Dark Side of the Moon

by Rust

First published 8th of October, 2012

This is Moonstuck on crystal meth. THIS IS MOONSTUCK. ON CRYSTAL METH.

What exactly was Luna up to during her time in exile? Adventure, that's what! From battling stardrakes, space-pirates, and her own shattered psyche, the banished Princess must strive to endure upon the rocky, bleached surface of the moon...and beyond. Lucky for her the moon isn't as lifeless as some might think.

I would know. I live there!

Prima

— The Prophecy of the Eclipse

There are many mysteries that the universe still holds. Secrets of its innermost workings, of the way the ethereal cog grinds and spins against his brothers and in turn, spreads his energy across the entire cosmos. There are certain aspects of reality that are instinctively unquestionable. One of these absolutes is the notion that all things must come to an end.

My kind are no stranger to this notion. We take comfort in this ultimate law. All things will simply cease at one point so that they might be replaced by others, so they might continue the cycle. The galactic gears age and rust away, and they must be replaced from time to time to keep the strange, seductive engine known as the Universe running smoothly. We know this because we have watched the goings-on of the stars for uncounted eons, alone and content in our shadowy kingdom.

But sometimes, those pieces merely need a a refurbishing, a spit-shine of the brass and a fresh coat of paint, and they'll run good as new. In the Universe, all things must end, yes. That doesn't mean they can't begin again...

WHA-BOOOOOM!

A thunderous rumble filled the air and made everything in my study jump a good foot off the ground, including myself and the desk I at which I sat. I let out a squeak of surprise as I tumbled onto the floor, and the paper I had been writing gently fluttered down to land across my face. I blew it aloft with a disgruntled exhalation.

A quick examination of my furniture was conducted — thankfully, no damage, though my books would need re-shelving — before I began to wonder about the cause of the massive disturbance. I peered out the glass door to my balcony, where I could see the beginning of the Maria some ways away from over the edge of the railings.

I was rather proud of my residence. It was a cozy, homely place, carved out of a small spire of rock on the edge of the dark silver Maria desert that covered a thousand leagues towards the West and South. The view was quite impressive, and you could see the blackest of night skies when it wasn't Sunday. I could make out the stunningly colorful green and blue orb called Equus peering over the horizon, as if curious as to the goings on. Today was still Shadowday, when our land was on the far side of the moon, away from the blinding light of the Sun, covered by a lovely darkness. Sundays tended to hurt our eyes, so we rarely ventured outside during those times.

With such a commanding position, I could easily spy what could only have been the source of the commotion.

A terribly large trench had been scoured through the Maria, disappearing and reappearing as if the object that had dug it out had been bouncing along at a tremendous rate, until finally coming to a rest in a gigantic, smoking pit some distance away. I squinted my eyes. Had we been hit by a meteor? The Elders hadn't predicted another impact until six cycles from now. Curious indeed. I decided to get a better look.

My writing was left upon the desk, unfinished.

I opened the balcony door and stepped outside. A light breeze was blowing today from the direction of the newly-formed crater. It carried a strange scent to it, not entirely unpleasant, but one that I could not ever recall having smelled before. The tufts on my ears began to tingle a little, a sure sign of excitement in the future. I had a strange sixth sense when it came to such things.

With a shrug, I extended my wings and took off into the pristine sky. It was a glorious day for flying, and I found myself wishing that I indulged in this luxury more often. The air was filled with eddies and whorls brought about by the entrance of the mysterious crater-creating object.

I alit upon the dust of the Maria, at the very edge of the mighty score carved into the moon's surface. Tentatively, I prodded at the gash, only to find that the freshly turned dust was warm to the touch. I hopped right down into the center of the path and began trotting down towards where the object had finally come to rest, admiring the size of the walls that now stood on either side of me. My, what a bully of a meteor this one must have been! A roc could have easily walked in here, head held high, and never once been able to peer over the top.

I began to wonder about that, though. The Elders had never once been wrong about an impact. They had good reason to be so accurate, as a large percentage of our kind were involved with observing the starlit sky, discerning its secrets and charting the paths of the cosmos. Collision Forecast was an important part of this, because as our land's pockmarked appearance can show, we have endured many an impact, the last of which occurred when I was but a toddler, eighty-five cycles ago. I was still young, by my kind's standards at least. Barely an adult. One hundred and seventeen cycles, and with many more to go.

As I reached the end of the line, a curious light appeared over the edge of the crater itself. So distracted was I by it, that I misstepped and pitched forward into empty space. The object had come to rest quite violently, and I ended up tumbling down from the trench into a small decline until I rolled to a stop at the center of the depression. After groggily shaking some sense into myself, I regained my footing and found myself face-to-face with the meteor.

It was a lumpy, twisted thing, half-covered in grime and faintly steaming scorch marks. The mysterious blue glow from before seemed to be leaking out of it from a few points. I reached out and brushed away some of the filth. The meteor was surprisingly soft and warm , its color indistinguishable from the sheer amount of muck. Clearing away some more, something incredible revealed itself to me.

Emblazoned upon the object was a symbol -- a crescent moon!

The moon suddenly twitched. The entire heap began to shift slightly.

I staggered backwards, tripping over myself and landing soundly upon my rump. A low groan issued forth. At first, I looked about. Was there another with me? Then, as a second noise was sounded, I came to a realization. It was coming from the meteor itself! It sounded...hurt.

"Um...excuse me...meteor? Can I call you that?" I asked it politely, feeling a bit foolish about the whole thing.

"..."

I decided to try again. "Quite. Are you all right, meteor? Do you require any assistance? Medical attention, perhaps? That was quite a terrific crash you had there."

"..."

"I'll take silence as a 'yes,' then?"

"..."

With that confirmation, I sprang into action, whipping out my wings and flapping sideways instead of up and down, causing powerful currents to uncover the object in it's entirety. "Why, you're not a meteor at all!" I declared in shock at the filthy thing. "You're...like me!" I looked closer. "Sort of."

She --for it was certainly of feminine shaping-- resembled my form in an astounding number of ways. She appeared to be, for all intents and purposes, a member of our own race, yet with several mutations! Where mine were a standard pale purple, her own mane and tail were made of a confounding, ethereal substance, of a deep, navy blue, shot with streaks of an icier coloring and sparkling with faint lights. Where my wings were sleek and smooth, hers were covered in odd, soft, things that seemed to be growing out of her! Even more astounding — a horn, of all things, rose tall and proud from her forehead!

"But where..." I began, before looking back at the path of devastation she'd caused upon her landing. The trail was pointed directly at the distant blue and green orb in the sky like an accusing hoof at a guilty culprit.

Equus. She was from there.

"Oh, bollocks."

The creature made another soft, plaintive groan. She was clearly injured from her crash. And utterly filthy, at that. I had no idea of her true color. I needed to get her help, and fast. "Hush, you're safe now," I murmured as I hefted her gently upwards and across my back. She whimpered as I did so, but remained more or less unconscious. I would not be able to fly her home. She was larger than I thought and weighed quite a bit! I eyed the side of the crater wall like a duelist sizing up an opponent. This was going to be a challenge.

Some time later I staggered out of the crater, huffing and puffing, but triumphantly carrying my burden; an odd visitor from the ball of color in the sky. I could see my home from here, the only real visible landmark in any direction for many leagues. I had always been a bit of a loner, and enjoyed the solitude that the location brought.

I set off across the Maria, at a pace that I deemed I could hold without tiring myself out, and still fast enough to make good time. I tried to step as lightly as possible, though, to spare my precious cargo any grief.

I heard her mumble something out of the corner of my tufted ear. I spared a glance backwards. "Hmmm? Did you say something?"

The creature spoke something so softly that I could barely hear it.

It sounded something like "'Tia."

Whatever that meant was yet another mystery to me.

Yet my resolve only hardened, and so we made rapid headway. In no time at all, the spire of rock I had carved my home into loomed above us, like some kind of ancient statue made in honor of some long-dead hero. There was no way I'd be able to fly her straight up, my power strokes were accustomed to getting only myself up there, and rarely at that, due to the fact that I hardly left the place aside from an occasional foray into the Maria or a flight into the nearby town for the essentials that I needed. The only other option was a steep and winding path that spiraled all the way up until the landing upon which my front door lay nestled amongst the rock. I made a face. "Heavens curse the fool who invented stairs, wherever they may be," I muttered as I began the arduous journey up.

I lay not six feet from the door, utterly exhausted.

"So...close...neeehhhh!" I tried to drag myself another inch, but found I lacked the strength to even hold a trembling foreleg up for a measly couple of seconds.

"Chives!" I cried piteously. "Chives, get out here at once!"

It took only few moments before the door opened in the side of the wall. An ashen grey face poked out, complete with a magnificent purple mustahce that ornamented a stiff, unreadable expression. Chives gave me a disapproving glare, upon seeing the dirty state of me. At the creature, he merely raised an eyebrow.

"You called, Master?" my servant asked in his calm, sonorous voice.

"No, I was actually asking for the King," I hoarsely deadpanned.

"Ah, I wasn't aware he was in our abode. I will attempt to locate him at once." Chives began to withdraw back into the house.

"No, wait! Chives!" I struggled, only to find that the dead-weight upon my back rendered me immobile. "Gah! Help me!"

The servant's head poked back around the doorway.

"You are incapable of continuing, Master?"

"Yes. I've been walking for hours, now! And with this thing on my back!"

"Hmmm..."

I groaned. "Chives, for the love of the stars, help me. I'll do anything at this point."

There was a pause. He was seriously considering it, the blighter!

"Will you stop cheating every time we play checkers?"

"What-? I...I don't cheat at checkers!"

The door slammed shut.

"Okay okay okay! I won't cheat when I play you at checkers. There, happy?"

"And a pay raise," said Chives from behind the door. "I'd like to be able to afford to purchase something for myself that isn't from the clearance section of the store, for once. Your father was never so stingy with his money."

"I pay you almost as much as I make!" I sputtered.

"You are unemployed, Master."

"...Well played. You've beaten me yet again, Chives. You'll have your pay raise, and my word of honor at checkers. Happy?"

The door opened once again, this time all the way. Chives strode out, looking impassive as always. "Certainly, Master. Now, what do you require?"

I shrugged my shoulders causing the filthy creature atop my back to flop around. "We have a guest!" I declared. "We must clean her up and see that her hurts are taken care of."

Chives gave her an appraising glance. "This knot of mud and dust is a she? I say, we're having a female stay the night! And it isn't your mother, this time. How sad, I'm sure she'll dislike having another take her spot in the guest wing."

I grumbled something about extortion and how his face resembled a colony of fungus.

I wasn't exactly sure why I kept the old servant on. He'd been serving my family for more than five centuries, that's almost half of our average lives. He was legendary for his sarcastic wit, known to be even dryer than his signature martinis. Maybe it was a sense of nostalgia for the days before I'd left home with my inheritance --as was custom upon our one-hundredth birthday-- and taken him along with me. Or maybe it was the fact that he was really the only one I ever truly got along with, despite his constant stream of verbal jabs and barbs. He was a bit prickly, and oftentimes cantankerous, but he was utterly devoted.

Chives deftly scooped the crumbled body off of me and strode through the doorway. I somehow found the strength to rise and follow after him, closing the door behind me. I was going to take a draught of moonshine and sleep until Sunday, I was so tired.

I found Chives in the master bathroom, a furnished cave containing a natural hot spring. The creature lay in an ungainly heap by the edge. I slipped into the pool of hot water and let out a delighted sigh as my muscles began to loosen up. I reminded myself for the umpteenth time that I should seriously consider getting into shape.

Meanwhile, Chives fetched a couple of towels and dipped them into the spring, before beginning to rubbing the creature vigorously. As the gray muck began to peel off, her coloration began to peek through -- a strange combination blacks and blues, as her coat was at war with itself over what color it should be.

"Hello, what's this?" Chives wondered out loud. He had revealed that she wore a piece of metal around her head. It looked like some kind of war-helm. I swam over to the edge and propped myself up on the side of the pool, watching with interest. Soon enough, a similar colored piece was revealed along her neck and on her hooves.

"She appears to be wearing some kind of armor, Chives." I scratched my chin. "Perhaps she is a warrior of some kind?"

"Some kind, indeed," said Chives, prying the half-melted metal slabs off of the creatures body, revealing more of the dirty coat underneath. He dabbed at her sides. "What are these things on her wings?"

"I haven't the faintest. But, you should know, this was the thing that fell earlier today. I'm sure you heard the racket it made."

"I was under the impression that we weren't due for an impact for-"

"-another six cycles, yes. From meteors. She is clearly no such thing."

Chives continued cleaning away at the creature, revealing the mark of the moon on her flanks. "Clearly," he said, and for the first time I heard some uncertainty creep into his voice.

I leaned forward. "She's not from here, Chives. She's from somewhere else entirely."

"You don't mean..."

"I do."

Chives looked down at the creature.

"We have a member of a species from another world under our roof, Master." He said it like he was trying out a new word that he'd never heard before.

I spread my hooves wide. "Exactly! Do you know what this could mean?"

"Mass panic and a wave of xenophobia that hasn't been seen since we purged the golems from the Kingdom. She also might bear us ill will, for one reason or another."

"...That, or she might be able to finally be able to show us how to bridge the gap. We could go there, Chives! We could go to Equus! Can you imagine what it must be like? And she knows everything about it!"

Chives did not respond to that, and finished cleaning the debris off the creature. She truly did look a good deal like us, equine and elegant, but with the addition of those strange, deformed wings, the horn, and the oddly-flowing mane. Her body was marred with scrapes and burns, but it was the lacerations that were the most fascinating, as a pale, blue liquid seeped from her wounds, faintly glowing and steaming.

I clambered out of the hot spring, feeling refreshed. "Come, let us patch her up and put her to bed. I'm sure she will awake in due time."

"At once, Master."

It was nearly Sunday before the creature stirred. I was on my balcony, enjoying the peculiar grayish tinge the moon took before the Sun would crest the horizon, an essay on the gradual drift of the Ursa constellation laying forgotten by an empty glass of moonshine.

A polite knocking came from the balcony door.

"Yes, Chives?" I called, unwilling to tear myself from the view. "I'm busy."

My servant took a place next to me by the railing. He gave me a sour glare. "I can see that," he commented. "Try not to strain yourself from all the nothing you have been up to. I hear there is an rather effective remedy for such an ailing, although a bit painful."

"Hmmm. What's that?"

"A swift kick in the rump, Master. Preferably off a cliff."

"Ah. I see. Point taken." He had my full attention now.

"Our guest has begun to show signs of improvement, Master," Chives announced. "I was in the guest room not moments ago to see to the bandages, when she began to mumble things in her sleep."

I could have jumped for joy. Actually, I did. "This is great news, Chives! Anything else to report?"

"Yes, Master. She seems to speak the same language as us, if somewhat...accented. She said something about some 'Elements' but I could not decipher the rest."

"Astounding. The bridge of space separates our worlds, and yet we share this similarity? This whole situation...it truly boggles the mind." I strode back indoors, through my cluttered study and down the hallway towards the guest room. I intended to view he awakening myself.

"My mind is quite boggled, Master." The sarcasm in his voice was even more potent that usual.

I patted him fondly with my wing as we trotted down the hallway. "Come now, Chives, what seems to be the problem?"

"The problem is currently asleep in our guest bedroom," he said bluntly.

"How so?"

"You seem to have failed to realize the significance of the fact that we have an alien being in our home, other than the possible exploitation of her for your silly, half-baked idea to see Equus in the flesh. It simply can't be done, Master. Many have tried to brave the void, but none have succeeded." That may have been what I truly liked the most about my servant. He was always brutally honest. It was vexing at times, but he had a point. "In addition, if she found her way here, what's to say that there aren't others on the way?"

That thought gave me pause.

"Others?" I said.

"She could be a part of a larger group, Master. A group who's intentions we know nothing about."

"I..."

"It is in my opinion that we turn her over to the proper authorities at once. This is not the sort of escapade an old butler and a young, incompetent heir should be getting into."

"But-"

"-and she was wearing armor when you found her. That alone should be reason enough to worry. You wear armor for one reason and one reason only."

Chives' caution was quite deserved. I did not know what to expect from our guest. Nothing in the least.

We were outside the door, now. I came to a halt and stared it down. What unfathomable mysteries could be on the other side! This could be the beginning of a new age, and all I had to do was open the door and introduce myself.

...

So why couldn't I muster up the nerve to do it?

Maybe the paranoia of my servant was finally getting to me. What business did I have, acting as a representative of my race and Kingdom? Me! A lonely, indolent whelp of an heir with muscles like wet noodles and a brain that --at the best of times-- had the thinking power of an infant.

My tufted ears tingled wildly.

No.

I had to do this. This could very well be the beginning of my true calling. The rest of my life began the second I walked into that room.

"Chives, with all due respect, I think we can handle this," I said. Without another second's pause, I pressed down the handle and opened the door, Chives hot on my trail.

For a good minute, we both stared at the empty bed, still dimpled where a figure had lain in it for better half of a Shadowday. On the far wall, the window was wide open, curtain flapping in a lunar breeze.

"And she's gone. Oh! Look at that! She's gone! Hey, Chives, you've got to see this. She's just...gone. Ha!" I began to laugh, somehow struck by the hilarity of it all. Chives' words of caution echoed in my head. "Ha! Oh, my stars! We've just possibly doomed us all! Ha-ha! Hahahahahahahaaaaa!"

A sudden strike to the top of my head snapped me out of my fit of giggles.

"Thanks, I needed that."

"It was my pleasure," said Chives. He was utterly serious. "Now, we should probably attempt to find our guest. And fast."

"Then we've not a moment to lose!" I declared, galloping towards the window and hurling myself through. I plummeted several feet before my wings caught me, and I soared off into the night sky. Towards the West, the bright, burning disc of the Sun had begun to peer over the lunar horizon.

My ears detected the sound of another pair of wings. Chives had joined me in flight, just a bit higher and towards my rear. We flew upwards in a spiral, until we past the very peak of the spire of rock I had built my home into.

"I see nothing in this direction!" Chives called over the wind, as we climbed higher and higher. He was facing towards the darker half of the moon, scanning the ground for any sign of movement.

I narrowed my eyes against the heightening glare. It was beginning to sting a little. We could see for miles from this high up - so where had she gone? She couldn't possibly have had enough time to travel so far in such short notice. I blinked and itched my eyes again. Stars above, where had she gone?

Wait...stars above?

Up.

The one place we hadn't looked. I gazed into the ebony depths of the universe, searching the carpet of lights for our wayward guest, only to find that she was much closer than expected. If I had to guess, she could had stretched a hoof out and patted me on the head.

Her eyes, now open, glared at me with cold intensity. They appeared to be different; the one on the left was a deep blue, soulful and shimmering. The one on the right was the color of glacier ice, with a frightening, reptilian pupil. That eye was like one of a dead thing. I had a mere second to ponder this before the horn on her head lit up with an eerie light. There was a terrible, blinding flash, the sensation of falling. Who was that screaming? I hoped it wasn't me, it sounded quite shrill.

Then, everything slammed back into place with a sudden terrific wrench. I was lying spread-eagled upon my balcony. Chives's rear end stuck out of my lounge chair. One of his legs twitched. My eyes hurt like nothing else, probably due to the fact that the sun had now risen, scorching me with its unforgiving rays. I hissed in pain and tumbled backwards, only to crash into something. I awkwardly rolled over and found myself looking up at the creature, who was staring down at me with an expression so unreadable that she could have given Chives a run for his money.

I met her gaze as evenly as possible. I was dealing with a potentially violent creature, of a similar form to my own, but clearly with phenomenal power, seeing as she somehow knocked Chives and I right down into the ground without even batting an eyelash. I hadn't the faintest inkling of her temperament, her culture, her opinions, and not even her name.

It was time to make history.

I took a deep, clearing breath, and began bawling like a scared filly.

"O-o-oh p-p-please d-don't k-k-ill me-e-e-e-e!"

Secondo

...As it so happened, my cowardly habits were fiercely reprimanded by my butler. Whom, upon seeing me lying on the floor, a blubbering, inconsolable mess, decided to knock some sense into me. Literally. To the end of my life, I'll never understand how a sudden, stunning blow to the cranium can do that.

The strike landed neatly on the top of my head, and made a comical BONK!-ing noise, at that. While my pupils began to recreate a race at the derby, I heard Chives assume the mantle of negotiations.

"Greetings, madame," he said cordially, "I am Chives, the head servant at this residence. My companion here is called Lord Cassius --though I have a more fitting pseudonym for him-- and is the owner of said property. On behalf of my people and my house, I will attempt to answer any questions that you might have regarding your current situation. However, I must ask this upon a strict condition."

The creature sized him up, and, judging his character to be of some worth, dipped her head in the smallest of agreements. Never once did her mismatched eyes blink.

"You must no doubt currently be aware of the fact that you have sustained some injuries, as of late," Chives said, pointing to the bandages around her, recently soiled by her venture outside (the fresh azure stains upon which were slightly glowing!). "It would be in the best interests of all present if you were to devote your time spent here to recuperation and healing, at least until you are familiar with your situation and are fit enough to embark. We will gladly provide room and board, the right of any guest of a lord, as well as the medicines needed for your various hurts."

I shook my head from where I now sat, quite impressed by sheer gall of my servant. There was no possible way a creature of such majesty and power would ever think to bargain with the likes of-

"We find these terms acceptable," said she, in a voice that was strangely two-toned, as if there were another of her speaking at the same time.

I could practically feel the sheer amount of smugness emanating from my servant.

The creature continued. "Our first question is thus: what land is this, with a soil so pale and a sky so dark, even during daylight?"

"We currently reside upon the edge of the Silver Dune Sea, directly upon the equator," Chives answered immediately.

"And where, pray tell, is this...Silver Dune Sea?" She frowned slightly, it was almost unnoticeable. "We have not yet seen this name upon any map."

I wiped some snot and tears away from my face. It was at this point that I realized explaining to her the locations of the land would do her no good, as she had not yet come to the conclusion that she as no longer upon Equus. She would still be thinking that she is still upon her own world, and as such, attempt to get her bearings by the familiar planetary geography. I resolved to ask her these features on a later date, but, in the meantime...

"You will not find it on any map you have encountered before, madame," I spoke, rising to my hooves. I had the attentions of both Chives and the creature, now. The lack of bawling and cringing like an infant at her mere presence steeled my frayed courage, so I continued. "Look to the horizon, past the rays of the sun, and you will see why this is so."

She did so, and gazed in the that way for several moments, silent. I could not bear to look with her, as by now the sun had fully emerged, and it was all I could do to keep my eyes open for even a few seconds.

Eventually, she turned. "We...are not sure of what we see. What manner of star is that, which comes to be so strangely colored and of that size?"

"That is no star, madame," I replied softly. "That is Equus."

She whirled back to the balcony and reared up onto it.

"Impossible!" she cried. "Nopony has ever braved the border between the sky and the stars, and lived to tell of it!"

"...More or less what I thought until a day ago," Chives grumbled to himself.

"Until now, none have lived to tell of it," I said. "But you have, madame. You are the first! I must ask, though, how did you do it? Some kind of vehicle? A mechanized launcher?"

"You must remember, Master, that madame is rather out of sorts at the moment," Chives pointed out to me. "It is entirely likely that she doesn't remember due to the crash. She wasn't aware of the fact that she was here in the first place, so we might deduce that her arrival was not, er, voluntary. This could have been the result of some kind of accident, although of what kind, I know not."

"Do you remember, madame?" I asked her gently.

"We..." she began. Then paused. "...do not. Our mind feels like a shattered window, and the pieces have been rearranged."

"Can you remember anything at all?" Chives queried. "A name, perhaps. I fear that simply calling you 'madame' is poor ettiqute, and I do not trust myself --and certainly not young Cassius here-- to invent one for a...being...such as yourself."

The creature visibly concentrated. "We remember bits and pieces. A word there, a blurred face, a landscape that we feel we know yet cannot place. But we do remember one thing."

"Yes?" I wondered.

She answered by suddenly snapping her wings outwards, the strange things upon the fluttering and whispering in the wind. Her impressive outstretched span completely blocked out the sunlight, bathing Chives and I in gloriously soothing shade. Her eyes flashed white, and the horn atop her head alit with an eeire glow. I had originally thought her to be an odd-looking thing, but in this way, her form was truly striking.

"Our name is Luna."

Our guest, true to her word, did little in those first few days of her stay with us. She remained propped in her bed for the most part, learning of our world and culture at a voracious rate when either Chives or I found the time to sit with her. Our kind, the Equinocti, had always had a rich and vibrant society of thinkers and philosophers (perhaps the reason why we never did much building or fighting or any real impressive things). When we were not by her bedside, she was prone to staring out the window at the distant blue orb that hung perpetually upon the horizon. She knew it was home, she told us, she could feel it in her feathers, those odd, fluffy things embedded into her wings. But she could not recall what exactly it was that awaited her there.

Sometimes she would bring up certain facts about her world, perhaps the name of a street, or what the ocean was like. On Equus, they have Marias of water, can you imagine that! But she could never place where that particular thought had emerged from, and often lapsed into a frustrated silence afterwards.

I can recall a splendid example of this. Luna gave us both a tremendous fright when we entered the room to find a full tea set floating serenely at her bedside, each object wreathed in that same, eerie light that bathed her horn at the same time. I remembered seeing that light when she rebuked us during our chase, and instinctively knew it was power of some kind, though nothing my race had ever seen. The memory of that same power smacking me into the balcony like an irritating fly suddenly arose.

I, of course, being of high birth and higher education, did the only sensible thing at the time.

"Duck and cover!"

Ah, the comforts of hiding under the bed. Truly glorious.

Teeth met around my tail, and gave a sharp yank. I was rudely tugged under my improvised panic shelter to find an amused-looking Luna and a...well, Chives-looking Chives both staring at me. My servant then seemed to notice the glow as well and backed away a few steps, stiffened even more than usual. Which, in itself, was a tremendous feat.

"Is something the matter, Cassius?" Luna asked seriously, though it seemed to me that she was struggling to keep a grin off her face.

"More than usual, she means." Chives couldn't resist a snark, even if he felt ill at ease. Yet another reason I kept him around.

"That glow! What is it?" I stammered.

"'Tis magic," she said simply. "An alicorn such as myself possesses a great deal of it."

Magic! Alicorns! So many new things! "Alicorns? Is that what your kind are called?"

"In a sense. We are a mix of the three bloods of ponykind." Luna trailed off. "The three...kinds..."

"You are po-nies, then?" asked Chives. I spoke the word as well, almost tasting the way the new sounds rolled around my tongue. Pony. The denizen of Equus! Simply smashing!

"We are. And, we, think, thou art as well," Luna said. "Thou resembles one of the bloods greatly, and yet, different."

Now that was intriguing. "Perhaps there is a connection," I suggested, "as to why we are so similar, and yet come from two entirely different worlds."

Luna sadly shook her head. "We wish we could shed some light on that, but alas, the memories remain out of reach, if that knowledge exists at all."

This seemed to send her into a brooding sulk. I found myself too entranced by the still-floating tea set. It was a curious blend of fear and awe that kept me so focused. "What else can you do with your magic?" I wondered. I mispronounced the word 'magic' terrible, and this seemed to lift her spirits for a second or two.

"We do not know," she sighed moodily. "Everything has been... instinctual. Like learning how to walk. We fear attempting to run before we master the slower steps would be most unwise. Something deep within us knows that meddling in magic is a dangerous, foolish idea."

I couldn't help but agree, even if I silently wished to see more of the strange power.

Terzo

...It was nearly Shadowday. The sun was kissing one end of the horizon, and Equus remained in its eternal position on the opposite side of the sky. It was about this time that our guest had finally decided that she was tired of remaining bedridden, and demanded to be allowed about my estate.

We inspected her wounds, and found them to be healing along quite well, though she would still have to restrain herself for the time being. If she tried anything like that spectacular flight from the first encounter, then no doubt she would end up only injuring herself more.

When we changed her bandages, I couldn't help but notice how odd her bloodstains appeared. She bled a light, luminescent blue, far different from the usual dark purple of the Equinocti. Perhaps this 'magic' of hers affected her at a biological level?

Since Luna's arrival, the house had taken to a strange pattern of activity. She slept for small cycles of about six to nine hours, and was awake in the time in between. At first, we thought something might be the matter with her, but then I came to the realization that she was unconsciously following the schedule her body had kept on Equus, which completed a revolution roughly ever twenty-four hours. The moon held a different rotation, and spun at such a rate that one face of the moon constantly presented itself away from the planet. Our home was located on the very edge of the far side, as I had it built there that I might see Equus in my horizon. That said, we slept twice a day, quite a reasonable amount, and remained asleep or awake much longer periods of time than Luna did. Chives and I began to try to rotate our sleeping shifts, that our guest might have some of our company whenever she wished for it without needing to wake us.

For the occasion, though, we were both present.

Luna stood uneasily at first, having been prone for so long, but was soon trotting about the room, stretching and contorting herself into the strangest of ways until we had to scold her, for fear of opening a scab. She was naturally curious, and was soon following Chives and myself about the property, showing her the the many ins and outs of my not-so-humble abode.

She showed a particular interest in my study, and of the vast array of star charts and telescopic apparel that cluttered the room.

"We have never seen so grand a laboratory in all of our years," she murmured, lightly tapping an array of lenses with one blue-and-black mottled hoof. The ebony patches of her coat had been receding since her arrival, but she knew not of why this occurred or what it meant.

Of course, this statement implied she had seen laboratories before, though, I knew that if I asked I would only provoke another bout of sulking. A shame, really - I would kill to learn what the Ponies had at their disposal. I bit my tongue as the question began to slip out.

Chives was there to pick up the slack as always, bless his black little heart.

"What, this? This is the equivalent of an infant's plaything. Lady Luna, you would do well to see the observatories in the Celestial City."

She flinched, then, as if she had been struck by some unseen force.

"What...what did thou say?"

Chives and I exchanged a glance. "The observatories in the Celestial City, our capital," Chives explained. "They are known for their immense height and the clarity of their telescopes. It is said that you can see straight through the galactic core with a good night's sky."

"Celestial City," she whispered. "That name, it rings a bell in our ears! Hmmm."

I could see that potential sulk fast approaching. Luna had quite the temper, when given the opportunity for her emotions to simmer.

"Look at these, My Lady," I directed her to the large desk at the back of the room. "I found you wearing these when I removed you from the impact crater." Luna's slagged armor lay in a disorganized heap upon it.

The alicorn removed the topmost piece, and turned it over a few times in her magical grip. I resisted the urge to step away every time she used it. Luna held the object up to the fading sunlight streaming into the window. It was the helm, smooth, icy-blue, and forged of a single piece of metal. Creating such an item must have taken incredibly talented metalworkers.

Luna placed the helm upon her head. Her horn slid smoothly through the hole in the top, projecting forth like a fearsome needlepoint. Her mane seemed unencumbered by the material, and seemed to float around her like a halo, rather than be pressed down underneath it. I let out a soft whistle at the sight. Luna looked quite splendid in it, even if it was damaged and battered.

"It fits like it was made for you," Chives observed.

"It was," Luna said simply. She then took it off and set it back on the pile with a fond pat. "We know not how, but this equipment holds special meaning to us. We thank thee both for preserving it. Mayhaps we will get it repaired, one day, before we return."

It was several seconds before we realized the implications of that statement.

"Return?" Chives sputtered. "My Lady, is that truly wise? You barely survived the way here."

She narrowed her mismatched eyes at him.

I grinned. For once, the tables were turned.

"My servant does raise a valid point," I smoothly put in. "And, how would you even attempt to return to Equus, without the knowledge of how you arrived in the first place? There have been many Equinocti who have attempted to brave the void over the cycles. None have succeeded, though a variety of methods have been tried and tested."

"A good third of those failures belonging to yourself," Chives muttered.

"All the better - I know how not to get to Equus. Besides, only the Elders would know of a way, if any have already discovered the means, and you know how they are with their secrets."

"Who are these Elders that thou speakst of?"

I shook my head. "That is a long explanation, and I would rather it be discussed with something to eat."

They both agreed to this, and so we sat down in the dining hall, at the end of a long table that had seen almost non-existent use since its installment here.

I attempted to light a small fire in the hearth while Chives began setting out some platters of silverhay and pastries. A strong tea was brewing in the kitchen.

"Master, you are aware of what you are doing, yes?" Chives called from the table.

I grimaced and wiped some soot off of my face. Ugh. Accursed fire! Light, damn you!

"Of course I know what I'm doing, Chives!"

"Oh, all right, then."

I heard Luna make a muffled squeaking noise, and I glanced over to see her stifling down a fit of laughter.

"What? What is it?" I crossly demanded.

"Nothing!" she gasped through a hoof.

I returned my attention to the stubborn hearth, striking yet another fruitless match.

Confound it all!

Chives came up next to me and patted me on the shoulder. "Master, it would be most wise to start a fire after you set out some fuel to burn," he said, his mustache threatening to quiver with the hint of a smile.

At the table, Luna buried her face into her fetlocks and unsuccessfully stifled the sounds of her amusement.

"I knew that, you old sot." I looked around. "What do we have for kindling, then?"

"Nothing, Master."

"What, preposterous!"

"To you, maybe."

"Chives, don't make a mockery of this. We can't sit in here without a fire; it's damnably cold and drafty in here."

"Well, maybe if you actually gave this room some use, it wouldn't be so under-kept."

I massaged my temples with my wingtips.

"Was that yet another crack about my social life?"

Chives's face was as emotionless as a hunk of rock. "What makes you think that, Master?"

"...Nothing. Nothing at all." I looked back to the hearth, and the small pile of spent matches now resting at the bottom. I sighed despondently. "Chives, could you please-?"

"Done." He pressed a button on the top of the mantlepeice, and a click-click-click noise was heard. With a soft roar, a healthy spout of flame materialized within the hearth. I leapt backwards, alarmed.

"What? B-but...but how?" I whined.

"Gas fireplace," he deadpanned.

At that point Luna fell off her chair, so great was her laughter.

Eventually, the room had risen in temperature enough to be sufficiently comfortable. I sat at the head of the table, a position denoting my rank as the owner of the house and a minor Lord, at that. Chives sat by my right side, a position usually reserved for the guest of honor, but, seeing as he was my right-hoof man, I absolutely refused for him to sit anywhere else. Luna was on my left, upon a cushy armchair that we'd brought over from the fireplace. As we lunched upon the food Chives had brought out, I began to explain the notion of the Elders.

"Ever since the Great Awakening, when our society was first founded many thousands of cycles ago, we have found it necessary to interpret the motions of the heavens. We schedule our crops to receive the optimum amount of starlight, we power many of our cities with crystals that charge during Sunday and retain their luminescence on Shadowday, and we make sure of any rouge objects that might fall upon the moon. There are more reasons, but the fact remains that we needed an eye on the sky, so to speak.

"So, a group slowly arose, a group of Equinocti solely dedicated to the study of the starscape and the creation of technologies needed to observe it better. They forecasted the cycles and promoted the advancement of sciences in the name of a better society. They were the first Elders, the ancestors of what we have today. Subsequent generations of Elders, though, soon realized that they could harness greater influence by hoarding their secrets, rather than spreading them to our masses.

"It became apparent that having the Elder's support was paramount to maintaining any amount of political power for long. They held the keys to the kingdom, so to speak, with the knowledge of higher sciences and the secrets of charting the finicky seasons. When the Equinocti coalesced under a single banner in the 456th cycle of the 3rd Age, the King appointed these Elders as his own personal advisers, cementing his and their own base. Ever since, the Elders have maintained a close relationship with the wearers of the Nightcrown."

Luna thoughtfully nibbled on a biscut. "Then, if there would be any way to reach my home, these Elders would have the knowledge of it."

"If our kind has ever discovered the means to do so, then yes -- it would be in their archives," I said.

"They hoard their secrets like the King hoards his silver," Chives muttered. "And end up far more wealthy because of it."

"Is there any way that they would allow us access to these vast stores of knowledge?" queried Luna.

I pondered that for a moment. "I would hold little hope to that. Only the ruling nobility and the favored of the Court have access to the archives. Only the wearer of the Nightcrown has free reign of their libraries. And King Starfall the Wise isn't known for relaxing his grip on the throne."

"Art thou not a noble? Did Chives not mention that thou holds the title of a Lord?"

The butler in question scoffed. "A right terrible Lord at that. Yes, Lord Cassius is a member of the ruling body, however distant, but he has played little to no role in the governing of the kingdom for well over some seventy-five cycles, now."

At Luna's curious gaze, I consented. "I may be a minor Lord, but I lost all respect and favor from the Court when I left the Celestial City to live here, far away from scandal and pomp of the King's castle. I detest politics, despite having been born into them."

"It's one of his few good qualities," Chives offered.

Luna fell silent, obviously deep in thought. Her mismatched eyes were narrowed, and she tapped a hoof absently upon the edge of the table. She suddenly looked up. "What if thou wert to regain the favor of the throne?"

"Fat chance of that happening," I muttered. "But if I were in the King's good graces, I suppose I would be allowed to view the inside of the Elder's archives. But how would I go getting that?"

"The Court would see him as an outsider and a rebel," explained Chives. "And it doesn't help that Master's social graces tend to be somewhat...lacking."

"Some would consider frankness a virtue."

"Others would consider telling the King's own Aunt to 'take a bath, hippie' to be less of one."

"The old prune smelled like a sack of rotting vegetation. I'll not apologize for speaking the truth," I huffed indignantly. She had totally had it coming, anyway, strutting about like the rest of those over-inflated fops as if they were entitled to the heavens themselves.

Luna chortled at our antics. "What if..." she mused, "what if thou wert to bring these simpering lords and ladies...a gift?"

I raised an eyebrow. Beside me, Chives mustache twitched in curiosity.

"They value knowledge above all else, yes?" At our nods, she continued, "so present them with something even the Elders don't know of."

"And that would be?"

She smiled mischievously.

"Us!"

I blanched at this. More so of the fact that she was probably right -- the Elders would be frothing at the bit to observe our alicorn pony.

She sensed my hesitation. "Please, Cassius, we ask thee not as a guest, but as a friend, who knows very well of your desire to see the realm from whence I came."

Would she really do that? Provided I managed to pull this off, and the secret to traveling between worlds really was in the hooves of the Elders...that blue teardrop in the sky suddenly seemed a whole lot closer.

Even if it meant having to return to the Celestial City to face the music, there was a chance -- a slim chance, but a chance nonetheless -- that my fantasy would be fulfilled. I had fled from that place once, in disgust and apathy. And now, it was drawing me back in. I suppose it is true what we say about high society: its almost as hard to leave it as it is to enter.

"Oh, very well," I grumbled. "But not until you're better."

Luna squealed with delight and leapt up from the table, seizing me around the barrel with her legs and twirling around until I thought I might be sick. "Oh, most wonderful of times! We are going home!" she cried.

Home indeed.

Quarto

...Luna was not one to be described as idle.

The mere moment we deemed her fit enough, she began a relentless campaign of activity. The guest room in my estate was slowly transformed, as the inhabitant began to make it her own. Luna spent nearly all her waking hours exploring the manse, learning all she could of the Kingdom, or entering a curious form of meditation involving a rigorous exercise activity. It struck me that she drove herself so hard because she was afraid to rest, to sleep. And for good reason.

Luna was having dreadful nightmares.

Nearly every time she dozed off, the alicorn would be transported into some great horror. She would twitch and cry out in her sleep, always the same words:

"'Tia."

"Elements."

"Betrayed."

When the nightmare had reached its climax, she would rise from slumber in a terrible fit of emotions. Those dark streaks upon her coat would swirl and lash like liquid shadow, seemingly growing to cover her in times of stress. At one point, after a particularly powerful bout of torment, she had nearly become entirely black, the color of the darkest reaches of the night sky. Though the coloration would always fade to her usual midnight-blue coat, I found the transformation unsettling, to say the least. What would happen if it were completed? Was there something else about Luna that we should know about? Was it some sort of alicorn trait?

There were more questions than answers, as Luna never remembered an ounce of the nightmares, only that she had them. Fragments of her memory continued to rise from time to time. A memory of some joke, perhaps, or a forgotten twist to her magic. But her past remained as mysteriously vague as the knowledge of the planet she had come from.

It was towards the end of Shadowday. I was peering intently at a small supernova in the constellation Lupus, though I was the only one who really bothered to care for such things. It was a beautiful thing to see. So entranced was I with the sight that Chives had to cough politely a few times before I managed to wrench my attention away.

"Ah, yes, my apologies," I said. "There's quite a show going on at the moment, old friend. We have the most splendid angle of observation for the event. Would you like a look?"

Chives gracefully declined the offer. "I am afraid there are more pressing matters to attend to at the moment. There are three officers here, constabularies from Duskshire, here to see you, sir. They say it's about the recent meteor strike."

My eyes widened. Kingdom officials? Here? I wondered what interest the Nightcrown could possibly have in this.

This did not bode well. Not well at all.

"Chives. I ask that you keep our guest occupied. Do not let the constabularies discover her, or any trace of her presence." I swept from my study, mood rapidly darkening. Gone was the figure of Cassius, the excitable scholar and stargazing enthusiast. Cassius the Lord took his place, and he was not enthusiastic about entertaining the King's representatives.

I donned a simple cape, a pale, grey-blue, shot with stripes of rich purple, the colors of my family. A minimalistic silver clasp held it around me, pinned with my crest, the Telescope and the Scroll, crossed beneath the Crown. With my lordly regalia in place, I went to the parlor, where the three officers were lounging.

They were a ragged lot, stained with travel and appeared to be more than a little fatigued. I couldn't blame them; Duskshire, the largest city in the Western Reaches, was quite some distance away.

"Good day to you, officers. I am Cassius, Lord of Tenebri and Protector of the Brightlit Border," I said evenly, introducing myself with my titles, as was custom.

"May th' stars shine over you, m'lord." One of them, whom I assumed to hold the senior rank, stepped forward, offering his left wing.

"And may they light your path onward." I met his wing with my own, and was impressed by the the strength I felt there. "Now, how do you come before me?"

The officer removed a scroll from one of his comrades, handing it to me. "My name is Colonel Shaddo. I and th' fellows standin' behind me are t' be investigating th' recent astronomical anomaly. The Nightcrown asks for your assistance in our efforts, m'lord. We require food, lodging, and any information you might have on th' matter."

That gave me pause. "The meteor impact? Surely that is of no consequence to the King. They happen all the time."

"We have our orders, m'lord." Colonel Shaddo frowned. I had enough experience to know that was a polite way of saying 'its none of your business.' The rebuke was enough to send a twinge of concern through my head. If a Lord was being shunted out of the loop...

"Of course. I can point you in the direction of the site, and give you some maps of the area."

"That'd be most helpful." Colonel Shaddo leaned forwards a bit. "Can you recall if there was anythin'...peculiar that occurred after th' strike?"

They know. They know they know they know they know they know!

"...N-not in the slightest," I lied through my teeth. "There was a flash of light, a thunderous crash, and a plume of debris that was thrown up some distance away from the tower. I could see it from my study, in fact. How lucky indeed that it didn't land closer, or I'd have been squashed!" I joked.

The Colonel joined in the polite laughter, but the smile didn't spread to his eyes.

I beckoned them out of the parlor. "If you'd follow me, I will show you to your quarters for your stay. Any and all of my facilities will be made open to you, in the service of the King." And the faster I can get away, the better.

They followed me from the parlor to the less-ostentatious servant's quarters of the house. Here the stone my home had been carved from was not polished or ornamented with tapestries or windows, rather, it was rough-hewn rock, dull and uninviting. While nowhere near as luxurious as the fine guest arrangements, the bedrooms here held multiple sleeping places. I had assumed correctly in their desire to bunk together, a particular habit most in the service of the military tended to pick up.

"I expect you've had a long journey," I announced as the trio began to settle in. "Supper should be prepared in a few hours, and should you feel the need to rejuvenate yourselves, there is a wonderful hot spring located in the baths -- just take the first left down the hall and keep to the descending passage."

"Will do, m'lord." Colonel Shaddo gave me a small salute, before closing the door. "Thank'ee kindly for the hospitality."

The moment the door clicked shut, I was off like a rocket.

"Chiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiives!"

I tore through the halls with reckless abandon, knocking down several statues and toppling a suit of armor. Finally, the guest bedroom appeared. I all but took it off at the hinges in my haste to enter.

Chives looked up at me, startled, from where he was folding bedsheets that Luna had been using. The alicorn was nowhere in sight.

"Ah, there you are," he said. "We have a bit of a problem."

"I'll say! They know something is amiss, Chives. I don't know how, or why, but they might now about," I looked over my shoulder, "our guest."

"It's worse than that, Master." Chives was grim. "Luna, show us what you found."

A midnight-blue head poked into the open window, upside-down. It took a moment for me to realize that Luna was hiding atop the ornamental framing, clinging to the outside of the spire itself. She easily swooped inside and presented me with a scroll, suspended in her eerie magical aura.

"We found this on the ascending pathway to thine estate," she explained. "Chives thought it best that we take refuge outside," she said with distaste, as though the very idea of hiding offended her, "but then we stumbled across this. One of yonder soldiers recently arrived must have let it slip from some loose pocket."

I opened the scroll. "It's a letter. From...the King!?"

From the Desk of His Royal Majesty, King Noctus, the Seventy-Third of that name,

Shaddo-

I send word of a most troubling future. The Elders have seen signs from the stars that Prophecy of the Eclipse will soon come to pass. It will begin with a mighty meteor strike, unpredictable in timing but known to land somewhere on the Antipodes. The Elders think it to strike somewhere in the Brightlit Border, if the signs are correct.

From the crater will rise the most dangerous threat to the Kingdom in known history.

You are hereby ordered to destroy this threat, and any evidence of its presence. The 102'nd Stealth Battalion is to be granted for your personal command. Any and all witnesses to its arrival are to be executed as soon as convenient, and any records of their existence eradicated. There can be absolutely no exceptions. Word of this must not spread. None must know of her. Do not fail me, Shaddo.

In the name of the King,

- U

The scroll dropped from my trembling grasp.

"Black hole!" I swore loudly, then immediately clasped a hoof across my mouth at the utterance of the worst curse an Equinocti could possibly say.

Chives' ears flicked to his head, and he winced. "My thoughts exactly."

I began to circle, my wingtips trembling with worry. "This cannot be happening. This cannot possibly be happening," I muttered. "We are now fugitives from the law. I...I don't believe this. I know I was never the most abiding citizen...maybe a few tax evasions here or there...but this is just unbelievable! There is an unspoken death warrant upon this entire household." I paused, then brightened. "Of course! It all makes sense now!"

Chives and Luna exchanged a glance.

"This is obviously a figment of my slumbering imagination."

Luna cocked an eyebrow. "Prithee, explain thy delusional ramblings."

I dismissively waved a hoof. "I have to admit, it's been a very convincing vision, and gone on for such a long time...but I concede. It's time to wake up!"

"He's lost it. He's gone bonkers..." Chives gaped at me while I continued my rant and my incessant pacing, now at an increased tempo.

"What an interesting predicament. I deduce this to be a dream of some kind, though usually the realization of one's own state of dreaming tends to waken one up. Why haven't I? Some sort of lucid dream, I suspect..."

"What should we do?" asked a worried Luna.

"Snap him out of it." Chives suggested. "Preferably with a knock to the head, stars know he deserves one."

Luna thought for a moment, brightened, then promptly magicked one of the books she had borrowed from the study, holding it menacingly above her head. "Cassius...this is for thine own benefits!"

It was the Encyclopedi Equinocti, a comprehensive, condensed guide to almost our entire pool of learning and baser observations. It was easily the size of a small trunk.

"Be cleansed of thine ailments!"

She slammed it into the back of my skull with enough force to send me tumbling across the room, into the wall, where I slumped, dazed. Were those tiny little alicorns flying around my head? When the shock cleared, my focus found its way back to my mind, and I regained my sense of reality.

"I...I...well, that actually worked. I can think clearly again," I managed.

"We should hit him again," said Chives. "Just to be safe."

"All right, all right!" I was a tad exasperated now. "Let us face the matter at hoof. We are now wanted dead by some unknown entity in the Courts," I glanced down at the scroll, "addressing themselves as 'U'. This U is obviously of a high ranking, being in the graces of the Elder's secrets, and with access to the King's Own Desk. And there must be some pull with the military as well, given the presence of the three soldiers we just admitted."

"Well...actually..." Chives looked rather uncomfortable. "There's a little more than just the three of them."

"How many?"

"We counted five score," Luna explained grimly. "We spied an encampment behind the the rise to the East while we were in flight."

"..."

Chives prodded me with a wing. "Luna, I think you've broken him yet again. Get the book."

"Knowledge is power," she rationed, hefting the Encyclopedi Equinocti once more.

I flinched. "No! No, I am fine, I assure you. But...this changes everything." I made my way over to the open window, surveying my lands before turning back to the two of them.

"We have to flee. The Celestial City is now the most dangerous place on the moon for us to be. They know Chives and I are aware of the impact. They are also aware of you, Luna, in some way. The scroll mentions something; something called the 'Prophecy of the Eclipse' that the Elders believe your arrival coincides with."

"Where will we go? How will we return from whence we came?" Luna fretted.

"I...do not know." I approached her and looked her in her mismatched gaze. "But I do know that we will discover a way to send you home, to Equus. On my word as a Lord, and as a friend, this I swear."

She regarded me with wide eyes. "A...friend?"

Chives clapped his hoof upon her back. "I as well, Luna."

Luna's face brimmed with honest joy. "Thank you, Cassius. Thank you, Chives. We will not forget this loyalty."

There was a moment of warmth shared in the messy guest bedroom. A set of formidable odds were had been stacked against us, and the mystery of Luna's arrival had only deepened. Now, a new player had entered the game, intent on removing any trace of her existence, including those who had interacted with her. But we would face this challenge, not alone, but together.

"But what will we do now?" she wondered.

"Now, we leave," said Chives. "We have to disappear. There's only one place for exiles and those who prefer not to be found."

I hissed through my teeth. "In the White Wastes? Where pirates and beasts and all manner of dreadful horrors stalk the maria?"

"Where else can we go?" he argued. "This entire half of the moon is now unwelcoming territory. We need to go to the other side, past the antipodes, past the Brightlit Border."

"We will have to find a place to hide," I said thoughtfully. "They will be relentless in their pursuit."

"They will try," Luna murmured darkly, and the black batches on her coat seemed to slither around a bit. "And they will fail."

Chives nodded. "I'll fetch as much food as I can carry from the pantry. M'lord, you will have to retrieve some basic field equipment. Luna cannot leave this room." So it was agreed, and my servant and I set about it at once.

We were ready not ten minutes later. Chives' years of practice at making meals had served him well, allowing him to package a surprisingly large amount of tuck to eat in little time at all. I had gotten the gear with ease, finding it pre-packed in a closet where it had been sitting, unused, for an unknown number of cycles. For once, I thanked the fact that I didn't get out much.

Luna had demanded only one thing, though; her armor. I had gone back for it, sneaking right past the door of Shaddo and his two officer compatriots, until I'd retrieved the battered set from where it had been laid out in the study for examination. It was icy cool to the touch, and made me shiver when I picked it up. The alicorn had donned it the moment I'd returned, the many pieces flying through the air in a telekinetic tempest that arranged itself artfully around her graceful frame as if she had been born in it.

I had elected to carry the equipment, and so I was laden down with three packs, on top of wearing my Lord's cape and regalia. Chives had several more, stuffed full with rations. We didn't know how long we would be on the lamb, after all. No sense in being stingy on what we bring.

With a shared nod, we clambered out the window of Luna's guest bedroom and jumped into thin air, one at a time. I wheezed mightily and almost dropped like a stone, unused to physical labor of any kind, but still refused Luna's offer for help. "Might as well get used to it," I had panted as stoically as I could manage.

We flew low and fast, almost skimming across the ground. The pace was as fast as I could manage, being the slowest of the group. Chives kept himself quite fit with the estate's modest gym, and he had no trouble with his load.

At best, we had two hours, possibly less, until Colonel Shaddo came to dinner and discovered nothing but an empty plate and a cold kitchen. But we would make sure we put some distance between us. The advantage of a head start was our most critical element.

As the shining blue gem of Equus inched it's way up into the horizon, we passed over the site of Luna's crash landing, a mighty gouge in the land at the very beginning of the maria. The alicorn did a circle over the feature, before taking the leading position in our formation.

The maria marked the border of the realm. The Brightlit Border, so called, because here the sun's light would crest the horizon before any other part of the kingdom come Sunday. It was also my own border -- I had not been outside my lands since my departure of the Celestial City. The tips of my ears tingled madly, yet I flew through it, pushing forward into the White Wastes, that great uncharted beyond where danger was always just a wingbeat away, following the wake of a snarky, grumpy butler and a magical alien alicorn. I was a wanted criminal, in the friendship of wanted criminals.

I couldn't have asked for better company...

Cinque

...Every great journey starts with but a single step, or so the saying goes. But what the great philosophers and romanticists of the day fail to grasp is that every single step might end that great journey. The journey I was partaking in is a shining paragon of such a sentiment, the evidence being that it involved traversing the White Wastes.

There is a very, very good reason that we Equinocti shun the side of the moon closet to Equus. It is without a doubt the most dangerous place on the moon. The dark, fetid alleys of Tenebri and the wretched holds of the dune pirates that inhabit the Wastes are safer places to be. The fact that the dune pirates themselves fear the terrors that walk these blasted silver stretches is a testament unto itself. The rogues are known for their brashness, even going so far as to attack settlements one-hundred leagues over the antipodes. If even they were cautious about this place, then the common citizen would do well to avoid it like the plague.

Unfortunately, we were not common citizens, and we were by no means able to tuck tail and retreat with post haste. Nay, we were fugitives, hunted for holding the key to a secret so powerful that even the Elders wanted our heads. Turning back was not an option. And so we pushed on through the jaws of the monster called Certain Doom.

Not an hour away from my former abode, the trouble started.

There was a serious disadvantage to the timing of our flight from home. It was on the very verge of Sunday! When we had set out, the sun's faint rays were beginning to crest the horizon, and I'd known there was little time to spare. But that time had been lessened through the act of flying towards the rising warmth, accelerating our arrival into daytime.

My people's dislike of the sun spawns from their own weakness of it. The light is painful, it turns the lovely silver of the moon into a blast of shining ivory. It also plays havoc with our crops, which thrive on the natural ambient energies that flood in from space. Equinocti who spend too much time in the sunlight suffer from a condition we call "scrambling." The old wives say that the sun addles their brains, and tampers with their very soul. It makes you perform odd actions, say strange things, and think evil thoughts. The old wives say that only the weak at heart ever find solace in the light.

When we burst through that medium of twilight, it was like nothing I'd ever seen. I'd never experienced the day like this before, only from the safety of the shadowy balcony I often sat upon. It was wondrous and new, and I felt an almost childlike curiosity overcome me. What was this incredible sensation of heat? I knew the answer, but all the details were lost. What was it like? I had to see.

Old tales and cautions were spurned. I wanted more, so insatiable was my deprived curiosity.

Unable to resist, and unable to think clearly from the physical strain of the trip, I did the one thing that all Equinocti were told never, ever to do. I looked right at the sun.

It burnt worse than any fire.

"Aaaaaaargh!"

I succumbed immediately to the pain, my eyes scalded to the retina. My poor wings, already exhausted by their heavy load and a lack of use, simply folded against my sides and I plummeted like a stone. Blinded and utterly helpless, I was sure this was the end. I heard the wind rushing through the fine hairs of my tufts, and felt the sickening sensation of my breakfast rising into the back of my throat.

All that was suddenly wrenched away with a painful yank and a tingle. There was a cry of pain from above. My legs limply scraped solid ground for a heartbeat, and suddenly I was was tumbling end over end through the Maria dust. I came to a halt after gouging out what must have been an impressive rival to Luna's own crater.

Dazed and still unable to see through my smarting eyes, I tried to make sense of the world.

"Hello?" I managed to wheeze. My left leg was throbbing, and it felt like I must have plowed through half the moon with my nose. Something warm was leaking from one nostril. Blood, I assumed.

Shouting from above. After a moment, something thudded into the ground near me.

"Master? Where are you? Are you all in one piece?"

"Mostly," I croaked.

A sigh. I noted a presence at my side. "You bloody fool, look what you've done." Ah yes, that was undoubtedly my faithful servant.

"I can't see!" I whimpered. "Chives, I can't see!" The right side of my vision had gone completely and utterly dark, while the left was muddled and blurred with spots and patches of black. I was effectively blinded.

There were hooves laid on me, pulling me out of the dirt and rolling me over. "I can't see either, this light is unbearable. But you, sir, you idiot, you must have stared at it with eyes wide open!"

"I...did."

Chives groaned. "Of all the mush-brained, dayloving, rocksucking..." He paused, then muttered some dark expletive under his breath. "And you did something to Luna, too."

"I...did?"

"She caught you, with that odd glowing thing she does. The magic," said Chives. "Or at least she slowed you down. She just saved your life, Master."

I scrabbled ungainly in the dust. "Chives, help me up. I must go to her at once." I was still dizzy from the crash, and the disorientating effect of blindness wasn't doing me any favors either. Chives' strong grip somehow flipped me over and hauled me to my hooves. I noticed that my pack had come off, most likely from the crash.

And then, I was suddenly shoved right back down by a force most akin to a shockwave in the form of Luna's voice.

"CASSIUS, THOU DAMNABLE IMBECILE!"

There was curious mellowing of sound at that point, as if I had been dipped underwater. I then realized I had become partially deaf, as well. Something jostled me, then wrenched me back up to a standing position. A pleasant warming sensation flooded my ears. Hearing flooded back to me just in time to catch the tail end of what must have been a formidable rant.

"-nearly sent us down, too! Well? What dost thou have to say for thyself?"

"Thank you," I apologetically murmured. "You saved me."

I couldn't see her reaction, but the slight hesitation was all I needed. "...Aye, we did. 'Tis a shame the ground didn't knock some more sense into thee. Why did thou suddenly decide to stop thine flight?"

I shuffled in place, and turned my face toward where I assumed the ground was. "I looked at the sun. And I was tired."

The sound of hoof meeting face was instantly recognizable. "Look at us, let us see thine eyes."

"I can't see," I mumbled, then tried to focus in the general direction her voice was coming from.

There was silence for a moment, then she spoke. By the tone of her voice, I could tell that it was nothing but bad news. "Chives?"

"Yes, m'lady?" came his voice from somewhere to the side.

"Thine opinion, please. Is that...normal?"

"Not in the slightest."

After the disastrous flight, we had come to a conclusion. It would be impossible for Chives and I to fly during the daytime, or else we risk another serious injury. With that restraint in place, we were still determined to press on, We had supplies enough to last us weeks, and no doubt that Colonel Shaddo had mustered his troops and would be in hot pursuit. Luckily, they would be hindered by the same handicap as Chives and I.

They, however, did not have the advantage of the company of a certain alicorn.

Luna's eyes were unscathed by the sunlight, on the contrary, she noted that she could see even better in the harsh glare. Chives had to shut his own or risk the same punishment that had befallen me. I was now blind in one eye, though the impact of that hadn't really struck yet, seeing as I had keep them both closed like Chives. For the moment, the both of us were sightless.

Before we set out, though, Luna began digging through the packs. Chives and I could hear her rattling things around.

"M'lady Luna..." Chives began.

"Be silent, Chives. We are fetching an item for yonder Cyclops."

Chives snickered. I groaned. Luna had come up with the nickname almost immediately after noticing the extent of the damage to my eyes.

"What exactly are you getting for me?" I wondered.

"Common sense," my servant suggested. "Social grace. A spine, maybe." Something told me that he was still rather cross with my ineptitude. I couldn't blame him, really. I had seriously erred and the fault lay only with me.

"Nay!" Luna said. "'Tis an article that would help us identify thou."

"A dunce cap." He was grinning, now, I could feel it. "Frilly dress."

I flailed my hooves around in frustration. "Be silent! I didn't even pack those!" There was a momentary pause.

"...Thou...had them to pack in the first place?" said Luna.

Chives roared with laughter, while I face my face burn red. "N-no," I stammered. "I d-don't." My wings unconsciously unfolded to cover my face as I sank to the ground.

Luna giggled too. "Oh, fie upon thy sulking. We jest because we care for thee, and because thou did this to thyself. Now hold still." I felt her gently pry away my wings and set something across my head, settling around under my mane-line and pressing against one side of my face.

"What is it?" I asked, touching it with a wingtip.

"An eyepatch!" Luna proudly announced. "We assume thou carried one for just such a purpose. 'Tis, odd... an eyepatch emergency seems so unlikely. Now we can tell thee apart from Chives. That was a bother to us, your kind look so alike."

"Chives has a mustache," I pointed out.

"Aye, and a fine face-caterpillar it is, though I suspect his mother had more hair upon her backside," Luna joked. "Keep the patch, Cyclops, for with it thou looks like much less of a pansy."

Chives sputtered with indignation, while I couldn't resist a grin.

Out in the shimmering brilliance of the Wastes, we marched on.

The heat had become oppressive. A sickly, hot breeze softly washed over us from ahead, and there was utterly no sound aside from the crunching of hooves on the Maria, the rasping of Luna's armor, and my own heavy, strained breathing.

We walked in single file, with Chives holding onto the tip of Luna's ethereal tail with his teeth. I did this same to his tail, forming a small train of the blind with an alien at the head. Luna's immunity to the pain of the sunlight granted her the role of navigator and leader, a position she seemed to fall into naturally.

There was no specific destination in mind. There could not have been one, regardless. No maps had ever been made of the "light" side of the moon. The scholars of the Kingdom had seen fit to leave the Wastes for the scoundrels and exiles, content in their cities of shadow, safe in their berth of the deepest of craters.

Luna was leading us in one direction, ever onward towards the glistening azure gem in the sky. Equus had risen the barest of fractions off of the horizon, and now instead of kissing the edge of the moon, hovered above.

Occasionally she would call out to us to avoid a boulder, or guide us 'round a crater that would have easily been a passable obstacle had we our sight. The White Wastes were a treacherous place, yet now the rugged terrain poised an even greater hindrance.

"Dost thee sense it, friends?" came Luna's voice. "That scent in the breeze?" She inhaled deeply. "'Tis the aroma of a grand adventure, we feel it in our very bones!"

"Mmmmph mmph," grunted Chives.

I agreed. "Mmmrrgrhh." The only thing I felt at the time was the breeze suddenly picking up and blasting me in the face.

Luna snorted. "Bah, thou art cravens and grumps. 'Twill be most enjoyable! No silly rules, no expectations... only the trail ahead and the choices made to blaze it!"

I wished I shared her boisterous enthusiasm, but in all respects, I was beginning to ever regret leaving the estate. It had not been half a day, yet already I was utterly exhausted, my eyes burned the moment I so much as squinted, I had been half-blinded, and now I was forced to suffer the indignity of holding my servant's filthy tail in my mouth.

And the infernal, thrice-dammed wind!

"We love the sky here," she said softly. "One can always see the stars, even when the sun shines above." And you couldn't see the stars all the time on Equus? That sounded...terrifying. "Tell us, do thine kind truly shun the day this much?"

"Mrrh-hrrrrm," Chives affirmed. I nodded in case she was looking back at us, squeezing my eyes closed even tighter. The wind was beginning to toss up small pieces of the Maria and batter us. It stung all over.

"That's... wonderful," Luna sighed. Then she suddenly stumbled to a halt, yanking Chives and I along with her. "A curse upon this damnable current of air! And hark, it pushes yonder darkness towards us!"

I spat out Chives tail.. We had stopped, so I had no fear of separation. "A darkness?"

"Aye. It resembles a cloud."

Chives freed his mouth as well. "A dark cloud, borne on the breeze?"

I rubbed my sore snout, trying to think over the sound of the wind beginning to howl in my ears. Now hold just a moment. What could it possibly be? Wind, debris... and we were in the wide open Maria.

The realization dawned upon me with a sickening lurch of fear.

Silverstorm!" I cried in terror. "Get down, start digging, dig for your lives!"

Aside from the predators, the brutal terrain, the pirates, and the sun, there was one danger of the White Wastes feared by all. Silverstorms: sudden, ferocious walls of dust and rock picked up by the rebellious winds of the Maria. When they crossed over the Brightlit Border from time to time, they were known to swallow entire villages. Once, my city of Umbara had been threatened by a silverstorm, and, in one of the few times I'd actually taken direct action for my charges as a Lord, sending supplies to the beaten city and housing the key leaders in my estate. For a time, my place of residence had been the relief effort for an entire city!

Just thinking about what those military thugs were doing to it right now filled me with indignation.

Chives and I dug furiously, tearing open the ground with our hooves and shoveling it away as fast as we could, sometimes onto the other's hole.

"What is the matter with the both of thee?" Luna's metal-shod hoof prodded me in the shoulder as I worked. The pain in my body had increased tenfold now, but should I fail in my efforts, I would be swept away in a tsunami of wind, battered against the Maria until a naught but a ruined corpse was brought to rest.

"We have to... hah... get underground... hah... or we'll be doomed," I wheezed, then hacked and coughed wildly. It seemed my soft living had finally done me in. My strength, never tested except when enduring long hours of study, was at its end. I collapsed onto the Maria. Some of Chives's frantic digging sprayed over me, the soil felt cool on my hide and wings.

"Doomed? Nonsense, Cyclops, 'tis a small dust devil!" Luna scoffed.

"That's what they all say..." came Chives' mutter. "Until its upon them. And those become their last words."

"We fear no tempest of nature," stated Luna resolutely. "Lesser forces have bent the knee to us." By the stars, what did she just say? A high-pitched whine filled the air, the sound of Luna's magic charging up.

The storm hit a second later, plunging the world into a stinging hail of silver.

It was unlike anything I'd ever experienced. Painful did not being to describe it. The kicked up particles ripped and tore at every available centimeter of space. The dust choked and clogged, slinging itself into ears, nose, mouth, and eyes... it was as if the material were being forced into our very pores, until we were nothing but more than dust in the wind.

The silverstorm howled all around, hungry to devour a trio of victims.

A yell of fury belted itself out over roar of the storm and my own shrieks of agony. A rumble rattled the bones of the earth, causing the small pit I had curled up in to nearly bury me when the sides fell loose. The primal screech gradually rose to an earsplitting screech, then... all was silent and still.

I dared peep my good eye open the smallest of slivers. Surprisingly, there was no harsh glare that seeped in. Instead, a cool azure glow shone all around, as a dome that extended several feet in either direction, Luna standing in the center of this, horn pointing straight to the stars and shining with raw glory. I could see the sands of the silverstorm raging through the dome, unable to penetrate the mysterious barrier.

At least, I thought it was Luna.

The black steaks amongst her now significantly darker fur were writhing like serpents, slowly twisting and lashing to and fro. Her ethereal mane was sparking with occasional snaps of electricity, the stars within flickering madly about. She seemed bigger, now even taller than Chives, even her wings, which were held out to an impressive length. One of her eyes was harshly glowing, the draconic one. It stared back at me and into it I saw such a chilling, alien power...

"Come, friends," said Luna. Never before had the odd, two-toned quality of her voice been more prevalent. "We would not see our quest end before it is even begun..."

I gazed at her in awe and slight twinge of fear as she began to glide away, the translucent dome of solid light following in her hoofsteps.

Chives heaved himself up out of the small hole in the ground he had been digging and started after her. "If I were you, sir, it would be in my best interests to do what the mystical alien says." He paused. "Master, if I might speak frankly."

I staggered to my hooves and limped after him. If he wasn't simply launching into some thinly-veiled snark about me, I knew that something was seriously bothering him. "You need not my permission, Chives. You know that you've always had the right to speak your mind in our household. My parents were right, you know. Having a servant of free will rather than indenture does shape one differently."

"It's about Luna, sir," he said quietly, gesturing to the alicorn was was striding purposefully forward some ways ahead. I was not even sure if she knew in what bearing she marched. "Do you think that we've... gotten ourselves into something that we won't be able to get out of?"

I thought for a long time about this.

"Yes," I replied. "We are part of a plot much bigger than ourselves, Chives. This Prophecy regarding Luna, the Elder's reaction to her arrival, our own death sentence simply for helping her. It all smells of something most foul, and that reek is coming from the very top of the pile."

"You don't mean... the King, do you?

"No. King Starfall is a kind soul, if a bit slow. He has not an evil bone in his royal body. It is those fools who surround him, who taint the good name of the Nightcrown. This... U, the one who signed the order for our heads. He would be the source, or at least a lieutenant." I shook my head. My impaired field of vision was beginning to annoy me, now that I was using sight again. "I don't like this, Chives. We need answers, and we aren't going to be getting them out here in the White Wastes."

Chives thoughtfully flicked an ear continuing onwards. "Maybe. Maybe..."

We halted and made camp hours later. Luna's shield was beginning to flicker, and the strain of using her power for so long was visible upon her. We hastily dug a pit out of the ground and set a tent over it, burying the edges under almost a foot of ground. With naught but a breathing hole in the top, we were safe from the blistering silverstorm.

Luna collapsed into a bedroll the moment she let her magic wane, dead to the world. The moment she did, the mysterious darkness staining her body retreated into the usual splotches about her hindquarters. her mane calmed, swaying gently as if a disturbance had never dared to try its star-studded depths.

Chives sat the watch, while I too fell into my roll, tired, beaten, sore, and miserable.

We had not even a single day under us, and already the journey was fraught with peril. I drifted off into a fitfull sleep, full with flashes of dreams, but through every one was another alicorn, black as pitch and emanating an aura of wild strength and pride, looming over us all...

Sesto

...So, wot yew fink is in dere, eh?"

"Proll'y some scared likkle dibbuns. They're always gettin' lost in the Wastes. They fink they can 'ave a grand ole' time. Get up ta no good is more like."

"Wot, likkle dibbuns? Naw, they're right terrified of us."

"Scared of you? And my mum's a King's Consort."

"Right, she's just my consort."

'Aww, shuddup, yew!"

"Naw, wot we got here are some 'ostages."

"...So, we ain't killin' em, then?"

"Wot you fink 'ostages means."

"I thought it were some kinda fruit."

"Shuddup, the lot of you! Big Vee wants 'em captured. So no, you twats, we ain't killin 'em. Especially the big'un. Now, not another word 'til the ropes are in place!"

I groggily cleared the last remnants of sleep from my head at the sound of talking coming from somewhere nearby. I looked around, suddenly wondering about the lack of vision on the right side of my face before remembering the eyepatch. We were still in the tent, erected over the shallow pit dug in the Maria. Luna and Chives were crouched, ears flicking to and fro as the voices continued speaking outside.

The second thing I noticed was that it was rather dark in the tent, even though the harsh light of day should have been streaking in through the small smoke-hole.

"What's going on?" I hissed under my breath.

Luna made a soft shush-ing noise, scowling furiously around, as if to burn holes in whomever the owners were of the rough dialect.

"Pirates," Chives muttered. "They've put a canopy above to work. Be ready."

"To what!?"

My butler did not answer, rather, flinching when a loud clanking issued from outside the dark tent.

"Oy! Don't drop that, ya wanger!" More clanking, then a noise like a hammer striking ripe fruit.

"Oooouuu! Whazzat for, boss!?"

"For droppin' it right after I tells ya not to! Now shuddup!"

"Oh. Sorry, boss."

Another wet smack.

"Heeeey! Why ya hittin' me?"

"For not shuttin' yer trap!"

Inside the tent, my visage immediately conducted a fast rendezvous with the flat of my hoof.

"Righto, mates." The voice that seemed to be ordering the others around asserted control. "The ropes are set. On the count of ten, we spring it and catch 'em by surprise! Ready?"

A low assortment of murmurs and grunts was the reply.

"And on the count of eight, we shall move first," Luna declared softly. Her mane was sparking with agitation, and I detected a noticeable twitch to her feathered wings. She looked almost eager, like a racer at the gates. Beside her, Chives bristled silently but otherwise maintained the stoic demeanor he was known for. I recalled that he regularly practiced with the dummies in my estate's training room, to better retain the skills he had honed serving under my parents.

I, on the other hoof, curled into a very small ball and tried to make myself invisible.

"One," the gruff leader announced.

The others continued the count. "Two...three..."

Inside the tent, Luna's power began to radiate, filling the air with an eerie hum. The black splotches on her flanks writhed and slithered as if alive, and the crescent moons adorning them shone white-hot.

"Four...five..."

Something patted me on the shoulder. I glanced, trembling, to see Chives reassuringly stroke the back of my neck. "Don't worry, old friend," he murmured. "I'm not about to forsake my oath."

"Six...seven..."

They never reached the next number of the count, because at that moment, Luna flared her wings outward with such force that the resulting wall of wind blew the tent and a healthy amount of Maria sand into a great cloud.

Everything faded into a veil of silver, choking dust. I staggered about as something slammed into my side. "PREPARE TO TASTE OUR JUSTICE!" Luna roared from somewhere ahead. "IT TASTES LIKE PAIN!" A tremendous bang, followed by agonized screams, told me that she was by no means holding back. I felt a pang of sympathy for the pirates, for her wrath was terrible indeed.

A heavy weight suddenly thundered down onto my back, driving me into the ground. Hot breath blasted me in the ear. "Ahhaha! I got ya now!" In desperation, I twisted and squirmed like a serpent, squeezing away from the encompassing grapple, before throwing a desperate kick. My hoof hit softness, and the weight vanished.

I rolled, breathing wildly, and lunged towards the assumed direction of my attacker in the height of a desperate frenzy. All pretenses of fear were long gone, now replaced by the urge to fight, to survive. Exhilarating as it was, I was no warrior, and my only hope to pass through this unscathed was to simply batter my foe to the ground before he could retaliate.

Following a strategy is a different thing from actually executing a strategy, though, and I promptly tripped over a flailing limb and fell, cracking my head against something warm and very much alive. "D-oof!" I saw stars as I laid there in a daze, silver dust swirling about everywhere over the sound of Luna and Chives bringing pain upon the pirates. I looked to my side, to find my foe sprawled out in a heap, knocked unconscious by my impromptu skull butting.

I suppose there is some truth to what the rabble claims, politicians really do have hard heads.

A hoof planted itself in the ground next to me, and I turned to find Chives battling no less than three figures at once, lashing out at them through the hazy screen with hoof and wing alike with such fury that one was immediately overcome, viciously stomped into the Maria and used as a springboard to catch a second in a leaping kick. The second spun away, howling as he clenched his jaw, and Chives rushed after the third, who promptly fled, into the dust.

Shaking, I lurched to my hooves. I was alone again, and yet the battle raged all around. Figures flashed through the obscuring cloud like wraiths, rushing to and fro. Sharp cracks and bangs sounded out almost constantly, and the illuminating flashes lit the haze up as if it were a light, turning the figures inside it into dark silhouettes.

It was a shadowy puppet show played upon a grim stage, and by the looks of the action, the figure of Luna was holding fast against a rising tide.

"HAH! HAVE AT THEE, BRIGANDS! NONE SHALL TRIUMPH O'ER THE UNCONQUERABLE NIGHT!"

The alicorn was nowhere and everywhere at once, striking swiftly and suddenly, then somehow vanishing without a trace, only to appear an instant later in the midst of some powerful blow. Then, suddenly, she appeared in front of me, hoof raised as if to strike. Her eyes widened in recognition, and the hoof narrowly avoided what would have been a jaw-shattering punch.

"Cassius, thou looks just like them, what with the eyepatch," she rasped. Her battered armor was an absolute mess, stained here and there by blood and grime. She suddenly turned and unleashed a powerful pulse of magic, blowing away a charging pirate that had materialized out of nowhere. He was flung away, screaming as he disappeared. "These rogues think they can best us?! That blasted draconequus put up a better fight!"

"...what did you say?" I wheezed, before she too was swept away by the battle.

Choking upon the stifling screen, I pressed forward, stumbling occasionally when I stepped upon a prone, groaning figure or a wraith ripped out of the fog and collided with me. The world was blurred, shot through with the ghostly noises of a conflict I wished to avoid. There was no plan in my mind, only the drive to leave the battlefield post haste.

A mighty rumble shook the ground, followed by a tremendous ka-thoom that knocked me off my hooves and flat upon my back. I had a spare second to lie there, stunned, before a body crashed atop me. Coughing, I heaved and pushed with all my strength, but I could not move the lummox an inch! Never before had I lamented the soft life of a noble so greatly, a life which left them so unprepared for such situations.

Pinned like an insect to the dust of the White Wastes, a hundred leagues from home, bloody and battered from a raging brawl. This was not the future I had imagined for myself. A hot liquid ran down my cheeks, mixing with the trail of blood that leaked from my forehead. It might very well be the end of my road, I reflected.

It should not end like this... not here, not now.

But... all the same, perhaps it was a deserved fate. A fitting punishment earned from years of arrogance and abuse of my royal title. For holding myself above the citizens whom I was sworn to serve and protect, all but abandoning them to lieutenants I would meet with once a cycle to see that the barest sense of order was maintained.

It struck me in this moment that I could not remember the last time I had actually done anything, good or bad, for my subjects.

Did they even know who I was?

My parents would have been ashamed. Lord and Lady of Umbara, paragons of true nobility, cut down in their prime by the vicious plots and counterplots of the Celestial City. Were it not for their faithful bodyguard becoming my personal attendant, I too would have been poisoned by the politics of Court.

Chives had become my father, my brother, my friend, and was a member of my House in all but blood. He was not the greatest of guardians... though his guidance staved off the influence of power and kept me from becoming the very thing that struck down my parents. But nor had he shown me the right way to use the station I had been born into. A stranger to such workings, he could offer me no counsel in how to rule.

Cycles passed like grains of dust through the hourglass. I had languished in self-imposed impotence, the heir to a birthright I would not fulfill.

From the depths of my memory, the singular act of true selflessness and honor that I had ever performed was assisting Luna in her quest... Luna, a stranger to both my world and my home.

My distress must been prevalent, for the great lout of a scallywag lying prone atop me stirred. "Oy, mate... is yew cryin'?"

"N-no!"

He groaned. "Uh-huh. C'mon, let's bug out, let th' rookies go hoof to hoof with 'er." At that point, I realized that he too must have mistaken me for one of his own, probably now due to my grimy, bloody appearance and the roguish eyepatch covering my damaged sight. The pirate rolled off me and heaved me upwards, before half-dragging, half-pushing me in some arbitrary direction. I noted that his foreleg was held against his body, and it was obviously causing him some discomfort. Perhaps Luna had broken it? The thought made me shudder at the alicorn's ruthlessness.

"Big Vee was right, she's really an alien," he said. "Yew see that pointy thing on 'er 'ead? She pointed it towards me, the bloody thing start's glowin', and next thing I know I'm lyin' on toppa yew!"

"It's magic," I mumbled, trying not to stare at his injured limb.

"Magic? Naw, this ain't no fairy tale... this is real," he grumbled. "So, how'd she git yew?"

It took a moment of thought to discipher his nearly-unintelligible slur into something I understood. "She fell out of the sky," I dryly replied.

He snorted with amusement at that. We suddenly passed through the edge of the cloud of dust, emerging out onto the Maria itself. It suddenly struck me that the sky was unusually dark, before I discerned what really obscured the sun and stars.

It was a ship.

Though she was unlike any vessel I had ever laid eyes upon before.

She was enormous, constructed of rich, varnished blackwood, glimmering and glittering from stem to stern. She positively oozed a sense of power and unparalleled swiftness with her sleek lines and aggressively-slanted keel mast. Across her name-plate, her name was scrawled in an elegant golden script: Eclipse.

An apt title, considering she was large enough to block out the sun's light for the ferocious battle to take place underneath. No wonder the Kingdom had trouble locating the pirates... this must have been their base of operations. A floating fortress, able to slip across the border, sack a village, and slink back into the White Wastes before the local garrison would even hear of the the trouble.

On a small blackwood skiff floating above the swirling knot of battle, stood who I could only suppose was the Captain of the ship, clad in a scruffy, outdated admiral's regalia.

My compatriot nudged me forward. "C'mon, we'll watch. Better hurry though, the fight'll be over soon — she can't last forever!"

He took wing and I was hot on his strokes, experiencing a sensation not unlike what I imagined a prisoner might feel on their march to the gallows. An eerie calm, despite the raging chaos below. Luna and Chives still appeared to be giving no quarter to the assailants, judging by the noises issuing forth.

We alit upon the skiff, the pirate almost splintering the dark decking while I landed with grace and poise. "Oy, boss!" he said. "We're too banged up to go back in there. That thing is a monster!"

The 'boss' gave him a disgusted look. I had seen that look many times before, often in the face of officers repulsed by the sheer incompetence of their subordinates. "Cowards," he spat. "What could possibly be so terrifyin' about 'er?"

At that moment, Luna deigned it appropriate to respond to that comment. With a deep rush of wind, followed by a teeth-grindning concussion of sound, the obscuring veil of Maria dust below was blown away in an instant...

...The alicorn stood proud upon a veritable mountain of twitching, battered pirates. Chives was in place next to her below the summit, an equally impressive head count below his own hooves.

That darkness had finally overtaken Luna, and now she was the color of the deepest of skies, her swirling mane a harsher hue, bristling with angry pinpricks of light. She appeared larger, fully covering the face of the pirate she stood poised upon with a single, armored hoof. The wings sprouting from her back were still extended, a pair of massive, oddly beautiful appendages covered in feathers blacker than sin. Two icy eyes, pupils slitted like some draconian beast, settled upon the skiff with a look of absolute, unbridled wrath. She grinned. Stars above, were those fangs!?

A soft patter of liquid striking the skiff's decking sounded into the silent air as the Captain promptly soiled himself.

"H-h-have mercy! Please!" he cried. I could almost taste the desperation in his voice.

The alicorn below stood taller, glaring at him with all the authority of a vengeful god. Somehow, she looked down upon us, even though we claimed the high ground.

"Very well," she said. Her voice had deepened, and had yet taken on a seductive, silky quality.

Some hope returned to the Captain's features. "Really?"

"No."

She pointed her horn at the skiff and unleashed a lightning bolt with the girth of a tree-trunk.

I realized at that point that I was standing right next to the subjects of her fury. "Oh, bollocks."

I unceremoniously threw myself overboard, simultaneously tucking into a ball mid-flight. The skiff promptly detonated as its pylons suffered a catastrophic overload, sending pieces of flaming decking all across the battlefield. The resulting shockwave slammed me back down to the moon, and I once again found myself stunned, flat on my back, surrounded by total carnage.

An ebony face appeared in my vision. Luna stood above me, snarling as she raised a hoof raised to stomp me out of existence.

"Wait!" I cried. I reached up and ripped off the eyepatch. "Luna... Luna, it's me. Cassius. Your friend!"

She winced. "I have no... friends." She looked around now, as if seeing her surroundings for the first time. "Friends," she repeated. "I..."

A strong hoof hauled my upright. Chives gave me a stoic, unreadable look, before cuffing me across the back of my head. "I swear, Master, if you do anything that stupid ever again." His threat suddenly halted, however.

Something flickered in the corner of my vision. I craned my gaze just in time to see something drop off the side of the mighty Eclipse. Something great and... winged. Thunderous concussions resounded over the Maria as a colossal beast flapped its wings. Dark scales shimmered with starlight, and translucent, membrane wings rippled as it landed smoothly not twenty paces away.

A star dragon. Sometimes called a netherdrake, they were fierce predators, feared by even the great and powerful rocs that hid in the mountains. They were said to live for thousands of cycles, and in legends, the oldest of their kind was more ancient than the moon itself. But the existence of one here was utterly improbable.

The last Grand Elder had personally wiped the last one out, rendering the legendary species extinct.

But... if that were true, then how was one here now, in the flesh, fifty meters of muscle, scale, and gleaming claws. Its wingspan alone was wide enough to bridge the Blackwater River, running through the heart of the Celestial City.

The robed figure that jumped off the small hollow between its shoulderblades only furthered the mystery. It approached us slowly, before halting in front of a very bewildered Luna.

It threw back the hood with a wing, revealing a gaunt, aged face. His eyes twinkled.

My ears abruptly began itching with such intensity that I was forced to lay them flat against my skull.

He solemnly spoke. "Your Majesty," he declared, and fell into a deep bow...

...Directly in front of Luna....

Sette

...There are many such opportunities throughout one’s life to seize greatness.

It could present itself in the most obscure of ways, and is rarely recognizable in an obvious form. The results of such endeavors, however, is undefinable.

Greatness is an valued obscurity — it cannot be specified. This is because it has been interpreted in a variety of ways, through many different examples.

To be great could mean that you are a conqueror, a builder of mighty constructions and a founder of nations. But it could also mean that you are an average citizen, who, in a moment of kindness, gives away your new woolen coat to a shivering vagabond on the side of the road.

All are capable of rising to such heights. The problem, though, is that greatness often eludes those who seek it, and rather thrusts itself upon the unsuspecting.

A stillness unlike anything I had ever experienced hung in the dusty air of the field. Aside from the occasional groan of an unconscious casualty and the faint rasp emanating from the pylons of the massive Eclipse, the silence was comparable to that of a tomb.

The mysterious rider rose from his bow. He appeared to be of an older disposition, his gaunt face beaten and weather-lined, but there was a hidden steel to his frame, evident in his graceful motions and composure.

The peculiarity, though, was that his visage struck me as familiar. I felt like this was a face I had seen before, long ago, and that it was not a face to be forgotten lightly. Where had I seen this elder? The question hung upon the very tip of my tongue, but for the life of me I could not recall the answer.

The large dragon standing several paces behind him gave an agitated rumble, reminding us of its presence. Chives and I took a measured pace backwards, while Luna remained as immovable as a mountain. The ebony wings held out at her sides gave the slightest of tremors, and whatever fear she had was stomached instantly. Such bravery!

“Are you the commander of these whelps?” she finally spoke, in that new voice that was Luna’s-and-yet-not-Luna’s, referring to the pile of defeated pirates. I noted that the usual ‘thee’ and ‘we’ of her dialect were left out.

The rider dipped his head. “Aye, m’lady, that I-”

Luna became a black blur of motion. He was immediately silenced by the impact of an armored hoof striking him square under the jaw. The netherdrake gave a threatening growl at Luna, but she ignored it.

“Then you shall explain yourself!” she declared.

“But... Your Grace, I was mista-”

Another flash of black, and he was tumbling head over hooves into his steed, which grunted with annoyance and nudged him back upwards. It bared its teeth at the alicorn, who merely flashed a grin of serrated fangs right back at it. The drake sank to the ground and whimpered.

“And another thing,” said Luna. “Why do you address me as royalty?”

He simply stared at her, mouth open in a mix of disbelief and shock.

“SPEAK, WRETCH!”

“I... you truly do not know?” he finally asked. At the uncompromising glare from Luna, accompanied by looks of utter bafflement worn upon the faces of Chives and myself, he rubbed his face with a wing. “This was not how I expected our meeting to proceed. You, with the patch.” He was speaking to me, know. “Get aboard and fetch the first mate, tell him to prepare my quarters to entertain guests.”

My companions looks about for a few seconds before realizing he was addressing me. Luna frowned. “He’s not part of your crew. He flies with me.”

“I am Lord Cassius of Umbara.” I respectfully dipped my head in greeting.

The rider’s face took on a semblance of surprise. “We thought you were dead! My scouts reported that your home has been occupied by a garrison of the King’s soldiers.” I winced at the mention of my home overrun with Colonel Shaddo’s thugs. “Are you... traveling with Her Majesty?”

Luna opened her mouth once again to no doubt bombast him with more yelling. I quickly stepped in front of her. “Yes. Chives, my servant, and I count ourselves privileged to be friends of Luna, and members of her quest.”

“Quest? What quest?”

Chives coughed politely. “I think you have some explaining to do before we say anything more... old friend.” What? Luna and I whirled about, to find him looking very smug with himself. “I had a feeling I recognized you. The Wastes haven’t been doing that ugly mug of yours any favors.”

“Chi.” The rider grinned. “It’s been a long while, hasn’t it? I could have sworn you’d kicked the bucket a hundred cycles ago.”

“Likewise,” Chives agreed.

“WILL SOMEPONY PLEASE EXPLAIN TO ME WHAT EXACTLY IS GOING ON HERE?!” roared Luna.

During that time, I had been anxiously studying his face. With the revelation that Chives had known him some time ago, and my own vague familiarity with the stranger, I deduced that he must have been present during my early years in the Celestial City. Having never seen him visit my estate, that was a good guess.

I wracked my brain through all of the petty nobles that called the Court their home. Multitudes of titles, endowments, and pedantic pageantry whirled through my thoughts. Where had I seen this old one before? Chives mentioned that he was intended to be deceased. Perhaps that meant he was a supposed victim of an assassination or a power grab, not unlike the fate of my own parents.

When it finally hit me, I sat down upon the Maria and gasped. “I know who you are!”

Expectant faces turned to me.

“You’re High Elder Vega Lyrae!”

Luna’s ear twitched dangerously.

“WHO!?”

The High Elder’s quarters aboard the Eclipse were surprisingly luxurious. I dabbed a hoof at the silky white carpets, taking in the sumptuous furnishings. Blackwood, and exquisitely varnished, the quarters were large for a ship’s berth and contained several rooms for habitation, including a small galley, two bedrooms, and a main foyer.

While the vast majority of her inhabitants now occupied the medical bay, a small skeleton crew was able to begin maneuvering the ship, to a destination I was not aware of. The steady, soft hum of her pylons was prevalent, a testament to the raw power it must have taken to move such a leviathan.

A rattling about in the galley told me that our host was busy preparing the tea he had promised on the way up, after we managed to pacify a certain irate alicorn.

She lay upon a plush couch, her armor stripped off and laying in a messy heap in the corner. After boarding the massive ship, whatever strength had been flowing through her veins due to the transformation had all but evaporated, and she had promptly collapsed upon the decking. The strange, dark coat of hers had faded away in an instant, leaving the midnight-blue hue and swirling, star-studded mane I had grown accustomed to. The alicorn was breathing softly as she slept, occasionally twitching a leg.

Chives rested easily upon a cushion, fetlocks behind his head, for all the world seeming as if he were relaxing upon a Maria beachfront.

I couldn’t share his sense of ease, though. Too many questions burned within me, threatening to spill out at the slightest of pretexts. The small table I hunched over offered no answers within the swooping grain of wood.

With a clatter, a teacup was set before me, brimming with a piping hot beverage. I gave a cursory sniff. Shadeleaf. A respectable choice!

“What’s that name I heard some of the bumbling idiots you call crewmembers address you as?” Chives said absently. “‘The Big Vee?’ Really. That’s cute. Your narcissism hasn’t faded in the least.”

“And your sharp tongue hasn’t dulled with age, either. I’m surprised you haven’t cut yourself on it, yet.” The old noble retorted as he sat down across from me and took a sip of his own drink. “Now, I think that we have a long story in front of us, and, as often is the case for long stories, the best place to start is the beginning.” He set the teacup down. His voice took on a dangerous, hushed tone. “What I am about to reveal to you is knowledge that, if made known to the land, will incite nothing less than total revolution. You must swear to me, and the rightful Ruler of the Night, that you will not jeopardize the revelations of this conversation until we deem it otherwise.”

Chives and I exchanged a glance.

“Rightful Ruler of the Night?” I wondered. “Is there another involved in this mess that we are unaware of?”

“Most likely,” said Chives. “Fate seems to have a habit of confusing and endangering us, as of late.” He gave a shrug. “But if you deem it necessary, Vega, I’ll play along. You have my word that what happens here shall not leave this room.”

“And mine as well,” I added.

The Elder nodded, satisfied. He took another long drink, before beginning to speak.

“As an Elder, it was my duty to interpret the messages from the stars. That is no secret. The stars are not silent, blind, dumb pricks of light, they are manifestations of the energy that pervades through everything, through the universe. And if you open yourself up to the flow of the cosmos, with enough time and practice, you might hear what they have to say.” He chuckled. “They’re quite the talkative lot, really. They can tell us when a silverstorm may strike, the strength of the starlight for the cycle’s growing season, and sometimes... sometimes they tell of events that will come to pass.”

“The future?”

“Yes, Cassius. The past, the present, and the future... they are not concepts the stars abide by. All of time is one to them, and so they are privy to the secrets of what might happen.

“So when I was a novice Elder, in my first ten cycles of service, I was astounded when they granted me a powerful vision. A prophecy.”

Those words sent an uncomfortable chill down my spine. The letter we had found in Colonel Shaddo’s possessions gave mention to a prophecy. I had a deep suspicion that it and the one Vega Lyrae spoke of were one and the same.

“I had a vision, of a new age for our people, a new dusk that we might all prosper under. We would be led on a mass exodus back to our true home under a powerful leader, one who commanded the very moon itself. A home that we were taken from thousands of cycles before by an entity who damned an entire race for the sake of a sick joke.”

On the couch, Luna suddenly spasmed and twisted about, before returning to a peaceful slumber. The Elder paused a moment, Chives interrupted him.

“I’m not sure I understand,” he said. “What do you mean by ‘our true home?’ Equinocti have been here since the beginning of the universe itself!”

“Who are you going to believe, Chi, schoolbooks and preachers, or the word of the stars themselves?” Vega snorted. “I would not lie to you when I tell you this — we were not always denizens of the moon, and we were not always what we are today.”

Chives and I exchanged another glance, but let him continue.

“Once upon a time, and I mean a very, very long time ago, we lived there.” He pointed out the window, to the horizon, where a shining blue orb hung in the blackness of space.

I rubbed my temples. “You have got to be kidding me.”

“Every word I’ve said so far is true. The stars cannot lie, and neither can an Elder.” He sighed.

“And Her Majesty currently snoring on my couch over there is proof of this.”

“How!?”

“Look at her! Aside from a few differences, she looks exactly like us. That is what we once were. That is what we looked like when we lived on Equus. We were not called Equinocti back then, either. We were called Pegasi! Our wings have merely lost their feathers, now replaced with skin. Our ears; grown long and tufted to keep out the blistering winds and hear the drop of a pin out on the silent Maria. Our eyes; morphed and adjusted to see in darkness that she never could. At the core, we are the same, we are all pony.”

He pointed to the prone figure on the couch, who was currently spread across her back, gargling as her tongue lolled out of her mouth.

“And she was, and still is our Princess.”

“Pfffffft!” Chives struggled to hold in a bout of laughter.

I too, couldn’t resist a smirk. “High Elder, with all due respect. Luna has never once struck me as the type to lead a nation.”

“Oh? And why is that?”

“Well... she’s... she’s...”

“Her Majes- Luna, is exactly what our kingdom needs,” said Vega Lyrae.

“You’ll have to forgive me if I doubt you.” I set down my cup and pondered it’s depths. “The Kingdom would never accept an outsider to don the Nightcrown. And they’d outright reject this... delusion regarding our origins.”

“It’s not a delusion.” The High Elder’s voice sank to a growl. “Almost thirty-thousand cycles ago, our Princess stood against the very essence of entropy in the universe. A great and terrible struggle took place. In my vision, I witnessed the battle as if I were there myself, and let me tell you; it was chaos.” Despite everything, I found myself leaning forward to hear the tale. “Mountains became molehills, trees grew upside down, and the very oceans poured into the sky. But in the end, the ponies triumphed. Our Princess laid the beast low, flanked by a vanguard of her kin; pegasi of the night, the very clan from whose loins she had sprung.”

By this point, the growl had become a conspiratorial whisper. “Before the final blow was struck, though, the beast mustered its last reserves of power and banished her tribe from the face of the world. One last laugh before an assured defeat.”

“And you think that... we were this lost tribe?” Chives said.

“I know. The first Equinocti did, too. But over the cycles, truth became legend, legend became rumor, and rumors — rumors are forgotten.”

My butler and I sat back, mulling his words over in our head as we sipped our tea, which had grown lukewarm over the conversation. It was a tall order to take in, made all the more bitter by the knowledge that the beliefs and certainties had been laid low by a theory that was not only rocked us to the very core, but one that was plausible.

I wasn’t sure what to believe. My instincts told me to shun these foreign notions. Embracing such concepts went against the very grain of my identity. I had been raised to believe that we Equinocti had always been here, that we had formed from the dust of the Maria and the spark of life carried in on the stellar winds. It wasn’t just myself. Every citizen of the Kingdom believed this. It wasn’t just truth, it was who we were, the lone stewards of the moon, who had been, and would be present until the very end of time. Even if for the fact that Elders are incapable of telling lies, they are still capable of spouting what they believe to be truth.

My head, and the curiosity contained within, needed more.

“Even...” I began, “if your story is true, that does not explain anything else other than our supposed origins. Why is Luna here, then? Why are you here? What is the purpose of all this?” I waved my hooves about, indicating what I mean by ‘all this.’

High Elder Vega Lyrae took a deep drink of his tea. When he set the cup back down, he said, “I believe I mentioned before that this grand vision was accompanied by a prophecy, yes?”

“Aye. The fools sent to collect our heads held orders giving mention to just such a thing,” said Chives.

The Elder nodded. “Yes. The very same. When I first received the star’s message, I took it to Council, headed by the current High Elder, Star Swirl. They dismissed it as folly and I was ordered never to speak of it again. But, obviously, there was one who listened to me. When I myself became High Elder, and noted that the time was approaching, I began to preach my message to the others.” He grimaced. “They rebelled, unbelieving that such a commandment would come to pass.”

“And then they tried to assassinate you,” I realized.

“Tried. I survived the poisoning through a foolish mistake. The cook who slipped the toxin into my supper put it into the wrong dish. It was not I who fell, but a guest I was entertaining that night. But I knew that I could not survive another attempt on my life, so, I fled into the Wastes with the Order’s personal ship, and vanished. Over time, others found me. I never turned any away — all who find sanctuary here have been persecuted by the Kingdom for one reason or another. Now, I am the leader of my own private army, which I intend to use for the glory of Her Majesty and the fulfillment of the prophecy!” he declared.

“And that would be...”

“It is called ‘The Chosen One.’” He reached into his tattered cloak and removed a scroll, which he unraveled upon the table. “Here, read it for yourselves.”

Finally... the source of all this trouble. I had lost my home for this, been dragged halfway to the middle of nowhere, beaten and bloodied. Scowling, I delved into the words that had forever changed my fate.

In times of old, when lives were torn

and the world was odder still

Two sisters born, ‘twixt night and morn’

would face the monster on his hill

The Two cast out, to the frozen north

where they found the blessed Six

Two sisters marched forth, to end henceforth

the beast, and give him his licks

Amidst the stars, an exiled race

alone, aloof, bestrewn

Lost in their place, upon the pale face

of the dark side of the Moon

Through tempered souls, and hard-won fights

the Two became highborn

And assumed the rights to days and nights

Crowned by feather, hoof, and horn!

Three Tribes convened, a message was sent

for the hour had finally come

Their options spent, to the Two their future went

so that the tyrant might be undone

Amidst the stars, an exiled race

alone, aloof, bestrewn

Lost in their place, upon the pale face

of the dark side of the Moon

With friends in tow, the Two made haste

to where the white meets blue

The Six gave them grace, so they pummeled its face

it was smote, and said, “Adieu!”

But of the Two, the Night sensed wrong

trickery and ill intent

The beast was still strong and with the rise of the dawn

Far away her allies were sent

Amidst the stars, an exiled race

alone, aloof, bestrewn

Lost in space, upon the pale face

of the dark side of the Moon

When the dark sister is felled, Two becomes One

a regret ne’er forgit

With the tears of the Sun, the Six becomes None

but new hope may be alit

Hamper not her way, but crown her as Night

salvation lies with the tome

What bested her might, love and friendship will right

and all may one day come home.

“Vega... this changes everything,” Chives finally said.

I snorted. “Not really.” Had my faithful servant truly succumbed to these ridiculous notions? He glared at me, to the immediate result of one mouth shutting fast.

“I must ask, in light of this; what are your intentions for our foreign companion?” he asked.

The High Elder tapped a hoof on the table. “One: to declare her legitimacy to the throne and the Nightcrown.” Another tap. “Two: to install her as the rightful Queen.” A final tap. “Three: to cement her rule and fulfill the Prophecy of the Chosen One, thereby allowing us to return to our ancestral homeland.”

“So, nothing less than a revolution,” I grimly stated.

His eyes sparkled. “Oh, far, far more than that, I assure you.”

“Even if all you say is true, there is a slight snag.” I downed the rest of my drink in one go and said, “Your Princess isn’t even aware of her station. When I found her out in the Maria, she didn’t know how she came to be here. Whatever caused her to be sent to our lands, it damaged her. She has no memory of her time on Equus, only the vaguest of sensations, and the desire to return. That desire is the only similarity to the Queen of your story."

“Despite everything, I have to side with Cassius, old friend. Unless Luna herself can confirm this prophecy, it matters not who believes who. The public would never accept her as Queen, and neither would she,” said Chives.

“Elders can’t lie,” stated Vega Lyrae, “that is a known fact. But they can obscure the truth. If we can return my Order to it’s former glory... we might be able to have a chance. No king would ever refuse their counsel. The passage of power would be bloodless.”

I stood up from the table. “The decision still rests with the cause of all this mess. We need Luna’s support. I’ll wake her up so she can hear the same story you told us. If she disbelieves you, then the matter is settled and we go in peace for our own reasons.”

“Fair enough.” The High Elder nodded.

“There might be a small problem with that, though.” Chives poked me on the shoulder, and pointed behind me. Curious, I craned my neck to see nothing but an empty couch.

An empty couch.

An. Empty. Couch.

@#$%!...

Author's Notes:

Jesus fucking Christ, I should do poetry. I literally pulled the whole prophecy out of my butthole twenty minutes before this was originally going to be published. YOU'RE WELCOME.

Otto

...I’m sure she couldn’t have gotten very far. You worries are misplaced. No harm could come to her, not here.” Vega Lyrae said as we combed through the labyrinthian hollows of the Eclipse.

“It’s not her we’re worried about,” muttered Chives.

It didn’t help that our area of search was of gigantic proportions. As the former flagship of the Elders, she had never really seen much of the sky. Her role was one of making a statement, reinforcing the power that the sect had in our society.

As such, she had been in pristine condition when the High Elder had liberated her. Over the few cycles in service with the grizzled old fool, various modifications and daily wear and tear had given her a decidedly worn-in, patchwork appearance. The entire ship, save for the ribs and keel, was made entirely from blackwood, and other dark breeds found only in the deepest groves of the subterranean forests.

I searched high and low, opening every hatch I stumbled across, revealing cabins, closets, hallways, staircases, lounges, and every other sort of accommodations that a luxurious cruiser would be fitted with. Chives assisted me, doggedly pursuing down others paths, occasionally popping up, looking lost, to inform me that he had not found our lost friend. Vega Lyrae, meanwhile, simply followed us, with a relaxed air about him. Most vexing.

But the most troubling thing, though, was not the absence of Luna, but rather the absence of everyone else.
Aside from the High Elder, my butler, and I, we had not seen head or hoof of the crew since embarking on our search. With nothing but the empty echoes of our hooves upon the floor and the faint thrum of the ship’s pylons, it may have as well been abandoned.

“Where is everybody?” I wondered as I poked my head into yet another empty cabin.

“The ship was built to house our entire Order, our families, our servants, and their families. Not to mention a detachment of forces specifically requisitioned from the King’s Own Guard — a private army. She was designed to house an Earldom, but now only carries a tavern’s worth of rogues and paupers.” The High Elder shuffled his wings about on his back.

Chives grunted. “Sounds like you had your very own country.”

“Aye. Now that I’m on the outside, I can can see that. The Elders have too much influence, too much power.”

I couldn’t help but agree with that. Their order had been slowly building itself since the first King donned the Nightcrown. They were advisors, scholars, doctors, academics, engineers... no respectable keep in the Kingdom existed without the presence of hosted Elder to assist. They had made themselves essential to the lifestyle of the Lords and Ladies, and therefore to the country. A Kingdom without the Elders would collapse in days.

“Knowledge is Power,” I murmured their time-honored mantra.

Chives grimaced. “And absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

“Precisely.” The High Elder went past us and continued onwards. “Now you see why we need a strong leader, a new leader. To wipe away the corruption that has begun to stagnate in the bowels of the Celestial City.”

Chives and I followed him as he made his way through the ship. Left, right, down a staircase, across a gangplank, another left...

“Where are we going? You seem to have a specific direction in mind.”

“To find our Princess. I’d wager my drake’s reins that she’d be famished after releasing all of that energy from before. No doubt she’d encounter others who are also drained from the battle.”

“Get on with it,” I snapped, my frustration mounting.

“As of this moment, most of my crew is in the medical bay. The rest, however...” The High Elder stopped in front of a grand door. He grinned over his shoulder at us. “...Are in the mess.”
The door swung open, revealing a grand, cavernous chamber, filled with longtables. Many of the tables were empty, aside from the farther ones, where several crewmembers could be seen crowded around in a huddle, cheering and yelling.

“THIS, THIS NECTAR OF THE GODS! WE DOST ENJOY IT VERILY! ANOTHER!”

Abruptly, a barrel flew out of their midst, landing heavily upon an empty table, before rolling towards us. Chives shouldered it aside as it rolled past.

“Found her,” he muttered.

“I smell moonshine. You don’t think...” I began.

“Pray to the stars that she hasn’t.”

We shoved through the crowd at the end of the mess, who began to part once they noticed the High Elder was among us. Murmurs of respect and salutations filtered through the air, until we reached the spectacle they had been concealing.

Princess Luna sat upon a bench, a pile of finished plates on either side of her. Her wings held another barrel high above her head, tilted downwards to spill it’s contents into her waiting mouth. At the same time, she appeared to be hoof-wrestling with a large, strapping fellow in a crusty bandanna, who was visibly straining against the alicorn.

“Luna! There you are!” I cried.

She stopped swinging the moonshine and a huge smile spread across her face. “CASSIUS!” she roared. “AND CHIVES! ‘TIS GOOD TO SEE THEE BOTH!”

With little apparent effort, she flexed her limb and sent the crewmember she was hoof-wrestling spinning away into the air. “I WIN AGAIN! RETURNETH WHEN THOU HAST CEASED THINE FOALISH BAWLING, THAT I MIGHT TUTOR THEE A SECOND TIME IN THIS NOBLE ART!” The crewmember in question had run out of the mess with his tail tucked twixt his legs.

“Knock it off.” The High Elder spoke evenly, and to nobody in particular, though the rabble died down almost the second the words left his lips. Clearly, these vagabonds had nothing but respect for their leader. “Second Mate Duskwing. What exactly is going on here?”

A gaunt-looking pirate muscled through the crowd. “Sorry, Big Vee, zurr, she’s th’ one’ that dun start’d it. Oi’s jus mindin’ moi own buzzinez, an’ she storm in hurr, roight as ye pleaze, an’ starts packin’ it away loike she’s never seen a good servin’ a vittles in her loife. Drank a whole durn barrel ‘o shine, ‘n sturts challengin’ uz ta d’ more, zurr.”

I blinked, looking at Chives.

“What did he just say?”

“He was wondering who that ugly fellow is standing between ‘Big Vee’ and I,” Chives deadpanned.

I looked about, and suddenly realized where I was standing. “Hey!”

The High Elder, however, seemed to have no trouble understanding the second mate’s dialect. “I see. Gather the rest of them and go topside. You have the helm, Mister Duskwing. Set a course for home, and make as much speed as you are able with this skeleton crew.”

The second mate saluted. “Aye, zurr.” The other crewmembers followed him out, shooting dirty looks over their shoulders at a very smug-looking Luna.

That left only us four in the mess; an snarky butler, an ungracious nobleman, a rebel leader, and an intoxicated alicorn.

Stars above, where did it all go wrong? I wondered.

“Grrf. Smack. So, what thou means to confer is thou means to instate ourself as a Queen of your nation. Mmmmfff. Because yonder twinkling lights ‘midst the sky put some sort of... sluurrrp. Prophetic limeric into thine noggin?”

Luna was apparently so famished that she had continued to feast during the entire recounting of the High Elder’s tale. He had left nothing out — his intentions for Luna, the Kingdom, the Elders, and showing her the actual “prophecy” itself.

Her appetite was startlingly vast. A second empty barrel of moonshine now lay in pieces upon the floor, crushed to pieces against Luna’s forehead by her own hoof. Several more dishes had joined the towers upon the table, each leaning dangerously in a different direction.

Where was she putting it all?

It boggled the mind. The sheer amount of food she had consumed by this point should have filled her stomach to the point of rupture. Yet she seemed no different, if a little louder than usual.

I deduced that her body, so drained of energy from the massive expulsion earlier, was absorbing lost reserves so quickly that it was nearly instantaneous. Going by the pure mass of all that had been eaten, those reserves were vast, indeed.

“Aye.” The High Elder nodded sagely. “Everything the Prophecy has foretold so far has come true. I have no reason to doubt that it would not continue to do so.”

“Perhaps,” said Luna, between bites. “But, old one, there is something thou hast not accounted for!”

“Oh? And that would be?”

“We have no desire to start a war amongst your people. We also have no desire to take the seat of highest authority amongst them. We simply wish to return home.” She took another swig of moonshine, lifting the entire barrel in a telekinetic grip. “Besides,” she continued easily, “have we struck you as anything like a proper queen should be like?”

He was about to reply when she let loose a thunderous belch.

Chives, sitting directly across from her, was actually blown right out of his seat. “Not bad,” he commented from where he lay spread across the floor. “Not bad at all, if I do say so myself.”

Luna giggled and performed a mock curtsey.

I grimaced, but was nonetheless pleased. I leaned back. So, this nonsense would finally be put to rest. I had no doubts that Vega Lyrae would fold under the pressure from the very object of his mission.

The old coot surprised me.

“Ah, but how can you return home unless you find the means to do so? The means, which, are kept under lock and key in a bastion of the most powerful faction in our Kingdom? A faction that has — regrettably, might I add — put a bounty on your head? Which would never relinquish its grip upon said knowledge unless they bowed to a new leader, one who would not be so easily cowed by their influence...”

“Hmmmmm. We see the logic in thine statement.” She gnawed thoughtfully upon a hunk of bread. “Chives, Cassius, is there truly no other way to gain this knowledge? Could we not simply march there and seize it?”

Chives and I exchanged a glance.

“You’re currently sitting in one of the Elder’s luxury vessels, Luna. The sheer amount of resources they would mass against you would be a force capable of annihilating an entire Duchy,” said Chives. “Good luck. You’re going to need it.”

It took me a great deal longer to come up with an answer. For the life of me, I could think of no alternatives, other than a long and arduous game of attrition, waged from far across the borders, something that would cause more harm than good for the Kingdom in the long running of things. I sat staring at the table, until their expectant faces became too much. I caved.

“...As much as I hate to admit so, the Elders are so intertwined with our government that the only way to negate them is to become the government.”

“One does not simply walk into the Celestial City,” Vega Lyrae agreed. “I can promise you that the coup will be swift and as bloodless as possible, if that is any condolence. I have been working towards this end for cycles, now. All that remains is you, my lady.”

Luna was silent for a moment.

She then said, “In order to return home, we must become a Queen. And then... leave. It does not seem just. We would not abandon thee after winning such a desirable prize.” She sighed. “As much as it confounds us, becoming one with a culture so invested in the night... is tempting.”

“How is the night treated on Equus?” the High Elder queried.

Luna shifted a bit, suddenly looking uncomfortable. Her eyes glazed over a bit.

“Luna?” I asked, worried for my friend.

She suddenly started, blinking a bit. A frown of determination crossed her face.

“We shall do this, old one. If there is no other way to achieve our quest, then so shall it be.” She stood up from the table and struck a rather heroic-looking pose. The effect was somewhat lessened by a small dribble of liquor rolling down her chin.

“We shall become thine leader, and win this damnable crown to Queenhood. Make no mistake, though, we are not a toy to be led about on a leash. You would invest great power into us, and we know not how to use it.” She suddenly looked very tired, and far older than she appeared to be. “But when all is said and done... we will not forget you, or the plight of your people. If what you say is true, then we would see you return home with us.

“Even if it takes a thousand years.”

“Huuurrrrrghghhghgh!”

Accursed ships.

Of all the wretched, depraved methods of travel, we were aboard a ship. I had only ridden a ship one other time in my life, when I was still a youngling. My parents were still alive, at the time, and we had commissioned a small yacht to take us to the Star Spire, a natural formation of rock on the Brightlit Border that would one day be the site of a grand manse that my father intended to build.

It was less of a statement, and more of a personal preference, at least to my father. The both of them had grown tired of the Court lifestyle, and intended to withdrawn from politics the following cycle.

I had understood the how, but not the why.

My mother explained as best as she could to small child as we stood upon the skydock, waiting for the yacht to be made ready for the voyage from the Celestial City.

“Cassie, hon, everything is about where you stand. From where you choose to stand, you might see things differently from others. Perspective is the most important part of being a noble. To rule, you must be kind and strong.”

“Like Da?”

“Yes, Cassie. Like Da. But you must also be fair. That means you must understand all sides of a conflict to judge it.”

“Okay, Mum.”

She’d squeezed me tightly. “There’s a good lad.”

I had no idea at the time, but I had just received some of the soundest advice a young Lord could ever hope to earn.
And it was forgotten instantaneously.

“Blah...blaaaaarrrghh!”

I had misremembered the effects of the trip, at least until this moment. The second the yacht had began to move, a terrible sickness began to overwhelm me and I almost immediately began to retch over the side of the gunnel. The rolling of the deck, the swaying and pitching back and forth, back and forth...

My father, ironically, shared my distaste for such travel, but had developed a tolerance to it from years of treating with guests to airborne parties and events.

He had joined me at the railing, rubbing circles around the small of my back. A melodious hum rumbled forth from his breast. There wasn't any particular tune or melody to it, but at that moment it was the song of heaven.

"Hmmmmm, hmm-hmm-hmmm..."

My father was a true Lord. Everything I am not, he was. Strong, resilient, confident, and gracious. He had many friends and few enemies... but those few were powerful as they were elusive to my young mind.

They had precious little time to spare, such were their duties. I was overjoyed that they had chosen to spend some of that time with me.

“Haahhh... hahhh...”

“Cassius? What are you-”

“Rrrrghh. Sick. Leave me, Chives. Ugh!”

“You’ve been shut in this cabin since we set out.”

“Garrghh. Can’t. Move. Gonna... all over.”

“There there, old friend.”

“I hate this.”

“I know. I know. Easy does it.”

“...”

“Hmmmmm, hmm-hmm-hmmm...”

“Home.”

Such a simple word. For the High Elder and the crew of the Eclipse, it meant something I had considered impossible.

High Elder Vega Lyrae flapped his wings cheerfully, sweeping a tip out in a grand arc, encompassing the jaw-dropping sight before us.

“Behold, lords and ladies, the place where dreams are made, broken, and reforged, all in the very same day! Where the wine runs as rivers, the company is as dangerous as it is ripe with debauchery, and adventure is always a hair’s breadth away!”

“Figures you’d end up in a place like this, you old codger,” said Chives.

“Like minds, Chi. Like minds.”

“DEBAUCHERY!” cheered Luna.

The ghost ship sailed to a ghost city.

“Lo and behold; Star’s End!”

Star’s End.

A place that should not exist.

And yet, clinging like a limpet to the surface of a canyon wall, civilization bloomed. There were no royal records of the place, and you wouldn’t find it on any map in the Archives.

It was the home of the lost and the damned, the wretched and the hopeful. Orphans, exiles, adventurers, mercenaries, pirates, dealers, fabricators, villains, and all manner of the few brave or desperate enough to search the White Wastes for a place to call their own.

It was not built in the usual way of our people, that of carven-out chambers amidst the rocks and cliff-faces. Star’s End was a haphazard mass of scuppered hulls, the dead hulks of former skyships serving as a cobbled-together city.

The Eclipse slowed to a crawl as the helmsman roared his orders for docking. We had all assembled upon the deck itself, which was covered by a mighty tarpaulin to shut out the light of the sun. The portmast was retracted as we hugged the far wall of the canyon during the descent to the city.

I clung miserably to the railing, occasionally groaning in misery. The lessening of speed had done wonders for my sickness.

Luna stood tall and proud, re-adorned in her battered armor, looking every inch the figure that Vega Lyrae desired to forge her into. Standing nearby, the High Elder was in a splendid mood.

“Much work to be done, oh yes. Plans to make, debts to call in.” He was almost singing his words. “And a ceremony to prepare!”

Luna raised a brow, but did not relinquish her gaze upon the pauper city. “Ceremony? What nonsense is this?”

“Why, your coronation, of course. Before you rise to become a Queen, you must first become a Princess.”

Luna flinched. For an instant, I thought that an instant of recognition flashed amidst her eyes. Then, a pleased smile crossed her face.

“Princess. Princess Luna!” she declared.

“That has a nice ring to it...”

Author's Notes:

I responded to no less than three different calls while cranking this chapter out. Firefighting; good for the community's soul, bad for the writer's goal. Hah! That rhymes. ...OhgodI'msotired.

Nove

...When the course of civilization flows down the path of declination, is it right to safeguard it, and hold it still against the raging torrent of existence? Even if that means stifling everything that civilization stands for in the name of preservation?

There is no middle ground.

Either a people are slowly washed away with the sands of time, or they take the plunge. And who is to say what they might be when they resurface?

We Equinocti know this one truth to be evident — eternity is a cycle. From nothingness, a spark. From that spark, life. From life, death. From death, nothingness. And so the circle continues, abiding by the machinations of the cosmos. We have watched the stars for enough eons to know this to be true. We have seen the flow of the Universe itself, and know that nothing can escape the pull of chaos, nor can it ignore the grasp of harmony. Entropy is the infinite.

Balance, in all things.

I think that some of us might forget that, though. That sometimes, it is necessary to let go, so new creation might take the place of what is lost. The cycle ever continues...

I was stirred from my slumber in the waning hours of the day.

It was the curious sort of awakening, where one is very much aware of the fact that the rise from sleep was not a natural one, that something aside from one’s internal timepiece dictated the rising. The issue, of course, is that if oneself was not awoken by oneself, how was one awoken?

As it happens, pondering such an answer is usually the reason why getting back to sleep is so difficult.

My eyes slowly peeled back, revealing the dank interior of the cabin. I distastefully smacked my lips. No use delaying the inevitable, I reasoned. May as well greet the new night.

With a groan, I slithered out of my resting place, trading the firm-but-comforting surface of a naval cot to that of a wooden floor. Egressing from the cocoon of various beddings, I took a moment to simply lay there upon my back, limbs sprawled out in various directions, still residing in that delicious place of half-sleep and half-life.

Abruptly, a soft, but ghastly whimper passed through the walls.

Almost instantaneously, a maddening tickle ran the length of my ears, peeking at the tufted tips until I had to bestir myself to scratch them.

What in King Starshade’s name was that?

I grudgingly heaved myself up, sluggishly kicking away the last of the entangling blankets. Despite the call of wonderful rest, my curiosity had been piqued. I was determined to discover the source of said noise, and whine at it until it stopped.

Then, I would return to bed.

What could possibly go wrong?

I threw open the curtains covering the small porthole. The sight of a lumpy, yet smooth city spread out beneath me took a moment to get used to, before I remembered that I was currently house at the top of the pile, so to speak. The house of the noble High Elder Vega Lyrae; the upside-down wreck of an ancient cruiser, perched atop the very pinnacle of the graveyard of ships called Star’s End.

Having disembarked, a whirlwind tour of the city had commenced, led by none other than its prestigious mayor, the role of which was also held by the High Elder, who claimed to have laid the foundations for the city cycles ago, when he and his crew swatted a miscellaneous tourist yacht out of the sky into the canyon below, their very first of a long list of piratical achievements.

The tour had been driven to a grinding halt after Luna had spied a rogue's haven, a salty portside tavern bristling with unscrupulous characters and illicit wares.

It had taken no less than an hour for her to out-drink, out-fight, and out-curse nearly every single occupant in the building. After consuming the entire tavern’s worth of moonshine, and declaring Chives to be “handsome enough,” (and upon planting a very sloppy kiss on his surprised face) she had decided that she would retire, for the alicorn was still thoroughly tuckered-out from her earlier expenditures.

Having been the one she’d promptly collapsed upon, demanding that she be carried, I couldn’t have agreed more. By the time we’d reached the wreck, Luna was out like a light, and I was not far behind, heaving and wheezing like a sickly babe.

I threw the cabin door open with ill temper, sending a resounding bang echoing throughout the home. Company be damned, I was in a foul mood, having been roused from my slumber so preemptively. I scratched at my eyepatch. The thing itched.

Pausing at the threshold, I cocked my ears, swiveling them this way and that as I attempted to ascertain the source of the ghastly noises. There! Another eerie wail, like it had been voiced at full volume, but now found itself muted.

And it was coming from down the hall.

"Off all the insufferable situations I've had to put up with," I darkly muttered as I stalked down the darkened passage. I made a right turn, following the sound. "Can I not have a moment's respite? A single instance of peace? That's not much to ask, oh, really it isn't."

Up a staircase, around another corner, through a gazebo haphazardly slapped onto the house, and, finally, into the Captain's Quarters of the upside-down ship that was the Elder's home, perched upon the very summit of Star’s End.

It was also, I dimly recalled, the chosen lair of Luna.

Her door, in particular, was surrounded by an otherworldly glow, faint light spilling out from the cracks and around the frame. Another keening wail issued from within.

I hesitantly put a hoof on the doorknob. It was icy cold.

“And what exactly are you up to?”

I whirled about, and promptly tripped over myself, crashing to the floor with a dull thud. “Chives?” I sputtered.

“No, his twin brother,” scoffed my butler. "Pleasure to meet you." He was sitting in a small alcove, bathed in shadow. He had been still as a statute, and I would never have noticed him until he announced himself.

“W-what are you doing here?”

“I asked you first,” he said, leveling a hoof at me.

I gave a guilty look at the bedroom door. “I... couldn’t sleep. Kept hearing things. I was going to find out what was making all the racket. And you?”

His shadowed silhouette gave a shrug. “The same. Though I could not muster the courage to open that door. Something... else... resides within.”

That gave me pause. The words 'Chives' and 'cowardice' only came together under the rarest of instances, and only in sentences that went something like; "Chives certainly lacks in cowardice."

“What, Luna?” I said.

He gave a sigh. “No. And yes.”

“Are... you afraid of her?” I whispered. “Is that why you’re out here too?”

“I’d be a liar if I said I didn’t fear the unknown. But whatever’s going on in there is giving me such a sense of ill-intent that I would not dare to open the door. Can you feel it, master?”

I turned back to the barrier and placed a hoof on the woodwork. Again, a violent tingle spread through my leg.

“No. Nothing so much as what you describe.”

“Hmm... you always did show the most fascination...” He moved closer, out of the shadows, the light playing across his aging, tired face. “It is possible, that whatever is in there... must want you to come inside.”

“It’s just Luna.”

“No. Far more than that, and I think you suspect this as well.”

I was silent for a few moments.

“Are you truly getting such a bad feeling from this?”

“It is taking all of my willpower not to turn tail and flee at this very moment,” he replied.

I grimaced. Another ghostly moan issued forth.

“Ironic, isn’t it? That it is the coward who shows no fear?”

Chives chuckled, though there was not much life to it. “Aye. And the pinnacle of chivalry, not to mention good looks, finds himself turned away.”

I once more set my hoof upon the handle.

“Be careful, master. I promised your parents I’d keep you safe. I... don’t want to let them down. Or you,” he finished quietly.

“I know, old friend.”

With that, I pushed the handle down. The door came alive, flying open into the chamber revealing nothing but a blast of alabaster light issuing forth. The noise was suddenly deafening, like the fury of a thousand silverstorms joined together.

Something blessedly dark snaked through the blaze and and struck my face, right upon my patch. The patch was ripped away in an instant, revealing my pupil-less eyeball to the world. Only now did fear make itself known to me. “Chiiiiiiiiiives!” I wailed. There was no answer. Only the sudden pull of the black streak, wrenching me into oblivion.

“Da? Ma? Can ai come out, nao?”

Why was the house so drafty? I shivered as I scampered down the massive corridors. They’d always seemed so large to me. Da said that wouldn’t be true when I was big and strong, nothing would be too large or out of my reach.

Someone had probably left a window open somewhere. Maybe one of the servants. That new one, most likely, with the mustache. I called him Mister Mustache. He was always goofing things up. Not a very good servant. But he was fun, and he played with me.

Da wasn’t in his study, and Ma wasn’t in her workroom. Where were they? For that matter, where was everyone else?
One moment, Mister Mustache and I were in the best game of hide-and-seek ever, and the next...

The house was quiet. That wasn’t right. Usually there was some noise coming from somewhere. The kitchens were always fun to go and look at, all the cooks banging around shiny pots and pans. Ma didn’t like me in there, though, so I snuck in there when she wasn’t around. The cook would always give me a little something sweet to eat.

My stomach rumbled a little. Supper wasn’t for a while, so it wouldn’t hurt to have a bit of a snack. What Ma didn’t know wouldn’t hurt her.

I happily skipped down the grand staircase. Again, I was struck by how silent everything was.

“Hewwo? Mistuh Cook?” I opened the kitchen doors and peered inside. Not a soul stirred within. “Hewwwoooo?” This wouldn’t do. I was hungry, and I needed something to eat. Cautiously, I ventured forth. The counters towered over me, like some kind of stone and metal maze.

I hopped up onto a stool, and from there I scrambled onto the counter. I giggled to myself. I’d done it now! Walking on the countertops. Surely someone would come to scold me, and I could ask them for a cookie.

Yet again, only the stillness of the night proved my only company.

“Where iz evwybody?” I scuffed my hooves on the counter, marring it with dirty streaks.

Obviously, I needed to up the ante. The usual antics weren’t working. With a hop, skip, and a jump, my little wings snapped open as I soared across the mighty gap between the countertops. I landed poorly on the opposing side, sliding across the polished surface with delighted laughter.

A tray of silverware, left out for some unknown reason, was the one thing that stopped me from going over the edge back onto the floor. “Owie!” I rubbed my head as I saw it teetering on the brink. “Uh-oh.”

CRASH!

An earsplitting racket echoed throughout the house. My ears itched. Time to bail! Frantically, I looked about, in desperate need of a hiding place.

There! The oven was open!

I dived inside the open hatch, tumbling on the charred grates until I hit the back, causing the whole thing to buck and slam closed. Instantly, I was surrounded by total darkness. The door didn’t yield when I pressed against it, so I politely knocked upon the closed door. “Could somebody lemme out, pwease? I’m sowwy I knocked ova your shiny stuff.”

Nothing.

“Ya know, in hindsight, dis pwobabwy wasn’t mai best idea.”

Seconds bled into minutes, and minutes bled into whatever comes after a minute. Teacher hadn’t gotten that far, yet. The grate was uncomfortable and the dark, sooty oven was proving to be a regrettable hiding choice. The game of hide-and-seek was over, this wasn’t fun anymore!

No matter how hard I banged on the door, or how loudly I screamed for help, nobody came.

Maybe they’d forgotten me? Maybe they were all out somewhere else, and forgot little baby Cassie back home.

They’d have to be back eventually, I realized. This is home!

It was only when the tears began to flow that I realized I might be stuck in here forever.

Suddenly, the door opened.

“Lord Cassius? Is that you?”

I knew that voice! “Mistuh Mustache!”

Freedom! Sweet, glorious freedom! All thanks to him. I shot out of the oven and promptly tackled him, burying my face in the stiff white collar worn by all the servants in the house. “Ai’m sowwee, Ai’m sowwee,” I sobbed hysterically.

“Shhh. There there, little one. You gave me quite a scare!”

“Ai want my Ma! Where is evwybody, Mistuh Mustache?”

He hesitated. “M’lord... they...” He began rocking me steadily. A few of his own tears graced the corners of his eyes. “Aren’t reachable at the moment. They asked me to take care of you, though.”

“B-but evewything is fine! We just pwayed a game of hide-and-seek and now evwybody else is pwaying!”

“No. No, child, we played that game. Bad people were looking for us, so we hid. You parents played another game, more dangerous and more risky. And they lost. We must flee this place, before we lose, too.”

“I d-don’t wanna pway that game, Mistuh Moustache.”

He sighed. “I know. There’s only one way to get out. We must leave, little lord.”

“L-leave?” I glanced around. The way he said it, the word carried so much finality. This was home. Where else was there? A memory surfaced. “Da has another house!” I realized. “Can we go dere instead?”

“Maybe. Where is it?”

“Umbara, I tink. It’s a beeeeeg spire, and Da’s been building it for years, now.”

“Umbara. By the border. Perfect. As far from this damned city as we can get,” he said.

He gently shifted me across his back, in between strong shoulderblades. I clenched around his neck with all my might.

“It’s going to be alright, little lord. I’m taking you away from all this. Their game will never touch you. Not if I have any say of it...”

Color.

Bright, vibrant, and warm.

Hues I had no name for, swirling and dancing around me. I never thought I’d ever see something so beautiful as it. Green, something old in me said. That one’s green. Brown. That’s blue.

I chuckled, uplifted to the highest I’d been in years. A smile wrenched my face almost painfully upwards, my features contorting into a position rarely used, and never so vigorously.

I was happy.

For that one instant, I had peace. Nothing else mattered but the storm of color and life, battering my eye in ways I could no describe.

I threw my head back and laughed.

And then... clarity.

The colors snapped into place. I was suddenly aware of the fact that I was somewhere. Somewhere else. Stuff like silvergrain, short and green, grew all around my, soft and tickling. The sky, above, was dotted here and there with stars and was uproariously blue, tinged violet and red all around the horizon. The sun, a flaming orb of orange, hung on the edge of the world. I looked into it, painlessly, and laughed again.

I was standing in this wide field of color, a playful breeze tickling my wings. I felt like running and jumping and skipping and singing my heart out!

Then I saw it.

On the far side of the sky, basking in the deepest, darkest of blacks, was a glistening white sphere, pockmarked here and there with scars and patches of grey.

It was like looking at a tiny map of home from a great distance.

Home.

The moon.

Was in the sky.

“So... then, I must be...”

The realization struck me, so great a shock it was that I collapsed into the green and lay still, flat upon my back, gazing up into the sky in sheer wonder and awe.

Only to be graced with yet another sight, improbable as it was.

Two specks, one dark and the other light, midst the distant sky. Why did it look like they were getting bigger?

Wait a minute. Uh oh...

I hastily scrambled to my hooves and began running, hastily looking over my shoulder as the two specks rapidly descended, increasing in size as they did so. Faintly, I made out two pairs of feathered wings and two elegant horns.

“Luna?” was all I had time to mutter before they hit the ground behind me with all the force with the hammer of a wrathful god. The green was churned up into brown as I was catapulted end over end by the resulting shockwave.

I was up in an instant, feeling no pain. My own leathery wings spread and carried me faster than ever before to the crater, where I alit upon the edge and gazed nervously within it’s steaming depths.

A golden blast of light sizzled out of the mists, striking the ground beneath my hooves. The edge collapsed in an instant, dragging me down with it into the crater. I tumbled and slammed down to the very bottom, dragging myself out of the brown substance that made up the ground. Dirt, that old part revealed.

“How could you!?” came an agonized cry. In split second, the mists were blown away, revealing Luna, in all her armored glory, crossing horns with another alicorn.

This one was taller, and more slender, and brilliantly white, though her swirling mane was a vibrant pink. Her long legs were willowy, though there was obviously power in them, for she (and it was certainly a she, as well) held the raging Luna at a standstill. She was covered in golden armor, which, like her counterpart, was spectacularly damaged and streaked with grime.

“How could I not?” she said, her voice muffled through the elegant winged greathelm she wore, struggling to stonewall the darker alicorn. “You’ve become irrational, Luna! This is not you! You love our little ponies!”

“OUR!?” screamed Luna. “They are yours to the core, dearest sister.” She said the very word like it was toxic to her health. “And they’ve no love for us! Not while you steal it all, ‘Tia!”

I know that name, I realized. ‘Tia. Whispered during the worst of Luna’s frequent daymares. Sometimes in fear, sometimes with fondness, but always with regret. I finally bore witness to the force at the center of it all.

I was not sure what to make of her.

“Show reason!” ‘Tia pleaded. “Think, Luna. You’re only feeding yourself lies that you invented! If not for Equestria, then stop this for me!””

Luna shoved hard, forcing the taller alicorn backward a step. She leveled her long horn, sparks of blue crackling along the length as power was charged.

“No.”

The spell was unleashed at point-blank range. I grimaced, despite finding myself instinctively rooting for Luna. The darker alicorn’s wrath was something I had experienced firsthand.

Despite the formidable power behind the blow, it only succeeded in snapping the golden-armored head backwards, ripping the greathelm clean off. ‘Tia’s face was revealed, filled with the same fierce alien beauty as her counterpart. She recovered after a second, holding an armored hoof up to her brow, where the a faint trickle of alicorn blood seeped down into her eye.

Stock still, she inspected her own life splattered upon her hoof. “Has it truly come to this, then?” she said.

This isn’t right. I had to do something. The sight before me was fundamentally wrong, in ways that affected me like I’d never felt before. The eye behind my patch itched maddeningly.

I had to stop this. Somehow, I had to stop this. Luna knew me, surely she would listen to my reason, the one who had saved her life and pledged himself to her cause!

I remembered the swirl of colors, and how they filled me with such serenity. It wasn’t the colors themselves, I now realized, but the fact that I had focused only on them. For that one instant, I had transcended everything holding me back. The childlike joy of simply existing, embracing the wonderful bounty that is Life and the Universe. No concerns. Nothing but peace and warmth.

My worries — of falling into the same pit as my parents before me.

My fears — of the very authority I had been born to wield.

My desires — of seclusion and comfortable uncaringness.

My grief — for the life I should have had.

My apathy — to the people and my title.

It was time to come out from behind the turtle shell. I had a responsibility to my Kingdom and myself, but also to my friends. And the only friend I’d ever made was about to do something very stupid. My mind was clear, my heart sang with unfamiliar beat of purpose.

I rose up from the rubble of my collapse and charged forward.

“STOP...!”

Dieci

...Thunder roared in elemental rage. The earth heaved and reared like a beast, rebelling against the whip. And through it all, the terrible, terrible light of magic shone forth from the long horn of the one called ‘Tia.

Luna stood defiant, a blessed darkness against the raging ether. On her face, though, the lines of fear were carved in stark relief. I knew that should the light touch her, she could not hope to resist it.

Nor would she be granted salvation.

The powers summoned by her counterpart would not cleanse, not wielded in this manner. I could sense them, the aspects of harmony, bristling with indignation at their misuse. Perhaps it was my own realization — and subsequent inner peace, but they cried out in despair.
No, Luna did not need the purge of magical energy, the last-ditch retaliation of a desperate sister.

She needed a friend.

Someone to stand by her, to speak out for her and against her if need be. To show her that she had erred and that she would not suffer punishment from, but understanding and healing. To show that she was indeed loved, and all the world did not hate her.

On shaking hooves, I charged forth, dust pounding upwards with every step. Every second the cacophony only rose, a screech of metal on metal and the twisting of reality itself as ‘Tia fanned the flames of wrath.

I skidded to a halt in the no-man’s land between the two, and turned, wings flared in defiance to the fount of magic.
In that fraction of time, a lone Equinocti, an unimpressive specimen of both mind, body, and soul, faced down the sun herself... and did not flinch from certain oblivion.

“THIS IS NOT THE WAY!” I cried, though my voice was lost to the tempest. “I WARN YOU, NOTHING GOOD WILL EVER COME OF THIS!” She gave no sign of having heard me, lost to the swirling vortex of magic. “IT WON’T WORK! IT CAN’T WORK!”

I growled in frustration, and sharply pivoted.

Luna now faced me, and her eyes met mine.

The light intensified behind me, throwing the dark alicorn into a long shadow — my shadow. It was huge, monstrously depicted on the carter wall some distance away, completely swallowing her whole in comforting darkness.

I took a step towards her. She hissed, bared her teeth. Fangs glimmered, her mane sizzled and cracked like a whip.

Another step. Those eyes, wide in anger, pain, and fear. Slitted like those of a drake, they harbored a ferocious spirit.

Further still. She blent into the shadows perfectly, a black far darker than the deserts twixt the stars.

A final pace. I was inches away. Her breath was frantic, confused, hitching; like that of a wild thing hitched to chains. Though she stood taller than me, somehow I managed to look at her from an even level, silently imploring her my honest intent.

Reflected in her gaze, I saw that the spell was complete. They shone with every color of the rainbow. Judgement was at hoof.

“You aren’t alone,” I murmured. “I will face this with you, whatever the sentence.”

“C-cassius,” she whispered. Tears ran down her face. “I’m scared.”

“I know. Me too. But I’m here for you. You aren’t alone.”

“No... not this time.”

The spell was released.

I wrapped myself around her, holding her close. Her heart beat wildly against my breast, and her teeth chattered within her jaw.

The words came to me unbidden, carving through the depths of my subconscious from the bowels of some half-remembered dream.

“It’s going to be alright, Luna... I’m taking you away from all this. She will never touch you, not if I have any say in it...”

I looked behind me, at a tsunami of color bearing down upon us. The wave was stories high, and every hue imaginable danced within its roiling depths. A mighty jaw formed, and down the gullet I could spy the desperation and sadness put behind the spell. This was a force that never should have existed. With a thunderous roar, the great maw closed around us.

My heart finally clear, I embraced it like an old friend.

...Destiny.

Is it really such a bad thing to one’s fate cast out before them? To have that infinite certainty of purpose? Surely, knowledge of such a matter would be a comfort, if only that end be a pleasant one.
Within my kind, there are those who abide by a philosophy, collectively known as The Wind. These followers are of a mind that all things are decided — and that what is, what was, and what will be are absolute. They merely ride the river of time to whatever end it sees fit to deposit them at.

One would never find a Windblown apprehensive about the future. It has already happened, and will continue to happen for all of creation. However the cards fall dictates the manner in which the game shall be played. Destiny, some say, is absolute. And so the destination is irrelevant.

What matters is the journey.

A knocking.

My eyes fluttered briefly, before opening. Why had they been closed?

I uncurled and stretched, yawning, before I realized that I was on the floor. Or in this case, the ceiling. A bed lay before me, and on it the figure of Luna, slowly shaking the sleep out of herself.

Her eyes met mine.

A huge grin cleaved her face.

I blinked.

“CASSIUS! THOU DAMNABLE IDIOT!”

I suddenly found myself roughly tackled by a dark-feathered bullet, squeezed by an unimaginable pressure. Gargling, I was wrenched from side to side in a very energetic embrace.

“'TIS GONE! 'TIS GONE! THE NIGHTMARE IS VANQUISHED! OH, JOY OF JOYS, ‘TIS A HAPPY DAY INDEED!”

“...Air! I, nygeh, need... air!”

A door opened behind us, and Luna spun about, still wielding me like a giant toy.

Chives stood in the doorway, looking at us with a bemused expression. Behind him, a sleepy High Elder poked his head up to see the fuss. My butler coughed politely. “Any reason you happen to be strangling him?”

“YONDER BOOB BRAVED THE WRATH OF HARMONY! FOR THE SAKE OF A FRIEND!”

“Right. So, I’m obviously missing something here,” said Vega Lyrae. “Does this happen often?”

Chives grinned. “The yelling, the violence, or the Lord getting tossed about like a ragdoll?”

“CEASE THY SQUIRMING AND TAKE IT LIKE A STALLION!”

“...Can’t... breeeeaaaathe...!”

Vega Lyrae pondered this for a moment. “All three.”

“In truth, this has become sort of a daily occurrence. Can’t say I’m complaining. Never been so entertained in all my life.” He laughed. “Hah! The boy’s turning blue!”

Luna crushed me against her with all her considerable strength. “‘TIS SO CLEAR NOW! OH, THANKS BE TO THEE!” Suddenly, I crashed to the floor. She had released me. “But... we would be a terrible friend to reserve our affections to one of the group... CHIVES, COME HITHER!”

“Did you hear that?” Chives asked, starting to back away. “Someone’s calling me. From the other side of the city. It’s urgent, I should probably — ack!”

Luna scooped him up with her powerful wings and swung him about, before dipping him low to the floor and planting a wet kiss on his surprised face. With a giggle, she let him clatter to the ground like a length of timber. “And thee, Elder!” She rounded on the very surprised looking Vega Lyrae, who had not had the good wisdom to flee. “If thou thinkst that thine newness to our herd merits an immunity...”

“Fly, you fool!” I gasped.

He was off like a shot, a laughing Luna hot on his trail.
My butler and I lay on the floor in similar states of confusion and pain. “Chives,” I finally said. “Why did you get a kiss and I didn’t?”

“Because I have a mustache.”

“Oh, my... oh, we hope this endeavor does not turn out ill for us.” Luna paced back and forth across the room. Soft, plush carpeting covered the floor and several cushions were haphazardly thrown about. Through the heavy curtain, I could hear the High Elder giving the address.

“Keep thinking that and it will,” said Chives, looking up from where he was easily reclining. He could have been relaxing upon the beach were it not for the ceremonial knighthood sash and armament. His hair had been waxed, and a golden half-moon spectacles gleamed on his face. “Relax, m’lady. The people have taken the news very well so far. They turned out in droves, from the lowliest alley-scum to the harbor-master himself. You’ve naught but good will waiting.”

“Aye, and ‘tis the thought of poisoning it that drives us to such concern. Our mind has only recently returned to us, and the experiences we’ve come to know again carry harsh lessons. Why, if not for yon trembling mouse, we might stumble across the same pitfalls as we did afore.” Luna continued her pacing, though at a markedly slower pace. A shimmering gown clung tightly to her elegant frame, so dark it seemed as though to be made of liquid shadow. Small slits had been cut for her wings to hang through, which were spread aloft in agitation. She looking stunning and regal, suitable for the occasion. “Speaking of which, it would seem dear Cassius is in more need of a bolstering of will the we.”

I, meanwhile, was in the corner, slowly rocking back and forth.

“You can do this you can do this you can do this you can do this...”

Luna’s hoof almost met her face, then swiftly averted course to avoid smudging her appearance. Instead, it settled into the floor in a thunderclap of frustration, accidentally punching straight through, thanks to her great strength.

Chives looked up. “Master doesn't take kindly to large gatherings,” he explained. “...Or any gatherings, really.”

“Bah!” proclaimed Luna, extracting her hoof from the room below us. “Bah, we say again! A lord with stage fright?”

“A fear of spiders, as well. And spoiled milk. And loud noises. And the good china teapot.”

“Chives, we do not talk about that bloody teapot!” I half-roared, half-squeaked. My butler shrugged and went back to his infuriating tranquility.

Luna settled by my side, and her horn dimly ignited to adjust the ornate patch that now covered my eye. It was made from the finest of dark leathers, and emblazoned with the same crescent sigil that adorned the flanks of the alicorn. “Cassius, cease thy shaking,” she instructed, almost motherly.

With great effort, I forced myself to remain still, though I would still give a nervous fidget from time to time. “But... I look ridiculous.”

“Nay, thou wears the ensemble of a Lord, soon to be much more than that.”

I had another agitated tremble, before self-consciously smoothing down the deep purple cape and accompanying silver blouse. “I have an upset stomach.”

“Thou stopped heaving thy breakfast nigh on twenty minutes ago. Thou art spent, and we know it.”

I slumped. “I know... it’s just... I can’t be out there... with everyone watching... all those eyes... like Court at the Celestial City all over again. Judging you on the slightest of errs, magnified a thousandfold. If there is one thing that terrifies me, it is public speaking. A reason why I preferred to not personally address the subjects of Umbara.”

“One of many,” Chives drolly called out.

Luna chuckled at that, then said, “Surely, thou art less a craven then we’ve been led to believe.” She sighed. “Nay, if anypony here is afraid of what lays beyond that curtain, ‘tis ourself.”

“But... Luna, you’re brave.” I protested. “You and Chives, and even the Elder, you’ve faced terrible danger with heads held high and never once faltered. I’m... not brave. I never face my fears, I... hide from them.”

Luna smiled at me, in that dazzling way where the white of her teeth shone and her eyes sparkled with humor and wisdom. “Aye, but Cassius, that’s what it means to be brave. To be terrified, and to treat with that fear nevertheless. Thou hast been scared witless since this whole escapade started, and yet, here thou art! An army, a pirate ship... thou faced our wrath too on that occasion, lest we forget... thou even suffered the full brunt of Harmony upon thine shoulders, and released us from our nightmare. If anypony here defines bravery, ‘tis thou. And if thou can do this, then we shall find the courage to do so as well.”

Despite myself, a warm blush graced my cheeks. Maybe I could face them. Maybe... I had borne wild silverstorms and officers of the King’s Own Army. I had deceived pirates and started eye-to-eye with a stardrake. Surely, I could do this.

...Right?

The head of High Elder Vega Lyrae poked through the curtain. “If you would be so kind as to join my steed and I, we shall commence the ceremony,” he announced.

Chives nodded and easily strode through, casting a backwards glance at me, as well as the hint of a smile. Luna was next, giving me a reassuring squeeze, before breathing deeply and following.

I hesitated as the alicorn approached the curtain.

“Come on, old boy. Hoo...” I held my head high and stomped forward, right behind the disappearing tail of Luna. I shoved through the curtains...

...And emerged before the entire population of Starfall.

The Ursa Major, once the largest ship ever to sail the stars, had long ago vanished from the King’s lands and been scuttled here, her massive hulk overturned and the keel removed, creating a gathering place fit for giants.

All kinds were represented in the crowd. The Equinocti being most prominent, though there were many mighty lunitaurs and wily shapeshifters present. Marians swam in the few pools which had been tunneled into the craters that littered the ground. Even a few rocs had come to attend, their huge figures hunched over at the back of the gathering.

They had come to see the Coronation.

Luna stepped forth to the edge of the balcony, unfurling her impressive wingspan as she did so. And immediate cheer rose from below, carried by the throats of thousands. I took my place on her immediate right, and Chives stepped aside to make room for me.

“I am proud of you, Master. You have come far,” he said over the noise.

“T-thank you, old friend.”

To the extreme left, the High Elder’s drake, a mighty beast by the name of Black Wing, let loose a thunderous bellow that rattled the walls of the former ship. The crowd fell into an expectant hush as their leader, Vega Lyrae, cleared his throat.

“Starfall!” his old voice carried well over the silence, high and clear. “Today marks a new chapter in history. Today is the day that we rise, rise past these canyon walls and out into the lush lands we once called home. Today marks the day that we gather behind someone who can take us there, and far beyond. That one stands next to me! She has come a long ways to help us reclaim home... Starfall, I give to you your hero, your savior, your future! I give you Lady Luna!”
They roared, the mass of beings coalescing into one singular mind, a mind that wanted nothing more than to scream out into the night.

“But as you know... the road ahead of us is dangerous, and fraught with peril. But we shall endure, as we always have. We shall follow our Lady through the gates of the Celestial City, and we shall don upon her brow the Nightcrown itself! Though before she can become our Queen, she must first become our Princess, and we her Court!” He turned to the alicorn, who had seemed to swell a bit with every word. “Luna... do you, as our leader and guide, affirm that you are noble and benevolent in your intent?”

“WE ARE!” she replied, shaking dust off the walls of the scuttled ship.

“And will you serve the people — with the people, for the people and by the people?”

“WE WILL!”
“And do you swear to protect your subjects, but also let them flourish beyond your sight?”

“WE SWEAR!”

“Do you promise to be truthful and wise in your authority?”

“WE PROMISE!”

“Will you fight for us?”

“WE FIGHT!”

“Will you die for us?”

“WE DIE!”

“Will you love for us, will you cry and laugh and sing for us?”

“WE SHALL DO THIS, AND MORE!”

“Then by my standing as Founder and Admiral of Starfall, I decree you to be royal in blood, in name, and in soul. Princess Luna, bow your head and receive your trappings.”

Luna folded her wings and dipped forward. The High Elder produced beautiful crown of midnight steel, twined like vines and studded with white berries. He slowly set it around brow. In that moment Luna was now Princess of Starfall, and would soon lay her claim as Queen.

The alicorn’s horn alit, and a bolt of light shot forth into the sky, where it hung for a bit, before blossoming into the most beautiful of sparkling shapes. The assembled city announced their approval in the loudest possible way.

Luna spread her wings again, and when the crowd fell silent, she said, “Thank thee, the first of my subjects! For our first order of business, we declare this night to be one of festivities! Feast and frolic until the sun rises, for this is a joyous occasion!”

At this, the applause only increased. Luna seemed to have a real knack for wearing the crown.

“For our next order of business, we present to thee the beginnings of our Court! He who shall sail our ships and command our skies, the one known as High Elder Vega Lyrae, of House Starfall!”

She waited for them to die down again, before turning to Chives, who had fallen into a bow. “And for undoubted courage and endurance, we present to thee the first of our knights, your Champion, Sir Chives of the White City. Rise, sir knight,” she said, tapping her horn to each of his wings. He did, a genuine grin splitting his usually stoic features.

Another pause, and she continued. “And last, but certainly not least, we present to thee Lord Cassius, of the new House Andromeda, whom we now bequeath the title of Highlord, and shall be our right hoof in all matters, and second to ourselves in authority but equal in terms of friendship.”

A powerful rumble of approval split the air. I couldn't believe it. When she’d finished, they cheered. For me. My heart seemed to swell three sizes, and I sported a grin comparable to Chives’.

“WE GO TO A NEW DUSK!” Luna bellowed. “AND THE NIGHT SHALL LAST FOREVER!"
They swelled once more, beating the ground with hoof and talon, crying out her name. The ascension was complete.

Thoom!

Thoom!

“LU-NA!”

Thoom!

Thoom!

“LU-NA!"

Thoom!

Thoom!

“LU-NA!”

And so, I began the path to my destiny. Though I now knew I would not walk it alone. And for that, I was grateful...

Author's Notes:

FIRST RULE ABOUT THE TEAPOT

DO NOT TALK ABOUT THE TEAPOT

Intermezzo di Tempo

...The city of Starfall was not sure what to make of their new Princess at first. Such was understandable, for she had been elevated by the sole sponsorship of their king-in-all-but-name, the High Elder Vega Lyrae, whom had built the city between his hooves through years of successful smuggling and piracy. Out of the dusts of the White Wastes, life blossomed under him.

And now, Vega Lyrae had willingly submitted himself to her, this newcomer, this oddity with feathered wings and a spire jutting from her brow. This... creature who was Equinocti, and yet not Equinocti.

But their former de facto leader had put his faith in Luna, and so his people cautiously attempted the same.

During her waking hours, the newly-crowned Princess would walk the streets of her city, learning the ins and outs of the rogues’ den she had inherited. She would mingle with the commoners, always with Chives by her side. I put aside my frustration at losing his valuable service as a butler, tempered with the knowledge that he was doing a greater good by his role as Luna’s first and senior Knight. Servants were replaceable. Friends, however, were not.

More often than not, the Princess spurned the court meetings altogether. The city’s elite frequently came to call on the squat longhouse that Vega Lyrae used as the center of government, only to find the freshly-erected throne vacant. Despite her new burden, Luna was as cheerfully indomitable as ever, refusing to be tied down by ‘fops and dandies.’

Luna relished the attention she garnered when she all-but-pranced through the twisting ways of Starfall. She loved the children, especially. While the adults would stare and nervously whisper upon the sidewalks, mystified by her presence, the younglings would always rush to her, undaunted by her station or appearance.

“Glory in them,” she once told me, “for the innocent smile of a foal is worth all the gold and silver in the world. They do not yet know the burn of hate or the bite of fear. And that is a wondrous thing, indeed.”

She would laugh and play with them, romping and frolicing through the streets like a child herself. The parents, after recovering from the initial shock of seeing their little one rough-housing with the Princess in the middle of the road, soon thawed to her presence. If their children could meet her without hesitance, then so could they.

Luna seemed to be made for the city; it was rough, loud, and confusing. She would crack filthy jokes with the dockworkers and sailors. She would gossip with the wives about their husbands. She could out-wrestle, out-drink, and out-belch every man in the city (and proved it, to my chargin), yet showed the grace to fairly judge a criminal, kiss an infant, and assist a stranger in need. She became their Warrior-Princess, and slowly, they began to love her for it.

One cycle passed by in this manner.

We journeyed around our star, orbiting the gem of Equus as we did. The dry season gave way to the wet season, and soon moisture collected about the ground in thick clouds of obscuring silver mist, melted ice that had thawed from it’s berth within the Maria. Starfall began a chapter of prosperity as never seen before. Those who held dissent to the Kingdom somehow found their way across the Wastes, be it by land, air, or subterranean.

They brought word of ill news — that the Kingdom was not what it once had been. The good King Starshade, as amiable and kind-hearted he might be, was an ineffective and weak ruler. In his lax grip, the government began to run amok, until again coalescing under a new banner of power.

The Elders.

The organization once devoted to the service of the people had become something twisted and monstrous. Knowledge, once pouring from their learned halls, was now kept secreted away like a precious valuable. Science, mathematics, architecture, art. Nothing advanced without their ever-watchful consent. Society had come to a grinding halt. Progress was now a commodity.

But still, we waited. Vega Lyrae and I both agreed that in order to successfully topple the oligarchy, we must strike swiftly, and with such force that they would be swept aside in an instant. To that end, convinced Princess Luna that the best course of action would be to remain hidden, a mere wisp of a rumor, until it was far too late to stop us.

As Highlord, I served as Luna’s chief lieutenant. While Vega Lyrae worked to assemble a fighting force out of the ragtag fleet assembled in his harbor, I saw to the political ends of our strategy. I met with the heads of Starfallian industry and society, as representative for my Princess, and was left to the task of earning their support.

Much to Chives’ grief, I had to embrace my bloodline, the noble substance surging through my veins granting me the title and standing required to attempt such a feat. They would not listen to a commoner, even if he or she was elevated to such a role. But a Lord... of royal blood and unmarred descent? I was, for all intents and purposes, the only true nobleman in Luna’s entire holding. Much to my displeasure, that meant it fell to me to represent our fledgling court.

I was not very good at it.

I grumbled, stuttered, and whined my way through that cycle. Being born into leadership does not automatically make one good at it. I was not charismatic, or particularly talented in the ways of oration, but I was faithful to my friends, and my peers in Court respected that.

Slowly, very slowly, a nation was forged in the depths of the canyon. Races of all kinds banded together under Luna’s black banner, in hope that this new source of power on the moon might bring forth a new tomorrow. They pinned their hopes on us, and we had sworn not to let them down.

Our first test came in the early days of the wet season. City scouts had reported seeing movement far off in the distance, nothing more than a large shape on the horizon kicking up dust. The reports soon changed, however, as the distance between the anomaly and Starfall closed.

An army.

And through my spyglass, I observed a familiar figure at its head. The very face of the Elder’s impunity for common law and their fondness for deception. The face that I had welcomed into my own home, unbeknownst that it might have been the last I’d ever see. I could not resist a tremble of fear as I observed the column that face led, a phantom from nights past...

Colonel Shaddo had returned...

~Highlord Cassius of House Andromeda, the First and Last of his Name

Undici

...A sickly, wet wind blew across the silver expanse of separation. They had made camp upon a shallow rise, some distance away from the edge of the canyon cliffs of Starfall. Their small battlefleet hung silent in the air, moored to the Maria by their anchors. Our scouts estimated several thousand troops in measure, while I assumed more. A vanguard of lunitaurs brought up their rear, in a vast war-galleon bedecked in the most monstrously impressive armaments imaginable. The Royal Army was known to possess a frightful fondness for overkill.

Upon a raised pavilion within spitting distance of the drop off, we met in a frantic council to decide what would be done about their presence.

Luna slammed a hoof into the round table, leaving an impressive dent in the grain. “THIS IS NOT THE TIME FOR HALF-MEASURES!” she roared.

High Elder Vega Lyrae re-adjusted his hood back atop his head from where it had been blown backwards. “Nor is it the time to field half an army,” he said calmly. “Our forces will not be ready to mobilize in full strength until midway through the season.”

“We must field something!” cried Luna.

“Even with our current amount, we cannot match even a quarter of their vastness. Troops take time to train and equip, even more so when they are almost all volunteers from illegal backgrounds, seeking the pardon you’ve promised for their service.”

“Art thou saying our pardon was a mistake?”

“No. It’s helped immensely. But a common citizen is much more... pliable... than a seasoned buccaneer. Nobody knows this better than me, Luna.” The High Elder chuckled. “My crew is still flabbergasted. Once they ran from the law... now they are the law. That isn’t something to be taken lightly. We can only be thankful these recruits didn’t take advantage of the pardon.”

“We must do something,” stubbornly repeated Luna, as the gathering once more descended into arguments.
The meeting had been progressing in this manner for some time. There were those amongst us who felt a full, sudden assault would carry the day, while others insisted upon playing for time until a more proper defense could be mounted.

I, for one, simply wished this whole blasted situation would vanish. The looming prospect of confrontation with Shaddo only chilled my blood. The Colonel was the physical representation of our enemy... the mysterious ‘U’ alluded to in the letter recovered from his person.

This... ‘U’, whomever they were, greatly desired the sight of my head upon a silver platter. Badly enough to make an attempt upon my life in broad starlight. Such utter disregard for common law and flagrant abuse of authority instilled a fear in me, for they must have been powerful to make a play with such impunity.
But what stilled my heart even more was their true prize.

Luna.

An alien, an alicorn from Equus, no less, who carried with her the weight of a Prophecy so significant that it caused a schism within the Kingdom’s most powerful and secretive society. I would not allow my friend to fall into their clutches. Not after all we had been through.

There had to be another way... but how? The answer came to me in a manner most unpleasant, slithering in through my ears and worming through my thoughts until it found purchase.

My hoof meekly raised itself. “Uh, I might happen to have a solution,” I attempted. Of course, nobody heard me through the rabble. Perhaps that was best...

Chives seemed to noticed my predicament. “H’oy! Simmer down! The Highlord means to speak!” he called, cutting clear through the commotion. At once, the assembly fell silent. I fidgeted uncomfortably under their collective gaze. “Uh... we could try diplomacy,” I suggested. “Diplomacy of the Starfall variety.”
A murmur was raised through the tent. Various officers and leaders of the city burst into discussion. Chives banged his sword-hilt on the table until there was silence. “Quiet, you lot! Let the Highlord have his word, then you can take your turns!”

“Elaborate, please, Cassie,” implored Luna when the volume had descended once more.

Of course, she had to address me informally, even here. I blushed, and nervously cleared my throat. “W-well, I’ve been amongst the people of this city for a fair time now, and I think it would be safe to assume that I have the most experience here in the workings of their deals and contracts. If there’s anything I have learned from this, it is that there is often more going on behind the scenes, than what is visible to the eye.”
The room continued with their hush, and so I continued, shifting from side to side as I spoke, trying not to concentrate on how much I was sweating.

“This is Starfall. A city built by exiles. We’ve never claimed to be anything other than thieves, rogues, and vagabonds. They, however,” I pointed a hoof outside the tent, “are unaware of what that really means.”

“And what, pray tell, dost that mean?” asked Luna.

A slow smile made it’s way across the face of Vega Lyrae. “It means we play dirty. I like it!”

“Subterfuge?” wondered Chives. “That isn’t very fair.”

“Pirate,” Vega Lyra pointed to himself, as if that explained it all. Another hubbub was raised as the gathering discussed the meaning of this. Eventually, Luna restored order by flaring out her wings. The entire tent was silence in an instant.

“Aye... they expect a quick surrender, or to be met upon the field of battle,” she mused. “Shrewd, Cassie. We would not like to deal with them this way, but we see no other alternative.
I nodded, stifling another wave of embarrassment. On something of a roll, I decided to soldier on while the words still came to me. “They do not expect a sneak attack. They are confident in their numbers deterring any assault. You’ve seen how many sentries they’ve posted. Not a single one is looking the opposite direction of the city. If we can distract their command for a time, they would be totally unprepared for a simultaneous strike. We could catch them unawares and rout them in a minute.”

“Hmmph. ‘Starfall Diplomacy,’ indeed.” Vega Lyrae chuckled. “It seems my city’s rubbed off on you, Cassie.”

“But what will be the distraction?” Chives twirled his mustache. “We need something they’d be interested in, of course. But also something that can buy us plenty of time. Something so pathetically captivating that they’d be too absorbed to even think about the possibility of deception.”

The assembled gazes suddenly migrated to me.

I quickly checked behind my back to see if there were anyone I was obscuring. I looked back to find Luna grinning at me in the most frightful manner.

“Wait... wait.” I weakly protested as they advanced. “Let’s be reasonable. Think rationally! This isn’t how we should be going about things. Stay back. Back, I say! You can’t seriously believe... -AUGH!!”

“I hate everyone.”

“Oh, enough out of you.”

“As your Highlord, you are thoughtfully encouraged to suck eggs. Actually, that’s a standing order. And when you’re done, go boil your head.”

“Hah! Good one. Now shut it, they’re here.”

“Traitor.”

“Coward.”

“Ruffian.”

“Yellow-belly.”

“Peasant.”

“Upstart, two-headed, jackanaping, crooked, shifty, spineless, puffed-up, mongrel, lilly-livered, brown-nosing, son of a lunitar.”

“...your face.”

“I’m not even going to dignify that with a response.”

“You just did.”

“ENOUGH OUT OF BOTH OF YOU, OR I SWEAR ON ME GRANDMUM’S GRAVE I’LL KEEL-HAUL BOTH OF YOUR SORRY CARCASSES TO THE WHITE CITY AND BACK!”

Chives and the Vega Lyrae flanked me on either side as we waited for the opposing party to finish their approach to the designated parley site some several hundred meters from our respective camps. My former butler and I gave the currently-red-in-the-face High Elder a scrutinizing look as he breathed hard.

“You know, you should really get that temper of yours under reign, ‘Big Vee.’ Don’t want to make a bad impression, what?” said Chives.

“Indeed,” I concluded. “Terrible form.”

The High Elder’s reply was cut off as he pulled his hood over his face to muffle the resulting profanities. A low rumble filled the air as his massive stardrake voiced its rider’s agitation from where it lay curled around us in a protective half-circle.

“And you,” I muttered to it, “you overgrown kitten. I’ll have you cut up into ladies’ accessories.” As a response, a very wet, very rough tongue was dragged across my face. “Blech!”

“I think he likes you. Ain’t that right, Nova?” Chives cooed softly, scratching the beast under his chin.

“No,” said Vega Lyrae, “that means he likes how you taste.”

I suddenly found myself moving forward a few paces to meet with the dignitaries.

It was a very odd sort of parely that took place out there in the no-man’s land.

Upon one side, five representatives of the Kingdom: two stalwart lunitars, clad in impressive black plate armor, horns polished to a razor sheen, and two Equinocti marines, dressed with the signature darker barding of their branch and outfitted with the sharpest of wingblades. Their leading officer was none other that Colonel Shaddo himself, although the insignia pinned to his ceremonial barding denoted that I would be wise to call him Major Shaddo.

The other side held the members of our own company. The Titans Three, they called us in Starfall, for we were the pillars upon which Luna was held up: Sir Chives of the White City, proud in the silver-and-white armor of his order. High Elder Vega Lyrae, wearing nothing but his usual travel-stained robe and clutching a walking staff to his chest. And finally, myself, Highlord Cassius Andromeda, proudly wearing the colors of his new House (dark blue and a swirling purple-pink) in addition to an eyepatch emblazoned with Luna’s emblem. We had no honor guard save for the High Elder’s stardrake, Nova, crouched behind us and menacingly blowing gouts of steam through his nostrils. Judging by the fact that his wingspan was larger than some of the opposing ships from stem to stern, it seemed redundant to have any other accompaniment.

It was Shaddo, surprisingly, who made the first move.

“Stars shine over you, m’lord,” he said cordially, bowing low and spreading his wings.

I arched an eyebrow. A polite greeting? Now, of all times? I glanced back towards my compatriots, whom looked as stunned as I did. With no help from them, it seemed I was on my own.

“And may they light your path onward,” I cautiously responded. “Now, how do you come before us?”

He said, “My name is Major Shaddo, Commander of all th’ forces you see behind me. I represent my men and my people. We are here to seek a trio of dangerous folk whom have traversed our borders and may have taken refuge in your settlement.”

Very slowly, I lifted the eyepatch up to my brow, that he might see both mine eyes. “I am one of those three you seek, yes?”

One of the lunitaurs visibly flinched at the sight of the sunstruck eye. Recognition flooded the Major’s features. Had I truly changed so much in the course of one cycle? “Lord Cassius of Umbara...” A polite cough came from behind me. “...And his servant. That’s two of th’ three.”

I flipped the patch back down. “I am Highlord Cassius Andromeda,” I started, wishing my voice wasn’t so high and squeaky. “That is Knight-Commander Chives. And I believe I serve a different authority now than what I once did.”

He appeared to be gobsmacked. “And... th’ third of your party? Th’...”

“Alicorn?”

“Yes.”

“Her Highness, you mean.”

“Her Highness?”

I furrowed my brows. “Aye. A Princess.”

“Princess,” he repeated, as if walking through a thick fog. “I... a moment.” The Major slowly turned and took his party back several yards, where I could see a substantial amount of bickering taking place. When he came back, he left the behind, shifting uneasily upon the Maria.

“I wish t’ speak with you in private,” he stated. “No games. Leave your friends behind. And keep that... beast... facing th’ other direction. As a matter of trust, I’ve already done th’ same with my own men.”

Well, now. This was an interesting development. And here I was assuming that I’d be the one taking the low road during these negotiations.

“One moment,” I told him.

As soon as we were out of earshot Chives said, “Absolutely not.”

“I think we should accept,” replied the High Elder.

“Are you daft!? Any one of those gunboats off in the distance could have a bead on him, and pick him off in an instant!” hissed Chives.

The High Elder shrugged. “If they so much as touch a hair on his body, then Luna will spring the trap, and rain down the fury of the stars themselves if she has to.”

“You seem icily calm about wasting his life.”

“Pirate.”

“I... I want to hear what he has to say,” I managed.

“Aha! See? The boy has his word!” said Vega Lyrae.

“But... but-!” sputtered Chives.

I continued, “Something isn’t right, Chives. He’s not acting like a conquering commander. His intelligence is off, as well.”

“And what is that supposed to mean! He comes here with an army at his back after driving us out of our home!” Chives began stalking back and forth.

“I don’t know what it means, but when I do, I’ll give the signal for the attack. Or I won’t, and Luna will come to parley.”

I knew what the signal was. I was to flare out my right wing, as if stretching, a visual message to Luna and her fellows waiting in ambush. The left wing was the opposing signal, to abandon the attack and come forth for presentation.

“...I don’t like this,” said Chives.

“None of us do. But this gambit of ours may yet win the day,” the High Elder reasoned. Nova rumbled in agreement.

My former butler ground his teeth, his half-moon spectacles flashing in the starlight. “Fine. But one false move... and I’ll lop his head off myself.”

“I will return,” I promised them, before returning to the waiting Major.

He was a good head taller than me, the Major, and several stone heavier. No doubt a figure chiseled from the hard life of service, cut lean and powerful by the years. He carried himself in the relaxed swagger of an officer, confident yet reserved. Though when we met, two solitary figures poised between twin hammers of war, he seemed... smaller, in a way. Perhaps I had come so far as to rise above my baser fears.

“I’ve spent th’ last cycle chasing your phantom,” he said in a low, neutral tone once I faced him. “From Umbara to Tenibri, all the way to th’ Black Forest itself. If there was a rumor of your presence, I followed it. And now, I find you, in th’ one place I thought you too craven to go.”

I swallowed a hot ball of anxiety.

“They’ve driven themselves into a frenzy, y’know,” he whispered. “They want it. The alicorn. Don’t know why. Nobody does. Even got th’ King to lay down a state of martial law so we could hunt it. And when word reached th’ borders that a new power is rising in th’ Wastes, they were furious. Heads rolled. They raised me up to fill in the gap left by the last Major of this regiment.”

I knew who ‘they’ were by this point. The real puppet masters of the Kingdom. That did nothing to stifle the small tremors running down my limbs. The Major began to slowly pace around me.

“And now, here you are,” he said.

“...”

“Would you like to know my purpose here, Lord Cassius?”

I blinked as I turned to follow his pacing, never once taking my eye off him. “That would... shed some light, yes.”

“My standing orders are nothing less than the execution of your alicorn where it stands. I am to apprehend any compatriots and allies of its cause and deliver them to the Celestial City.”

I blinked.

“They will be tortured in th’ worst ways imaginable. My superiors know techniques that can make a statue writhe in pain.” He seemed to give an involuntary shiver. “And when th’ prisoners have been reduced to a mere shell of a body, when even their soul has been flayed open... they’ll hang, in front of a cheering crowd.” His face soured. “Except nopony will be shouting for joy. They’ll be crying for bread, jobs, and prosperity. Nothing will be solved, only more blood spilt.”

The Major spat to the side, disgusted.

“I’ve spent th’ last cycle wreaking havoc in their name, all in th’ pursuit of you. A sniveling... craven... who somehow slipped through th’ grasp of th’ Kingdom’s finest.”

I managed a weak smirk. “I seem to have made a habit of defying the oods.”

He sighed. “Aye. A trait we seem to share. But... I am tired. There's no end in sight to th’ madness. It used to be tolerable, but now... it’s downright appalling.”

“And...?” I queried.

“And... do you know the oath I swore when I became an officer?”

I hesitantly nodded. “When I inherited my lands and title, I had to take a solemn oath, one similar to yours. In fact, I took another, more recently.”

“And who do you swear to first, above your King, your House, and your Honor?”

“The people.”

“Aye,” he said, wearily rubbing his face. “Th’ people. I cannot serve them while crushing them beneath me. What good can come of that?”

“None,” I cautiously added.

“Exactly. I cannot serve th’ people if I continue to serve th’ Kingdom. Which brings me t’ my true purpose here today.”

Suddenly, he was kneeling before me.

“Yours is th’ last free keep on the moon. And so, I am here today t’ join my forces with yours, t’ help the people take back their Kingdom. We are few in number, compared to th’ Royal Army, but my regiment is the best of the best, bravest of the brave. Would you have us?”

So, that was it. He hadn’t come to sack the city and mount my head on a pike. He’d come to surrender. Was the state of the Kingdom so bad that officers like Shaddo had become disillusioned with their superiors? If so, that meant Luna could not delay in her quest for the crown.

But more urgent was the fate of the Equinocti knelt before me. The very reason I had to flee my mansion and city. The face I had been checking for over my shoulder, the looming shadow of threat and danger.

Here was the cause of my exile... and my ascension.

“What prompted this change of heart, major?” I asked of him. “An officer of your caliber does not simply become a turncoat without reason.”

“I was garrisoned in Umbara,” he replied. “We used your manse for our barracks, actually. When you originally fled from us, th’ last Major was given orders to execute any witnesses who might have seen the alicorn.”

He winced.

“And th’ thought was that you’d gone underground in Umbara.”

I gasped, the ramifications of that statement striking home with more force than I’d care to admit. “And the citizens were considered possible witnesses...”

“Our Major refused th’ orders. So they sent in the Midnight Watch. Th’ Watch came, executed our Major, locked us up in th’ manse, and put Umbara to sword.”

The Midnight Watch; personal vanguard of the King himself, should he ever need to take the field. Their past exploits were near legendary, our history had often been dictated upon their performance in battle. They did not show mercy. Originally formed around the first warriors to swear themselves to the Nightcrown, the Watch answered to none save the King himself.

If the Midnight Watch had descended... there was nothing left.

“I-impossible. You mean to tell me that King Starshade loosed his personal bodyguards upon common citizens!?” I screeched.

“King Starshade has been chained to his throne for half a cycle, now. You know who holds his leash. I will not serve monsters who ask me to destroy my own people and break my oath.” The Major knelt before me once again. “After Umbara, things changed. I asked my men, and we came to an agreement. We must win our honor back. But we need to follow someone. And there’s only one person who’s been brave enough to openly defy th’ demons who rule our Kingdom, now.”

“You speak of Luna,” I murmured.

“Aye, th’ alicorn.”

I paused momentarily, then dipped my head in cautious agreement. “Then I will let her be the judge of this.” I backed up a few paces and began to slowly flare and unflare my left wing. After a moment of this, I stopped to observe the results of my signal.

Nova, the High Elder’s drake, reared his head back and let loose a torrent of blue flame three stories into the air. Beside him, the High Elder himself had vanished.

“What’s happening?” asked the Major.

“Presentation,” I dryly responded.

A deep rumble echoed across the maria as a gargantuan shape slipped up over the edge of the canyon wall, where it had been concealed by the sheer depth of the scar in the moon’s surface. A mighty ship, the largest ever built, ascended into the air with the grace of a feather on the wind, her immense mass blocking out the starlight for kilometer in any direction. At the helm, the hooded figure of Vega Lyrae cackled as he deftly maneuvered her like a child’s toy. Tier upon tier of heavy cannon glittered in awesome relief as the blackwood hull slipped down to hover behind me. Upon the prow of the ship, a midnight-black alicorn figurehead reared, wings spread, encased in icy-blue armor, her horn making up the elegant bowsprit. She flew the black flag of Luna, with the white relief of her visage jutting from a crescent moon fluttering proudly in the breeze.

The Eclipse had gotten some work done.

My company seemed impressed. The bodyguards he’d left behind had rushed up to our sides, nervously bristling. “By the stars above,” breathed the Major.

A figure slipped off the railings, plummeting rapidly until powerful, feathered wings spread an instant before they hit the silver dust. In a billowing of wind, the Princess Luna alit upon the maria before us, bedecked in bright silver armor, her crown shining in the starlight.

“Luna,” I greeted her. “There’s been a slight change of plan.”

Luna, whom had been staring down a particularly stunned-looking Shaddo, responded, “And pray tell, what might that be?”

“He means to join us, not fight us. I believe he might have valuable information, not to mention worthwhile resources that we could use.”

“Is that so...?” Luna advanced upon him until she was a hairsbreadth away. To my delight, I noted that he had to look up to meet her imperious gaze.

Those eyes had a hypnotic effect, in the same way a cavern snake might paralyze its prey with a single glare. Luna had often discerned my intentions in this way, boring through the facade I held in my gaze until she pierced the veil and exposed the truth within. Whatever she saw within the Major’s eyes, it wasn’t pretty, judging by the clench of her jaw.

Nopony expected what happened next.

A blur of midnight blue, and the Major reeled, an imprint of a silver-shod hoof rapidly forming upon his face. He reached up and touched it, dumbfounded. Not a soul moved.

“That was for forcing us from Cassie’s manse,” Luna finally stated. Then that same hoof reached forth again, dangling out in the open. “And this is for listening to thine heart, and showing true integrity.” A small, crafty grin grew upon her face.

After a moment, Major Shaddo put his hoof to hers. “Th’ details can be sorted later, but for now, I think we can agree on a common cause.” In that instant, an alliance was formed, two powers that could have annihilated each other joined together and emerged stronger for it.

Now, it was time to get some answers...

Dodici

"...Hard to port, Mister Darkwater! HARD. TO. PORT!"

"Hurr, Oi'm given it all she's got, boi stars!"

I clung to the mainmast, trembling as I fought to keep down a meager breakfast. The dark walls of the tunnel raced past as the black sloop plummeted down into the Core. She was a sleek craft, varnish still wet from the yard, and I feared we were doing a fantastic job of ruining the coat. Luna's black flag flew proudly from the stern, flapping in the rush of wind that accompanied our hectic descent into madness.

The sloop screamed around another impossible bend in the tunnel, jarring slightly as it grazed an outcropping of rock. I screamed and tightened my grip.

"WATCH THE PAINT, MISTER DARKWATER!"

"Oi, sorry, zurr, do'een th' best oi cun!"

Vega Lyrae danced behind the helmsman -- a burly lunitaur currently straining to keep us from impacting upon the jagged tunnel -- his hooded cloak twisting in the wind, using both his wingtips and forehooves to operate the rows of bone-handled levers that controlled every aspect of the sloop's pitch and yaw. He was but a blur as he roared orders to the overtaxed crew. Our route was so dangerous that it took two veteran sailors to do the job of one...

And standing perched upon the bowsprit like some graceful bird of prey, Luna faced into the shrieking wind with wings outstretched, a fierce grin upon her face as she surfed the ship that bore her name, the Lady Luna.

Chives tumbled past me, his safety line having slipped a knot. "I may have to --oof!-- agree with you, Cassius!" He rolled bonelessly towards the edge of the deck until a wide-eyed nocturni officer pinned him down. Shaddo clung tenaciously on, taking his rope in helmeted mouth and hauling my butler away from the terrifying drop. Suddenly aware of whom had saved him, the knight gingerly pushed away with a grimace. "This isn't flying, this is hell!" Chives spat.

"HELL? THIS IS THE STRAIGHT CHUTE TO THE NETHERWORLD, MATEY! ABANDON ALL HOPE, YE WHO ENTER HERE! AAAH-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA!" a gleeful roar from our High Elder, who looked to be having the time of his life.

Shaddo braced his armored shoulder against the door to the captain's quarters, fighting to keep his footing. "Why is it that yew entire lot are off yer rockers in one way or anotha?"

"Madness is the spice of life," Chives droned, staggering away.

There is a fine line between right and wrong.

I have come to the conclusion that it is not a very straight line. Experience as a son to a nobleman, as a (partial) ruler of a town, and as a Highlord of a new nation has taught me that there are actions that must be taken to ensure the safety of your people. Even if they are occasionally morally askew, sometimes one must do what must be done. Often, it is better that said actions never see the dark of night.

But there is a difference between doing a wicked act that is truly necessary and a wicked act simply because it its there to be done. True evil lies in actions taken for the wrong reasons. That way lies only the seductions of power... and madness.

For even if the goal remains the same... one will end up with something far different than intended...

Where do I even begin?

It has been a while since the alliance atop the silver mesas surrounding Starfall. Shaddo's surrender had effectively tripled our standing army overnight, with competent, professional soldiers. Our navy now had a majority of ships in it that weren't modified pleasure yachts or tugs. While the City Council had been understandably worried about the influx of new forces, all suspicions were firmly squashed whenever Luna was present. For whatever reason, she trusted the turncoat commander, and that meant even we the Titans Three must swallow our misgivings.

Along with the boost to our forces, Shaddo also brought with him offerings of an even more valuable sort -- information. We had no eyes in the Kingdom, as the borders were guarded heavily in most areas. I had once wondered what we had been trying to keep out from the White Wastes, but now I could see the tight security was meant to keep subjects in. Shaddo gave us the location of various garrisons, enemy movements, even estimates upon their strength. Even if it was a week old by the time he arrived at Starfall, we had a better picture of what the Elders were up to.

The news was not good. A few cities had been placed under a sort of military doctrine, enforced by the people's own representatives, no doubt at daggerpoint. They knew who held the real power in that broken system. Word among the Kingdom's officer ranks was that even more cities would soon join them. Someone at the top was growing nervous, cracking down harshly at any hint of dissent.

But the news that goaded us to action was the most horrifying yet.

They had been taking lunitaurs as slaves.

The lunitaurs -- the proud, horned biped race so sought after for their warriors and smiths -- were inhabitants of the deep, maze-like Core. Here, far below the surface of the moon, the darkness was near absolute, were it not for the glowing crystals cultivated by the shapeshifters who shared the place. Huge caverns and tunnels were carved through the bones of the earth, and at the deepest level a watery ocean filled the passageways, where dwelt the strangest of creatures. The Core was a strange place, haunted by whispers and shades, constantly changing as the moon's interior flexed and shifted with the passing of seasons.

The rock had eyes and ears, down here.

It was said that one could navigate from one side of the moon to the other, using nothing but the mysterious subterranean highways of the Core. But none knew it's ever changing secrets better than the lunitaurs, who somehow knew the ways the deep would twist and turn upon itself before it actually happened.

And yet, maddeningly, they kept the underworld to themselves. Those who left the lunitaurs' hidden sanctuary were seldom allowed to return to the herd. The Kingdom had once tried to seize this realm for themselves, convinced the natural resources and vast underground network were worth the trouble of conquest.

They were wrong. So started the Lost War, so called because of the fact that every single nocturni --save one-- to venture into the dark abyss without the blessings of its bovine caretakers were never seen again. The lone survivor of the army sent by the Nightcrown returned with such horrifying stories that the notion of ever seizing the Core vanished from the minds of our Kings a millennium ago.

Until now, it seemed.

Luna, open hearing news of this, promptly sprang into action. And I do mean that in the most literal sense of the word. She abruptly leapt from her seat around the Moon Table and smashed a path of destruction straight to the sky harbor, then commandeering the fastest ship she could seize (fittingly named after herself), proceeded to kidnap each of her Titans Three from our various posts about the city, recruited a lunitaur to pilot, and promptly plunged her virgin vessel into the dark, mysterious abyss, where better sailors had met their end.

I feel like there's a joke in there somewhere.

"Heyar, zurr, we'um be crossin' the border heyar."

"Hmm. Thank you, Mister Darkwater. We trust the rest of the journey to your hands. " Vega Lyrae nimbly glided down from the helm. "I'll see the damages to the Lady Luna repaired with haste. There's a promotion in it for you if we make it through... Captain."

Our lunitaur guide gave a sharp salute -- too sharp though, he bopped himself in the face -- and manned the ship alone.

The High Elder approached the two other members of the Titans Three at the railing, where Chives kept me company as I heaved up the sad remains of my stomach. "Well, friends, the worst is behind us yet. We've gotten through the eels' breeding ground with only minor damage."

"I agree, Admiral! 'Twas an... electrifying experience." Luna joined us as well. Her face was covered in black soot, and her usually ethereal mane was standing on end, which looked quite ridiculous.

Chives frowned at her. "That was terrible."

"Thine taste in comedy is most unforgiving," she smirked, undeterred. "We were merely conveying how shocking it was."

I groaned over the side. Make it stop, make it stop!

"Those eels were a sight! We can see now why some would volt at the sight of them!" Luna was on a roll now, stars forbid. "Quite a shock, 'twas truly lightning, if we might say so."

Chives stared at her. "You really had to reach for that last one, didn't you."

Luna simply grinned at him.

The Lady Luna slid smoothly through the tunnels, now. We had entered the heart of the Core, where the lunitaurs dwelt and cared for the moon's beating, rocky heart. The black sloop fit easily into the caves, which had been carved for passage of much larger vessels. Without the tumultous rocking, I finally manged to get my sea legs back.

I found myself with nothing to do, and looked around the deck. Chives was busy below deck, looking after the small supply of equipment we had stowed aboard before an over-eager alicorn whisked us away. By the mainmast, High Elder Vega Lyrae sat upon a barrel, telling a tale to said alicorn and some wide-eyed crewmembers. By the way they had huddled together, I could tell he had probably launched into one of his exotic, long-winded sailing stories. I wasn't in the mood to join them, though, still somewhat nauseous and unwilling to stray far from the railings.

I saw movement at the bow. Shaddo was there, making himself busy with ropework. But as I watched, he was simply knotting the same length, over and over again. I rubbed at my temples.

Shaddo struck me as the sort of chap who did not bother for the opinions of others. But he was only nocturni, and we are a social people by habit. He looked... lonely. It wasn't the first time I'd seen this sort of behavior from him, either. Shaddo had been stuck at the outside of many of the cities' circles, despite still commanding a sizable portion of his former ranks. Quite simply, Starshade didn't trust him yet.

I didn't, either.

Our newest addition to Luna's ever-growing inner circle, he had yet to prove himself to her on the field. Perhaps this journey would present an opportunity? She treated him fairly, as a companion and a commander, though when her presence was not felt, he was but a nuisance, or a rather unpleasant stain on the carpet. So he kept himself at a distance, intruding only if called upon.

I chewed thoughtfully at my lip, before turning away and gingerly stepping towards the stern. I nodded to the helmsman and took a seat at the railing, watching the guts of the moon pass by.

It really was quite beautiful down here in the deeps. Here and there, luminescent crystals studded the rock, and in the deeper chasms, water could be seen, sparkling in the faint light. Was this the maria at the center of the moon, like the explorers of old had seen?

My thoughts were abruptly sidetracked when a terrific crash split the air. The Lady Luna came to a catastrophic halt, as if something had struck it just off to bow. I was tossed backwards, catapulted over the helm and cracking noisily into the mainmast. The ship groaned in protest as she settled at a crazy angle, the bow pointing dangerously low and the deck tilted to starboard..

"Is anypony injured?" Luna could be heard, already taking charge. I slid slowly down to the deck, right next to a pair of silver-shod hooves. "Ah, Cassie! There you are. Please check down in the hold for our good Sir Chives. I fear he may have been buried by anything not strapped down." I looked crookedly up at her and nodded as best as I could.

A commotion from farther down the deck.

"What in blue blazes was that?" yelled the High Elder. "MISTER DARKWATER!"

From the helm, the burly lunitaur was busy pulling himself upright. "Oi, zurr!"

"Care to explain what's just happened?"

"Hurrrr, oi don't rightly know, zee this lil' outcropper ain't 'zactly 'spposed t' be roight hurr!"

"Argh! Get down here and help with the damage assessment, then, you useless hood ornament!"

Groaning, I peeled myself off of the deck. Since the entire vessel was tilted at such a steep slope, I decided flying under my own wingpower would be the safer course of action. I hesitantly unfurled my wings and fluttered into the air. I was never the most graceful of fliers, but I managed to ascend to the stern, and enter the hatch to the belowdecks.

As I descended the stairs, I slipped off the last of the steps, and awkwardly tumbled down the length of the ship. With a great crash, I found my impromptu descent brought to a halt by a certain armored figure emerging from a cabin. Chives and I collided, and the pair of us rolled to a halt in the galley, which was located in the bow. Here we could see the rocky blade that had speared into the ship, jutting several meters into the cabin. The candles had all gone out, but we could see that dark splinters and metal scraps littered the floor, and the rock itself glittered unpleasantly in the gloom.

Chives gently shoved me off him. "Hasn't m'lord anything better to do than to be a nuisance?"

"Luna sent me to check up on you." I brushed his comment away. Chive's barbed tongue was something one got used to after so long. "Did you fare well in the crash?"

"Aye, nought but a bruise. My trunk slipped off the shelf and would have crushed me had I not already donned the armor inside." Chives stood, helping me up a moment later. "Little else has fallen, I was just checking the food stores when you barreled into me."

I thanked him, gazing at the jutting edge that had run us through. "What do you think this means?"

Chives cast me a sidelong glance. "That we've run aground."

"No..." I thoughtfully tapped my chin. "Lunitaurs are supposed to know the layouts of the Core, yes?"

"So the legends say. The ones I've met are rather tight lipped about it."

My old friend crossed the cabin, closely inspecting the rock's face.

"What are you trying to say, Cassie?"

I began to pace. "Just a few moments ago, I heard Mister Blackwater, our helmsman, state that he didn't know this particular jut of rock was here!"

"And?"

"He didn't know, Chives. Their entire culture is based upon the knowing this place like the backs of their hands."

My butler's eyes widened. "Do you think someone could have tampered with the Core?"

"It is a possibility, but I think the real answer to this riddle might be more disturbing. We need to speak to Mister Blackwater, at once."

"Then let's hurry!" Chives abandoned his examinations and clambered up the narrow hallway. I quickly followed wheezing from the uphill climb.

We emerged back on deck to a strange presence.

Or, rather, a certain lack of any presence.

"Chives..."

"Hush." He had already settled into a battle stance, sword drawn and wings spread. I nervously pressed behind him, covering his rear. My ears swiveled about as I strained to pick up the faintest of noises.

What was going on? Where was everyone? In the darkness of the vast cave, suddenly became aware of the stillness, save for the distant drops of water upon rock and the steady, even breathing of my friend.

"I have a suspicion that we've been tricked," said Chives, warily glaring about the empty deck.

I drew my own weapon, a small dagger I concealed within my cloak. "That much is obvious. The question is, by whom were we betrayed?"

"I suspect Shaddo," Chives bluntly growled, creeping towards the bow. "He must have been in cahoots with the lunitaur."

I hesitantly followed, keeping myself positioned towards the stern in case a foe appeared that way. "...Perhaps. All I know for certain is that the lunitaur was lying, and must have purposely marooned us here. The Lady Luna is too damaged to fly, and we can't match half her speed."

"He must have been planning this for weeks," grumbled the knight. "Gaining her trust, then springing this false alarm, knowing she'd come running. And then, when the trap is sprung, whisking her away to the King's Lands, to the enemy!"

I had no response to that. While I had tried my best to not doubt our newest companion, I perhaps held the most reason to distrust him. The suspicion had always been present, though I strained to quash it.

A clatter from the bow soon caught our attention. Here, one of the crates had broken free, sliding further down the deck to all but explode against the forward-most point of the railing. Amidst the wreckage, I could see something moving, shifting the debris aside.

"Chives...!"

"I see it." He tensed himself. "You, there! Identify yourself, or be struck down!"

A coughing. A dark, battered shape emerged from the wreckage. "Don't strike, I'm a friendly!" His officer's armor was dented and scratched, and a long, bleeding cut lay along his jaw, but aside from that, he seemed only a little shaken.

"What in star's name is goin' on here?" Shaddo asked us, brushing off splinters. He caught our gazes. "What?"

Chives was on him in an instant. The two equinocti collided with frightening force, Chives taking the officer right off his footing and straight into the shattered remains of the crate. The splintering of wood filled the air. The two grappled, exchanging helmeted headbutts, until Shaddo's greater strength prevailed and he heaved the older, smaller knight back towards the stern. Chives crashed to the deck a pace in front of me, groaning.

"Nnnggh..." Shaddo withdrew his sword. I paled at the sight of the blade, it was the same one he had worn when I had first met him. "Why are you doing this?"

"I might ask you the same question!" wheezed Chives. He staggered upright, flourishing his own blade. "Explain yourself!"

"Explain what!?"

"How and why you've sold us out! Raaagh!" Chives hurled himself at the officer a second time, and the air between them filled with the crashing of metal and silver wind of swords.

"I. Did. No. Such. Thing!" Shaddo parried a storm of ferocious strikes, before ducking low under the last and smoothly spinning upon his forelimbs, lashing out with a wing and sweeping Chives' footing from under him. The knight yelled and crashed to the deck for the second time. "What madness are you spewin'? I've done nothin' but help since I arrived!"

Chives answered with an angry growl, slicing at Shaddo's legs from where he had fallen. He rolled over in a flash, and took to the air, coming in from high like a bolt of righteous lightning.

I winced as Shaddo neatly hopped away at the last second, Chives splintering the deck where he stood an instant before, the knight's sword sinking deep into the wood.

"If ya wan't t' settle it this way, then so be it!" Shaddo dropped a shoulder and snapped his wings back, propelling his armored bulk forwards at a uprising speed.

Chives was frozen, stuck trying to free his sword. The officer rammed into him with all the force of a runaway train, blasting him backwards into the mast, which sickeningly cracked upon impact. Shaddo reared, quickly twisted his sword and gave a savage lunge.

"No!" I screamed.

The officer's blade missed Chives' throat by an inch, careening past to strike the knight's blade out of his grasp. The sword clattered to the deck some yards away. Shaddo loomed over his disarmed opponent.

I sprang into action, taking flight and swooping in over my fallen friend, brandishing my dagger. Shaddo took a few surprised steps backwards at my appearance. "If you w-want his blood, you'll have to wade through mine to g-get it!" I stammered as menacingly as I could.

"We're dooooooomed," Chives weakly groaned.

Shaddo regarded us with a raised eyebrow, then casually flicked his sword out. My dagger spun away, planting itself in the mast half a length from where Chives' had leaned his head. The nocturni then sheathed his blade.

"I don't want anyone's blood." The officer looked down at the deck. "I've spilled too much 'a that already," he quietly said.

"Then why did you betray your Princess?" rasped Chives. "The Elders will destroy her, and without her or the High Elder, all of Starfall will be put to the sword."

Shaddo glared at him. "I did no such thing! I've been helpin' out your cause more than you have these past weeks."

I stood between the two, looking at one, and then the other. "Shaddo, tell us what happened up on deck."

He shuffled in place. "I... I don't rightly know, Highlord."

Chives snorted in disgust from where he lay. I silenced him with gentle kick to the stomach. "Not a word from you until I say, understand." It was not a question. It was an order. 'Cassie' was gone, Highlord Cassius of Andromeda had taken his place for the time being. "Explain as best as you can, Major."

Shaddo frowned. "I... I was at the bow, lookin' over the ropes. Didn't 'ave anythin' better t' do. All of a sudden, the ship, she starts driftin' a little close to the port walls. I was about t' say somethin', but then there was this crash... and I was thrown hard against the railin'. Last thing I saw was this crate, snappin' through the restraints and comin' right towards me." He glanced behind him at the ruined timbers and winced. "I must've woken up later, because when I did, everyone was gone. 'Cept you two."

"They're missing. We think they've been taken." I nodded. "And you were suspect in their disappearance, until now."

Chives grumbled something under his breath. I shot him another steely look, and he quieted.

"After all, if you really were behind this, you'd have done a better job."

Shaddo seemed surprised. "M'lord?"

"You were..." I corrected myself, "are a commander. You know a thing or two about completing a task. This was hastily done, judging by the fact that whomever took our friends did not bother to search the wreckage or check down below. I do not think you would leave two of the Titans Three alive."

"I... I suppose you're right," said Shaddo.

"Our chief suspect at the time is the lunitaur, Blackwater. But to find him, and hopefully the others..." I turned to the side. The dark, twisting passages loomed, a monolithic subterranean maze. "We've got to go into the Core."

"Perhaps Luna just took off without us?" Shaddo asked.

"No... She would never abandon her friends, nor leave us without first having words. Something is amiss. And we must discern what." I trotted forward a few paces, retrieved and sheathed my dagger, and unfurled my wings. "Help him up," I instructed Shaddo.

Grimacing, the officer reached down and grasped Chives by his forelimb, yanking him back up. "...It is just not my night tonight," said the elderly nocturni.

I vaulted over the side of the wrecked sloop, calling over my shoulder, "Let's get a move on, then!" The two exchanged wary looks, and soon flew after me.

"Where are we going?" asked Shaddo.

"To get lost," Chives grumbled.

I snorted with wry amusement. We needed to find someone who could guide us through the Core. The ever-shifting maze would swallow us up forever should we not obtain the services of one who understood its organic nature. I looked back at the crippled sloop, the Lady Luna, destroyed upon her maiden voyage.

I hoped that was not an omen.

"We need to reach the lunitaurs' city. If our companions are to be taken anywhere, they must pass through Bovinocta first. We have two options to get there," I said. "One; we stumbled upon a lunitaur wandering the caves. We may barter for their services and be led to their city. The chances of that happening are slim to none.

"I don't think I want to hear the second one," Chives said.

I grimly nodded. "Two, we eschew the lunitaurs and proceed to ask for aid from the only other denizens of the Core."

"The marians?" Shaddo asked. "They are bound to their waterways and ocean. They could not guide us through."

"He means the other dwellers." Chives frowned.

"Oh... Oh. Them."

I sighed. "Yes. We musk seek out the shapeshifters' hive. Follow the yellow slick mold..."

Author's Notes:

'Sup, bitches.

I'm somewhere around Chicago, right now, busy with the wonderful life of basic training. When this comes out, I'm probably going to be around halfway through. This is sort of like a post from the grave, 'cept I'm not dead yet. Hopefully, Nathan Traveler hasn't fucked anything up... hopefully. Anyway, hope you nerds are enjoying yourselves: Wallowing in the disgusting filth of your battlestations while I sweat and scream in the name of American democracy prosperity fuckin' monster trucks 'n shit.

Right. The story. This has been on hold far too long, and I think that's a damn shame because it's got a ton of potential. Nothing like some good old fashioned world-building -- it's good for the constitution, y'know. I've always wondered why this universe wasn't the one that took off. I mean, shit. SKY SHIPS. FUCKIN'... BAT-PONIES. I shouldn't even have to go on. Whatever. I'll be working on finishing this one up when I get back, some time in October. Hopefully I can get some sort of computer to write with when I get to my new digs in Charleston, SC.

Gonna get me a tat and a bike, too. Bitches love bikes. And tats. And guys who feel like spending money.

Heh. It's good to be the Rust.

Peace, nykkuz!

Tredici (Incompiuto)

Shapeshifters.

Where do I even begin?

They are here, there, everywhere. Without them, life on the Moon would be impossible, and yet for all their necessity, shapeshifters are rather troublesome. They are nourished by positive life energy, a curious trait that allows them to dwell in the most inhospitable of places while only needing to venture out to sate their thirst.

To be fed upon by a shapeshifter is unavoidable. They are everyone and no one. A pleasant conversation with an old friend back in town could be far from reality. Simple warm greetings from a stranger across the street are like popcorn to them.

One might think --- why tolerate that sort of thing? They could be anywhere and anyone around you. They could be in your home, right now, and you'd never be the wiser. Of course, the truth is never so simple. Shapeshifters require life energy --- content, soulful energy, mind you ---- because they cannot generate their own. They are parasitical in nature, though they do not simply take their vittles.

They exchange for it.

It isn't the need for more energy that drives a shapeshifter to feed, it is the need for fresh energy. They absorb it from us, the various peoples of various societies, and it nourishes them for a time, but eventually, they must return what they took. Every ounce of life-force harnessed from your spirit by a shapeshifters is instantly replaced by the energy they had stored. Of course, too much transfer, too fast, will produce negative effects, but for the most part, you won't even know you've been fed upon.

Your essence, your spirit, your life-energy; it is not meant to be a stagnant thing. We are meant to grow and change as we slip through the seasons. They till us, turn the dirt and scatter fresh seeds. Shapeshifters are the pollinators for the gardens of the soul.

And, if they cannot find any positive life energy, they create it through good deeds and inspiration. That street performer on the corner may not need those coins you toss him for brightening your day. The nurse in the infirmary who delivers the good news may have worked harder than the surgeon, for more than one life was at risk.

Shapeshifters are a paradox. We need them, and they need us... even if some choose to ignore it. How could one expect a creature who requires your happiness and contentment to live to be truly genuine? A vexing argument.

Still, most tolerate them. Some of the creatures even deign to walk openly among us, chitin and fins bared to open starlit sky.

There is a problem with their nature, however. The Hive seeks happiness in all peoples, obviously, and so often will often support causes they believe would result in the most net happiness. Wonderful for charities and social programs, of course...

...But what of war?

The Hive will back the contender who's victory will be best received by the people. And having agents on your side who could be anyone is far better off than not having any. Many, many times over the cycles, the Hive has lent the Kingdom critical support to overcome a foe or quell an uprising. Showing myself at their door as the Second-In-Command of Luna's little rebellion... it could end poorly. I was taking a gamble by attempting to reach out to them.

Either they would help me, or they would kill me.