Sesto
...So, wot yew fink is in dere, eh?"
"Proll'y some scared likkle dibbuns. They're always gettin' lost in the Wastes. They fink they can 'ave a grand ole' time. Get up ta no good is more like."
"Wot, likkle dibbuns? Naw, they're right terrified of us."
"Scared of you? And my mum's a King's Consort."
"Right, she's just my consort."
'Aww, shuddup, yew!"
"Naw, wot we got here are some 'ostages."
"...So, we ain't killin' em, then?"
"Wot you fink 'ostages means."
"I thought it were some kinda fruit."
"Shuddup, the lot of you! Big Vee wants 'em captured. So no, you twats, we ain't killin 'em. Especially the big'un. Now, not another word 'til the ropes are in place!"
I groggily cleared the last remnants of sleep from my head at the sound of talking coming from somewhere nearby. I looked around, suddenly wondering about the lack of vision on the right side of my face before remembering the eyepatch. We were still in the tent, erected over the shallow pit dug in the Maria. Luna and Chives were crouched, ears flicking to and fro as the voices continued speaking outside.
The second thing I noticed was that it was rather dark in the tent, even though the harsh light of day should have been streaking in through the small smoke-hole.
"What's going on?" I hissed under my breath.
Luna made a soft shush-ing noise, scowling furiously around, as if to burn holes in whomever the owners were of the rough dialect.
"Pirates," Chives muttered. "They've put a canopy above to work. Be ready."
"To what!?"
My butler did not answer, rather, flinching when a loud clanking issued from outside the dark tent.
"Oy! Don't drop that, ya wanger!" More clanking, then a noise like a hammer striking ripe fruit.
"Oooouuu! Whazzat for, boss!?"
"For droppin' it right after I tells ya not to! Now shuddup!"
"Oh. Sorry, boss."
Another wet smack.
"Heeeey! Why ya hittin' me?"
"For not shuttin' yer trap!"
Inside the tent, my visage immediately conducted a fast rendezvous with the flat of my hoof.
"Righto, mates." The voice that seemed to be ordering the others around asserted control. "The ropes are set. On the count of ten, we spring it and catch 'em by surprise! Ready?"
A low assortment of murmurs and grunts was the reply.
"And on the count of eight, we shall move first," Luna declared softly. Her mane was sparking with agitation, and I detected a noticeable twitch to her feathered wings. She looked almost eager, like a racer at the gates. Beside her, Chives bristled silently but otherwise maintained the stoic demeanor he was known for. I recalled that he regularly practiced with the dummies in my estate's training room, to better retain the skills he had honed serving under my parents.
I, on the other hoof, curled into a very small ball and tried to make myself invisible.
"One," the gruff leader announced.
The others continued the count. "Two...three..."
Inside the tent, Luna's power began to radiate, filling the air with an eerie hum. The black splotches on her flanks writhed and slithered as if alive, and the crescent moons adorning them shone white-hot.
"Four...five..."
Something patted me on the shoulder. I glanced, trembling, to see Chives reassuringly stroke the back of my neck. "Don't worry, old friend," he murmured. "I'm not about to forsake my oath."
"Six...seven..."
They never reached the next number of the count, because at that moment, Luna flared her wings outward with such force that the resulting wall of wind blew the tent and a healthy amount of Maria sand into a great cloud.
Everything faded into a veil of silver, choking dust. I staggered about as something slammed into my side. "PREPARE TO TASTE OUR JUSTICE!" Luna roared from somewhere ahead. "IT TASTES LIKE PAIN!" A tremendous bang, followed by agonized screams, told me that she was by no means holding back. I felt a pang of sympathy for the pirates, for her wrath was terrible indeed.
A heavy weight suddenly thundered down onto my back, driving me into the ground. Hot breath blasted me in the ear. "Ahhaha! I got ya now!" In desperation, I twisted and squirmed like a serpent, squeezing away from the encompassing grapple, before throwing a desperate kick. My hoof hit softness, and the weight vanished.
I rolled, breathing wildly, and lunged towards the assumed direction of my attacker in the height of a desperate frenzy. All pretenses of fear were long gone, now replaced by the urge to fight, to survive. Exhilarating as it was, I was no warrior, and my only hope to pass through this unscathed was to simply batter my foe to the ground before he could retaliate.
Following a strategy is a different thing from actually executing a strategy, though, and I promptly tripped over a flailing limb and fell, cracking my head against something warm and very much alive. "D-oof!" I saw stars as I laid there in a daze, silver dust swirling about everywhere over the sound of Luna and Chives bringing pain upon the pirates. I looked to my side, to find my foe sprawled out in a heap, knocked unconscious by my impromptu skull butting.
I suppose there is some truth to what the rabble claims, politicians really do have hard heads.
A hoof planted itself in the ground next to me, and I turned to find Chives battling no less than three figures at once, lashing out at them through the hazy screen with hoof and wing alike with such fury that one was immediately overcome, viciously stomped into the Maria and used as a springboard to catch a second in a leaping kick. The second spun away, howling as he clenched his jaw, and Chives rushed after the third, who promptly fled, into the dust.
Shaking, I lurched to my hooves. I was alone again, and yet the battle raged all around. Figures flashed through the obscuring cloud like wraiths, rushing to and fro. Sharp cracks and bangs sounded out almost constantly, and the illuminating flashes lit the haze up as if it were a light, turning the figures inside it into dark silhouettes.
It was a shadowy puppet show played upon a grim stage, and by the looks of the action, the figure of Luna was holding fast against a rising tide.
"HAH! HAVE AT THEE, BRIGANDS! NONE SHALL TRIUMPH O'ER THE UNCONQUERABLE NIGHT!"
The alicorn was nowhere and everywhere at once, striking swiftly and suddenly, then somehow vanishing without a trace, only to appear an instant later in the midst of some powerful blow. Then, suddenly, she appeared in front of me, hoof raised as if to strike. Her eyes widened in recognition, and the hoof narrowly avoided what would have been a jaw-shattering punch.
"Cassius, thou looks just like them, what with the eyepatch," she rasped. Her battered armor was an absolute mess, stained here and there by blood and grime. She suddenly turned and unleashed a powerful pulse of magic, blowing away a charging pirate that had materialized out of nowhere. He was flung away, screaming as he disappeared. "These rogues think they can best us?! That blasted draconequus put up a better fight!"
"...what did you say?" I wheezed, before she too was swept away by the battle.
Choking upon the stifling screen, I pressed forward, stumbling occasionally when I stepped upon a prone, groaning figure or a wraith ripped out of the fog and collided with me. The world was blurred, shot through with the ghostly noises of a conflict I wished to avoid. There was no plan in my mind, only the drive to leave the battlefield post haste.
A mighty rumble shook the ground, followed by a tremendous ka-thoom that knocked me off my hooves and flat upon my back. I had a spare second to lie there, stunned, before a body crashed atop me. Coughing, I heaved and pushed with all my strength, but I could not move the lummox an inch! Never before had I lamented the soft life of a noble so greatly, a life which left them so unprepared for such situations.
Pinned like an insect to the dust of the White Wastes, a hundred leagues from home, bloody and battered from a raging brawl. This was not the future I had imagined for myself. A hot liquid ran down my cheeks, mixing with the trail of blood that leaked from my forehead. It might very well be the end of my road, I reflected.
It should not end like this... not here, not now.
But... all the same, perhaps it was a deserved fate. A fitting punishment earned from years of arrogance and abuse of my royal title. For holding myself above the citizens whom I was sworn to serve and protect, all but abandoning them to lieutenants I would meet with once a cycle to see that the barest sense of order was maintained.
It struck me in this moment that I could not remember the last time I had actually done anything, good or bad, for my subjects.
Did they even know who I was?
My parents would have been ashamed. Lord and Lady of Umbara, paragons of true nobility, cut down in their prime by the vicious plots and counterplots of the Celestial City. Were it not for their faithful bodyguard becoming my personal attendant, I too would have been poisoned by the politics of Court.
Chives had become my father, my brother, my friend, and was a member of my House in all but blood. He was not the greatest of guardians... though his guidance staved off the influence of power and kept me from becoming the very thing that struck down my parents. But nor had he shown me the right way to use the station I had been born into. A stranger to such workings, he could offer me no counsel in how to rule.
Cycles passed like grains of dust through the hourglass. I had languished in self-imposed impotence, the heir to a birthright I would not fulfill.
From the depths of my memory, the singular act of true selflessness and honor that I had ever performed was assisting Luna in her quest... Luna, a stranger to both my world and my home.
My distress must been prevalent, for the great lout of a scallywag lying prone atop me stirred. "Oy, mate... is yew cryin'?"
"N-no!"
He groaned. "Uh-huh. C'mon, let's bug out, let th' rookies go hoof to hoof with 'er." At that point, I realized that he too must have mistaken me for one of his own, probably now due to my grimy, bloody appearance and the roguish eyepatch covering my damaged sight. The pirate rolled off me and heaved me upwards, before half-dragging, half-pushing me in some arbitrary direction. I noted that his foreleg was held against his body, and it was obviously causing him some discomfort. Perhaps Luna had broken it? The thought made me shudder at the alicorn's ruthlessness.
"Big Vee was right, she's really an alien," he said. "Yew see that pointy thing on 'er 'ead? She pointed it towards me, the bloody thing start's glowin', and next thing I know I'm lyin' on toppa yew!"
"It's magic," I mumbled, trying not to stare at his injured limb.
"Magic? Naw, this ain't no fairy tale... this is real," he grumbled. "So, how'd she git yew?"
It took a moment of thought to discipher his nearly-unintelligible slur into something I understood. "She fell out of the sky," I dryly replied.
He snorted with amusement at that. We suddenly passed through the edge of the cloud of dust, emerging out onto the Maria itself. It suddenly struck me that the sky was unusually dark, before I discerned what really obscured the sun and stars.
It was a ship.
Though she was unlike any vessel I had ever laid eyes upon before.
She was enormous, constructed of rich, varnished blackwood, glimmering and glittering from stem to stern. She positively oozed a sense of power and unparalleled swiftness with her sleek lines and aggressively-slanted keel mast. Across her name-plate, her name was scrawled in an elegant golden script: Eclipse.
An apt title, considering she was large enough to block out the sun's light for the ferocious battle to take place underneath. No wonder the Kingdom had trouble locating the pirates... this must have been their base of operations. A floating fortress, able to slip across the border, sack a village, and slink back into the White Wastes before the local garrison would even hear of the the trouble.
On a small blackwood skiff floating above the swirling knot of battle, stood who I could only suppose was the Captain of the ship, clad in a scruffy, outdated admiral's regalia.
My compatriot nudged me forward. "C'mon, we'll watch. Better hurry though, the fight'll be over soon — she can't last forever!"
He took wing and I was hot on his strokes, experiencing a sensation not unlike what I imagined a prisoner might feel on their march to the gallows. An eerie calm, despite the raging chaos below. Luna and Chives still appeared to be giving no quarter to the assailants, judging by the noises issuing forth.
We alit upon the skiff, the pirate almost splintering the dark decking while I landed with grace and poise. "Oy, boss!" he said. "We're too banged up to go back in there. That thing is a monster!"
The 'boss' gave him a disgusted look. I had seen that look many times before, often in the face of officers repulsed by the sheer incompetence of their subordinates. "Cowards," he spat. "What could possibly be so terrifyin' about 'er?"
At that moment, Luna deigned it appropriate to respond to that comment. With a deep rush of wind, followed by a teeth-grindning concussion of sound, the obscuring veil of Maria dust below was blown away in an instant...
...The alicorn stood proud upon a veritable mountain of twitching, battered pirates. Chives was in place next to her below the summit, an equally impressive head count below his own hooves.
That darkness had finally overtaken Luna, and now she was the color of the deepest of skies, her swirling mane a harsher hue, bristling with angry pinpricks of light. She appeared larger, fully covering the face of the pirate she stood poised upon with a single, armored hoof. The wings sprouting from her back were still extended, a pair of massive, oddly beautiful appendages covered in feathers blacker than sin. Two icy eyes, pupils slitted like some draconian beast, settled upon the skiff with a look of absolute, unbridled wrath. She grinned. Stars above, were those fangs!?
A soft patter of liquid striking the skiff's decking sounded into the silent air as the Captain promptly soiled himself.
"H-h-have mercy! Please!" he cried. I could almost taste the desperation in his voice.
The alicorn below stood taller, glaring at him with all the authority of a vengeful god. Somehow, she looked down upon us, even though we claimed the high ground.
"Very well," she said. Her voice had deepened, and had yet taken on a seductive, silky quality.
Some hope returned to the Captain's features. "Really?"
"No."
She pointed her horn at the skiff and unleashed a lightning bolt with the girth of a tree-trunk.
I realized at that point that I was standing right next to the subjects of her fury. "Oh, bollocks."
I unceremoniously threw myself overboard, simultaneously tucking into a ball mid-flight. The skiff promptly detonated as its pylons suffered a catastrophic overload, sending pieces of flaming decking all across the battlefield. The resulting shockwave slammed me back down to the moon, and I once again found myself stunned, flat on my back, surrounded by total carnage.
An ebony face appeared in my vision. Luna stood above me, snarling as she raised a hoof raised to stomp me out of existence.
"Wait!" I cried. I reached up and ripped off the eyepatch. "Luna... Luna, it's me. Cassius. Your friend!"
She winced. "I have no... friends." She looked around now, as if seeing her surroundings for the first time. "Friends," she repeated. "I..."
A strong hoof hauled my upright. Chives gave me a stoic, unreadable look, before cuffing me across the back of my head. "I swear, Master, if you do anything that stupid ever again." His threat suddenly halted, however.
Something flickered in the corner of my vision. I craned my gaze just in time to see something drop off the side of the mighty Eclipse. Something great and... winged. Thunderous concussions resounded over the Maria as a colossal beast flapped its wings. Dark scales shimmered with starlight, and translucent, membrane wings rippled as it landed smoothly not twenty paces away.
A star dragon. Sometimes called a netherdrake, they were fierce predators, feared by even the great and powerful rocs that hid in the mountains. They were said to live for thousands of cycles, and in legends, the oldest of their kind was more ancient than the moon itself. But the existence of one here was utterly improbable.
The last Grand Elder had personally wiped the last one out, rendering the legendary species extinct.
But... if that were true, then how was one here now, in the flesh, fifty meters of muscle, scale, and gleaming claws. Its wingspan alone was wide enough to bridge the Blackwater River, running through the heart of the Celestial City.
The robed figure that jumped off the small hollow between its shoulderblades only furthered the mystery. It approached us slowly, before halting in front of a very bewildered Luna.
It threw back the hood with a wing, revealing a gaunt, aged face. His eyes twinkled.
My ears abruptly began itching with such intensity that I was forced to lay them flat against my skull.
He solemnly spoke. "Your Majesty," he declared, and fell into a deep bow...
...Directly in front of Luna....
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It's only 2 am here so far, but I suspect this will be the most hilarious line I read today.
I must say, your talents are steadily improving. I am really enjoying this story! Bravo! More please?
Wait, pirates that have weird accents. Hmmmmmmm
Try wait can ge moke pirates kine guys up in hea. den could mek dis one au kine local style.
*Sees Title.* Dark Side of the Moon
>space nazis
I'm getting Iroh-like vibes from the old guy who is propably the last Grand Elder.
Best chapter to date, my friend. Star Drakes, piles of incapacitated bodies, more detail on Luna's Nightmare status, and a not-so-figurative shipload of carnage.
I am pleased.
Oh, and did I catch a Redwall Mole accent coming from those pirates? I still don't know what a dibbun is....
Theres enough badass in this chapter to stop a weaker man's heart
STARSWIRL THE BEARDED. I'M CALLING IT NOW.
"My butler did not answer, rather, filching when a loud clanking issued from outside the dark tent."
I think you mean flinching?
But yet another awesome chapter from your metaphorical pen!
Great chapter.
1768740
Ah ha, that's why it sounded so familiar, it's Redwall!
Jean-Luc approved.
lowbird.com/data/images/2011/01/so-much-win.jpg
Now that is what I am speaking of!
1768740 AHA! Redwall references. Made of win.
There is so much win in this chapter. What should I do with all of it?
I love the Redwall reference, even though I'm not the first to point it out. From the voices I was expecting moles. Also to those who don't know a Dibbun is a child. Wonderful chapter dear, thanks for the pirates and dragons
Caio
God that was amazing!
Pirates and dragons... on the Moon... this is so like right out of Baron von Munchausen!
this story continues to be beyond epic.
Those pirates sound a bit like Jägermonsters.
1778480 I am overjoyed to find another who knows what those are! *raises wrenches in overexuberant salute*
Also, dibbuns? That's what they call children in the Redwall series, but I am unsure if that is unique to that book series or if it's one of those English accent things.
1769539>>1770235>>1772767>>1774017>>1778939
"REDWAAAAAAAAAAALL!"
"EULALIAAAAAAAAAAAA!"
"MOSSFLOWEEERRRRR!"
But most importantly...
"LOG-A-LOG-A-LOG-A-LOG!"
The "It tastes like pain!" Line is what got me.
There's something on your face!
Really? Oof!
It was pain!
1779082 I know this is terrible, but would you please stop talking about your wood?
OH SHIT!
Masterpiece!
Luna, the persona of warrior goddess was also my headcanon (Dream manipulator is too).
However, she (NMM form) was a utterly badass.
Shriek!
(And I love Cassius. He's my favorite male OC now!)
1779082
What worries me, though, is that these are villains. Traditionally only Redwallers refer to children as dibbuns, (DAB forever!) while the villains, corsair rats, ferrets, stoats, and weasels, share all of the grammar but not that particular vocabulary. 'Tis most curious.
1781362
Thanks! The entire idea of Cassius was to create as wimpy and pathetic of a character as I possibly could and make the readers like him. It was a challenge for me... but it seems to be working.
Also, stick around for nautical Luna shenanigans .
1784887
You are really welcome.
Indeed, I've read lots of fanfictions and had enough for mary sue male OC characters.
For me, Cassius was not only a pathetic character but he was also an extreme interesting and entertaining one.
I love his action when his first engaging to Luna.
However, he gave something that the night goddess lacked and desperately wanted for (one thousand years ago).
Friendship
Just by his crying for a sentense in this chapter.
He may save his own life and stop the ruthless killing goddess to do something more.
I like this character so much. :D (And Luna of course)
Keep going and thank you thank you thank you so much for wrting!
For some reason, I imagined the star dragon as an Ender Dragon.
Man, all that cockney would have made Alfred P. Doolittle proud.
Also Nautical Luna, hellz yeah, lets get all Master and Command up in this bitch.
Just because no one else said it and everyone caught the Redwall reference...
Did not see that coming
"PREPARE TO TASTE OUR JUSTICE!" Luna roared from somewhere ahead. "IT TASTES LIKE PAIN!"
i must agree on the matter of this being hilarious
hey when are they gonna meet pink floyd?