Saros

by shortskirtsandexplosions

A Light in Marefall

Choral slid the canister into a saddlebag, hoisted the pouch shut, and tied it to Myrk's abdomen. "Try not to p-perform too m-many stunts," she stammered, her brow sweating profusely as she hissed in pain. The echoes of her trembling voice were drowned out by the countdown of Captain Stellar immediately outside the temple doors. "There's n-no telling how easily this container can shatter."

"I'll be as careful as I can afford to." Myrk helped her tighten the saddlebag. He reached behind the temple altar and pulled free a dusty brown cloak that he next fastened around his neck to cover his photosensitive coat. "If I'm lucky, I'll have the entire Imperial Rune Guard following me."

"Heh..." Choral managed a quivering smile. She gulped and looked at him. "Lucky?"

"Because then I'll know that they won't be stalking you—" He turned and gasped. "Choral!"

She teetered over, forcing Myrk to reach in and catch her. She shook her aching head and looked dizzily up at him. "Heh... I'll always be falling for you. Luna help me..."

Myrk gulped and gave the thinnest of smirks. "I think she'll be too busy learning how to be thankful."

"Heh..." Choral tickled his chin, smiling tiredly. "It's worth it."

"Worth what?"

"Seeing you smile again..." She said, a tear trickling down her pale cheeks. "Myrk, why did we split apart for so long?"

He bit his lip and leaned in, nuzzling her. For the briefest moment, the bat and owl pendants of their necklaces danced together. "We went our separate ways, Choral. You had your career and I had mine. We had things on this moon that we wanted to achieve."

"And here we are giving them all up..." she chuckled painfully. "Life's awfully long to figure out what love means."

Myrk's black eyes wandered as he shuddered, inhaling the scent of her mane one last time. "I'd settle for a short life if it meant fixing all my mistakes."

Stellar's countdown was growing louder, reaching the final number.

Choral stood up straight, her face forming a chiseled frown. "Now you must go, Myrk.” She gently pushed him away and stood on trembling legs. “Go and fix Luna's mistakes."

Nervously, Myrk galloped over to a loose panel in the wall. He opened the escape hatch, but paused. With a twist of his brown cape, he turned to gaze at her. "Choral, if... if it all doesn't work out—"

"Myrk, it will work out!" she exclaimed hoarsely. Stellar shouted with finality. The courtyard of Tranquility pulsed brightly outside. "Go!" she hissed, waving a firm hoof. "Now!"

Brightness flooded the temple as the doors blew open from a red-hot volley of manabullets. Choral shrieked and dodged the flying splinters all around her. As the hot strobe died down slightly, she glanced breathlessly at the far wall. The panel was shut. Myrk was gone. Gulping, she spun around and immediately froze in place.

Captain Stellar and Major Shine were marching into the ruptured entrance of the temple. Their guards lingered loosely behind, eyeing all dusty corners of the barren interior before spreading out to conduct a thorough search. Stellar icily marched past Choral, giving her a dispassionate gaze. He proceeded to press his hoof along the walls of the place before stumbling upon a ring of candles surrounding a conspicuous alicorn statue.

"A Temple to Nebula," Stellar remarked. "Goddess of the Elements."

"Hmmmm..." Major Shine's nostrils flared as he stood in the center of the ancient place. "I thought something smelled like mildew." He turned and narrowed his delicate vision on Choral. "Why, hello there."

Choral stood stock-still, doing her best to resist trembling as Shine paced slowly around her.

"My my... you're looking rather pale for a laypony of these parts," he murmured. He paused to wave his hoof a centimeter above the noticeable curvature of her horn. "Interesting horn you have there, citizen. Is this your first time visiting this place of worship?"

"Please..." she gulped, sweat visibly running down her face in crystal beads. "I-I didn't know that there was an Imperial search happening here. I was paying respects to Nebula when you arrived outside. I... I was scared..."

"And that is the reason why you refused to come out?" Shine remarked with a raised eyebrow. "In spite of my illustrious Captain's repeated shouts?"

"Please..." Choral stammered, speaking in full honesty. "I was sc-scared. I'm not used to searches like these. I hate conflict..."

"Hmmm..." Shine looked steadily at her slitted blue eyes. "Frankly, dear, I don't think you're quite used to anything at all."

Captain Stellar chuckled. Several guards marched up to him from the far corners of the temple. "We've searched high and low, sir. There's no sign of the former Wraith. There're no other ponies inside the Temple whatsoever."

"Not the first time a dimwitted sarosian got lost in the dark," Stellar remarked and turned towards the other officer. "I know Myrk; he'd be a fool to try hiding here. I suggest we search elsewhere, Major, while we still have the advantage of time on our hooves."

"I'm inclined to agree," Shine said with a nod. "You may go, darling. Try to conduct your worship at home like a good, modern citizen."

"Th-Thank you, sir." Choral nodded, wincing slightly from a wave of pain through her skull. She trotted swiftly for the doors. "Bless you..."

Shine turned and looked out his peripheral vision. Suddenly, his horn flickered. "Wait just one second—"

Choral jerked in place, gasping. She looked back to see that he had anchored her in place by a telekinetic grip to her cloak. He lifted the silken object slightly, exposing the starry nova on her flank.

"My, what an interesting cutie mark you have there," he complimented.

"Uhm... Why thank you," she stammered, gulped, and tried to leave again. "I-I really must be going—"

"Because it happens to match the descriptions belonging to the daughter of the head of the Ponymonium Energy Commission," Shine said with a smirk. "The very same mare who was reported missing... at the exact same time that a certain canister disappeared from Imperial possession."

Choral merely trembled in place.

Stellar looked at Shine, at Choral, then back at the Major again.

Shine's smile was locked on Choral's sweating face. After a breath, he turned towards Stellar. "Captain, if you would, form a line at the front of the Temple. Block all traffic coming and going."

"Right." Stellar motioned to his guards and led them out towards the rest of the battalion at the hovercraft in the Tranquility courtyard.

Choral watched them fitfully. She felt herself being ushered by a gentle hoof to the furthest end of the Temple. Stumbling forward, she winced past a raging headache and exclaimed, "You must have me mistaken for another m-mare! I-I've never been to Ponymonium! I swear, I was only here to commune with the goddesses!"

"Is that so, darling?" Shine led her into the altar room. "Then you wouldn't mind performing a bow!" Snarling, he shoved her viciously forward.

"Aaaugh!" Choral fell into the candlestands. Porcelain statues of alicorns shattered to the floor beneath a dance of blue flames. She winced and tried to get up, only to have a spotlight of intense manalight trained on her forehead. She whimpered and curled up. However, concentrated as the light was, not a single puff of smoke emanated from her pale coat.

"Hmmm... So I was right," Shine said with an amused smile as he leered over her. "You are indeed half-sarosian." He paced around her, training the light into a finer point against her twitching flesh. "Funny how after all these centuries, bastards still trot among us."

"Please..." Choral whimpered, looking up through a pale sheen of pain as her blue eyes squinted. "D-don't do this—"

"Do what, child?" He silenced her with a beam of light flashing into her irises. "No interrogation has even begun. Only a guilty soul would be pleading for anything at this point. Tell me..." He leaned down and hissed into her twitching ears. "What piece of himself did he give you to lay your life down for him? Hmmm? Was it enough for your family to die?"

A frown broke through Choral's innocent façade. "If you... l-lay a single hoof on my father..."

"Ohhhh, so we're not a bastard after all!" He pressed his hoof down on her shoulder, forcing a pained squeak from her lungs. "Well, that's even more interesting! A filly's love for her father versus the love for an abominable vagabond. I don't think either was worth violating the sanctity of Imperial prestige, do you? Has Nightmare Moon not provided for your every want? Must you spit in her face so? Tell me, when did you give the canister to Myrk? And just where did you send him?"

"Nnngh..." She strained and clutched two hooves to her skull. "M-my head..."

"Oh, does it hurt?" He trained the light harder, shining it directly in her ear where he finally found flesh sensitive enough to sizzle. "That's a terrible crutch your discordant blood has, you realize. Pain, I mean. Why, the two souls I spent all of yesterday interrogating..." Major Shine inhaled pleasantly, as if he could still smell their charred flesh. "They made the most interesting of noises when the skin was melted off of them. I had to wear a headguard so as not to go deaf during the... interview process. It's a shame that there're so few of your kind left, really. I'd like to learn more about the beast of chaos that lurks deep within you, pretending to be sentient, pretending that it has the same rights as all other lunar citizens."

"I... d-don't h-have anything to tell you..."

"Oh, you will." Shine grinned wickedly, hissing into her face as he burned the light deeper into her soft flesh. "Open your mouth, darling. I want to hear it, hmm? I want to hear your most delicious, exotic screams..."

A large, leathery shadow crossed over the room.

Shine leaned back, blinking. A pair of fangs clamped over his right ear and twisted. Cartilage snapped loose from bone as Myrk furiously flung the body of the frail unicorn over his shoulders and through a crashing bench of prayer scrolls. Leaning down, Myrk mounted the Major and pulled his jaws all the way back. A quarter layer of flesh was peeled off the part of Lucid Shine's skull where his ear had been.

The unicorn curled up, howling tortuously into a pool of his own blood.

Myrk lifted his head up and spat the flesh and cluster of red mane out. Sneering juicily down at officer, he growled, "Do you hear the screams yet? They sound rather pathetic to me."

Choral looked up, sweating profusely. "Myrk!"

Myrk flashed a fuming glance at her. He resembled a leathery beast in the blue candlelight. From the far side of the temple, a shout caused him to spin about with a billowing of his cloak.

"Major Shine!" Stellar's voice yelled. "What's the matter? We heard yelling!"

Panting, Myrk gulped and looked at Choral. "Run away. As far as you can!"

"No, you run, Myrk!" she rushed over and pressed her shivering hooves against his chest. "Thank you, but we both know what needs to be done! Please... Please go before it's too late!"

Myrk seethed. With a muffled growl, he lowered his jaws and clamped them over Shine's grasping throat.

Choral watched in mixed horror, covering a hoof over her mouth as Myrk lifted the spasming body up in the air. On leathery wings, the former Wraith bolted out of the room, blurred down the length of the temple, and hurdled himself towards the bright, gaping entrance of the cathedral just as a wide-eyed Stellar skidded to a stop.

"You!"

"Captain..." Myrk grunted, dropping Major Shine's corpse like a bomb.

Stellar barely leapt out of way as Shine's body sailed past him and slammed three armored soldiers to the ground. Myrk soared low over the remaining Rune Guards and made for the furthest corridors of Tranquility. The many sarosians spun, gazing at him and murmuring in shock. Standing back up, Stellar could make out the canvas saddlebag beneath Myrk's waving cloak.

"Damnable bat pony," he grunted. "He had it all along!"

The standing guards didn't need an order from Stellar to aim their manarifles at Myrk's cloaked figure. However, just as they prepared their shots, several sarosians galloped forth from the crowd and plowed them to the floor. The soldiers grunted in surprise as they fell back, firing blindly into the earthen ceiling of the tunnels. A fierce riot exploded through the subterranean basement of Marefall, with sarosians and unicorns exchanging fierce blows and blood-curdling shouts across the shadowed alcoves.

Stellar was sneering. He motioned towards two guards and galloped straight for the hovercraft. The vehicle was already powering up, burning a glowing blue path towards the furthest exit of the chamber and knocking aside any leather body daring to block the way.

"Take us up to the Mid-Level Junctions!" Stellar shouted. "We must converge with Lieutenant Razsaleen's company and block his ascent to the lunar surface at all cost!"

As chaos and violence erupted outside, Choral limped towards the shattered entrance of the cathedral, nursing a terribly aching head. She panted through streaming tears, staring at where she last saw Myrk fly away.

Just then, Noktyrn and three other sarosians rushed over to her. "Lass! We have to get out of here!"

"Myrk..." She stammered, her lips quivering. "They're all after him..."

"Yes, but nopony's after ye! Follow us! We know a way out of here!"

As Noktyrn and the others tugged her away, Choral fought to shout over the raging riot, tossing her voice through the tunnels beyond. "You fly like you mean it, Myrk!" She panted, she shrieked. "Do you hear me?! You make like the lunar winds!"

Comments

[Csquared08]

Myrk is awesomely awesome. Major Shine had it coming, trying to torture Choral like that.

[FOXTrot2]

I second 08, that Shine dude really paid the price for barking up the wrong tree.