Secondo
...As it so happened, my cowardly habits were fiercely reprimanded by my butler. Whom, upon seeing me lying on the floor, a blubbering, inconsolable mess, decided to knock some sense into me. Literally. To the end of my life, I'll never understand how a sudden, stunning blow to the cranium can do that.
The strike landed neatly on the top of my head, and made a comical BONK!-ing noise, at that. While my pupils began to recreate a race at the derby, I heard Chives assume the mantle of negotiations.
"Greetings, madame," he said cordially, "I am Chives, the head servant at this residence. My companion here is called Lord Cassius --though I have a more fitting pseudonym for him-- and is the owner of said property. On behalf of my people and my house, I will attempt to answer any questions that you might have regarding your current situation. However, I must ask this upon a strict condition."
The creature sized him up, and, judging his character to be of some worth, dipped her head in the smallest of agreements. Never once did her mismatched eyes blink.
"You must no doubt currently be aware of the fact that you have sustained some injuries, as of late," Chives said, pointing to the bandages around her, recently soiled by her venture outside (the fresh azure stains upon which were slightly glowing!). "It would be in the best interests of all present if you were to devote your time spent here to recuperation and healing, at least until you are familiar with your situation and are fit enough to embark. We will gladly provide room and board, the right of any guest of a lord, as well as the medicines needed for your various hurts."
I shook my head from where I now sat, quite impressed by sheer gall of my servant. There was no possible way a creature of such majesty and power would ever think to bargain with the likes of-
"We find these terms acceptable," said she, in a voice that was strangely two-toned, as if there were another of her speaking at the same time.
I could practically feel the sheer amount of smugness emanating from my servant.
The creature continued. "Our first question is thus: what land is this, with a soil so pale and a sky so dark, even during daylight?"
"We currently reside upon the edge of the Silver Dune Sea, directly upon the equator," Chives answered immediately.
"And where, pray tell, is this...Silver Dune Sea?" She frowned slightly, it was almost unnoticeable. "We have not yet seen this name upon any map."
I wiped some snot and tears away from my face. It was at this point that I realized explaining to her the locations of the land would do her no good, as she had not yet come to the conclusion that she as no longer upon Equus. She would still be thinking that she is still upon her own world, and as such, attempt to get her bearings by the familiar planetary geography. I resolved to ask her these features on a later date, but, in the meantime...
"You will not find it on any map you have encountered before, madame," I spoke, rising to my hooves. I had the attentions of both Chives and the creature, now. The lack of bawling and cringing like an infant at her mere presence steeled my frayed courage, so I continued. "Look to the horizon, past the rays of the sun, and you will see why this is so."
She did so, and gazed in the that way for several moments, silent. I could not bear to look with her, as by now the sun had fully emerged, and it was all I could do to keep my eyes open for even a few seconds.
Eventually, she turned. "We...are not sure of what we see. What manner of star is that, which comes to be so strangely colored and of that size?"
"That is no star, madame," I replied softly. "That is Equus."
She whirled back to the balcony and reared up onto it.
"Impossible!" she cried. "Nopony has ever braved the border between the sky and the stars, and lived to tell of it!"
"...More or less what I thought until a day ago," Chives grumbled to himself.
"Until now, none have lived to tell of it," I said. "But you have, madame. You are the first! I must ask, though, how did you do it? Some kind of vehicle? A mechanized launcher?"
"You must remember, Master, that madame is rather out of sorts at the moment," Chives pointed out to me. "It is entirely likely that she doesn't remember due to the crash. She wasn't aware of the fact that she was here in the first place, so we might deduce that her arrival was not, er, voluntary. This could have been the result of some kind of accident, although of what kind, I know not."
"Do you remember, madame?" I asked her gently.
"We..." she began. Then paused. "...do not. Our mind feels like a shattered window, and the pieces have been rearranged."
"Can you remember anything at all?" Chives queried. "A name, perhaps. I fear that simply calling you 'madame' is poor ettiqute, and I do not trust myself --and certainly not young Cassius here-- to invent one for a...being...such as yourself."
The creature visibly concentrated. "We remember bits and pieces. A word there, a blurred face, a landscape that we feel we know yet cannot place. But we do remember one thing."
"Yes?" I wondered.
She answered by suddenly snapping her wings outwards, the strange things upon the fluttering and whispering in the wind. Her impressive outstretched span completely blocked out the sunlight, bathing Chives and I in gloriously soothing shade. Her eyes flashed white, and the horn atop her head alit with an eeire glow. I had originally thought her to be an odd-looking thing, but in this way, her form was truly striking.
"Our name is Luna."
Our guest, true to her word, did little in those first few days of her stay with us. She remained propped in her bed for the most part, learning of our world and culture at a voracious rate when either Chives or I found the time to sit with her. Our kind, the Equinocti, had always had a rich and vibrant society of thinkers and philosophers (perhaps the reason why we never did much building or fighting or any real impressive things). When we were not by her bedside, she was prone to staring out the window at the distant blue orb that hung perpetually upon the horizon. She knew it was home, she told us, she could feel it in her feathers, those odd, fluffy things embedded into her wings. But she could not recall what exactly it was that awaited her there.
Sometimes she would bring up certain facts about her world, perhaps the name of a street, or what the ocean was like. On Equus, they have Marias of water, can you imagine that! But she could never place where that particular thought had emerged from, and often lapsed into a frustrated silence afterwards.
I can recall a splendid example of this. Luna gave us both a tremendous fright when we entered the room to find a full tea set floating serenely at her bedside, each object wreathed in that same, eerie light that bathed her horn at the same time. I remembered seeing that light when she rebuked us during our chase, and instinctively knew it was power of some kind, though nothing my race had ever seen. The memory of that same power smacking me into the balcony like an irritating fly suddenly arose.
I, of course, being of high birth and higher education, did the only sensible thing at the time.
"Duck and cover!"
Ah, the comforts of hiding under the bed. Truly glorious.
Teeth met around my tail, and gave a sharp yank. I was rudely tugged under my improvised panic shelter to find an amused-looking Luna and a...well, Chives-looking Chives both staring at me. My servant then seemed to notice the glow as well and backed away a few steps, stiffened even more than usual. Which, in itself, was a tremendous feat.
"Is something the matter, Cassius?" Luna asked seriously, though it seemed to me that she was struggling to keep a grin off her face.
"More than usual, she means." Chives couldn't resist a snark, even if he felt ill at ease. Yet another reason I kept him around.
"That glow! What is it?" I stammered.
"'Tis magic," she said simply. "An alicorn such as myself possesses a great deal of it."
Magic! Alicorns! So many new things! "Alicorns? Is that what your kind are called?"
"In a sense. We are a mix of the three bloods of ponykind." Luna trailed off. "The three...kinds..."
"You are po-nies, then?" asked Chives. I spoke the word as well, almost tasting the way the new sounds rolled around my tongue. Pony. The denizen of Equus! Simply smashing!
"We are. And, we, think, thou art as well," Luna said. "Thou resembles one of the bloods greatly, and yet, different."
Now that was intriguing. "Perhaps there is a connection," I suggested, "as to why we are so similar, and yet come from two entirely different worlds."
Luna sadly shook her head. "We wish we could shed some light on that, but alas, the memories remain out of reach, if that knowledge exists at all."
This seemed to send her into a brooding sulk. I found myself too entranced by the still-floating tea set. It was a curious blend of fear and awe that kept me so focused. "What else can you do with your magic?" I wondered. I mispronounced the word 'magic' terrible, and this seemed to lift her spirits for a second or two.
"We do not know," she sighed moodily. "Everything has been... instinctual. Like learning how to walk. We fear attempting to run before we master the slower steps would be most unwise. Something deep within us knows that meddling in magic is a dangerous, foolish idea."
I couldn't help but agree, even if I silently wished to see more of the strange power.
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This should tide you over until I get back from MEPS on Thursday night. More to be released then.
:D
This particular fancy is more than novel, but is in fact brilliant! I'd honestly never thought of approaching the story of the Mare in the Moon from this angle. Imperial, sir. Absolutely imperial.
Good luck in Boot! (whenever you have to go
)
1454064
Ok. Three things.
First of all:
img1.ak.crunchyroll.com/i/spire3/d2bad29d3e39972577173e130adaf80e1233189940_full.jpg
That was my reaction when I saw this had updated, thus making my day just a little bit better.
Secondly, and I apologize, but I meant to ask this weeks ago:
Got a reason why he didn't use it in Ballard?
In one of the more recent chapters of The Legend of Echo the Diamond Dog, Echo has a handgun that crossed over with him. But in the Ballard, it is not listed among his possessions when he takes stock of his supplies for the first time after waking up in Equestria.
Thirdly (and most importantly): Good luck on your test for getting into the Navy, and I hope it works out for you!
Good luck on getting in to the navy and great chapter.
I've lost interest.
Still very interested.
There is no dark side of the moon, really. matter of fact it's all dark. The only thing that makes it look light is the sun.
Sorry, couldn't resist. Too big a fan of Pink Floyd,
Either way, I'm enjoying reading this, having only now discovered it.
This was a joy to read!
Scary, but fun!
Hope to see more of this promising, brilliant work of fiction!
1454614
Echo never had a handgun. Ever. The only item he has from Earth that could possibly be considered a weapon is a small hunting knife. Besides, this is a different story, in a different universe. Let's keep 'em separate, yeah?
Are the Echo stories this interesting as well? Because I'm getting the impression that I really should be reading them.
1455657
You poor, poor, child. Here, have a dog.
1456005 Largely I've been hesitant to start it because I understand it's part of a shared universe, Chess Game of the Gods if I'm not mistaken? How required are the other stories?
1456014
Ah, I see. You are worried about needing to read the others. Congrats, you're in luck!
Even though Rust's Ballad started the entire CGotG thing, he decided to do his own thing and is actually Non Canon. The entire group is his illegitimate child, and stuff that happens everywhere else is ignored here.
1456024 Alright, I'll pick it up the next time I whittle my unread chapter count down to zero. Thanks.
1456032
I have 550+ unread. If I decided to wait until my unread goes to zero, I would've graduated high school by then.
1456049 Only at 85 myself, I savagely pruned most of my unread faved list off to my RIL list a few months ago.
I should be able to get it down inside of a few weeks or so, though I do have the problem of being easily distracted whenever I see something shiny in the featured box or on EQD.
1456069
The feature box is exactly the reason why I have so many unread chapters. Ugh.
1455620
*Re-reads chapter 5 of Legend*
Oh, so the switchblade is called "Winchester"! The way I read it, it sounded like he had a Winchester gun!
That makes so much more sense. Thanks for clearing that up.
She's a witch! Burn 'er!
YYYYYUUUUUUUUUUUUUSSSSSSSSSSSSS.
Thanks for updating, do so more often!
So, Lunar Stallions brings on a more interesting meaning now. Can't help but wonder if there's a connection between these Equinocti and her version of the Solar Elite.
I eagerly await more.
Cassius and Chives are bat ponies arent they?
Oh and btw I hope you write Luna in the same way as you did in your Echo fic, that was hillarious
1456110
I know that feel!
Anyway, cool story so far, nice new theme and I love the tried and true Jeeves and Wooster style combo. I wish I was both rich enough and funny enough to hire a cynical valet to be the straight man to my eccentricities. Ah well, one day.
Please do continue, you are on to a good thing here
But you have, madame. You are the first! I must ask, though, how did you do it? Some kind of vehicle? A mechanized launcher?"
XD Cannon
1454614
Dude... Dat pic
1461744
One way ticket on the Rainbow KA-BOOM Express!