Saros

by shortskirtsandexplosions

Shine

Choral hugged the glowing canister, watching Myrk as he snuck stealthily up to a cracked opening in the temple windows. He stared out, having to squint from flickering pulses of merciless unicorn magic.

In the carved tunnels of Tranquility outside the House of Nebula, an entire company of Rune Guards had gathered. A mana-driven hovercraft hissed to a stop, and the chiseled visage of Captain Pierce Stellar marched into sight. He gave the crowd of cowering sarosians a bored glare before banging a hoof against the side of the vehicle.

The hovercraft's doors opened, and two burnt husks were tossed onto the bedrock. The gnarled, blackened bodies of two ponies crumpled on the floor. The leathery scraps of their wings burst into billowing dust as their muzzles were locked in permanent, skeletal screams. From a distance, several sarosians gasped and murmured silent prayers to Elektra and Nebula.

At the sight of the two bodies, Myrk took a deep breath. His jaw clenched and his wings curled inward. Slowly, Choral shuffled up from behind.

"Myrk? What... What's going on...?"

He gently, quietly motioned her to stand next to him. She slid in and leaned against his weight, grimacing as she stared out at the sight through the crack in the temple window.

Just then, a set of hooves hopped out of the hovercraft and leered loftily over the burnt corpses. A frail unicorn with a long red mane stood in a silken uniform, casting a glare of disgust at the furthest reaches of the sarosians' subterranean niche. "Hrmmph," he muttered. "It's not even fitting for cockroaches."

"You're the better orator, Major Shine," Stellar said as he strolled past him. "Feel free to take charge, but do keep the poetic diatribes to a minimum."

The officer merely smirked back. "Do you wish me to intimidate these animals or entertain them?" He cleared his throat, concentrated a wave of mana through his horn, and cast a mercilessly bright glow on the wincing populace around him. "I am Major Lucid Shine of the the Empress' Lunar Rune Guard!" He kicked the charred corpses in front of him. "And these... are all that remain of two putrid traitors whom some of you sarosian beasts may be unlucky enough to call 'brothers!'"

Choral inhaled sharply. Making the connection, she cast Myrk a sympathetic glance. "Oh Myrk, I'm so sorry..."

He urged her to be silent with a gentle pat to her shoulder as he glared at the proceeding.

Major Shine paced before the crowd, forcing the pained sarosians to flinch one after another as the bright light swam over each amber-slitted set of eyes. "When we found them, they were audaciously staging the most notorious of raids on the Imperial Vaults! Under the command of Captain Myrk, son of Slaad and former commander of the now defunct Imperial Night Wraiths, these traitors attempted to get their conniving hooves on the very magic of the Empress Nightmare Moon herself! A single canister like the ones they sought to steal is enough to power the towers of New Whinniepeg for years! To encroach upon such royal property is an offense punishable by death, and yet—empowered by some bygone sarosian creed or whatever lunacy looms in the shadowed vestibules of their discordant blood—they performed the unthinkable. I would like to know why..."

"Major..." Stellar remarked from where he leaned casually against the front of the Imperial hovercraft. Surrounded by several guards, he inspected his glowing scimitar before glancing casually the Major's way and saying, "We are in Tranquility; try speaking with a bit more brevity. These are simple-minded creatures, after all." A few of the guards chuckled.

Lucid Shine rolled his green eyes. Adjusting the silk collar of his uniform, he marched firmly over the charred corpses. "I asked these two wastes of flesh why, and—like good lunatic soldiers—they resisted my interrogation." His hoof clamped over one skull and pressed down, smashing it to flakes of black dust. "At first, that is." He grinned wickedly at the crowd. "But, within the boundaries of a manalight chamber, and after much persuasion on my behalf, I did get one of them to utter a single decipherable word amidst all the screams: 'Tranquility.' And the question I was giving the dying fool at the time was 'Where can we find your Captain?'"

With a grunt, Shine kicked his way through the other corpse, stomped straight up to the wincing families and aimed his unicorn's glow so close to them that their coats started smoking.

"I know that the traitorous waif Myrk is here! He's on every wanted poster from here to Ponymonium! Don't pretend that you discordant-blooded abominations are as blind as you are stubborn! You've seen him! You've seen where he's been! Surely, you must know where he is now, and I doubt there's a single one of you who wishes to end up like former Officers Pulsade and Chaar here!"

"Oh, shove a moonrock in it, ye sissy-hoofed wanker!"

A shocked murmur ran through the leafy-eared crowd. Stellar and his fellow guards blinked in alarm. Lucid Shine spun with an iron frown.

Noktyrn stood a few meters ahead of the rest of the line, frowning. Her fangs showed as Lucid slowly marched towards her. "Might wanna be a wee bit more polite if ye expect any answers in these parts."

"Polite?" Lucid droned, his red eyebrows raising. "My darling batfilly, the most polite thing I've done is not set fire to this damnable peninsula of foul earth the very moment my comrades and I arrived." His facial muscles twitched.

An aura of telekinesis grabbed Noktyrn by her mane. She gasped and sputtered for breath as the hairs were spun three times around her neck. Fiercely, the Major yanked her to the floor beneath him. He stood a hoof on her shoulder and focused a light-beam into her cutie mark, starting to cook the tiniest and most excruciating of holes into her flesh.

"Do you want to know why we want Captain Myrk so badly, you insufferable gypsy?!" he snarled. "A survey was performed at the science facilities of Ponymonium just this morning. It turns out that a container of Nightmare Moon's mana is missing after all. Now, the last fool left alive who attempted to grab such a canister was said to have been hiding here. Do you have any idea what such a thing like that is worth to the Empire?!"

Noktyrn hissed and growled through the smoke of her own roasting flesh. "How about ye bite me flank and we'll talk bits later?!"

"Want to bet that the canister is worth more than your own pathetic family ten times over?! What say we melt their faces off and feed them to you? Then we'll see how well your stubbornness stacks up..."

Inside the temple, Choral was whimpering. "Noktyrn! Oh please, blessed Entropa, no!"

Myrk hissed for her to be silent. Choral instantly shuffled backwards, trembling. In so doing, her right forelimb brushed against a length of the window, and entire sheet of glass fell to the rocky floor with a loud crash.

Lucid Shine immediately stopped shining his light on Noktyrn's quivering figure. He cast the front of the temple a curious glare, a devilish curve gracing his lips. "Hmmm... But of course. Sheep will be sheep, after all." He turned and smiled the Captain's way. "Stellar? Would you be so kind?"

Pierce Stellar nodded, sheathed his scimitar, and motioned towards his subordinates. "Rune Guard! Form up!"

Major Shine stepped off of Noktyrn to join the phalanx. Breathless, the burnt mare stumbled up to her hooves.

"No! Back off, ye bloody sods! Have ye no respect to the goddesses—?!" She froze upon the glow of three sets of manarifles being trained on her. A protective group of sarosian companions rushed forward and pulled her out of the courtyard.

"Captain Myrk!" Stellar shouted towards the gates as his guards lined up before him, training their shoulder-mounted cannons. The tall unicorn's voice echoed across the natural cave walls of Tranquility. "This is Captain Pierce Stellar and Major Lucid Shine of the Imperial Lunar Rune Guard! In the name of Her Majesty, Empress Nightmare Moon, we hereby order you to come out and surrender yourself, or else face immediate punishment for crimes committed against the Empire!"

Choral was hyperventilating. "Myrk... Myrk, I'm so sorry! I—"

"Nothing to be sorry for, beloved," he said, holding her as he stared out the brightly glowing temple windows. "You may very well be the source of Luna's salvation today, not to mention the entire moon's." He took a deep breath and squatted before her, staring her in the face. "Listen, Choral. Give me the canister of Luna's spirit..."

"Myrk..."

"I... I will carry you out of here," he said. "I will find you a place to hide so that Stellar can't find you. I still have friends in the darkest alcoves of the moon's mining shafts. They can keep you alive while I send the beacon to summon the stars that will aid Princess Luna's escape..."

"Myrk, don't be crazy!" she exclaimed, shivering as Stellar repeated his loud warning immediately outside the temple gates. "You can't expect to carry me and the beacon and still expect to get away from all of Stellar's Rune Guards. I don't care how fast or strong a Wraith you've ever been."

"Choral, for the love of Gultophine, I just can't leave you here!" he snarled.

"Shhhh..." She reached up and cupped his cheek in one hoof while clutching the glowing canister in the other. "Yes you can, my love."

Myrk's black eyes quivered. His lips hung open in disbelief. "Choral, you can't—"

"Do you remember when we first met?" she murmured.

The world thundered outside. The air grew with violent static as the guards began charging their manarifles one by one. Myrk hissed from the growing glow of light and managed a wavering response, "Yes. H-Heaventide..."

"You looked so cute, so adorable, and yet so lost." She smiled tearfully. "The first time you let me play with your ears, I knew that I wanted to be with this precious colt forever. I've always, always wanted to protect you, Myrk. But you never let me..."

He took a deep breath and stroked her forelimb. "I-I never had a chance to..."

She leaned up and nuzzled him dearly. "Well, now you do..." Leaning back, her tear-stained face grew solemn. "Myrk, listen to me carefully. You want to send the holy sisters a beacon? Then this is what we'll do..."

Comments

[Csquared08]

And Choral's sacrifice shall not be in vain.

[Future Regret]

This really reminds me of ''The Wind that Shakes the Barley'', just because of the combination of Irish voices and oppressive gov'ts.

[Revan]

Her sacrifice shall not be forgotten...

[AppleTank]

o7

[FOXTrot2]

She is the shining beacon in the night.