow, they're more so buried beneath the ash that fell. Plus, most made it out. Pompeii however, their bodies were pretty much preserved by the cloud.

[Valiant Charge]

7928596 hm. *nods in agreement*

[Paladin Redflare]

Every chapter starts with Night waking up, STOP IT!!

[Paladin Redflare]

Oi, I want to see the Governor still be alive in the next chapter, edit it before I read in a minute or i'm grounding you.