Charon

Icarus

Strahlen flew through the void on wings of stardust, anywhere and everywhere his to explore. Specks of light were scattered about in all directions, glittering in the dark. Majestic clouds of gases formed multicolored nebulae, stretching millions of miles across space. A ball of light appeared before the stallion, unrivaled by any other. It spoke to him of all the wonders of time and space before going dark. The light returned, a dim red glow, and it looked inside his soul.

“I see you, colt. Colt! Colt, get up, we haven’t got all day!” The young earth pony bolted to a sitting position, blinking in the sudden light. The blurry outline of a face gradually resolved itself in front of him. It didn’t look very pleased. “Have a nice nap?”

Strahlen sleepily shoved away the hoof that was shaking his shoulder. “Could’ve been longer...”

The stallion that had woken him, a typical gruff-looking guard, rolled his eyes. “Better get used to it,” he responded unsympathetically, “You’ll be spending quite a few nights working overtime.”

“‘Overtime’? I don’t even get paid ‘time’.”

The guard wrapped a foreleg around Strahlen’s shoulders and gave him a mocking smile. “Now you’re getting it.” He then proceeded to shove him forward, knocking him onto his face.

Did I say volunteered? My bad.

Strahlen didn’t have any earthly clue how he managed to get himself into half the situations he did, but he most definitely did manage. The young grey earth pony blearily squinted at the scene before him, still not quite awake, and a single thought ran through his head. ‘What’s going on again?’ He brushed a strand of dark blue mane out of his eyes before giving them a good rub.

“Conscript! Are you even listening!?”

Strahlen jerked to attention. “Yes, sir! Just tired, sir!”

He was currently sitting in a half-circle with a number of other ponies in a small courtyard surrounded by various bushes and trees, being addressed by their new commanding officer. “What the buck happened to your face!?” Yeah, that guy.

“I—” He glanced at the guard who had woken him. “I... tripped, sir.”

“Well next time, why don’t you trip your flank into the ship’s flasher and save us all the trouble! Keep in mind — and this applies to all of you — that this is a suicide mission! All of you are here because nopony’s even going to notice you’re gone!”

A new voice cut off anything else he might’ve been intending to say. “That’s not entirely true, general.”

The general stiffened, then slowly turned around to see one Princess Twilight Sparkle standing behind him, accompanied by numerous other guards clad in black composite body armor, all of whom somehow got there without using the entrance on the other side of the courtyard entirely. “Your Majesty,” he squeaked out.

“A request for this many prisoner transfers, all from within Winsome County Prison is, in fact, actually fairly noticeable. Not to mention being the sort of thing that requires the approval of the crown.”

“But... the transfers went through!”

“I admit it, I was curious. I approved the transfers, and then personally oversaw their transportation. Imagine my surprise when I found out what was going on.” The princess’ innocent tone contrasted her intelligent gaze, which swept across the courtyard they were currently occupying before finally returning to the general. She sighed.

“You... disapprove?”

The princess raised an eyebrow. “Disapprove? ‘Disapprove’ doesn’t even begin to cover it.” That innocent tone was gone. “What you’re doing here is highly illegal, and you are most likely going to be facing quite a hefty sentence.” She paused a moment before carefully continuing, “That said... you have thus far managed to accomplish something that we ourselves were unable to gather funding for. Therefore, I am now taking over this operation, and I present your ‘conscripts’” — she spat the word — “a choice.”

Now facing the entire group, she continued, “From what I have heard, this mission holds a very small chance of returning you safely. Should you choose to partake despite this, I may be willing to consider your current sentences completed. This includes you, ‘general’. If any of you wish to continue, my captain is waiting at the entrance. Otherwise, you may wait here until secure transport is procured to return you to Winsome County.”

“What kind of sentence might I be avoiding, exactly?” Asked the former general.

“You enjoy gambling, correct?” The princess then gave an uncharacteristically ominous chuckle before walking away. She passed Strahlen midway to the entrance and paused. “You look just like your grandfather.”

That’s when the whispering started.

“Next!” Strahlen stepped forward, finding himself before Princess Sparkle’s captain, who was sitting at a small collapsible desk. The stallion didn’t immediately look up, instead focusing on the small stack of paperwork before him. When he did finally acknowledge Strahlen’s presence, his response was less than expected. “Oh Sparkle, it just had to be you, didn’t it?”

Strahlen cocked his head to one side, uncertain how to answer that. “Sorry?”

The captain just shook his head and sighed. “Alright, let’s just see how far we get before I have an aneurism or something.” He shuffled through the stack of papers before him until he arrived at one particular sheet with an image of a white octagram on a black circle — one that matched the image on Strahlen’s flank. The captain raised an eyebrow. Numbers and stars always had special meanings in Equestrian culture for as long as anypony could remember, and because of that, and octagram could mean either an extreme talent for magic, or a penchant for chaos. Given the fact that Strahlen was an earth pony, the captain decided to guess the latter.

“Something wrong?”

Another sigh. “No... nothing at all...” The captain seemed to sink further into his chair as he said those words before suddenly straightening up again. “So. Straylen is it?”

“Strahlen, actually. You see, my dad used to live in the Altaran Union, and he—”

“Did I ask for your life’s story?”

“Straylen is fine.”

“Great. So it says here that you’ve only got a few more months left to serve. Maybe you should consider just waiting it out? I mean, there’s a pretty good chance you’re just gonna end up dead if you go through with this, so...”

For some unknown reason, this made Strahlen very angry. “So what? Even once I get out, what am I going to do?” he asked indignantly. “I have nothing and no one, and that probably isn’t going to suddenly change itself just because I’m not in jail!” he continued, his voice getting progressively louder as he spoke. He took a few deep breaths to calm himself down before he noticed that the other two nearby guards had their horns lit with prepped shock spells. “Uh...” He also noticed that at some point his front legs had made their way on top of the desk, a fact that he quickly remedied. “Sorry.”

The captain quickly waved a hoof at the two guards, signaling them to stand down. “Keep in mind that I didn’t have time to read all of this, so you might’ve had family waiting for you for all I knew. I apologize for my oversight.”

“No, that was my fault. Sorry again.”

A moment passed before the captain began again. “I’m going to be honest with you. Her Majesty has given me direct orders to convince you specifically not to go on this little adventure.”

Strahlen blinked. “What?”

“Yeah. ‘What’. Exactly. But orders are orders. Now, it’s not within my jurisdiction to force you not to go, but... Well think about it; the princess obviously has some plans for you. This could be your big break, kid.”

Strahlen’s brow furrowed. “I don’t like plans. Sign me up.”

“I would very much like to go home after what I’ve had to deal with today, so I’m not going to keep arguing.” He stamped an ‘approved’ seal on the paper. “Congratulations, you just got yourself killed.”