Starry looks down at her map then the compass and adjusts her course ever so slightly. She looks behind her and frowns at what looks like small sails coming in her direction. Thank Celestia I left before them. She looks down at the map with a deep scowl. It is a map of an unnamed island to the north-east of Kigerston and east of Hayvana, a small jungled island with no real value. Except for her, she knows that that’s where his hideout is. Three years of searching and waiting and you finally show. After today I will no longer fear you and you’ll be terrified of me even in death.
She unsheathes her blade and looks into the polished surface. It is a skinny blade not made for hacking at enemies, it’s faster than a normal sword and makes deep clean cuts. Long time since I last held you. She puts the sword back into the scabbard, satisfied with it’s condition.
She looks back at the pursuing ship and smiles as it seems to be a little slower as well. Her smile falters when she hears wingbeats overhead, she looks up at the cloudy sky and sees nothing. May have been a seagull. Arrel comes down onto the deck with a solid thud. Starry jumps back in surprise and draws her sword in her magic field.
“Why did you knock me out?” Arrel asks.
She blinks dumbly a couple of times. But, it quickly turns to a glare. “Because you said you weren't leaving me. It seems I didn't do a good enough job.”
“Can’t you at least tell me why you’re doing this?”
Images flash through Starry’s mind of the night she had met the assassin. She furiously shakes her head in a vain attempt to get rid of the memories. “No.”
“Just tell me who you want to kill.”
“No!” Tears flow down her cheeks as the memories make their way to the front of her mind.
“Please?”
“This is my problem and I am the one who’s going to deal with it, on my own.”
“Well, I ain’t leaving until I know what this is about.”
She goes to argue more until she looks him in the eyes. A type of determined resolve burns behind his dark brown eyes. Images come flooding back, she slumps to the floor and lets the sword fall to the ground. She takes a few shaky breaths. “Fine, it was three years ago, me and my family were coming to Hayvana for business…
“Why do I have to go?!” Starry shouts at her father, Starburst.
“We have to go because I have to to meet the griffon ambassador.”
“But why, can’t they take care of this themselves.”
“An Equestrian representative must be there since they are one of our colonies.”
“Okay, but why do I have to go!”
“Please don’t do this, I just want to spend a little time with my family,” he says trying to hug her but she just walks away.
“Oh yes, great idea, have a vacation in a pirate infested cesspool!”
“Starry, even pirates are smart enough not to attack a royal con--” he hears a door slam down one of the halls in the large house. He sighs and shakes his head.
“Don’t worry, dear, I’m sure she love it once we get there,” says Northern Star, her mother.
“I don’t know, she doesn’t seem too happy right now.”
“She just attached to Canterlot, just wait till we’re on the open sea. She’ll be happy studying the maps and books over there.”
“I hope you’re right.”
Starry steps onto the wooden dock of Hayvana harbour. The trip had been a short one, two days or so, during which she didn’t even speak to her father. Though he had been right, they hadn’t been attacked throughout the trip.
She sees a group of diamond dogs loading cargo onto a ship. Diamond dogs are cheap labour throughout most of Equestria. She never liked the filthy beasts, they tend to live in tunnels and kidnap ponies. Her father steps off the ship and smiles at her. “Here we are, I’m sure you’ll love the pa--” She scoffs and walks away.
Starburst sighs and hangs his head low, Northern comes over and pats him on the back. “Don’t worry, she’ll talk to you soon.” She looks down at the scabbard attached to his belt and raises an eyebrow.
“For protection, I’m meeting a griffon and want to make sure I come out alive.” She frowns at him. “I’ll only use it in an emergency.”
Starry sits in the palace library reading the local lore. The bookshelves tower high above her, she could spend the entire vacation reading books. She throws the book into a small pile with the others she has finished in the past few hours. She looks over at the shelves for a new one when one of the deer slaves walks up to her. “Do you wish for me to get something for you?” she asks.
“Go get me drink, slave,” Starry replies harshly. Stupid savage, why don’t we just wipe them out. She listens to the deer walk off and sighs in disappointment. None of the books catch her eye, she looks around for something else. I might as well explore the city, she thinks suddenly bored of the library and not wanting to talk to the deer again.
She stands up and trots out into the halls. It doesn’t take her long to find her way to the entrance, having remembered the route when she came in. She is stopped by a guard at the gate, she is surprise to find that the guard is a female but she glares at her nonetheless. The guard stares blankly back at her. “Where are you going?” she asks.
Starry sighs and stops her attempt at a death glare, which was clearly ineffective. “I’m going to explore the city.”
“I shall escort you in that case, my comrade can guard the gate,” she gesture to the armored pony beside her.
“Very well then, I suppose I can use an escort in a city like this.” She walks down the path with the guard right at her side. She looks down at the harbour, with it’s countless ships. They trot through the crowded streets of the city, they turn a corner and end up at the harbour. Starry idly looks at the stalls set up at the water’s edge as the guard looks out for any trouble. She spots a stall selling book and scrolls. She happily trots up to the stall and browses it wares. She picks out a book from Saddle Arabia.
“How much?”
The owner examines the book for a couple of seconds. “Forty-two bits,” he says.
She levitates out her bit pouch and looks through it. She picks out the proper change and puts it onto the counter and leaves with her book. “Could you carry this?” Starry asks.
“Of course,” the guard mutters, Starry puts the book into her saddlebag. They walk in silence, passing stall after stall. They turn off the harbour and start heading further inland. Starry watches the carts pass by them. She stops and sits on a nearby bench for a little rest, the guard stands next to her. They rest in their mutual silence, that is until they hear a scream come from an alleyway nearby. They exchange a quick look.
“Stay here, I’ll go see what--” Starry runs off before the guard can finish. She runs toward the alley, charging a spell on her horn. She turns into the alley and finds three diamond dogs standing over a mare, a pool of blood forming around the pony. She fires off the spell and barely misses one of them. The three turn to her, holding sword in their paws already, she gulps. One of them runs at her and she jumps out of the way, the sword whizzing by her ear. This is what you get for trying to be a hero. She hears a thump and the dog falls to the ground as the guard steps forward. “I told you to stay,” Starry doesn’t reply, “I’ll take care of the other two, try not to die.”
The guard charges the two, they lose interest in Starry and decide to focus on the clearly stronger one. She lands a punch on one of the two knocking him out. The other strikes at the guard but the sword doesn’t pass through the armor. The guard pivots on her forehooves and and bucks the diamond dog in the jaw. She looks back at Starry. “You okay?”
“Y-yeah, I just… stuff like this doesn’t happen in Canterlot very often.”
The guard looks up to the sky. “Let’s go back to the palace, they should be serving lunch soon.” Starry just nods.
Soon she is in the diningroom sitting at a large table, her parents sit next to her. Slaves rush around the table bringing platters and cups with them.
“So, how did it go, dear?” Northern asks her husband.
He looks up from his plate and wipes his mouth. “It went… well. They seem willing to make a deal but all their offers are too steep.”
“Well at least it’s a start.”
“How about you, how was your day?” he asks Starry.
She stops poking at her food and glares at him. “Horrible.”
“At least she’s talking to you,” Northern whispers.
“Oh, don’t say that, I’m sure in a day or two you’ll be having the time of your life.”
“No I won’t. I almost died today and you two are acting like you don’t care.”
“Died?”
“The only way I’ll have the ‘time of my life’ is if I’m actually killed! I can’t believe you brought me along with you. I hate this city, I politics and I hate you! There is nothing here that I do like!” She uses a bursts of magic to open the door, knocking it off one of the hinges. She storms out of the room. Starburst gets up to go after his daughter but is stopped in a field of magic.
“Just let her blow off some steam. I’m sure she didn’t mean any of it, she’s just a little-- Okay, a lot angry at us for taking her away from her friends. I was the same at her age.”
He looks to the door then back to his wife and sighs. “I think we investigate what she meant when she said, ‘I almost died’.”
Night falls upon Hayvana, as a darkness spreads over the sky, only interrupted by millions of dot of light. Starry sits up in the bed, unable to sleep. She walk over to the window and pushes it open. She has always prefered the night, thus her name. There’s just something so enchanting about it, the day is bland with it’s one ball of light burning across the sky while the night is endless possibilities. It’s always so calm, quiet and peaceful. She looks up at the Mare in the Moon. This world needs a princess of the night more than it does a princess of the day. She yawns and goes back over to the bed.
The silence is destroyed by a scream in the night, to be more specific, a scream from down the hall. She runs to the door and shoves it open, a brown unicorn stallion gallops past her. She sees the door to her parents room left ajar. She falls to the ground at the sight of both her parents laying on the floor, a pool of blood seeping into the carpet. A thin scabbard lays next to her father in the pool. “I’m so sorry,” she cries, burying her face into her father’s chest fur.
She remembers the brown stallion, the one running from the scene. The one with blood on his hooves. The one that killed her parents. Her eyes flash open, she picks up her father's sword and takes off running. She spots the stallion run past the gate, the bodies of two guard left in his path. She sprints past them, Two more reasons to kill him. She follows his path through the deserted streets, he jumps over carts and crates, Starry tries her best to keep up but slowly the distance between them grow. The stallion makes a sharp turn and runs onto the docks, Starry follows.
The stallion jumps onto one of the ships and begins raising the sails and untying it from the dock. Starry makes in to the end of the dock as the ship starts moving, she jumps on with little time to spare. She draws the sword, holding it in her magic as she scans the ship for the killer. She sees no sign of him. She walks further onto the deck, looking up into the rigging. She uses her magic to open the door to the captain’s quarter but still nothing. She levitates the sword closer to her and goes to the helm cautiously. I’m going to have to turn this thing around anyways.
She grabs the helm, looking around her and keeping alert. She looks to the left as she slowly turns the wheel. She feels something cut through her flesh, a large gash is cut across the right side of her barrel. She charges a spell and turns to face the killer. He has a curved blade held in his magical grasp. She fires her spell, destroying the lantern to the left of him. She charges another spell, he sneers at her. She goes to fire the bolt of magic at him, but a horrible pain shoots through her shoulder. She falls to the deck with a gasp of pain. Out of the corner of her eye she spots the hilt of her father's sword sticking out of her shoulder, covered in light brown aura.
“My contract isn’t to kill you, then again, neither were those guards. You did come after me and try to kill me, so I guess I have to kill you. Tell you what, I’ll give you a small chance, all you have to do is fight off the sharks and swim to land before you pass-out.” He lifts her over the rail and drops her into the sea.
Starry’s eyes fly open and she bolts out of bed only to fall back into it from the dizziness. She frantically looks around the room, it’s a normal room, no stone block walls, no extravagant . A cream colored mare stands by the door. “I wouldn’t move if I were you, sweetie. You have a pretty bad… well actually, it's a horrible injury and if it opens again, you’ll literally run out of blood.”
“Whe-where am I?”
“You’re in my house, sweetie, Neighsau in case you were wondering. You’re lucky to be alive, some fishers caught you in their net. I’m not sure what you’ve been through but I’m guess nothing short of Tartarus.”
… and so I spent the next three years searching for him. I’ve found the hideout he uses whenever he comes here. I’ve also found out he has two lackeys now.” She looks up at Arrel. “I’m getting my revenge, no matter what you say. I know it won’t change anything, I know it won’t bring them back, but letting him live won’t either.”
“Why don’t you want us to help?”
“Because I don’t want to lose anyone else I know to him.” She looks back at the small dot on the horizon. “You should head back now, I don’t want anyone else getting caught up in my revenge.”
Arrel looks between her and the Kingfisher, he lowers his head with a sigh. “Promise me you’ll stay alive.”
“I promise I will.”
He takes to the sky and flies off toward the ship in the distance.