The night sky shines down on Kigerston. Very few ponies walk the streets at these hours, except for the homeless, reckless and the thieves. Two guards dressed in heavy armor patrols the outside of a large manor. It is made of large stone bricks, it stands three stories tall. Four marble pillars hold up the front of the building, while a massive window sits above it giving a view of the city. The building is lit up with lanterns casting a warm orange glow out the windows.
It is a peaceful night, the only sounds are those of the night and the metal armor of the guards. A high pitched scream comes from the building, the guards take action and begin running for the large wood door.
“How did someone get past us?” one of them shouts. There is the sound of glass shattering and the body of a maid falls to the ground in front of them. The guards bash the door open and come face-to-face with a minotaur holding a large hammer in one hand. They only have the time to draw their weapons before the minotaur brings down the hammer onto one of the guards crushing his armor as though it was little more than tin.
The other guard lunges with his lance. The minotaur reaches around and grabs the lance and rips it out of his grip. He plunges it straight through the pony, the armor doing little to protect from the beast.
A group of soldiers come rushing through the gate toward the manor. The minotaur prepares for another strike. But, pony comes out of the sky and slashes at a couple of them with his sword before disappearing into the night sky again. The soldiers look around frantically for pony, to no avail. The pony continues his assault, striking at them and flying back into the sky before doing the same process again. Soon he soldiers lay dead halfway across the yard the pony lands next to the minotaur and folds his bat-like wings.
A brown colored unicorn walks up behind the minotaur. “You two made a real mess,” he says.
“You did tell us to deal with any complications however we saw fit,” says the minotaur.
“Good point, let’s go before anyone else comes.”
Captain places another empty bottle onto the counter. “She came back after with a few plants and stuff and then Starry made an antidote,” he says. Rose leans on the other side of the counter listening to Captain recount the tale of their little mishap. “I had to give the antidote to Ebony because she still doesn’t want to tell anyone she’s a changel--”
Ebony shoves a bottle of rum into his mouth. “Don’t mention that where others can hear us,” she hisses.
Captain quickly chuges the rum and places the bottle on the counter. “I’m just happy I’m not pink anymore.”
“Look again, sweetie.”
“I’m happy I’m not more pink than usual. I still don’t like my mane, pink is a color for fillies.”
“I can make you feel like a stallion, sweetie.”
“No, I don’t want you to shave my head.”
“That’s not what I was getting at.”
“Were you talking about getting me some more rum?”
“Not that either.”
“In that case you can’t help.” Ebony starts laughing, Rose facehoofs and shakes her head. Captain looks around the tavern, spending more time scanning the corners than anywhere else. “Where’s Howler?”
“Huh, oh, you don’t know, do you, sweetie? There’s a unicorn he visits often, I think her name is Blood Moon, a little creepy if you ask me. Anyways, I think she’s from Neighpon as well, though I’m not sure how they know each other.”
Arrel comes up to the group. “Have you guys seen Starry?”
“She’s hurt, do you really expect her to be here?” Ebony asks.
“Well, no, but I just want to make sure she’s alright.”
“She seemed alright when she was coughing up blood while she laughed at me,” Captain mutters, he receives a swift hoof to the head.
“Don’t worry, she’s smart, she wouldn’t be walking around in her condition,” Ebony says. Just then the door opens with a dark blue aura and in comes Starry. Her left foreleg is wrapped in bandages. Rose tenses up as the unicorn comes to the counter. Ebony stares in shock at her, after a few seconds she scowls at her. “Shouldn’t you be resting?”
“Shouldn’t you be showing a bit more respect toward me since I cured us of poison joke.” She looks at Rose who is halfway to stairs. Rose turns around and gives a small nervous smile.
“H-hello, how’s it going?”
“What’s wrong?”
“W-why do you say that?”
“You’re stuttering, you didn’t call me sweetie and you haven’t hit on me.”
Rose sighs and drops the smile. “No point of trying to hiding it from you, is there? There was an assassination in Kigerston.” Starry’s ear perk up at the news. “They say it was a brown stallion that did it, as well as a minotaur and another pony.” Starry stares at her for what seems like a minute. “Listen, sweetie, you’re hurt. You can’t go after him, I know you wan--” Starry sprints out of the room, ignoring her friend and the burning pain in her shoulder.
Ebony gives Rose a questioning look. “What was that about?”
“It’s a personal issue with her, I don’t think she’d want me talking about it. In fact I don’t even know the whole story, all I know is that he did something bad to her and she wants revenge.”
“She’s involved with an assassin?”
“Again, I don’t know the whole story, trust me, sweetie, I really would have liked to know it. She just wouldn’t talk about it though.”
“Arrel, go after her,” Captain says
Starry jumps out of the way of carts and ponies as she gallops for her house. She makes a quick right turn and jumps out of the way of a cart.
Starry skids to a stop in front of her house. She has a small house that is more inland than the others. White boards make up the walls of the one story building. She pushes her way through the door and goes to her study. Her study lays in back-left corner of the house, she has bookcases lining one wall. Maps, notes and paper clippings are pinned to one of the other wall. A desk sits at the end of the room littered with scrolls, maps and writings of all sorts.
She looks at her wall of clippings going over the notes and maps until her eyes fall upon a map with an ‘x’ scrawled onto it. She levitates it off the desk and goes over to a small chest in the corner of the room. With a flair of magic she brings out a thin sword and scabbard, she puts on the belt and scabbard and sheaths the sword. It’s your turn to lose everything. Now I need a ship, something simply enough for one pony to manage. She turns around and finds Arrel at the door to her study.
“What’s going on?” he asks eyeing the sword.
“Nothing to concern yourself with.”
“What’s with the sword?”
“I owe somepony a scar,” she says shoving her way past Arrel.
“A scar? What is this about?”
“Nothing to concern yourself with.“
“Just tell us, the rest of the crew can help. You helped me, it's my turn to--"
“No! I’m doing this on my own, nopony else is helping. I owe him something and I’m going to be sure to repay him back in full,” she says adding a fair bit of anger into the last part.
“I’m going with you, you can’t get rid of me.”
“I guess you leave me with no choice.” She turns around, a spell charged on her horn. “I’m sorry.” She fires the spell, he slumps to the floor gently snoring. She takes a moment and checks her bandages, now colored a bright red. She quickly changes the dirty bandages. She trots out the door and toward the docks.
She passes through the crowds of countless ponies. I’m not letting you get away. She arrives at the docks several minutes later, her left shoulder burning in pain. She scans the ships for one that suits her needs, she settles on a small gunboat and the end on the dock. She trots up to it and the few ponies guarding it, one of them steps in front of her.
“Wait up, where do you think you’re going?” he says.
I don’t have time for this, Starry thinks. With a quick burst of magic she sends them flying into the water. She continues onto the ship and uses her magic to hoist the sails.
Captain balances a bottle on his nose, Rose paces back and forward behind the counter, Ebony glances from Rose to the door every-so-often. “How can you not be worried?” Rose asks to Captain.
“She’s smart, I doubt that she’ll do much of anything.”
“Didn’t you see the way she ran out?”
Captain pauses for a moment, then he puts the bottle onto the counter. He looks at the door with a sigh. “Guess you’re right, we should go help her.”
The door bursts open and Arrel comes flying in. “Captain, we have a problem.” Ebony and Captain exchange looks then run outside. Captain looks around the dock but see nothing.
“Where is she?” Arrel points to a small dot out at sea. “Where is she going?”
“I don’t know but I know she's out for blood.”
Captain looks out at the ship then back at what’s left of, his crew. “Alright, Arrel and Ebony, fly out there and see what she’s doing.” Ebony shakes her head and points to her burnt wing.
“Sorry, I'm grounded.“
“Fine, Arrel, go see what she’s doing.” He nods and flies off toward the ship. “Right, Starry plot a course… Oh wait.” He looks at his crew. “Willow do you know how to navigate?”
“A little.”
“Plot a course, we need to follow as soon as we can. Twigs, Smokey, Howler, get the--” He looks back at the crew and remembers that Howler is missing and Smokey is drunk. “Twigs, Ebony, get the sails up on the Kingfisher.”