Chapter 6
Professor & Assistant
Scootaloo quickly dodged the customers at the bar with two large mugs of ale to a far table, where Vinyl sat propped against the corner wall with her feet on the table, her cap over her eyes. Scootaloo placed the two mugs on the table. Vinyl lifted the brim of her cap to grin at the pegasus.
“Thanks, Scoots.” She said, taking a sip of the ale with a sigh. “So, how much do we have?” Vinyl asked, taking another sip. Scootaloo reached into her pocket to find her miniature writing tablet.
“Well, since we didn’t find our client ‘cause of the Royal Guards, we sold everything.”
“And,” Vinyl asked, looking at her drink.
“Well, what we would have gotten was at least two thousand gold bits or more if we were lucky. But since that didn’t work and we had to sell everything here, we only got fifty gold bits, twenty silver, and five bronze bits.”
Vinyl groaned, rubbing the bridge of her snout, fixing her goggles again.
“I hate to say this Scoots, but with the low amount of bits we gathered on our waste of a journey,” Vinyl paused a moment.
Scootaloo gulped at her pause. “Please don’t tell me we’re going back to the Pits!”
Vinyl nodded with a sigh. “Yeah, we have to Scoots. We need the bits. We need as much as we can since Fillydelphia won’t accept us anymore.”
Scootaloo sighed, taking a drink of her ale then looked behind her. She gulped, causing Vinyl to give her a look.
“What?” She asked.
Scootaloo pointed at the bar. Vinyl looked up to see the bar stallion talking to a highly dressed pegasus pointing at her direction. Vinyl chuckled as she reached for the brim of her hat to pull it back over her face. Scootaloo sat down at a chair next to Vinyl, drinking her drink as two nicely dressed ponies approached them.
The oldest one was a pegasus mare dressed in a pressed suit and pants in a brown color wearing a bowler hat. The smaller mare was a unicorn dressed in what appear to be a school uniform, a nice white long sleeve shirt with a purplish blue sweater vest and a plaid midnight blue skirt that reached to her knees. There was a symbol of a cresset moon over her heart, probably a school symbol.
“Hello, are you Captain Scratch?” the eldest mare asked.
“It depends,” Vinyl said with a smirk, lifting up the brim of her hat with her magic. “Who wants to know?”
The purple unicorn let out a groan. “Please, Professor, can’t we just hire a ship that can be reasonable?”
The pegasus smiled sweetly at the unicorn. “Twilight, relax, I've worked with these types all my life.”
The unicorn called Twilight rolled her eyes. “Was that before or after the war?”
The professor started laughing. “Forgive my assistant, she’s new to this kind of travel.”
By noticing the way these two talked, Vinyl thought she can take them on, but first, “Of course, you’ll have to give me something to believe you with.” Vinyl said grinning.
Twilight let out a huff of annoyance, turning away, crossing her arms over her chest with her nose in the air. The pegasus professor nodded, reaching into her jacket and produced a sack and tossed it to the table. Vinyl heard the clank of bits and used her magic to float the bag to her hands. She reached inside the bag to find a polished gold bit. She passed it to Scootaloo to look at it. Scootaloo bit on to it, smacking her lips then nodded.
“It’s legit,” Scootaloo said. There was shocked scoff from the unicorn.
“Professor,” Twilight exclaimed pointing at the two spacers. But the professor stopped her by holding up her golden hand.
“Hush, Twilight,” the professor ordered calmly, grinning at Vinyl. “Do we have a meeting?” Vinyl pulled back her cap to sit on her head then dropped her feet to the floor, leaning forward on the table.
“Of course, please have a seat. Do you want anything to drink?” The Professor and her assistant sat down with the captain leaning in.
“Well, may I have some wine if they sell it here?” The professor asked. Vinyl nodded then turned her gaze to Twilight.
“You,” Vinyl asked with her arms crossed on the table.
“Hmmph, light wine if that’s possible here.” Vinyl winked at Scootaloo. Scootaloo nodded and ran off to the bartender.
“So,” Vinyl started. “You pay well Professor...”
“Do, Daring Do actually. I am an explorer of planets and celebrated archeologist in Canterlot.”
“Canterlot, huh? You teach, Professor Do?” Vinyl asked. The professor nodded.
“Indeed. Been teaching at the Luna University for about twenty-five years.”
“Ah,” Vinyl said grinning. “Teaching during or after the rebellion?” Vinyl questioned. Daring blinked clenching her right hand into a fist.
“After,” Daring answered smiling forcefully. Vinyl nodded with a quirked brow but kept her mouth shut on the matter. She turned to Twilight.
“And you,” Vinyl asked sweetly with a smile.
Twilight cleared her throat glaring at the unicorn. “My name is Twilight Sparkle and I have been studying under Professor Do since I was about eighteen after my sessions at Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns were completed.” Twilight turned away. Vinyl leaned a touch to the side to notice Twilight’s eyes were shifting.
“I took it upon myself to understand the planets and the dead civilizations of these planets.” Twilight turned back to Vinyl fixing her mane. “I have been working for Professor Do as her assistant for the last nine or ten years.”
Vinyl nodded scratching her chin. “Nice résumé.” She nodded to Scootaloo as she returned with two glasses of wine. One was lighter than the other. Professor Do drank hers and nodded in satisfaction.
“Hmm, this is a nice year.”
Twilight sipped hers carefully and nodded. “It does have a nice taste.” Vinyl snorted at the comment. Canterlot ponies were just as hoity as the Royals. She turned back to the professor.
“What can my ship do for you, Professor?”
“Oh, just an expedition to a legendary destination to be exact,” Professor Do said quietly leaning forward. Vinyl leaned forward to get a better listen to her words.
“Tell me Captain Scratch, have you ever heard of the legend of Luna’s Treasured Moon?” Vinyl blinked in shock staring at the smile on the professor’s tan-yellowed face.
“Luna’s Treasured Moon? But that’s just an old pony’s tale.”
“So you have heard of it?”
“I heard of the story but...” Vinyl watched as Professor Do reached into her jacket again and pulled out some old parchment and placed it on the table, passing it to Vinyl. Scootaloo stood on her chair to get a peak. The parchment was old and laminated for protection. It shown an egg shape with wiggling lines around it. There was a large circle with what looked to be a door and a large keyhole on the door on the circle.
“What am I looking at?” Vinyl asked.
“My assistant found this parchment in one of my books a month ago. Twilight, please explain.”
Twilight nodded, pointing at the parchment.
“I was in Professor Do’s store room alone and decide to clean up a bit for the Professor since she was gone on her expeditions. I looked in her messy closet and I found this under some books in the back corner. Once the Professor returned she said it was actually a clue she was given years ago about Luna’s Treasured Moon.”
“And what’s that?” Scootaloo asked, pointing at the egg shape with the squiggly lines around it. Professor Do smiled at the filly.
“Well young filly, this it actually a jewel, the key into Luna’s Treasured Moon. Legend has it that the royal family under Luna’s family tree . . . her descendants I should say, was given this jewel pendant. Only those with Luna’s blood line can hold this jewel. And from my research; they say that this pendant called the Luna’s Tear is the key to opening the mysteries, the treasures of Luna’s Moon.” Vinyl gulped licking her lips.
“You mean the legend that there is treasure there, exists?” Vinyl asked in awe. The professor and her assistant shrugged at once.
“The possibilities are endless, Captain Scratch, if you can take this on?”
Vinyl licked his lips again in anticipation. Her own father left in search of Luna’s Treasured Moon; that was what her mother told her. But after twelve years, he never returned, leaving Vinyl alone with her sick mother, then the rest came crashing through making Vinyl turn away with a glare at the floor.
“Something wrong,” Twilight asked with concern.
“Naw... It’s just, my dad left me trying to find this place... I never saw him again.” She paused to think for a moment then sighed. “Listen, Professor, I don’t know if I can take you anyways. You see because of this new law-”
“Not to worry,” Professor Do interrupted pulling out from her jacket a signed paper. Vinyl took the paper to see words but didn’t understand what it said.
“What is this?”
“It’s a boating license. It’s mine and renewed, so if you need to dock at the Canterlotian space port, I’ll show this to the dock master and you’ll be able to restock your supplies, everything.” Vinyl grinned at her and nodded.
“Thanks, I was worried about that. Great, so when will you be ready to leave?”
“As soon as you are ready, Captain. We are ready; we have our things in our rooms.” Vinyl nodded.
“Well, you can go ahead and come aboard my ship. Scoots?”
“Aye, cap?” Scootaloo asked sitting up.
“Please escort our new clients to the Fancy Flute and get everything ready.”
Scootaloo nodded then blinked. “But what about-”
“Ah don’t worry about me. The brothers owe me for that bet a few weeks back. Once I get the money I’ll meet you to the ship by midnight tonight. Tell Spike to get dinner ready and you get that engine ready.”
Scootaloo nodded. “Aye, aye,” Scootaloo followed the professor and assistant to the back stairs while Vinyl paid the bartender. Twilight looked at Vinyl then back at the professor.
“Daring,”
“What is it Twilight?” Daring asked smiling.
“I don’t believe the Captain could read.” Daring blinked turning to her as the three reached the door.
“Why do you think that?”
Twilight gave Scootaloo a smile before entering the room with Daring behind her.
“Wait here, please.” Twilight ordered kindly before shutting the door. Scootaloo grumbled and sat down on the floor outside the room waiting.
Twilight turned back to Daring. “Because if the Captain knew about it being a license she would have smiled and said what it was before we did. I don’t believe she had an education at all.” Twilight said glowering. Daring chuckled.
“Twilight, not everypony growing up were scholars like you. And besides by the attire Captain Scratch is wearing, she’s no doubt a pony that lived with no education.” Twilight sighed, picking up her suitcase and satchel. Daring smiled at her.
“Give her a chance, Twilight... and soon, we’ll finally get some answers.” Daring said confidently. “Hopefully finding Princess Luna might help this galaxy fueled by hate.” Twilight nodded.
“Of course, Professor, let’s just hope that the last expedition didn’t yield any findings.”
♫ ♫ ♫ ♫ ♫
Octavia woke up hearing the guards yelling and hitting the bars with wooden batons. The door opened and nopony did anything to run or hide, but they cringed when the guard pointed at a mare and she was dragged away. Two other mares were picked and taken away to the giant doors. Octavia sat there, watching as the three mares were pushed through the gate where she can hear screaming from a crowd. She gulped, shaking. After some talk from other mares, it turned out her turn would be after the first fight, whatever that meant.
Nopony, not even Cheerilee, gave her comfort, only silence of sadness. Octavia gulped hearing the blood curdling screams through the door. The cell door opened as the griffon Stork walked over to Octavia and grabbed her arm and forced her to walk with him to the stadium. She turned with pleading eyes at the four mares she talked to. They only gave her sad glances or turned away with guilt.
She was pushed through the steel door and stopped by an electric gate. Through the bars, she could see a bloody stadium as one unicorn mare fought against five drugged diamond dogs. She looked up to see that above the stadium was a large mesh fence with ponies and other creatures throwing trash at the mare or reaching through, banging the metal wall with their hands, fists or metal pipes. Now Octavia was completely terrified.
A bell was rung and the diamond dogs backed off, growling as the mare let out a sigh of relief as she slumped against the wall. A guard ran out to place shackles on the mare’s wrists and ankles and forced her to walk out of the stadium. There was another bell and a gate opened. The five diamond dogs ran into the gate then the gate shut as three pegasi slaves, all stallions, clean up the mess preparing for the next show.
Octavia was now shaking badly in her shackles. She felt Stork touching her legs as he unshackled her ankles, giggling. He tossed the shackles away but left her wrist shackles on. There was another bell toll and the gate rose in front of Octavia. Octavia gulped, Stork chuckled and shoved her out causing her to trip and fall face first in the sand. The whole crowd starts howling with laugher and booing at her as she spat out the sand. Octavia sat up hearing the gate behind her slam shut, blocking her escape.
Another bell sounded and another gate opened. She turned and gasped to see tall and heavily built stallions with crazed bloodshot eyes and foaming mouths walking out of the their gate, sniffing the air. Octavia gasped with shock seeing these stallions were naked, no shred of clothing on them whatsoever. The gate dropped back down. The three stallions turned to see Octavia sitting up, watching them. One stallion chuckled evilly as he led the charge with a monstrous roar. Octavia gulped, standing up.
“Oh Sweet Luna, save me,” she whispered and started running.