Luna and Dominic stood beside Maria as she lay on a hospital bed in the castle Medical Ward, her belly was bare was Doctor Patterson stood with an ultrasound wand in one hand and a bottle of gel in the other. For two of the three expecting parents it would be the first chance they would get to see their little bundle of joy, and as Patterson rubbed the gel onto Maria’s belly she was also able to see that Dominic seemed to have bags under his eyes. The doctor shook her head subtly, knowing that he’d need all the sleep he could get when the baby arrived.

Maria gasped slightly from the cold feeling of the gel on her skin, but it quickly passed as she watched Patterson begin the ultrasound. After a couple seconds she was greeted with the familiar image on the screen of the machine, though she was surprised to see how much the little one had grown since the last time she had seen it. There was a brief moment of silence as they all watched the tiny form come into view. Little legs, little arms with little baby hands, it was like looking into a whole new world. Doctor Patterson silently looked over the screen for a couple moments before turning.

“So, did you want to know what they are?” She asked as she continued moving the wand over Maria’s stomach. Maria, Luna, and Dominic all looked at one another for a couple seconds, after a couple moments they nodded.

“Yes.” Maria said quietly, looking at the Doctor with a certain expression.

“Well then, say hello to your son.” Patterson said as she continued her examination, Maria and the others smiled as they looked at the screen. “He’s bigger than average, I reckon he’s gonna be a ten pounder when he’s born.” Dominic quietly moved towards the monitor and looked at the little form on the screen, smiling from ear to ear as he got a closer look. The man sighed softly as he thought once again about all the things that that little boy would get to do when he grew up, all the things that Dominic, Luna, and Maria wouldn’t be able to do.

Luna stood beside him with a similar expression as Maria and Patterson made idle chit chat, for her it was the first time seeing a human baby. She knew that humans had babies and even children, but she had never been able to think of Dominic as a baby, for some reason she pictured him hatching from a cannon ball and springing fully formed or something. Yet right in front of her was irrefutable proof that humans indeed had babies, and that they were adorable even before birth. The Queen of Dreams put a wing over Dominic’s shoulder as the two of them continued looking at the monitor for a couple seconds before eventually both of them snapped out of their awe.

“Okay, so you’ve been sticking to that list I gave you right?” The doctor asked as the two of them turned to look at Maria, the woman nodded with a slight smile. “That’s good to hear, glad to see you’re taking this so seriously.” The doctor turned to Dominic and Luna. “I’ve got some more things I need to do privately, if you wouldn’t mind stepping out?”

“Alright.” Dominic replied with a shrug as he Luna turned to walk out. “Call if you need us.” The two walked out of the room and closed the door behind them, the man sighed softly as he moved over and took a seat in one of the chairs next to the door. Luna sat beside him and watched as he reached into his uniform pocket, from within he withdrew a couple documents which he began looking over quietly.

“I thought you had all your work sorted out today?” Luna said with a bit of a raised eyebrow, Dominic nodded before he handed the documents over for Luna to look at. She glanced over them for a couple moments before gasping and looking at Dominic. “How is it they’ve managed to start building energy cannons? We’re only starting research on those…”

“Exactly. They’ve been mounting them to those new tanks of theirs. They’ve also been selling of entire battalions of armor to countries like Saddle Arabia, the Caribou Empire, hell even the zebras are getting in on the deal.” Dominic said in a slightly cautious tone as he looked around the hallway. “There’s more than just the Crystal Empire that has me concerned to day.” The man pulled another document from his pocket and handed it to Luna. “News from Earth, we’ve started expanding into Wyoming. General Hillard has uncovered at least a dozen underground silos that were supposed to have nuclear warheads in them. The problem is that there are five warheads unaccounted for, at least that we know of.”

“What of the ones that are accounted for?” Luna asked, Dominic remained quiet for a couple seconds as he rubbed his chin. “Dominic?”

“I’ve put them in the custody of the CIMC, they’re being moved to their facility in the desert.” Dominic said solemnly as he leaned his head back against the wall. “I desperately want to disarm them, but…” The man quietly looked at Luna with a nervous expression. “Your sister scares me, Luna. Scares me so much I feel that getting rid of them would be irresponsible.”

Luna sighed softly as she rested a wing on Dominic’s shoulder, giving him a gentle squeeze even as she was unable to assuage his fears. She wanted to tell him that there was nothing to fear from her sister, that she wouldn’t use her power for such a purpose, but after what had happened she wasn’t sure what to think anymore. Dominic quietly looked at her, then to the floor, feeling more a pit form in his stomach even on such a happy day. There was more, but he couldn’t tell Luna. As he took the documents back from her and tucked them into his jacket he shook the worries from his mind. It was just a sign to show that his work was never really done.

[♠]

Shining Armor quietly sighed as he looked out over the central command room of the Crystal Empire’s Military, tensions on the border with Onorus had been notably rising with more and more of their odd solo aircraft flights over the city. No one could really decipher what was happening there, but that wasn’t the only thing that had the Crystal commander on edge. There were numerous radio frequencies being monitored in and out of the Empire, and one of them had cropped up that had a very notable source. The transmission was weak, but still detectable, and it brought with it a fear inducing possibility.

“Your highness, it’s starting again…” One of the Equestrian officers that had evacuated announced from a radio, Shining Armor signaled for them to put it on the speakers that lined the room. The stallion could hear the familiar tune of an old Thestral march, though it used human lyrics. That was what told him it was Onorussian in origin. As the song continued a couple stallions flicked on the recording devices while others prepared pens and pencils to transcribe whatever the broadcast was about to deliver.

Shining had figured there were spies among his Empire when the transmissions had begun, but they had never been able to root any of them out. He wasn’t sure how though, the only Equestrians in the Empire were all accounted for and definitely weren’t spies, and Changelings weren’t able to change into Crystal Ponies. He just knew that somehow the Onorussians were slipping spies into his city undetected, and it annoyed him greatly. As the music continued playing he began pacing back and forth, this was the fifth time they had intercepted the same transmission.

”Union. Nikolai. Dimitri. Eva. Robert.” A tired griffish voice said over the radio, just as they had the first four times. They repeated the code over and over again, and then came the incessant beeping noise. ”.-. -..- ..- .--- ..-. -.- .-. ... ..- -.- .... --.- --.- ..- -. .-.. ... ..- -... .-. ..-. .- -- .-.. --.- --.- ..-. -. .. .-. ..- .-- ..- ..-. ... ..-. -.- --.- ... .--. - -.. ... ..-. .-.. -.- --.-” Shining Armor knew about human tone based codes, but he had never been able to figure them out, even despite their closeness to Equestrian languages. As usual the code continued to repeat over and over again, Shining Armor scowled when it repeated the names one final time before returning to its normal broadcast, an odd tone that seemed to sound ever one and a quarter seconds.

“Any progress decoding the message?” Shining asked as he looked to his best decoders, but they all shook their heads and went back to working on decoding it. He quietly walked out of the room to get some air, the crystal guards saluting him as he walked through the castle until he reached the gardens. As he walked he tripped, with a scowl he looked to see his hoof had fallen into what looked like a gopher hole. “Damn rats…” He muttered before straightening up and walking away.

As he walked along Shining came across Princess Celestia, she was sitting quietly and looking up towards the sky with a neutral expression on her face. Her muzzle moving ever so slowly as she seemed to watch something moving around in the sky, no doubt it was the mysterious high altitude aircraft flying overhead. Her attention was so focussed that she didn’t notice Shining Armor approaching her until he was almost close enough to touch her. The clouds outside the empire were restless, despite the clear skies caused by the Crystal Empire’s dome.

“What brings you out here, Shining?” Celestia asked as she continued watching whatever it was she could see in the sky, her eyes occasionally straining as she did so. “Another transmission from that mysterious station?”

“Yes… I have no idea who they’re sending the messages to, or what they’re about, or even where they could be receiving them.” Shining said as he sat beside Celestia and looked up in the sky, trying to spot whatever it was that she was looking at. “How is it you know it’s up there? Our strongest mages can’t see that high…?”

“The sunlight helps mostly… That’s why I’m able to see it so much better.” Celestia said simply as she continued tracing the path with her nose. The mare paused and pointed for a second. “There it is, if you squint really hard you might be able to see it.” Shining Armor squinted and did his best to see, but couldn’t see the aircraft in question.

“Couldn’t you bring it down?” Shining asked nervously, Celestia shrugged quietly. “I don’t like it up in the air, I don’t know what it’s doing, and despite what Cadence says I think it’s a threat.” Celestia hummed softly as she continued tracing the aircraft with her horn, occasionally sighing as she did so. “Didn’t you say they have bombs that could wipe out an entire city?”

“Yes… Though I don’t know if they’ve built any of them.” Celestia said with a slight sigh, honestly she had become rather fond of the aircraft passing overhead, it was the only constant thing she could rely on besides the rising and setting of the sun. “If you wish for me to destroy the aircraft, I will… This is your nation after all.”

In the air above, Mason quietly adjusted his helmet and looked through the the scope of his camera as he snapped more photos of the tanks parked on the outskirts of the Crystal Empire. Once again their was soothing music playing through his helmet as he continued his usual flight. Occasionally he’d take his eyes away from the scope to look out the window at the little spot in the middle of the frozen north that somehow supported life. Honestly, looking out the window almost made him feel like he was in some sort of movie, like ‘Doctor Strangelove’ or ‘Failsafe’.

“Dojo, this is Dragon lady, I’ve completed my latest run. Should be able to do a couple more passes before I hit bingo fuel.” Mason said into the radio as he looked down at the Empire, humming softly as he waited for a response from his commanders. It was just him up there, not a soul for miles around, the beautiful curvature of the planet laid out in front of him while the sun hung overhead. It was peaceful and quiet, he could almost forget he was spying on people for a bit and enjoy the beauty of it all. After all, it was the closest anyone had ever gone to space on that planet.

The man leaned back and sighed contently, adjusting his bulky flight suit as he did so. Mason man waited for more instructions, but as he was waiting he was shocked to hear an alarm blaring through the cockpit. The Arcane Warning light was flashing, on instinct the man jerked the stick to the right violently. Moments later a bright blast of yellow magic flew past his left side, the alarm kept blaring as he jerked back to the left. The warning wouldn’t stop, a spell blazed past his right side, so close he could’ve reached out and touched it. Still the klaxons blared, he was panting heavily as his flight suit kept constricting on him to keep him from passing out.

“Come on! Come on!” He shouted as he strained to keep control of his aircraft and avoid the seemingly constant blasts of magic. Finally his luck ran out and a spell slammed into the right wing of his aircraft, the aircraft began tumbling out of the sky. Mason’s breathing became even more panicked as alarms blared throughout the cockpit, the aircraft spinning faster and faster. With all the changing G forces Mason struggled to reach for a button on the console marked ‘Destruct’, he grunted as he flicked the safety switch off and pushed the red button. He had twenty five seconds to punch out. “This is Dragon Lady! I’m punching out!”

The man reached down between his legs and yanked up on a yellow and black striped bar, the canopy blasted away seconds before Mason felt himself shot out of the aircraft like a bullet. After seconds of pure terror the man felt himself falling again, the seat fell away and he was suddenly hanging by a parachute. His breathing was heavy as he frantically looked around, watching as the aircraft exploded below him, effectively destroying any hope of it being salvaged or even recognizable. His flight suit was rapidly becoming cold in the thin air, and he realized he had to conserve oxygen. Minutes ticked by agonizingly slowly as he began floating down towards the earth below, after what felt like an eternity he found himself getting close to the dome.

He passed through it and into suddenly warm air, he felt it was safe enough to breathe normally as he drifted further down to the ground. Mason could already see crystal ponies scrambling around on the ground, his fists clenched around his parachute controls as he saw himself falling towards a grassy area with plants and bushes. Standing there he could see two Equestrians, from his briefings he knew they were none other than Shining Armor and Princess Celestia. Mason hit the ground with a thud, landing properly and ripping off his parachute harness. He scrambled out of the chute that was collapsing around him and went for his side arm, with a grunt he whipped the M9 from its holster and leveled it at the two Equestrians that had started approaching him.

“Drop your weapon!” Shouted numerous guards as they closed in, Mason glared at the Equestrians through his helmet. “Drop it!” The man briefly looked at the guards, armed with spears, swords, and bows, he could see most didn’t have the mettle in their eyes to kill him. It would only take one though. The pilot had been told in the event of such a situation, there was a cyanide pill in his pocket, but he couldn’t reach it fast enough. It had been stressed that there wasn’t to be another ‘Gary Powers’ incident, and Mason had been okay with that when he had taken the assignment. The man looked at his M9, then at Celestia and Shining Armor.

“For Mother Onorus!” He shouted loudly as he put the handgun under his chin.

“No-!” Celestia began to shout, but she was cut off by a bang that echoed over the courtyard. The guards stared in shock as the body tumbled to the ground, limp and unmoving. Celestia felt a pit form in her stomach as the guards moved in to secure the body, just in case somehow the pilot had survived. She didn’t realize that Shining Armor was talking to her until he had to shake her, she gasped quietly and looked at him with wide eyes. “W-What?”

“Are you okay?!” Shining shouted, Celestia nodded numbly as she looked back to the guards that were now starting to haul the body of the pilot of the mysterious airplane away. “Come with me, let’s get you inside before something else happens!” Celestia didn’t resist when Shining began tugging her inside, the stallion only stopped when he tripped in what looked like another gopher hole. He grunted and continued as if nothing had happened.

[♠]

Jack jolted out of his chair as he heard klaxons blaring throughout the base, the man had been lounging in a comfortable seat overlooking his F4 while his RIO, Chavez, was busy fiddling with something on the workbench. Both of them abandoned their down time projects and rushed towards the jet, with urgency they tugged on their flight helmets. Once they were in the aircraft they began going over their scramble pre-flight checks, within minutes the engines had rumbled to life and the aircraft was taxiing towards the tarmac.

“This is Alert One, making our way to runway Two Four Left.” He announced over the radio as he continued looking over his instruments. “Chavez, any idea what’s going on?”

“No, but I don’t like it.” The man in the back seat replied as he began scanning the radar screen for anything out of the ordinary, the skies were mercifully clear of any enemy fighters. It seemed they were only scrambling two jets, so it was most likely wasn’t anything big, but for an experienced pilot like Jack he knew that could change on a dime.

”Alert One this is Eagle Control, cleared for departure straight out. Your bearing is is zero-three-zero. North West.” Announced the tower control, Jack quietly gulped as he recognized the bearing quite well. As he saw Sarah’s jet moving up behind him through his canopy mirror he could tell she was probably having the same thoughts, the man did his best to bite down his worry and focus on getting the aircraft into full readiness. There was a reason that they were being deployed, they had more skill flying than closer jet pilots, and they would need all the skill they could get to brave the stormy clouds of the frozen north.

“Chavez, you set back there?” Jack asked, he got a glimpse of Chavez giving him a thumbs up just as they turned onto the runway. The man wasted no time in pushing the throttle up, the sudden burst of speed pushed him back in his seat as the aircraft thundered down the runway.

[♠]

Dominic quietly sighed as he stood in the situation room with numerous generals and higher ranking members of Providentia. There was a map on the wall and numerous phones were ringing away, the Imperator was not a happy man. At a time when he wanted to be home with his pregnant wife, he was instead dragged into the situation room with news they had lost a U2 spy plane over the Crystal Empire. He had no idea of he was facing a Gary Powers incident, especially since he didn’t know what he could use as a bargaining chip if he was. In this time of crisis Dominic had called upon Putin to act as an unofficial advisor, the former Russian Prime Minister had far more experience with the cold war than Dominic.

The two of them stood at the edge of the room, as there really wasn’t much they could do until they had more information. The two F4s had reported they saw the unrecognizable wreckage of the U2 being combed over, meaning that the pilot very well could’ve gone down with his aircraft when he destroyed it. He wouldn’t know for certain until his spies in the area reported back to him. The man looked over at Putin, the older man was quietly standing and adjusting his suit to look as official as possible. Dominic had a new bit of respect for Putin, after all, he hadn’t realized how taxing it was to run a country until he’d actually done it himself.

“When we get news, what do you think we should do?” Dominic asked quietly, watching the officers walk around and talking into phones. Putin looked over at Dominic with a stoic expression.

“If he’s alive we’ll find a way to get him out. If he’s dead…” Putin pulled a cigarette from his pocket, but paused when he spotted a new ‘No Smoking’ sign on the wall. They had been installed as soon as Maria had become pregnant, the man tucked it back into his pocket. “We need only worry about the political fallout.” Dominic nodded subtly as he continued looking at the map on the wall. “A man with your caliber of charisma should let this roll of his back. Tell the world you were sending the planes there only to ensure the security of your sovereign borders. Something like that.”

“Good thinking…” Dominic said as he tucked his hands into his pocket, Putin nodded simply and leaned from one foot to another. Several moments of silence passed between the two of them as they waited for information to come in. “You’re married, right?” Putin looked at Dominic with a raised eyebrow as he nodded. “You have kids too, right?” The Russian gave him another nod. “When you were expecting your first, how did you feel?”

“Scared, excited, but mostly scared.” Putin said with a slight shrug. “I found taking up a hobby helped with it though.” Dominic nodded and went back to watching the officers going about the room, his foot tapping nervously while his expression remained stoic like Putin’s. The Imperator watched as an officer picked up a phone and nodded a couple times as he wrote something down, the officer walked over to Dominic and handed him a note.

“Sir, our eyes on the ground confirmed it. The pilot self terminated.” The officer said as he handed Dominic the note, the Imperator took it quietly and looked it over. “The F4s have been recalled as well, sir. Intel reports the Crystal Empire has started moving several armored units on the border, but that’s to be expected.”

“Any communication with their government?” Dominic asked, the officer shook his head. “Carry on then, keep us at DEFCON Four until we make contact with their government.” The officer nodded and walked away, Putin nodded simply at the decision as the two of them continued looking at the screen on the wall. “They discovered some high powered arcane elements out in the desert, our chief mages say we could use it to make some pretty scary bombs. Given how much power Celestia and Cadence have though…”

“You know we’ve already got hold of some old Nuclear Warheads, but those are just about to hit their expiration date…” Putin mentioned, Dominic nodded quietly. “From what I hear Thermo-Arcane Weapons wouldn’t leave behind that nasty Fallout… They may be a better alternative.”

“What if they start doing the same thing? They’re sitting on a sheet of those elements themselves, as well as their big spells.” Dominic asked, Putin quietly hummed and rubbed his chin.

“I can’t make that decision, Mister Imperator… I would recommend taking a long while to think on it though.” The Russian stated, Dominic sighed as he rubbed the back of his neck and looked at his watch. It was getting late, but he couldn’t go home, he had too much work to do. With a tired sigh the man leaned back against the wall and ran a hand over his head. The second Cold War had officially begun.

Author's Notes:

Welp, here's another chapter for you lovely dovelies! I've been thinking of ways to make things fun, so that code that's up there isn't actually gibberish. I figured why shouldn't you get to play Cold War spy too? So if you can decipher the message, shoot me a PM. Not really for any sort of prize, just if you're looking for something to do while you're bored. It is regular Morse by the way, I didn't have time to create an entirely new different type of Morse Code.

And as always, here's your clip of the day.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjsSoqE7iRA