Caballeron

The revelations they'd had last night were disturbing, to say the least. An instrument of the underworld had sat right before them, granting them visions of the past and influencing the present. Coco had been very distraught over the fact she'd been sleeping above this device for the past week and a half.

“What a find.” Caballeron had commented to himself. “If Timar knew what this was, it's no surprise he wanted it so badly...”

His friend didn't seem to care about what he was muttering. “Sleeping won't be easy tonight, not with that thing here.” said Coco, ears drooped.

“All it's done so far is give us dreams.” Caballeron said, waving a hoof. “And as strange as they may be, we have nothing to fear from dreams.”

“Yeah, but remember those two ships to Firthland you wanted to take? Do you think it caused those to break down?” The little mare cautiously pushed the Horn back under her hammock, looking as if it might smite her at any moment. “What if it sinks this ship?”

“If it's brought us here, it brought us here for a reason, Coco. It's not going to sink a ship it's gone out of its way to make me encounter.” He hoped it was enough to assure her, because it didn't assure him. She had a point; if the Horn could effect the world around it, what else could it do?

“Still...” Coco shivered, and looked away. “Do... Do you mind staying here for a bit longer?” she asked. “Not the whole night or anything, just until I fall asleep?”

“I can do that.” he said, nodding. She really is scared... It was the least he could do after getting her into this mess, though. “Sleep well, Coco.”

“Thanks, Caballeron.”

While Coco curled up in her hammock and closed her eyes, Caballeron had thinking to do. He remembered that Timar had told him that King Vortigern had gone beyond the Thither Shore to find the Horn. But going by the actual account of Vortigern, he'd gone east instead of west, to the ruins Great Griffonia instead of the Thither Shore. Was Timar misinformed? That doesn't seem like Timar, though, Caballeron countered himself. Timar was the smartest rat he'd ever met, if one of the most underhooved and sneaky as well. Perhaps he knew the Horn came from the ashes of the easterling griffon civilization, and wanted to throw Caballeron off. But why then would Timar share with him the fact that the Horn's story was found in The Doom in the East?

It just didn't make sense. Another option came to him, something Coco had made him think of. What if the Horn had used its powers to deceive Timar, to throw Timar off its true history and aid him instead? Caballeron didn't know if that option gave him relief or apprehension. The idea that the Horn wanted something from him, or was using him, did not give him much confidence in the future.

Then there was the issue of Coco Pommel. She wasn't even supposed to be here! In all his years of traveling the world, Caballeron had never really been close to anypony, or even anything beyond professionally courteous. His tribe, leftovers of some ancient culture living quietly deep in the Hayseed swamps, spoke a strange dialect that left him with a strange accent; he'd been an outsider to other ponies from the start. Sometimes, he wondered if that was why Daring Do and everypony else at Lithton University had been set against him. Not that it would have mattered, he'd gone off with the “wrong” crowd soon enough.

Coco, he reminded himself. What was going to happen to her? There'd been nasty rumors circulating during the dig in Sakutra, where they found the Horn. He heard whispers of what the Rattish State was really doing behind the front lines, captured soldiers and civilians alike herded into work camps... But those were just dogs and zebras, not ponies. The rats wouldn't use ponies for such nefarious activities, right? Coco would be safe from that.

So he hoped. Caring about what happened to another pony was strange. All his life, he'd been the outsider, with nopony to look after. And now, because of this little mare's insistence on being kind to a stranger, he was landed with this responsibility to keep her safe. Why? he asked himself. Nopony had ever cared about him before, and he'd certainly never cared about anypony in return. Why should he care about this one mare now? It was her fault for being so stubborn about the jacket, he thought, she didn't need to put herself in this situation. And yet...

“Hmmph.” Caballeron snorted to himself. He glanced at the now-sleeping Coco; she didn't look happy, but at least she didn't look scared. His part was done here. With one last glance, Caballeron quietly departed Coco's cabin, and closed the door behind him.

Two years of his life had been spent in the company of the disreputable griffon adventurer Ecgberht Etheling, in search of a lost civilization. Not once had they encountered another Equestrian, and those had been two of the most enjoyable years he lived. For a moment, Caballeron let himself believe he'd make it out of this completely free, one way or another. The idea of parting ways with Coco, of returning to a life of passing contacts, lurking enemies, and silent days of travel far and wide, did not appeal to him as much as it had before. Well, maybe the lurking enemies are still exciting, he thought. But it came down to the simple fact he didn't want to walk out of Miss Coco Pommel's life like he had for every other pony in the world.

While he thought, his hooves had taken him to the stairwell leading to the open air of the deck above. “One of these days.” he said to himself.

“One of these days.” agreed the familiar voice of Lieutenant Torner. “What are you doing out of your cabin so late?”

“I needed some air.” said Caballeron. “I don't like being around many ponies.”

“You seem to get on fine with your friend.”

“She's tolerable... Why are you up so late?”

“I have my reasons.” Torner waved dismissively. “Miss Pommel made an interesting choice of book this morning, I was told.”

“Oh?” Caballeron wasn't sure to feign ignorance or not. Best to play it safe, he decided.

“Some griffon saga, about fire and ice and the living dead. Spooky stories, but stories nonetheless.” The rat rolled his eyes. “Have you ever seen a ghost or a zombie, Doctor?”

“No, not exactly. I've dealt with spirit-creatures, and I know there are some powers in this world beyond our understanding. But I have never seen dead that walk.” he answered. “I certainly hope none are out there.” Coco's bone-monsters came back to his mind. She had dreamed about them before he'd even reached that part of the saga.

“Children's tales, if you ask me. Best to place no credence in the myths of a decadent and corrupt age. Or so the government tells us.” Torner shrugged. “Well, you'd better get back to your cabin, Doctor.”

It was a quiet morning with Coco in the hold. They were running out of sails to patch up. “Are... are you feeling alright, Coco?” he asked.

“I dreamed again,” she finally said, not looking up, “this time about somewhere dusty, dry, and cold. The trees were made of stone, and there were only brown clouds above.” Coco spoke in a small, resigned voice, as if the scene she described was an inevitability.

“Ah...”

“And it's not just a dream,” Coco went on, “they're real. I know that now. There's a place somewhere on Earth without light, without warmth, without any life at all. It's a sad, scary place. I know it's real, because I saw it.” Her ears drooped, and she hung her head lower. “Something horrible is out there, and we don't have the Princess here to keep it away.”

Caballeron let his side of the sail fall away, moved to sit next to the little mare, and said: “Yes, there are horrible, terrible things in this world. We're on our own out here-”

“Thanks, Caballeron.” sighed Coco.

“-but we are Equestrians. We stand fast, and face whatever the outside throws at us. We did it with Discord, we did it with the Griffonlaw, we did it in the Long Winter, we did it with Nightmare Moon's return.” He put a foreleg over her shoulders. “And we did it together.”

That got a smile out of Coco. She glanced up with a bit more hope. “We did, didn't we?”

“With united forces, anything is possible.” So sayeth Celestia, Caballeron added silently. Whatever his personal opinions on the Princess's philosophy for Equestria were, this was not the time. “So, stay with me and we will find a way though.”

“Oh, I certainly will.” agreed Coco, nodding enthusiastically.

There were no further shared readings from the Doom in the East, and Coco's mood quickly improved to her usual cheerful demeanor. He, however, did read more on his own. There were some interesting bits about the forbidden art of blood magic and the activation process of the Horn. There was also a section on the Winter King, whatever he really was; it was obvious the griffons hadn't known what to make of the demonic lord. He tried not to let it bother him too much, this saga had been written well over a thousand years ago. Who knew how much things had changed since then?

The next week went by uneventfully, except for a brief stop at the first land they'd seen in the southern hemisphere. Caballeron reckoned they were still well out at sea, avoiding the war zone closer to the shore, which may have been why this voyage was taking so long. Grimsly informed them that the tropical island they were anchored off of was a remote supply dump; they'd take on water and some food but nothing else.

The day came when they were finished fixing every sail kept on the windjammer. “Just in time,” Sergeant Grimsly told them one morning, “our forty-fifth anniversary of the Revolution is just in two more days! You'll be free to join the celebrations.”

“Why would we want to celebrate?” Coco asked. “We're your prisoners.”

“I think we've treated you very well, Miss Pommel!” the rat stated.

“And why would we cheer the overthrow of the rightful king?” added Captain Billet. It seemed he'd taken the time to learn a bit more about Hivald's history.

“Because the oppression was ended, silly pony. We kicked out the evil nobility and replaced them with the ever-benign Party officials.” Grimsly laughed heartily.

“Party officials? Who puts party-planners in charge of anything but parties?” Coco questioned again.

“He means the National Collectivist Party, Coco.” Caballeron said. “It's a political organization, they run the Republic.”

“Yeah, they do.” agreed Grimsly. “All other political parties are outlawed in the interests of securing our democracy and freedom from subversive influences.” The rat wagged a finger like a schoolteacher, before walking off to attend to his other duties.

“Hivald does not sound like a nice place.” Coco said quietly.

“That very much depends on who you are in Hivald.” Caballeron told her.

With no more work to do, the two were allowed to spend time on deck above. They were very glad to get more than a few minutes of fresh air for once, even with the increasingly dry heat. “I can't believe I thought it'd be nice to go on vacation to somewhere warm with my winter coat.” Coco complained, as she huddled in a patch of shade cast by the towering masts and sails.

“Such is life as an Equestria. Cold in the winter, but the rest of the world is too warm. Hot in the summer, but the rest of the world is too cold!” Caballeron smirked. “Of course, it only takes a few months to get used to uncontrolled weather. It is not so bad.”

“I'd differ on that...”

There was a bit of excitement in the afternoon when Sable passed a three-funnel cruiser some distance off. Caballeron couldn't make out the flag beyond a tiny patch of black, but he assumed the burning tree of Hivald was on it. The fact that they received a light-code signal instead of shells proved his guess.

“Can you read what they're saying?” asked Coco.

“It's nothing interesting.” he said. “They're just telling us who they are, where they're going, and where they came from. Common courtesy.” Down near the helm, a rat sailor blinked a similar message out on a spotlight. However, the exchanged continued on past the usual niceties.

“Now what are they doing?”

“It seems they had instructions to give us, a rendezvous location.” A chill passed over him, as he wondered what they were going to be meeting. A prison ship? Slimy-looking intelligence officers, like that Greywacke? Or something more sinister..? Perhaps it was best he didn't know.

“Where?”

“We don't know.” was all Caballeron said on that.

Finally, the long-waited anniversary of the Revolution came. Unlike Equestrian holidays, the rats didn't put up many decorations. All the noticable preparation they did was moving the four portraits of the Tetrarchs out onto the deck for all to see. Also present at the impromptu gallery were the portraits of a few other rats. They learned from Torner that the old-looking one was Sigillum, the progenitor of the collectivist ideology a century prior. The other was Kelstath, the rat who led the Revolution just a few decades ago, and merged collectivism with nationalism. It was his infamous Black Army that overthrew the king, before bringing the National Collectivist revolution to other parts of Hivald that had seceded during the chaos.

“But what if they didn't want to be collectivists?” Coco asked the lieutenant.

“We were taught that some of us had been brainwashed into serving our former masters willingly.” Torner told her.

“Are you sure it wasn't you getting brainwashed?”

Caballeron laughed at that, and Torner scowled. “Careful with your attitude, Miss Pommel, there are some around here who can't take a joke.”

Political Officer Greywacke was out and about on the ship today as well, something neither pony had noticed before. He kept quiet, but was always lurking around and listening in on what the crew was talking about.

“My brother is on the northern front,” one sailor said to an off-duty marine, “he wrote saying that we can hold indefinitely with our current defenses.”

“Cania is a weak country of weak creatures.” the marine spoke. “Nothing can get through the Wirtwigg Line, not dogs nor zebras nor Aravian sand-mongers.”

“I heard food rations were cut again at home, though.” a second sailor piped up.

“And that we're running out of fuel-” another added, before the first sailor interrupted.

“That's seditious talk, no more of that.” he stated sternly, glancing around. When it was apparent the political officer was not nearby, the sailor dropped his voice. “Times are tough at home, but we will persevere. These setbacks are only temporary, my brother assures me.”

Coco and Caballeron looked at each other. There was a lot the rats weren't saying, but they all understood anyway.

“I can't imagine what food rationing would be like.” said Coco quietly, when they were out of earshot.

“I've never stayed in Hivald long enough to find out.” Caballeron answered.

“We'll find out together then, I guess.”

“I suppose so.” When she put it like that, the whole situation didn't seem as bad as it was.

That evening, festivities began with Captain Barlent making a short speech from the wheelhouse. “Forty-five years ago today, Kelstath and his fellow revolutionaries stormed the Greenrock fortress and seized the national armory. That day, the Revolution began, and the Black Army was formed. Within a year, our forefathers had executed the royal family, exiled what nobility did not join the common people, and founded a new government based on the enlightened ideology of National Collectivism. No longer would Hivald be a backwards land of serfs brutalized by its own lords! The true Rattish State rose from the ruins, a free democracy for the people and by the people! Kelstath did not live to see the fruition of his dream, but even now, his Black Army of the Revolution strikes at the corrupt and diabolical regimes of those who would see the destruction of our race and home!”

A great cheer rose from the rat crowd, hammers and hats and helmets were waved, and the banner with the burning tree was hoisted enthusiastically. The ponies watched with worry. “They murdered their own king...” muttered Captain Billet, sneering at the rats. “How base, how vile.”

“What did you expect from rats?” whispered Quartermaster Forestay.

Caballeron silenced them when Greywacke's silent gaze fell upon the prisoners.

“To commemorate this momentous event in our history, I give you this night to celebrate your freedom. Now go and rejoice that you were fortunate enough to be born a rat of Hivald, and take place in the great deeds of this age. Hail Hivald!” Barlent's speech was finished. If Caballeron didn't know better, he would guess it had been written by the political officer. From their interactions so far, Barlent did not seem so patriotic.

“Well.” Coco commented, looking disturbed. “I hope we never hear anything like that in Equestria.”

“Let's hope so.” agreed Billet. “What's that tree on fire mean anyway?”

Caballeron knew the answer, he'd learned it from Timar. “For two thousand years, the rats carried seeds of a certain tree with them from their ancient homeland, planting them where they went. They planted the last one in Hivald, it was the symbol of the new state. It burned in the Revolution.”

“And they made it their flag?” Forestay was incredulous.

“It's like they're trying to be villainous.” Billet scoffed.

“They are not a sentimental people.” said Caballeron, thinking back to what Torner had told Coco and he in the shrine the other week. When he had said that they were on their own on this Earth, Torner had replied that most rats felt the same way. What use was an old tree in a world set against them?

Regardless, he wasn't entirely right about the rats. They did enjoy their music, and were quick to break out lutes, flutes, and more to accompany drink and song. First, they went through the sweeping and uplifting tune that was their anthem, Risen From the Ruins. Even the ponies were impressed by it.

But most of the Rattish music was just as homely and down-to-earth as the kind Caballeron had grown up with. It's in a different key entirely, I wonder where they picked that up? Not that it made much difference. Most of the songs they heard that night were about putting a light spin on the dark events of their history. One of the memorable ones was about an old fellow rushing about to find his comically deceitful chickens, as the Smoking Isle erupted into rivers of molten rock and ash, spurring the Fourth Exodus. Even ponies would be hard pressed to find a time for jokes in that.

“Your songs sound like they were made by a bunch of jokers.” Forestay remarked at once point.

“We do the best we can with what we've got.” Torner explained. “Can't be grim all the time, can we?”

“I say we can!” Sergeant Grimsly piped up from elsewhere, despite playing a cheery jig on an accordion.

Billet and the other ponies eventually went back below deck, as did quite a few rats, but Caballeron and Coco stayed moved to the stern deck and watched the last of twilight fade away as they talked. “You know,” Coco said as the first stars emerged out of the coming night, “I could write a book about this adventure.”

“Don't even think about going to A.K. Yearling with this debacle. I don't want to know how she'd twist it.”

“The evil Doctor Caballeron kidnaps an innocent and unassuming mare from her tropical island retreat!” Coco smiled deviously, and went on. “His vile plan is to use her as a bargaining chip for whatever dastardly partners in crime he has waiting for him, in the dark land of Hivald. Can Daring Do save a helpless victim from the Doctor's wicked clutches?”

“You make it sound like you're enjoying this.” said Caballeron, raising an eyebrow. Coco only blushed and giggled. “Are you sure you're the victim here?”

“Even I can't deny this adventure hasn't had its good moments.” she stated, still smiling.

“Hmm.” He couldn't stop from smiling either. “I suppose you have a point. This would have been a dreadful time without you to balance out everything else.”

That got Coco to look very pleased with herself. “I'm glad you care about me.”

She's a bold one, Caballeron thought, trying not to let his surprise show too much. This little mare had more spirit than she knew, most likely.

The night grew darker, the revelry from the rats died down, and the countless stars unfolded above the sails of Sable. It was an entirely new set of constellations from the ones up north. This side of the world looked out over a different part of the universe.

“Wow...” gasped Coco. “I've... I've never seen these stars before. It's like I'm... on an alien planet. I never once thought I'd ever be so far from home. I never wanted to be so far, really.” She stared up and up, taking in all the new beauty of a world unknown to her. “This doesn't make up for any of it... but it sure comes close.” Something soft suddenly pressed against him; Coco leaned her head on his shoulder, still looking up at her alien sky.

“It really is something.” Caballeron said said faintly. A warm feeling stirred in his chest, one he rather liked. There's no going back now. Etheling the griffon had told him that once you opened your heart up, it was mighty hard to close again. There'd be no deal-cutting, betrayals, or opportunistic flights this time. He'd gotten Coco into this mess, and now he was going to get her out. Somehow. But for now, they enjoyed the peaceful quiet of the night.

Author's Note

The rattish anthem is definitely just the DDR's.

As the chapter name implies, things are gonna get crazy soon. Hopefully I can update by the end of coming week, we're only four or five chapters from the end.