//------------------------------// // Sunset over Zumidia // Story: Secondo: Shores of Zebrica // by Lil Penpusher //------------------------------// Cafuza couldn't believe it. He had been on the regency council for little more than ten months, and now... this. He cowered, ducked and covered his head underneath his hooves as he heard a distant explosion muffled through the thick walls of the palace—those bastards... those accursed avian scum. He peeked out from under his hooves and quickly recovered. The zebra began to trot, then gallop down the hall. His breathing was irregular and loud, but he'd finally made it. He shoved open a set of doors and entered a brightly lit room. Four other zebra were sat around a rectangular table, positioned low above the floor so that chairs were not necessary, instead opting to sit on red pillows. Everypony looked at Cafuza as he entered and shut the door. He was by far the youngest out of all of them. "So you've come, boy," said an elderly zebra with a lengthy, white beard. He gave a singular nod to the youngster. "Figured you'd run off already. Or worse." "I'm fine. Thank you, Metzul," Cafuza replied, taking up the vacant seat at the table. Usually, there would be food and drink at these meetings, maybe a deck of cards or the like. Not today, though. "What's the situation?" "Well, I think I can speak freely here between the five of us." Everypony looked to Zalelsen, the second youngest of the group, ahead of Cafuza by a little under ten years. "Poorly," the zebra muttered. "Actually, it's a disaster. The hippogriffs are attacking from the northern reaches, transporting troops across the sea and using parts of their navy to support that invasion. No way our troops can hold them." "Aris has all that we have tenfold, if not more," An adult stallion of a zebra added. A short, brown moustache adorned his snout, wiggling a little as he spoke. "Ships, planes, infantry, tanks even!" "I would almost want to claim someponies here screwed up and are responsible for this catastrophe," voiced Oxynta, the only female in the room, wearing multiple layers of gold and silver necklaces around her neck, "however, I suppose that is now besides the point." "What about the King? Is Zamni well?" Cafuza asked into the round. A few nodded. "Perfectly fine, but obviously still kept here in the palace. Nopony has told him about the invasion yet, but we can hardly pretend the explosions close to the capital are a figment of his imagination." "Why can't we, Archobar?" answered Metzul. "He is a kid, after all." "He is also the king and growing distrustful of us, Metzul. Besides, we have more important matters than placating the king now." Zalelsen looked around and witnessed a nod or two from the others. "Zumidia suffered during the hippogriffian mandate and occupation, but a war will have far worse ramifications for our home. A war we can't realistically win by any means affordable to us," Oxynta spoke up. "Seeing as how the war is not... well, winnable, there is only one thing we can do." "You don't mean...!" "Oxynta, we can't just surrender!" Cafuza barked back at her. "Our honour demands-" Archobar began but was cut off and silenced by the zebra mare. "Your honour? Oh, my dear, please spare me the sentimentality. If you were honourable, you wouldn't be sitting here to begin with. Do you really think you can get away with manipulating the nation to our favour for a little under a year, and now you can charge into battle and be celebrated a hero?" Archobar and Cafuza frowned, but the others kept their opinions close to heart, it seemed. "The only thing you would reasonably accomplish is dying. If you want to do that, I won't stop you, but I think we have better things to discuss here, now?" The mare looked at everypony else in the room. Archobar was furious, and Cafuza was steaming. Thankfully, Zalelsen and Metzul seemed to be more inclined to agree with her views. Something that only further infuriated Cafuza. "Metzul... this was your idea! The whole regency council was your call! And what now? You're going to just... just surrender!?" There was a brief lull and tense silence, broken only by Metzul's own chuckle at the accusations leveraged against him. "Surrender? Well no, of course not. Not me, anyways." Cafuza was a little taken aback by his opponent's rather smug grin. Metzul was all too confident in his doings, but this was not some trade brokering or decision on the law; this was about the nation's fate. "Which reminds me. Metzul," Cafuza looked over to Oxynta as she herself turned her head to speak to Metzul next to her, "if what I heard from the troops is correct, then we should have at most 5 days." "Five days? Five days for what?" Archobar questioned. "Why, to abandon ship. What else?" Metzul answered. He and Oxynta smiled. "What!?" "You can't be serious!" Archobar slammed a hoof down on the table and stood up as rage filled his face. "You're no better than that Tobuckian scum from a year back, a criminal only out for himself!" "The people are ours to lead and protect!" Cafuza added, equally as enraged. The two were met with a choir of laughter once again. "You seem to forget that we are merely acting in the powers of the King. He is the leader, not us." Archobar stared at Metzul with spite. "You are going to sell out a kid? Have you really sunk that far?" "For what it's worth," Zalelsen chimed in, "the people are already as good as conquered. Even if the King fled, the hippogriffs would come looking for him until he was dead or captive." Cafuza looked to his next oldest companion on the council and sat still as his anger faded into disbelief. "Zalel... you too?" "He realised as we did," Oxynta spoke up. "Zumidia is lost, little colt," she joked. "All we can do now is save ourselves, at least. Our deaths here would bring nopony anywhere." Cafuza sat in silence, and Archobar trained his eyes on the young stallion expectedly, huffing heavily in anger. "Don't buy into this crap! They haven't even tried! I bet they already emptied the gold reserves, even!" "Well, you have a day to decide, in any case," Metzul remarked with a smirk. "Our taxi to Colthage will be waiting for all of us tomorrow at 6 in the morning. I pray the city still stands by then and that all of you will have come to join us." Even Archobar fell silent at the stallion's impudence now. Such a snake, he was a coward, throwing a child to the wolves to save his own skin. Despicable. "You won't get away with this..." "Perhaps. But we will get away from certain doom here, at least," the old stallion replied, smug-faced. "What happens and what Zumidia thinks of me once I cross the border is of little relevance then, isn't it? Besides, I think you have bigger issues if you should decide to stay than spreading slander." "Or you could come with us," Oxynta chimed in, "and save yourself an unneeded death and forever damn our names and existences back in Colthage." "Archobar, Cafuza..." Zalelsen added, "...sorry, but there's nothing we can do here anymore. Maybe there was something we could have done to help Zumidia prepare in the past, but that was then, and this is now. We've got to get out and save ourselves, at least." "I will not leave the King alone! Alone to perish or be tortured by their greedy claws after you all abandoned him!" Archobar voiced with another slam on the table. "Archobar, my old friend. The King has never been a real king. Everypony on this council knows that much. If we drag him along, he will either die a horrible death on the run or be haunted by assassins all his life. I would want neither. At least here he can die in a palace fit for royalty." The grumpy stallion looked to Zalelsen once again and bit his tongue. This was all a bad joke of sorts. "Let him go," Zalel added. "No king rules forever." "Honestly, I can't believe I waited this long to conquer this place, after all." Aria and her younger company floated above the houses that made up the capital city of Zumidia, Ain Trotgourait. The purple siren was quick to denote the relatively primitive architecture used by these zebras, at least compared to what the hippogriffs were doing. A more primitive society might help explain why the Zumidians were an even more laughable opponent than she had predicted. "Eh, it's not all bad!" a bright, high-pitched voice responded as Aria and her dashed forward. "I had time to make loads more pendants for the beacon stuff!" Aria looked down onto the city's streets from where the two of them flew. Zebra citizens were out and about, mingling, almost as if everything was fine and as usual. In reality, the city had been taken and occupied by the sirens and their hippogriff troops a few hours prior. Some hippogriff soldiers were in uniform, standing guard at key locations, but it was a minimalistic policing force for a capital city. Then, there were the 'real' police. Seemingly ordinary hippogriff moving about the streets, with empty, shrunk pupils and a red pendant hanging from their necks—the beacons of music. "Right," Aria finally answered, turning her attention to the sidekick she had brought with her, "How could I ever forget about the pendants you made; you only blow up two labs per month, after all." "Hey, that's not my fault! The crystals just tend to explode when fused with our magic." Aria rolled her eyes. "Whatever. At least they work." The two of them looked back down to watch a beacon of music - a light blue feathered hippogriff - perform in front of three zebras that a duo of armed soldiers had dragged to them. Even from high above, the sirens could tell that the spell was working on them. "Never would have thought mortals could end up spreading our magic in our stead, but here we are." "Right? This is great!" Sonata cheered. "Doesn't mean it's any less weird to think about." "What do you mean?" Aria glanced at Sonata for a moment, seeming a little uncomfortable at a glance, before she eyed the situation down below again. "All these years, we were on our own, right? If we wanted to grow in power, that was on us. As in, just the three of us. But with these things... that's all different, kinda." "Oh. Right." Sonata nodded and swam a little closer to Aria as both hovered high in the air. "I don't see it as a bad thing, though, right?" "Not bad, just-" "Well, there you go! Why worry about it if everything is better?" The purple siren looked at a joyful and bright Sonata as usual. She wasn't usually prone to being caught off-guard by the younger's cheerful attitude, though she couldn't help but admit that she'd made a good point. "I suppose," was all she conceded. "Assuming there are no hidden, long-term side effects that we have yet to find out, anyway." "Always with the negativity, Aria!" the blue siren complained with a moan. "Hmph. Whatever, let's get a move on. I don't have all day." Sonata trailed just behind her older counterpart as both moved through the sky above the capital. They were headed straight for the second-tallest building in the city, the royal palace. A contingent of hippogriff troops was already waiting for their arrival, guarding the building both inside and out. Barbed wire and tank barricades had been put up in front of sandbag cover, from which gun nests were aimed onto the plaza in front of the palace. There was a sole tank dug in behind a tall wall of sandbags and shovelled dirt, which protected its sloped frontal armour and parts of the sides. The vehicle's commander seemed to be peeking out of the commander's hatch and was probably shouting something at one of the soldiers nearby - arguing. The two sirens descended quickly, stopping close to the ground as they 'landed' behind the fortifications. Some of the armed creatures bowed their heads in their presence, others grumbled or didn't pay attention. The sirens didn't care either way and turned to one another. "Since you're in charge of occupation, I suggest you set up shop here. Telegraph lines should be working still; if not, have somegriff fix them for you." Sonata nodded multiple times. "Right, right. But what about the rest of Zumidia? Aren't you, like, fighting for it still?" "None of your business, first of all," Aria dismissed, "and also the zebra are basically done for. It'll be a week or two until this place is fully overrun. Especially with their leaders all gone." Sonata cocked her head at that last part. "Gone? What do you mean?" "Come with me for a moment." The purple siren waved her partner along as she swam through the air, up the small flight of stairs leading to the palace's entrance. The doors were already standing wide open, with guards flanking either side. "You know how this place, Zumidia, is a kingdom, right?" Aria asked as they entered the tall halls of the palace. This was indeed an old building, with fine masonry rather than modern construction work holding it together. "I do? Oh, right, I do. Obviously." Sonata grinned, but Aria simply huffed and continued. "Well, the King is... young, let's just say. Too young, and a council of regents was established to rule for him until he is older." "Re...gents?" Sonata stuttered. "Zebras that ruled in the young king's stead. In this case, powerful and influential military leaders and leaders of certain cliques had sway over much of the country." "What, you mean a clique like us?" Sonata wondered. "No, Sonata, criminal and corrupt cliques that extort zebras, murder zebras and generally act as a sort of criminal gang." "Ooooh," Sonata gave out with a slow nod of the head. "So... only kinda like us, then." "Only if you count Adagio's methods as extortionate," Aria replied. She chuckled, and so did Sonata. "But really now, the regents were out for themselves rather than the country. They hastily assembled and declared independence from... well, us I suppose, when we took over, and the king appears to have had little say in the matter." "Wouldn't that mean these 'regents' aren't very selfish, though? That seems like a heroic thing to do, right?" "On paper. In reality, it made them all more powerful. Imagine a criminal who was now suddenly in charge of the nation." ""Ow. Right, that's... probably not great." Sonata smiled sheepishly, but Aria kept on moving deeper into the building. The younger siren followed just beside her. "I suspect they neglected their military during this rough half a year of time they had had to prepare, which is why things are proceeding as easily as they are out there." "Hmm, I guess arming folks doesn't make for good business?" Sonata presumed. "Not usually, no. We don't know what they really did all this time since they've all gone up and left, but we can guess based on what some of our thralls recall." "Wait, left?" Sonata perked up. "What do you mean they left? I thought they were ruling for the king?" "Were. Nominally, anyway. Alas, when they realised we weren't going to be stopped, they quickly opted to abandon ship, it seems." Sonata remained silent, looking at Aria with a confused pout. Aria saw this and rolled her eyes. "By which I mean, they hitched a car ride to Colthage, Sonata." "Right, that's what I was thinking. Duh." Sonata placed her hooves up against her hips to seem self-secure but perked up when another question came to mind. "Wait, so they're gone? As in, all of them? Just like that?" The two arrived at an innocent-seeming wooden door, at which point Aria threw it open. She flipped a light switch which illuminated the small, relatively cramped meeting room. This door was clearly not something fancy or intended for the palace, but here it was anyway. "This is where they used to meet. A few thralls confirmed to me that they travelled to Colthage 3 days ago, though." "This... seems a little too easy, you know?" Sonata admitted as she followed her friend into the room, looking around but finding little interest besides the pillows on the ground for seating and the table placed low above the ground. "Can't say I disagree, but I also have to say it's not my issue now. I have to finish things with Zumidia, and then prepare against Colthage up north. This might be a deeper story than we think, so it's up to you to find out what actually happened. If the regents are off to Colthage, they might be petitioning for support there, which... is a problem." "That's why you brought me here in such a rush?" Sonata figured. "Well, it's true that Trotgourait makes for an ideal headquarters for you since it's the capital, as I said. But yes, that also." Sonata grinned more and more as excitement came over her. "For realsies!? I finally get to do something awesome and important in, like, forever!" The teal siren cheered, raising both hooves into the air as she did, but was silenced when Aria placed a hoof of her own on her snout to keep it shut. "Sonata." Aria looked dead serious. Sonata knew her as seeming bored or nonchalant, so seeing her with a frighteningly serious, mad frown was a surprise to even her. "This is not a joke, and not a game. Do you understand me? This is not something you can prance about with or neglect. You can't be screwing up constantly, and you can't be losing focus." Aria pulled the young siren closer to her face, to the point where their snouts nearly touched. "If you mess this up. Sonata, it will be hurting all of us. All of our achievements and victories and dreams undone, most likely." The purple siren took a deep breath and continued. "This is an important job, Sonata, and we do trust you with it for what it's worth. So long as you can show yourself able actually to work with that trust." Sonata gasped as she was let go, and she instinctively dashed a small distance backwards to distance herself from her friend. That had been a tad too close for comfort, even for her. "I've been waiting for an opportunity like this... so I won't let you down, Aria! I'll do it right, I swear it!" The older siren gradually reverted to her usual dismissive, bored frown. She gulped quietly. "Yeah. Just do it right, Sonata, or... well, I already told you." She shrugged and turned towards the exit to the room. "I'll need to leave now, anywho. If there's anything you need, send me a message or Adagio on Aris. We'll be there for you to keep this working." Sonata smiled back at her fellow siren, and nodded twice over. "Thanks, Aria. I swear I'll get it right." "Yeah, I hope I will, too," Aria replied monotonously. "We'll see. Be seeing you, for now, though." Sonata watched her friend float out of the door, disappearing out of sight. She remained in the small meeting chamber by herself for a bit longer, pondering on things. This was her chance. The trust she had always needed and wanted from the others. She'd need to make the best of it and not disappoint. It was finally time to get her hooves dirty and show the world what she could do.