Chapter 10 - Cheaters!
POV: Starla
Humming, Star was walking atop the ship. She was quite bubbly, considering what happened. Thinking back, she felt a little bad, but not really. Because she had a large group of friends at school, she had friends of friends that also had friends whom knew a few things about card games. Things, that could probably get you kicked out or arrested doing at a casino.
Half an hour ago
"Ugh, Star," said Mark, who had just been rudely woken by Star, "Are you ever going to let me live this down?"
Star smiled a grin that could scare a dragon down, before quickly putting said smile away. Faking a concentrated thinking look, she looked at Mark.
"Hmm, you did do something so incredibly stupid that you deserve the Darwin Award."
Irritated, Mark's eyes twitched.
"Perhaps when you've learned your lesson?"
"Which is, when exactly?"
Star only shrugged.
"Ughhhh..."
Mark's face sunk into the wooded table.
"You know, you're going to be miserable if you injure your self doing that, and thus extending the time until you've learned your lesson."
"I'm already miserable..."
Thinking, Star had an idea.
"How about a game? Blackjack again. If you win, I might let you go... for a bit..."
Present
Of course, Star didn't play fair. She won four out of five games. The fact that magic was a thing made it even easier to cheat. 'Oh brother, so easy to tease... But if you do do something stupid again, I'll haunt the rest of your days.'
Shaking her head, Star looked around seeing herself nearing the front of the ship. The waves below we a sparking blue over the shining sun. 'You know, if I didn't know better, I'd say that the water below was drinkable'
After admiring the rushing waves, she turned around and saw her escort. The entire time, Star had barely noticed the thestral behind her. Thinking, Star just realized that she knew practically no one. She was busy working over Mark the entire week and had barely gone out of the room. While Princess Luna and Eclipse dropped by to check on her, she didn't do much.
Determined to change that, Star turned around to the escort she had for an entire week and smiled.
"You know, you've been watching- er umm protecting me for a week and I never got your name."
The thestral was surprised, letting it show she looked at curiously.
While Star already knew her name was Moonlight Shine, she was just being polite.
POV: Moonlight Shine
While Moonlight Shine's surprise showed, she didn't think that 'Star' as she's heard others say, would be interested in knowing her escort. Most of the week, she watched Star do nothing but stay with the other alicorn colt.
"Moonlight Shine," she said happily, "though some call me Moon or Moony."
Star smiled politely at Moonlight's slight blush at her own nickname.
"Well, I'm Starla Tempus, though Star is fine."
Star waved her to come to sit and watch the waves with her. Moonlight soon came up and sat with Star as they watched the rippling waves clearly over the ocean.
"So, tell me about yourself," said Star, "I'd like to get to know you better."
"Well," replied Moonlight, a sheepish look gracing her feature, "there isn't much..."
"Oh come onnn! It'll be finee..." Star lightly punched Moon's shoulder.
Now, Moonlight instead of seeing nothing of the Star that did nothing but stay in her room all day with the other alicorn, she was finally seeing who she really was. At least a bit.
"Well, if you insist," Star only smiled at the reply. Soon, she wasn't the only one smiling, "to start, I have two siblings, Azure Skies and Dark Nebula-"
POV: Mark
After losing, Mark was quite annoyed. She had just left to walk around the ship and now Mark had nothing to do. Sighing, he tried to think of anything to do. While he sat, he decided to head out and explore as he's never been on a ship before. getting up and hopping to the ground, his body was still extremely sore, but he'd rather deal with that then the impending boredom that was awaiting in the room.
Reaching the door, he first tried to use magic before realizing he couldn't. Groaning, Mark got up on the door and reached out his hooves to open it. Unfortunately for him, he fell right onto his flank. 'Why does everything have to be the adult size? In fact, why can't I use magic? Oh right, because Luna thinks I'm too reckless...'
After getting up, Mark reached for the door again, and this time successfully opened it. Peaking out and looking left, Mark saw a hallway and what was probably a stairway at the end.
"Princess Luna'-"
A sound to the right caught Mark off guard and he shrieked before looking to his right. What he saw a was a unicorn stallion in the same Dark blue armor he's seen around.
The stallion in question, which Mark mentally named jack for the moment, only had a curious face looking at the young foal whom had cut him off with a shriek.
"Jeez, ever hear of subtlety," Mark said while taking a deep breath, "because I swear someday that's going to give someone a heart attack."
"Apologies, I get that a lot," said the stallion, to which Mark rolled his eyes mentally, "anyways, as I was saying Princess Luna said that if you wanted to go anywhere I'd have to take you."
The comment made Mark's eye twitched in slight fury.
"She... She gave me a... a what was it? A foal sitter!?"
At the reply, the guard grinned trying to look away.
"Perhaps," he said, trying to hold his laughter in, "but I'd be a better foal sitter than all the others."
Mark only looked into the guard's eyes.
"Ahuh, sure you are..."
Mark's eyes narrowed as the sarcasm practically dripped in every word. Though, it didn't seem to have much effect as the guard tried even harder to not laugh for a reason Mark didn't know.
Looking at his own reflection in the guard's armor, Mark saw himself. Cover still in bandages. Now, Mark knew why the guard was laughing and only sighed as the bandages on him wherein such a way it looked like a cute butterfly. 'I'd bet that Star played a part in the way I was bandaged'
After a moment the guard managed to regain his composer with a grin, "So, where would you like to go?"
"To get some fresh air."
Swiftly, Mark was picked up with magic onto the Unicorn's back. Mark didn't really like it, but he did admit to himself it was better than walking around. As they started walking, Mark instantly tried to find something else to do mentally instead of what in silence. A few moments later, Mark mentally sighed in defeat as it was already awkward for him.
"So, you never gave a name."
The guard replied instantly, "Bright Blaze."
Looking at the Unicorn, Mark thought it an odd name considering the naming patterns he known for Luna and Eclipse with their appearance. The two before looked the part but the Bright Blaze seems like a normal grey slightly genric Unicorn.
Ignoring the name, Mark looked around as they walked painfully slow down the wooden hall. 'This is going to be a long day isn't it?'
Looking into some of the doors that were open, he saw some guards, either sleeping or probably on break playing games.
After some more looking around, Mark and Blaze were reaching the end of the hall and started going up the stairs. Seeing the next deck up, Mark concluded that this was the ship he teleported on, considering this entire deck was lined with cannons from front to back. Though they kept moving, Mark wondered about the technological levels of the ponies.
Going up the narrow wooden stairs and reaching a door at the top the Unicorn swiftly opened it and walked out. Looking out, Mark saw the top deck of the ship. Ponies were moving around doing whatever it was keeping them going. Moving to the back of the ship where a small flight of stairs were was the steering wheel. From there, you could see most of the ship from the higher up view.
"Best view in the ship would be the crow's nest." Blaze pointed up.
While Mark was slightly surprised at the guards' sudden lack of quietness, he looked up and mentally agreed. Looking around the ship, Mark saw that behind them was another ship. 'Oh... The other ship that had practical no cannons that got an equivalent to a body slam but with a ship..'
Looking at the ship, it seems that it mostly had cover from the blast and generally less damage than when he saw some hastily done repairs on the ship's hull, mostly on the cannon deck.
Done looking at the other ship, Mark looked around one last time and saw Star at the front of the ship with another thestral guard. Mark was instantly happy that they couldn't see them from down there. Unfortunately, they both got up and as they were halfway to the door going down Star seems to have seen Mark as they changed the direction from where they were going, to the stairs that lead up to Mark. 'And all I wanted was some fresh air.'
Mark took a deep breath preparing for his sister. Though, he noted that the air was refreshing before mentally preparing for his sister. 'Ohh sister of mine, whatever shall I do with you and your annoying antics?'
Soon, the two were both at the top of the stairs. When they came into view and Mark saw his sister, he rolled his eyes.
"What do ya want?"
"Oh? I can't say hello to my brother?" replied Star, faking slight offense.
"Ahuh..." replied Mark looking down from above, Expression showing he just didn't care.
"Oh, come onn... Show me a little love?" said Star, whom was laughing inside.
"You may be my sister, but that doesn't mean I'll be foal sitting you."
At their antic's, the two guards looked at each other and shrugged.
"Why, hello!"
Star shrieked so loud that those around folded their ears. Luckily for them, it was short. Star, whom had just jump half her height up, wings spread out wide as she turned around to see Eclipse who had a covering hoof her ear.
While that happened, Mark was laughing so hard he nearly fell down off of Blaze. Blaze made sure that didn't happen with subtle applications of magic that he didn't notice.
Fortunately for Star, Mark was laughing so hard that he didn't see her flushed face. Unfortunately, Eclipse and the others did notice.
"Oh!" Star said, trying to come up with a comment, "I didn't see you there..."
Done covering her ears, Eclipse only looked at Star with a grin.
"And I thought scaring Mark would be bad."
Mark's laugher doubled, Star's face glows brighter, and Eclipse grinned. While Star tried not to make eye contact, Mark's laughter calmed down.
"I've been looking all over for you two, I don't really have a long lunch."
"W-well, even so, theirs no much to do..."
Swiftly, Eclipse got a deck of cards from her mane.
"You keep a deck of cards in your mane?!" half shouted Star, not wanting to attract any more attention.
Mark was so close to finally being able to get a good breath of air when that comment made him laugh again.
"For exactly this situation!" replied Eclipse, "So, you know any games? If not, I can teach you guys."
In the background, Mark Was finally calming down.
"Well, the only games we know are Go Fish, Blackjack, and solitaire. Though we only ever play blackjack."
"Never heard of those."
At this statement, Mark immediately stopped laughing and looked Eclipse dead in the eyes as he had a chance to instantly stop laughing while Star's flustered face was gone as well looking at Eclipse.
"What?"
"What?"
Eclipse was surprised at the response and perked her ears up.
"Tell me that's a joke," said Mark, "no way you haven't heard of one of those."
At a shake of the head to the two, both of them groaned.
"Hear of poker?" asked Mark.
Another shake.
"How... I learned to play Go Fish when I was like 6 and a half and it didn't take long to learn of Blackjack and Poker then. Even though I don't know how to play poker I've heard of it. You know at least some card games right?" Mark while surprised, wanted to make sure that Eclipse at least knew some card games.
"I would say I know a couple of card games such as Mareton, Martropolis, Eighty One, and..." Eclipse almost let slip some of the more adult games she knew, "a few others."
"Never heard of them."
The surprise Eclipse showed was priceless. Unfortunately, Mark and Star never heard of those games so they were confused and as such, didn't process Eclipse's priceless face. The guards escorting them were also surprised.
With a sigh, Mark went limp and closed his eyes while muttering.
"Well, let's just head back to our room and we can show you Blackjack. We both know blackjack and it would be easier to teach just you instead of both of us. Besides Blackjack is a simple game." said a slightly depressed Mark.
"Hmm, alright, I'm fine with that."
It wasn't long before all of them began heading back to their room.
POV: Starla
"Ready?"
With three nods, all three ponies revealed their cards.
"seventeen..."
"twenty!"
"Blackjack."
"WHAT!?"
"WHAT!?"
With Mark and Star yelling, Eclipse only yawned, a wing covering her mouth.
"How?!" asked Star, "That's your third blackjack in a row!"
"Guess I'm just lucky? I mean, I rarely lose a game of cards to anypony."
Star and Mark only stared dumb faced. 'How?! even I wouldn't be able to pull that off! I may cheat a bit, but I still can't do that!'
Yawning again, Eclipse looked out of the only window in the room, the sunset shining through beautifully, "Well I've got day shift and I'm tired so good night."
Eclipse got up slowly, sliding the chair loudly on the wood, then walked to the door yawning again and leaving. Mark and Star only looked at each other.
"She's gotta be cheating," said Mark with a deadpanned face, "no way she could have pulled that off."
"But she's only played the game for like, four hours if we include her lunch break."
"Still, she could have used shadow magic things!"
Star only rolled her eyes before yawning, "you know, I'm tired too..."
Mark's face went a bit depressed, "Oh well, you can go sleep if you want. I'll be doing something. Maybe play solitaire."
"Nuh-uh, It's late and you are going to sleep. This is a chance to finally be awake like normal people in the morning."
Mark put on a poker face and stared deep down into Star's eyes. A few moments went by like this and for Star, things were getting extremely awkward. Star's face showed everything Mark needed to know that his tactic was working. Mark tried to hold his undying laughter in, but a grin flashed for only a moment.
Unfortunately, it's all Star needed to stop and look at Mark. She then glared directly at a sore spot Mark had and Mark knew he dun goofed up. Breaking his poker face, he looked at Star with a sheepish grin.
"Uhh, I don't suppose we could negotiate?"
Star's right eye twitched for a moment.
"Perhaps we can," she pointed towards his bed, "Sleep. Now."
Mark slowly nodded, the face of a child who was caught stealing from a cookie jar before being sent to his or her room.
Watching, Star smiled.
"Good!" she said cheerily.
Turning off the light, it wasn't long before she too fell asleep.
POV: Luna
Later that night
The sounds of loud hoof steps outside woke a grumpy Princess who was tired to deal with whatever trivial conundrums these ponies seem to get into every day and night. Getting up and angrily walking to her door, she opened it and saw two guard ponies running down the hall. Not only that, with her sense she could hear ponies all over the ship running around. Looking at the single guard at her door she spoke.
"Lieutenant Starry Night, If I don't have a reason for ponies running all over the ship right now, I'm going to blast another hole in the wall."
Lieutenant Starry Night was Luna's more trusted and disciplined guards and usually just followed orders without question. Turning to Princess Luna Starry began to report.
"Princess Luna, a headcount of the captives showed two griffins missing. No signs of their location yet so were sweeping both ships. They're doing a third headcount as we speak."
"What?! We had guards watching them every hour of the day!"
"I'm sorry your highness, that's all I know," with a bow, the guard resumed his duties.
Luna was now pissed. She was tired, grumpy, worn out, exhausted, fatigued, drained, and simply just didn't want to deal with this. Going inside, Luna went to a box she kept in her room ever since they set sail. Luckily it was recovered from the burning ship while they were looking for griffin survivors of the explosion. Putting her longhorn down a hole in the case and using some magic, the massive metal case opened.
Luna grabbed the object inside and began to leave her room.
Opening the door and holding only half of the object in her magic, Starry Night saw Luna dragging a massive scythe longer than herself and a blade so long, it could cut a pony in half from the front down to the hooves.
"Starry Night, you a relieved of your duties to protect me, make sure some pony is watching the VIPs."
With surprise showing on the guard's face and a grunt of affirmation, he swiftly left to join the search. Luna only stood for a moment before walking in the other direction, dragging her massive scythe that barely fit down the hall along with her. Starry only felt bad for those who incur the Princess's wrath tonight.
POV:
Minutes Earlier
The sounds of two peacefully sleeping ponies were heard as the moonlight showed through the window. Unfortunately, that window was left unlocked.
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Ugh. I like this story, I just don’t like the whole woman being better thing. It seems to consist of women endlessly torturing and teasing a guy for the past few chapters. I have siblings, and this just isn’t something I would do.
Other than that it’s a great story so far. Some grammar and spelling issues, but good.
10417062
Read's, then shrugged.
I think I've watched too much anime if that's the case.
Besides, I prefer to be fair close to cannon, and in the show, there are not really many stallions. And as for me, it's off of personally experience. Never had a sister. All the cousin's I grew up with are male(and of varying ages), and the only girl that I knew that was someone from 6th grade. Sooner or later, the drama and her being annoying(which was probably my fault as because she was annoying, even if not intentional, I'd be annoying to her) got so annoying I just tried to ignore her for the rest of the year.
Anyways it all died down next year luckily.
So besides that, the only thing I can think of is anime as I was slightly addicted to it for the better part of a year, and it slid from anime to fimfiction. Anyways, thanks for your perspective, as I myself have a small group, among my other friends, that I consider actual or maybe just close friends.
btw just know any perspective you give may or may not impact the next chapter. It could be a big or small thing I don't know probably be a slight or subtle change as when I write, I'm usually thinking of the chapter and not small details because I find when I do that, the rest of the chapter loses a bit of quality, at least to me personally. It's my first story so I try to steer using some perspective from the comments as well as my (own which isn't much)
Personally, I think Star has a maybe kind of good reason to be pissed. If my brother did something dangerous like that, and it wasn't for a military reason, I'd probably be mad and worried, but I wouldn't want to start a conflict with my brother. Even so, if it was for a military reason, I'd be worried.
Anyways, thanks for your perspective, as half the time I'm making up the chapter as I go with only a general idea.
Edit: I made this comment long again. I came back to rewrite it, but it feels like the same length.
I think you mixed something up there.
Nice
10417419
Well, no story is going to please every person. So don't change your whole plan because of what I say or think. I still think it's a good story,
10417501
Whoopies
Sad part is, I had to reread that three times to see it
Thanks for pointing it out
10418019
I see🤔
Though my story isn’t as big as other I try to steer the way those who do read it like. But I’ll take you advice(besides pretty sure I’m already too deep to change certain things around)
Usually, when I write the chapter I just write what I personally would like to see. I wanted the two to meet princess Luna. So I made a reason for it. The changes I make will mostly likely be subtly as it’s more of an unconscious thing for me. It’s in my mind, but I don’t focus on it, but I also don’t forget about it either.
New chapter is done! Yay! it's been posted now
I'm getting real sick of mark being a little bitch. It's made out he's a powerful alicorn but hes practically bending over at the first command. If he doesn't man up soon I'm done with this story.
10417419
Imagine saving someone's life and getting hurt for it and their response is to shove a finger in your wound over and over and over again.
Instead of being thankful he not only survived but saved them for a single second, no one cares that he did something selfless and in fact treat him like crap for it.
This is why the last few chapters have been tiresome. Yes she has good reason to be pissed, but most people let up very quickly. This is just... hateful, honestly.
10659851
Eh, I've said all I have to say on this matter in about three separate comments. She does let up later on when they reach land. Not exactly sure what specific point though.
The comments on this matter previously are here,
10650713
here,
10628630
and here,
10417419
on the topic of that.
Edit:
And here 10410514
Says the colt that nearly killed himself several times in a few minutes being anything but subtle? Pot, meet kettle.
"You said tired twice!"
"That's because she's twice as tired as she is grumpy."
11169656
Honestly, thinking back I think that was intentional. To really play on the tone without breaking the sentence earily... But I think I'm gonna think for a few minutes of how to reword that.