...A sickly, wet wind blew across the silver expanse of separation. They had made camp upon a shallow rise, some distance away from the edge of the canyon cliffs of Starfall. Their small battlefleet hung silent in the air, moored to the Maria by their anchors. Our scouts estimated several thousand troops in measure, while I assumed more. A vanguard of lunitaurs brought up their rear, in a vast war-galleon bedecked in the most monstrously impressive armaments imaginable. The Royal Army was known to possess a frightful fondness for overkill.
Upon a raised pavilion within spitting distance of the drop off, we met in a frantic council to decide what would be done about their presence.
Luna slammed a hoof into the round table, leaving an impressive dent in the grain. “THIS IS NOT THE TIME FOR HALF-MEASURES!” she roared.
High Elder Vega Lyrae re-adjusted his hood back atop his head from where it had been blown backwards. “Nor is it the time to field half an army,” he said calmly. “Our forces will not be ready to mobilize in full strength until midway through the season.”
“We must field something!” cried Luna.
“Even with our current amount, we cannot match even a quarter of their vastness. Troops take time to train and equip, even more so when they are almost all volunteers from illegal backgrounds, seeking the pardon you’ve promised for their service.”
“Art thou saying our pardon was a mistake?”
“No. It’s helped immensely. But a common citizen is much more... pliable... than a seasoned buccaneer. Nobody knows this better than me, Luna.” The High Elder chuckled. “My crew is still flabbergasted. Once they ran from the law... now they are the law. That isn’t something to be taken lightly. We can only be thankful these recruits didn’t take advantage of the pardon.”
“We must do something,” stubbornly repeated Luna, as the gathering once more descended into arguments.
The meeting had been progressing in this manner for some time. There were those amongst us who felt a full, sudden assault would carry the day, while others insisted upon playing for time until a more proper defense could be mounted.
I, for one, simply wished this whole blasted situation would vanish. The looming prospect of confrontation with Shaddo only chilled my blood. The Colonel was the physical representation of our enemy... the mysterious ‘U’ alluded to in the letter recovered from his person.
This... ‘U’, whomever they were, greatly desired the sight of my head upon a silver platter. Badly enough to make an attempt upon my life in broad starlight. Such utter disregard for common law and flagrant abuse of authority instilled a fear in me, for they must have been powerful to make a play with such impunity.
But what stilled my heart even more was their true prize.
Luna.
An alien, an alicorn from Equus, no less, who carried with her the weight of a Prophecy so significant that it caused a schism within the Kingdom’s most powerful and secretive society. I would not allow my friend to fall into their clutches. Not after all we had been through.
There had to be another way... but how? The answer came to me in a manner most unpleasant, slithering in through my ears and worming through my thoughts until it found purchase.
My hoof meekly raised itself. “Uh, I might happen to have a solution,” I attempted. Of course, nobody heard me through the rabble. Perhaps that was best...
Chives seemed to noticed my predicament. “H’oy! Simmer down! The Highlord means to speak!” he called, cutting clear through the commotion. At once, the assembly fell silent. I fidgeted uncomfortably under their collective gaze. “Uh... we could try diplomacy,” I suggested. “Diplomacy of the Starfall variety.”
A murmur was raised through the tent. Various officers and leaders of the city burst into discussion. Chives banged his sword-hilt on the table until there was silence. “Quiet, you lot! Let the Highlord have his word, then you can take your turns!”
“Elaborate, please, Cassie,” implored Luna when the volume had descended once more.
Of course, she had to address me informally, even here. I blushed, and nervously cleared my throat. “W-well, I’ve been amongst the people of this city for a fair time now, and I think it would be safe to assume that I have the most experience here in the workings of their deals and contracts. If there’s anything I have learned from this, it is that there is often more going on behind the scenes, than what is visible to the eye.”
The room continued with their hush, and so I continued, shifting from side to side as I spoke, trying not to concentrate on how much I was sweating.
“This is Starfall. A city built by exiles. We’ve never claimed to be anything other than thieves, rogues, and vagabonds. They, however,” I pointed a hoof outside the tent, “are unaware of what that really means.”
“And what, pray tell, dost that mean?” asked Luna.
A slow smile made it’s way across the face of Vega Lyrae. “It means we play dirty. I like it!”
“Subterfuge?” wondered Chives. “That isn’t very fair.”
“Pirate,” Vega Lyra pointed to himself, as if that explained it all. Another hubbub was raised as the gathering discussed the meaning of this. Eventually, Luna restored order by flaring out her wings. The entire tent was silence in an instant.
“Aye... they expect a quick surrender, or to be met upon the field of battle,” she mused. “Shrewd, Cassie. We would not like to deal with them this way, but we see no other alternative.
I nodded, stifling another wave of embarrassment. On something of a roll, I decided to soldier on while the words still came to me. “They do not expect a sneak attack. They are confident in their numbers deterring any assault. You’ve seen how many sentries they’ve posted. Not a single one is looking the opposite direction of the city. If we can distract their command for a time, they would be totally unprepared for a simultaneous strike. We could catch them unawares and rout them in a minute.”
“Hmmph. ‘Starfall Diplomacy,’ indeed.” Vega Lyrae chuckled. “It seems my city’s rubbed off on you, Cassie.”
“But what will be the distraction?” Chives twirled his mustache. “We need something they’d be interested in, of course. But also something that can buy us plenty of time. Something so pathetically captivating that they’d be too absorbed to even think about the possibility of deception.”
The assembled gazes suddenly migrated to me.
I quickly checked behind my back to see if there were anyone I was obscuring. I looked back to find Luna grinning at me in the most frightful manner.
“Wait... wait.” I weakly protested as they advanced. “Let’s be reasonable. Think rationally! This isn’t how we should be going about things. Stay back. Back, I say! You can’t seriously believe... -AUGH!!”
“I hate everyone.”
“Oh, enough out of you.”
“As your Highlord, you are thoughtfully encouraged to suck eggs. Actually, that’s a standing order. And when you’re done, go boil your head.”
“Hah! Good one. Now shut it, they’re here.”
“Traitor.”
“Coward.”
“Ruffian.”
“Yellow-belly.”
“Peasant.”
“Upstart, two-headed, jackanaping, crooked, shifty, spineless, puffed-up, mongrel, lilly-livered, brown-nosing, son of a lunitar.”
“...your face.”
“I’m not even going to dignify that with a response.”
“You just did.”
“ENOUGH OUT OF BOTH OF YOU, OR I SWEAR ON ME GRANDMUM’S GRAVE I’LL KEEL-HAUL BOTH OF YOUR SORRY CARCASSES TO THE WHITE CITY AND BACK!”
Chives and the Vega Lyrae flanked me on either side as we waited for the opposing party to finish their approach to the designated parley site some several hundred meters from our respective camps. My former butler and I gave the currently-red-in-the-face High Elder a scrutinizing look as he breathed hard.
“You know, you should really get that temper of yours under reign, ‘Big Vee.’ Don’t want to make a bad impression, what?” said Chives.
“Indeed,” I concluded. “Terrible form.”
The High Elder’s reply was cut off as he pulled his hood over his face to muffle the resulting profanities. A low rumble filled the air as his massive stardrake voiced its rider’s agitation from where it lay curled around us in a protective half-circle.
“And you,” I muttered to it, “you overgrown kitten. I’ll have you cut up into ladies’ accessories.” As a response, a very wet, very rough tongue was dragged across my face. “Blech!”
“I think he likes you. Ain’t that right, Nova?” Chives cooed softly, scratching the beast under his chin.
“No,” said Vega Lyrae, “that means he likes how you taste.”
I suddenly found myself moving forward a few paces to meet with the dignitaries.
It was a very odd sort of parely that took place out there in the no-man’s land.
Upon one side, five representatives of the Kingdom: two stalwart lunitars, clad in impressive black plate armor, horns polished to a razor sheen, and two Equinocti marines, dressed with the signature darker barding of their branch and outfitted with the sharpest of wingblades. Their leading officer was none other that Colonel Shaddo himself, although the insignia pinned to his ceremonial barding denoted that I would be wise to call him Major Shaddo.
The other side held the members of our own company. The Titans Three, they called us in Starfall, for we were the pillars upon which Luna was held up: Sir Chives of the White City, proud in the silver-and-white armor of his order. High Elder Vega Lyrae, wearing nothing but his usual travel-stained robe and clutching a walking staff to his chest. And finally, myself, Highlord Cassius Andromeda, proudly wearing the colors of his new House (dark blue and a swirling purple-pink) in addition to an eyepatch emblazoned with Luna’s emblem. We had no honor guard save for the High Elder’s stardrake, Nova, crouched behind us and menacingly blowing gouts of steam through his nostrils. Judging by the fact that his wingspan was larger than some of the opposing ships from stem to stern, it seemed redundant to have any other accompaniment.
It was Shaddo, surprisingly, who made the first move.
“Stars shine over you, m’lord,” he said cordially, bowing low and spreading his wings.
I arched an eyebrow. A polite greeting? Now, of all times? I glanced back towards my compatriots, whom looked as stunned as I did. With no help from them, it seemed I was on my own.
“And may they light your path onward,” I cautiously responded. “Now, how do you come before us?”
He said, “My name is Major Shaddo, Commander of all th’ forces you see behind me. I represent my men and my people. We are here to seek a trio of dangerous folk whom have traversed our borders and may have taken refuge in your settlement.”
Very slowly, I lifted the eyepatch up to my brow, that he might see both mine eyes. “I am one of those three you seek, yes?”
One of the lunitaurs visibly flinched at the sight of the sunstruck eye. Recognition flooded the Major’s features. Had I truly changed so much in the course of one cycle? “Lord Cassius of Umbara...” A polite cough came from behind me. “...And his servant. That’s two of th’ three.”
I flipped the patch back down. “I am Highlord Cassius Andromeda,” I started, wishing my voice wasn’t so high and squeaky. “That is Knight-Commander Chives. And I believe I serve a different authority now than what I once did.”
He appeared to be gobsmacked. “And... th’ third of your party? Th’...”
“Alicorn?”
“Yes.”
“Her Highness, you mean.”
“Her Highness?”
I furrowed my brows. “Aye. A Princess.”
“Princess,” he repeated, as if walking through a thick fog. “I... a moment.” The Major slowly turned and took his party back several yards, where I could see a substantial amount of bickering taking place. When he came back, he left the behind, shifting uneasily upon the Maria.
“I wish t’ speak with you in private,” he stated. “No games. Leave your friends behind. And keep that... beast... facing th’ other direction. As a matter of trust, I’ve already done th’ same with my own men.”
Well, now. This was an interesting development. And here I was assuming that I’d be the one taking the low road during these negotiations.
“One moment,” I told him.
As soon as we were out of earshot Chives said, “Absolutely not.”
“I think we should accept,” replied the High Elder.
“Are you daft!? Any one of those gunboats off in the distance could have a bead on him, and pick him off in an instant!” hissed Chives.
The High Elder shrugged. “If they so much as touch a hair on his body, then Luna will spring the trap, and rain down the fury of the stars themselves if she has to.”
“You seem icily calm about wasting his life.”
“Pirate.”
“I... I want to hear what he has to say,” I managed.
“Aha! See? The boy has his word!” said Vega Lyrae.
“But... but-!” sputtered Chives.
I continued, “Something isn’t right, Chives. He’s not acting like a conquering commander. His intelligence is off, as well.”
“And what is that supposed to mean! He comes here with an army at his back after driving us out of our home!” Chives began stalking back and forth.
“I don’t know what it means, but when I do, I’ll give the signal for the attack. Or I won’t, and Luna will come to parley.”
I knew what the signal was. I was to flare out my right wing, as if stretching, a visual message to Luna and her fellows waiting in ambush. The left wing was the opposing signal, to abandon the attack and come forth for presentation.
“...I don’t like this,” said Chives.
“None of us do. But this gambit of ours may yet win the day,” the High Elder reasoned. Nova rumbled in agreement.
My former butler ground his teeth, his half-moon spectacles flashing in the starlight. “Fine. But one false move... and I’ll lop his head off myself.”
“I will return,” I promised them, before returning to the waiting Major.
He was a good head taller than me, the Major, and several stone heavier. No doubt a figure chiseled from the hard life of service, cut lean and powerful by the years. He carried himself in the relaxed swagger of an officer, confident yet reserved. Though when we met, two solitary figures poised between twin hammers of war, he seemed... smaller, in a way. Perhaps I had come so far as to rise above my baser fears.
“I’ve spent th’ last cycle chasing your phantom,” he said in a low, neutral tone once I faced him. “From Umbara to Tenibri, all the way to th’ Black Forest itself. If there was a rumor of your presence, I followed it. And now, I find you, in th’ one place I thought you too craven to go.”
I swallowed a hot ball of anxiety.
“They’ve driven themselves into a frenzy, y’know,” he whispered. “They want it. The alicorn. Don’t know why. Nobody does. Even got th’ King to lay down a state of martial law so we could hunt it. And when word reached th’ borders that a new power is rising in th’ Wastes, they were furious. Heads rolled. They raised me up to fill in the gap left by the last Major of this regiment.”
I knew who ‘they’ were by this point. The real puppet masters of the Kingdom. That did nothing to stifle the small tremors running down my limbs. The Major began to slowly pace around me.
“And now, here you are,” he said.
“...”
“Would you like to know my purpose here, Lord Cassius?”
I blinked as I turned to follow his pacing, never once taking my eye off him. “That would... shed some light, yes.”
“My standing orders are nothing less than the execution of your alicorn where it stands. I am to apprehend any compatriots and allies of its cause and deliver them to the Celestial City.”
I blinked.
“They will be tortured in th’ worst ways imaginable. My superiors know techniques that can make a statue writhe in pain.” He seemed to give an involuntary shiver. “And when th’ prisoners have been reduced to a mere shell of a body, when even their soul has been flayed open... they’ll hang, in front of a cheering crowd.” His face soured. “Except nopony will be shouting for joy. They’ll be crying for bread, jobs, and prosperity. Nothing will be solved, only more blood spilt.”
The Major spat to the side, disgusted.
“I’ve spent th’ last cycle wreaking havoc in their name, all in th’ pursuit of you. A sniveling... craven... who somehow slipped through th’ grasp of th’ Kingdom’s finest.”
I managed a weak smirk. “I seem to have made a habit of defying the oods.”
He sighed. “Aye. A trait we seem to share. But... I am tired. There's no end in sight to th’ madness. It used to be tolerable, but now... it’s downright appalling.”
“And...?” I queried.
“And... do you know the oath I swore when I became an officer?”
I hesitantly nodded. “When I inherited my lands and title, I had to take a solemn oath, one similar to yours. In fact, I took another, more recently.”
“And who do you swear to first, above your King, your House, and your Honor?”
“The people.”
“Aye,” he said, wearily rubbing his face. “Th’ people. I cannot serve them while crushing them beneath me. What good can come of that?”
“None,” I cautiously added.
“Exactly. I cannot serve th’ people if I continue to serve th’ Kingdom. Which brings me t’ my true purpose here today.”
Suddenly, he was kneeling before me.
“Yours is th’ last free keep on the moon. And so, I am here today t’ join my forces with yours, t’ help the people take back their Kingdom. We are few in number, compared to th’ Royal Army, but my regiment is the best of the best, bravest of the brave. Would you have us?”
So, that was it. He hadn’t come to sack the city and mount my head on a pike. He’d come to surrender. Was the state of the Kingdom so bad that officers like Shaddo had become disillusioned with their superiors? If so, that meant Luna could not delay in her quest for the crown.
But more urgent was the fate of the Equinocti knelt before me. The very reason I had to flee my mansion and city. The face I had been checking for over my shoulder, the looming shadow of threat and danger.
Here was the cause of my exile... and my ascension.
“What prompted this change of heart, major?” I asked of him. “An officer of your caliber does not simply become a turncoat without reason.”
“I was garrisoned in Umbara,” he replied. “We used your manse for our barracks, actually. When you originally fled from us, th’ last Major was given orders to execute any witnesses who might have seen the alicorn.”
He winced.
“And th’ thought was that you’d gone underground in Umbara.”
I gasped, the ramifications of that statement striking home with more force than I’d care to admit. “And the citizens were considered possible witnesses...”
“Our Major refused th’ orders. So they sent in the Midnight Watch. Th’ Watch came, executed our Major, locked us up in th’ manse, and put Umbara to sword.”
The Midnight Watch; personal vanguard of the King himself, should he ever need to take the field. Their past exploits were near legendary, our history had often been dictated upon their performance in battle. They did not show mercy. Originally formed around the first warriors to swear themselves to the Nightcrown, the Watch answered to none save the King himself.
If the Midnight Watch had descended... there was nothing left.
“I-impossible. You mean to tell me that King Starshade loosed his personal bodyguards upon common citizens!?” I screeched.
“King Starshade has been chained to his throne for half a cycle, now. You know who holds his leash. I will not serve monsters who ask me to destroy my own people and break my oath.” The Major knelt before me once again. “After Umbara, things changed. I asked my men, and we came to an agreement. We must win our honor back. But we need to follow someone. And there’s only one person who’s been brave enough to openly defy th’ demons who rule our Kingdom, now.”
“You speak of Luna,” I murmured.
“Aye, th’ alicorn.”
I paused momentarily, then dipped my head in cautious agreement. “Then I will let her be the judge of this.” I backed up a few paces and began to slowly flare and unflare my left wing. After a moment of this, I stopped to observe the results of my signal.
Nova, the High Elder’s drake, reared his head back and let loose a torrent of blue flame three stories into the air. Beside him, the High Elder himself had vanished.
“What’s happening?” asked the Major.
“Presentation,” I dryly responded.
A deep rumble echoed across the maria as a gargantuan shape slipped up over the edge of the canyon wall, where it had been concealed by the sheer depth of the scar in the moon’s surface. A mighty ship, the largest ever built, ascended into the air with the grace of a feather on the wind, her immense mass blocking out the starlight for kilometer in any direction. At the helm, the hooded figure of Vega Lyrae cackled as he deftly maneuvered her like a child’s toy. Tier upon tier of heavy cannon glittered in awesome relief as the blackwood hull slipped down to hover behind me. Upon the prow of the ship, a midnight-black alicorn figurehead reared, wings spread, encased in icy-blue armor, her horn making up the elegant bowsprit. She flew the black flag of Luna, with the white relief of her visage jutting from a crescent moon fluttering proudly in the breeze.
The Eclipse had gotten some work done.
My company seemed impressed. The bodyguards he’d left behind had rushed up to our sides, nervously bristling. “By the stars above,” breathed the Major.
A figure slipped off the railings, plummeting rapidly until powerful, feathered wings spread an instant before they hit the silver dust. In a billowing of wind, the Princess Luna alit upon the maria before us, bedecked in bright silver armor, her crown shining in the starlight.
“Luna,” I greeted her. “There’s been a slight change of plan.”
Luna, whom had been staring down a particularly stunned-looking Shaddo, responded, “And pray tell, what might that be?”
“He means to join us, not fight us. I believe he might have valuable information, not to mention worthwhile resources that we could use.”
“Is that so...?” Luna advanced upon him until she was a hairsbreadth away. To my delight, I noted that he had to look up to meet her imperious gaze.
Those eyes had a hypnotic effect, in the same way a cavern snake might paralyze its prey with a single glare. Luna had often discerned my intentions in this way, boring through the facade I held in my gaze until she pierced the veil and exposed the truth within. Whatever she saw within the Major’s eyes, it wasn’t pretty, judging by the clench of her jaw.
Nopony expected what happened next.
A blur of midnight blue, and the Major reeled, an imprint of a silver-shod hoof rapidly forming upon his face. He reached up and touched it, dumbfounded. Not a soul moved.
“That was for forcing us from Cassie’s manse,” Luna finally stated. Then that same hoof reached forth again, dangling out in the open. “And this is for listening to thine heart, and showing true integrity.” A small, crafty grin grew upon her face.
After a moment, Major Shaddo put his hoof to hers. “Th’ details can be sorted later, but for now, I think we can agree on a common cause.” In that instant, an alliance was formed, two powers that could have annihilated each other joined together and emerged stronger for it.
Now, it was time to get some answers...