Sadly Sings Destiny

Sadly Sings Destiny
Chapter 5: Majesty
By: Jace Arveduin

Jesse had been laying there for quite some time, looking up at the stars and still occasionally chuckling over Frostfire’s rapid departure, when he became rather startled by a voice coming from behind him.

“What exactly are you, and why are you here?”

He acted on extinct, rolling over and pulling his 1911 out, and when he saw it was a large pony, he lowered it and got to his feet. Oddly, this pony had both a horn and wings, along with having a dark blue coat and an... ethereal looking mane and tail that seemed to mimic the night sky.

“Okay, I’m a human, and I’m not here because I chose to be. I’d also advise not sneaking up on me while I'm armed, I tend to have an itchy trigger finger.”

“Are you threatening me?” Princess Luna asked, her eyes narrowing.

“Nope, just warning you.”

“So why are you up while the others sleep?”

“I’m just looking at the stars, I don’t get to see too many of them back on my world.”

“Why not? Do you not have stars?”

“Oh we have them, it’s just our planet now has so many lights everywhere that it’s basically drowning out our vision of the stars; they call it ‘light-pollution.’”

Luna looked confused, then asked, “So you find my nights lovely?”

“Yeah, I was always more of a nocturnal person when I got the chance. The sun is nice and all, but I prefer the cold over the heat.”

“So you like my night?” She asked, making sure she heard him correctly.

“Eeyup, much nicer than the ones back home, even if the clouds aren’t quite as interesting at times.”

Luna almost looked offended. “Why is that?”

“Well, most of the ones I’ve seen seem to all be... basically uniform, from what I’ve heard, it’s probably due to the pegasi controlling the weather.”

“Then what are the clouds like in your world?”

“That’s always up for debate, they can look like just about anything, since it’s all completely random. Depending on how much imagination you have, you can see everything from faces to objects.”

“Wait, so the weather isn’t controlled in your world?”

“Weren’t you here to tell me to get off your lawn?”

“Why are you changing the subject?”

“You changed the subject, I was trying to get it back on track. Anyway, I never did catch your name, and you can just call me Jesse.”

“I am Princess Luna.”

“Princess eh? You’ll forgive me for not bowing and grovelling at your hooves, won’t you?.”

“If I did not, you wouldn’t be here right now.”

“Really? That’s interesting, so will you send me and my house back now?”

“No, I can’t, since I don’t know where you came from to begin with.”

“Oh well, I’ll figure it out eventually.”

“Though while I may not be able to send you hom, I could turn you into a pony and let you become a citizen of Equestria.”

Jesse could usually come up with something to say, but even the idea of becoming a pony startled him to the point where he couldn’t come up with anything. Luna smiled at him before silently departing into the night. Jesse’s head was still eerily blank when he decided to go to sleep near the campfire.

He awoke later the next morning, and would have awoken later still if his subconscious hadn’t been blaring an alarm to wake him at the smell of food.

“Any chance breakfast is pancakes and bacon, or sausage and biscuits?” He asked while he was trying to force his brain into gear, which was a battle he wasn’t winning quite yet.

“Whats bacon and sausage?” Emerald asked as she finished cooking the oats over the fire.

“Forget I even mentioned them, so how are you all doing?”

“Just fine, thanks, though the smell of those oats are starting to make me hungry,” Steel said as he looked at the pot of oats.

“Oh don’t worry, they’re about done, they just need to cool,’ Emerald replied.

“Awesome! Let me at it! I’ve been starving!” Frostfire said as she started hovering above the ground. Emerald spooned out large servings into four bowls and passed them out. They all ate enthusiastically, not even talking while they ate. After wiping the food out and packing their supplies, they set out towards their new destination through the seemingly endless forest.

“You know, I think I met one of your princesses last night,” Jesse said nonchalantly, and the others almost fell over themselves in surprise.

“You’re pulling my leg again, aren’t you?” Frostfire asked suspiciously while glaring at him.

“Really? What is she like?” Emerald asked with more than a little enthusiasm.

“Sounds like you had an interesting night,” Steel pitched in, deciding that he was a little suspicious.

“Nope, not pulling your leg, as it happens. She was kind of nice, though very sneaky. It could have turned out nastier if I didn’t have ponies under ‘harmless’ in my my internal beastiary. Yeah, she was wondering what I was and why I was here. I told her I was a human and I was looking for a way home. She then asked why I wasn’t asleep, I told her I was enjoying the night and then she went off asking about it and such. You know, you ponies should enjoy her night more, it makes her happy. Anyway, then I told her she was getting off topic and she told me she could make me a pony and flew off.”

“I don’t believe you,” Frostfire replied.

“In that case, have any of you told me what she looks like?” The others thought for a moment before shaking their heads. “In that case she’s a large, dark blue pony with wings and a horn. Her mane is some funny looking swirly-star thing and her cutie mark was a black splotch with a moon inside it.” Frostfire and Steel looked at each other shrugging, while Emerald didn’t seem surprised.

“So what did you talk about?” Emerald asked.

“I basically just gave you the whole conversation in a condensed form, there really wasn’t much more to it than that.”

“Oh fine...” Emerald sighed.

Walking until the sky darkened once again,they passed the time telling stories. Frostfire told a few stories from her time in flight school, Emerald shared a few from her travels on the rare occasion she went, and Steel even threw a story in about one of his first pieces that he had made by himself.

They found a small cave to set up camp this time, and Jesse volunteered to go find firewood. While he was gone, the others started talking.

“How are you feeling Frostfire?” Emerald asked the pegasus.

“I’m fine, why wouldn’t I be?”

“Because you seem to be keeping as much distance between Jesse and yourself as possible,” Steel added.

“Completely unintentional, why would I do that?”

“You tell us. I’m not sure about Steel, but I heard you come back last night, and you seemed spooked.”

“That... That was a simple misunderstanding.” Frostfire replied, trying to keep the memory from popping up and making her blush.

“We’re worried about you Frost, and if he did anything bad, we want to know,” Steel said with a concerned tone.

“Nothing, I just did something stupid, and he found it funny,” Frostfire replied testily.

“If it was nothing you wouldn’t be getting angry, do we need to talk to him about it?” Emerald replied.

“Fine! If you must know, I thought he went to sleep, so I used his stomach as a pillow. He thought this hilarious and started laughing, so I left.” She practically shouted, “Happy now?”

“Thank you, we just don’t want you getting hurt is all,” Emerald said timidly.

“Calm down, we aren’t your enemies,” Steel assured her. Frostfire didn’t seem to care though, as she flew out of the cave before either could react.

“That’s not going to get any better, is it?” Steel asked Emerald, who sighed.

“I don’t think so.”

Jesse arrived some time later with a huge bundle of sticks and started making a fire, when he finished and looked up, he noticed they were one pony short, “Where’d Frostfire run off to?”

“She went on a walk." Emerald replied, pausing a moment before adding, "Hey Jesse, do you think you could tone it down some around her? She’s starting to get frustrated with you.

“I can try, I can’t promise results though,” Jesse responded with a shrug as he started making a pot of soup.

After that, they sat in silence, waiting for the soup to finish. About ten minutes before the it was done, Frostfire walked back into the cavern, but didn’t acknowledge any of them. With a look between them, the other's silently agreed to let her have some space. The food finished and Emerald once again divided it into four bowls, one of which Jesse sat beside Frostfire. After they finished eating they all lay down to go to sleep, the ponies in their sleeping bags and Jesse with his back against the wall. He also had his assault rifle across his lap, just in case.

The sun rose and they packed up and headed out, they weren’t too far from the next ruin. They ate a few apples they had found while they walked. Not long after they reached the third ruin, an abandoned tower on the crest of a hill. They found the front door, and Jesse took point, as was his habit. The inside of the tower was surprisingly well kept, it still had dust and cobwebs, but it was nowhere near the amounts they had expected, nor was it crumbling.

They scoured the tower, with Jesse pointing out old traps and a few old suits of armor. The countless rooms still seemed to have things left inside, and the fact it was empty so far was disturbing.

“Okay, if something arrives, just run. I doubt we could do much to harm it,” Jesse told the others. to which they nodded in agreement.

In one room, an old picture finally fell down when they were in it, scaring the entire group with its crash. Jesse barely managed to grab Emerald's tail to keep her from dashing out of the tower, and the force of the jolt almost dislocated his arm. Letting go and massaging his shoulder, he walked over to the wall and wiped his hand over the wall that was covered by the painting. Feeling the texture, he started grinning like an idiot as he pulled his knife out and scraped the dull edge across the stone behind the picture, just for the ‘stone’ to start peeling off. More scraping revealed a metal chest with a built-in lock.

“Well that looks mysterious, who wants to try and open it?” He asked while still grinning like an idiot.

They tried everything they could think of to open it, but it resisted their efforts. First they tried freezing it then hitting it with a hammer, but it didn’t work like it did on the lock a few days ago. Then Emerald tried to open it with her magic, with no success. Eventually they just tossed it out the nearby window, after struggling to pry it out of the wall. It hit the ground with a heavy thud, and though it warped, it still hadn't opened. Jesse was just about to see if he could shoot the lock, against his better judgement, when he had a better idea.

“Any of you happen to have a bobby pin?”

To his dismay, the others shook their heads. Thinking on it, Steel thought me might have an alternative. Pulling a steel brush from his pack, he yanked a bristle out and held it out.

“Will this work?” Steel asked as he held the bristle in his hoof.

“Probably, I've no idea if this would work even if I bad the bobby pin," Jesse responded as he once again pulled out his knife and took the bristle. It took him about two hours, and several bristles, but he finally heard the click of the lock disengaging and the door opened. Inside was a few old books and a silver ring with a polished piece of obsidian set into it.

“Well, you can have the books Emerald, I’ll keep the ring." He chuckled as a thought hit him. "It’s funny, I don’t usually keep jewelry, but there’s something about this thing that I like...” He said as he put the ring on, and promptly disappeared. The other’s started to panic when he spoke again.

“Well I’ll be damned, a ring of invisibility, this should be fun.” He took the ring off and put it in his pocket for safekeeping, the others sighing in relief as he reappeared.

“You have to promise you won’t you won’t use it to scare us.” Steel told him, to which he shrugged.

“I won’t use it for pranks until we’re back in town, is that good enough for you?”

“I guess it’s the best I’m going to get...”

“If you trick me I’m going to tie you up and leave you!” Frostfire put in, to which Jesse just smirked. “What’s funny about that?”

“Don’t worry, I’ll tell you when you’re older.” Frostfire started to fume, barely subduing her anger and resisting the urge to punch him.

As they started walking, Emerald checked her packs and turned to the others. “I think we need to go back by town, it’s not very far out of the way to our next ruin, and we’re starting to run low on supplies”

“Why not, we could take a break and start out when we’re refreshed.” Jesse added.

“It would be nice to drop back by home,” Frostfire agreed.

“I can check to see if there is anything that needs to be done and catch up with what little work I may have missed, so it sounds like a good idea to me,” Steel said with a nod.

They walked for two days, during which they shared a few stories and even Jesse chipped in with a couple of stories, though he only told the mild ones. They made it to town and said there farewells and went to their respective homes.

Jesse looked around his house when he got there, seeing if any ponies got in and started rummaging through his stuff. A quick inspection outside revealed hoof prints all around the house, though after looking around inside he determined nothing was out of place. He spent the rest of the time before going to bed eating dinner, this time tacos, and playing a few games. It was funny how much he could miss the taste of meat after only a few days with the vegetarian ponies.

Emerald also fixed her dinner when she got home. The main difference for her is that she took a nice relaxing bath afterwards. She then spent an hour or so reading the book they had found, which seemed to be written by a person who claimed to be a wizard of some sort, before falling asleep on her bed. Her dreams weren’t peaceful though, since they were filled with rats and sphinxes.

Steel Crescent went by the diner and picked up a sandwich, sitting in the last rays of the sun before the night fell. After he got up, he checked to see if he had gotten any new orders, and found one for a simple candlestick. With nothing better to do, he decided to start on it, working a few hours before he took a quick shower and went to bed.

Frostfire got back to her house in the sky and started pacing. She punched or stomped the cloud on occasion, trying to get rid of the frustration. She made herself a quick sandwich, hoping some food would help calm her down. After finishing it she realized it really didn’t help, so decided to go flying, hoping to wear herself out and avoid dreams tonight. When she got back, she could barely keep her eyes open, and even ended up flying through the side of her house. Her bed was finally underneath her when she succumbed to sleep, which to her dismay wasn’t dreamless, and was full of shapes and colors and ponies, all in a jumbled mess.