Chapter 7:
Joan sat up in her bed, the air musty and heavy with heat. Bird song could be heard out of the single barred window, it was about dawn time. Celestia’s burning sun was coming. Burlap sacks of cold ice and water were on the bed, they must have been used to keep her cool while she was out. A dry cough burst from her lungs, her mouth was completely void of moisture. A glass of water sat on the table behind the bed, a small index card read, “For you.” on it. Joan quickly wrapped 2 hooves around the small glass and greedily downed every drop in it. Wiping her muzzle with her dusty shirt sleeve, the grey mare removed the covers from her legs and flopped off the bed and onto the floor. Fumbling about the stone walled room, Joan found her hat which was resting on the bed post, she made her way to the door after grabbing the rest of her belongings, the door was an open edifice there was just a strange blue colored curtain, it had a design on it but Joan couldn’t make out what it was.
“The sun cometh up for thou. Though methinks thou shouldst still be resting in cold slumber.” An accent resembling that of the old time ponies played lightly from a wind chilled body. A slender mare sat on the edge of the deck surrounding the stone house. A light purple colored mare sat there, her opaque light azure mane gently pushed to the right side in a wind that seemed to be generated by her. Her body wasn’t clothed except for the hat, very similar to Joan’s in style but different in it’s dark black color, rested casually on her head.
“I doubt the sun is rising just for me, and I don’t really wanna see it. Seeing as I was nearly killed by it…where am I at anyway?”
The slender mare stood up and turned towards Joan, she signaled with a simple movement of her muzzle for Joan to approach her, and she did. “Cloparosa, Nuevo Equestria. That is where thou are at the moment located at.” She smiled sincerely with half closed eyes, she wasn’t lying.
Joan looked over the slender mare, her cutie mark looked as if someone ripped off a piece of the starry night sky and slapped it onto her bum and put a glowing crescent moon on it. As well as her standing, her posture was perfect and it radiated with pure elegance. She stood tall, about a head size taller than Joan, although her build was mildly intimidating she had a trustworthy smile and a truthful gaze.
Joan cleared her throat before speaking, “Ahem! So…how did you find me?” Joan’s voice cracked from its dryness.
“Thou was merely an hour’s walk away. We were making my return from the Nuevo Equestrian capitol, upon then we more literally than figuratively stumbled upon thine body. Lucky for thou, the vultures were readily preparing to feast upon your burning carcass.” The mare’s honest eyes sparkled with both seriousness and an unforgiving humor.
Joan smirked a small bit her right eye trailing off from center, “Well, Miss…um Pegasus lady. What is your name?” Joan smiled feeling a disturbing happy-go-lucky feeling.
The mare looked down at the ground closing her eyes to not reveal any uncertainty, “Dost thou wish to heareth mine real name or that name which many of old shall know me as…?”
“The real one please, I won’t pester you about the past. We all have things we wish to hide.” Joan reassured the mare who’s smiling face had returned.
“Lunar, Lunar Ricketts.” Her eyes shifted a little bit, but in Joan’s relaxed mind state she did not notice this. “And what is yours.” She simply asked.
“Joan Derpston, nice to meet you Miss Ricketts.” Joan placed her hoof forward and Miss Ricketts connected hers in a friendly hoof shake. “Now Miss Ricketts, where is this capitol you said you came from yesterday.”
Lunar leaped to the top of the stone house that Joan had slept in, Joan followed quickly. She pointed a hoof westward towards the sun. “Follow the path out of the village, head west, the first town you see, is the city of Los Pegasus. Capitol to Nuevo Equestria.” Her voice had lost its strange accent about mid sentence and she didn’t speak in her strange terms. Joan thought this was strange, but paid no mind to it; she often spoke in fancy terms with her daughter then would use incorrect grammar later in the sentence.
“It’s about an hour or so walk, therefore thou should pack water in your satchel. We don’t wanteth a repeat of last time, correct?” Lunar Ricketts spoke with her voice returning to normal.
“I will,” Joan said giving a thankful nod to Lunar. “You wouldn’t mind if I returned here for the night?”
“I will be expecting you…” a sudden cold rushed by as Lunar Ricketts spoke those words.
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The city of Los Pegasus, among its dirty and desolate rocky surroundings, was a much better place to look at than the area Joan had been walking in. As she walked down the rocky cliffs she was on she noticed a few things. Los Pegasus was relatively large, maybe even bigger than Canterlot, and part of the city was on an ocean or a lake of some sorts. The water glistened slightly in the sunlight; it was for once a sight that didn’t make Joan cringe inside. Inside, the city was dirty, much like every other town she visited. No blood though, just trash and dust. This place was…relatively safe. The city’s shape was weird, part flatland, part hill, and part water. Residents of the area ran in and out of the flatlands, important looking business ponies walked in and out of the harbor as well as sailors and…whorses as well. The hills in the city contained only three building, but they were glorious and huge. Joan knew this is where she was to go; the buildings were adorned with flags of the sun.
“HALT! What is your name and purpose being here?” A gold armored unicorn shouted at Joan.
“Joan Derpston and I am assuming this is the Solar Empire’s headquarters here.”
The doors to the building began to open and a light blue unicorn mare with white hair stood there. She was wearing a white outfit with gold trim; many patches adorned her shoulder sleeves signifying her high rank. She spoke out in a boisterous voice, pride pushing heavily out of her mouth as she held her head up, “Actually, we prefer being called the Celestian Government. We feel that Solar Empire makes us sound too…tyrannical.”
Joan rolled her eyes, “Right, tyrannical.”
“So simpleton what is your purpose here, what makes you worthy of being in the presence of the Awesome and Magnificent Colonel Trixande?”
“I’m here to hunt down a criminal. A criminal that is wanted by the leader of your government.” Trixande smiled pridefully and closed her eyes at the mention of her leader.
“The Awesome and Magnificent Colonel Trixande’s government wants many criminals gone. We are fighting against two rebel groups; your target is more than likely hiding with The Awesome and Magnificent Colonel Trixande’s enemies!”
“Enemies, I’d never expect the wonderful Celestian Government to have enemies.” Joan said hiding her sarcasm with a worried derp expression.
“Yes, we find it hard to believe that people wouldn’t agree with our government.” Trixande’s eyes shot open and she stomped her hoof down. Joan jumped back a small bit at the sudden aggressive motions by the Celestian Colonel. “You could be useful, very useful.” The colonel’s face grinning eagerly at her thoughts, “The Awesome and Magnificent Colonel Trixande has heard of you Mrs. Derpston, and you have skills that could be very useful to us!” The colonel’s horn began to glow, she shot bright lights which created a brilliant light show of various ponies, as well as a Crescent Moon and a Red Diamond. “We have been fighting ever since the Nuevo area was claimed by Celestia. Our secret enemy, The Lunar Republic, they have been underground in hiding for hundreds of years. But they influence many a ponies.” The moon light ceased glowing, but the Red Diamond’s light began to drip as if it was liquid or ice. “But the Rebels, they are the most immediate danger.”
“What do you need me to do?” Joan asked raising her eyebrows.
Trixande shifts her eyes around, “Between defense from the badlands in the south and the forces we have in the north. We have very little to give here in the heart of our land.”
“It’s not my fault your spread thin. What do I get out of it?” Joan asked.
Trixande laughed slightly, “You’re a lot like my daughter, Hazel. Always wondering what you can get out of it. Someday I’ll get it through her head that she won’t get everything she wants…Don’t you just want to help your homeland against dangerous rebels? Against the death of our freedoms.” She announced this out, as if speaking to a crowd although Joan was the only pony there.
“Ma’am, your government is the reason I’m in this mess. I’m doing this to save my daughter, to save my family. Now do you know where I can find a mare named Schizo?”
Trixande’s eyes widened, she stared intently at the ground not moving a single muscle, she spoke…her voice drowned in worry. “What does she look like?”
Joan pushed the brim of her hat up and frowned at the thought of picturing her old friends face, “Cream colored S.O.B. Dirty unkempt pink and blue curly hair, scars on her face, a sinister smile, an evil laugh. Oh and lets not forget those eyes that lust for thousands of mares.” Joan could picture her cut up smile, her sharp teeth, that glint in her eye. Another thought came to her mind, as if an ironic voice told her about it. “Oh yea, and she talks to herself to…Not like you, but she talks to other ponies…other ponies that are in her head.”
The colonel lifted her head up and another prideful grin smacked itself onto her face, “Help us deal with the rebels, and the Awesome and Magnificent Colonel Trixande will have her stallions work on finding her.”
Joan sighed and pulled her hat down, “What other choice do I have. I’ll help you.”
The colonel’s face brightened up and her prideful smile became about as huge as her egotistical head. “Excellent, meet Captain Redblood here in the morning. He will be leading a mission against the rebels, if you show up. My help is guaranteed. Now Mrs. Derpston.” Trixande’s eyes lowered into a determined seriousness. “Get some rest, Our sun rises early!”
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Joan had drawn her revolver, the lowering sun would make way for the cool moon. Joan couldn’t see anything suspicious, but that little mare on her shoulder was telling her somepony was nearby. “Lunar…is that you. Or am I gonna have some snakes on my hand.” Joan said, her voice cracked at the mention of snakes.
“Snakes we are not,” a stallions voice firmly asserted. “But serpents we have been compared to.”
“I see why, sneaky like em. What do you want?” Joan asked her eyes narrowed and searching around.
“Just some words for you to remember, ‘When your true enemy shows, so shall too your true ally arise.’ Please remember what I have told you.” His voice echoed lightly as the wind picked up and swept some creature away.
“…How come all the strange things happen to me now…” Joan remarked amused at her always awkward situation.
Joan, continuing forward, looked towards her always faithful friend, the moon. The night always cool and welcoming, as the village came into view, a slender figure waved at her with the moon to her back. The cold light shadowed the figure, but the friendly wave told her that it was Lunar Ricketts. “Greetings Friend, how did thine meeting go with the Solar Empire.”
“Well seems this will be no easy victory. I am just about 1% closer to finding Schizo than I was this morning.” Joan’s tired body shambled up the building wall to meet her friend at the top. She was physically tired, although she had traveled a lot most recently the long walks to and from the far spread Nuevo Equestrian cities was much different then the short flights to and from the farm and Ponyville. “I’m just happy to see the moon. Something Celestia governs that doesn’t melt me into little pegasus pieces.”
Lunar Ricketts stared blankly at the moon, although her eyes showed no feeling, her frown displayed an unhappiness that Joan had not ever seen. “It’s something I wish she didn’t govern. It’s the one thing I agree with the Lunar Republic on…” Her hoof stomped on the rooftop, it made a loud wind rushing sound and a small breeze flew by.
“What is this Lunar Republic, what is this other rebels group? I’ve only been here for a day I can’t know everything that happened here!” Joan yelled after recovering from the sudden wind rush, although Joan had been yelling her face was that of an unknowing curiosity.
Lunar sighed; she closed her eyes and raised her head up to the moon. “The Lunar Republic are just that, a group who wishes for the moon to prosper.” A confused eyebrow raise from Joan told Lunar that she’d have to say some more. “We mean they want the mare in the moon to prosper.” “Nightmare Moon…” “Yes, they say they speak to her every night.” She met Joan’s eyes and saw that they were slowly derping away, she giggled a little at this. Joan gave her a friendly jab and told her to continue. “Almost a thousand years ago, they fought alongside Nightmare Moon to try and end what they thought was Celestia’s Tyranny. But when Nightmare Moon was defeated, they went underground, they were very strong in numbers here. But when Colonel Trixande became the governor here she outlawed any LR propaganda. Recently she stated that if you were caught speaking highly of the LR you would be brought to the governors palace…and killed. The stallions are the first bodies you see, then the mare’s bodies will show up a day or two later.”
“What do they do with them…the mares I mean?” Joan asked almost feeling sick.
“We’ve heard rumors that…that the stallion guards geteth to have fun with them…another is that Trixande is a filly-fooler, but she is married and has a newborn daughter so we would highly doubt that one. But what the colonel has done is wrong…the LR only have one thing in mind, that’s bringing glory to the moon. But they to do it all wrong, Joan do you think that murdering innocents is the right way to solveth anything.” Joan had buried her muzzle in her hooves for a few seconds and she shook her head lightly. “A lesson some of us have learned the hard way. We’re warning you now Joan, don’t go to Hoofington during the night, that is where you will find the LR. And we have a feeling they won’t be very friendly to thou.”
“Tell me about this…this uh rebel group…I’m supposed to fight them tomorrow.”
Lunar’s eyes widened, “You can’t fight them! You can’t, you shouldn’t, and you won’t. They’re good. They want what’s right.” She yelled out in a panic.
“I don’t care about this civil war ya’lls havin I’m just here to find Schizo.”
“THERE IS NOTHING CIVIL ABOUT THIS WAR!” Lunar Ricketts bellowed in a voice so powerful it almost blew Joan away.
“ALRIGHT! Calm down!” Joan yelled.
“The rebels will approach you if they already haven’t. Fight for them…fight for both for all I care.” She got up from where she was sitting and quickly jumped off the building shouting back to Joan in a displeased tone, “I will see you tomorrow.”
Joan sat down on the rooftop, “Now what do I do. I need to find Schizo, an’ I already said I’d help Trixande, but I trust Lunar in her words that the Rebels group is good.” Her head shot up to the moon. “You’ve always been there and you’ve always helped me…what do I do.”
The wind brushed by, that cold familiar breeze blew into Joan’s mane. That familiar voice would follow it, but something was disturbingly too familiar. The cold wind carried these words to her…
“Fight…”