“Everypony, to me!” Luna cried, her horn sparkling to life.
Her party eagerly complied, just as a shield flickered to life around her. It was just in the knick of time, too, as the skeletal ponies proved themselves to be more than just mindless zombies. A tremendous whirring sound was coming from several of their guns.
They still knew how to use them.
“Please hold, please hold, please hold,” Doctor Whooves gulped, glancing at their shield.
A series of loud, almost metallic CRACKS! came from the alien weapons as their muzzle flashes lit up the corridors. Roaring from them was a series of sharpened, crystal-like daggers, which, fortunately, shattered into a million pieces as they struck Luna’s shield.
“Yes!” Doctor Whooves cheered. “Alicorn magic - gotta bloody love it!”
Not all was well behind the shield, however, as Luna was almost instantly feeling the strain of holding it. There were over three guns shooting at them, two from one side, one from the other, and though they weren’t rapid fire, their projectiles hit with the force of supersonic spears. It wasn’t the worst attack Luna had ever deflected, but it was certainly up there. It was taking enormous concentration to hold, as every crystal that struck the shield felt like a pinprick on Luna’s mind.
“Thou must smite them!” Luna cried, so desperate she was switching to the tongue of her native time. “Mine shield win’t hold!”
“On it!” Tempest cried, sticking her shattered horn just slightly out of the shield. A ball of raw mana grew from its hollow interior, and then…
“HA!” she cried, letting it loose. It plowed through two skeletal ponies like a bowling ball through pins, clattering their bones all around the corridor.
Two of their gunners were down with one remaining. However, the ones without them were closing in on the shield. While they didn’t seem capable of galloping, they were still moving fairly quickly.
“C-Can they get through?!” Derpy asked Luna.
“Aye!” Luna yelped.
At that, two of them entered the bubble. Luckily, Derpy was ready for them. She had unsealed the wing slots of her suit, letting them breath, and took flight, positioning herself to buck the two interlopers.
With the power on par with an earth pony, she struck each of them with a hoof, knocking them out of the bubble and shattering their frontal legs. This seemed to be too much for them, as they quickly collapsed to the floor, lifeless once more. The black mist that surrounded them abandoned them, shooting off down the corridor.
“Eep!” Derpy cried, as if surprised by her own strength. “These things can’t feel anything, r-right?”
“I doubt it, Derpy!” Doctor Whooves shouted over the weapon fire. “They’re long dead! Like the Steward said, they’re just puppets!”
“Then they won’t mind me doing this!” Tempest said, fire in her eyes as she leapt to the other side of the bubble, positioning her horn to take down the remaining gunner.
It was a good thing, too, for at that moment--
“ACK!” Luna cried, her shield dropping.
Holding up the shield had taken a toll on her mana reserves, which in turn turn tired her out quickly. This combined with the continuous probing of the remaining alien weapon was too much. She was forced to disengage her spell, her mind feeling like it had been stabbed by a thousand needles.
“Captain!” Doctor Whooves cried.
Tempest seemed aware of the emergency, however, as even more quickly than the last time, she summoned another ball of raw mana and flung it at the gunner. Even as it was flying towards him, he continued to fire. Fortunately, the mana ball was disintegrating his projectiles as it made its way to him.
And unlike the other two she had previously hit, this mana ball completely vaporized the skeleton as well.
This came at a tremendous cost, however, as Tempest, like Luna, was now panting heavily, both of them having exhausted themselves. The slightly diminished oxygen levels of the alien planet wasn’t helping things, either. They were practically on the verge of gasping.
“Derpy! Doctor!” Luna panted. “Get out of here while you have the chance! Leave us!”
The two ponies instead looked at each other, before narrowing their eyes with a nod.
“Yeah, not happening,” Derpy said stubbornly.
“Indeed,” Doctor Whooves said, glancing at the remaining five skeletons who were, fortunately, unarmed. “As the younglings say these days, ‘Come at me, bro!”
Luna’s eyes widened. On top of controlling an alien spaceship, landing on another world, and being attacked by an alien creature, something else she never expected to see was now right in front of her: an adrenaline-addled Doctor Whooves.
While his performance was sloppy, he was still able to buck as hard as any other Earth Pony. And so it didn't take long for Derpy and him to mop up the remaining skeletal ponies.
“BEEEYA!” Derpy cried, bucking one so hard its bones cracked into a nearby wall.
“GERONIMO!” Doctor Whooves roared, lobbing one’s skull off with one hoof and breaking another’s legs with another.
Eventually, all that remained of the ‘zombies’ were their skeletal remains.
While the entire fight had only lasted a minute, it left the entire group breathless and sweating. Tempest was gasping so loudly that it was no surprise when she reached for her oxygen mask and shoved it on her face. Fortunately, that did the trick, as her wheezing quieted slightly afterwards.
With that, a lack of skeletons or megalomaniacal alien creatures gave them a chance to recuperate. When their collective panting finally died down to a minimum, Tempest removed her mask, and Luna decided to give voice to what they were all thinking.
“Let’s go.”
Wordlessly and cautiously, they began trotting back to the airlock, finally breaking into a full-on gallop once they had regained enough energy. There didn’t seem to be any other skeletons nearby, but they weren’t taking any chances. However, when they arrived…
“Oh no!” Derpy cried.
Whether it was the commotion of their escape attempt, or the ship dampening it, they had failed to notice the howling winds that were now roaring outside the ship. They only became apparent once they drew near the airlock, the wind blowing through it and down the corridor.
Out one of the nearby windows, they could see their source. They were the product of a thunderstorm more violent than any Luna had ever seen on Equis. Oceans of rain were pouring from the heavens, and lightning was striking the area in regular intervals.
“Crap,” Tempest said. “I knew that storm looked bad, but I didn’t think it would be this bad.”
“There’s no way we’ll make it back without being hit by lightning,” Derpy sighed.
“These suits have in-built radios,” Doctor Whooves noted. “We could try to contact Rainbow - have her meet us here.”
“No,” Luna said, shaking her head. “It’s far too dangerous. Flying through rough weather is one thing, but taking off and landing in it is another. Not to mention, I don’t want to give that creature an opportunity to ‘jump ship’."
“We should at least let her know what happened,” Derpy mused.
Luna again disagreed. “If we indicate that we’re in trouble, it’s likely she will attempt a rescue, even if we say not to. She is the Element of Loyalty, after all. It’s in her very nature.”
“Good point,” Doctor Whooves nodded. “That is the most likely outcome, knowing Ms. Dash.”
“B-But what do we do, then?” Derpy asked. “No offense, captain, but you look exhausted. You too, Tempest.”
“I still have enough mana for quite a few Lance Spells,” Luna noted. “Though… doing what I did before with my Shield Spell could be… problematic. The weapons they were using hit hard.”
“I’m almost completely drained,” Tempest sighed. “I used too much for my last attack. I’m sorry. It was stupid of me to--”
“You saved our lives doing that,” Derpy comforted. “There is nothing to be sorry about.”
“And there wasn’t anything else you could have done,” Doctor Whooves said. “That any of us could have done. It was far from stupid.”
“Indeed,” Luna said, smiling at her. “You’ve done well, Tempest Shadow. More than enough to earn my trust. I am sorry for doubting you. Old habits die hard, I suppose.”
“Thanks, princess-- er, captain,” she said, smiling warmly. “That means a lot to me.” She then glanced away from her, a look of shame lacing her face. “Buuut… since we’re talking about trust, I have a bit of a confession to make…”
“Hm?” Luna said, raising her eyebrows.
“Remember when you said not to fool around with the alien weapons?” Tempest asked. “I might have… disobeyed your orders.”
With that, to the astonishment of the group and the slight annoyance of Luna, she opened the side of the supposed ‘counter-weight’ of the weapon she was saddled with, revealing a previously hidden control panel.
“Tempest,” Derpy grunted. “That wasn’t a good idea.”
“I know it was reckless,” Tempest said guiltily. “But I meant well, I swear. I just wanted to impress you, princess, and to have something ready for whatever we were going to meet out here.”
Luna took a deep breath. “What you did was wrong, but I’m afraid you weren’t the only one who hid the truth. I told you I didn’t want you ‘messing’ with them out of fear of causing damage to the ship. However, the reality was I just didn’t trust you at the time.”
“I suppose it was warranted,” Tempest said.
“Perhaps,” Luna said. “Though can I say I was any better in that instant? Given the circumstances, I can forgive you for this. But please, be more forthcoming in the future.”
“I swear to you I will,” Tempest nodded.
“Good,” Luna nodded, an idea slowly forming in her mind… and a smile slowly morphing on her face. “Now then… why don’t we find a few more of these weapons, and you can show us how to use them.”
Tempest’s eyes widened. “Seriously?”
“Captain… are you sure about this?” Derpy asked.
“We can’t leave and we now have a means to properly defend ourselves,” Luna said. “We might as well try to complete our mission. You heard the creature: she wants us dead. Not only that, she wants to take the Solarium, steal the dropship, and take over the Starshot. Whether she has the means to take on the remaining crew, I do not know, but we shouldn’t risk it.”
“I suppose it would be the logical course of action,” Doctor Whooves said. “But still…”
“No,” Luna said, narrowing her eyes. “We will not let our fear of her dictate our actions. The Steward thinks she holds all the cards here. That we are but fumbling fools blundering our way forward. Fumbling though we may be, let us not forget what we've managed to accomplish. Together, we have learned to use something far in advance of us. We've landed on an alien world and have successfully braved its perils. This may be our greatest challenge yet, but I believe we can overcome it. I say we take the Solarium for ourselves before she has a chance, and show her we aren’t the ‘inferior’ beings she thinks we are!”
Whether it was from her dramatic speech or just her logic, the group voiced their agreements.
“Alright, let’s do it!”
“Allonz-y!”
“Go Team Equis!”
With Luna’s away teams’ spirits rising despite the circumstance, they made their way back to the battle site. To their fortune, they managed to find a weapon before they even arrived. It was different than the saddle-mounted gun, and seemed to be more along the lines of the muskets the Griffons used, though with a large trigger a hoof could activate. They must have missed it the first time through.
“We have a few of these in our own armory,” Tempest noted. “I think they’re mainly meant for flying creatures like pegasi who have both of their frontal hooves available.”
She nodded to Derpy.
“Um…” Derpy coughed. “I’m not… sure about this. I’ve never even held a spear before.”
“It’s good you have a respect for these types of weapons,” Tempest said. “And a fear of them. When I served the Storm King, his troopers used firearms occasionally depending on the enemy we faced. Accidents were common, with our people shooting themselves half as many times as they hit the enemy. Things were so bad even we started doing safety drills."
"That's… not really giving me confidence," Derpy gulped.
"I wasn't finished," Tempest continued. "After we started safety training, accidents were reduced by over 87 percent. So my point with all of this is that while they are very dangerous devices that must be wielded with care, knowledge, and respect, as long as you do that, you’ll be fine.”
"...Well, okay," Derpy said, shifting uncomfortably. "So… how do I use this thing, then? Er, safely that is."
At that, Tempest gave them a brief run-down on how to use firearms, as well as safety advice. Never point the weapon at anyone else unless you intended to shoot them. Keep your claw (or hoof in this case) off the trigger. Be aware of your surroundings at all times. That sort of thing.
“... So, ready to give it a ‘shot’?” Tempest asked Derpy, who was now nervously fluttering in the air and aiming the weapon down the corridor.
“Was that a pun?” Luna said, raising an eyebrow.
She glanced away from her with an almost guilty expression. “... No.” She then cleared her throat. “Alright, Derpy, go ahead and take a practice shot. Just shoot straight down the hall. Don’t worry, you won’t hit anyone save for maybe the creature.”
“Just because she tried to kill us doesn’t mean I want to kill her,” she grumbled. “We should be better than that.”
“Sorry,” Tempest said, simpering ever so slightly. “It was more of a joke than anything. Just pretend there’s one of those skeletons in front of us.”
“Speaking of which,” Doctor Whooves spoke up. “Are we going to… talk about how the alien remains seem to have belonged to some type of pony? Their skeletal structures match our own nearly exactly. The chances of alien life having that are… astronomically low, to be blunt.”
“I’m more concerned about how they’ve… passed,” Tempest said coldly. “The creature indicated she had a hoof in it.”
“There is much we have to discuss about all of this,” Luna said. “Though perhaps we should save that for later.”
“Very well,” the doctor grumbled.
“Fair enough,” Tempest said, turning towards Derpy. “Ms. Hooves?”
“Alright,” she sighed. “Here goes nothing.”
She pulled the trigger, and instantly, a red beam of light shot forth from it and into the darkness, accompanied by the sound of an electrical discharge. It looked almost exactly like a unicorn’s Lance Spell, or ‘Beam Spell’ as it was nicknamed.
“H-Huh,” Derpy said, gulping slightly. “That wasn’t so bad, I guess.”
“Much less kickback than back home,” Tempest said, gazing at the weapon with an impressed look. “A far cry more advanced than the weapons on Equis. Though I suppose that’s a given.”
“I realize wielding such a thing is uncomfortable for you,” Luna said to Derpy in a consoling tone. “And I promise you, this shall be the only time you will need to.”
“Thanks, captain,” Derpy said, smiling lightly.
They carried forward, making it back to the battle site. Among the many bones scattered about it, they managed to find another one of the ‘Beam Rifles’, as Tempest was now calling them, for Luna. This was along with an intact saddle-based ‘Shard Cannons’ one of the skeletal ponies was wearing.
“I am going to take so many showers after this,” Doctor Whooves shivered as Luna levitated the saddle-portion of it on his back. “All the showers.”
Given what was formerly wearing it, Luna couldn’t exactly blame him.
As it turned out, the Shard Cannon was even more complex than what Luna had seen so far. The ‘counter-weight’ not only housed some sort of battery, computer and power switch, but also another small compartment in the rear which contained an eye-piece and a small, two-button controller. It also turned out that the cannon itself could be turned slightly on both axises via a mechanical arm attached to the saddle. However, this wasn’t done manually. This was, in fact, controlled by the former.
“Took me a while to figure these things out,” Tempest said, putting on her head-set mounted eye-piece and attaching the controller to her chest. “These things work as some sort of…”
“Automatic targeting system,” Doctor Whooves finished, his tone laced with disgust as he finished putting on his own. “At least, that’s what I assume.”
“Yeah,” Tempest said. “I guess that’s the best way to describe it. When we power it up, a crosshair will appear on the eye-piece. It’ll follow your, well, eye movements, which means all you need to do to select a target is face it, look at it, and press the button on your right on the controller. That’ll keep it locked on whatever it is you want to shoot. Don’t ask me how it keeps the lock-on - it just does.”
“I assume the left button is for firing, then?” Doctor Whooves asked sorrowfully.
“Yup, and it’ll keep firing until you hit it again or switch targets,” Tempest nodded, before noting his tone. “Hey, you okay?”
Doctor Whooves glanced away from her. “All this advanced technology. All this thought and effort… simply to allow an earth pony like myself to wield a tool of destruction.”
“No offense, Doc, but we’ve known they’ve been armed since the beginning,” Tempest said.
“True,” the doctor nodded. “However, I initially assumed their weapons were only for some form of self-defense. However, now that we’ve met one of them, I doubt that’s their primary function. This ‘Oblivion Empire’ seems to be some form of aggressive, quasi-theocratic state. And if that creature’s words are correct, we already know what happens to disbelievers.”
“Doctor…” Luna sighed.
“Sorry, sorry,” he sighed. “It’s just I’ve spent my every waking hour, and some unwaking, speculating on what the Starshot’s builders may be like, and for them to turn out like this?”
“I know how you feel, Doc,” Derpy said, patting him on the back. “But hey, just cus these aliens aren’t the way we’d like them to be doesn’t mean everything out here is bad. And we already know there is more than just them. Don’t forget your moss.”
The doctor smiled slightly at her. “That is true. The galaxy is a large place.”
“Exactly,” Luna said. “Not to mention, we still don’t know the whole truth about what’s going on here. Perhaps we will find answers as we descend below. However, for that, we must be on guard.”
“Captain’s right,” Tempest nodded. “Keep your mind clear, Doc. Those… those bone walkers may not be much on their own, but remember, some of them are armed with the same weapons we are. We can’t afford any slip-ups.”
“True, true,” Doctor Whooves said, narrowing his eyes. “Very well. I’ll ‘take point’, as they say. So far, this ship’s layout mirrors the Starshot, so the hyperdrive should be two decks below. The Solarium canisters she mentioned should be in a storeroom nearby.” He managed a chuckle. “I suppose Spike and Pharynx were correct. There was Solarium waiting for us here. I just wish it wasn’t a package deal…”
“You and me both,” Luna nodded.
They began following him, their path taking them down two ladder shafts - one to the lowest deck.
This one, unlike the one they entered on, was a lot messier. There were wires hanging from the ceiling (thankfully not sparking), panels missing from the bulkheads, and junk lying about everywhere. Fortunately, there were no more skeletons in sight, animated or otherwise.
“Lower decks must have taken the brunt of the impact,” Tempest noted. “Working like a shock absorber for the upper ones.”
“I wonder what brought it down in the first place?” Derpy asked.
“Space flight isn’t without its risks,” Doctor Whooves said. “The training made that abundantly clear. Navigational errors, a failure in the shield systems allowing meteoroid impacts, uncharted anomalies, any number of things could have done the trick. Not that I think it’s common, mind you. If it was, I doubt anypony would bother with spaceships at all.”
“I have trouble believing this was the result of an accident,” Luna said. “It’s always irked me just how coincidental that the first system we arrived at - an apparently uncharted one - happened to have a crashed ship in it.”
“Fair point,” the doctor admitted. “Add that with the matter of the creature seemingly… expecting us.”
“She seemed completely off her rocker to me,” Tempest shrugged. “Hard to trust much of what she had to say… save for her having a hoof in what happened to the crew. She may be crazy, but we know she’s dangerous.”
"Just how dangerous, we shall see," Luna nodded. "Doctor, lead us forth."
He nodded, and the group carried on towards what the doctor called its 'Engineering Section.' If the bridge was considered the brain of a starship, this would be its heart. Everything from the power core to the hyperdrive to the wormhole generator was supposed to be down here.
Unlike most of the other decks, this one was a bit more of a maze. Hallways twisted into unexpected angles at times, and the whole thing was very disorientating. Still, at least Doctor Whooves seemed to know his way around, as not once did he need to stop to re-orient himself.
The only stop that did come was when they came upon a particular open door. One that led to a room even messier than the halls. It looked like some form of struggle had taken place in it given there were scorch marks dotting the walls, most likely caused by weapons fire, on top of scattered engineering instruments on the ground.
"Mmm, I believe this was the Chief Engineer's quarters," Doctor Whooves said.
"Hey, look at that," Derpy said.
She pointed to the most surprising thing of all within it: what seemed to be a notebook of sorts. Not digital, but paper. It lay on one of the rock slabs the aliens called beds.
"Curiouser and curiouser," Luna said, trotting into the room and levitating it over to her. "Perhaps a journal of some sort."
"Guess their engineer was kind of old-fashioned," Tempest noted. "You'd think they'd be using those… what did you call them, Doc? Digital logbooks?"
"The software was available on the Starshot," he explained. "Nopony seemed to be using it, but I just assumed any logs were deleted along with most of the other information."
As they spoke, Luna opened the notebook and began flipping through it. Naturally, there wasn't much on the first few pages save for various technical illustrations complimented by labels written in the aliens' language.
However, a few pages further was something much more interesting. Not only was it written in more of a journal form, but it was in a completely different language.
A language Luna actually recognized.
"Find something interesting, captain?" Doctor Whooves asked.
"Yes," Luna said, astonished. "It's… there's text written in an old Equestrian dialect!"
"What?!" Doctor Whooves gasped.
"No way," Derpy said, shaking her head.
Tempest narrowed her eyes. "I don't like what this implies at all. Do you know what specific dialect it is?"
"It was a general one," Luna explained. "It fell out of style for a more simplistic version in time, a few hundred years after I was born. There was a group that still used it long after it 'died', but… no. There's no way they could be involved."
“This rabbit hole just keeps getting deeper,” Doctor Whooves said. “So… what does it say? I assume you can read it?”
Luna nodded, beginning to do so:
“21st Day of the Harvest Moon, 576.1.6T Unto Oblivion.
It's risky for me to write down these kind of thoughts, but I need to organize them somehow. Hopefully, on the unlikely case the Steward reads them, she'll just confuse our native dialect for engineering gibberish. She never did bother to learn it as far as I know.
I suppose I should thank her, pulling the Singularity's Ascent off the front lines. I know I shouldn't feel anything towards Crescent Moon, ever since she ran off to join the heretics. But still… every time we jump into battle with the NLR, I can't help but thinking she might be onboard one of their ships. The ships we've been ripping through by the dozen. And when I do…
Can't the Deep Ones have a little mercy? How can a father just stop loving his daughter, no matter how much shame she's brought to her family? It… I shouldn’t say more.
So yes, I'm glad we're getting away from all that for the moment for the Steward's 'special mission.' However, the nature of it… has me a bit concerned. I get that we're too far away to refuel our Aetherium supplies, but the way she has us taxing the hyperdrive is bad news.
I consider myself a decent engineer, but I'm not a miracle worker, despite what I'd like the crew to believe. If we keep going like this, we're gonna burn it out.
...
5th Day of the Shadowed Moon, 576.1.6T Unto Oblivion.
Annnnd we burned out the drive. Cursed thing started leaking volatile Solarium. Once that happens, there's no going back. Lost a few good crew, too, when it happened. At least they died quick. Gonna miss them, especially Void Seeker. She was a good kid - reminded me of me of my daughter.
Now, we're stuck. In an uncharted system, no less. Only good news is it happens to have been our destination.
It isn't my place to say it this, but the Steward better have a good reason for dragging us here. Umbral in general are pretty coy, but she's acting especially weird about this whole deal. All we've been told is that we're rendezvousing with somepony, and that we 'need to stay silent.' AKA, we're on a communications blackout.
All I can say is that I hope whoever we're supposed to meet gets here soon. I really don't like being legless near an untamed star.
...
30th Day of the Shadowed Moon, 576.1.6T Unto Oblivion.
It's been nearly an entire Moon Cycle now. Nopony's showed up. It's just us, the star, and a few barren rocks. The Steward's been acting more and more frustrated, lashing out at ponies for simple blunders. May not seem unusual for most Umbral, but she's actually normally pretty friendly. Even consoled me about my daughter one time, saying the Deep Ones 'would be proud of my continued loyalty'.
This makes me think something is not going according to plan.
Nopony's gotten the courage to ask her to activate the LR distress beacon yet, but somepony will have to eventually. Technically, this should be the FO's job, but I doubt he will. Too much of a hooflicker. Guess it's up to me.
***
31st Day of the Shadowed Moon, 576.1.6T Unto Oblivion.
I'm confined to quarters for a day, save for essential duties. Friggin' FO.
***
5th Day of the Bright Moon 575.1.6T Unto Oblivion.
Another Moon Cycle passed. We're even into a new year. Everypony's on edge now, and it ain't just us. The star has been flaring up occasionally. It really doesn't want us here. We would be perfectly happy leaving it be, but the Steward still won't activate the distress beacon. Even after the FO - friggin' hypocrite - finally got the nerve to ask.
Thing is, we just don't have enough food to stay here like this. Even if we start rationing, the greenhouse can't keep up with demand.
I don't understand why she won't let us call for help. We're far away from enemy territory, and the chances of them even being able to understand it are pretty remote. It ain't a general distress beacon, after all. It's highly encrypted, and their decryption tech isn't anywhere near where it needs to be to crack it.
All of this makes me wonder: is it the enemy she doesn't want finding out we’re here… or our own people?
I'm not the only one asking these questions, either. It's so bad that a large number of us are thinking of doing the unthinkable: confronting her about it.
***
5th Day of the Bright Moon 575.1.6T Unto Oblivion.
I've been ordered to permanently disable the distress beacon and all other long range communication systems. I suppose I can't blame her too much for getting angry - questioning an Umbral, let alone a Steward, is borderline heretical. At least in the way we did it.
However, what she's ordering me to do… it's a death sentence for half the crew. Unless whoever is supposed to arrive does it within two Moon Cycles, which seems unlikely, our food demands will overstep the supply output. We just won't be able to feed everyone.
I know we're all expendable in the Deep Ones' eyes, but there's usually a reason for that sort of sacrifice. What we're doing doesn't seem to be for their sake, but just for some weird personal quest of the Steward's.
And if that's the case, it will make her the heretic.
The FO is calling for a… discreet meeting. I never thought he'd have it in him, but… I think I know what this is about. May the Deep Ones have mercy on us.
***
Gotta write fast. Mutiny didn't go well. Steward was stronger than we thought. Everypony she took down she left a piece of herself in. Took control of them like a puppet, turned them against us. Didn't even know Umbral could do that.
Worst yet. Bridge was shot up. Control malfunction is sending us on a collision course with a nearby planet. Habitable, impact will be light, but the Steward…
Shard shots nearby. Shouts. Unlikely anyone will find this. If they do, know that we had no choice in our actions. Our honor is secured.
And if the one reading this is you, Crescent, I want you to know I forgive you, and love you.
Be well.”
As Luna finished reading, she couldn't help but tremble. Her eyes grew misty, though she managed to hold her tears at bay.
“A-At least we know the type of monster we’re dealing with now,” Tempest said, even her tone wavering slightly. “Captain? Are you going to be okay?”
Luna didn't respond. She didn't know anything about the writer of this journal, but nonetheless, their words were a knife into her heart, and eventually, a billow for her temper. Finally, she couldn't take it anymore, and as if she were a vent releasing pressure, her words can forth like an angry hiss of steam.
"Where is that Steward?!"