Sombra eyed the two hippogriffs with the look of a jeweler. He appraised, reappraised, and dismissed them just as quickly. It did not go unnoticed by the prisoners either. They watched every step, every breath. Each and every aspect of Sombra was just as readily appraised and disregarded.
“I promised I’d bring some friends. I hope you don’t mind.”
Thorax stepped past Sombra and gently rested a hoof on a cell bar. The almost immediate look of one hippogriff. A small, cyan filly. She hid as best she could behind the other. A darker mint green stallion, if you call hippogriffs, foals, and stallions, that would need to be looked into later. I was not down for whatever grueling torture Blue would whip up if I started an international incident. A second incident, the less I recall the yaks, the better.
The elder was still relatively young, a far cry from Sombra or Thorax’s size. The Younger offered Thorax a trepidacious wave. A wave Thorax returned.
“Babble, Brook, these are my friends. Say hello, Sombra,” Thorax said, nudging the beguiled unicorn.
“Greetings,” Sombra said. For all his posturing and etiquette, the king was hardly challenging to read. Even now, his left foreleg twitched, his eyes unfocused, the grinding of his teeth adding a hiss to his words.
“Sombra?” Sabre asked. He was promptly ignored.
“This is Captain Light Sabre. He’s the leader of the Royal Guard. He’s super nice, always ready to help others.”
Thorax gave Sabre a gentle smile. Sabre took a single sharp breath and did his best to relax. He wasn’t doing much better than Sombra.
“Thorax told us you two were in the brig. Can we ask why?” Sabre asked.
Silence.
“Now, now, gents. This is not an interrogation. First thing first, let’s get these two out of this dingy hole and get them a proper meal, yes.” Blueblood said and pushed past Sabre and smiled down at the foals. Babble, the younger, stepped out of Brook’s shadow at the mention of food. The gurgle that followed repeated their interest.
“Why?” Brook asked. His voice was low and hoarse. The cell had no discarded refuse from foodstuffs. The only water was a gentle brine drip from one corner of the upper planks.
“That’s silly because we can. Who wants to chat behind bars? That is totally not a cool place to shoot the breeze. Come on, it’ll be fun. We can eat, drink and be merry,” Bright leaped between Thorax and Blueblood, pulling them into an impromptu hug.
“Enough,” Sombra said. Then a flash of red and the lock on the cell door was ripped free. “The others are correct. This is hardly the place for meaningful discussion.” Then Sombra turned about and was off in a brisk trot.
“All in favor, or some R and R? I asked.
A resounding chorus of agreement. That included Babble, who’d fully stepped free of her protector. Though Brook was still giving us the stink eye.
“The ayes have it,” I said.
Thorax shooed us on ahead. The two hippogriffs waited. Some space might do them some good. Thorax could keep an eye on them, and we wouldn’t crowd the already narrow halls of the ship’s underbelly.
“I’ve never seen Sombra that angry,” Sabre said beside me.
I nodded. “No kidding. He looked ready to throttle the first moron who opened their mouth.”
“I could see that. If he didn’t, I would,” Spade said. I withheld a wince. The dreary cloud that haunted the pegasus, irony notwithstanding. Was a storm now. Dry wit was replaced with a bitter growl.
“The Storm King is nothing if not equal in his disregard for all that oppose him. I wouldn’t be surprised if this was a leisurely cruise compared to what the mines look like,” Tempest said. She’d made her as scarce as possible while we met the Babble and Brook. I don’t know if the two would recognize her, but I couldn’t blame Tempest for not taking the risk.
“That hardly makes things better,” Blue said.
“No, it doesn’t. Which is why you wish to change that, correct?” Tempest answered. It was strange. Tempest had been a part of this whole monstrous affront to peace days before. She’d said she didn’t meddle with the mines and the capture of runaways, be she was still a part of the machine that did. She helped aid such disgusting actions. One would have thought she’d have made peace with that or perhaps simply responded with apathy.
Tempest, however, the look on her face. It mirrored that of Sombra. Her pupils pinprick as she stomped through the ship. Her horn hummed, though it never reached a complete glow. This was not apathy.
“You okay?” I asked.
“No.”
That was that. The rest of the short march back into fresh air was silent. When we did finally return above deck. We found Sombra ordering some of our own crew.
“Split my own rations if you must. Now, do as you are told,” Sombra said, leaving a crewhoof to yelp and scurry away.
“Snacks?” Bright asked.
Sombra grunted, turning to leer at Bright, who smiled back.
“The foals?” Sombra asked.
I rolled a hoof in thought. “Thorax wanted us to give them some space, let them come out at their own pace, you know? I just hope we can get them home. Mt. Aris or no Mt. Aris.”
“We will,” Sabre said. He peered out to see. His eyes squinted as he searched the gentle waves.
“Fresh air.”
Those words were all we heard before tornado Babble came zipping by. She was leaning over the deck railing faster than the terms could travel. I started to laugh, then Bright and Blue joined. Then Brook came trotting by, calling after his younger companion.
“Ponies are weird,” Grubber said. He looked to Tempest, who shook her head as she watched the group.
“Babble, please be careful,” Thorax said. The changeling was puffing as he climbed free onto the deck.
“She’s a spry one, that’s for sure,” Spade said.
“It doesn’t matter the species or tribe. A foal is still a foal,” Sombra said.
“All the more reason to keep them safe.”
Sabre was still peering out to sea. His grim scowl deepened as he watched. I rolled my eyes and swatted him on the back of the head.
“True, so let’s do just that, yeah? If we don’t, who will? You big grump.” Sabre looked back at me and relaxed his brow. I nodded in approval. There, was that so hard?”
“Extremely,” Sabre said. “But thanks.”
“More, give us more,” Bright said, giggling as he jotted something on his notepad. He’d managed to creep up and float above Sabre and me.
“Bright?”
“Yes, Star?”
“Why are you floating above Sabre and me?”
Bright laughed, rolling about in midair. “Taking notes,” he said when he could manage both speaking and not falling simultaneously.
“For?” Sabre asked.
Bright’s hoof shot out and bopped Sabre on his muzzle. “Nuh-uh, no spoilers. You’ll know just as soon as everyone else.”
Sabre rubbed his muzzle and blinked away his confusion.
“Food inbound,” Blue called. Loud enough that every ear on deck swiveled in interest. “And someone please feed the birds.”
I snorted, which had Bright giggle, and then Sabre and the three of us laughed as hard as we could. Who knew when we’d have another chance.
“Few, if you continue to ignore us, whelp.”
My laughter stopped. Nightmare sat where she always was. Her chains were gone, yet she had not budged an inch. She simply sat, staring through the abyss around her. She sneered, but the anger did not make it past her muzzle.
“Nightmare.”
She did not answer. I sighed and left it be for the moment. She wasn’t wrong. The chat we had earlier was case enough to delve deeper into what she and I really were. I rubbed a hoof across my forehead. The dull thump of a headache pounded against my frog. The shadows, however, did not move. They hung, always just out of sight. I traced my hoof down and covered my eye. The same one the shadows devoured earlier.
“Star, you okay?” Sabre asked. He’d moved, now standing before me, eyes glued to the hoof covering my eye.
I flinched and shook my head. “I don’t know. I’m beginning to think you were right about me not coming along,” I said. I dropped my hoof and blinked. Sabre stepped forward and jerked my head to the side. He peered into my eye for a moment before releasing his grip.
“It looks fine. No dark magic or whatever you want to call it. Just Stargazer. The same as always.”
I was at a loss. Sabre gave no time for a retort before he trotted off towards The Incondecence, where almost everyone had gathered for lunch. I cocked my head to the side as I watched Sabre go.
“The machinations of mortals are just as blind and foolish as ever,” Nightmare said. The mare smiled smugly through the dregs of my mind.
“Shut up.”
“I think not. If you will not voice those ever-escalating thoughts of yours. Then I shall.”
The smugness was maddening. I slammed a back hoof into the ship railing and buried Nightmare’s laughter as far down into her prison as I could muster. It was not enough to silence her, but it at least did not drown out my own thoughts completely. Then I winced as her words struck me once more. My own thoughts were scattered incoherently. My head pounded as I staggered towards the gantry to the Incandescence.
“So, then he jumped off the spire. You should have heard all the naughty things Blue here said when he saw Star go over the side,” Bright said, flinging himself onto his back and screaming.
“I do not know why you insist on reminding everyone present of my clearly rational fear that a pair of my closest friends were going to die. To that same point, why you would tell foals in the first place.”
Blue frazzled his mane as Babble laughed along with Bright. Brook rolled his eyes but smiled tiredly as he watched the others. I managed a chuckle as I stopped beside the older hippogriff.
“We’re quite the rescue party, ay?” I asked.
“Better than none at all,” Brook said.
“True, you okay? I mean. I know you’re aren’t okay, but are you—”
Brook held up a talon. “I know what you meant.”
“Right, so, uh. Mind telling us what happened? Not just to you and Babble, but to Aris and the hippogriffs? You kind of just fell off the map.”
Brook scoffed, waving a talon in my direction. “More literally than you might think.” He sighed and dropped his claw lamely. “These last few years haven’t been great. First, you ponies go and get some mad god to conquer your lands and destroy the ecosystems of most of the world. Most of us don’t have the magic necessary to keep up with the world suddenly going dark.”
I rub a hoof against my neck and fake a laugh. “Yeah, sure is, or I mean, was a massive pain.”
“We could have survived her, not well, but we’d have survived. Then the Storm King marches onto our lands, and we lose everything.”
“Then, boom, this super rainbow laser explodes, and Nightmare Moon was all like. Curses, I’ve been foiled. Villains are goofy like that.”
Brook and I look over to watch Bright’s exaggerated retelling of the battle with Nightmare Moon to a captivated Babble and a somewhat interested Grubber. Bright dances about adding voices and trite attitudes for all involved. That somehow counted himself. How he made a parody of himself is beyond me, but the others were laughing and joking along. All except Sombra, who huffed every time Bright played his part.
“I’m glad she’s still able to do this. Be a kid, innocent, still, just be her. Most of us weren’t so lucky.”
“Oh?” I ask.
“You want to know where we went, what the hippogriffs have been up to. You really think you can help us?” Brook asked.
“We’d die trying. Besides, they have our princesses. We save them one more time, and we get a free yogurt,” I said, slapping my chest.
Brook snorted. “You were right.”
I cock an eyebrow. “About?”
“Being one weird rescue party.”
I slap my chest again. “You better believe it.”
“When we finish eating and get moving again. If it is okay with you, can you fill us in? We wanted to find you guys, offer help and maybe ask for some ourselves. We’re in this whole survive the storm thing together, right?”
Brook took a moment. He watched the others, and as such, so did I. He was right, the fact anyone could go through all these disasters back to back and still find a reason to smile. That itself was a miracle.
“I can’t promise anything. But, at the very least. I can take you to see Queen Novo. She’ll know what to do.”
“That’s fair enough.”
“Star, Brook, you two gonna come join us or sit over there in the grump corner? I’m just about to start the tale of Tirek. Come on.”
Bright waved over, the others having turned to us in kind. I smirked. And elbowed Brook. “Alright, the show is about to start.”
Brook shook his head. “What a strange day.”
I winked and began the walk toward the others. “You’ve no idea.”