Coco

Something was laughing at her, but she did not know from where. She spun around and around, trying to find it, but saw only empty desolation. Then the cold and dusty plains was shattered by a knock at the cabin door. Coco opened her eyes and blinked, and looked out the porthole: there was an overcast sky for the first time since leaving Manehatten over a month ago.

“Yes?” she asked groggily.

“Miss Pommel, please open the door.” came the voice of Sergeant Grimsly.

Coco rolled out of the hammock and did as told. “What is it?”

Grimsly and two of his marines were waiting outside. “The Captain requires your presence. Come with us, now.” he said. Sable was quiet, it must have been just after dawn.

“Did I do something wrong?” asked Coco, but the rats didn't answer. Her stomach fluttered as she wondered if they had found out about the Horn. And things had gotten so nice...

At the door of the Captain's cabin were two rats she'd never seen before. They were not wearing the white of sailors or marines, but rather slate grey coats which seemed to go over their cuirasses; and instead of hammers and shields, they wielded partisans; an awkward weapon to use on the confines of the ship. Coco didn't have any idea who they might be until she saw the black armbands. Were they from the Army? And if they were, what were they doing on Sable all of a sudden?

Inside was a yet another new rat, plus two more of those soldiers, in addition to Greywacke, Torner, and Barlent. He wore a similar uniform to his soldiers, though without armor, and was just as tall as the Captain, though his brown fur still had far more of a sheen to it. “Hello, Miss Pommel.” greeted the new one, with a slight bow.

“Good morning.” Coco said. “I don't believe we've met, Mister..?” The new rat smiled politely.

“I am Timar of Calimus, or just Timar, if you prefer.”

Timar! That's the one Caballeron keeps mentioning, the one who was on the dig with him! “I'm pleased to meet you, Mister Timar.” How did he get here? Does he know?

“Timar here came aboard early this morning.” Greywacke announced. “He is a highly-ranked member of the Party and has been given full authority here.”

“Indeed.” agreed Barlent, though he did not look happy. “This vessel now answers directly to the Tetrarchy and is no longer operating under the Republic's naval code. As we speak, my marines are working under Mister Timar's orders to find whatever artifact you brought aboard from your cabin.”

For the second time that morning, Coco blinked in confusion. How am I supposed to answer that? How do they know? The panic was rising in her chest, she felt her heart hammer faster and faster, her eyes started to water. What were they going to do to her now? Would they kill her?

“Here it is, sirs.” said a marine, walking in with the Horn. “Just where we thought it would be.”

“Ah, at last, at last!” Timar rubbed his hands together. “I was beginning to fear I wouldn't see this again.”

“They've called it the Horn of the Damned in their conversations.” Torner told them. “Apparently, it doesn't make a sound.” Had the rats been spying on she and Caballeron? They had to have been! Coco sniffed, and pulled herself together. Maybe this entire thing was the result of a long-planned trap, but at least she'd go through it with dignity.

“Yes, we tried to use it after we dug it up. Nothing is blocking the passage, it's just silent.” Timar tapped the horn, and held it up to his eye. “It was something of a mystery to us. Caballeron said he had an idea of how it might work, but he needed to find a certain book first. Isn't that right, Miss Pommel?”

“I wouldn't know.” she spoke, trying to think of the least incriminating thing to say.

“This one knows more than she lets on.” said Timar, turning to the Captain and waving at him with the Horn. “Confine her to her cabin until we reach port. We'll deal with her and the Doctor there.”

“As you command.” said Barlent, snapping his fingers and nodding to Grimsly.

“Back to your cabin, Miss Pommel.” Grimsly sighed. “It won't be long, we'll make landfall this afternoon.”

Very little of note happened between then and the arrival at port. The marines came back and escorted her to the top deck, and onto the dock, where Caballeron already was. Above, the sky was still overcast, and it was far cooler than it had been a few days earlier. It was warm, but not uncomfortable so. But what she noticed most of all was how dry the air was. The little port Sable had put into was a sad excuse for a town; the buildings were dilapidated and many windows had been boarded up. At the next dock, Nutmeg was also being tied up, and beyond the town was nothing but a grey-brown expanse of rocky desert, with high peaks far on the horizon. She didn't see a single tree, nor even a shrub out there. What is this place? Coco wondered. She would have asked Caballeron, but he remained silent even as they stood together, appearing to be deeply concentrated on something. Maybe it was best for her to keep quiet too.

Timar strolled down the gangplank, followed by his soldiers. “Welcome to the Republic of Hivald.” he said, gesturing for them to follow. “You two were no doubt told that you would be sent to a neutral country after your vessel's cargo was taken. However, we need Doctor Caballeron here, and since you aided him in the deception of Sable's crew, we'll be taking you along Miss Pommel.”

Her heart fluttered. “Along to what?” she asked, recalling just what the Horn did.

“A crucial event in the history of my people, dear pony, a crucial event indeed.” Again, Timar rubbed his hands together in eager anticipation.

They were not alone in the streets, Coco noticed. It took her a few moments to realize this town wasn't full of beggars, that the weary, hungry-looking, bedraggled people dressed in old and patched clothes were actually just the ordinary inhabitants. When they saw Caballeron and she, there were looks of fear and confusion. How many of them have ever seen a pony before? Coco asked herself. The youngest rats of the town just looked at them with wonder, though. She was suddenly very conscious of her bright mane and bright coat, compared to the muted greys and browns of this dreary place.

The only other colors in the town were on posters, and there were quite a few of those about. On every blank space of wall, on every post and door, there was some kind of reminder. “If you've done nothing wrong, you've got nothing to fear!” one poster said, showing what Coco thought were members of the police talking to a worker.

Another poster showed a distraught dog of Cania crying out to a zebra, all the while stabbing a rat in the back, which read “The dog cries out in pain as he strikes you, beware!”

A third showed a row of soldiers marching, heads turned to the ghostly images of warriors from the distant past, with the words “As we fought then, so we fight now.”

But it was the next poster that got to her. An exhausted mother looked at bread in a market, while her child remarked “It didn't used to cost this much.” Above them, the King of Cania and a zebra eagerly signed an embargo on the Rattish State presented by the most wicked and cruel Princess Celestia she'd ever seen, who grinned down on the scene below in evil delight. Coco felt a burning anger rise in her as she saw her Princess so slanderously portrayed. “Disgusting...” she said to herself.

The two captives were placed in a mostly-empty warehouse, where more soldiers of what could only be the Black Army were waiting. Most of them were armed with the same partisans she'd seen earlier, though some sharpshooters with crossbows were present. Up on a catwalk, there were two rats standing with a tripod-mounted cannon. Why they needed a cannon inside a building was beyond Coco's imagination.

“Sit.” ordered Timar. They did as told, sitting down on the cool concrete floor. He quickly vanished back outside, leaving the two alone but for the soldiers.

“What went wrong?” she whispered to her friend.

“Timar talked to me earlier.” Caballeron grumbled. “He was the one who sent the commerce raiders up north to find us. He really wanted the Horn back, and now he's got it.”

“Is that bad?”

“We read the same book, Coco,” whispered he, “I think it is.”

“So what will happen now?”

“I don't know.”

That was all they said for the moment. Caballeron was very on edge, staring sternly into space as he thought up... something. That's what he had to be doing! Coco let him be, and tried to figure out the situation for herself. Caballeron and she had wondered if it was the Horn's plan all along to get them on Sable, and if Sable led them to Timar... Did the Horn want to be found by the rat? And if it did, why did it choose this Timar? What was so special about him? All Coco knew about Timar was that he and Caballeron had dug up the Horn together, before Timar tried to steal it.

And now they'd caught her helping him. A part of Coco was angry at this whole mess, another part wanted to cower in fear. It was all she could do to look calm and collected, as a lady ought to. It's what Rarity would do, she thought. If Rarity was here, her friends would show up and come up with a plan to rescue them from these rats. But Coco's only friend here was stuck right next to her; he wasn't an Element of Harmony, he didn't have direct access to the Princess. He was just an archaeologist, and voluntary exile from Equestrian society at that, by his own words. What could they possibly do?

Timar returned, with the heavy iron chest she'd seen Caballeron with weeks ago in tow. He had his soldiers put it right in front of them, and open it. There sat the Horn of the Damned. A soldier placed a stool next to the chest, where Timar sat and looked down on the two.

“I have spent fifteen years hunting for this.” he told them. “Fifteen years! From Great Griffonia's ruins, to the halls of Arthasium, I ventured in my search. Doctor Caballeron here helped me finally locate it down in the Akravid Realm, on the island of Sakutra. It'd been hidden there in some kind of temple, and warriors buried alive with it. Apparently they were supposed to stay in stasis until there was an intruder, but the spells failed. For the best, really.”

Coco could only stare silently. Akravid? Sakutra? Buried warriors?

“You didn't tell her, did you?” laughed Timar.

Caballeron scowled. “It wasn't necessary to frighten her with what we found in there.” he said.

“Since when did the infamous Doctor Caballeron care about one mare's feelings?” wondered Timar. “You're not playing the part Daring Do gave you very well.”

“To hell with Daring Do!” spat Caballeron. “That witch has ruined me, time and again! This Horn was supposed to get me out of this business forever!”

“No wonder you stole it.” Timar said with a wry smile.

“What?” asked Coco, looking between the two.

“I only stole it from you when I found out what you were going to do.” Caballeron stated, ears laying back. “I just turned on you before you could turn on me. And unlike what you planned, I let you live! I see that was a mistake, now.” It really was, Coco found herself agreeing. It felt dirty to wish another living soul was not so living.

“You know,” Timar turned to Coco, “he might be making this up entirely. Or maybe he's telling the straight truth. You have no idea, do you?”

“I believe him.” said Coco, letting her ears go flat too. “You're with the Republic's government, and all I've seen from them are the lies on the posters outside! Why wouldn't you be a liar too?”

“Oh, dear Miss Pommel, blinded by love of your Princess like all the rest.” Timar shook his head. “I'm afraid that's all true. Thanks to your benign leader's embargo, food, fuel, and all goods are scarcer than ever, and what little we do have must go to the war effort.”

“So much for all that talk of victory we've been hearing.” Coco said.

“Just you wait, my little pony, just you wait.” threatened the rat. “By the time we are through here, the Black Army will break this stalemate on all fronts. We will be unstoppable, and rid the world of those who have so long dared to stand above us!”

“When have rats ever stood above anything?” asked Caballeron. “All I see in Hivald is poverty and misery.”

Timar stood up, and turned his back to them. “My people's history is a series of nights and days. Short days, and protracted nights. With your help, I intend to change that.”

“Why would we help you?” Coco questioned, frowning.

“I don't need you, Miss Pommel. I need the Doctor here. He will activate the Horn of the Damned. And if he doesn't... I kill you.” Timar clasped his hands again, and gave her a smug smile. For a moment, a stab of fear struck through Coco. But...

“Very well.” growled Caballeron.

“That's a good pony!” clapped the rat. “Who would have thought you'd finally find a girl, after all these years? I certainly didn't.”

“We're not-” Caballeron started, before Coco cut him off.

“I don't think-”

“Oh, please.” Timar rolled his eyes. “We don't have time for dramatics. You, Doctor, need to tell me everything. Follow me.”

They were pushed to a smaller room in the warehouse, what looked like an office. “You'll have to get that griffon book I had.” Caballeron told them. The rats brought it, after a quarter of an hour.

“So this is it?” Timar asked, tapping the cover. “That saga you went on about was aboard Sable the whole time?”

“They captured it from another ship, apparently.”

“That seems awfully convenient.”

“Yes... Yes, it does, actually.” agreed Caballeron. His eyes turned to her, and narrowed ever so slightly. Does he have an idea? “Give me a day with this book, Timar, and I'll have what you want.”

Coco could only hope whatever his plan was, it had better work.

Author's Note

This is what a partisan's blade part looks like. The next chapter is almost done, and I have a very clear of idea of everything that happens from here on out. Strap in, we're finishing this story this week.