Date: 1/9/16…

Time: 8:00 am…

Location: CLASSIFIED…

POV: Lt. Col. John Silversmith...

Standing over my higher up, it hits me, that I have never seen him like this before. Sleepy, Annoyed, and sarcastic, all at the same time. It was rather a funny sight, but I decided to say nothing as I walk away from the General and walk over to the window as I watch the sleeping portal.

“How much longer until power up?” I ask one of the scientists. He flips up his arm and looks at his watch.

“Fifteen, why?” He asks looking up and over to me.

“Cause, the troops need to get into place, right now…” Saying this I pull up my hand held radio and walk back over to the drowsy general.

“Sir, the troops need to be called in, can I go ahead with the plan?” I said waving the radio in my hand. He looks up and nods his head.

“Do it.” He says.

“Okay sir,” I click the radio on and lift it to my mouth. “Topside, topside, this chamber over, do copy?” I say.

For a couple of seconds, nothing, then it clicks back.

“We read you chamber, you may send your traffic, over.”

“Alright, here the deal, get the troops ready and roll them onto the platform. Then begin the descent, i'll be waiting inside the chamber, over.”

“Copy that chamber, we will be eager to see you, over and out.”  After clicking the radio off, I move back to the scientists. I put my hand on one of their shoulders,

“You may begin.” He turns around and gives me a nod as all the other scientists begin running to the computers and begin the first starting procedure.

One of the scientist throw a big switch and push a button. All of a sudden. the light above us go out as the previous bright lights made it even harder to see. Then the light came back, in red. Alarms began sounding throughout the facility as the announcer came on the intercom.

“ATTENTION ALL PERSONNEL, PLEASE REPORT TO YOUR STATIONS FOR PORTAL ENGAGEMENT, I REPEAT, PLEASE REPORT TO YOUR STATIONS.”

The ceiling in the test chamber begin to move inward as the ceiling panels split apart and began spreading away, opening a giant room above the portal. They stopped moving with a loud clunking noise when they reached the walls of the room, as another noise filled the air, a big mechanical noise as a giant machine began descending from the now open ceiling.

It looked like a big box with a cylinder connected to the front of it. In Front of the cylinders were these giant metal fingers that bent inward. The box was connect to a giant pole that was hooked up to the ceiling, wires and cables hung from the ceiling and led to the machine as it finally stopped and moved so that the fingers were pointed at the portal.

It was massive, I could see why the whole test chamber was so big. A scientist next to me began talking.

“Portal emitter in place, starting stage two, activating now… portal beam at 1%... Lieutenant, follow me. I turned due to hearing my name and before I could question him, he was already walking away toward a elevator door. I left the control area and came up behind him. He turned to me and pushed a button next to the doors.

“Okay, listen, the troops will be in the test chamber with you, the portal will activate and when it does, you need to push on in, understand?” I shook my head just as the elevator opened.  I lump formed in my throat as the empty elevator car beckoned to me for me to step inside, and become one step closer to the portal.

A feeling of anxiety formed as I took my first step, I didn't know why I did, it just did, maybe because I was leaving my home, not just my home, but my planet too. Friends, family, neighbors, none will be present anymore, the only people ill have is the men we have trained to be ready for this day. The only link to humanity I have, is myself.

I felt a hand on my shoulder, I turn around to see the general,

“Good luck son, have faith, I believe in you.” He said with a smile. Ya know sometimes I think he can read minds. I shook my head and walked the rest of the way into the car. I turned to see the control room one last time before the metal doors slid in it’s way. The car began it’s decent as I stayed where I was and looked straight ahead as I felt the car move with my feet.  It felt like forever as I went down. Until the doors opened again.

The chamber lay in front of me as I walked forward out of the elevator and into plain sight of the scientists right above me in the control room. I turn around and look as the doors close for the last time. I move upward to the pane of glass whom I could see the General in, the waved. I waved back. Then I turn to my right to a giant garage door.

“ Ventilation fans activating now…” A speak above the door said. The sides of the walls were filled with circles that each held a fan that, until now was just starting to spin up as the draft in the room began to increase by the second. The fans, one by one, began clicking on, adding more wind to the room as I return to the garage door, I heard the sound of rumbling over the noise of the fans twirling. The rumbling began to increase, slowly at first, until it began to grow louder and louder, until it matched the pitch of the fans themselves.

“Military transport garage door, opening now, here they come!” Came a deep rough voice room the speakers, it was the General. The lights above the door became green as the door began to lift upward and fold back out of the room.

At first I saw nothing, just darkness, pitch darkness only the sound of the rumbling was present. I could see something was wrong. I was about to turn to the windows and tell them until something did happen.

Lights began turning on, bright lights that shone directly onto me. They came from the garage. They came in sets of twos, another after another began turning on, then the sound rolling began come toward me as the true source of the lights began rolling forward.

Dozens and dozens of modified M1126 Strykers began to roll forward. All had a fresh paint job of olive drab green, they looked brand new. All though not all of them were the same, some had different duties. Some were the MGS, RV, MC, and CV versions. While others were the ESV, MEV types.

All of these, no matter their, jobs were still amazing. I got out of the way to let them pass and park in front of the portal as more piled into the room. The sound of their mortars were like music to my ears as they all revved and rolled to a stop. It was just one of those times, where you feel good to be a human, more importantly an American. Until the sound of the engines coming out of the door, changed to a lighter and much more innocent ones. I turn to see a few groups of Humvees and Supply trucks. They two had the same color of the Strykers and again they too looked brand new.

I walk along the back wall and let all the trucks enter the room and waited until they became rested. I waited a little bit longer after everything became still. And when things did I walked closer to the portal. I walked along side all of the vehicles until I was in front of them. I raised my hand and spoke the out over all the noise.

“Attention all troops! I would like to see all of the commanders from every battalion, and every company, right now!” I tried to make my self as clear as possible, and some how, someway it worked.

Four Battalion leaders came forward along with two Company leaders. They all wore Woodland Original uniforms just like everyone else. I placed my hand behind my back and looked at attention.

“Okay listen up, when we reach the other side, we are to build a Communications center right way, so you.” I point at a company leader, “Get you engineers ready and brief them before we go. Next after the center, we need to contact Earth for further instructions… understood?” A loud booming, “Sir, yes, sir!” each of the commanders went back to their vehicles and mounted up again.

“Portal at 55%, where are halfway there!” came the speakers once again. We waited, and waited, and waited, and waited some more. But, we could rush production any faster, even if I was staring at the portal kill it because it was taking forever.

But, time must go on, and sooner than later, so must the portal, and it did, finally.

“Portal at 100%, beginning stage three. Stand by!” Came the intercom again. The machine above as began revving up as it turned on ever so slowly. It began to give of a bright white light as it charged up and prepared to fire.

I Have to say, it looks pretty cool… I mean, it’s nothing really special, but, still, the lights are pretty cool.

Ten minutes later, after what seemed like forever, the portal was ready.

“Portal activation beam in 3, 2, 1, firing…”  Came the speakers again. Now the portal beam began charging up as me and every other soldier looked up and listened to the sound of something along the lines of a jet engine. The cylinders shot out a white beam of energy that began wrapping around the metal fingers as it powered up.

That also looked very awesome.

Then after all the finger had a current running through it, a beam of light shot out and slammed into the portal arch and began spinning around creating a giant wall of light it nearly blinded me and the rest of the soldiers. Then the humming of the portal began as the hole room began to shake violently.

“GO! GO NOW!!!! We can’t hold on to this for much longer!” Yelled a voice.

“Okay! Here we go!!!!” I said waving my arm as I began running toward the light. The sound of engines filled the room as everything seemed to be louder than ever before as I tried to shun the noises as I ran with a whole army following in my footsteps.

‘LETS DO THIS!!!!!!’ I thought in my head as I jump into the void as the noises around me disappeared from me as the light did as well.

Then darkness, I couldn’t see anything, I wasn't dead, I was still breathing, but how would I know, I’ve never been dead before.

‘If this is what being dead feels like, then being dead sucks.’

But then I realize something it’s dark because… because my eyes were closed. I opened up and looked around. At first I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. So I closed my eyes and waited for a few seconds, then I opened them again, but nothing changed.

My heart was taken from me as my eyes now lay upon constellations of stars. Millions of little white specks that twinkle as they burn, space clouds, galaxies, and other things, surrounded me. It was beautiful. But I was wondering something, why was I still moving even though I wasn't running anymore?

I Look down and see that my feet were standing still, but I was moving forward at an alarming rate. I turn around and see the rest of the soldiers in their vehicles, not moving either. It was strange, like as soon as we entered the rift, we would be frozen while we rode it to our destination. All though it was cool and I could do this for the rest of my life, I was worried of what will happen when we arrived, luckily I wouldn’t have to.

My feet began to move again, except it wasn’t me moving them, something was moving them for me. It started out as a walk, then a jog, then a run, and now back up to the sprint I made into the portal. I tried to stop, but I couldn’t control myself. But that wasn’t the only thing happening, I could hear the engines of the Strykers accelerating as at the end of the rift came a bright light.

It was so bright I had to close my eyes again. It came closer and closer and closer until I felt that I was entering it.

And then I heard birds.

I open my eyes and see a green field passing by me for, i’m still running. I stop and look around. The whole area was an open field, it had a few flowers spreading up around here and here as butterflies hover over some. I look to my right and see a dense forest with trees that have a huge over and which makes everything else darker than it really would be without the tree cover. In Front of me, miles away, was a huge mountain range with snow top mountains and clouds that hover toward the top. To my left was more fields. The fields danced with the breeze that swept from the mountains and down to here.  

We made it…

Of course I would have nearly died If I didn’t turn off to the left when I exited the portal, because two seconds later a pack of Strykers begin exiting out of thin air, there engines roar as they power ahead of me. More and more come through at lighting speed. As there tries meet ground and rip up the earth below trying to get traction.

It was so cool, seeing every vehicle come through, and the best part was no one rear ended anybody. As the rift closed, and the last humvee crossed by me. I quickly made hast chasing after them. Most of them parked in an orderly fashion for everyone was a little shook up, Strykers rest every where in the field the supply trucks are scattered. At least the Humvees are parked in a general area.

But, the unprofessionalism of the troops could be dismissed for right now, I was too happy to care. I was so happy I climbed up on the nearest stryker and stood up over top everyone else. I saw a few soldiers looking around at the surrounding areas, others were getting out of there strykers and other vehicles. I had been wanting to do this for a long time. I drew a long breath and let my lungs fill air, and gave a pause

“WE DID IT!” I yelled at the top of my lungs after five seconds of taking a breath. The soldiers all turned out of fear and confusion, but upon seeing me, they cheered right along and it created a huge uproar of applause. Every soldier cheered as I jumped down.

“All right you know the drill, lets get to work! Get these strykers in order, and find the Engineering company!” I barked as every soldier quickly ran back to their vehicles and got to quick work sorting themselves out. I walked away from the commotion and and let them do their thing and sat down on a flat strong under a convenient tree on a hill not to far away. The engines roared again as the air became filled with the now hair raising sound of human ingenuity doing it’s thing.

This went for about an hour. I watched over everything on the hill as the strykers moved and sorted around, and parked into three long rows. The Humvees parked on the left of the line and the trucks isolated themselves from the rest.

Things were looking good, so I turned back around to sit again and was meet with a face.

“Major Thomas, H, Garrison, commander of the 66th engineering company reporting for duty sir.” At first I was freaked out that he appeared out of no where, secondly I was pissed off a bit that it took him an hour to reach me.

“Major, can you please tell me why it took you an hour to reach me?” I asked hands folded behind my back as he stood in front of me. He looked confused at first for about a second then became serious again.

“Sorry sir, I had to help everyone else with sorting and parking, I couldn’t get to you until now, plus some one told me to see you just now.” He said directly to my face. He wasn’t lying.

“Okay then, anyways, follow me please.” Saying that I began to walk over toward the group of canvas covered trucks that were parked in a little area just for them. The walk over was quick seeing how they parked rather close to me.

Reaching the first truck, I grabbed a handle and pulled myself up into the back. Inside the truck was a couple of tarp covered crates and other green colored boxes with white writing. I knew exactly was all this stuff was.

“All right major,” I said turning around in the dense space of the truck, “Here is the communication center. I would like this thing built ASAP and here,” I turned around and rummaged through the crates, I found what I needed a tube with a strap. “These are the blueprints for the building, the other trucks have build supplies, you copy?” I asked He grabbed the tube out of my hand and saluted,

“Yes sir, I copy sir, I’ll get my men on the job as soon as I round them up.” Saying that he ran away into the crowd of soldiers and strykers.

Knowing that the most important job of this whole operation was getting taken care now, I begin walking back up to the hill I was resting on before now. I sit down and rest my back up against the tree and cross my legs, and close my eyes and try and rest for a few seconds.

But that's short lived because the engineers begin the construction on the base, and when they build isn't quite, so I just sit down and watch as everything comes together slowly before my eyes.

1/9/14…

7:45 am…

Canterlot Castle…

I sit here on my throne watching the sky as if i'm trying to pick out a cloud that I rather like. I got tired of my daily tasks of signing and creating royal documents and soon found myself looking out the window at the beautiful sky that the pegasi put together for today.

I really needed to get back to work, but I soon find that even staring out a window is more exciting than just signing my name and completing other royal tasks and matters like, my economy, our social structure, guard training, trading routes between cities, and plenty of other things.

I have been doing this for over 1000 years and yet I have never actually taken a break from it all. I always set out to do so, I tell myself I will, but, yet, I actually haven’t done it yet. But today, I will.

I look away from the open window and stand up out of my chair, the guards eyes twitch over to me and watch as I trot down the throne steps and onto the floor. I hear their hoof steps begin following me, that's when I stop and turn around. I turned around rather quickly and they didn’t expect me to so, they nearly bumped into me. But after a quick second of fixing themselves up, the stand at attention.

“Guards?” I say and wait for a response. The black coated one on the right speaks up.

“Yes your majesty?” The white one on the right watches and listens closely.

“I am going for a little walk, my royal duties have stressed me out to no end, and I need to clear my mind. But don’t worry i’ll be back within a few minutes.” Now the two look at each other and upon turning back to me the white one speaks up.

“Your majesty, are you going of royal grounds? If so, we are to escort wherever you go.” I appreciated the concern for my well being, but I wasn't going far.

“No, I’m only walking out to the garden, I will not be needing any escorts for right now.” The two stand back and walk to their spots at the throne.

“Okay princess we will be here, guarding your throne. Shall we alert Princess Luna?” The black ones asks. I tap my hoof on my chin and think.

“If she happens to come by, tell here where I am, other then that no, thank you.” The two salute,

“Roger your majesty.” They say together. Then, also together, they move their swords out of their resting position and throw it put on there shoulder. The bottom of the handle rests in their hoofs. I turn back around and walk forward to the big wooden doors of the throne room.

I open them and close them just as fast after I move through them. The halls were quiet, a little too quiet for my liking. My hoofs click on the polished concrete floor of the castle as the lights from the windows light up the corridor. It was actually rather pretty, I haven’t walked through my castle in forever, and I missed the beauty from the stained glass windows and there bright colors. Of course I couldn’t watch them forever, I turned the corner and was meet with another set of doors.

These doors lead outside to the castle courtyard. I didn’t wait too long to open the doors as I throw them open and let the wind rush by me as the outside temperature mixes with the indoors. It was a little colder out than inside the castle, except the castle wasn’t to cold, it was rather comfy, but outside, was a little colder. The rushing air that came by me sent chills down my spine and gave me goose bumps.

Today was only, 45 degrees, yesterday, it was 20, and trust me, I was glad to be inside. I trot out of the doorway and immediately feel the embracing warmth of the sun as it warms my body and some what keeps me warm, even though I could still feel the cold. I begin to walk along a stone path that curved along the garden.

I always did love a good walk through the garden, it was always peaceful here, I could always be in a stressed situation and some how manage to let all my troubles, just, float away into the wind. And today was no exception.

8:10 am…

I was still outside, I wasn’t warm anymore, and I decided to turn around on the path, and return inside. My stress had been lifted for now as I try to hang on to the sights of the garden as long as I could, it's beauty, the wild life, the clear blue sky. The way back wasn’t to upsetting, even though I really didn’t want to go back, but I knew very well that Luna couldn’t do all my work for me, and I can’t do all her for her either.

I was coming inside and was about to touch the golden handles of the doors when a rather big just of wind swept down from the roof tops top the castle towers and rushed by me. It may have just been wind but, I got a strange feeling as the wind passed me by. So strange in fact that I turn with the current and watched as it pointed toward the Everfree Forest.

But, it wasn’t headed toward the Everfree, it was going beyond it. In fact it was going above the Everfree, it didn’t go anywhere near it. I could feel it. I felt something had been disturbed in the balance. The winds don’t choose where they go, they follow the way of the pegasi. Even if a pegasus made those winds, which I don’t think one did, then the winds wouldn't change course like it had a mind of it’s own.  

But, I tried not to let it bother me, there had to be an explanation for that, and it might as well be left alone. I really tried to push the wind out of my mind and I entered the castle. I made my way back to the throne room and took a seat again and moved the papers I was already working on before I went out.

“Did Princess Luna come by guards?” I asked to the two statues of guards that stand at my side.

“No, your majesty, Princess Luna did not come buy. Would you like us to get her for you?” The white one asked. I thought for maybe a good five seconds, then responded with a quick,

“No.”