Soldier of Fortune

Where the night sky was silent and tranquil in Gryphonus, a bright, sparkling, and breathtaking night sky lay above a sleeping Equestria landscape.

Luna, it would seem, had yet again outdone herself.

The Princess of the Night stood atop her tower, watching Canterlot as it slumbered and admiring her own work. It was un-princess-like to feel such pride in her own achievements, but she couldn’t suppress those feelings as she once again stared out into the amazing sky, a night sky that she created, and was grateful for.

In fact, Princess Luna slumped a bit when she began to hear ponies stir below; it would almost be time for her reign on the darkness to end.

And so, it was with a slight twinge of annoyance that she watched her magnificent Elder sister perform that morning ritual with which they were both so familiar, and yet was so unnecessary. She really could just raise or lower the sun by throwing a sideways glance at it if she so desired.

But then as the sun rose she felt a smile upon her face. Her night may be beautiful, her sister’s day was bright and warm, to say the least.

“My Princess, I have a message for you.”

Luna’s thoughts were interrupted by one of her Night Guards and she was forced turn from her view of the breaking dawn and to face the speaker.

It was indeed one of her guards, but this one she knew personally: Commander-Scientist Tranquility of the Sea was his full title, but “Tranquility” worked just fine too.

Celestia, Luna thought no without another slight twinge of annoyance, knew every single one of her guards, their name, their rank, everything.

Luna would most certainly do that, but she had far too many Guards to do that. Truth be told, she felt kind of bad, seeing as she had virtually no uses for almost all of them.

But she once again moved her thoughts and forced herself to pay attention to one of her favorite guards.

“Yes?”

“As you know, I have been stationed at Outpost Alpha-33 in northeastern Equestria, i.e., ‘The Unicorn Range,’ for the past two weeks or so.”

Yes, Luna thought dejectedly, I do know that.

“And recently, something interesting has happened.”

Luna’s attention peaked. Something actually happened at that desolate and horridly boring place?

“Oh? What is it, Tranquility?”

“I, with my comrades Private Bright Light and Sergeant Golden Fields, have just recently witnessed the falling-to-earth of some sort of space object.”

Luna furrowed her brown in curiosity.

“Really? What was it?”

“I do not know, not yet, but I am almost certain that it was no meteor,” Tranquility explained, “my mathematics make sure of that.”

Luna trusted her guard’s logic, and nodded.

“Well,” she said, “you have my thanks for bringing me this message, Tranquility, and I give you these orders: keep watch on the area, and, if Celestia is to send any of her guards to the Gryphon territory, accompany then.”

The Commander-Scientist bowed deeply and said, “They will be done,” then launched himself in the air.

Luna watched the bat-stallion go and decided to herself that it would be best if Princess Celestia, her Elder Sister were to know of this.

It did not take long for Luna to locate her Sister on her way to breakfast, so she stopped her and took her aside, transferring the odd news.

Celestia was as befuddled as Luna was, but nodded,

“I believe it best to send this information to Twilight, and ask her to do some research on the matter.”

And thus it was made so.

The weird bird-things didn’t take Casey to a dark and dank dungeon deep beneath a dark castle, as she half expected them. Yes, she did go to a dungeon, and it wasn’t ultra-pleasant, but rather than dark, moldy, and filled with rats, it was actually pretty clean, and cozy, and rather than deep beneath a dark castle, it was a single cell atop a high tower overlooking a magnificent city.

After she had been taken, she had been stripped of her armor, a bag had been placed over her head and she had been bound, so she hadn’t been able to see how she had arrived where she was now. Despite her blindness, she didn’t think any of the civilians had seen her; it was still night when she had been captured, and day was only breaking just now.

The view, especially from her high spot, was breathtaking. The entire city circled about the palace, in a perfect roundness, and no two buildings were the same. Granted, some of those buildings were a bit shabby, but that had little effect on the overall beauty.

The nice view was surprising, but what had surprised her most was the fact that her captors spoke the same language as she.

She supposed that she really shouldn’t be surprised about such things; it was her job to find and either capture or kill things that were considered scientifically impossible, but she couldn’t help it. She was on a different planet after all . . .

The door to the cozy-but-dark room swung open and two guards – also bird-thingies – entered and gave her odd, suspicious, and somewhat dirty looks.

Neither said a word to her, instead traveling over to the small, round table on the other side of the room and promptly sat down and began to speak in what they must have thought were hushed whispers.

“What do you think it is?”

“I have no idea . . . you think it’s a she or a he?”

Casey cleared her throat and piped up, “’It,” is a she, and she also has a name, by which she would prefer to be called.”

The guards, for all of their armor, sharp talons and beaks, and eagle/lion-like bodies, were astonished and looked rather amusing.

“It, er, you can understand us?” the one on the right said.

Casey went over to the corner of her cell, grabbed the old kitchen chair that lay there, and brought it over nearer to the cell door, turning it over and sitting like that; with her arms across the back and her chin upon her arms.

She fluttered her eyelashes – which she surprisingly still had – playfully and said in a tone one might use with a young toddler, “Yes, I can, little one; and remember to color within the lines with tomorrow’s homework, okay?”

The guards’ expressions turned from surprised to irritate and the left-placer said: “I think that it is best you remember which side of the bars you’re on, little creature.”

“Little?” Casey scoffed with mock-indigence, “I’m as tall as you are, and a whole lot musclier.”

The two guards exchanged glances and, probably having decided she was right, decided to ignore her.

As the bird-brains spoke in real hushed tones this time, Casey became bored and turned around; sitting in the chair the way it was originally intended.

She found her hands tracing their way up to her head and feeling the prickly stubs where most women would have grown their hair out.

Damn, she thought to herself, I’m gonna need to buzz this again soon. She glanced around the room, and then slumped forward. Probably not going to happen . . .

After a few more moments of hushed silence from the other guards and the growing hubbub drifting through Casey’s open window from below, the woman was called to attention by one of the guards.

“Hey! Little ape!”

Casey raised her eyebrow and switched positions on her chair, keeping her smug and somewhat condescending look as she did so.

Leftie opened his mouth – beak – to speak but before he was able to do so the door to the tower room swung open and bashed the wall, startling the guards.

Casey only looked over and saw yet another guard standing in the doorway, glaring at her.

“Geez, bird-brains, ya think you could be any louder?”

If her words angered the new guard, he showed no signs of it. He instead turned his heads to the guards who had suddenly found the surface of their little table extremely interesting.

“You, Stubby, Talon, who has the keys to the cell?”

Righty withdrew the noisy ring from his belt and held it in the air. The newcomer strode over, snatched the keys and promptly unlocked Casey’s cell door.

“Come with me, invader; Lord Typhoon wishes an audience of you.”