A Moonlit Storm

by SilverNotes

Storm Warning

"See here, Flurry? This is your honourary great aunt, Kisu!"

The glow of Night Light's magic faded from the page of the photo album, and his hoof pressed into the space right below the image of the striped mare. She was draped in a gold-coloured dress, with matching shoes and necklace, in the middle of a ballroom full of ponies and other creatures. Like many guests at the Grand Galloping Gala, she had the look about her of someone fighting an internal battle against openly showing her boredom and steadily losing the fight. A nearby donkey, while out of focus of the camera's lens, seemed to have already thrown in the towel, on the verge of falling asleep on their hooves.

Night Light watched on in pride as the alicorn filly resting at his side peered at the page with wide eyes, babbling to herself, and he brightly continued, "Now, Auntie Kisu here is a zebra. Can you say 'zebra,' sweetie?"

Flurry Heart looked at him, then back at the page, and she stabbed a hoof at the photo right next to his with a triumphant, "Weeba!"

"Very good!" He pulled his hoof back and ruffled Flurry's mane with it, as his magic gripped the corner of the next page. "And here--"

Another hoof came down, this one a more vibrant pink than Flurry's, belonging to the adult alicorn perched on the other side of him. The couch was thankfully plenty big enough to share with Cadence, as she wasn't much larger than the average unicorn. She kept the album pinned as she peered at the photo. "How did you meet Kisu?" she asked, her gaze roaming the zebra mare's features. "Twilight's never told me much, just that she inspired her to read about other species and far-off lands."

As Cadence studied the page, he studied her. She'd left her regalia in a pile by the door, as when she came home to visit her in-laws, she liked to shed the royal persona and just be herself. However, it seemed that you could take a crown off a princess but you couldn't make them stop thinking like one, and he could see the gears turning in the same way that the elder alicorns did when they saw a mystery that needed pondering. It was a look he was starting to see more and more on his daughter's face as well, and it left him all the more proud of her and optimistic for her future.

Night Light, for his part, laughed off the inquiry, waving slightly in the air with his hoof. "Oh there's no real story there. I just spent some time in Farasi before I met Velvet, and the two of us got to be the best of friends." With a small tug of the page, he managed to get her to retract her hoof, and he turned his attention back to his grandfoal as new photographs took up her vision. "Look, Flurry, this is me at my first ever bingo tournament. Can you say 'bingo?'"

"Bimgo!"

Night Light could feel Cadence staring at him with narrowed, suspicious eyes, as he grinned proudly at Flurry Heart, but he had been perfecting his "oblivious father'" act for years and it didn't take much adjustment to turn it into "oblivious grandfather and father-in-law." She would get no answers from him, or any open hint that there were answers to find. After all, he'd told the truth. He had spent time in Farasi, and Kisu was one of his best friends.

And one thing Night Light was good at was keeping friends' secrets.

---

"I appreciate you heeding my call on such short notice, Lord Night Light."

He stood at the foot of the towering, sun-decorated throne for far from the first time, and as he always had, he bent his front legs and lowered his head in a bow until the tip of his horn was almost scraping the marble. "Of course, Your Highness. I could do no less." He watched out of the corner of his eye as Princess Celestia gestured with her wings, and the guards reluctantly obeyed, filing out of the room to allow for privacy. Only then did he rise, adding with a chuckle, "I cited a family emergency, so my 'aunt' Sunny Daze will need to develop some trouble with her hip for several months."

He watched the smallest smirk come to the princess's face. "I'll make sure that when next your colleagues see 'her,' there's an appropriate level of limp." The expression was short-lived, and her chest expanded with a deep breath that came out in long, low sigh. "Now, as for why I brought you here... there is some worrying news from our agents in Zebrat, and it concerns unicorn magic."

He tilted his head slightly in thought. "Something's happened that needs to be neutralized?" he guessed. He'd been called numerous times to deal with cases of unicorn magic gone awry, but as far as he knew, Farasi was home to zebras, donkeys, abada, and kelpies in abundance, but very few ponies, of any sort. Worrying, indeed.

Princess Celestia shook her head, slowly. "This isn't something that can be permanently stopped, though I'll be sure to teach you additional spells to place it into dormancy for transport." And before he could inquire further, something about the room changed, as if all the shadows, especially those cast onto Celestia's pristine white coat, had grown much deeper. "Tell me, Lord Light, how familiar are you with the work of Sacanas?"

The most honest answer to that would be far too much for his liking, and the reasoning for that were the words he uttered in response. "I'm aware that she was both lauded as the Starswirl of her time and a raging unicorn supremacist." The last three words felt like acid on his tongue, and he fought the urge to scrape it against his teeth. He'd read the books that were required to in order to work with any form of research that Sacanas had so much as tapped the tip of her horn against, and so many of it had been exactly why those schools of magic were restricted in the first place.

Princess Celestia sighed again, and Night Light saw regret in her eyes as she seemed to be looking in his direction, but not so much at him. "Then you have the gist." Her expression settled into something more neutral, as did her voice. "If our intel is correct, one of her many 'masterpieces' has resurfaced. Apparently it had been in the private collection of a kelpie duke who had no idea what he was holding. A duke who has recently passed on with no heir, with most of his collection going up for auction. There is evidence that the Thunderstrikes are looking to purchase."

He didn't need to be asked what he knew of that name, as it had come up more than once. The Storm Kingdom was not an ally of Equestria, but it was also not its enemy. The nation founded by satyrs and hedgebeasts kept to itself, much like the northern yaks, and cared about Equestria as only as far as trading for a few foods they couldn't easily grow themselves in their tumultuous weather. The Thunderstrikes, however, were warmongers, and as the kingdom was an elective monarchy, they would back whatever noble house they felt would put forth an appropriate candidate for the next king or queen, gathering every edge they possibly could for their much-desired conquest in the mean time.

Unicorns were not the most powerful of magic users. There was an argument to be made for some of the most versatile--at least, there was when taking the group as a whole, while individuals were often quite literal one trick ponies--but not the most powerful. It didn't stop them from pulling off some truly creative atrocities when they applied themselves, and rising beyond a certain clearance meant being aware of all of the terrible possibilities, in order to be able to have a chance of heading off the next one.

Those terrible possibilities had had the Thunderstrikes hunting for unicorn artefacts more than once, but to pursue a Sacanas...

Night Light couldn't help but voice what he was thinking, "Would one of her works even function for them?"

Princess Celestia's neutral countenance was broken by a wince. "Some of them are surprisingly... accessible," spoke the voice of experience. "And even if that turns out to not be the case, the Storm Kingdom does have pony citizens, and the Thunderstrikes are happy to recruit them to the cause."

Night Light felt his ears flatten at that, but he kept his voice level. "So it's go in, purchase the artefact, secure it, and bring it home?" He had so rarely been involved in retrieval, but he'd done so enough to understand the process.

"Yes, but I'm under no illusions that the Thunderstrikes will let a Sacanas artefact slip from their grasp so easily." Princess Celestia looked toward a set of tapestries, and nodded toward the shadows they cast. "So I'm assigning you a partner."

The shadows moved, and the zebra they formed into was mid-step as she walked toward the throne, approaching at an angle that gave him a good look at her mark. Zebra marks were less colourful than ponies', looking much like they'd been drawn in warped stripes, and hers had twisted into a single straight, diagonal line and a curved line beneath it in parallel. A stylized knife. The zebra looked to him, then to the princess, and gave no more than a slight incline of her head for a bow. "It'll be a honour to slap another power source out of their hands, Your Highness."

Princess Celestia smiled slightly. "This is Kisu. She's an Equestrian citizen, but she lived in Farasi for most of her youth. She'll provide your cover, a guide, and extra firepower, should you need it."

"My cover?" he asked.

It wasn't the princess who answered, but Kisu herself, a slight smile coming to her own muzzle as well. "Congratulations, Mr. Light. You're engaged." A single, low chuckle, and she added, "Most ponies in Farasi are those who've married locals. Students and businesscreatures who travel overseas managing to snag a lovesick pony before heading home will still stand out, but nothing that would register as suspicious."

"I see." He turned his attention back to the throne, nodding his approval. "Clever."

"I do have my moments, Lord Light," Celestia noted, with a sound that was almost a giggle.

"Of course, Your Highness, hundreds of years of them." With a chuckle of his own, he then tossed the mirth aside. "Now, tell me more about this artefact..."

He had been on a rare few retrievals before, but this was clearly no ordinary retrieval. It was time to get to business, and he watched shadows of regret fall over Princess Celestia's face as she told him the heartwrenching tale of what she had once heard one of the most brilliantly terrifying unicorns in history call the Alicorn Amulet.

Comments

[Cerulean Blue]

Nice start, and nice callback to the Amulet.

[Jordanis]

Nice stinger. I suspected, but you very deftly and naturally avoided confirming until the last moment.

[redmar]

I immediately thought of the staff when I saw Sacanas. This is not the first story I've read where Sacanas was an extreme unicorn supremacist.