Golf Echo Bravo

by part time pony

Chapter 10 | The Morality

382 hours after the disappearance of Golf Echo Bravo

Westmann Islands, Iceland

"Rain and rain and rain, will it ever stop?"

Álfur watched as heavy rainfall poured down upon the streets outside of the warehouse. Being in the office part of it he turned around seeing Björn asleep on a desk, Ebba was nowhere to be seen. He checked his watch and it read precisely 7 AM. He sighed and slowly walked over to the desk which contained his personal laptop and some printed out documents that Laufar had sent him. As he walked he noticed Ulrik was hard at work. The man had returned just this morning and already explained what he and his friend Arnaud discovered on their excursion. All of it was interesting naturally, too much, however. There now was the probability that the disappearance was criminal, which made this case even more complex. At first, it was only the four teams from each country or company in Airbus' case, then the U.S Navy and now the Icelandic Police as well as Interpol.

He smiled at the entire stupidity of the situation, one moment they were getting slow but interesting progress and the next they find themselves in an international mess with the Americans and the rest of Europe involved. What he originally thought would be a two-week-long investigation to just determine the plane crashed without a trace had become such a twist that it seemed unbelievable. He checked his emails rapidly, before looking at Ulrik quickly. He was seen with a phone in his hand now, spinning around in his chair slowly and casually as he spoke to somebody on the other side.

Björn on the other hand was still seen sleeping. His arms in a relaxed position spread across the desk and his head in the middle. Álfur shook his head as he smiled lightly. He now walked towards the most important and holiest item in the room, the coffee machine.

Switching it on he grabbed two empty mugs and selected regular Latte coffee, as the two coffees brewed Ulrik walked over to Álfur rapidly with a piece of paper that fresh from the printing machine. "Bad news." He said, giving the document to Álfur. "Look Ulrik, my week has been full of bad news this entire week, better not be to-" He stopped suddenly as he began reading the document.

---

North Atlantic Ocean

USS Dwight D. Eisenhower

The rain retreated as the sun began now shining brightly. Vice Admiral Omar Hopkins took off his jacket and hat as he entered the bridge of his aircraft carrier, the mighty Ike. A sailor rapidly noticed the presence of the Admiral, standing at attention he shouted. "ADMIRAL ON DECK!"

The rest of the sailors in the bridge stood at attention, as Omar Hopkins gave the order to be at ease and return to duties. He walked over to one of the many windows on the bridge, grabbing a pair of binoculars he looked out the neverending horizon of the sea. His attention was quickly disturbed however as the horn of a ship was heard loudly.

"Who the hell-" The admiral cut himself off as he rapidly navigated his way through the bridge to a side entrance that led out on a small balcony with a non-obstructed view of the surroundings. He once again brought the binoculars up to his eyes and looked for the source of the horn, just when he located it a sailor came up to him.

"The hell is that ship doing in our zone?" The Vice-Admiral demanded answers.

"That should be the HMS Echo, a survey ship, sir. I believe it's taking final measurements before heading back to the UK."

"Final measurements, the hell you mean?"

"Haven't you heard, sir?" The sailor shifted his head towards the Vice-Admiral.

Omar shook his head, allowing the sailor to continue. "The UK is pulling all of it's naval contribution to the investigation away due to the current recession in Europe."

Omar Hopkins gave no reaction, rather he went back inside the bridge to coordinate the upcoming aerial exercise and patrol that the carrier's air wings were going to participate in. The sailor that stood with the Vice-Admiral reentered as well, going back to his task of manning the radar. The HMS Echo, on the other hand, joined formation with the fleet briefly just to announce it's presence as it later went off on its own to collect data nearby.

---

406 hours after the disappearance of Golf Echo Bravo

Canterlot, Equestria

The elegant halls of the royal castle in Canterlot were brightly lit up. The checkered white and purple floors were slightly covered by red carpets. The Princess of the Night, the stars and the moon had recently finished assisting her elder sister with the lowering of the sun and the raising of the moon and stars. The night brought a sense of relaxing serenity as the busy and bustling capital of Equestria was slowly brought to a halt for the hours of peaceful darkness.

Yet, not everything was quiet during the night, namely, the castle itself. There was always activity inside and outside around it, never did it rest, not even during the weekends or the holidays. There was always guarding to be done and trouble to be found, especially since the latest incident. Security had naturally been temporarily increased and every hallway had at least one guardspony monitoring it. The hallway that Princess Luna walked through was no exception as she made notice of Lieutenant Lightning Strike, formerly a non-commissioned officer holding the rank of Sergeant, now a recently promoted commissioned officer.

Though the promotion sure brought joy to the veteran stallion, it also brought more work to him, which was one of the reasons he had refused to enrol into OCS in the past. Earlier he had only been responsible for a small pegasi unit, now suddenly he was in charge of the second pegasi platoon of the Canterlot Garrison, which was made up of several other platoons and smaller units. The Lieutenant bowed down to greet the Princess, and then rose back up as she greeted him back.

"Lighting, I have another favour to ask of you." The Princess began, with the guardspony listening attentively.

"There is no such thing as favours, Princess. I will do anything you ask of me, such is my duty." He responded, giving out a clear and formal answer. It almost sounded as if he had rehearsed that specific line several times in the past.

Luna gave out an awkward smirk at the response, though she rather quickly regained her serious attitude from earlier.
"Remember when I asked for a report on the two humans in Ponyville?" Lightning Strike nodded slowly once.

"I need thou to do the same thing, again." She said, but quickly resuming. "Except this time only on Connor. I am confident Antoine and Timothy are safe. But the new one, I feel as if he's unpredictable. Regardless. We can never be too sure." She said with numerous short breaks in between, but finishing in the end.

The recently promoted Lieutenant nodded in acknowledgement with his eyes closed, reopening them at the end.
"And, how long do you wish them to inspect him?"

"A week will do. Just like last time. I want somepony else to perform it this however, somepony that's more... experienced."
She responded, going a little too fast, yet the guard still understood perfectly.

The Lieutenant thought for a while, as different names and ranks went through his head in and out rapidly. The ones that had performed the initial short and brief investigation into Antoine, Timothy, and their aircraft had been Private Thunder Arrow and Corporal Dauntless. While the latter was relatively experienced, she made it clear that it had to someone else. Someone not just experienced, but with seniority.

"I believe Sergeant Valiant Justice is available, he just returned from Manehattan after that liaison task of his." Lighting Strike said, referring to the fact that the Sergeant had briefly been with the Manehattan Police Department as a sign of cooperation and friendship between the Royal Guards, more or less, however, the armed forces in general and the local departments.

Princess Luna smiled and nodded, affirming the selection of the Lieutenant, and with that, he saluted, making his way to where the Sergeant would most likely be currently. The Princess watched as the senior guard trotted away, his metallic shoes echoing through the hallway, just as hers did.

She resumed her quiet walk through the hallway, staying on the red carpet the noises of her walking were minimised as the soft fabrics dampened the sound. Princess Celestia was always the optimistic one, always seeing possibility where Luna sometimes saw deadends. The same applied to the three humans in Ponyville. The Princess of the Sun was excited about a new chapter in Equestrian history while Luna was paranoid about the potential dangers, and such dangers as she had feared had been fulfilled on that terrible night, unfortunately.

She remembered clearly how she was one of the first ponies to arrive. When she did, she saw the orange-coated Sergeant on the floor, still awake though in pain, and the other guard on top of the unconscious human. She had been the one who assisted the guard in bringing the injured pony and human to the sickbay where Artic Aid prioritized the guard due to the nature of his injuries. He had later naturally inspected the human who only had a few bruises on his head. Nothing too severe.

Though maybe, as she kept thinking, it wasn't all his fault. He was, naturally feeling under pressure. Could the situation have been approached differently? Maybe. Royal Guards weren't primarily taught in de-escalation, it wasn't their job after all. That was a job for the local law agencies instead. Yet their jurisdiction didn't exist in the castles. Just as she kept thinking about it, she awkwardly bumped into her older sister Celestia. She bounced off her and quickly regained her balance before falling onto the ground.

"Oh my, Luna, are you fine?"

"My fault entirely, sister. I was lost in my thoughts, you see." She explained her actions, and the taller princess turned around to face her.

"What were you thinking about? If I may inquire."

"Well. About the new human, I am still concerned."

Celestia sighed, "I had a feeling you would be."

Princess Luna looked at her curiously. "Really?" She asked.

"Why yes, you, after all, doubted the appearance of Antoine and Timothy." She reaffirmed her remark, as she smiled confidently at her younger lunar sister.

This time it was Luna who sighed. "That is true. Then again, I've always been the more conservative princess, at least compared to you."

"Don't worry, Luna, thy way of thinking and action isn't the only thing conservative about thee," Celestia responded to her own sisterly joke at the end with a giggle and smirk, as the Princess next to her rolled her eyes.

"Very funny." She commented annoyingly.

Celestia turned back around, facing the large window which she had been doing before Luna bumped into her. Her sister did the same. "See that over there Luna?" She pointed her hoof towards Ponyville, but more specifically, the parked aeroplane in a field not far from the town itself. Luna nodded in acknowledgement.

"You see an obstruction. That the humans will only bring trouble. Yet, I see opportunity. While I doubt I'll ever visit their world I can still learn much from them. Did you know in Timothy's country their monarchy is constitutional? I hadn't even heard of that idea before he spoke to me about it when we visited them." She began, breathing in out and slowly before resuming.

"And in Antoine's country, they don't even have a monarch, well they did he told me but something happened that changed it. He didn't go into much detail... Regardless, there their head of state is an elected position, isn't that fascinating?" She finished, a wide smile was seen on her face. Knowledge was a passion one of her passions, one that she passed down to all her students in the past, and her current one was even more fascinated by that passion than her.

The Princess of the Moon thought a little about it for a while, surrendering to the same passion her older sister and student had in common "It does sound interesting, I admit. And what of this... Connor's country?"

Princess Celestia continued looking out the window, though now towards the Ponyville library which was a little hard to see as it was relatively hidden by multiple buildings in its vicinity. "It's the same as Antoine's country if I remember their wordings correctly."

Luna nodded once more in acknowledgement. The sisters now shared a short but pleasant silence. Celestia used it to admire the surrounding towns and cities that were lit up by the lights while Luna analysed the recent knowledge. The idea of a different government other than monarchies was something she hadn't thought about in the past. Sure, she had learnt about how some ancient pony civilisations practised democracy, yet it was a flawed version as the history books wrote.

Her moment of thought was unfortunately interrupted by her sister as she stretched her hoof out once more to point out something, this time, something not stationary. "It looks like Twilight is returning from the Crystal Empire."

What she was pointing out was, in fact, the Friendship Express, the lights at the front locomotive being visible from the castle in the mountain. The train sported four carriages as it was seen racing down the railway tracks that paused briefly in Ponyville, before resuming in two directions, one towards Canterlot and another towards the southern regions.

"It seems like it indeed. I take it you're personally excited to hear about her adventure?" Luna asked her older sister.

"Of course. I know for a fact she is that much closer to being ready." The Princess said one final time, as she now backed up from the window to face her sister once again. "My dear Luna, I will retire for the night. Don't cause too much trouble now." She said one last time, with another confident smirk at the end as the night princess rolled her eyes once more. She greeted her sister goodnight.

She watched her slowly walk away from the hallway towards her own personal room. She sighed to herself and resumed her walk as she shook her head slowly. She walked through several hallways with no particular destination in mind. A lot was on her mind and not enough answers. In the void of it all, confusion flooded, leaving her almost in a state of desperation to find an answer.

But, as time went on, all still felt quiet and the same, not in a good way for her. Too much was quiet, and too much was all the same. And it wasn't just since the humans arrived, but before. She could see when things would happen and how. Yet this entire appearance was a surprise to her, an unpleasant one for that fact. What truly was behind it she didn't know. There was no way for any normal unicorn, or any pony, in general, to have caused this. Not without help at least. But help from where the magic of the other species wasn't strong enough. Even alicorn magic could not have caused, not even the combined power of Celestia, Luna and Cadence. Too many questions and too many of them left unanswered.

Author's Note:

Feedback/Comments? I'm always open to those!