Dark Flouresence
Mina had, in all her lives, had never so quickly readied her Light to strike out at an enemy. The Fallen around her all flinched when it flared up, so much so that Sunset looked back and gave the Titan the strongest kick she could muster, forcing the other Guardian’s Light to blink out and fade as she doubled over.
“W-what the hell?!” Mina asked with a ragged breath, “Don’t you know who that is?!”
“Well he DID just say his name was Randal..” Sunset deadpanned, “And I just said we weren’t here to fight! So why the Lightshow?!”
“Because that’s Randal the friggin VANDAL! Probably the most well known Tower ghost story ever! I’ve seen New Lights coming in from the Cosmodrome that have come across this… THING and barely had been able to escape with their lives!” Mina countered hotly, “He’s dangerous, Sunset, and more than that he’s just as hard to put down as a Guardian!”
“He doesn’t look dangerous to me,” The pony said as she turned to look at the Vandal once more.
“No Harm,” Ran’Daal said, “Have Hatchlings here… children.”
Mina blinked at that and said softly, “Children….?”
“Not human,” Ran’Daal said, an attempt to sound placating or was it pleading?
“I… see,” Mina said in reply.
“Why… here?” Ran’Daal asked, “Lightbearer always fight… always KILL Eliksni… why here?”
“I wanted to try and make peace,” Sunset answered, “But I’m not sure where to start.”
“Peace?” Mina asked incredulously, “Sunset did you KNOW these Fallen would be here?”
Ran’Daal grimmaced hard at being called Fallen and said, “Not Fallen. Not here. Here Eliksni. No Eliksni here EVER hurt hooman. All Caretakers or hatchlings.”
“What about YOU?” Mina shot back, anger coloring her words, “Have you hurt humans?”
“Lightbearers, yes,” Ran’Daal replied without hesitation, “Only protect self. Loss of life… of Light… sad.”
The look on the Vandal’s face, as covered as it was by the Ether rebreather he had on, truly seemed morose. Or as close as the insectile face Mina could see could get anyway.
“Sunset, we should go,” Mina said to the pony, but she stopped when she saw a small body crawling towards her. Sunset had noticed too and knelt down to greet the little one. She nuzzled its head and smiled happily as it cooed at the feeling. Not long after, another Eliksni came up and, looking fearfully at the imposing Titan, scooped up the hatchling and ran back into the relative safety of the darkened hotel.
“Was that…?” Mina asked.
“Hatchling, yes,” Ran’Daal said, “Innocent.”
“I… see,” the Titan said, “but why did that other one run away…?”
“You resemble The Saint,” Ran’Daal said with a touch of fear in his voice, surprising Mina, “Stories told of The Saint… we are… afraid.”
“Thank you for seeing us,” Sunset said as she stood up, “I’m glad I could meet one of the Hatchlings!”
“Must leave now,” Ran’Daal replied, “not safe here.”
“We can handle ourselves,” Mina said, crossing her arms over her chest.
“Not safe for us,” Ran’Daal snapped back, “Must move. Hatchlings too weak to defend themselves. Do not look for us again.”
“But I…” Sunset began, but stopped when she felt a hand on her back. Looking up, she saw Mina holding her in place.
“We’ll leave you in peace just as long as we aren’t attacked with our backs turned,” the Titan said shortly.
“Came under truce,” Ran’Daal replied, sounding heavily offended, “Will leave the same. Not honorless.”
And with that, the Vandal turned to leave.
`~`~`~`~
Sunset was quiet the entire way out of the building. And the entire flight back to the City. And even when they landed in the Hangar, she had barely spoken a word. It troubled Mina that her normally cheerful friend had been so quiet and was about to ask what was wrong when the pony finally broke her silence.
“Do you… think we could ever find some kind of common ground?” Sunset asked as they walked towards the ramen shop in the Tower Bazaar, “They seemed a lot more like us, like the people we want to protect than even they realize…”
Sighing heavily, the Titan sat down next to Sunset and held up two fingers to the cook, asking for a couple bowls of food to be brought out.
“I don’t know,” Mina replied after a long moment of silence, “I’m a Titan. As intelligent as I am, my usual jobs tend to be ‘hold the line’ or ‘punch it until it breaks’. Diplomacy? Might as well be teaching a fish to fly.”
“But-” Sunset began, but was cut off by Mina’s upheld hand.
“Both sides have to be willing to strive for that outcome,” Mina continued on, “That much I know. And you showed them that at least one Lightbearer is willing to offer peace before showing them the business end of a Gjallarhorn.”
“Yeah, I guess…” the pony mopes as their food arrives.
“Itadakimasu,” Mina says as she pops her chopsticks apart and begins to dig in, “May be you should ask Ikora about it? Warlocks have always been scholars at heart. Diplomacy is something they at least entertain before fighting.”
Mulling the thought over, Sunset nods as she digs into her own soup, a course of action decided on.
`~`~`~`~`~
After parting ways, Sunset trotted over to where the Vanguard’s office was, hoping to catch Ikora outside of a meeting. On her way there, however, she noticed a… DARK presence nearby. Looking around, her head on a swivvel, the pony saw a brown robed woman looking out over the Courtyard from the ledge above where the path to the Speaker’s astrolabe was.
“Mena, who is that?” Sunset asked, nodding towards the figure, “She looks… kind of sad.”
“I think that’s Eris Morn…” Philomena said slowly in response, “But… she’s different than the last time I remember seeing her. I… don’t sense her Ghost anywhere.”
“Oh no…” Sunset said as she changed course to meet up with the cloaked woman.
As the pony approached, Eris looked up from her musings and regarded Sunset with a guarded look. Through the bandages around her head, Sunset could make out three glowing eyes and what seemed to be streams of darkness coming out from under them.
“Curious,” the former Lightbearer said, “You are not human, Exo, or Awoken and yet… I can feel Light coming from you.”
“Philomena chose me,” Sunset responded, “My name is Sunset Shimmer.”
“A pleasure to make your acquaintance,” Eris says in return, “I am sure your Philomena has told you already, but I am Eris Morn. I must ask, however… what brought you to visit me? Most Guardians avoid me where possible.”
Shrugging a little bit, Sunset just replied, “You seemed a little sad. I wanted to see if I could help…”
Surprised into silence, Eris considered the pony in a new light. As she had stated before, most other Guardians tended to leave the sorceress to her mysteries simply based on the fact that she worked with Hive magicks. But even with that being painfully obvious, this little one came just to try and help. It was enough to make Eris start chuckling, then laugh, then break out into a friendly cackle. After catching her breath enough to notice the quizzical look Sunset was giving her.
“I am… as well as I can be,” Eris said with a slight smile as she beckoned the young mare closer, “You are truly a kind soul to reach out just because someone appears sad.”
Moving closer, Sunset sat on her haunches just in front of Eris as she reached into a pouch at her side, then brought out a small necklace made of some kind of glass beads and a small metal square with an odd X shape on it.
“A gift,” Eris said, “As my thanks for your kindness.”
“It looks really pretty,” Sunset said as she leaned forward to allow the sorceress to slide it on her neck. As it settled into place, the mare lifted the square up to admire it before letting it clink against the armor she was wearing. Looking up at Eris, who nodded, she went up and gave the woman a brief hug before sitting back down.
“Run along now,” Eris says good naturedly, “I do believe you had other business to attend to before the day gives out, correct?”
“Oh right!!” Sunset said as she remembered her reason for coming out this way, “I have to see Auntie Ikora!!”
And with that, she was off like a shot.
“Ikora Rey, an aunt?” Eris chuckled as Sunset bolted off to the Vanguard office, “Things have indeed changed. Your hunch was correct after all, my Queen…”
Sunset ended her sprint at the Vanguard table where Cayde, Zavala, and Ikora had just finished a meeting with the Consensus members and all three of them looked up to the sound of clopping hooves as the mare approached.
“Sunset,” Zavala began, “To what do we owe the pleasure?”
“Oh, come off it,” Cayde said with a smile, “We all know you wanted to see the kid again!”
“I’m not a goat…” Sunset pouted, “I’m a pony!”
“HAH! I didn’t think of that!” Cayde laughed as Ikora shook her head with a smile.
“Jokes aside,”Ikora said as she walked towards Sunset, “How can we help you today, Sunset?”
“I… kind of wanted to talk to you in private,” the pony said sheepishly as Ikora approached, “If you have time, that is…”
“We’ll leave you to it, then,” Zavala said with a meaningful look at Cayde. The Hunter got the hint and nodded.
“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do,” the Exo winked as he walked past, “I’ve got a bowl of ramen just calling my name! Catch you later!”
As the other two Vanguard members left, Ikora walked back around to where her seat at the table was and motioned for Sunset to take a seat next to her.
“What’s on your mind, Warlock?” Ikora asked.
“Well…” Sunset said sheepishly, “I… may have run into an Eliksni… Fallen camp of sorts out in the ruins…”
Ikora looks Sunset over and responds, “Did they hurt you?”
“No!” the mare denies vehemently, “No… they… there was a lot of their young. Their leader didn’t want to fight… I just thought.. maybe we could find some peace with them if we just… I don’t know.. talked?”
Ikora looked away from Sunset just then, her thoughts racing. Fallen.. NOT attacking either the newly minted pony Lightbearer OR the Titan that had gone with her? It was… odd. Definitely not in line with any of the past experiences that Ikora had had with their kind.
“I… see,” the elder Warlock said, “I’m glad you weren’t hurt, Sunset. Saladin would have been incredibly upset if that had been the case.”
“Oooooh double stuft cookies I forgot about my dad…” Sunset cringed, “Can we… not tell him that I went willingly into what could have been an ambush even though it really wasn’t?”
Chuckling a bit, Ikora noded and said, “I won’t just outright tell him, but if he asks, it would be irresponsible of me to lie.”
“Alright…” Sunset sighed.
“As for your earlier question… we’ve tried talking to them before,” Ikora said softly, “The talks never really ended well. For either side.”
“O-oh…” the mare looked down, suddenly a little sad, “I see…”
“We’ll keep an open mind, though,” Ikora said gently, “If what happened with you today is any indication, then at least some Eliksni are open to the idea of stopping the fighting. Which is a very good thing to know. Thank you for bringing us this information… Guardian.”
As Ikora finished her sentence, Sunset looked up, hope in her eyes.