He'd guessed that the princess and Sacanas had known each other personally, but he hadn't known the half of it, having sat and listened to the whole tale of a close friendship shattered. He was certain that if it hadn't been Celestia, who'd learned to control her emotions for longer than any other pony had been alive, she would have openly wept in the throne room as she told him what he was certain wasn't everything, but enough. The unicorn had existed over five hundred years ago, and yet she'd told the story as if it'd just happened yesterday. Maybe alicorns processed time differently, or it had simply left that deep a mark.
Regardless, he would lock the words away, and keep the secret to his grave, as any loyal Crown agent did. What had mostly surprised him was that she would bare her soul in such a way with Kisu standing there. It implied a level of trust that he wasn't expecting her to have for the shadow-walking mare. Kisu had even had the boldness to approach the throne and reach out a hoof to comfort, something he would have never thought to do. When Princess Celestia was on her throne, there was an unspoken barrier, a threshold that none would dare cross.
Kisu had acted as if the barrier hadn't existed. Maybe for her, it didn't. Maybe to a non-pony, the crown, horn, and wings didn't mean the same things and an alicorn was like any other mare. It piqued his sense of intrigue, and that's why he'd approached her on the deck of the ship.
It was a small ship, meant not to draw attention to itself, the two of them the only passengers and a cargo hold full of Equestrian-made goods to sell at port. They were to be a couple who had convinced the donkey captain to bring them along on his trade route, and who had reluctantly agreed for the bits and because they were just so endearingly in love. It was a part that he still wasn't sure how he was going to play, since his experience with romance could be charitably described as limited, much like his experience with artefact retrieval.
Still, even if their cover hadn't required for them to act like they knew each other well, he still would have walked up to her as she stood staring out at the horizon. "Sooooo..." He saw the word set one of her ears flicking toward him, and continued. "How does a zebra from Farasi end up working as a Crown agent?"
Kisu snorted slightly, then turned to look at him. "I got the job just like anyone else. I showed competency and loyalty to the princess's interests and ideals." She briefly glanced above her, at the blue sky and the sun peering out through minimal clouds. "Which isn't hard when those interests and ideals include 'make allies and minimize prejudice' and 'keep would-be conquerors from trying to usurp or kill the pony who controls the sun and moon.'"
Night Light blinked at the bluntness of the last few words. "Fair enough," he managed, suddenly feeling as if his hooves weren't quite solidly on the deck. "Most... don't like to think too hard about that. The sun and the moon."
"I'm not most." Kisu was looking directly at him now, making the kind of eye contact that reminded him more of a predator animal than anything equine, something that may suddenly decided to go for his throat. Her eyes were an incredibly sharp, golden amber, and left a feeling of needles racing up and down his spine. She was studying him, but not the way the princess did. She looked at ponies as if trying to read every tiny bit of their facial expression and body language, while Kisu was looking at him as if she were mentally peeling back his skin to observe the flesh beneath. "Our world hangs by a single thread, and that thread is named Princess Celestia. And many days I can't stop thinking about it."
Night found himself glancing sideways at her mark as an excuse to break eye contact; plan B for a conversation topic had been to ask how she got it, an automatic common ground between ponies and zebras, but he was starting to think that he may not want to know why the mare carried the image of a knife. When he lifted his gaze again, Kisu looked a bit less intense, and he managed to take in a breath and weakly offer, "Unicorns raised the sun and moon before. I'm sure we'd figure something out."
Of course, Night Light wasn't so sure it was that simple. Records from the Pre-Unification Era pointed to how devastating the process could be for unicorns who went through it, while Princess Celestia treated it as a casual effort. Sometimes it seemed like the unicorn method was a... stopgap, a bandaid that had been in place before she could be born to take up the mantle herself. It raised a lot of questions, ones that being able to sleep at night involved deliberately not asking.
Kisu shrugged. "Maybe." She returned to her previous position, staring out into the distance rather than at him. "But I don't think I'd gamble lives on it." The sun was still high in the sky and wouldn't be brought under the horizon again for many hours, and yet Kisu still watched as if waiting for something. "If she steps down and hoofs over the reins to somepony who's prepared to do the job, fine. If she someday goes mad with power and needs to be removed or the casualties will be even worse, so be it. But I don't want to see what happens if she dies suddenly for nothing but someone's twisted ego." She sighed, resting her chin and suddenly looking much more tired as she added, "Can you blame me?"
There was only one answer to that. "No. No, I really can't."
Kisu, however, had more to say. "If I ever thought that the princess was pursuing something that wouldn't be good for Farasi, I'd walk away and never look back. But she's yet to disappoint me in her pursuit to keep everyone safe." She lifted her head again, and gave a weak breath of a laugh. "Well, enough about me and my daily existential crises. Why'd you take the job?"
That topic made Night Light feel a bit steadier on his hooves, and he closed some of the remaining distance, taking a similar place at the edge of the ship and staring out at the water. "It's something of a family tradition," he explained. "My great-great-great-grandmother was granted her title for exemplary service to the Crown, and ever since then we've done our best to live up to her."
He felt a pang of regret, thinking about it, that he hadn't visited her stained glass window before leaving the castle. He could still remember his grandmother bringing him to it when he was a young foal, and telling him the story of Dawnlight. He recalled looking at the purple and orange unicorn, flaming sword grasped in her magic and indistinct, shadowy creatures advancing on her as Princess Celestia lay on the ground behind her, wounded. She had been a simple lamp-maker, and yet she had stepped forward in a single moment when all looked bleak and taken up a weapon against evil. Since then, she had been Lady Dawnlight, and all after her carried her legacy.
He would have to go and see the window after the mission instead, and tell her how it went, though thinking on the mission ahead had him admitting, "Mind you, I usually do more work in a lab doing analysis and less work in the field. Sometimes neutralization, rarely retrieval, and never outside of Equestria's borders."
Kisu gave a short snort of a laugh. "Well, there's a first time for everything, Night-Night."
Night Light blinked. Did she just--? He stared at her, and the amused smirk on her muzzle, as he repeated, "Night-Night?"
"We'll be pretending to be engaged," she responded, never once losing the smirk. "You'll need some form of sickeningly inane pet name to sell the part."
Night Light took in this information, turned it around in his head, and the brilliant mind that had worked out innovative variations of several spells in the past gave him a wonderful, terrible idea, which his mouth promptly seized and raced off headlong into verbalizing. "Does that mean I get to call you Kissy?"
Kisu looked like she'd taken a dare to eat an entire lemon, peel and all. "...On second thought, we'll just stick with things like 'honey' and 'dear' if we need them." She pushed away from the edge of the boat, shaking her head from side to side as if trying to dislodge the very sound of his suggestion from her ears. "Anyway, you'd best look alive, Mr. Light. The kelpies keep the worst things from getting too close to the shore, but it'll be a while until we're under their protection." There was a sharpness back in her eyes as she looked at him, but it was less studying and more as if she were trying to brand her next words onto him. "And if you hear singing from nowhere, go below deck and shove something in your ears. Immediately."
Night found himself blinking again. "Do what if I hear what?"
"Sirens, Mr. Light. I'm not immune, but my training lets me resist the effects for longer. Long enough to hit them in three vital places, four if I spot them fast enough."
"Why would you need to..."
"Aquatic species bleed out more slowly. It pays to be thorough." It was the voice of grim experience, and left Night wondering about her original journey from Farasi to Equestria. "Usually if you hit the lead singer, the rest of the herd will swim for home and hide."
"Usually?"
"Sapients are never 100% predictable." Grim experience suddenly had an equally grim, and almost sad, smile. "Ironclad strategies only work in chess, Mr. Light, where the enemy knight can't suddenly charge across the board and stab the king in the eye because the other knight the queen took off the board was his brother."
Any steadiness Night Light had gained was gone now, and wherever his sense of footing had gone, his lunch was threatening to go with it. He wasn't naive. He knew that the Crown kept trained killers, because sometimes such things were necessary. Lady Dawnlight herself had hardly asked her enemies politely to leave Equestria alone and go back to the shadowy place from whence they came. She'd cut them down with steel and flame, and that was the legacy he carried. He simply had a very vivid imagination, and it had conjured a checker-patterned battlefield and a brutal act of regicide without his consent that he was now struggling to force out of his mind's eye.
"You... ah..." he struggled, before landing on, "You play chess?"
"Sometimes." Sad seemed to be winning out over grim now, or maybe that was just sympathy in her eyes for how ill he likely looked. "Do you want to play? I'm sure I can scrounge up a board."
"I... thought you said I should look alive."
"If you can't play a friendly game of chess and listen for sirens at the same time, I don't know what to tell you." There was a lightness in her voice, and she nudged him with her shoulder as she walked past, black and white striped fur briefly meshing with his dark blue. "Now come on. I know the captain, and that surly old donkey always has one of his old sets hiding somewhere. He might even be convinced to give you some tips."
Their journey had been mercifully free of pirates or sirens, and Night Light found himself in much better spirits upon reaching port. Winning five consecutive chess matches and seeing the priceless look on Kisu's face by the third would put a spring in anypony's step, really. He'd practically pranced his way off the boat as Kisu followed and the captain rolled his eyes, but it didn't take long before he was thrown off again.
The port town was so full of colour, so full of movement, full of so many sights, sounds, and smells that Night Light couldn't keep track of it all. Creatures were flowing on and off ships, exchanging cargo, and many travelers and locals were setting up right then and there to hawk their wares to others passing through the city. Food vendors fought for attention, trying to catch the eyes of the sailors, passengers, and dock workers who would no doubt be famished. Performers squabbled over the best places to sing, play instruments, dance, and put on other entertainment for those who passed near.
The sheer volume of creatures didn't stun him, as he'd grown up in Cantlerlot. The variety did. Zebras, donkeys, abada, and kelpies were in abundance, but there was so, so much more. A minotaur and diamond dog were arguing about something near a fruit stand, their voices reaching a volume that he could almost hear the individual words before a gargoyle marched out of a nearby building and shouted them both down. A hippo and a giraffe with matching outfits were making their way through the crowd, a crowd that was eager to part for a pair of that combined height and girth. Swirling colours on shadow that he spotted out of the corner of his eye turned out to be a swarm of six breezies, sticking close to a griffon who looked to be a mixture of leopard and osprey and who was wearing dark, guard-like armour.
There was clear amusement in Kisu's voice as she stepped up beside him. "Welcome to Casabronco, Mr. Light. One of the largest ports in the entire Menagerie."
He believed it. The Menagerie was a union of several nations, including Equestria, and he could see representatives from every one of them and more. Bits were flying between creatures, along with several non-Menagerie currencies being hastily exchanged for the golden coins. He took in a deep breath, and he swore he could smell hayburgers on the air, along with the aroma of roasted peppers.
Any thought of pursuing the scent was cut short by the timely arrival of their contact. He knew they were his contact, because the description had included the words "blindingly yellow" and that was the only way he could describe the hue of the shape suddenly coming at him and his companion at high speed with a cry of "Kisu!"
"Oof!" Kisu rocked back on her hooves as long legs hooked themselves over her withers, and she gave a good-natured laugh at the abada clinging to her. "Nice to see you too, Savannah."
That confirmed it. This was Savannah Sun, one of his contacts. It was Night's first time seeing an abada, and now that he had an up-close look, the comparison to unicorns he'd always heard to describe them visually seemed to be a bit of a stretch. The outline looked more like a deer or gazelle than a pony, sharp and angular in features and a horse-like height kept primarily in a set of stilt-like legs. The equine mane and the fact that one of the two horns happened to be in the middle of the forehead, while the other rested on the snout, were really the only two parallels he could see if one didn't count the mark.
"I haven't seen you in years, love!" came an androgynous voice with a surprisingly familiar accent from the clinging abada. The two eventually parted, and it gave Night Light a better look at the shining, infectious grin that matched the chipper tone. "Thought you were still studying in Equestria getting that big fancy culinary degree!"
Kisu chuckled, and Night suddenly had one of her front legs draping over his withers, pulling him against her. "I'm taking a little trip back for something important," she replied. "Namely--" He found his head turned toward hers with her other front hoof as she leaned against him for balance, and he managed to improvise what he hoped was a lovesick enough looking smile to return her own. "--Getting married on my home soil." Kisu then looked back at Savannah, leg still draped over him. "Savannah, this is Night Light, my fiancé. Dear, this is Savannah Sun. They're an old foalhood friend."
"Charmed." He nodded and raised a front leg to offer a hoof bump, which Savannah enthusiastically returned. "That's quite the accent. Have you spent time in Trottingham?"
"Ahhh, you can still hear it?" Their long, tufted tail arced over their back to rub at the back of their neck with enviable dexterity. "I studied history in Trottingham, and I guess it's still tangled up in my speech." They hummed, making a show of studying him with wide, sky blue eyes. "But you... Canterlot, am I right?"
"Indeed you are," he said with a nod. Then, with a grin of his own, added, "Any friend of Kissy is a friend of mine." Kisu immediately withdrew her leg from him as he said that, and his grin grew all the wider as Savannah let out a bout of snickers.
"You let him call you Kissy?" Snickers turned to guffaws, and he wasn't sure if they'd fall to the ground sooner from their own mirth, or, from how Kisu was looking between him and them, from a well-placed shove. "You really must love him. Last time I remember someone calling you that, they ended up getting up close and personal with your shish kebab skewers."
Kisu let out a deep sigh of a long-suffering mare. "Yes, yes, I was a hot-tempered filly. We know this. Can you please not scare him off before I put a ring on his horn?"
Night's grinning intensified. "Bold of you to think I don't find that attractive."
That was when Savannah did fall over laughing, ignoring the look on Kisu's face that said she was considering knocking him over to join them. "Oh, he's a keeper." They eventually recovered, pulling themself out of the dirt and giving a swift shake to return their coat to its pristine hazmat suit hue. "Are you two headed for Zebrat? If so, I've got to take you to Impisi's. She opened a restaurant finally and you two need to try her food."
Kisu snorted. "You just want to watch me argue with her over seasonings like the old days."
"Guilty!" was the chirp of a response. "So are you gonna come?"
"Of course. What do you take me for?"
"Wouldn't miss a chance to meet more of Kissy's old friends."
Savanah beamed, and Night Light considered the accompanying glare from Kisu more than worth it. "Oh, then you're in for a treat."
Savannah Sun had proven equally as chipper and chatty over the hours-long stroll to Zebrat, and while Kisu had warned him several times about creatures that lurked in the wild places of Farasi, not a single one had shown fang nor claw. His best guess was that they were warned away by Savannah, since he knew that colours that bright were often associated with the message "don't eat, magical and/or poisonous" in nature. It was well documented that creatures that survived best during wild excursions were either the ones whose tones could blend in with natural camouflage, or who broadcasted their danger so openly that the larger predators decided it simply wasn't worth it.
They also might have steered clear out of fear that Savannah would talk their ears off. Night quite enjoyed their company, offering acknowledging sounds, agreements, and questions to fuel the engine driving their mouth. Even on the road, the group were keeping up cover, talking about mundane things rather than the mission to come, and while Kisu would talk at times herself, she was too busy trying to keep watch over the surroundings to offer much. Only when the capital city of Zebrat was visible in the distance did she calm, as they were within the patrol routes of the local guards now and much less likely to find trouble.
Zebrat reminded him a lot of Canterlot, if it were on flat ground instead of built into a mountain. Tall buildings, winding streets, colourful ornamentation, and many, many creatures packed into the walkways. The main difference was less flying traffic--a hippogriff, weighed down with a courier's bag, soaring over him on the way out of the city was the only notable flier he spotted--as the majority of the population was groundbound. It made for a lot of stairs and ramps on the taller buildings, as everything needed to be accessible by hoof or wheel alone. And there were many wheels, locals pulling carts and carriages through the streets as Savannah led their way through the city.
Their destination was an out-of-the-way building with a large sign that had a fresh coat of paint; he couldn't read the Farasian words on it, but the image was of a bright red steak and a vibrant green celery stick, indicating its nature as a restaurant for omnivorous cuisine. It was as Savannah led the way in that he felt a tell-tale tingle that made the fur along his spine want to stand up, and a silent pressure on his horn that reminded him of the stern eyes of a schoolteacher.
"Hey, Impisi! Come look what the kelpies dragged in!" Savannah called as the three of them stepped into the establishment, and if they noticed the presence, they were either accustomed to it or very good at hiding how much it affected them.
Night Light had no way to directly sense this kind of magic. It was the sort that earth ponies would be more likely to detect and understand, borne of a resonance with the earth and backed by strength of body and will. He wouldn't be able to tell anyone where the wards were drawn, what exact sort they were, whether they were fully charged or what they would do if activated. No, as a unicorn, he could only sense the presence, the constant warning hanging over him of "don't even think about it," with "it" being any kind of spell that would hold malicious intent. This building was guarded and as they stepped in to scents of wood and earth and pleasant smokiness wafting from the kitchen, he met the guardian.
Savannah had been his first abada, and now this was his first crocotta. The hulking biped towered over all of them, her features best described as that of a minotaur who'd had all of the cattle-like traits swapped with that of a hyena, one whose spotted fur was tinted slightly redder than the animal itself tended to be. She'd been chatting with a zonkey, who looked to be wait staff, and then she saw the trio and her muzzle split with a fanged grin as she let out a booming laugh.
"There you are, Kisu!" Impisi bellowed as she crossed the distance with the sound of claws on wood. "It's about time you darkened my door again. Did you finally get sick of Equestrians and their hayburgers and come back for some real food?"
Kisu put on a sly smirk, speaking with an over-exaggerated conversational tone. "Oh, I would love some real food." She waved around one of her hooves at the surrounding area. "Now if you could just direct me to where I can find some, since I know it won't be in your kitchen." Both laughed, and she added, "Still trying to sell herbivores vegetables soaked in meat juices?"
"Trying and succeeding," the crocotta replied as she held her arms out wide to gesture at her establishment. "Still trying to feed ponies meals spicy enough for dragons?"
"Trying--" Night suddenly found himself yanked against Kisu's side again, and he wondered if he'd be used to her casual displays of surprising strength by the time the mission ended. "And succeeding. Impisi, this is my fiancé, Night Light. Honey, this blowhard is Impisi."
"Pleased to meet you." He offered his hoof again, reflexively, and almost pulled it back when he realized what he was doing. Impisi surprised him, however, by kneeling down and curling her clawed fingers so that she could tap the hoof with her knuckles.
"Likewise," Impisi replied, then chuckled deeply as she turned her attention back to Kisu. "So you finally snagged one. Guess you found a stallion who couldn't run fast enough, huh?"
Before Kisu could retort, Night Light found his mouth leaping ahead of her. "It is harder to run when you're full of grilled vegetables."
More of Impisi's boisterous laughter erupted, nearly drowning out Savannah's accompanying snickering. "Oh I like this one." She straightened up out of her kneel and brushed herself off. "Let me make you a deal, lovebirds. Help me unpack my latest delivery of ingredients and dinner's on the house."
Noting the bored-looking zonkey within earshot as she cleaned tables, along with a small family of zebras taking up residence in the corner, and recognizing the opportunity for privacy when he heard it, Night Light nodded. "I'd be happy to help."
"Hey, I'll get in on that too if there's free food in it!" Savannah chimed as they pronked in place a couple of times.
Kisu clucked her tongue slightly. "Well, I suppose I can be talked into taste-testing your cooking if you're going to give it away..."
They all filed toward to the stockroom, and Night Light noted the pressure on his horn growing stronger as they did. It was once they were inside that he could see the wards, some carved into the walls with precision that spoke to knife-work instead of claws, and others drawn in bright red, his nose telling him that the colour was some manner of berry juice. It was one of those drawn ones that Impisi placed a hand over, and it glowed briefly before all sounds from outside vanished.
The anti-eavesdropping spell in place, all four creatures relaxed with sighs, and Impisi eyed Night Light with more scrutiny. "So you're the Equestrian they sent to retrieve the Sacanas, huh? I was expecting somepony a bit..." She held one of her hands at a little higher than Savannah's height. "Taller."
Night chuckled at that. He supposed from her point of view, he was small. Even Kisu, as a zebra, was slightly taller than him. "Magical ability and physical size aren't always related in ponies. Especially not in unicorns. Trust me, I have the exact talents necessary to make the artefact safe for transport."
"And I'm here to make sure he survives long enough to do it," Kisu added as she made her way over to a bag of rice to lay down and rest on.
Impisi, for her part, sat on top of a crate that had its contents listed in several languages, Night able to pick out the Equestrian word for oranges. "Now that I believe." She nodded toward Savannah, who seemed to be trying to build a nest out of several bags of potatoes. "Savvy spotted the Thunderstrikes getting off a ship in a group of a couple dozen, and they're staying at an inn nearby. They've got the businessowners here flapping their gums, because they're making real nuisances of themselves."
Savannah snorted a bit as they laid down, the sight of which had Night searching for a good resting place too, and he ended up resting inside an open, empty crate laying on its side--the label said peppers and the exact type was unfamiliar to him--as they spoke. "They were right boorish at port too. It tracks with what we know about the organization. They don't exactly have respect for anywhere that's not their own homeland, and it seems like they can't even fake it long."
Kisu glanced from one to the other. "You said they arrived as a couple dozen. What kind of creatures are we dealing with here?"
Impisi held up one of her hands, and Night Light watched as she counted off on her fingers. "Some satyrs, lot of hedgebeasts, few abyssinians, and our wildcard: a kirin named Crimson Flame."
"Horseapples."
All three turned to look at him as he hissed the word, and Kisu raised a brow. "Something wrong, Mr. Light?"
Night sighed. "Kirin aren't ponies, but their magic is close to a unicorn's. Think of us as tapping the same source, a bit like the abada." He nodded toward Savannah for emphasis. "If the artefact is able to be used by non-unicorns, I'd bet my horn they're banking on Flame as being able to wield it."
Impisi made a sound of agreement. "I'll bet you're right. She's the bodyguard of the head honcho of this little travelling pain in the neck, a guy named Needles. She's apparently already set fire to a few things in their room, and the big guy's throwing bits at the owner to keep from being thrown out for it." She then gave one of her big, toothy grins. "Which doesn't keep the chattery jack from complaining to anyone who'll listen about it." The grin faded as she crossed her arms. "If it gets to fisti--hooficuffs, I don't doubt she's the one you'll be throwing down with."
"Ideally, it won't come to that," Night offered.
"Ideally," Kisu echoed flatly, then, as she adjusted her position to get more comfortable, continued, "Now, about this auction..."
Impisi nodded. "I've got the time, location, and some nice outfits for you. It's clothing-only--"
"Fancy fancy," Savanah commented as they nudged away a stray potato that had gotten loose from the bag.
"--And I've got everything warded here. You get it, get back here, throw the spells you need to on it, and then get back to Equestria like you've got a grootslang on your tails. Easy peasy lemon squeezey."
As Kisu asked about more details, Night Light ran the spells that Celestia had demonstrated for him over in his mind. Analyze, render it dormant, and smother its signature to get past detection. The kind of things that were usually utilized by smugglers and thieves who needed the contraband to still work on the other side. The princess had said it was necessary, that she would have him fully neutralize it if that were possible, but it still left him with a cold feeling in the frogs of his hooves. He wondered if he'd have a better time with the metaphorical grootslang.
Deep breath. No more dwelling on doubts. He was a descendant of Dawnlight, and hoof-picked for this mission. He trusted his princess that he was the stallion for the job. And he had an auction to attend.