The War for Balance

by Robert Emerald Fountain

The Mysterious Light

The crew aboard the E S S Harmony, Equestria’s largest starship, had just left the docking station and embarked on Astro 3. They were starting off by studying a supernova from a distance to understand how a star burned out and how stars were born in stellar nurseries. After documenting how some types of stars became black holes, they continued on until they reached a nebula that often released discharges of static electricity. Radioactive elements could be harvested from this nebula, but it was a dangerous procedure.

The nebula had been visited by the residents from the moon base in the past and it almost had nothing left to gather. As the crew aboard the Harmony gathered what was left, a bright light suddenly appeared out of nowhere and blinded them. The sun shield was deployed automatically and protected the crew members. Beams flew from this mass of light and began to damage parts of the ship and destroy the elements from the nebula that had just been harvested. Fearing that the crew’s life was in danger, the Captain sent a distress call directly to Flurry Heart.

“E S S Harmony to Canterlot. Do you copy?”

“This is Flurry Heart. Go ahead Captain Blitz.”

“We had just finished harvesting the elements from the nebula when a mass of light appeared out of nowhere. The elements from the nebula were destroyed and parts of the ship have been engulfed. It’s as if this mass of light is alive somehow. Hold on a second. CODE RED, Your Highness, we’re losing power. Our core has been knocked out. This thing might be coming towards… *static*.”

“Your Majesty, we’ve lost the signal.”, said Gallus.

Flurry was devastated by the loss of the crew. They were only halfway through their mission, and now they were dead. She issued a Priority One alert around the world for everyone to prepare for a large mass of light to appear in orbit. Shield generators were constructed to stop the light from penetrating Equus’ atmosphere and destroying the moon. It was only a matter of two weeks before the mass was picked up on radar by the moon base. The bright light could be seen all around the entire globe. It was as if the sun was shining everywhere.

When the light first appeared, the shield turned dark to prevent anyone from getting blinded. Flurry ordered mirrors to be set up in case any light from this entity managed to break through. Everyone was also required to wear sunglasses because even the shield could not filter all of the light.