A Moonlit Storm

by SilverNotes

Sun Shines Through

The way out was blocked, Savannah was unsteady on their hooves, and Kisu was trying to hit someone on fire. All in all, not her ideal combat situation.

It wasn't that she didn't know how to kill a kirin. She could probably rattle off several, but all of them involved preparation and the element of surprise, most included some crocotta wards in place, and at least one involved a kelpie on standby. The fact was that heat could do strange things to magic. The higher the temperature, the more likely that cast spells would warp as they drew close to the source, to say nothing of the way enchantments would decay when items they were cast on degraded from heat, or outright burned. Night Light's fireproofing spell was still active, but that only protected her flesh, and remained running due to tapping into her own personal mana. Her knives, while resilient, still found her grip on them wavering as the cave grew hotter and the air itself worked against the telekinesis.

"I knew one of you would come to get your little friend..." Crimson hissed as she lunged hooves-first at Kisu, hooves shod with an unidentified metal that somehow hadn't melted while wreathed in fire. "But I was hoping for your stallion." Kisu rolled out of the way, watching the sparks soar from the Crimson's red-hot shoes skidding over stone and leaving glowing trails. "It's been a long time since I took some burning hooves to a unicorn."

Three of the four knives shot toward the back of Crimson's neck. "Ironic, given that you were racing to get your hooves on a unicorn artefact."

Two overshot, and the third grazed Crimson's shoulder as she whipped around. The gash glowed orange briefly before fading, and Kisu cursed under her breath; a creature of fire could self-cauterize, and there'd be no defeat by blood loss. She had to strike fatally. Crimson advanced as if she'd barely felt the blow, and even with the spell's protection, Kisu felt sweat beading in her coat.

"The enchantress is dead and buried." The burning kirin--no, nirik; she remembered that part of her studies now--spat the word as if it were a curse. "And what's left goes to who's strong enough to use it." She swung around, hind hooves flying, and Kisu had to duck out of the way of the fiery bludgeons. "Is that why you're bedding down with a unicorn, stripes?" Front hooves followed hind, Crimson spinning in a way that briefly blurred her distorted features. "Want to get some kids with horns on their heads so they use real magic?"

Kisu's knives took off from the cave floor and streaked toward Crimson's barrel, seeking to lodge between ribs, but she jumped as they headed for her, leaving more grazing slashes along her underbelly that glowed with flame. Kisu cloaked herself in shadow as Crimson came down where she once was, briefly yanking herself through the immaterial in a crude imitation of a teleport, and she smirked to herself at the look of confusion, one that allowed Savannah to suddenly leap forward with a grin.

"You really talk too much, love," was all they said, before the entire tunnel lit up yellow.

Kisu thanked her shadow cloak for allowing her to not go blind at Savannah's sunlight spell, and the moment the shine started to fade, she charged at the satyrs guarding the doorway, slamming one into the wall, and then took off down the tunnel. She stashed her knives again, then looked back to make sure that Savannah was following her.

"Oh now I'm peeved," Crimson's voice echoed down the tunnel. "I'm done playing with them! Turn them both into paste. We'll hunt down the unicorn instead."

"Keep running, Sav," Kisu ordered, as her knives returned to the physical and three abyssinians who'd tried to block their path were ducking and leaping to avoid being cut. "Just keep running!"

A large specimen of hedgebeast tried to stand in their path next, and Kisu could see Savannah charging another burst of light. She prepared to cloak herself again, only for the hulking goon to suddenly cry out and topple forward, out cold. Kisu skidded to a stop, Savannah right behind her, as a familiar dark form climbed up on the unconscious--not dead, definitely not, as the massive chest was still rising and falling--beast's back, wearing a triumphant grin.

Night Light. Wearing the amulet.

"Looks like you've started the party without me," he said, and Kisu found herself taking a step back. His voice was much deeper now, and his eyes were glowing a fierce red.

"Oh what luck..." Crimson's voice was close, and Kisu could feel the heat at her back. "Seems we won't have to hunt you down. The unicorn and the artefact, all together as a nice present. All that's left is your pet crocotta, really, and we'll have the whole set."

"Oh? It's this you want?" Night nudged the amulet around his neck with a hoof, and Kisu distantly wondered where he'd found that chain to attach it to. "Then let's see if you have the power to take it."

He leaped forward, but the shield spell was ahead of him. The satyrs, still no doubt half-blinded, were batted aside, clubs and all, by a wall of pure telekinesis. As they scrambled to their feet and for their weapons, he laughed, and suddenly they were all screaming as they scrambled away from what were now hissing cobras. Crimson charged for him, but her flaming hooves met sudden cold as he coated the cave floor in ice, ice that rapidly melted and sent her slipping, sliding, and sending up clouds of hot steam.

Night Light sprang up, his horn nearly scraping the ceiling, and Kisu watched him hang in the air--he would explain to her later how difficult self-levitation could be, but even not knowing then what a feat it was, she was as impressed as she was horrified--and with a great burst of blue light, wings emerged from his back, his voice growing all the deeper. "The power of Sacanas is beyond anything you could hope to harness. Bow down now, and I'll be merciful."

Kisu watched goons throwing themselves into bows, and Kisu was broken from her stun as Savannah slammed their shoulder into her, urging her to move. She started to, but she'd barely gotten a few body lengths before the roar of the fireball behind her, and the thump of Night Light hitting the floor.

By the time she'd turned around, he was picking himself up shakily, wings gone. The glow to his eyes had also vanished, and he no longer had the amulet weighing down on his neck. She didn't need to look far to see where it'd went, as Crimson leaned down to seize the edge of the chain in her teeth.

Kisu and Night met eyes, and she heard herself hissing, "What did you just--"

"Trust me, both of you, run!"

"Finally!" Crimson Flame's voice was booming, and while all around were still bowing, the three Equestrian agents took off as if they were being chased by the incarnation of Tartarus itself. "No more listening to Needles, or the Thunderhead, or anyone! I'm the big mare in charge now! Bow to your new Storm Queen!"

The tunnels were a blur. Other lackeys were knocked aside, or too busy racing past them toward Crimson's mad laughter to either notice or care that their hostage was escaping. Kisu thought she spotted Needles, still in his suit, as they swung the last corner, but she didn't stop to check. She was in pure flight mode, no trying to calm her racing heart, legs focused solely on propelling her ever-forward.

The way out was navigated on instinct, no conscious thought of retracing her path, and it was a miracle they found their way out at all instead of running themselves in circles until they dropped. When she took her first gulp of fresh air under the cool night sky, her legs nearly gave out from under her, but she forced herself to keep going, and push the other two along, until the wilds were left behind and they were shaking with spent adrenaline in the shadows of Zebrat's outskirts.

Savannah's breathing was heavy as they were the first to drop to the ground. "Let's not do that again, yeah?" They rolled over onto their back, staring up at Kisu and Night Light. "So... a decoy?" they ventured, and at his nod, asked, "How'd you set it up?"

Night Light lowered himself down with slightly more grace, but only slightly. "Basic visual and tactile illusions on a silver conduit." He then chuckled, his horn lighting as, for just a moment, the wings were back. "Along with some other illusions to sell the part." The light winked out, and he rested his chin in the dirt. "Plus a short-term amplification spell so that whoever stole it would think it was working. A spell that should be wearing off right... about... now."

Despite herself, Kisu let out a breath of a laugh, her legs wobbling even as she refused to let them give out entirely. "Clever."

"I do have my moments." The grin was brief, as if he didn't even have the energy to work those muscles anymore. "Impisi will be on the ship when we get there, courtesy of the Crown's coffers. She'll be working some extra wards to make sure the amulet stays asleep on the journey." His breathing was starting to steady, but he still barely moved his head to look at them as he asked, "Are you two alright?"

"A little bruised," Savannah admitted with a wince. "But they mostly just left me to be bait. They figured you two were the ones with the real information on the artefact."

Kisu snorted. "And she has all the grace of a bear. I might not have been able to make her bleed, but she couldn't kick the broad side of a barn." She moved over to his side with shaking hoofsteps, and finally let herself sink to the ground next to him. "And thank you, for the fireproofing. The potion to do the same isn't easy to make, and I was always better with shadows than brewing."

He barely moved, except to shift a bit to lean against her. "Anytime."

"Careful, I might just hold you to that, Mr. Light."

"I'm looking forward to it, Ms. Kisu." That was when he mustered the strength to lift his head and look directly at her. "But please. My friends call me Night."

It would take Kisu a long time to admit to him that hearing that almost made her cry. In the moment, she simply pretended that the quaver in her softened voice wasn't there. "...Thank you, Night. Sincerely. For coming for us. I should have given you a chance to help in the first place instead of trying to boss you out to the docks."

Night lowered his head again, and gave a small shrug. "Don't worry. It's water under the bridge, Kissy."

Kisu's groan of suffering was nearly drowned out by Savannah's wheezing laughter. And eventually, three friends got up off of the ground to make the trek to join the fourth.

---

"And this is my tenth ever bingo tournament," Night Light announced proudly, tapping the picture of himself sitting at the table with an excited grin. Three tables over were a pair of other unicorn mares, one ancient-looking with a look of fierce competitiveness and one much younger who looked like she was going to die of boredom. "It's where I met your grandma, when she was there with her grandma."

"Gamma?" Flurry Heart asked, peering at the photo with new interest.

"Yup, that's your grandma as a young mare." He chuckled softly. "She was so pretty that I could barely keep an eye on my bingo card. I kept missing calls."

"Pwetty!"

He ruffled Flurry's mane, and with a brief glow, the next set of pictures revealed themselves. A warmth had settled in his heart remembering the day he'd met the mare he would marry, but this set of memories had a different sort of warmth to them that had him beaming.

In the middle of a Trottingham street, on a cold fall evening, was a restaurant with a steak and celery stalk on the sign. A unicorn, a zebra, an abada, and a crocotta stood in front of the doors, posing for the photo, wearing some the widest, proudest smiles any of them ever would. Alongside the photo was a clipped newspaper article, the headline reading "Trottingham's First Omnivorous Restaurant Opens To Eager Appetites" in bold print.

Night Light could feel Cadence's curious gaze again, and he simply smiled. "And this is me with more of my friends from Farasi. After they'd followed me to Equestria." He ran his hoof along the page, smoothing out imaginary wrinkles. "I'll have to take you sometime, to meet the rest of your honourary family."

And much like how life had gone on after that mission, and they'd all moved forward together, Night Light smiled, and turned the page.

Comments

[FanOfMostEverything]

I was happy to see the extra bit of time had yielded an entry. I was even happier to see it was from you. And having read it? I'm happiest of all. Fantastic work in bringing disparate parts of G4 canon and some brilliant original ideas together into a vibrant, cohesive whole, to say nothing of the characters inhabiting it. Thrilling bit of covert (and occasionally overt) ops. Thank you for it and best of luck in the judging.

[new55]

That was a interesting story.

[Cerulean Blue]

Hah! Well done with the misdirection :)

It's a really good story - everything weaves in with everything else, and the worldbuilding is fantastic! :)

[Thought Prism]

After seeing this won the contest, I had to give it a read. And I must say, this was indeed a good little adventure.

[Ghost Mike]

An oddball ghost happened across your fic and read it. Have a review!

[iisaw]

Loved it!

I love seeing well-portrayed, competent (even brilliant) characters in action, and the careful thought that obviously went into the mechanics of the magical shenanigans was all the more appreciated because of its usual scarcity in the works of most other writers.

Looking forward to reading your other works.

[Jordanis]

Very nice. I love unicorn-technicians being clever. For story structure, I have to say I appreciated that Kisu and Night Light stayed focused on the mission as things went wrong. A lot of authors would have been tempted to have them go in to run the rescue together, possibly with some kind of deus ex amulet business, but what you've done makes both of them seem much more sensible and professional.

[PaulAsaran]

You can has review!

[redmar]

The ending was nice and Crimson Flame's ambition is not surprising.

[Loganberry]

Hello! Have a review. I can see how this won Ancestral Tribute. The tone of this reminds me of iisaw's Alicorn Adventures, and since I love those, that's intended as a warm compliment. It's fast, it's exciting, it's often funny, it's packed with world-building. I only wish there was more of it! (If the sequel is ever completed, I'll read it.) A great superior pulp thriller, and one I'm very happy to fave. Deserves a lot more views.