• Published 7th Aug 2022
  • 1,521 Views, 35 Comments

Secondo - Lil Penpusher



It has been well over a thousand years since their so-called 'banishment'. Their unjust imprisonment, confinement in pure darkness. But the show must go on, for all the world is a stage, and they knew that with time, their final act would await.

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Sforzando

The door to Skystar's office clicked as Silverstream shut it behind her before approaching her friend who sat behind her makeshift work desk. She had been called urgently, half expecting to be needing to calm and comfort her friend as he had had to do several times before then. Not that she minded, though. Things were all too bleak, and for Skystar to be the one bearing the brunt of it all was... rough, to say the least, but more so cruel.

"Silverstream, I... I have bad news."

Even the friendship student had lost her usual positive outlook these days, and just stood straight, listening.

"According to a radio broadcast, the sirens hit Crack and Aris First's resistance. Maybe Raft really was a spy, I don't know, but they're effectively wiped out."

"Dead?" Silverstream asked

"There seems to have been a gunfight for their base but... beyond that, everycreature was taken prisoner."

Skystar sighed, clenching fists with both her claws as they rested on the desk before taking another deep breath and loosening those same fists.

"Crack and all the others know where our base is. Who we are, and who Posada and all his followers are, too, from their time together here. This place isn't safe anymore."

Silverstream gulped. She wasn't made for these kinds of things. Adventure, yes, but not life-or-death situations where she was on the run from the law... especially not when 'law' was having your free mind stripped away with magic.

"T-Then we must get out of here, and quickly!" the Hippogriff spoke up, accidentally stuttering a bit. "Right?"

A bleak, dreadful silence loomed. Silverstream tried to be patient, because she knew things were rough on her friend. While in the past the two had been very much alike, and acted on what often seemed to be a whim, now that was not the case at all. She felt and saw Skystar try to aspire to be somepony bigger than herself in this time of crisis. All that effort, though, had come back to haunt her with what had happened to the resistance, though.

Skystar twiddled her talons and closed her eyes, deep in thought. Silverstream almost went and spoke up, but forbade herself at the last moment. Then, she saw her friend shake her head slowly.

"No," the princess muttered. "No, I don't think we can."

"Skystar...?"

The former royal opened her weary, sleepy eyes to again look at her old friend, whose face was practically begging for her to help her, to save her and everypony else. Skystar closed her eyes again, because she couldn't. She couldn't save Aris.

"The sirens have us cornered, Silverstream. They know who and where we are, and they won't leave us be until they run us down by force if need be. Not to mention... they have hostages..."

The pink-feathered Hippogriff frowned as a tear escaped Skystar's left eye, though it was quickly wiped away.

"My mum, she... I can't, Silverstream. I can't keep on running."

"Skystar, they're toying with us!" insisted the pink Hippogriff. "That's what they want us to think!"

"I know." Silverstream fell silent at Skystar's deadpanned reply. "I know that. But I'm not sure if I care anymore, or if I can mount up the courage to resist."

The young student moved in a little closer, and put one claw on Skystar's desk.

"You still have me. And all of the others around here. We're all there for you."

Skystar shook her head again, however.

"What good will that be?" She finally opened her eyes again, and only now could Silverstream tell just how watery they were. Skystar must have been holding back tears, but they began to pour out now. "What good will it be!" Skystar shouted as her eyes turned red from the tears. "What good will it be!" she yelled out again.

She tried to breathe but coughed repeatedly inbetween sobs. Silverstream wanted to move around the desk to come and comfort her as she so often had, but Skystar held out a claw to oppose and stop her.

"Silver... Silverstream..." the broken princess stuttered intermittently, "...I don't think you can stay..."

"So... you do want us to get out of here?"

"No... no, just you, Silver." She sniffed and lowered her held out claw to wipe her eyes. "The sirens, they... they'll be here anyday now. We can't keep running so..."

"Skystar..." Silverstream whispered with a frown.

"so... we'll just have to go down trying in here..."

"Skystar, think about this!" her friend pleaded. "Think about what you're doing, please!"

"I did. Or, I hope I did... everything is a mess now and... I... I don't know anymore." The royal sniffed and turned her head away from Silverstream. "I know I messed up a lot but... maybe one day there will be ponies braver than myself to free us."

Silverstream's mouth opened to speak, but she found herself unable to voice much of anything in response. She watched instead as her friend, weak on her feet, reached out to the desk and retrieved a purple letter. Her eyes widened when said letter was presented to her.

"Silverstream. I beg of you. Please, you have to get to Equestria. Find the Elements... anypony that would help us. Give them this and plead for help. The future of our people and... probably me, too, will depend on it."

The pink Hippogriff remained locked in place, unmoving as if petrified by the offer.

"I'm tired, Silverstream," Skystar continued to insist. "I can't keep running. I don't wanna. Not anymore."

Slowly, her friend's right claw came up to meet her own. She felt an unusual sense of relief as the envelope was taken from her grasp.

"I've arranged for a last trip into the open seas via fishing trawler. That should get you a ticket away from here without immediately attracting attention. From there, you can fly or swim to Equestria... hopefully."

Silverstream looked down at the envelope she was holding, then her friend, then the envelope again. She moved her claw, quickly, almost shedding a tear on it as she, too, teared up now.

That's when she felt her friend press up against her, her arms wrapping around her neck and pulling her into a tight hug that was equally comforting and necessary for both of them. Sobs came from both ends, and Silverstream was quick to return the gesture as her own arms wrapped around her longterm friend.

"I'm sorry, Silverstream... I tried so hard but... I can't do it..."

The friendship student shut her eyes, enduring and enjoying these moments.

"I know."

"Can you... forgive me, for all this, before you go?"

"There is nothing I could blame you for to begin with, Skystar."

In any other situation the two friends might have chuckled and laughed together. Now, they just remained bonded and wrapped up together for what felt like hours to them. They didn't mind. It was perhaps the first real, true comforting moment after weeks and weeks of hardship, terror and loss. Knowing it might be the last timey they got to enjoy the gesture only made them sob louder and press the hug tighter.


The clock was close to striking 4 AM. The sun was probably only just dawning. Not that any of them could tell.

Bunched up inside the warehouse, everygriff had been ripped out of slumber by the sentries raising the alert as hostiles approached. Quickly suited and geared up for a fight, even Skystar now stood among them with rifle in claws. The princess looked grim, visibly worn out, but even still she was the last remaining role model for many of the fighters and their last remnant of iconic, inspiring leadership.

Some of the Hippogriffs raised their guns at the large metal doors the attackers were attempting to breach open. They heard the furious banging first, then as there were kicks made against it. It wouldn't hold forever, and the sirens andtheir henchgriffs certainly wouldn't just pack up and leave, either.

The worst part was not even that they knew they couldn't win - they were hopelessly surrounded and outnumbered - but the fact that the creatures outside were, at least in part, friends and even family of those in the hall. They could hear them shouting from time to time, telling them to open up, to surrender. It was creepy and honestly kind of sickening, but Skystar was almost used to it now. Others weren't, and especially the younger fighters were shivering, made painfully obvious by the noise their rifle made in their claws.

Skystar, for her part, was at least a little bit relieved that she hadn't heard the voice of her own mother out there yet. Jokingly, she told herself it was royal privilege that was the reason for it. Her mum was too valuable as a hostage to risk losing in a raid like this. These other enthralled Hippogriffs though? The sirens probably didn't care at all. They were noponies to them, but not to the ones inside this warehouse.

"Princess." Skystar perked up, turned to her right and saw face-to-face with a sergeant who only held his rifle a little tighter, foregoing the usual salute. "Your majesty... what are we gonna do?"

There was no reply as the young royal remained painfully silent. Her head turned towards the doors again as the banging resumed, this time with what looked to be a hammers or some sort.

"P-Princess, majesty!" the Sergeant inquired again, louder this time. His voice inadvertently attracted the attention of everygriff around. "What do we do! What are your orders, ma'am!"

Skystar gulped. Before she could even bother responding, another griff, a young fellow and ordinary rebel, raised his voice.

"We aren't really gonna shoot our own folks, are we? Princess?"

"They're puppets! It's the only way!" another responded in contrast.

"They're friends and family! We can't just do this! We're no better than the sirens, then!" a third chimed in.

Quickly, the hall was beginning to emerge into a large mess of heated conversations on what to do in the absence of leadership. Skystar was no siren but... even she could feel the hatred and negative emotions seep out from everygriff and flood outside, to be feasted upon.

They had all been played. Or, were they? Had they been played, or was it just she who had been fooled, and everyone else ran along with her? Had her royal titles caused all these creatures to follow her, and now they were doomed? Perhaps. It didn't matter, now.

"Silence." Skystar said. "Silence!"

And so did silence shroud the room, as if by a button press, Some looked petrified, others wary, other expected great words of encouragement to come, but Skystar had none left to give.

"I... thank you all, for going this far along with me. The past weeks, months, have all dragged us through hardship and unrest, and I cannot possibly imagine the courage it must have taken to stay and put your faith in me. For that, I have to thank you all."

They all grasped their rifles a little tighter as a big bang came from the doors as something big and heavy crashed into it. There was now a visible dent in them. It wouldn't hold for very much longer.

"But... I can't ask any of you to do this for me. The sirens know who we are and where we are, and have our families gathered outside. If we retaliate now, it would be us who were the criminals as we gun down our friends and families."

The princess shook her head sternky as everyone looked at her with a mix of dread and disbelief.

"I was once meant to be Queen after my mother, but that was then. Hippogriffia may be lost, but I trust that the flame of harmony will live on elsewhere, and that our friends abroad will set us free from the sirens' spell in time. But until then..."

A loud echo rang out as the wood and metal of Skystar's rifle hit the ground below as she dropped it.

"Until then, we must endure this hardship."

Another bang against the door, then another. The door looked just about ready to bend or break outright any second.

A series of rippling, loud echoes of wood and metal hitting the floor. One rifle after another, dropped as one soldier surrender after another. Skystar was unsure if she was meant to be happy everygriff followed her along, then. That everyone was surrendering, and giving up hope. Seemed like the opposite of what she should have said, and definitely the opposite of what she had always believed in. She did have one last sliver of hope, thinking back to Silverstream.

Ah... she hoped she was alright. They should be on their way to the maritime border by now, and in a few days, Silverstream should be reaching Equestria proper. That was perhaps one of the last chances Hippogriffia had, now. Yes... the last hope. Hope which they, right here and there, did not have. Between surrendering to a terrible foe and becoming a terrible foe themselves by gunning down their friends who had no choice but to obey... they chose to fall as heroes, at least.

A terrible sound rippled through the large hall as the doors were busted open. Bright light from the outside streamed inside through the new opening, and briefly blinded Skystar. She held up a claw to cover her eyes, but before she could even so much as raise her hands, a Hippogriff with a mindlessly numb frown and stare lunged towards her. The last thing she had at that moment was the butt end of their rifle. Then a fade to black as she began to lose her senses, and a thud as she faintly felt her limp body drop.