Luna:
Over the Sky Scraper's rail the ocean's surface was in plain view. The top of the water sparkled with large patches of fading moonlight from the moon I was carefully lowering. The stars dimmed in the sky, making way for my sister's dawn. Her sun's light - which would appear soon - would warm the once mysterious and enchanting looking waters so they appeared as blue or gray as usual.
Blue, calm and serenading, was the most likely of the two sides of the ocean, as the weather was unusually clear. That meant Sombra and I were bound to blink and mutter a few mild complaints about the light before stubbornly adjusting to the brightness of this morning.
Tia would be fetching her morning coffee right about now, I remind myself, muzzle wrinkling at the mention of her favored morning beverage. At least I won't being smelling cream and coffee out here, a thousand miles away. I have never been fond of the smell of black coffee, but the cream Tia uses in hers is particularly unbearable and I cannot stop teasing her about it whenever I get the chance. It seems the centuries have taught ponies of the many ways to make the foul liquid even fouler, as well as more common. It used to be a delicacy for my sister and everypony else a thousand years ago.
Upon finishing, I step back to admire my latest lowering of the moon. Usually, I would return to steering right after this while Sombra would retire to his quarters to either pursue his own interests, talk to Fish about calculus with more patience than I originally believed he would hold for such one-sided conversations, or presumably sleep. I can't really complain much about his solitary nature, since it really doesn't bother me and I'm very much the same. It's just so nice to have somepony to talk to, and so often as well.
Luckily, I was able to persuade him to stay up for the practical purpose of discussing the change in course and just maybe, he'd let me 'hang out' with him after that. I have to hold back a smile, since while it isn't much of trickery, I don't think he'd be to keen with me doing something he might see as a waste of time. I'm trying to be his friend as well, but I still have yet to ask him if he wants to be mine.
To distract myself, I summon a strong breeze that should keep well for a few hours, blowing the low-flying Sky Scraper along. I then turn around to face Sombra and Fish. The former watched the sky with curious stare.
"What do you think of this one?" I ask, pointing a hoof towards the dawn sky.
Sombra, whose eyes marked with slight traces of sleeplessness and weren't high enough to see the dawn, looks up at the sky with a critical, slightly grumpy, and impatient squint that he must have acquired from reading through all of yesterday. Next to him, Fish bobs happily in a bubble that floats at around the height of Sombra's withers.
"Five out of ten. The sun won't go back down."
"Oh? That's three points less than yesterday's sunrise."
"The sun keeps coming back."
"Yes, it does Sombra. It's supposed to do that."
"I blame Celestia."
"Why blame her for bringing forth the day?"
"The same way I blame your sister for a lot of other things," he adds with a soft growl, which from my time with him I learned was his equivalent of adding a 'hmph' or some other sound at the end of his remarks. Sometimes, he'd snort or make a faint 'tch' sound when he's mocking something but he usually growls briefly, somewhere in the back of his throat. It makes him sound like a cat.
I don't think he realizes how cute it can be, and I hope he doesn't, as he'd probably be mad upon being viewed as anything other than how he actually is, and I doubt he finds himself cute. I really can't blame him either, if I had my name as warped and slandered as he has. I just wish that he would let me, as the alternative of him listening while I tried to explain...
...no. I conclude with a slight shiver. It would not being lying to him to not mention something he's unlikely to suspect and if he were to find out I could always just tell him I didn't want to talk about it, which would be honest and a response he could probably respect despite all the irritation that was sure to follow on his part.
Sombra notes something in my expression and before he can say anything, I ask him a question of my own.
"Just why do you have such a strong hatred for my sister?"
He looks me up and down, there's an irritated tch in the back of his throat. "I could answer that."
"But you won't."
Sombra offers no response other than a slightly devious look, which vanishes when he encircles Fish's bubble with a teleportation spell.
"So what are those plans you were going to tell me?"
...
I had known Sombra for a little over two months and one of the first things I learned about him was unlike most ponies, he was not one for food. I knew not what he would consume, or if he ever consumed any kind of edible substances now that he was immortal.
But if there was one thing Sombra devoured it was knowledge. Any fact that was said around him, Sombra had most likely memorized. He didn't appear to act like it - not unless you knew what to look for - but he paid attention to everything that was said or done around him. I recall, both from firsthoof experience and a few things I've heard about Sombra in the sea of rumors and falsehoods surrounding him that Sombra is exceptional when it comes to wordplay and twisting one's speech against them.
He showed this ability to be a particularly strong one when I had brought out as many maps as possible from the navigator's office. Many of them did not meet his standards and after making a few intriguing, yet bizarre remarks that sassed the maps he explained that the Crystal Empire had maps that were stored in crystal prisms. These prisms were exactly like the one Celestia tucked behind the throne for all these years, and were only printed from prism to paper by the - as he put it - 'least idiotic lot of them with unicorn blood even though they're all-'
And then he proceeded to spew out the most horrifyingly well-crafted vulgarities to the Crystalline subjects. They were positively poisonous and if he had honestly overstepped a few more boundaries then I might have considered using a minor memory charm on myself because by all that the crystal ponies held sacred. Sombra might as well be the god of insults, for he understands that the best insult of all is simply the truth one would expect from a friend coming out of an enemy's mouth. Though, he's clearly proven himself capable of being crass. I took him to be purely witty, and I can admit there's an odd understanding to even that aspect of his words. What can I expect from the stallion who hears everything?
I cleared my throat slightly and rolled out the last map, which depicted the eastern shores of the southernmost country of the southern continent: Germaneigh.
Sombra, thankfully did not even mention his previous rant and examined the puzzle-piece collage of maps that I laid out between us.
Stars above, that stallion can make Tribal-era slurs sound like golden wit, I thought with a slight shudder, which certainly contrasted with my smile I hadn't realized I still was giving him.
"You really despise the crystal ponies, hmm?"
His mouth twitched slightly, sinking into a more warped version of his usual mild frown, so my demon companion now scowled at me.
"They're hypocrites," he snarled, "they say that my actions define me, when those martyr complex plagued fools don't realize how much worse it could have been for them and what was right under their muzzles all along. One day, I want them to get a taste of their own words when they realize that they will never be free of their actions."
"I'm sorry," I say, and it wasn't a flat apology either. I really was sorry for what he went through, and though he'll probably not do so, I'd love for him to open up a bit more to me so I won't just have to give him the sincerest of apologies alone.
Looking at him after I do hurts when I see how stoic his expression usually remains while his eyes betray everything. He looks like he really does want to say something. When he looks at the maps like nothing is wrong is he giving up? Or is he trying to shield himself from being hurt again?
Does Sombra know that I know that is what he fears most?
Sombra is so much more special than he realizes. Unlike so many who are content to toil in the day and let hollow fantasies whisper to them at night and sing their siren song, Sombra has blurred the lines between them. He has dreams, true dreams that he will use as both a weapon and a shield so he might live, truly live. I have never met a dreamer like him, who fights so, even among others who have intriguing and powerful dreams. Yet the reverse to the hopes of any dreamer is their fears, lurking in the shadows and pulling just as many strings. And these are strings that only a few, like him and I wield ourselves, as its counterpart. They may be so much harder for those who are awake to see, but lurking behind each ambition is something else entwined with it.
I know.
"There is going to be a change in course, now that we have obtained information from Neptune we know that we must head west."
There, a simple fact and a preamble of a topic-changer.
"In what way will we need to change our course? Wasn't the whole point of going to Neptune so we could find out where we're supposed to go? We only got a hint, Luna."
"That is true, which is why I have another location in mind, one that will be able to show us more."
"And that might be?"
"An island somewhere in the southern reaches of the oceans. I haven't been there in ages, but I know that there's no colonies on it or anything else. There is no map that should have it marked, or at least none that is known to the public. This island lies off Germaneigh's coast and it should be exactly as I remember, only older, of course."
"We're all older. Except me."
"Why are you the exception?"
"I look too good to be old."
"And I don't?"
Sombra paled. "W-Well, you see, I never said that and-"
And then the sea serpent happened.
...
It was a fearsome beast that certainly didn't take kindly to the low-gliding airship. It surfaced violently, trying to knock us into the water. It didn't work since Sombra and I certainly knew how to face any kind of danger. He certainly looked more startled, if only momentarily, by the sight of the beast than I, as I know he holds some ability to sense living things and their truest natures.
The creature was a dark green-blue, her scales bearing the slight gray tints of age and marks, like cuts down her thick scales indicating experience tangling with ships. I knew her to be female from experience due to the past encounters where I learned that males had more colorful scales.
These kinds of serpents - monstrous and strong creatures with fangs as long as I am tall - are found only in the seas surrounding the borders of the modern nation Mustainia, in a region where only the toughest ships dared sail in ancient days before even I walked this world. They preyed on what few ships dare cross these waters and were usually vicious enough that Equestria required all sailors who went on routes in this water to either have a fully trained battlemage for every three ponies, or for each crew member to have some degree of naval training rather than having them as civilians, however weathered.
Mortals could end up as fodder to one of the more common varieties. I was pleased to observe that this one bore a somewhat sleeker form than most of the others I've tangled with, which means that while she should prove to be a nuisance at most. At with her form, she isn't going to breathe fire, for I do not see the anatomical marks of a fire-breather upon her.
Those ones can be quite the challenge, and while I'd love to tangle with one in a glorious brawl any other day, I had a ship to manage and hoped to leave waters near any shore without much trouble. The last thing I wanted was to near the waters of a country I had no intention of communicating with. Mustainia had a nasty habit of being the only country in the Eastern World electing rulers, which is a silly thing on its own. While none of them were terrible, they rarely proved to be skillful under almost all circumstances. I would say they were certainly shining examples of Sombra's life philosophy: placid, incompetent, and often repetitive and shackled to popular expectations over what is best for their land. I would not say they are truly antagonistic or beneficial. The rulers of Mustainina had never been ponies worth much time, as their history - which I had to catch up on during my return - proved to simply be a list of dates when ponies left and entered the office of the friendly, yet sparsely populated land.
She, the serpent irate, paused in her rampage, dark eyes staring down at Sombra and I, about to roar her challenge to us, not knowing - or perhaps not caring - that she had just crossed two immortals.
I took flight before she would even have the chance to offer her battle cry, which was now drowned out by mine as I flew towards the serpent with a burst of speed that only the fastest pegasai and the ascended could come close to attaining. Sombra briefly struggled to gain balance as the entire ship shifted and almost careened into the water from my movement.
Behind me, a streak of white-hot light edged with the palest traces of crisp blue was like a bold streak of paint on the canvas of battle that led to my ever-shifting location. The light of my horn caused streaks of turquoise bleed into the magical discharge to make the flowing force even more chaotic and furious.
I slammed into the lower neck of the beast, hearing her roar as light screeched and smoke from the damage I inflicted on her scales blinded her. I had struck an unfortunately brittle patch that caused the limbless beast's own broken armor to pierce the topmost layers of soft flesh. While it was not reduced to ashes, as careless displays of higher amounts of my power could result in, this beast had certainly suffered greatly from this comparably mild demonstration.
Across my right side, I feel spots of warm blood across my coat. Warm streaks and patches along my cheek were concentrated most heavily around my withers and neck before running in still-dripping streams that ran in stripes across my foreleg.
I spare only a moment to catch my breath, eyes darting about rapidly as I retreat to a short distance. There, I will be out of the creature's reach. I do hope that the wound I inflicted was enough for her to get an idea to retreat, or else I would not allow it the same mercy the next time.
Magic found its way onto my horn as I automatically began to ready my next move, my combat instincts a like steady tick, tick, tick in my head.
Back on the deck of the Sky Scraper, I could see that Sombra had managed to save most of the maps, poofing them away with a quick spell before leaping onto the rail and balancing there, focusing dark aura on his horn while the same magic took form in his eyes.
The serpent reeled, eyes shining with primal fury as it looked at us, I who dripped with hot scarlet from its own broken skin and Sombra who would not be much kinder if she did not flee.
She lunged in his direction and Sombra's magic enveloped the Sky Scraper's entirety teleporting it directly above the water flew above. A creeping shield of dark flame found its way across each part of the airship until it fit its form exactly.
The beast bellowed with rage upon not seizing Sombra, who cast another spell - although I was unable to see it from here, as I was charging into battle once more. Even though this creature had attacked my friend, I would offer it one last chance to flee before I held back this mercy once and for all.
"Luna!" Sombra called from where was far below. "I've got this one!"
I look down just fast enough to see Sombra. The function of the spell I had seen him cast earlier was now revealed: he had jumped off the deck and was now standing on the surface of the water. Quic- err, Fate was unsheathed and held at his side at an angle that allowed the red crystal veins running across it to sparkle in the morning light, like mysterious glittering wealth. I know that part of his sword had come from the Alicorn Amulet.
I grumble at the mid-fight interruption and before I pull out with a barrel roll, the trail of energy that followed me dying in an instant. "She's all yours!"
As I loop downward and fly past Sombra, I'm able to see that wonderfully cocky smirk of his warped into a more insane, reckless-looking version of it's usual self, with the left side of his fangs flashing wickedly so they matched the madness dancing in his eyes.
I land cleanly on the ship's deck, stoically standing amidst the cloak of fire that shields the thing from harm. Inside, I eagerly await to see Sombra's course of action since I have yet to see a water-walking demon take down such a reptile.
He charges, proving to be very agile when needed and when he gets close enough, he sheathes Fate and leaps up, shifting to shadow before I would have time to fully blink.
I watch as he encircles the confused serpent, swirling up the scaly body until he reforms on top of her head.
She, the great best of the sea, feels his hoofsteps and tries to rear her head, roaring and hoping he'll fall off, twisting and wanting to devour him.
Sombra does not fall, he uses his own magic to help hold him there, until she stops, frustrated. Sombra remains, appearing only slightly unbalanced. Fate is whipped out of its sheath and raised above the weakest spot on the back of the beast's skull.
She feels him there, dark eyes wide, she thrashes again, threatening to dive under the waves. This time, Sombra does fall, and as he falls, I take flight once more.
The blade of Fate is all he has, and in the moment, as I fly toward him, he digs it into the topmost part of the scales. While they are too tough to rip off entirely, his sword - which was gripped tightly in his forehooves - slid through some of them, slicing off pieces and ripping crooked gashes that caused the beast great pain that she never bothered to conceal. Her cries rang out more and more, louder and louder.
I flew faster, so it appeared I moved in a blink of light - like a firefly winking out - from the Sky Scraper to him.
He certainly looked a bit startled. His eyes showed signs of shock, the inferno they held was now just sparks, sputtering in the light as he blinked, which explained why he hadn't teleported or done anything. His hooves gripped the hilt for dear life, his armored boots melded to it with a hasty spell so it could be gripped better.
We were only a few feet away from that wound I had made earlier and I didn't want to see him try to hold on once his sword could no longer be tangled in scales. I tried to grab him by wrapping my forehooves right under his withers and pulling both him and Fate away from the furious creature.
Which turned out to be a horrible move. Sombra was not exactly in a good mood and wasn't used to any form of physical contact with ponies - much less being grabbed by a crazy blood-drenched goddess - and didn't appear to like being spooked one bit. In what I imagine must be instinct for him, he began to dissolve into his shadow form rapidly.
And I was still trying to hold him and lift him up, which led to me finding out then when Sombra does this anything in extremely close contact with him that remained external of himself, like his sword, would follow one of two paths: either it would dissolve with him or he'd unwillingly end up almost possessing it.
I was apparently included in the latter. I don't think he meant to do this, I really don't but that didn't change the creeping sensation of there being another mind somewhere with my own and shadow crawling through me. I put up the strongest mental block I knew, a wall to surround an already difficult to have mind. He already had a comparably strong barrier around his own mind, which ended up clashing with mine.
Half-possessed, half-shadow, the both of us screamed. My own voice broke with hints of Sombra's somewhere in there and I blinked away what felt like horrid vertigo but was anything but that. Around us, the sea serpent roared with the unearthly echo of the demon-cries that Sombra's shadow form could make and there was a violent sensation of whiplash as he withdrew with I was able to identify as panic, reforming in my hooves as the equine I knew him as. His whole form was shuddering and his bracer-like boots, no longer gripped as strongly around the hilt clacked violently.
Then he let go, and in my horror-struck daze where I was left with a burning fever-like feel I could do nothing but watch as my legs hung limp in the air, my wings only dully flapping as magic fizzled a few times as it tried to ignite of my horn.
Still, through this haze I was able to see a crystal - not gray as I am used to and just as peculiar as the pony who made them - a vibrant shard of red, as though it sprang from the specks of blood itself.
Attached to it was the thinnest string of crimson light. A momentary weak, dazed half-smile clumsily worked its way across my face.
The fire has returned.
...
That string was bound to a very crafty demon, the thinnest thread to loop around him and still manage to support his form with the power it held, and a single anchoring crystal that looked so much like the ones on Fate - and maybe it was.
I had returned to the Sky Scraper's deck as quickly as I could, this battle was Sombra's and I was not about to squander energy on healing such a minor condition when Sombra is bound to return with a worse injury that will need healed.
Until then, I was fine with watching from a distance while my head cleared and we could continue our journey.
In the moments I had left the oceanic battlefield, Sombra had located the burns I had inflicted and it would only be a matter of time before the snappy beast clashed with the snarky demon and tried to gobble him up. By then I imagined my legs would no longer be able to hold my tired form up, although it hadn't been the light combat or the meager show of magic I had done that made me feel drained and clouded my mind.
I shuddered again. That experience was one that could only be described as haunting, the feeling of be possessed, even a little was disturbing. I wouldn't want to be too close to Sombra for a few days after this, just to shake this uncomfortable feeling off.
I felt the angry waters stir and knock the Sky Scraper's underside, rocking it back and forth.
Sombra drove Fate right into the raw, descaled flesh of the creature, somehow being able to withstand the howls from his close range while even my ears rang with the sound no matter how hard I pressed my hooves over them.
I sat now, on the deck empty of all but me, watching as a blood-drenched piece of metal was pulled out with his magic. Sombra glanced at it, almost looking - at least at what I could glean from here - unsatisfied with the more than generous amount of gore that coated the usually smooth silver surface.
He drove it in again, and my hooves flew to my ears at the howl. What did he think he was doing? If he continued like this, I'd end the serpent myself, or Tartarus, I'd heal the poor creature and send it to sleep under the sea to spare it such a cruelty. I had hoped that Sombra would be above such brutality. In our spar he mentioned that while he didn't mind taunting and playing with a foe, he did not torture those he planned to slay, as Onyx had. Instead, he preferred to go for blows that made it much easier - and faster - to dispose of an enemy.
'Unless it's personal,' he had added, 'because if it were I'd make them suffer above all else so that even Tartarus cannot be viewed as a mercy.'
There is nothing personal here and if nothing is done to show me his is doing anything other than assaulting a creature that would much rather flee, then I will intervene myself.
I was too far away to hear anything but I could see that Sombra's horn was glowing the brightest red and that it looked like he was muttering something to himself.
One blink later the entire sea serpent was nothing more than a scaled hide with crystals a truer red than any ruby tearing through from the inside out, clotting and crystallizing where more blood would have poured forth and bearing what drops did as if it was a macabre sort of dew.
Sombra teleported away before the corpse of the colossus fell into the ocean, flopping backward into it's watery grave.
"This was far from a clean death," I mumbled, head down, swaying with leftover nausea at the thought of his shadow form...
Sombra sheathes Fate, and I can see the crystal veins on it glow as brightly as his aura had when he drove the sword in.
Veins filled with blood, I thought realizing that the what kind of dark magic the crystals were for: blood magic, which drove the minds of those who wielded an ever-vanishing amulet to harm those around them for the sight of blood. It's almost surprising Onyx had never used it.
My jaw twitched at the name, pity welling up for Sombra. If he's looked at modern history - which I believe he has - he'll see that those who became embroiled in this magic were called inaccurately called demons.
There is a dull ache in my head as I remember how I never would have any reaction to this before. 'Demon' had always been such a hollow term for me, just another thing that the ponies of old would cry in a mob, a lesser cousin to 'witch' - one I had become used to in my past, as had a good deal of innocent mares and fillies who had died for their unusual but not harmful magics - but 'demon' was different. It was like a dusty mantle trinket: always there but never getting much attention from myself. It didn't sting.
But now 'demon' meant something.
Sombra rests a forehoof as crimson as his cloak on my wither gingerly, no doubt still holding some kind of nervousness at our last encounter, which I imagine was quite traumatic for him.
"It didn't suffer as long as you think, Luna. I'm not that cruel, I just wanted to see if it worked."
I didn't say anything, only giving an awkward bow of my head to show I believed him before stumbling and collapsing - right into him.
He steadied me with his forehooves even though he had almost fallen over. I heard my heart's beat skip at my exhaustion before resuming as normal for my current condition. I felt Sombra's too as I drifted into sleep. For a moment it almost felt like that tiny skip and my own addled mind made it sound as if they beat as one under our filthy, soon to be matted coats.
Yes, 'demon' does mean something now and it's not the evil others say it is.
It meant him, Sombra.
My friend.