• Published 23rd Mar 2015
  • 550 Views, 15 Comments

Luna's Chosen Few - Sanguine Eyes



The early days of the Regal Sister's rule was hard, The three tribes did not willingly give up power and neither did they willing allow all ponies to be accepted into the fold.

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Chapter 1: Greetings

The setting was perfect. No wind, There were guards but they had specific intervals, here two minutes there four minutes later then gone for ten minutes before coming back. The route was simple and they were sure to take an estimated 22% longer when the guards changed which if the paper in the guard post was correct would be in just minutes. The target was plainly sitting, watching the sun set with yet another target. The stallion was just another run of the mill snob unicorn incapable of looking down or even straight ahead, at his side was a beautiful mare. Most likely his partner, in more ways than one. The briefing had only vaguely gone over her. The basics was another 15% for her so long as it was done quickly. There was no need for disposal of the bodies. That part of the contract was left blank.

Keen eyes scanned over the surrounding ponies. The only thing that was constant was one young filly fussing over the contents of a box with a shopkeeper, one young stallion in the corner, and somepony that could have been a guard but had long since vanished into a nearby shop. The young one was dressed messily with what could have only been peasant clothes and was obviously upset about the contents of the box she was just sold. The stallion wore a simple cloak and not much of his face could be seen though he was most certainly asleep. The other was dressed like a plain middle class merchant, however his posture was too good, he was well muscled, aware, and his clothes were dirty but not worn.

A cloaked pony sat up carefully remaining in the shadows. He had been watching for hours and this was going to be his best chance to do what he was being paid for. He notched an arrow and loosened the blades at his sides as he took in a deep breath.

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A sharp whine nearly ruptured the shop keepers eardrums. “BUT THEY ARE SOGGY!!! I didn’t give you my last ten bits for SOGGY COOKIES!!!” The little filly stamped her hooves angrily growling at the old earth pony.

“Hey, you paid me, you got the box. Get over it kid, there is no refunds…”

“Do you know what happened to the last mother bucker who tried to cheat me on my cookies...?!?” She glared with her soft brown eyes, the shopkeeper got the shivers. It was as if he was unsure whether she would be too cute to actually harm him or if she was as crazy as she sounded.

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Barely lifting his eyelids the young stallion tried to shut out the squeaky voice. He had gone this far away from his home, he was not going to stop until he made a name for himself, a fierce mercenary that people would fight over just to hire. Legend was all that anypony thought of when his name was spoken. But that would be later, now was time for sleep if the whiny filly would stop threatening the shop keeper’s life.

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A quill gently dipped into the ink and quickly whipped across the page. Despite having to write with his mouth and keep an eye trained on the duo just outside chatting it up he was confident he was onto something. The two there were talking very oddly, every word he scribbled down exactly. Notes indicated the pause between each word and even the accent used or the subject. If it was a code then he would have everything, and in addition somepony else here was listening to the code, there was a spy right there listening in to everything. It was most likely not the filly, she had only just arrived moments ago and had not stopped yelling yet. There were precious few others present though this stallion had his eye on the young stallion ‘sleeping’ in the corner. All shadowy and hooded, he must have been a novice spy. No pony could outwit this guard, his powers gave him this lead and he would not let his princess down now.

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His eye twitched waiting for the perfect moment, it came and in utter perfection. The little filly leaped up and to everypony’s surprise little bat wings spread to elevate her even higher as she brutally head butted the shopkeeper and continued to clobber him biting like she was a predator of the wilds. There was a soft twang of the arrow loosing from the bow. Like lightning he nearly raced the arrow down towards the target, his bat wings flashed out from under his cloak carrying him forward as his mouth clamped down on the hilt of the sharp dagger. The unicorn looked back, it was probably the lowest he had looked in his entire life as the arrow met his face passing into then out of his skull. The beautiful mare barely had time to scream as she was knocked to the ground and a blade lodged into her throat and dragged quickly down to her chest.

There was a sudden flash of steel as the young stallion drew his blade. A polearm, an ahlspiess with a slightly shorter handle, it was cheaply made but sturdy and it was clear in the young stallion’s mind that if he was going to be a hero at any time, this was a perfect chance to do so. He charged forward, his bat wings holding the polearm in place, he was clearly a novice but the form was not that terrible. He still did not even get to cross blades with the assassin as somepony leaped out from a nearby building and clobbered him. The assassin quickly took to the skies but his eyes went wide with shock and annoyance as the young stallion bit onto his tail. He was not going to let his chance to be a hero slip by even if he was being clobbered by somepony else.

Very quickly it turned into a three way brawl as the three bat ponies bucked, swatted, and kicked each other in a gravely disorganized pile of pony and bat wings. Quickly this was added to as a little filly was thrown head first into the pile by an angry shop keeper. Almost unaware that she was a pony the assassin scooped her up and was ready to smash the young stallion over the head with her when he heard the sound of cold steel being drawn. They were utterly surrounded by guards. Spears leveled at them from every angle and Pegasus glared down at them from above.

“Whoa. Um... hey I’m.. I’m not with them…I am actually a guard, just like you guys…”

“Oh that is a load of crap, I was jumping in to take on that assassin and you jumped me, OBVIOUSLY you are helping him…”

“MY COOKIES!!! YOU WILL ALL REGRET THIS DAY!! YOU FAT STUPID MEANIES!!!”

The assassin remained silent looking for even an ounce of lax within the formation so he could make a run for it but alas, the opportunity never presented itself.

One Unicorn in heavy armor trotted up as the others readied. “Alright, you are all under arrest, and yes, that means you too Waking…!”

The bat pony guard’s eyes opened wide in shock. “B… but… wait… WHY?... I was here on a mission… I am one of you guys!!!”

“Riiiiiiiiiight…. And it just so happens that you… one of the only bat ponies in the guard ‘fails’ at protecting high value targets that is taken out by what is obviously some sort of bat pony separatist group, so yeah, I don’t care who you think you are or what you were doing… all of you are going to the dungeons…”

Out came the shackles and with one short trip nopony, not even themselves thought they would see the light of day again.

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Deep in the dungeons the dropping water alone was driving the young stallion crazy. “I can not believe you would just clobber me as I try and take out an assassin!!!”

“Oh for the love of Celestia do you even know who those two unicorns were...? Somepony just killed two traitors to the throne and you are the first to jump up and defend them…”

“HEY...!! SHUT UP! Because of you guys I can’t even get SOGGY COOKIES!!!” The little filly grumbled angrily.

“Wow… you must really like cookies… I mean you didn’t even notice this guy kill those two unicorns.” He gestured to the assassin.

“Well DUHHHH… cookies are kinda my thing… it’s even my name.” She smiled happily. “I am Cookie Chip… and you guys owe me cookies ok?”

The young stallion laughed “Sure thing squirt… I am Abyssal Dart, but you can call me Dart. I was just passing through. I was going to sleep behind the walls of the city and be gone the next day… I have no idea about all this assassins and crap…”

The now most likely ex-guard sighed. “Well… considering the circumstances that was well established; you really looked like a spy… and even if everything that happened didn’t, I’d still have arrested you for loitering… not that it matters now… but still… bleh…” He paused and looked at the others. “Oh to Tartarus with it… I am Waking Glory, you can call me Waking. How about you assassin? I think it’s fair to say this is all your fault… anything to say?”

The assassin looked over at them. “Not that it matters in the least… but I am Shadow Strider…and I accomplished my goal… but because of you fools I am here…”

Waking chuckled. “Oh come on…seriously...? Why so gloomy. No doubt Princess Luna herself already heard about what is going down and is fast on her way to come and break us out…”

Shadow glared at him. “Perhaps you have way too much faith in the regal sisters… they have only just barely risen to power…I highly doubt that they will even notice you dead…you do know what they do to assassins right...? And those who help out in the assassinations?” He drew a hoof over his neck with a smirk.

“Whoa!!! Whoa whoa whoa...!!! Hey… I had nothing to do with you… they can’t kill me!” Dart shrank back a bit afraid.

Waking just sat and stared blankly. The idea of being killed without even doing anything wrong was a travesty. Luna herself knew him. He had a destiny. Why would he be killed over something like this?

Cookie just sat there angrily as if she didn’t even hear what was said, still angry at the loss of her cookies.

“I personally have no affiliation with your Luna… but make your peace… come sunup… we won’t be alive…” He sighed, eerily he did not seem to have any emotional response to the oncoming death. Which disturbed Dart and Waking even more. Though they could not possibly comprehend what was going through his scarred and tattered mind.

Cookie wrinkled her nose and turned to Waking and let out an annoyed sigh. “…You...! Glory guy… who is Captain Shaw Jaw?”

Waking gave her a confused look. “Um… my… superior officer… how do you know that name?”

“That ugly unicorn who arrested us is talking about him…” She held up a hoof to tell them to be quiet which snuffed out Waking’s desire to ask how in Celestia’s name she could hear somepony speaking while they were all the way down in this dungeon. “Hrmm… he’s complaining to somepony that the ‘plans are ruined’… something about Captain Shaw Jaw being failed because some nosy bat pony caught on to the plans…”

Shadow’s eyes narrowed and he spoke calmly. “Hey… little filly… listen carefully for the name Morning Dusk.”

Cookie smiled proudly “Oh… they already said that name a few times…” Her ears pivoted like sonar dishes as she giggled happily flapped her wings despite the heavy shackles on her legs just like the others.

Shadow’s emotionless face betrayed a small smile. “Your captain is a traitor… and I was sold out…”

Waking’s eyes shot wide and he stuttered as if trying to find something to say.

“Calm down… it doesn’t change anything…I was hired to kill those two by a third party. My handler was given the order and I was assigned to the job… then my handler must have been given a lot of money… because if they are talking about him… then he told them who the target was…In turn they took action and have decided to get rid of me and you… these two clowns are here simply because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time… but it works for your captain even better… Us bat ponies are not really well known for being loyal to the sisters… he and his traitorous supporters can gain favor in the sisters eyes by claiming we all were a radical group that that planned on killing high class citizens in revenge for the mistreatments of our race. That is far far easier to believe than a group of completely unrelated strangers who happen to be bat ponies all converging on the same spot by chance when only one of us is a murderer…”

Waking stood up quickly, his shackles clanging about. “WE HAVE TO TELL SOMEPONY… this… this is an outrage…”

Shadow gave a mocking sigh. “Oh yeah lets get right on that… the four of us ‘murderous’ terrorist bat ponies are obviously telling the truth about the evil conspiracy... Tell you what… in about two hours the sun is up… you can tell the stallion who cuts off our heads all about it… Im sure he will be shocked and happy to save us…”

Waking and Dart’s hearts sank. “W-well what can we do...? I mean... I only just left home a month ago… I can’t die here… not yet…”

“Oh come now, stop whining… I died a long time ago… this is just my body catching up to my soul…and anyways… we are chained into place under the castle with a few hundred guards overhead and no pony for miles will believe us…. Just get over it… death is as natural as life… it comes for us all... it’s not a matter of if but a matter of when… and this is it for us…” He sighed but froze when he heard a clang of shackles hitting the ground in a mess. Looking over Cookie was replaced with a pile of loose shackles

Yawning loudly the little filly smoothed her hoof over various spots on the bricks before turning and giving a sharp kick that to everypony’s surprise lead the wall to cave in revealing a small cavern.

“…What in all of Tartarus..? H-how…wh-what...?” The other three bat ponies stared in disbelief at the little filly.

“What...? You never picked a lock before.” She scooted up and with a small pin she plunged into the shackles working them with ease. In just seconds everypony was free.

“…Well that takes care of one problem… but we are still going to die… there are dozens of guards we would have to kill without making a single noise before there is even ONE free way out.”

Cookie laughed and looked up at shadow. “These dungeons are not dug out… they are natural caves… and as such most of the time they are dug out by water or lava… this one is water…I can hear it bubbling away down there which means that it connects to the waterfall that goes out just a little ways down south… it's a quick swim and we are out… and last I checked… we all had wings right...? Let’s go… but ALL YOU SUCKERS OWE ME COOKIES!”

No pony had any reason to object. No one thought that out of the experienced assassin, the royal guard, and the young merc a filly was going to be the one that single hoof’idly would get them out. Shadow gave what passed as a grin for him and spoke. “Little one… I will get you more cookies than you can eat… let’s get out of here.”

All of them nodded in agreement and ducked into the hole in the wall.