"Mriya, moving it to tomorrow would be a burden on me. Letting me finish my work today would be nothing compared to having to do it tomorrow with monitoring Buran and that satellite he's carrying." You say as you get the tools and parts out again.
"What do you know of KC?" Mriya asked.
"Why are ya asking that Mriya? You're not interested in him are you?" You ask knowing of Galactus, and already having one broken heart because of a new arrival. Ludmilia took Sergei off the availability list from Osprey, who was crushed to see that.
"Am just worried for Sadie that all." Mriya said as you roll your eyes and work on her last turbine.
"Well, I don't think there's any need for you to be concerned about Sadie or KC. They're both southern as far as I can tell, which gives them something in common. It's not a bad thing, just I'm only going to ask for you to not be jealous of them." You say as you're happily working on the turbine replacing cracked hoses and nicked lines.
"Why would I be jealous?" Mriya asked.
"Well, there's things I should not be saying, let's just put it this way. There were two residents here and one was smitten with the other, then an outsider came in and got the other's attention breaking the heart of the first. This broke the heart of one of the more sensitive ponies here. I just hope that she finds a happy place soon." You say as Mriya nods.
"Da. I try, but I hear there a C-5 around." Mriya said actually allowing you some relief of not having another heart broken.
"Yea, there is, usually he's doing supply runs for me. Galactus. Big lovable oaf he is. Might be a little clumsy sometimes and crash now and again, but he's pretty cool." You say commenting on Galactus' personality.
"Da, he seems interesting, even if prone to accident. He can carry shuttle SRB da?" Mriya asked.
"Yea, I'm pretty sure he can. He almost had a variant to challenge Sadie. But that design never got off the drawing board." You say as Mriya giggles a little
"Isn't that T tail a problem if he was shuttle carrier?" Mriya asked.
"Actually that's what caused his design to fail. Though he would have been meant for transporting, the launch of the glide test shuttles back where I'm from would have ripped it off. So they went with Sadie's design. Don't you and C-5 share a few similarities in design of your cargo bays?" You ask knowing about Galactus' cargo capacity and not hers. Though you could guess.
"Da, we somewhat similar. Wait why you sitting there?" Mriya asked as you were sitting on scaffolding in front of her.
"I finished, and we are still talking aren't we? So why don't we just continue to talk?" You say as it is your turn to get to know her.
"Da. So I'm repaired?"
"Maintained. Problem aspects are fixed, and you check out alright. Now as you were saying?" You say explaining it to her.
"Except I hold more than C-5. Have better payload than him. I can carry much more. I can also carry larger items. Is good, but nobody hire me to carry things." Mriya said getting a little saddened by it.
"I would. C-5 can't carry everything back that I want him to. Even then, he's also taking supplies to the other strips, sure he's got C-17 to help him, but he can't carry as much as C-5 and that gets on his nerves. The next time Galactus comes in have a word with him about adding in another pony into the cargo group. I'm sure he's tired of doing it all himself." You say as Mriya smiles.
"Spasibo, you don't know how much means to me." Mriya said getting rather excited and wanting to hug you, but you know as well as she did it would crush you.
"I can guess. You're welcome Mriya. Remember I look out for my citizens." You say trying to not have a whole lot of possession over them.
"Da." Mriya said as Sadie went walking by. and Mriya went to chase her down.
"Don't do anything stupid Mriya!" You yell
2000 hrs. Edge of Space
The bar was closed almost all day, and it was only now KC was opening it up, of course Ivan was a little irritated due to his lack of monitored alcohol.
KC put up with Ivan because he knew when to stop or at least let someone else monitor how much he drank.
"Why you open bar so late? You owe double amount of vodka as normal." Ivan said as he slipped underneath KC
"Or Ah can stop cuttin it with water. Yer choice, double tha drinks or twice tha strength." KC said with a good laugh.
"You cut my vodka with filthy water? Why must you shame me?" Ivan said clearly a little angry.
"Ah ain't shamin ya Ivan. Ya know Ah'm just keepin ya from drinkin ya self into a coma. Ain't like Anon couldn't figure a fix for that anyways." KC said as the IL-2 gave him a dirty look and took a bottle of vodka and went to sit in his booth alone for the moment.
KC shook his head and went back to behind the bar as he always is.
"So how was the "visitor"?" Phantom asked as kc got back to his normal spot.
"Ain't yer business Phantom. Didn't ah tell you that already?" KC said with a bit of anger.
"You did, but is that stopping me KC?" Phantom said with a smile.
"Naw, nothin ever does. It went well. neither of us embarrassed ourselves. We just had a long lunch that's all." KC said knowing he'd have to tell Phantom to make him shut up.
"Damn, I was hopin for some dirt." Phantom said as KC pulled a clipboard from under the bar, ran his hoof down to Phantom's name and found a page to which he flipped the papers on the clipboard to.
"You mean dirt like, Phantom is secretly in relations with Misha a Mig-21?" KC said as he looked up from the clipboard with almost disgust.
"How did you get a hold of that?" Phantom said as he leaned over the bar and hissed that at KC.
"Them reapers, they might be a tad bit creepy, but they damned good at gettin information that ain't nobody else supposed to know." KC said as he smiled and hid the clipboard
"You had them spying on me?" Phantom asked with an irritated hiss.
"They ain't spyin on anyone. Them Smiths are just good at surveillance, yous lucky ah keep certain things. If ah didn't have them report to me, they'd publish all for the world ta see. An a lot of us wouldn't like that now would we Phantom?" KC said as one of the Smiths floated by full aware that they were talking about the Smith collective.
"Was there a gryphon named Anderson around here?" The drone asked as he sat hovering above the bar.
"Ah dunno about gryphons Smith, but ah do know know Anders that FW-190." KC said a little confused as to why the Smith was asking about gryphons.
"Negative Stratotanker KC-135 KC, looking for gryphons, not FW-190 Anders." Smith said before floating off to look for a gryphon what was most likely not there.
"Ain't that somethin? Wonder why they lookin for a gryphon." KC said as he gave Phantom his usual drink.
"I saw there was a group of four gryphons being escorted to the border earlier today. Rex wasn't pleased when he sent them away. Maybe they got something to do with this "Anderson" Smith's looking for." Phantom said before he took a drink.
"Phantom, ah honestly don't care as long as they stay away from mah establishment." KC said as Ivan came back and grabbed another bottle of Vodka, rather abruptly and a little violently.
"The hell is his problem?" Phantom asked as Ivan now was balancing the bottle on his wing as he went back to his booth.
"Ah told im Ah've been waterin his drinks down. He ain't too happy about that." KC said as the Russian grumbled off in the corner complaining about having been drinking swill the entire time.
"KC if you were worried about vodka coma, should have bought cheap crap. At least still vodka, not vodka filth water. You know water come from Avalon Dam da?" Ivan said before taking a very long drink by even plane pony standards.
"Well Ivan, ya can go buy yer own Vodka an drink in yer hangar, but ya ain't the type to do that. Yer more of a social ol' IL-2 ain't ya?" KC said trying not to insult Ivan to the best of his abilities.
"What you saying KC?" Ivan asked as he looked at the half empty bottle.
"Ah ain't sayin nothin Ivan, ya makin thing up now." KC said as he put up his forehooves and shrugged.
"Da, you blaming drunk Ivan now. You are ass." Ivan said as he grabbed two more bottles of vodka as KC let him.
"Ivan, we both know ya ain't drunk yet. Jus keep drinkin. They on me today." KC said wanting to alleviate the anger between him and Ivan.
"You is lucky this not watered down. Then also Rex would kill me if I did something stupid, even drunk, would be in big pile of shit." Ivan said as he now began to get slightly inebriated.
"Ya got that right buddy." KC said as Ivan either forgot his troubles or was drunk enough for him to forget that.
 
2200 hrs. Your home, more specifically your room with Thunderbolt.
"What a day eh?" You say as you're stretched out on Thunderbolt's back.
"You're telling me. First you've got Morgan being bored, and then those gryphons. You've been busy." Thunderbolt said as you crawl up to her head.
"Yea, I guess I have been" you say
"Anon, you've been busy today. How are you not asleep already?" Thunderbolt asked as you put your arms atop her canopy and then put your head on your arms.
"Dunno, guess it's almost a normal day for me. Honestly don't know what to think. This was kinda my first day of doing something that had to do with running all of Avalon." You say as you lay atop her.
"Hmm, well I'm about to fall asleep." Thunderbolt said prompting you to slide off of her so you don't get crushed if she rolls.
"Well, alright, I'll be here if you need me." You say as Thunderbolt puts her head down and close her eyes.
"MMMm" Thunderbolt mumbled as you go and take a walk around your home.
Almost everyone's asleep, just you Morgan and Princess Luna are awake at this time.
"Why are you not asleep?" Luna asked as you look at Morgan who's about to fall asleep.
"Because she's still up. She goes to bed before me, even when her friends are in danger." You say as you point to Morgan.
"But dad, what if they come back at night?" Morgan asked as she looked at you, you could tell she was tired.
"Turn your radar and IR sensors up to max, just not flesh cooking max, cause I'd prefer if you didn't kill us while we slept. You need to sleep Morgan, you're still young. I might be older, but I still bounce pretty well." You say as she groggily trods off to her room.
"Dad, don't let anything happen to them." Morgan said as she was slowly drifting off to sleep.
"I'll do my best dear." You say as you wait for her door to close to leave just you and Luna.
When the door closed you sigh and move to the kitchen much out of hearing range of Morgan and Thunderbolt.
"Anon, what's bothering you?" Luna asked.
"I don't know you tell me, you can see what I am too tired to remember." You say knowing you've caught her infiltrating your dreams in the past.
"What do you mean?" Luna asked, a little confused by your response.
"Dreams. Usually I can, but lately I haven't. So you tell me Princess of the Night." You say
"Oh, your dreams. You believe they hold the answer to something?" Luna said as you nod
"Not to me, but to you. I know what bothers me, and frankly because you asked, you wanted to know." You say as you sit on a stool.
"Ah, but there lies something I do not understand. Your dreams have always been conflicting to me. I am afraid I do not understand human nature enough to tell you." Luna said as you nod slightly, as you yourself need to go to sleep at this point.
"Right, well, since you did ask, I'm not exactly sure how I should be doing everything and that's constantly on my mind. I mean I haven't had any complaints so far on how I've done things, but then again, I really haven't changed anything from how it was. I can't help but wonder if there's more I should be doing. Even then, I need to spend more time with Morgan and Thunderbolt." You say as you're opening up to Princess Luna.
"Many things weigh heavy on your mind Anon, perhaps if you find the time to give to each of them, it may alleviate the weight on your shoulders. I can see that your work comes before your personal life, but you cannot do such things anymore with Morgan and Thunderbolt in your life. Start giving them the time they need, and it should fall into place for you." Princess Luna said giving her advice on it.
"Thanks for the advice Princess. I should be getting some rest. Don't know about you, but I need sleep." You say as you smile and walk off to your room after giving your home a final sweep.
During your last check of your home, you find everyone asleep, or at least mostly. The ponies you've let in are sleeping on the pillows from the big couch in the living room that was for Morgan and Thunderbolt.
You watch them for a minute or two just to make sure there's nothing going on in there, and also to alert any gryphons that you're taking their threat seriously.
You walk back towards your room only to be intercepted by Luna.
"Anon, may I show you something?" Luna asked as she stopped you in the hall.
"Do I have a choice?" You ask as you lean against the wall half asleep.
"Yes, but I need you to fall asleep.That is the only way I can show you." Luna said as you stare at her with tired eyes questioning what she was going to do.
"What are you going to do? What exactly am I going to be shown?" You ask hoping it wasn't with Thunderbolt or Morgan.
"One of the ponies here needs help, she has not been able to sleep since you beat her in the air." Luna said as you did see Rainbow moving around uncomfortably.
"What can I do to help?" You ask as you slide down the wall.
"Help me show her that because you beat her that it is not the end of it all. Now close your eyes and sleep. I shall do the rest." Luna said as you black out, and blacked out you stay until morning.
 
0500 hrs. Your home, hallway where you blacked out.
"Oh you're awake now." Luna said as you woke up.
"Did I make it better or did I make a mess of it all?" You ask knowing if you helped it would reflect well on your past.
"Yes it helped, only after Rainbow turned it into a fiasco and tried to kill you." Luna said as you got up to go and check on them.
"They are all here. Even Twilight, not a sign of a gryphon around." Luna said as you opened the door and went in to check on Twilight.
You leave the room before responding.
"Yea, they're all here. I've got to get down to the launch facility to make sure everything's clear over there. Send Twilight over at about 8:30." you say
"Right, what about Thunderbolt and Morgan?" Luna asks.
"They'll be fine on their own for a little while. I told Thunderbolt after all this passes she and I will have some alone time." You say as Luna smiles seeing as you've somewhat taken her advice.
"Very well. I shall tell them." Luna said very pleased with your decision.
 
0700 hrs. Shuttle Launch Facility: Buran's pad.
"How you feeling Buran?" You say as you look up at him from the base of the pad.
"Good. Satellite loaded and dampers are nominal." Buran said as you smile and nod.
Buran was more focused on not moving the delicate satellite so he did not look down to you, but instead kept staring up into the sky, and into where he belonged.
"Don't get too excited on me Buran, you're slated for a ten day excursion up there, just come back safe." You say as you watch Challenger take his place on his launch system.
To Challenger this is just another ordinary launch, the temperature is above 50 degrees F, so he won't have an issue with the booster O-rings, it's clear not a cloud in the sky, and calm winds on the ground. All in all a near perfect day to launch two shuttles.
"Remember Challenger, you're slated three minutes after Buran lifts off, when you hear that timer go off, light off your boosters and ascend to the heavens." You say giving him a slight reminder of what needed to be done. Of course you were doing all of this from the "mission control" room.
"Rex, I don't need a reminder. This is routine for me. Ain't nothing special about taking up a monitor payload for Buran's satellite. So how are you doing buddy?" Challenger asked as you shake your head and continue with following the launch procedures in the book so kindly provided by both Mriya and Sadie.
"Am good. Ready to go back up. Is third trip for me. Almost anxious to get up." Buran said despite the fact that his launch was at 0845 hrs.
"Well that's good to hear Buran, remember I'll be up a little after you." Challenger said smiling.