Luna's Chosen Few

by Sanguine Eyes

Chapter 2: A Place Called Home

The water bubbled and out burst a gasping Abyssal Dart his cloak sopping wet and weighing him down. He dragged himself to the shore gasping and groaning as if he was half dead. Quickly Dart was followed by a happy prancing and just fine Cookie, water dripping off her soft brown coat and damp mane. She sat down next to him giving him a poke or two as she giggled. Shadow and Waking came up at the same time, oddly neither wanted to move ahead of the other. A silent mistrust between assassin and royal guard as the watched each other without betraying a sign of even moderate interest. Waking was only slightly out of breath from the swim while Shadow seemed right at home holding his breath for three minutes straight.

Without glancing in Dart’s direction Shadow spoke. “Still alive over there kid?”

Dart tried to steady his breath and he got to his hooves trying to shrug off the near death experience. “I am just fine… it’s just not something I do all the time…” He nervously faced the other way trying desperately to be quiet and controlled with his heavy ragged gasps.

Waking peered over at Dart and smiled. “Dart, you don’t have to try and impress us… just catch your breath. Oh and you would be better off ditching that cloak. It’s waterlogged and will slow you down, not to mention it’s so ragged that you will easily be picked out of a crowd by it.”

Dart’s eyes widened and he coughed. “Ah… um… n-no I’m good… I can keep up. This cloak is um… special to me… plus, you are talking to Abyssal Dart… this guy right here... I am going to become the number one merc in all the land… a wet cloak is something I can handle.” He puffed out his chest proudly almost in time to start shivering in the cold morning air.

Shadow bit onto the cloak and pulled it off of him quickly. “If ever you want to amount to anything, then put your job ahead of your personal possessions.” With a flick of his head he tossed the filthy worn old cloak into the river as Dart’s panicked eyes shot wide.

“No no no give it back... ah what... arrrrgh… why?” He shied away from the others nervously until Cookie burst out laughing pointing a hoof at him.

Waking gave a confused look and came closer to see what she was looking at. Dart’s flank was bare. The little filly now rolling on her back laughing hysterically had a small cookie with a cute little bite out of it as a cutie mark but this young stallion was markless.

Red with both anger and embarrassment Dart growled “There is a damned reason I wear a cloak you jerk.”

Cookie laughed even harder “Hahahahaha! You are like five years older than me and you still don’t have a cutie mark? That has to be some sort of record!”

Waking shook his head. “Come on Cookie it’s not nice to laugh some ponies get their marks later than others…”

Dart looked like he was about to start yelling when Shadow’s hoof bopped him over the head. “Shut up all of you… there are far more pressing matters at hand. It will not take long before the guards figure out this is the only way we could have left. We have to leave… and no one cares if you get a stupid mark boy… grow up. If you want to be a damned mercenary then you will have to stop caring about such foolish things…”

Waking frowned. He would have put it a little more delicately but he was right on both accounts. “Where in Tartarus are we going to go? We have no safe haven… Once the word gets out we will be wanted. Moreover, The Sister’s castle is way too far from here, eliminating it as an option.”

Shadow’s eyes peeked up, left, and then right as his thoughts churned. But his mind was quickly made up. “Go wherever you like… I have to go and repay the kindness my handler gave me. It’s been real but I have my work to return to. I’ll come back eventually… I still owe the little one some cookies, but that is ALL I owe. Good luck to you all…” He quickly leaped up and took off into the early morning sky, flying low and between the trees to avoid patrols as he was used to.

Dart was tempted to try and stop him simply because he had developed a strange trust with these ponies. He had just escaped death and was currently deluded enough to grow attached to these few ponies he shared his new found freedom with despite the fact that they were the ones that got him into the same trouble, and made fun of him, and caused him more troubles. It was all thrown behind him in his happiness to be alive even if that was interrupted with his rather blank flanks being exposed.

“Well, good riddance to that one…” Waking nearly smiled watching him leave. “But he was right… we need to get out of here and get somewhere safe. I will contact the princesses but we are still unsafe here and honestly I only just got to this region a little while ago… I have no idea where to go…”

To very little surprise Cookie popped up with a smile. “I have a place… it’s a great place and its really really really really safe...” Her every movement seemed to add to her verbal communications. Bouncing and giggling as she droned on.

Waking looked at her then to Dart who gave a shrug. “Ok… well if nopony else has any ideas lead the way Cookie…” He flapped his wings steadily as Dart still uncomfortable and feeling a tad naked extended his abnormally long wings and joined him in flight.

With very little effort Cookie joined them and took off to the north.

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Shadow weaved quickly through the crowds, it took him mere hours after separating from the others before he found one of his safe houses and gathered gear before quickly setting out across the land. His hood pulled even tighter over his head as he noticed wanted posters with relatively well drawn portraits of himself and the other three. He grimaced, they had clearly angered a very powerful group if they were able to spread wanted posters this fast. This was more than just a problem to Shadow. He relied heavily on being able to just not be noticed as he went about his work. Now everypony in all of Equestria would know his face. This was a very large monkey wrench in not only his plans but his in total, lifestyle.

Rounding the corner he quickly pulled the hood lower and sat in a pile of trash holding his hooves out like a beggar as two guards came through ignoring him. The second they passed out of view he shot up from the garbage pile and continued onward deeper into the underbelly of the city.

He knew well that he could not undo this damage on his own. If those wanted posters stayed up for very long he would lose his ability to freely travel without caution.

Triple checking the shadows he opened the door and stepped into the small run down building. He had rounded just two corners before he came to a halt. The lookout was not there, nor was the old mare who swept the halls. He focused and breathed in deeply through his nose. The smell of blood touched his senses as did the scent of cheap lamp oil, a lot of it. “Duskey… you poor bastard… I am sorry I thought you were a traitor…”

Shadow gave a short moment of silence not bothering to go any further into the building to set off the fire trap or to see Morning Dusk’s dead, tortured body. Shadow’s well honed survival instincts told him exactly what happened, and now all that he could do is try and take on this problem head first. He had no chance to doing it all alone. If he tried to get help from anypony he would just draw more attention to himself and to the problem. He needed somepony that was clearly not on a potential payroll and perhaps already knew the problem. He sighed pulling a small hoof crafted flare from his pouch and tossing it into a pile of rags watching it quickly ignite and start to spread. He had to go back to the others, he could not pull all of it off alone and though it was painfully obvious that Waking did not trust him in the least, he did seem like the honor bound type and would potentially give him a “second chance” if he helped the group out.

His hooves barely hit the stone floors of the market place before the fire hit the mass of oil within Morning Dusk’s building causing an echoing boom. Only one thing was on his mind.

He needed a lot of cookies.

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“Ok guys… we are almost there!” a sweating and out of breath but still somehow hyper Cookie kept flapping her wings as she pointed at a massive tree just under a mile away.

“How is that a safe spot? You can see it from halfway across Equestria!” Dart angrily stared at her with his bright copper eyes. He was still a little more angry than he should have been at her laughing her tail off at his lack of a cutie mark.

Waking sighed, he almost agreed with Dart but Cookie was very confident and this was the same filly who broke them out of an inescapable prison without so much as a break in her stride. “Don’t worry Dart… I’m sure this will work. I mean its Cookie after all, have a little faith in her.”

Dart just let out a ‘harrumph’ and Cookie continued to lead the way. It took almost all day but one thing Dart was happy with was his strength as a flyer. His long wings made long distance flight even easier for him than walking. Despite this strength he was still happy to start walking again as they landed at the base of the tree. He quickly noticed the massive tree had a hollow inside and a large opening on the side. “Ok… so nice tree... but how is no pony going to find us here?”

A massive hulking bipedal wolf landed just feet from them and let out a ear splitting roar which nearly made Dart wet himself. Waking stood staring wide eyed up at the beast silently cursing at his lack of weapons and only just barely noticing the young filly happily walking past the massive wolf who utterly ignored her. “Oh they can find us here… but they won’t ever have the guts to come in and get us…”

Another landed right in front of her growling menacingly as it leveled itself to stare her in the eyes. She happily smirked and spoke. “Luk’ta…. Esh ben vansi Tesh’tsu bvan kaara chaqu….” The massive beast nodded and she giggled fluffing her hoof against the thick fur on his muscle bound neck. He seemed resistant as she playfully fluffed his fur but soon her gave in rolling back happily panting as she clobbered him and playfully rubbed his belly. There were around another dozen of these seven foot tall beasts all inspecting the newcomers. Suspicion in their eyes they silently spoke to each other.

“…Ah.. Cookie? How in the sweet name of Celestia did…err.. do.. um.. how do you…what is going on?!?” Waking slowly and cautiously moved past the first of the wolves who stared at him with mistrust.

“Oh... these guys are the Taratak… it’s their tribe… they own this tree and it’s their home. They are friendly but are too used to ponies trying to tell them to leave so they get angry every once and a while and trash a town. But they haven’t had to do that in a long time. No pony ever comes near them, they think the Taratak are dangerous and mindless. But they are fun, kind and they love to play. Heck they can even speak like 14 languages they just find other languages guttural and bland. Come on… I have a spot I sleep up there just don’t stare at them it’s their way to disrespectfully challenge a foe.”

Dart kept his eyes forward nervously walking along avoiding all eye contact, just wanting to live long enough to get out he followed Cookie. Waking too followed with the same amount of caution. “Um… Cookie? Do you live here?”

“Nope, this is just one of my favorite spots to play. Why in the hay would you think I live here? Jeeze.” She flew the short distance with them to a small area that seemed to be dug out of the tree. Reinforced with stone and wood, it was like a small camping spot complete with a cobblestone oven and several boxes of cookies and supplies for making cookies.

Waking sat down wary and tired as Cookie plopped down into a large nest like spot, Dart too sat down nervously. Cookie downed a few chocolate chip cookies and plopped down. She was asleep before her head hit the nest. Waking looked back at Dart. “We are… I guess you can call it safe for now… get some sleep we have plans to make in the morning. I have a meeting to attend with some high class members of society…”

Dart gave him a confused look as Waking smiled. “Don’t worry about it… just get to sleep.” Dart nodded and Waking lay down comfortably closing his eyes finding his comforting thoughts. Sleep quickly found him as an ancient magic flooded his body.

In an instant he was standing among the stars in a beautiful darkness. He bowed low and humbly looked up. “Your majesty… I bring dire news….”

A shadow moved before him as the Princess of the Night looked favorably upon one of one of the last of her chosen children. “Stand… and report my Dream Walker…”

Comments

[Imma nom your face]

Grammar Nazis!!!!
lol but hey hes in the thank you box thingy. Which means hes allowed to do such

[Sanguine Eyes]

i292.photobucket.com/albums/mm29/laffett/request%20seye_zpsy2r8bxvg.jpg
Work done by Jazzy Q
we are very happy....OwO
maybe not Cross but he was the only one who didnt give an example as to what his character looked like