"Excuse me." Fleur inclined her head at the pegasus. "Are these empowered by magic? They do not have the tell tale signs of it."

"Nope," proudly reported the pegasus, shaking her head. "Humans looove electricity. Love love, like they can't get away from it. There's electricity in here." She tapped the display model with a hoof. "In most of it. That's what makes it work."

Fleur raised an ear, rearing back a little. "I would not have thought electricity was capable of such things."

"I wouldn't have guessed it either, but here we are. Now you can see that I'm actually offering this all at a very reasonable amount. So what's caught your eyes?"

In a nearby building, a human engineer carefully inserted a probe into the wall. Ponies had electricity, but was it compatible?

225 volts. Reasonable, but not American compatible directly with many apparatuses. 60 hertz. Perfect.

"Tell her the things with chargers should be fine plugging directly into the wall." The fact that it was an American style socket was the most amazing part, in his lonely opinion. "Squint at it for the part with the V." He made a symbol to show what an English V looks like. "Actually, one moment." He got out a pen and drew out the V and the numbers to look for. "If you have this, it's good. If not, advise anyone buying to NOT plug it in, or fires will result."

The earth pony that was with him saluted sharply and trotted out to inform his boss.

Celestia was inside. The chairs they had were all far too small for her, but a bench served reasonably enough to support her bulk. Across from her was the major. "This is very brave of you," she noted with a little smile. "You are but a leader of guards. If your ruler finds your actions unappealing, surely consequences will come."

He rolled a hand to palm-side up. "(It may, but I'd rather go down in history as a man put over the coals for trying peace than as one of many that 'just followed orders'. The way I see it, Congress has not authorized a war on your nation, so speaking to you isn't breaking any rules.)" The two were speaking their own language, the conversation flowing slowly as either side worked through what the other had said.

"That is still brave." She gestured to a window. "(We will not wait long.)"

"Hm?"

"With my sister taken, there is no other to move the moon. It will not rise tonight until you give me leave to do so. That may prove sufficient proof of my words, I hope?"

He slapped his hands down on the table between them. "How? (A moon will circle a planet because of gravity. If it's moving, it will keep moving. That's just physics. If the sun or moon isn't visible, it's because it's visible from the other side of the world." He swirled his hands in an approximation of two things orbiting one another. "(What moves will keep moving.)"

Celestia raised a brow. With a hoof she casually tipped an empty cup over. "(It stopped.)"

He let out a faintly-laughing sigh. "(There are a lot of things that stopped it. It hit the table. Friction and gravity all conspire to stop it. In space, there are less of all of these things.)"

"Less is not nothing. The moon and sun slow and stop." She lifted her shoulders. "It is a marvel to me that whatever sun and moon you knew did not do this. Still, time will show it." She turned her eyes to the sky. "The sun is setting. The moon should be rising, but it will not."

His eyes went in the same direction, looking to the window. "If you do have this... (power), why do ponies not rule the world?"

"We don't want it." She smiled gently. "They do not want us. All I want is happiness for my little ponies. Is that not all a ruler should desire?"

That did not fit with human history very well... "You could have... money. Bits. All the bits there ever was. A field of jewelry and all the workers you ever wanted."

Celestia raised a hoof to the large necklace. "I feel I have more than enough ornaments, Major Abbott. I wear these because it is expected of me. To see me in less unnerves and confuses my people, and so appearances must be upheld." She inclined her head. "Even for you, it is more of a status. It is not difficult to think me royalty, with this crown perched on my head, yes?"

A crown on a horse's head was a curious thing, but there it was, the high ruler of horse-kind. "You really don't want anything?"

"I would like this war to end. I would like not one more death that I can prevent."

The bear-like person was dragged away, thoroughly tied up as several guards worked together to remove the bulky form.

Shining Armor was there, looking over the damage left by the fight. "Are you two alright?"

Flim gestured at Flam. "We're just fine."

"Better than ever," agreed Flam. "The bomb worked perfectly, but this is troubling."

"Worrying." Flim shook his head with a frown. "We need better security. This is twice this factory has come under siege!"

"And we only caught one of them. The others fled as soon as the explosions began" Flam gestured widely at the damage caused by the hurled grenades.

"Still, at least we have the one..." Shining huffed softly. "We have our hooves full with the humans. Now is not the time for opportunists. Please do a full inventory and determine what was lost, damaged, or destroyed. You two performed well tonight. Thank you."

"A pleasure."

"An honor." Both bowed at once.

"(Sir.)" It was the same man, with a similar envelope, but a new president sat behind the desk.

"(Thank you.)" President Marshall flipped it open. He was on his feet a moment later. "The hell?!" They had the leader of the enemy nation at an airforce base?! He calmed himself, reading quickly over the words.

The people there had not gone rogue. They were the ones that had sent the information up the chain, as was proper. What was not proper was having the meeting in the first place. It was a president's job to negotiate with foreign powers, not a random airforce officer.

He thrust the paper down on the desk with a scowl. "(I want Major Abbott's file on my desk, now.)"

Who was this man with balls bigger than the state he served?

The room was quiet. There were many men and women. They all had the same numbers. The same, impossible, numbers. "Can we even prove we still exist in the same universe?" asked one man, breaking the silence.

Another raised a finger. "There is the fact that we haven't instantly exploded in small nuclear-bomb strength blasts as our atoms came into contact with that of another reality operating under different universal constants."

A woman snorted at that. "That proves nothing. That just proves we didn't do that, great. We knew that before we had... this!" She waved a hand at the findings. "We are living in a geocentric sol... what do you even call that? Solar system implies the solar body is the one at the center."

"But this planet is not the most massive thing around!" hissed a man with a scowl. "These orbits don't even start to make sense, and we've only started formally tracking them."

Another woman rose to her feet. "Astrophysics as we know it has to be re-written. The fact that the satellites we sent up haven't come crashing back down? A small blessing we should be thanking whatever god you favor for."

Soft rumbles of talk rippled through the room. With how strange everything was behaving outside the world, it belied rationality that their rocket launch and its precious cargo had managed to get where it needed to be.

"On the bright side," noted one man with a faint smile. "We'll be in work for the foreseeable future. Let's get to it."

There were seaponies, so many seaponies. They swam alongside a huge platform, holding it with their hooves.

"Adjust to the south," came over their headsets and they began to swim together, propelling it smoothly across the top of the water. The thing they were moving was gargantuan. Even their ships would have struggled to move it easily, but with so many seaponies working together from all angles, they got it moving swiftly and gracefully.

They were playing a game. It was catch. Their target, an enormous rocket that would land on the platform, if they got it to just the right place.

"East."

The swarm of ponies moved to get it in the new direction, following the cues of the humans that watched from a distance, coordinated with other humans far elsewhere.

Queen Novo was there. She wasn't pushing, that wasn't a queen's job, but she was making sure none of her people were harmed in the activity. "You're doing great," she called out to them. "When I give the word, dive down and away." She could see the rocket in the air, approaching so quickly. "Be ready."

"Dive!" she shouted as it came too close for comfort.

All the seaponies were gone, some responding directly to her shout, others following those beside them, soon all vacating the platform. The great thing crashed into the platform, water splashing greatly on all sides, but it was still floating, minus a divot that they had told her was planned. It had been caught.

"Excellent job," came over the earpieces.

Novo reached up to touch hers. "I told you my people could do this. Is everyone safe?"

"All safe," came another voice.

"Excellent. We await payment. You have my information."

"Pleasure working with you, Queen Novo."

She swam to the earth boat and threw her headpiece aboard before diving into the depths, her job of the day done. They could call her on her phone if they required anything else.

Long minutes had passed. By all recorded times they had, the moon was becoming overdue. The stars were also playing coy. The sky was a murky twilight that had not properly settled into night at all. It was unsettling. It was unnatural.

Celestia's horn did not glow. She had stopped so much as using it to grab things, instead using her hooves and mouth, to make it perfectly clear that she was not responsible.

Even if she was doing it, the ability to shroud the stars and moon would be almost as terrifying.

Major Abbot clasped his hands together. "What would the effects be, if you simply left it like this?"

"Harmony would be lost. The world would suffer. In time, perhaps... another way forward could be found, but not before there was countless suffering. May... I?"

She hadn't said what she was asking, but he knew. "Go ahead. I... want to see this."

She rose to her hooves. "Then follow me, please." She led the way free of the building and directed her horn at the horizon. "It is time to awaken," she bid the celestial object, her horn glowing brightly. She lifted into the air slowly and with it, the moon emerged as if following her, ascending into the sky with her until she gave a little toss of her head. "It is done."

She landed lightly in front of the Major. "The night will progress normally." The stars had also returned, shining brilliantly in the night sky. "Sister has a better touch with the stars... She paints such wondrous nights. I can see how she mourned there being so few eyes to enjoy them."

"(Pardon me.)" He held up a lone finger. "(That was... enlightening, disconcerting, and only raises a dozen more questions.)"

"(If we are answering them,)" she replied in English. "(We are not fighting. Please, ask.)"

Author's Notes:

The backer of this story has... gone mad. Mad with power! They have taken both horse prophet tiers, bumping the update speed to EVERY DAY OF THE WEEK, minus Saturday.

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