It was always amusing to watch Pinkie throughout the day. On this particular day, right after I witnessed a 'professional' assassin break down into tears, I was going around town with Pinkie. She hopped, skipped, frolicked, bounced, jumped, and swirled across the town. I merely stuffed my hands in my pockets, with my thumbs tucked neatly onto the folds, and hunched my shoulders whilst trailing after the enthusiastic and bubbly girl.
"Matt!" she cried out.
Rising an eyebrow, I walked over to where Pinkie was. She was standing in front of a rather large bell tower, staring at it in awe. Her eyes twinkled in delight, and I steeled myself for the usual onslaught of over the top adjectives and speeches that lasted for ten minutes straight. While I had only known Pinkie for about two days, one where I watched a man be sent to his execution, I had already found out pretty much everything about her. She grew up as a pretty lonely and quiet child, but she soon found a thrill in fighting and making friends (I know, I know, complete opposites, right?), so she opened herself up. She then began to work for Luna starting three years ago, when she was just a 15 year old teen. Pinkie found herself ready to do her duty for her country, and the princess had seen that.
"What is it now, Pinkie?"
"Isn't this tower just super-duper awesome! It's so tall, too! I really want to climb it and put a flag up there. Oh, can we do that, Matt? Hey, that rhymes! That Matt! That Matt over there is brand new! That Matt is so silly." Pinkie began to ramble on about lots of other rhymes, so I tuned her out.
Luckily, I was saved from eternal hell when Luna arrived. "Matt!" she barked out, already forcing in that air of authority. "I wanted to apologize about the whole 'sending a man to his death' right in front of you," she said bluntly.
I stood there, unwavering, for a moment for two. I wasn't sure how to react. I'll admit that the death slightly freaked me out, but I don't truly believe an apology was necessary. Blood, gore, sex, drugs, and death never really freaked me out or affected me as a kid. My father, a marine, and my grandfather, a Vietnam veteran, always told me horror stories about their times, so seeing it all unravel in front of me was just like my father described it. Except this time I was 18, a young adult. After Yataro was sent off, I just went to sleep. Simple. And then I woke up, learnt about Pinkie, and began to walk around town with her. Of course, there was a guilty feeling building up in my stomach. I know I was supposed to feel bad, horrible, and downright depressed after seeing a grown man sent crying to his death, but it didn't...click that way with me. I shook away my thoughts and looked more deeply at the princess. "It's no problem, my lady." I used 'my lady' to address her instead of princess or your highness. It felt more right coming out of my mouth. Princess and highness were too formal, and Luna didn't seem to come off as a really formal princess. Numerous children and teens flocked to her in causal conversation, and she seemed to know everybody in town.
"Excellent." She loosened her body. It seemed that she was uptight about addressing her faults as a leader. Although I wouldn't consider it a fault, there was something in her eyes that led me to believe that she personally felt that way. "Now, I would like to talk to you about your mission."
"What about it?" I asked, crossing my arms across my chest.
"Well you're going to need a game plan, are you not? I'm not going to be able to hold your hand the entire quest. And, while I don't doubt Pinkie's skills at fighting, I don't think it would be the best thing to send you both off alone across the planet. It's unnecessary and will most likely result in one of you getting injured."
I nodded in agreement. "Of course," I said, "so what exactly do you want me to do? Or where do you want me to go, for that matter?"
"Where I need you to go," she began, "is the rebel's tower in southern Islonda."
"Islonda?" I repeated. "What the hell is Islonda?"
A face of disbelief crossed over Luna's face, but it was quickly replaced by an understanding look. "My apologies," she said, regarding her change of facial features, "I forgot you're unfamiliar to the geography of our planet. Islonda is the largest island on our world. It's covers approximately 50% of our planet, and it is divided into two sectors: the beasts and the humans. Since the dawn of time, humans hunted down the beasts to use them as clothing and food. But, around 5 million years ago, the beasts began to instantly devour any human that dared cross a certain line of the island. Apparently, after millions of years of being tortured and killed, the beasts developed a keen intellect and hatred towards humans. The next island is the one that we're currently on: Paxnor. Luckily, all of the other islands had been leaving us alone, as we don't have a powerful army, and we're not a hateful nation."
"You say that," I pointed out, "but you trained Pinkie to some extent and summoned a powerful weapon to topple the king."
Luna shrugged. "Times have changed," she said solemnly. Without a word, I nodded and motioned her to continue. "There are two islands aside from Islonda and Paxnor: Volcada and Royalot. Volcada was the birthplace of industrialism. Unfortunately, there are always large sacrifices to allow such a powerful change. There are one billion child workers in Volcada. Each one barely makes enough to feed themselves as they scurry away from their tedious jobs. That's the lower segment of the island. The upper segment consists of amazing machinery and devices that are beyond the knowledge of Paxnor. Finally, Royalot is the island of the most powerful people on this planet. They have money that seems unfathomable to the mere human brain. Discord lives there. Unreachable across a hundred miles of sea, he is the world's most powerful man with the world's most powerful army. There are twenty billion people on this planet, and Discord has 15 billion people in his army."
I tensed up. Luna had seemed so confident about the rebellion at first. But, from my point of view, it looked like it was crumbling down from the inside. Was my sword, this plain, silver sword, really good enough to tear apart a king with 15 billion pawns surrounding him. No...There had to be a way... I might not know all these people in the world, but I was going to try my best to fight against them. Pinkie had stopped her bouncing to look at me. "Come on, Matt. 15 billion weaklings! You gotta remember, we're super duper strong!"
Luna nodded her head in Pinkie's direction. "She's right."
"So we have well-trained professionals against pawns. That slightly evens out the odds. Okay, I know the geography now; tell me about my quest," I said.
"Right. Basically, my sister, Celestia, runs the rebellion tower in Islonda. Take a boat to Islonda and you should arrive in Talax, the coastal city of Islonda. There, you'll find the tower. But be warned, there are numerous thugs that hang around the area surrounding the tower, and they're all employed under Discord. I recommend slipping in as quickly as possible, talking to Celestia, getting her to give you a mercenary or two, maybe a possible sword tutor, and then you can head on your way," Luna suggested.
"That sounds all fine and dandy," I said," but where am I going after I collect these mercenaries? And why do I even need them? Can I trust them?"
Luna waved off my concerns with a flick of her hand. "You need not worry, Matt. After collecting the mercenaries, you should take the eastern path away from the city and travel around the outskirts of the mountains. My sister can fill you in more, as I'm a little sketchy on the exact path. And you're going to need help against Discord, so having a small team that you can rely on would be the best possible course of action. As for trusting...well, I don't actually know. They should be loyal to Celestia, having been by her side for years, but I can't assume anything. For now, just take the boat to Islonda." Luna reached into her royal garments and pulled out two tickets. "These should suffice. Now, go!"
I smirked and pocketed the tickets. "Don't worry, Luna," I said earnestly.
"I can't help but worry when it involves Pinkie Pie..." Luna admitted with a sigh.
I chuckled and then began to walk away, with Pinkie hopping enthusiastically behind me. "This is going to be the bestest thing ever, Matt! I hope you're ready for a party!"
Shaking my head in an attempt to not burst into laughter, I found that I couldn't help but giggle. Which was rather a girly thing to do. "Pinkie, you're so crazy."
"I know, right?"
We chatted on our walk to the dock. Pinkie was doing most of the talking, but I did add some comments here and there. I followed the pink-haired girl, seeing as I had no idea where the dock was, until we reached our boat in the corner of the dockyard. "And that's how Islonda was made!"
I shot her a surprised look. What was she on about?
However, the sun was shining brightly overhead, and I had no time, or willpower, to question Pinkie. I hopped onto the boat, which was a sailing boat with a cabin underneath, and sat in a chair that was propped up on the port side of the ship. The warm sun rejuvenated my tired body, and I began to feel renewed.
"Hi!" shouted a cheerful voice.
I bolted up from my comfortable seat to greet the voice. There was a girl, standing right in front of me, holding a clipboard. I narrowed my eyebrows in confusion. I was expecting there to be a captain on the ship, yes. But I wasn't expecting a clipboard. I mean, what possible use of a clipboard is there on a ship? Hey, I'd like to conduct a survery? Oh jeez, they could do that, couldn't they? What if it's a Jehovah's witness? Do they even have religion in this world? Maybe I'm overthinking this...maybe she just had a spare clipboard.
"May I see your tickets, please?"
Oh... Yeah, that would explain the clipboard.
"Sure," I mumbled as I reached into my pocket and pulled out the tickets.
The girl politely took them from my hand and glanced them over. After a second or two, she marked something on her clipboard and put the tickets in a little envelop. "Much appreciated," she said. "Sorry about the tickets, but you need the princess' approval to leave Paxnor at anytime."
Now this was even more confusing. Luna had seemed calm and relaxed when it came to her island, although a little uptight at the mention of the other islands, but it was a surprising move, in my eyes, to limit transportation off the island.
"Now if you could just enter the cabin; we'll be leaving shortly."
I nodded and entered the bottom cabin with Pinkie. Luckily, there were two beds. As attractive as Pinkie was, I don't think I wanted to share a bed with her on my first night here. I collapsed onto the bed. Admittedly, the sun's warm beams had filled me with warmth, so sleep wasn't going to be the easiest thing to achieve.
"Good night, Matt!" Pinkie called out from her bed.
"Night, Pinkie," I said back to her.
And the peaceful bliss of sleep crossed over me. I guess I was more tired than I thought...