//------------------------------// // Chapter 6: Stories // Story: Star of the Sea // by JNKing //------------------------------// Razor Tail found Star training that night, down in a certain area of the lower sections. The Dragon of the Depths boasted a fine training hall and gymnasium, as the crew tended to spend long periods of time away from land; this hall had been placed as both a pass time and to keep skills sharp during the slow times. And it was there that Razor found Star.  The young alicorn was like a superball of destruction, flying back and forth between several training dummies with incredible grace. She shifted form as she fought, punching one dummy as Star Wing, then launching off said dummy and hitting another as Night Fire.  “Star Wing,” Razor called.  CRASH! “OW!” In turning to look at Razor, Star plowed right into one of the practice dummies, sprawling across the floor. “I’m okay!” she regained her hooves, shaking herself off before flapping over to Razor and saluting. “Yes, Captain?” Smiling, Razor made a “come in” gesture with his tail and several Earth Ponies slowly filed in as Star gazed at the earth ponies with a curious light, noticing their uniforms looked very familiar yet the clothing was clearly re-dyed among other modifications. Once they were lined up next to him, Razor turned back to Star. “Star… these stallions used to be part of the NTU.”  She tensed up, but didn’t attack just yet.  “We’re not anymore,” one of them confirmed. “And we’ll never be again.”  Star tilted her head. “You mean you gentle-stallions have stories to tell?” They glanced at each other… before nodding. She perked up. “Well, in that case…” She shot away and returned with a small miniature campfire - the flames burning with a magic that kept them from hurting the actual wood. She promptly sat herself down with a marshmallow on a stick. She began cooking her candy as she gazed at them eagerly. “Start at the beginning, and when you come to the end, well…” she giggled. “Stop.”  A few chuckled while one, who Star guessed was the “leader” for lack of a better word, took his hat off and set it next to him. “Well Star, before we start there are some things you might be still too young to understand… that and somethings we’re trying to forget.” Star chuckled. “Um… you’d be surprised…”  The former NTU Ponies looked at her confused. What are you talking about?” the leader asked.  Star pulled her marshmallow out of the fire, gazing at it’s warm brown surface with a contemplative light. “Let’s just say I had the Talk sooner rather than later.”  They were shocked. “Princess Luna told you? When?! How old were you?” “Eight,” she replied. “And… it wasn’t my Mom who told me.”  The group were surprised and the leader leaned towards Star. “What happened, Star?” Star set her candy down and sighed.  “I spent a lot of time in jail,” she admitted. “I’m not sure if Captain Razor Tail told you how the nobles managed to throw me in jail for crying when I was five months old, but that was just the tip of the iceberg. Any time I scared one of their foals with my mere presence; every time I wasn’t absolutely grateful to the chefs, despite them only giving me trash to eat; and sometimes just because they felt like it, they’d find a way to get the guards to throw me in a jail cell, and there I’d wait until Luna or Uncle Flash eventually managed to get me out.”  “Granted, it wasn’t too bad,” Star continued. “Mostly because of the convicts I was around. They figured out pretty quickly that the nobles and their lap dog guards were full of manure for throwing me in with them, and a lot of the convicts had little sisters or daughters of their own.” She chuckled. “In a way, I grew to like jail; the guys there made sure I had enough to eat, they laughed at my jokes, taught me some good self-defense moves… they were more friends to me than any colt or filly my age.” Her grin faded. “Unfortunately, I let the guards know I wasn’t scared of jail anymore. How some of my best friends were in prison uniforms rather than fancy noble garbs. So, they chose to put me with someone different.” —--  Many years ago… The first sign that something was wrong was the direction they took. When Star tried to skip her way to Cell Block A - all ready to tell her main convict friend Crazy Eight about some stories she had read - the guard shoved her away from the usual path, forcing her down another corridor.  She paused, turning back only to get shoved further down the corridor. “Get moving, Moon Spawn,” the guard spat, shoving her again.  “But… Cell Block A is that way,” she insisted, pointing behind him.  The guard’s eyes were unsympathetic. “And you’re not in Cell Block A,” he replied, shoving her again. He grinned. “You gonna do what you’re told, or do I get to do this the fun way?”  Confused, but determined not to let this cruel pony have his fun, Star reluctantly turned down the new pathway, dodging his hoof when he tried to shove her again. Her luck didn’t hold out, as they soon reached a fork in the corridor. In the time it took her to try and figure out where to go, the guard shoved her.  Eventually, they reached a barren, moss covered cell, situated in the deepest, darkest part of the dungeon.  Star shot inside before the guard could kick her again, leaving him only able to slam the door shut on her, rattling her ears with the bang.  For a second, she paced around the dim cell, her story for Crazy Eight still on her lips. Then… “Well, aren’t you a sweet little thing,” a voice mused.  Star turned; one of the walls was chipped and cracked, with holes that led into the other cell. From the other cell, a pair of blood red eyes were gazing at her through the holes in the wall.  She shrugged. “Well, I do like sugar,” she admitted. “A sugary sweet black bird,” the pony on the other end purred. “Tell me, my little black bird; how does one so fine enter such a… confine?”  Star swallowed, forcing herself to grin. “It’s, uh… Star Wing, not Black Bird,” she replied. “Princess Star Wing; Luna’s daughter.”  The pony gave a soft breath of understanding. “Ah. So the succubus of the moon brought forth a moon spawn. Unsurprising.”  Star tilted her head. “Huh?” “Tell me, my little black bird,” he continued. “Are you unhappy with the sun-horse’s reign?” “You… mean Aunt Celestia?” she asked. She chuckled. “Well, she hasn’t done anything about me being thrown down here… repeatedly.”  The pony cackled. “And she won’t ever. Because the power doesn’t really belong to her. It belongs to whatever stallion noble who’s claimed her. That’s what females are really for, my little black bird; they are there only to be claimed and then serve the most powerful males.”  Star tilted her head. “Serve? Like… the servants and butlers?” She grinned. “Should I buy myself a tuxedo?”  “Amusing,” the pony mused. “But no. Let me explain what your real goal is going to be in life, my little black bird…”  —--- Present Day… Star half-heartedly nibbled on her marshmallow. The former NTU Ponies reactions could only be described as a mix of shock, anger, and understanding while in the background Razor was motionless… but one could see the raw fury in his eyes as he gripped his halberd tighter. “Did he…?” one of the ponies finally asked after a pause.   Star chuckled. “He was behind a wall. And even if the wall had holes in it…” she swallowed, realizing what that still entailed. “No. No, he didn’t touch me.” She looked down. “And he didn’t get the chance to either. My mom and Uncle Flash came down soon after and… well… let’s just say that Nightmare Moon almost came out sooner rather than later.” “Why didn’t Nightmare Moon come out?” another asked. “Because for once, Celestia took my mom’s side,” Star elaborated.  —- Many years ago… Luna threw the bloodied, broken form of the prisoner at Celestia’s feet. Celestia blinked in shock, as she looked to her sister.  “What…?” Celestia tried to ask, before Luna indicated Star on her back.  “She was placed next to his cell,” Luna seethed. “The wall was in complete disrepair; HE COULD HAVE GOTTEN TO HER!”  “He almost did,” Flash added, with a nasty glower at the guards, who put themselves closer to Celestia out of fear of the anger in his eyes. It was well known that Flash Magnus saw Star Wing as his niece, and every guard knew how dangerous he could be if provoked. “We stopped him just as she was in reach of his hooves.”  Celestia’s eyes widened, before she glared down at the broken stallion before her as he struggled to lift his head.  However, one of the nobles stepped forward. “Princess Celestia, I must say…” “You will say nothing,” Celestia snarled.  The noble backed up in shock at the anger in her tone. She rose up, glaring down at the prisoner Luna had beaten.  “You clearly don’t recognize this stallion, so let me clue you in,” Celestia continued to her nobles. “This is Quill Blade. A utterly wretched piece of filth who wasn’t dead because death was too good for him. The things he would do to mares… to females of any species…” She glared down at him as he coughed.  “Only… what you… deserve…” he got out.  Celestia’s horn glowed. Luna covered Star’s eyes with her wings… but Star still heard the sound of her spell firing. When Luna uncovered her wing, Star saw a pile of ash where Quill Blade had been. Celestia looked up.  “Who was the guard that put the Moon Spawn in that cell?” she demanded. “I want him here NOW!”  Star flinched at the Royal Canterlot Voice, but it did the trick. In a few minutes, the same guard that had been shoving and pushing her around was now the one being shoved and forced into a kneeling stance before his princess. Celestia’s glare deepened. “Iron Hoof,” she mused. “So, you’re the one who put the Moon Spawn with Quill Blade?” Iron Hoof shivered at the venom in her tone, before managing a nod. “Y-Yes, Your Grace.” “You did this… despite the fact that your own sister suffered under Quill Blade?”  Iron Hoof noticed the pile of ash, and found it in himself to grin. “It got you to finally give him what he deserved, didn’t it?” He paused, but just before he could add, ‘Your Grace,’ another beam spell hit him in the chest. He hit the wall with a brutal CRACK, his armor falling to pieces around him as he tumbled to the ground with a cry of agony.  Every pony - even Luna and Flash, both guarding Star Wing - backed up as Celestia bore down on Iron Hoof.  “Did you just come into my throne room,” she growled. “And tell me you were willing to let everything your sister went through happen again to another filly, out of some sick thought of revenge?” Iron Hoof quivered under Celestia’s glare. “B-But it was the Moon Spawn…” he whimpered. “DID YOU?!” Celestia roared, the Royal Canterlot Voice causing the stallion to quiver in fright.  “I’m sorry, your grace,” he wailed. “I’m sorry!” “DID? YOU!” she demanded.  “Yes!” he finally screamed.  “GET OUT!” she demanded, seizing him in her aura and flinging him out of the throne room. “GET OUT OF THIS CASTLE AND NEVER COME BACK!”  Obeying even with what had to be at least three broken ribs, Iron Hoof scurried away, as Celestia slammed the door on him. When she turned back, all the nobles shied away. Even Luna covered Star again with her wing. “Now, I want you to listen to me,” Celestia declared. “All of you. Whatever my sister spawned from her… ‘affair’… she does not deserve the fate that disgusting monsters like Quill Blade would bestow upon her. No filly - no pony - deserves that.” She glared down at her nobles, her next sentence not a question. “Am I clear?” “Yes, your Grace,” the nobles stammered, many of them falling to bows like they were worried she’d strike them next.  Briefly, Celestia and Luna locked eyes. And Star saw something more than words pass between them. Luna gave her a soft nod. And for the briefest moment, Celestia nodded back. —- Present Day… Star Wing smiled. “It was the first time I saw Celestia as a true aunt,” Star mused. “It was the miracle that proved to me that miracles exist.” She sighed. “Too bad it was a bait-and-switch. Too bad Celestia didn’t consider what the nobles were already doing to me to be a terrible fate as well.” Razor was silently enraged, only keeping it down thanks to his training during his time in the Kirin Mountains while the former NTU Ponies showed understanding and pity. But as they gazed on her with sad looks, Star realized how sad she must have looked, and shook off her feelings. “But… enough about me!” she insisted. “What about you guys? Like I said, you don’t have to hold back too many details - though I do still wish you would.” She chuckled, before waving them on. “Come on. Share your stories. Tell me your adventures.” The leader picked up his hat and put it back on his head. “Well Star, I was once a captain of a Sloop. A fine ship with a great crew, who like me never really saw the whole point to enslaving others, the only thing we craved was adventure.” He sighed. “But it didn’t last… We had been sailing as escort to a Ship-of-the-line when it turned its guns on us. There was no warning as the cannonballs smashed into our ship, twenty crew mates killed before we even knew what was happening. It turned out that the NTU’s leaders saw us as too much of a loose cannon… and decided to “take care” of us. As our sloop slipped under the waves the survivors climbed onto the longboats.” He snorted bitterly. “Only to find we had been given faulty ones; in the end most of the crew were lost, only me and a few others survived. There had been more but there wasn’t enough room and one by one they fell into the black, never resurfacing. We floated for a full week, and it was only a chance encounter with the Dragon of the Depths that saved those of us who were left. Four more had died during that week, only me and two others out of the ten in that longboat survived, and we were so weak we could barely move. The Outcasts took us in and we have been here ever since.” Star nodded solemnly, before glancing at Razor Tail with a grin. “Well… you couldn’t have picked a better group to find you.”  After the former Captain told his story the others went one-by-one, Star listened as she heard stories of betrayal, of lost family, and of other mistreatment that would lead these Ponies to join the Outcasts, and they were far from the only ones. During this time Star learned that many former NTU Ponies, each of which had suffered in some way under the faction’s iron hoof, had defected to the Outcasts, much preferring it to their former faction. And as they told their stories, Star found her early suspicions of the ponies wavering. They truly did seem regretful that they had joined such a faction. And it did make her curious about the NTU ponies she had fought. Were they truly evil? Or could they have been saved?  Then Star remembered what Wolf Waster had almost done to her - how he had reminded her of Black Quill - and shook herself of such thoughts. While it does sound like there are some good souls in there, there are still plenty of bad ones. And I need to be prepared to handle both.