//------------------------------// // Cinque // Story: Dark Side of the Moon // by Rust //------------------------------// ...Every great journey starts with but a single step, or so the saying goes. But what the great philosophers and romanticists of the day fail to grasp is that every single step might end that great journey. The journey I was partaking in is a shining paragon of such a sentiment, the evidence being that it involved traversing the White Wastes. There is a very, very good reason that we Equinocti shun the side of the moon closet to Equus. It is without a doubt the most dangerous place on the moon. The dark, fetid alleys of Tenebri and the wretched holds of the dune pirates that inhabit the Wastes are safer places to be. The fact that the dune pirates themselves fear the terrors that walk these blasted silver stretches is a testament unto itself. The rogues are known for their brashness, even going so far as to attack settlements one-hundred leagues over the antipodes. If even they were cautious about this place, then the common citizen would do well to avoid it like the plague. Unfortunately, we were not common citizens, and we were by no means able to tuck tail and retreat with post haste. Nay, we were fugitives, hunted for holding the key to a secret so powerful that even the Elders wanted our heads. Turning back was not an option. And so we pushed on through the jaws of the monster called Certain Doom. Not an hour away from my former abode, the trouble started. There was a serious disadvantage to the timing of our flight from home. It was on the very verge of Sunday! When we had set out, the sun's faint rays were beginning to crest the horizon, and I'd known there was little time to spare. But that time had been lessened through the act of flying towards the rising warmth, accelerating our arrival into daytime. My people's dislike of the sun spawns from their own weakness of it. The light is painful, it turns the lovely silver of the moon into a blast of shining ivory. It also plays havoc with our crops, which thrive on the natural ambient energies that flood in from space. Equinocti who spend too much time in the sunlight suffer from a condition we call "scrambling." The old wives say that the sun addles their brains, and tampers with their very soul. It makes you perform odd actions, say strange things, and think evil thoughts. The old wives say that only the weak at heart ever find solace in the light. When we burst through that medium of twilight, it was like nothing I'd ever seen. I'd never experienced the day like this before, only from the safety of the shadowy balcony I often sat upon. It was wondrous and new, and I felt an almost childlike curiosity overcome me. What was this incredible sensation of heat? I knew the answer, but all the details were lost. What was it like? I had to see. Old tales and cautions were spurned. I wanted more, so insatiable was my deprived curiosity. Unable to resist, and unable to think clearly from the physical strain of the trip, I did the one thing that all Equinocti were told never, ever to do. I looked right at the sun. It burnt worse than any fire. "Aaaaaaargh!" I succumbed immediately to the pain, my eyes scalded to the retina. My poor wings, already exhausted by their heavy load and a lack of use, simply folded against my sides and I plummeted like a stone. Blinded and utterly helpless, I was sure this was the end. I heard the wind rushing through the fine hairs of my tufts, and felt the sickening sensation of my breakfast rising into the back of my throat. All that was suddenly wrenched away with a painful yank and a tingle. There was a cry of pain from above. My legs limply scraped solid ground for a heartbeat, and suddenly I was was tumbling end over end through the Maria dust. I came to a halt after gouging out what must have been an impressive rival to Luna's own crater. Dazed and still unable to see through my smarting eyes, I tried to make sense of the world. "Hello?" I managed to wheeze. My left leg was throbbing, and it felt like I must have plowed through half the moon with my nose. Something warm was leaking from one nostril. Blood, I assumed. Shouting from above. After a moment, something thudded into the ground near me. "Master? Where are you? Are you all in one piece?" "Mostly," I croaked. A sigh. I noted a presence at my side. "You bloody fool, look what you've done." Ah yes, that was undoubtedly my faithful servant. "I can't see!" I whimpered. "Chives, I can't see!" The right side of my vision had gone completely and utterly dark, while the left was muddled and blurred with spots and patches of black. I was effectively blinded. There were hooves laid on me, pulling me out of the dirt and rolling me over. "I can't see either, this light is unbearable. But you, sir, you idiot, you must have stared at it with eyes wide open!" "I...did." Chives groaned. "Of all the mush-brained, dayloving, rocksucking..." He paused, then muttered some dark expletive under his breath. "And you did something to Luna, too." "I...did?" "She caught you, with that odd glowing thing she does. The magic," said Chives. "Or at least she slowed you down. She just saved your life, Master." I scrabbled ungainly in the dust. "Chives, help me up. I must go to her at once." I was still dizzy from the crash, and the disorientating effect of blindness wasn't doing me any favors either. Chives' strong grip somehow flipped me over and hauled me to my hooves. I noticed that my pack had come off, most likely from the crash. And then, I was suddenly shoved right back down by a force most akin to a shockwave in the form of Luna's voice. "CASSIUS, THOU DAMNABLE IMBECILE!" There was curious mellowing of sound at that point, as if I had been dipped underwater. I then realized I had become partially deaf, as well. Something jostled me, then wrenched me back up to a standing position. A pleasant warming sensation flooded my ears. Hearing flooded back to me just in time to catch the tail end of what must have been a formidable rant. "-nearly sent us down, too! Well? What dost thou have to say for thyself?" "Thank you," I apologetically murmured. "You saved me." I couldn't see her reaction, but the slight hesitation was all I needed. "...Aye, we did. 'Tis a shame the ground didn't knock some more sense into thee. Why did thou suddenly decide to stop thine flight?" I shuffled in place, and turned my face toward where I assumed the ground was. "I looked at the sun. And I was tired." The sound of hoof meeting face was instantly recognizable. "Look at us, let us see thine eyes." "I can't see," I mumbled, then tried to focus in the general direction her voice was coming from. There was silence for a moment, then she spoke. By the tone of her voice, I could tell that it was nothing but bad news. "Chives?" "Yes, m'lady?" came his voice from somewhere to the side. "Thine opinion, please. Is that...normal?" "Not in the slightest." After the disastrous flight, we had come to a conclusion. It would be impossible for Chives and I to fly during the daytime, or else we risk another serious injury. With that restraint in place, we were still determined to press on, We had supplies enough to last us weeks, and no doubt that Colonel Shaddo had mustered his troops and would be in hot pursuit. Luckily, they would be hindered by the same handicap as Chives and I. They, however, did not have the advantage of the company of a certain alicorn. Luna's eyes were unscathed by the sunlight, on the contrary, she noted that she could see even better in the harsh glare. Chives had to shut his own or risk the same punishment that had befallen me. I was now blind in one eye, though the impact of that hadn't really struck yet, seeing as I had keep them both closed like Chives. For the moment, the both of us were sightless. Before we set out, though, Luna began digging through the packs. Chives and I could hear her rattling things around. "M'lady Luna..." Chives began. "Be silent, Chives. We are fetching an item for yonder Cyclops." Chives snickered. I groaned. Luna had come up with the nickname almost immediately after noticing the extent of the damage to my eyes. "What exactly are you getting for me?" I wondered. "Common sense," my servant suggested. "Social grace. A spine, maybe." Something told me that he was still rather cross with my ineptitude. I couldn't blame him, really. I had seriously erred and the fault lay only with me. "Nay!" Luna said. "'Tis an article that would help us identify thou." "A dunce cap." He was grinning, now, I could feel it. "Frilly dress." I flailed my hooves around in frustration. "Be silent! I didn't even pack those!" There was a momentary pause. "...Thou...had them to pack in the first place?" said Luna. Chives roared with laughter, while I face my face burn red. "N-no," I stammered. "I d-don't." My wings unconsciously unfolded to cover my face as I sank to the ground. Luna giggled too. "Oh, fie upon thy sulking. We jest because we care for thee, and because thou did this to thyself. Now hold still." I felt her gently pry away my wings and set something across my head, settling around under my mane-line and pressing against one side of my face. "What is it?" I asked, touching it with a wingtip. "An eyepatch!" Luna proudly announced. "We assume thou carried one for just such a purpose. 'Tis, odd... an eyepatch emergency seems so unlikely. Now we can tell thee apart from Chives. That was a bother to us, your kind look so alike." "Chives has a mustache," I pointed out. "Aye, and a fine face-caterpillar it is, though I suspect his mother had more hair upon her backside," Luna joked. "Keep the patch, Cyclops, for with it thou looks like much less of a pansy." Chives sputtered with indignation, while I couldn't resist a grin. Out in the shimmering brilliance of the Wastes, we marched on. The heat had become oppressive. A sickly, hot breeze softly washed over us from ahead, and there was utterly no sound aside from the crunching of hooves on the Maria, the rasping of Luna's armor, and my own heavy, strained breathing. We walked in single file, with Chives holding onto the tip of Luna's ethereal tail with his teeth. I did this same to his tail, forming a small train of the blind with an alien at the head. Luna's immunity to the pain of the sunlight granted her the role of navigator and leader, a position she seemed to fall into naturally. There was no specific destination in mind. There could not have been one, regardless. No maps had ever been made of the "light" side of the moon. The scholars of the Kingdom had seen fit to leave the Wastes for the scoundrels and exiles, content in their cities of shadow, safe in their berth of the deepest of craters. Luna was leading us in one direction, ever onward towards the glistening azure gem in the sky. Equus had risen the barest of fractions off of the horizon, and now instead of kissing the edge of the moon, hovered above. Occasionally she would call out to us to avoid a boulder, or guide us 'round a crater that would have easily been a passable obstacle had we our sight. The White Wastes were a treacherous place, yet now the rugged terrain poised an even greater hindrance. "Dost thee sense it, friends?" came Luna's voice. "That scent in the breeze?" She inhaled deeply. "'Tis the aroma of a grand adventure, we feel it in our very bones!" "Mmmmph mmph," grunted Chives. I agreed. "Mmmrrgrhh." The only thing I felt at the time was the breeze suddenly picking up and blasting me in the face. Luna snorted. "Bah, thou art cravens and grumps. 'Twill be most enjoyable! No silly rules, no expectations... only the trail ahead and the choices made to blaze it!" I wished I shared her boisterous enthusiasm, but in all respects, I was beginning to ever regret leaving the estate. It had not been half a day, yet already I was utterly exhausted, my eyes burned the moment I so much as squinted, I had been half-blinded, and now I was forced to suffer the indignity of holding my servant's filthy tail in my mouth. And the infernal, thrice-dammed wind! "We love the sky here," she said softly. "One can always see the stars, even when the sun shines above." And you couldn't see the stars all the time on Equus? That sounded...terrifying. "Tell us, do thine kind truly shun the day this much?" "Mrrh-hrrrrm," Chives affirmed. I nodded in case she was looking back at us, squeezing my eyes closed even tighter. The wind was beginning to toss up small pieces of the Maria and batter us. It stung all over. "That's... wonderful," Luna sighed. Then she suddenly stumbled to a halt, yanking Chives and I along with her. "A curse upon this damnable current of air! And hark, it pushes yonder darkness towards us!" I spat out Chives tail.. We had stopped, so I had no fear of separation. "A darkness?" "Aye. It resembles a cloud." Chives freed his mouth as well. "A dark cloud, borne on the breeze?" I rubbed my sore snout, trying to think over the sound of the wind beginning to howl in my ears. Now hold just a moment. What could it possibly be? Wind, debris... and we were in the wide open Maria. The realization dawned upon me with a sickening lurch of fear. Silverstorm!" I cried in terror. "Get down, start digging, dig for your lives!" Aside from the predators, the brutal terrain, the pirates, and the sun, there was one danger of the White Wastes feared by all. Silverstorms: sudden, ferocious walls of dust and rock picked up by the rebellious winds of the Maria. When they crossed over the Brightlit Border from time to time, they were known to swallow entire villages. Once, my city of Umbara had been threatened by a silverstorm, and, in one of the few times I'd actually taken direct action for my charges as a Lord, sending supplies to the beaten city and housing the key leaders in my estate. For a time, my place of residence had been the relief effort for an entire city! Just thinking about what those military thugs were doing to it right now filled me with indignation. Chives and I dug furiously, tearing open the ground with our hooves and shoveling it away as fast as we could, sometimes onto the other's hole. "What is the matter with the both of thee?" Luna's metal-shod hoof prodded me in the shoulder as I worked. The pain in my body had increased tenfold now, but should I fail in my efforts, I would be swept away in a tsunami of wind, battered against the Maria until a naught but a ruined corpse was brought to rest. "We have to... hah... get underground... hah... or we'll be doomed," I wheezed, then hacked and coughed wildly. It seemed my soft living had finally done me in. My strength, never tested except when enduring long hours of study, was at its end. I collapsed onto the Maria. Some of Chives's frantic digging sprayed over me, the soil felt cool on my hide and wings. "Doomed? Nonsense, Cyclops, 'tis a small dust devil!" Luna scoffed. "That's what they all say..." came Chives' mutter. "Until its upon them. And those become their last words." "We fear no tempest of nature," stated Luna resolutely. "Lesser forces have bent the knee to us." By the stars, what did she just say? A high-pitched whine filled the air, the sound of Luna's magic charging up. The storm hit a second later, plunging the world into a stinging hail of silver. It was unlike anything I'd ever experienced. Painful did not being to describe it. The kicked up particles ripped and tore at every available centimeter of space. The dust choked and clogged, slinging itself into ears, nose, mouth, and eyes... it was as if the material were being forced into our very pores, until we were nothing but more than dust in the wind. The silverstorm howled all around, hungry to devour a trio of victims. A yell of fury belted itself out over roar of the storm and my own shrieks of agony. A rumble rattled the bones of the earth, causing the small pit I had curled up in to nearly bury me when the sides fell loose. The primal screech gradually rose to an earsplitting screech, then... all was silent and still. I dared peep my good eye open the smallest of slivers. Surprisingly, there was no harsh glare that seeped in. Instead, a cool azure glow shone all around, as a dome that extended several feet in either direction, Luna standing in the center of this, horn pointing straight to the stars and shining with raw glory. I could see the sands of the silverstorm raging through the dome, unable to penetrate the mysterious barrier. At least, I thought it was Luna. The black steaks amongst her now significantly darker fur were writhing like serpents, slowly twisting and lashing to and fro. Her ethereal mane was sparking with occasional snaps of electricity, the stars within flickering madly about. She seemed bigger, now even taller than Chives, even her wings, which were held out to an impressive length. One of her eyes was harshly glowing, the draconic one. It stared back at me and into it I saw such a chilling, alien power... "Come, friends," said Luna. Never before had the odd, two-toned quality of her voice been more prevalent. "We would not see our quest end before it is even begun..." I gazed at her in awe and slight twinge of fear as she began to glide away, the translucent dome of solid light following in her hoofsteps. Chives heaved himself up out of the small hole in the ground he had been digging and started after her. "If I were you, sir, it would be in my best interests to do what the mystical alien says." He paused. "Master, if I might speak frankly." I staggered to my hooves and limped after him. If he wasn't simply launching into some thinly-veiled snark about me, I knew that something was seriously bothering him. "You need not my permission, Chives. You know that you've always had the right to speak your mind in our household. My parents were right, you know. Having a servant of free will rather than indenture does shape one differently." "It's about Luna, sir," he said quietly, gesturing to the alicorn was was striding purposefully forward some ways ahead. I was not even sure if she knew in what bearing she marched. "Do you think that we've... gotten ourselves into something that we won't be able to get out of?" I thought for a long time about this. "Yes," I replied. "We are part of a plot much bigger than ourselves, Chives. This Prophecy regarding Luna, the Elder's reaction to her arrival, our own death sentence simply for helping her. It all smells of something most foul, and that reek is coming from the very top of the pile." "You don't mean... the King, do you? "No. King Starfall is a kind soul, if a bit slow. He has not an evil bone in his royal body. It is those fools who surround him, who taint the good name of the Nightcrown. This... U, the one who signed the order for our heads. He would be the source, or at least a lieutenant." I shook my head. My impaired field of vision was beginning to annoy me, now that I was using sight again. "I don't like this, Chives. We need answers, and we aren't going to be getting them out here in the White Wastes." Chives thoughtfully flicked an ear continuing onwards. "Maybe. Maybe..." We halted and made camp hours later. Luna's shield was beginning to flicker, and the strain of using her power for so long was visible upon her. We hastily dug a pit out of the ground and set a tent over it, burying the edges under almost a foot of ground. With naught but a breathing hole in the top, we were safe from the blistering silverstorm. Luna collapsed into a bedroll the moment she let her magic wane, dead to the world. The moment she did, the mysterious darkness staining her body retreated into the usual splotches about her hindquarters. her mane calmed, swaying gently as if a disturbance had never dared to try its star-studded depths. Chives sat the watch, while I too fell into my roll, tired, beaten, sore, and miserable. We had not even a single day under us, and already the journey was fraught with peril. I drifted off into a fitfull sleep, full with flashes of dreams, but through every one was another alicorn, black as pitch and emanating an aura of wild strength and pride, looming over us all... Glassed is now the official editor-in-chief of Dark Side of the Moon. Say hi, everyone.