Space. The final frontier. Since her birth, Luna had always been fascinated by the stars that she played guardian to. They had played such an immense part in her life, and yet she knew very little about them. She, like many, shared in fantasies of going to the heavens and exploring or even colonizing other worlds. Even her son had expressed a desire to walk among her constellations, to seek out new life forms and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one had gone before. Unlike most regular citizens, however, she was far closer to this goal than anyone on her planet had been before.

For the last Eight years she had been tasked with seeking out a solution to the overpopulation problem, at first she and her team of scientists had experimented with model rockets and remote controlled aircraft. They had spent many hours studying the work of Werner Von Braun, a man said to be the father of human space flight. The Apollo and Mercury Programs had been blueprints for the first Onorussian Space Command test flights. As Luna stood in her office on the floor of the Castle that had been set aside solely for her project, she found herself thinking back to their first steps into space. Already a pony had been put in orbit for nearly a day, and plans to launch their first satellite were under way. To Luna these were simply Proof of Concept acts, and despite their achievements, they weren’t nearly close enough to her ultimate goal.

Her office was filled with maps on the wall, diagrams of space vessels and lists of goals were held up by tacks. A design table was set up near the glass wall that lead out into the hallway, on it were blueprints for another possible vessel that was being designed. Luna looked up at the largest item on her wall, her office was tall enough that it could be very large. A picture of a rust colored planet with ice caps at the surface, it was the closest neighbor of their world. Luna and her team had dubbed it Nova Paradisum, and it was her ultimate goal see a colony established there, and then, perhaps to see the expansion of Onorus into an interstellar power.

Warp fields and hyperspace travel weren’t much of an option, such technology would take far longer than she had to solve the problem put before her. It had been decided to focus on creating a viable wormhole drive, or at least land a team on the surface of Nova Paradisum in order to set up a portal arch. It would work in a similar fashion to the portal between Terra and Equis, allowing for the construction of a colony to take place for far less time and resources. Overshadowing the picture on her wall was a much smaller poster, one depicting the moon. The Portal Arch would be tested there, the construction of a test colony on the moon would be yet another proof of concept.

Luna sighed quietly and trotted out of her office, passing by a couple ponies and human scientists working in a lab. It was the robotics lab, nothing of much note happened there, at least not by Luna’s standards. She didn’t like robots, despite their value as space exploration tools and military assets, Luna found them to be rather dull and boring. There were more labs throughout her level of the castle, ranging from aeronautics to propulsion and even weapon design. The floor had been nicknamed ‘The White Wing’ by castle staff, a reference to the clean white floors, white walls, white ceilings, and often times the white clean suits the scientists wore in their labs. Luna wouldn’t have ever expected such a floor to exist eight years ago, the floor had used to be filled with apartments for nobles, but since there were no longer nobles it had been completely remodeled.

The alicorn hummed to herself as she made her way through the halls, occasionally she could hear scientists talking in the other rooms. Some of them were from the CIMC, as the military considered interdimensional travel and space travel to be rather similar, the two agencies often shared resources and staff. Luna turned down a hallway and entered a door on her right, the wormhole lab. As usual the scientists there were hard at work, some of them were standing in front of a whiteboard with equations scrawled along its surface, others were fiddling with small doodads, and Luna could see the two department heads were standing in a thick metal ring that was secure in a metal frame that stood upright on one of the white lab tables.

“You ready?” One of the men asked the other as he made a couple adjustments with his screwdriver, the other nodded and walked to an identical metal ring that was facing a different part of the room. “Alright, Dexter! Pray this works.” Luna remained quiet as she watched the two department heads from a reasonable distance, allowing them to work without interrupting. She watched as the first man picked up a glowing purple crystal, Luna recognized it as a simple Arcane Battery, a basic universal power storage device. The man placed the crystal into a device with wires that ran up to the first metal ring, then flipped a couple switches and slowly began to turn a knob.

“Reading stable dimensional emissions from my end.” Dexter reported from the other side of the room, the other scientists briefly looked over before shaking their heads and going back to their discussions. The two department heads had attempted the experiment thirty times, each try had failed, no matter what variables they changed. “Holding steady, increase power to… Seven Kilo-Arcs.” Luna smirked as she watched the first scientist turn the knob a bit more, the two rings began to glow a soft purple light. “We’re at one hundred units of dimensional rift…on this end.”

“Alright, let’s give it a shot.” The first department head said as he pulled on a pair of safety goggles, Luna recalled his name was Pavlov. A Russian physicist whose son was a rather accomplished airforce pilot. He ran a hand over his scraggly grey and black hair before picking up a baseball from the table and attempting to toss it through the ring. There was a bright spark, as well as a pop and a puff of smoke. The Arcane Battery shattered and the baseball bounced back and clocked Pavlov in the chest. “Damn it! What are we missing!”

“Perhaps I can help?” Luna asked, catching both scientists by surprise. They looked at her nervously, noting that she had probably seen yet another failure. The alicorn approached the lab table and examined the metal ring that had been wrapped up with wires and other devices, some of which hadn’t even existed a month ago. Despite all the technology she knew there were runes carved into the metal, a basic portal enchantment, but powering it would take concentration from a unicorn. Whenever a magic user activated the runes the spell worked like a charm, but take away that concentration and it failed miserably.

“We don’t know where we’re going wrong, Miss Luna. We’ve followed every step of the spell to the letter, infused it with enough technology to land a space shuttle… What are we missing?” Pavlov asked as he picked bits of broken crystal out of the device. Luna looked at the metal rings, her horn glowing softly as she probed them for any sort of arcane impurities. To her surprise the runes were the most perfect ones she had ever seen, and considering she had helped write the book on portal spells, that was saying something. By all accounts the device should have been working, but perhaps there was something that science couldn’t account for. Among other things, magic took concentration and passion to work, the most powerful mages were often very passionate in one aspect of their lives or another.

“Maybe it’s a focal point issue?” Dexter asked as he walked back over the Pavlov, he looked at his finger for a moment. “We’re trying to poke a hole in between two points, maybe we need some sort of hole punch?” Pavlov hummed quietly and rubbed his beard before looking at Luna, she nodded.

“Possible. Early portal spells would sometimes require a pony to pierce the event horizon.” The alicorn mused as she sat on the cold, sterile floor of the lab. The walls of the room, much like her office, were covered in numerous sketches and equations, as well as a calendar depicting a human woman in scant clothing. By most accounts she was beautiful, still, not as beautiful as Maria. At least according to Luna. The mare couldn’t help but think about her wife, so homely and pleasant on the outside, and yet she knew there was a sea of passion beneath that calm demeanor. Luna shook herself from those thoughts and looked back to the lab table. “Often they used their horn.”

“So, organic matter may be the key?” Dexter said before pausing and looking at the baseball that had landed on the table. “But the baseball is covered in leather and other organic matter, why didn’t it work?” Pavlov picked up the baseball and looked it over closely, he scratched at his chin which was covered in an itchy looking beard.

“Passion...” Pavlov mumbled to himself. “Passion…” The man picked up another Arcane battery and put it into the machine, then began flipping the switches and turning the knob.

“What’re you doing?” Dexter asked with a bit of surprise, Pavlov didn’t respond right away as he continued to make adjustments.

“Science has always failed to catalogue one part of human existence, Dexter…” The Russian man said as he stood up straight and looked at the metal ring. “Once again. Pray this works.” Luna and Dexter were shocked to see the man reach out a hand and slip a finger into the ring. There were sparks and a soft pop, but to everyone’s surprise Pavlov was still on his feet, his hand had disappeared into a swirling purple vortex. Luna and the others stared in shock as the man smiled widely. “I think it was missing a human element.” Slowly the man withdrew his hand through the vortex and looked over his fingers, quietly he opened and closed them, then picked up the baseball and tossed it through the swirling light. It emerged from the other ring and clattered to the floor.

“Gentlemen…” Luna said as she used her magic to levitate the baseball from the floor, then set it into the palm of Pavlov. “I expect we have much work to do now that we’ve figured this out, shall we begin?” The others looked at one another, then nodded and began to gather up their devices and measuring equipment. Luna felt pride welling up in her chest, she had just witnessed the beginning of wormhole technology. There was still a long way to go, but she was excited about the prospects.

[♠]

Minnesota, Hinkman hated Minnesota. The secret agent turned Liutenant Colonel had always hated the cold, whether it was in Colorado or Wyoming, or most recently Minnesota. He had a feeling he had been assigned to the middle of nowhere as punishment, though for what he had no idea. It was Fall, but that didn’t stop him from shivering under his greyish white heavy wool coat. He could see his breath as he road along in one of the humvees that were a part of the battalion under his command. The 808th Exploratory Infantry Battalion, better known as ‘The Snow Wolves’. Tasked with searching the very, very chilly parts of Minnesota for any sign of survivors that hadn’t already been evacuated, it was a big state after all.

The man scowled as he rubbed his thick black beard, his kevlar helmet resting crookedly on his head. The driver of the humvee, a young Corporal, had the luxury of a scarf his mother had sent him, though it was little comfort considering his mother wasn’t the best at knitting. It was more like a glorified hankerchief than a scarf. Hinkman looked out the window at some of the passing buildings that had already been cleared, they had been occupied by his troops relatively quickly afterwards. His communications officer was playing Christmas Music over the radio, acting as a sort of beacon in case any of the other units got lost and needed to triangulate their position.

“How come I’m here…?” The driver mumbled to himself as he kept his hands on the wheel, meanwhile Hinkman tucked his hands under his armpits for warmth. “I could be shipping off to Hawaii, or hell, the UK, but no I had to get the ‘Fun’ assignment. Canada! That’s where the action is!”

“What do you want to bet there are two schmucks who wanted this assignment going to Hawaii?” Hinkman asked with a dry chuckle, the Corporal chuckled back as the Humvee drove along through the snow. There were two more Humvees ahead of them, loaded down with troops. The gun hatches had been closed in the interest of conserving heat in the poorly heated humvees, Hinkman didn’t blame command for the lack of heat, all things considered the military took exemplary care of its vehicles. The problem was with Minnesota, it was just so damn cold that the heaters may as well have been turned off.

“Colonel, you know anything about this town we’re heading towards? Think there’s a settlement there?” The corporal asked, the rest of the humvee was empty save for the extra blankets and goods that would be used for trade with any settlements they ran across. Hinkman leaned back in his seat and adjusted his helmet, then exhaled slowly.

“It’s some place called Littlefork, real close to the Canadian border.” Hinkman explained as he tried to tighten the collar of his wool coat. “Chopper said there’s supposed to be some basic fortifications there, even signs of vehicle activity.” The man looked out onto the front of the humvee, watching as snow blew off of the greyish-white hood. All the vehicles shared a similar color pattern, thankfully helping to camouflage the vehicles among the snow. “They didn’t shoot at the chopper, actually the crew saw a couple people firing off flares.”

“So no shooting this time?” The Corporal asked, Hinkman nodded and began rubbing his hands together again. “Great. I can barely feel my fingers, even with the gloves.” Hinkman looked over at his driver, a man by the name of Schmidt. He was from New Liberty, back on the Mainland, he’d been ten when he came through the portal, eight years later he was seeing his first deployment back on Terra. Brown hair, blue eyes, and he didn’t drink. Hinkman found him to be quite an interesting companion.

”Yeti Two-One to Yeti Two-Actual. Coming up on the town ahead, half a click down the road. Eyes on three police vehicles parked in barricade formation just in front of the bridge crossing the river, ten plus foot mobiles, armed with small arms and… Two MGs.” The radio buzzed, Hinkman cursed quietly as he was forced to stop rubbing his hands together in order to pick up the microphone to respond.

“Copy that Two-One, keep a passive posture but be ready to go in guns blazing if they open up on us.” Hinkman responded as he used his free hand to strap his helmet into position, he saw one humvee pull off into the snow to allow his vehicle to pass before getting back in the column behind him. ”Snowball wants this route to the border secure by hook or by crook. Follow?”

”Follow. Ready to nullify if necessary.” The lead humvee replied, Hinkman watched the hatch to the turret of the front vehicle pop open as an unlucky fellow stood up into the cold air to man the fifty. Hinkman took a couple seconds to go over his plan of action in his head a few more times, first contact with survivors was extremely important. He had made more than his fair share over the years, but it was still a crapshoot when it came to certain settlements. One time he had seen a group of cannibals, there was another time where his men had been worshipped as gods because they had radios… Very strange people inhabited the wastes. ”Yeti Two-One to all Yeti Victors, slowing to stop outside the barricade.”

“Here we go.” Schmidt said as he tapped the brakes to match the slowing pace of the humvee ahead, there were soft squeaking noises as the vehicles came to a stop.

The militia of Littlefork looked at the humvees with surprise, they bore marks and flags that weren’t consistent with the United States Government despite the fact that they used American equipment. The militia was small and barely able to hold off the groups of raiders that tended to roam the wastes, they had run out of ammunition for their heavy machine guns nearly a week before, and now only used them for intimidation purposes. Cautiously a couple snipers watched the gunner in the first humvee from across the river that seperated their town from the unknown vehicles on the other side of the bridge, though the gunner seemed to be more focused on keeping himself warm than manning his weapon. After a couple moments of uneasy silence, the first humvee flashed its lights a couple times.

Citizens of the small town watched from their homes as the town’s sheriff approached the first humvee with caution. He was a portly fellow, wearing a brown leather jacket that bore the gold star of his department. His boots crunched the fresh snow as he approached the driver’s side of the humvee, he was a bit surprised to see the uniform of the woman driving it. It didn’t read ‘US ARMY’ as he had been expecting, instead it bore ‘OGEC’. The woman rolled down the window to the car and looked at him quietly.

“Hello.” She said in a neutral tone, the Sheriff stared at her. “Um… I assume you want to talk to our commanding officer?”

“That’s about right…” The Sheriff said as he put his hands on his hip, he watched the woman pick up a radio mic in the humvee and mumble a few words. The radio buzzed with a response before the Sheriff heard the passenger side door of the second humvee open and then slam shut, the idling engines obscured the sound of footsteps but it wasn’t long before the person responsible appeared. He was tall, muscular, and had a rather bushy black beard, the Sheriff was a redhead, and had a beard of his own. The two bearded men stopped at about five paces from one another, each sized the other up quietly, before the Sheriff cleared his throat. “Might I ask who you boys are with? I haven’t ever seen US vehicles with markings like this.”

“We’re the Eight-O’-Eight. Onorussian Global Expeditionary Corps.” Hinkman responded in an honest tone. “The UN folded into our government eight years ago, we’ve been gradually reclaiming the Northern US and evacuating people to a safe location.” The Sheriff raised an eyebrow at him, then walked a bit closer. “The details of how our government came to be, and where people are evacuated to, can be discussed in a more private setting.”

“I’ve heard tell that there have been people impersonating military personnel to take supplies from settlements, among other things.” The Sheriff said with a bit of skepticism in his voice, Hinkman didn’t change much about his body language. “From the looks of things though, and the fact we had a chopper fly past here a couple days ago, I’m inclined to believe you’re the real McCoy.” The man put his hands on his belt. “Begs the question, what can we do for you?”

“Onorus is expanding into Canada, at the behest of what remained of the Canadian government before it folded into the Onorussian Republic.” Hinkman explained, he quietly took a map from his pocket and unfolded it before pressing it up against the humvee and gesturing to a route leading up into Canada. “Your town resides on a key route into Ontario, we’re prepared to evacuate your people and once that’s done we’ll be able to move into Canada.”

“And… What if my people don’t want to leave?” The Sheriff asked, Hinkman paused and sighed quietly, then tucked the map back into his jacket. “Where would you be sending them if they did?”

“Either Onorus, or other reclaimed territory in the North Americas. Our forces actually just liberated California, from what I hear it’s great this time of year.” Hinkman explained further, but he could tell that the Sheriff wasn’t all that convinced. “Listen, there is some very sensitive information that I need to share with whomever is in charge of the entire settlement. Would that happen to be you?”

“Yes, I suppose it would be.” The Sheriff said, Hinkman nodded quietly before leaning against the humvee. “Suppose it can wait though? My people are getting nervous, and I’m sure you and yours are in need of a hot meal.” Hinkman nodded again. “Have your boys pull up onto the main drag, the citizens will likely want to get a good look at all of you.”

“That could be a problem…” Hinkman said quietly, the Sheriff raised an eyebrow at him. “Some of my troops are… Well… it has to do with that sensitive topic. You’re going to have to look for yourself.” The man began walking to the final humvee with the Sheriff cautiously following him, by all accounts it seemed to be normal, until he realized that there seemed to be a bird sitting in the driver’s seat, and a pony in the passenger seat. The Sheriff stared, absolutely stunned, before looking at Hinkman. “Lieutenant Peregrine and Sergeant Firewater. A griffon and a thestral.”

“A-Aliens?” The Sheriff asked.

“Technically Interdimensional beings.” Hinkman clarified, he put his hands on his hips. “About a decade ago someone in their world accidentally opened a portal into ours, a guy got pulled through and rallied support to come back here and start rescuing folk.” The Sheriff didn’t speak, allowing Hinkman to go into further detail. “They’re good people, their world is a helluva lot nicer than ours, if you don’t mind bright colors.”

“W-Well… I seen stranger things.” The Sheriff mumbled as he walked up to the driver side window of the humvee and reached inside, poking Peregrine several times to ensure she was real. She was used to that happening on first contact missions, it didn’t bother her that much. “A-Alright… How about I warn my people first, then you pull on up the main drag anyway, we’ll get all this sorted out.” Hinkman nodded quietly and watched as the Sheriff walked back to the bridge. There were trees that lined both sides of the river, and Hinkman could tell there were snipers watching him from the other side. There weren’t any birds chirping across the river, and that generally meant something had scared them into silence. Discretely the Lieutenant Colonel got back into his humvee, taking some comfort behind the armored door.

Nearly an hour passed, no one in the convoy dared to speak a word beyond their usual communication checks. They were all very tense as there had been cases where first contact had gone less than flawlessly, it was for that reason that there were fighter planes and medical helicopters on standby. Eventually Hinkman heard Schmidt humming, as if his nerves had subsided somewhat. The older man recognized the tune and faintly smiled before looking over at the Corporal.

“Statler Brothers?” He asked, Schmidt nodded and continued humming. Hinkman began humming along as well, then started to sing the lyrics he could remember. “...Countin’ flowers on the wall, that don’t bother me at all…” The man reached into his pocket and withdrew a cigarette, then rolled down the window and lit the end with his zippo. “Playin’ solitaire ‘til dawn, with a deck of fifty one…”

“Smokin’ cigarettes and watchin’ Captain Kangaroo…” Scmidt chimed in quietly, Hinkman exhaled a puff of smoke out the window. “Now don’t tell me I’ve nothin’ to do~!” Schmidt trailed off and leaned back in his seat, then scratched at his chin. “Fucking hell, I wish they would just shoot at us or something. It would beat sitting here in the cold.”

“Calm down, Corporal. They’re just finding out that aliens exist, give them some time.” Hinkman said tiredly as he looked at the settlement across the frozen river. “For all we know they’re getting ready to throw a big welcoming party.” The man quietly sighed and took another drag on his cigarette, then picked up a leather bound binder from the console and opened it. He just wanted to confirm his orders and take a look at anything he might have missed in his earlier briefing. The man paused as he saw something he had overlooked before, a personal note on the very last page. “Son of a bitch…”

“What?” Schmidt asked, Hinkman tapped the ashes of his cigarette on the window, letting them fall outside the humvee.

“This town could have VIPs in it.” Hinkman mumbled as he continued looking over the paper. “There’s a note here from Providentia, apparently they have some files on people that could be up this way.” Schmidt gestured for the man to go on, Hinkman shook his head quietly. “Nothing I can tell you, Schmidt. I already said too much.”

“Fine, I can wait.” Schmidt said with a shrug, he leaned out the window on his side of the humvee and watched three figures walking across the bridge. One was the sheriff, the other two looked like they were wearing military gear and carrying assault rifles. The gunner in the humvee ahead of them noticed them as well, perking up out of his attempts to warm himself and gripping the weapon tightly. “Shit…”

”Heads up! Three foot mobiles moving across the bridge, two of them are armed and wearing body armor.” The voice of the driver in the first humvee announced, Hinkman took the radio in his hand and cleared his throat.

“Hold fire.” The man ordered as he tossed his ciggarette out onto the snow. “If they raise their weapons… Nullify. Follow?”

”Follow.” The other humvee responded, Hinkman straightened his helmet and discretely drew his sidearm from his holster. He proceeded to rest it in his lap and watched the windshield for the three men. His heart was pounding a bit faster, this was very close to going sideways for him. If they turned out to be hostile he could have a very real problem on his hand, especially considering who the VIPs mentioned in the dossier were. A couple seconds passed before the Sheriff appeared, beside him were two men in SWAT outfits. That explained the hardware they were packing, but it didn’t make Hinkman feel any more relaxed.

“You’re clear to move up onto the main road.” The Sheriff said when he got to the window, he noticed the two occupants of the humvee looking towards the two armed men. “Don’t worry about them, my wife had me take them along for ‘My protection’.” Hinkman nodded slowly before picking up the radio.

“All Yeti Victors, clear to advance into the town.” He ordered, the drivers started their engines and began rolling across the bridge. They passed by several militiamen waving them along onto the main road that ran through the town, the police vehicles had been moved out of the way to allow them passage. Sure enough there were people lining the streets, at least seventy five from what Hinkman could estimate. The humvees came to a stop once they were sufficiently past the bridge, as there were no other cars on the road they didn’t bother to pull over to park. Hinkman knew that he was about to begin the most annoying part of his job, dealing with uncontacted locals. He stepped out of the humvee and adjusted his wool coat as the crowd got closer to him, once everyone had gathered around him he cleared his throat and began to explain in greater detail what had happened.

As always, there were always the skeptics, but they were quieted as soon as the people got a look at the members of the convoy that had driven the last humvee. Overall the contact went as well as expected, at the end of the briefing there were already at least fifty people wanting to get out of their town as soon as possible. Hinkman left his troops to talk with them, then grabbed his binder out of the humvee and went off in search of the Sheriff. He found him soon enough, as the Sheriff was busy talking with a couple people wearing deputy uniforms.

“... and make sure to keep our people away from their trucks at night, the last thing we need are looters pulling parts.” Hinkman overheard the Sheriff saying as he got closer, one of the deputies raised an arm and pointed at the approaching soldier. “Colonel, what can I do for you? I trust everyone is excited.”

“They are.” Hinkman said before he opened the binder and withdrew the piece of paper with the VIP names on it. “I’m looking for some people in this town though, their names came up on the briefing dossier I recieved.” The Sheriff raised an eyebrow at the man as he was handed the paper. “Jacob and Julia Valova. Ever heard of them?” The sheriff hummed quietly, then looked at his deputies.

“Jake, come here for a second.” The Sheriff said, a man in his mid twenties stepped forward. He had dark brown hair and blue eyes, as well as a rather scrawny build and an honest looking face. The Deputy approached Hinkman and the Sheriff with a bit of hesitation.

“Do you know a woman named Maria?” Hinkman asked, Jacob seemed a bit surprised by the name before nodding quickly. Hinkman withdrew his wallet and pulled an Onorussian Dollar from within, the paper was blue with a white outline, and there was a portrait of Imperatrix Occisor on the front. “Is that her?”

“Yeah… She’s my cousin.” The man said as Hinkman tucked the dollar back into his wallet and returned it to his pocket. “What’s she doing on your money?” The Sheriff and the others looked at Hinkman expectantly, the Colonel adjusted his coat before clearing his throat once again.

“She’s the Imperatrix of the Onorussian Republic.” Hinkman said bluntly, they all looked at him like he had lobsters coming out of his ears. “She’s married to the Imperator. Our head of state.” Hinkman took the paper back and tucked it into his binder. “I’m looking for Julia Valova as well, I assume you know her?”

“She’s my mom.” Jacob said with a bit of surprise, then shook off his shock. “Wait, what does this mean for us?”

“You’ve been designated VIPs by our intelegence office, that means we’ll be escorting you and your mother back to Onorus.” Hinkman explained as he straightened his helmet once again, sighing as the cold air continued to nip at his skin. “If you have any other family we’ll take them along with us as well.” Jacob seemed a bit surprised, then quietly nodded and looked around at the other deputies, and then over to the Sheriff.

“I should go get my mom, sir…” He said, the Sheriff nodded and Hinkman watched Jacob rush off in a random direction. The Colonel looked back to the Sheriff and crossed his arms across the chest.

“I suppose it makes sense there would be survivors of her family around the country.” He said with a bit of a stoic expression. He had a great deal of respect for the Imperatrix, she had been responsible for the backing of numerous charitable organizations that offered counseling for survivors. It had proven to be a life saver for Hinkman, as well as the people he cared about. “Anyway, our forces will be moving up later, so we’ll need the main road cleared of any obstructions.”

“We can talk about that over something to eat, I suppose you guys are rather hungry?” The Sheriff asked, Hinkman nodded and followed the portly lawman towards a bar that was buzzing with activity. He looked over his shoulder in the direction that Jacob had left in, then back to the bar. Something told him good things were coming.

[♠]

Altair sighed quietly as he walked out of the classroom with his lunchbox in hand, it had been a rough day for him. Mrs. Ramsey had gotten sick, so they had a substitute teacher that was rather old and mean. On top of that, they had been given a math quiz on fractions, and Altair had always had problems with that particular field. The halls of the school were just another reminder that sometimes school felt more like a prison than anything else. He had already formulated several escape plans, but hadn’t put any of them into action as of yet. For the moment all he wanted to do was eat his lunch, his mom always sent him with a little note that never failed to cheer him up.

They had said they were going to give him a surprise soon, honestly he didn’t know what to expect, but if his Mother and Mom were involved he knew it could only be something good. The boy pushed the heavy door open, grunting slightly from the weight of it. The afternoon sunlight fell across his face as he stepped out onto the playground where his fellow classmates were eating their lunch and playing. Altair’s eyes scanned the faces for any sign of Ozzy or Sofia, but he remembered soon enough that both of them had gotten sick. For griffon’s that wasn’t much of a surprise, but for humans it was. He had been told that humans had developed an extremely strong ‘Immune system’, which fought off germs, at least as far as he understood. Sofia must’ve really been sick.

Without his inner circle Altair felt rather alone, the boy made his way over to his usual spot near the edge of the playground. Out of sight of the research monitor. He didn’t like people watching him while he ate, and it was far quieter there. There were a couple trees set up near some picnic tables there, and Altair set his lunchbox down without much emotion. He sat down and eagerly opened the box, digging past the sandwich and juice box before finding what he was looking for. His face brightened as he found his mom’s note, it was just as nice as always, and it filled his chest with a warmth that he hadn’t felt much of that day.

“Looks like you’re by yourself today.” A voice said from behind him, Altair tucked his note hastily into his jean pocket before turning around. Three minotaur upper classmen were standing there, smirking smugly. “That griffon isn’t around to protect you now.”

“I don’t need him to protect me.” Altair said simply, not understanding that the Minotaur had meant his statement as a threat. “What do you want, Lars?”

“Your lunch, and your lunchbox.” The minotaur said bluntly, Altair quietly stood up and turned towards his lunchbox. He felt a new feeling welling up inside him, one he didn’t quite understand, but he could practically hear his father’s voice in his head. ‘Don’t be afraid to defend yourself.’. Altair turned back to the minotaur, panting quietly as the new emotion coursed through him without control. “What? Are you gonna cry now? Mrs. Ramsey isn’t here to hear it either!”

“Go away, Lars.” Altair said, trying to sound as intimidating as he could. “Leave me alone.” The minotaur advanced on Altair, his two friends simply watching. Altair didn’t take a step back, even though Lars was a head taller than him. He didn’t know why, by all accounts he should’ve been taking cover, but his day had been so bad he wasn’t about to let it get worse, not without a fight. Lars just smirked at him and put his hand on Altair’s shoulder, fully intending to push him aside without resistance. The boy recalled something else his father had told him. ‘Don’t warn ‘em. Don’t threatenin ‘em. Just haul off and hit ‘em.’ The minotaur was surprised when Altair resisted, without any sort of warning Altair cocked his arm back and fired off a punch directly at the Lars’ stomach. Lars groaned and hunched over as he was struck, not expecting to be hit with such force. He didn’t have much time to react though, as Altair sprang at him angrily. Months of suppressed emotion had exploded to the surface, and Lars had the misfortune of being the one to light the fuse.

The other minotaurs watched as Lars was tackled by the human boy, he was shouting obscenities in Thestralese as he bombarded the minotaur’s face with blow after emotion filled blow. Lars managed shake off his surprise and pulled back his arm, he launched his own punch towards Altair’s face. It landed with great force and knocked Altair off of him, Lars managed to get to his feet and back away afterwards. Altair stood up, his nose bleeding as he glared at the minotaur. He had had enough, and he wasn’t going to stand there and take it anymore. He was filled with… With… Rage. That was the emotion, that’s what his mother had called it.

“Get him!” Lars shouted, the three minotaurs rushed the lone Altair, but still the boy refused to back down. There was no way he was going to be able to stand up to the minotaurs all at once, but he wasn’t thinking logically, and so he stood and fought. He managed to land a couple good shots on the other two minotaurs before they pulled his arms back, offering lars the opportunity beat on Altair’s stomach. He didn’t get the chance to do too serious damage, as the sound of whistles from behind them indicated they had been caught by the recess monitors. The four fighting children were pulled apart by the adults and dragged off towards the school, undoubtedly to end up in the Principal's office, where undoubtedly they would have their parents called.

For Lars and the other minotaurs, it was something they were familiar with, but for Altair this was his first trip into the lion’s den. Rumors were abound about the principal of the school, some said that she was a harsh mare, others said she was a changeling or even an alien. Altair didn’t now what to think, all he knew was that after the nurse got done with him he’d likely be meeting the principal for the first time, and not on the best terms.

[♠]

Dominic and Maria stepped out of the staff car, it was parked on the street just outside the school’s front door. Maria had her face hidden behind her headscarf, disguising her identity from anyone that happened to be watching. Dominic had taken a similar approach, wearing a mask that hid the lower portion of his face. Normally affairs at the school were handled by an agent of Providentia, but Dominic knew that this was one call that he would have to respond to in person. Neither he, Luna, or Maria knew what to expect, but Dominic was determined to get to the bottom of it. The man adjusted his peaked cap as he and Maria approached the front doors, unfortunately Luna had pressing matters to attend to, otherwise she would’ve accompanied them as well.

Dominic pulled the door open with relative ease and held it for Maria, she walked through it quietly before Dominic followed, letting the heavy metal barricade slam shut. The noise caught the attention of one of the desk clerks in the main office, it was off to the left and had a glass wall allowing the staff inside to see who had just come in. The man in the office perked up at the sight of the two masked figures, but Maria and Dominic didn’t seem phased. Slowly they approached the office.

“We are here about our son Altair.” Maria said quietly as she adjusted her scarf, the clerk coughed quietly and looked through a couple files on his desk before looking back at them.

“I’m going to need to see some ID.” He said, Dominic simply reached up to his mask and pulled it down. The clerk took a couple seconds to stare at him before his eyes went wide and he stiffened to attention on instinct, he remembered quickly that he was no longer a soldier and so he relaxed. “I’m sorry, Imperator. I didn’t realize it was you.”

“That was the idea.” Dominic said as he withdrew his ID from his breast pocket and offered it to the clerk. “I expect you won’t tell anyone about this. My son must remain unaccosted.” He remained very serious, prompting the clerk to nod rapidly. Dominic put his ID back into his pocket as he approached the counter that separated the rather cramped office space from the waiting room portion of the main office.

“Where is my son?” Maria asked as she looked around the room, the clerk gestured to the room marked with the word Principal. Dominic pulled his mask up over his face again, the black fabric concealed his recognizable mug once more. “Is he okay? They said he got in a fight, but they wouldn’t tell me anymore than that.” She spoke as calmly as she could given the situation, she was quite protective of Altair, and to hear he had been involved with violence had rapidly put her on edge.

“I…” The Clerk began, then nervously rubbed the back of his neck. “I’m not allowed to say.” Maria stared at him quietly, her eyes narrowing considerably as she fixed him with the deathly glare of a sniper.

“Maria.” Dominic spoke up from across the room. “We have our protocols, they have theirs… Please.” Maria huffed quietly and walked over to where Dominic was standing. There were a couple chairs where she sat herself down, Dominic opted to stand and shot an apologetic look to the clerk who looked like his life had flashed before his eyes. “If it was anything serious they would have told us right away, he’s probably fine.” The man sighed quietly and looked towards the principal’s office, the door handle turned and was pulled inward. Two young minotaurs stepped out, accompanied by a cadre of adult minotaur, all wearing various expressions of anger. They were dressed in blue collar clothes, it seemed they had been pulled out of work to gather their sons.

Dominic took note that one of them had a black eye while the other had a swollen lip, it seemed that Altair hadn’t held back. Some would call it controversial to be proud, but Dominic was proud of his boy, he knew Altair was gentle unless provoked. Whatever happened to the minotaur, well, they had it coming as far as Altair’s old man was concerned. Dominic and Maria stood up as the minotaurs got closer, one of the females was pinching the ear of one of the boys. They walked by quietly, not making eye contact with the two humans, Dominic looked to the principal’s office and saw a mare with cream colored fur, her mane was red and purple and a pair of glasses was perched on her nose. She wore professional looking attire, and had an equally professional look to her.

“Altair’s parents?” She asked, Dominic and Maria nodded. “Please, come in.” The two of them approached the door and stepped into the well lit office of the principal. It was decorated with numerous diplomas and plaques, as well as a couple bookcases. Dominic closed the door behind him and looked around at the dreary dark blue paint, his eyes finally settled on a pair of adult minotaur sitting on a couch beside a young minotaur that looked like he had came face to face with the business end of a freight train. His eye was swollen and black and blue, as was his lip, and he looked like he was about to cry. Seated on the opposite side of the room was Altair, on a couch by himself. Dominic heard Maria gasp before she rushed to his side, nearly beside herself as she saw that Altair’s eye was also black and blue, and from the looks of it his stomach wasn’t doing that well either.

Dominic slowly walked over to the couch and sat down, looking directly at the father of the minotaur. Both fathers sized one another up, before sharing an oh so subtle nod of understanding. Their attention turned to the mare that was in charge of the school, Dominic knew her as a former CIMC researcher, he had dealt with her on a couple occasions, but not since she had left the military.

“So… We have to very different stories.” The mare, Principal Moondancer, said as she rubbed her hooves together. “Lars claims that Altair came at him unprovoked, his friends have corroborated this, but…” Moondancer looked over to Altair. “Altair says that Lars and his friends accosted him, and attempted to take his property by force.” The mare sighed and leaned back in her seat. “Lars and his friends have been in my office fifteen times, Altair has been here just once, and that was today.” Moondancer looked at both children. “This is the first time I’ve had to deal with a fight here, honestly I’m very disappointed in both of you. You know violence is wrong, so I have to implement the best policy I can think of… Both of you are suspended for a week.”

“Whoa, back up…” Dominic said, the Minotaur’s father grunted in agreement. “You’re saying that even though my son defended himself he’s getting punished?” Moondancer looked at him and nodded quietly. “That’s bullshit.”

“I agree!” The minotaur chimed in, speaking with a resonating voice. “When I was growing up we fought many times to solve our quarrels. It is wrong to punish those that only were defending themselves.”

“But father-” The minotaur child, whom Dominic assumed was Lars, said, but he was cut off when his father glared at him.

“Do not intterupt, you are already in enough trouble.”

“Honestly I don’t care who started it, violence is wrong no matter what.” Moondancer said bluntly, looking at both families. “We have a zero tolerance policy for that very reason.”

“Bullshit again.” Dominic said just as bluntly, glaring at the mare, Altair and Maria watched him. “I know the policies on matters like this very well, I helped write them. There is no Zero Tolerance policy.” Moondancer gulped quietly, she wasn’t one of the people privy to the truth about Altair, at least not the whole truth. She knew that Altair’s parents were important, and the uniform Dominic wore helped to continue that thought, but she had started noticing a rather familiar pattern to the man’s voice.

“The ruling stands.” Moondancer said as firmly as she could, Dominic was about to protest again, but Maria put a hand on his shoulder and shook her head. The man sighed and stood up. “Perhaps you should talk with your son about proper control of his temper, I have plenty of books you can borrow.”

“Excuse me?” Everyone froze as Maria’s voice cut through the air like a sabre, it was full of anger and indignance. “What did you just say?” Moondancer was about to repeat herself but Maria stopped her again. “I don’t need your damn books and I don’t need your damn help, I know how to talk to my son!”

“Maria, let’s just-” Dominic said nervously as he took Altair’s hand, he quickly pulled him a bit closer.

“Shut up!” The woman shouted back at him, both minotaurs stared in shock as well. “You’ve got a lot of nerve punishing my boy after what they did to him, and ever more nerve to be saying I should be the one telling him not to fight back, you.. You…!” Altair fidgeted quietly as his father covered his ears, muffling his mother's voice. He could hear her yelling angrily, then he saw both minotaurs faces turn whiter than a sheet as they put their hands over Lars’ ears. He looked up at his father, and was surprised to see that the man was slack jawed as his mother continued to pour on her tirade. Finally the boy looked back to Principal Moondancer, who had taken several steps back and looked like she was on the verge of tears. Finally Dominic let go of his son’s ears, allowing him to hear the final phrases of a category seven shitstorm. “... over educated, worm eyed, swaggering, overbearing dictator with delusions of godhood!”

“H-Honey…?” Dominic said in a bit of a nervous voice, Maria turned and looked at him. “I think a simple ‘That’s none of your business.’ would’ve sufficed…” The woman blinked a couple times, then looked back at the principal, then back at Dominic before she quietly huffed and walked out of the office. Dominic tugged at his collar quietly and looked at the Principal. “Sorry… She’s very… Protective.” Dominic awkwardly ushered his son out of the room, leaving the stunned parents and confused minotaur boy behind. Principal Moondancer had been verbally slashed in ways she had never known possible, Lars’ mother was impressed at the ferocity that had gone into Maria’s defense of her son, and Lars’ father was… Well… Minotaur aren’t known for their self control.

Unfortunately for Maria and the rest of them, it wouldn’t be the only bombshell to fall on her doorstep that day, as the daily reports from the Terran front were due in that afternoon, and with them would come news that she had never expected to hear.

Author's Notes:

Here's the second one. Hope you guys enjoy it. I'm trying to do some more Slice of Life stuff, not sure how it's going. Here's the next clip.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcGhYHbj7b0