Chapter 9 - Pain, Question, and some answers.
POV: Luna
Princess Luna walked down the halls. She stopped at a certain door and went in. Mark has gone back to sleep and Eclipse has gone to get some food. While thinking, Luna didn't mind that Eclipse left Mark and Star on the beach as she would do the same. She however had one thing on her mind. And she didn't know what to think about it.
Going into her new room(The last one was burned beyond repair) she went to her desk and pulled a file. Opening it with her magic, she saw it contained every report from when Eclipse was sent out, to the betrayal, and up to when she had awoken. 'Power like that requires great responsibility. And to put that responsibility on a foal'
Luna leaned back on a chair, Luna closed her eyes to think. 'And here I was hoping to be able to show the foals I'm not what stories say about me and now I have this to deal with... with this mess.'
Looking back at the reports Luna sighed in defeat before putting them away. 'That's a problem for future Luna to deal with. Present Luna is going to sleep'
Getting up, Luna noticed her hoof shoes and regalia sitting in the corner. Or, at least what of it was recovered from the destroyed ship. 'And that was my favorite set too..'
Seeing her bed, Luna fell face-first into the blankets.
POV: Mark
Morning 7:26 AM
"zzZ"
Loud hoof steps echoed as they closed in.
"ZZzz"
They stopped.
"Zzz-" Mark's eyes widened, "OOWW-OWw-OwW-okok-Igetit!-Sorry-I'm-sorry!"
The pain on Mark's bruised side stopped soon after. Panting, Mark looked around and saw none other than... 'Star'. That look promised pain. Mark knew what was going to happen but tried to wriggle out.
"I don't suppose," Mark carefully said, "I could cash in the favor I got to eat that nasty thing before?"
"Tell me this," Star gritted her teeth, "How are you supposed to cash in your favor if you're dead, hmm?"
"W-well," nervously chuckled Mark, "look at it like this, I got the favor in the first place so that I could not get hurt right now? Maybe? pls-don't-hurt-me-sis"
As Mark squeaked out the last part, Star's eyes twitched. At the first signs of movement, the guard that was silently standing in the corner joined the guard outside the door. The sounds of agony filled the morning.
Mark was really starting to regret shielding the entire ship instead of just himself. He could have been safe from and brushing off what happened and thus, wouldn't have to deal with Eclipse or Star.
Looking at a deceptively happy Star who was humming a tune whilst reading a book on the same bed. Mark was bored again and he couldn't fall asleep. He tried to see what Star was reading but she didn't let him because he was 'Injured'. Mark knew it was just to spite him. Mark only sighed.
"So Mark," said Star with a more serious tone, "What happened? They didn't tell me much, granted I didn't ask but I still want to know. I wasn't really watching but I do remember the huge explosion."
Mark sat up more properly and thought.
"Long story short," he replied, holding a hoof up, "the runic array I created made big ship go boom."
Snap
Mark wasn't even able to blink before Star was right in front of him, nose to nose. The sound of her teeth grinding clear as day.
"So," she said, still grinding her teeth as if drawing a knife against a glass window or a car, "you, Mark, are telling me, that the entire time you were messing with your magic thingy, you were making a bomb less than ten feet from me?! A bomb, which I might add, Destroyed an entire ship."
The sounds of grinding teeth were probably heard by the guards outside the door. As Mark looked into those glaring eyes, he knew that this would be his end.
"I----..." Mark's reply died in his mouth, "there's no escape from this is there?"
"Nope,"
The sounds of pain flooded the room once again.
Breakfast... in bed
While Mark was sitting down on his bed. His body was sore, but he had basic movement. Unfortunately, it wasn't quite enough to grab a spoon to eat.
"Say ahhhhh," said Star, holding a spoon of soup. Mark resited. The spoon burnt his lips.
"Gah!" The sound of Star tsking and Mark's shout of momentary pain.
"See what happens? Resistance is futile. The more you resist, the hotter I'm going to make the soup."
"Are you going to keep torching me with a spell I showed you how to use?"
"Are you going to keep resisting?"
Mark thought, if he kept resisting and didn't eat, he would probably incur the wrath of Eclipse who would probably find a way to make it even worse. He only sighed, dropping his head a bit, before opening his mouth. 'How long is she going to treat me like a child?'
With a smile, Star gave Mark a spoon of soup, and this time was not overly heated.
"D'awww-"
Mark started to cough out the soup when he heard Eclipse barely coming through the door. Coughing Mark tried to talk but ended up having to finish first.
"Yeesh," Mark said, his blush highly visible, "you know what knocking is right?"
Eclipse's eyes narrowed on Mark. Mark promptly closed his mouth before making another response while covering his side with his wings.
"Anyway's after you two are done eating, Princess Luna said she was going to come over to talk with you two."
"Ok!"
"ok..."
At the responses, Eclipse narrowed her eyes once again at Mark. She then left.
"Are either of you ever going to let me live that down?"
"Nope!"
At the cheery response from both, Mark only sighed. 'They'll stop eventually, right?'
"Now," Star said, "say ah."
Mark Groaned.
POV: Luna
An hour Later
Walking down the hall, Luna yawned. She normally didn't stay up so late like last night, but when work needed to be done, it needed to be done.
Reaching Mark and Star's room, Luna opens the door slowly and walks in only to see...
"Ugh... Bust."
Mark and Star we're playing cards. Mark's head dropped to the table, not noticing Luna coming in behind Star.
"Hazzah!"
Star grabbed the cards on the small table they were sitting at and started to shuffle them. Miraculously, the two didn't notice the massive alicorn in the room with them. Luna then took the opportunity to get to know them and cast an invisibility spell.
She also cast an illusion spell as she didn't want them to notice the door was opened nor did she want to risk them noticing it by closing it. The situation got Luna thinking, back before her and Tia's little 'fight' she personally trained the Lunar Guard the art of stealth and infiltration.
Spending the magic to mask the most vital parts of her present, Luna began to watch them for a bit.
After shuffling, Star gave two cards to Mark and left two for herself. Both of them looked at their cards as they thought Luna watched. 'Hmm I have not seen such a game, and during the two years I've returned, Tia has told me of all the card games she knows...'
Looking at Star, Mark smiled.
"Stand."
Looking at Marks cards, Luna saw he had an ace and a nine of hearts.
Star, however, only had a curious look and drew another card as well. With a smile, she looked at Mark.
"Ready?"
"Yeah."
At once, Mark with a proud smile put his cards down.
"Twenty!"
With a smirk, Star revealed her cards all face-up.
"Twenty-one."
Star didn't ever even bother to look at Mark while his head once again dropped. Star was too busy admiring her own hoof, whistling quietly to herself at her win.
"How could you win four times in a row?!"
Mark's forehead was looking a bit red from falling on the wood table.
"Oh, I don't know, I'm not the one losing."
"That logic doesn't even make sense!"
Star only shrugged. Mark sighed. Luna took this moment to materialize right next to them.
"What art thou playing?"
After materializing, she successfully, however accidentally, scared both of them. With a yelp, Star fell off of the chair, while Mark was already calming down realizing it was only Luna.
"Apologies, I forget it can be frightening to drop in like that."
While Star was calming down at the site of Luna, Mark took a deep breath.
"Right," he said to no one particularly, "Eclipse said you'd drop by."
Looking around the table, Mark saw Star already getting back in the chair.
"Ah, yes I suppose you would've told you a while ago."
"Yes, she did."
Now that star was sitting up and waiting, it was quiet. Luna wasn't the best at talking, but she tried to take the lead.
"Yes, well I came here to talk and get to know you two a bit better."
With a nod from both of them, things were still quiet. Awkwardly silent.
"Well, now that we've all had the chance to meet, any questions?"
While Star nodded no, Mark was thinking about the question he had. Questions he would have asked if Star wasn't busy punishing him.
"Umm, so what happened while I was out?"
Luna looked at Mark before sighing.
"Right, neither of you got the full story. I suppose I'll explain it, though, I was unavailable for most of the battle, unfortunately."
At the nods of the foals, Luna continued.
"I want to be clear to you before I start, that this does not reflect the nation of Equestria as a whole." at the slightly confused nods, Luna pressed on, " It started when the ship was put on high alert..."
{:<->:}
"So... any questions...?"
Luna's awkward smile didn't help the uneasy silence. The two were still processing the story. Luna was expecting Mark to have questions as he seemed most interested during the story, but what she got was Star.
"So... umm, I couldn't help but notice a little lack of details near the end? Specifically, when Mark teleported on board."
Luna smiled at Star while thinking about an answer before swiftly coming up with one.
"Well, when Mark came on board, he was a massive help to everypony, even as inexperienced as he was, he was still an alicorn which gave the crew time to reach the other ship. Only a few were left by the time the assault had been warded off."
Star's face showed one of understanding while Mark still had a few questions. Mark had so many questions before but now, there were only a few he could remember.
"Umm, Luna? How long was I out? I meant to ask all day but was never able to."
"Six days."
"What?!"
"Allow me to explain, the doctor said that it would be best we kept it like that to prevent you from hurting yourself more."
While Mark had some strong things to say, he one last question he could think of at the moment.
"When can this thing come off?" Mark said, pointing at the ring on his horn.
"The inhibitor ring? It was put on to prevent you from accidentally using and possibly blowing your horn out while you slept. Which was a high possibility considering you know how to teleport, which if I must say, even for an alicorn is very impressive for your age."
Mark blushed a bit.
"Well, I may or may not have used the spell while I haven't even had the time to properly study it..."
Snap
Mark looked up at Luna, while her eyes twitched. The tone of Luna's voice scared him even more as Luna tried to hold it in through gritted teeth.
"Mark, look at me and tell me that was a joke."
Mark tried not to make eye contact. Star just watched, staying out of whatever Mark got himself into.
After a few moments of silence, Luna had her answer. She lowered her head directly in front of Mark, desperately trying to keep a calm smile. Her effects only made Mark back up a bit more.
"Mark, do you know how dangerous teleportation is?" Mark's gulp confirmed it along with a slight nod, "then you should know what could have happened."
Mark only nodded again. Standing up to full height, Luna looked down upon Mark with an Imperial glare.
"Well, originally, the plan was to take it off sometimes today, but I think you can keep it on till we reach landfall."
"W-Wha-"
Mark's rebuttal was silenced upon looking at Luna. It wasn't long before Luna was calm again. It was quiet again, awkwardly silent, which was when Luna decided it's about time she should go.
"Well, I suppose it's about time I should go. I have work." Before Luna got up, she had one more thing to say, "Oh and Mark, I'll be talking with you later about how you destroyed the ship."
Mark's ears folded as he tried to look anywhere except at Luna. Mark was hoping he could avoid that at all costs.
A moment later Luna swiftly got up and went to the door, seeing her illusion faded some time ago. Closing the door open, she left and closed the door, leaving the room in silence.
Walking down the hall, Luna was busy. 'That Fool! Doesn't he fully realize the consequences teleportation could have?! UUgh, that's a problem I'll leave to Tia. For now, I have other things to worry about like deciding what to do with the prisoners.'
Luna desperately wanted to break something, but upon seeing the wall she had made when she was informed of what happened, she took a deep breath and calmed down as best she could. She needed a break and some fresh air, so she decided to go up and check on everything going on.
"Princess Luna!"
Looking back, Luna saw Eclipse catching up.
"Yes, Eclipse?"
Slightly panting, Eclipse took a moment to breathe.
"I just finished looking over reports and did some calculations and right now, the situation is a bit dire."
Luna was curious as she had made sure the important work was taken care of, "Explain."
"Well, turns out the repairs weren't as good as originally thought and the ship is behind schedule. This means we won't have enough food for everypony including the prisoners. Right now, we could take a shortcut and reach Baltimare instead of Manehattan, the route passes by a known dragon den. I haven't been able to think of anything else short of stopping for repairs at a non-Equestrian harbor."
Luna took a minute to think, but in the end, it wasn't that hard to decide.
"It would be easier to take the route to Baltimare as the dragons wouldn't dare attack a ship with an Equestrian Princess nearby."
While Eclipse was surprised at her Princess's confidence, she only nodded.
"Oh, and one more thing," Luna said before Eclipse could leave, "how have we not noticed this before?"
"Oh, well..." Eclipse was a bit nervous being asked but she still answered, "we were using the pirate's work and statistics of the food supply. Unfortunately, the pirates never intended to take so many ponies hostage and never accounted for a damaged ship. Due to the situation, I used the pirate's work as it would be faster than to take note and inventory of everything."
Luna only looked at a slightly sheepish Eclipse.
"I see," she replied before smiling with a smirk, "next time, Eclipse, no shortcuts or I'll personally follow you around making sure you're doing your work."
Eclipse only nodded sheepishly before heading off. Luna, who had been mindlessly walking, went into her room as she only wanted to rest now. While she wanted some air, she now just wanted to relax in bed.
Closing the door, and flopping down, Luna trying to relax. 'All I wanted was to show to foals I'm not as bad as the others say but now I have to deal with this? Once the news is released, I'll have an even harder time reintegrating with society.'
Luna was not happy. She had work to deal with, and work which she has yet to be prepared for as she still is having a hard time intergrading with modern Equestria. 'Too much work. Too lazy. Future Luna deal with it.' was all Luna thought of before falling asleep.
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Mark seems to be very unfairly punished in this chapter.
I feel like all of the troubles Mark is having to deal with can lead to some pretty heavy resentment down the line.
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I mean, he did teleport into a battlefield. And he's an unquestionably valuable asset as an alicorn. An example would be, let's say you have an alicorn, which could easily help Equestria grow to unimaginable lengths. If he teleports into a battlefield and dies, who knows the mental strain that would be on Star. Would she, in that state, be able to help rule Equestria?
Besides, Mark and Star are still technically foals. If you had a 12/13-year-old rush into a battlefield, what would you do? Not only that but if he dies, it would be detrimental to Equestria as well as a waste because if Star is unable to rule then not only were the lives of everyone who died coming to get them a waste, but it would cause Equestria to question their rulers. The betrayal alone could cause them to question their rulers. And currently, Luna's reputation is very fragile.
In this situation, he isn't dead but, even so, would you take the risk of it happening again? How would you prevent it from happening again? Besides, if there is a better way to prevent it, I doubt anyone would be in the right mind to think of it considering what happened.
Mark may be stubborn sometimes, but not to the point where he refuses to acknowledge these points. Besides, I don't even know how he would come up with a good counter myself.
Perhaps I'll try to turn down the "Punishment" a bit. Besides, a better punishment could probably wait till Canterlot
Edit: While writing the reply, I just realized that both Star and Mark are 14 years old and should probably be getting their cutie mark soon. Well, should've gotten them sooner. And I still haven't come up with reasonable cutie marks for either of them
Discovered, caught up, and now am impatiently waiting for more... Please continue.
Well , you didn't
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And of course, they are treated like a cattle and tools
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I suppose Twilight was used as a tool to fix Celestia's thousand-year-old problems too I suppose. Besides, children... How are they going to learn if they're dead(Insert Shrugging Emote)
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Checking the last three chapter release dates, expect a chapter every 3-4 days. If not, I'm either just behind, already have the next chapter done just not edited, or am creating a longer chapter then normal. So far, I have yet to fall behind on making chapters every couple days. Excluding chapter two and the chapters behind it because the story wasn't submitted yet and I had those chapters premade which were originally planned to be released weekly, but I myself grew bored waiting. Besides, updating more gets my story on the front page of fimfiction under updated stories. And what better way to advertise my story than having it on the front page?
Normally it takes one maybe two days to make a chapter and edit it, but even I need my breaks
When I feel like finishing it in one day, I'll do a thousand words or near that in the morning and finish the rest at night. When I'm don't really feel like writing, I'll do 500 - 1000 words in one day, and the same the next day along with editing. So really, with a one day break, and 1-2 days of writing, it should be about 3 days + one day for anything that might pop up(Headache, losing a bit of hope in humanity and not feeling like writing anymore, school, laziness, etc)
Edit: Hello from the five months from the future!... why does this comment have three dislike?
Nice chapter, pore Mark he will need a lot of time to recover with how worn out he it. if you want to have another chapter in between this chapter and their next destination you could give them a visit of the ship and it's inner working and how they operate, is it an airship or a regular sea ship? I think the first pony settlement they visit they might try to explore it and discover up front and center how much reverence alicorn are to ponies where they were treated normally by the zebra or at least approachable.
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Hmm, I had the general idea of that already, though it did add some perspective of what I can do. So thanks! I can probably get a few extra ideas to consider before I start delving into the next chapter.
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I don't think that warrants physical abuse from his supposed guard (Eclipse) who is supposed to be far older than him, what is equivalent to someone who isn't even their parent beating their child for doing something wrong, which by the way turned out best case scenario. At the way the battle was going if he didn't show up when he did then things would have turned out a lot worse. Abusing him for a lesson is not the way to go about teaching.
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I agree, he saves the day and they wanna beat the shit out of him and damn near force feed/torture him. They did more harm to him than the damn pirates did. If that was me, and I don't care if its family, if someone treats me that way I'd be done with them and tell them next time they can save everyone.
Ungrateful/jealous people is what they are. I know this guy is young too, but he needs to grow a damn backbone and stop taking their shit, once he slams one into a wall or Darth Vader strangles one they'd leave him alone.
Am I the only one who think Star and Eclipse both require serious ass whipping? FFS, women, he saved everyone. Give him some space or something. There are less idiotic ways to tell someone not to rush into battle next time. Family or not at this point I'd say her to f off and that I'll ignore the shit out of her next N day as many seconds this bullshit continues.
Looks at the comments below: nope, not the only one.
I don't understand why the "adults" feel abusing Mark is the correct answer here. It's very disturbing that they would use his injuries as a point of "getting back at him."
What's extra disturbing is how they seem incredibly ungrateful with having him save their lives. And with Luna deciding to tell Mark that she's not going to let him use any magic because he took drastic action to help them, without even bothering to talk with Mark what happened like a rational adult, makes all these ponies fucking awful individuals.
If I was Mark, I would already have decided that parting ways with them at landfall would be in my best interest. I would also be keeping everybody at arms length.
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This right here. The chapter is painful to read, especially since Mark went limp as a biscuit in front of them instead of affirming that at the very least, them poking his wounds would make him heal slower.
Luna as well. Mark teleported to save her damn life. Like, what the fuck? In this case, the means wasn't as important since the ends justified everything. Can't she at the very least give him that leeway?
I feel like there's a lot of unnecessary chastising on Mark here.
I think you mean reintegrating.
Reminds me of one Looney Tunes cartoon.
i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/original/000/591/400/b77.png
Ok it was funny the first time but this is getting tiresome
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Yeaaah, it came off as overdone from what I wanted. Something like, "Hallelujah! You did it!" Along with, "You bucking idiot, you scared us half to death!"