Blackness. Inky blackness which surrounded Zeestone, trying to drag her down deeper into it’s suffocating embrace. She thrashed against the grasping tendrils, desperate to break free before the darkness overtook her. With a gasping breath and hacking coughs, Zeestone’s head breached the surface of the water, her mane plastered against her head, covering her eyes. Her overcoat was gone, thrown off in her desperate attempt to breach the surface of the water, and, almost more importantly, her tricorn hat was gone as well.

Pushing her mane out of her eyes, Zeestone could see the lights of Canterlot in the distance, and from that, she quickly got her bearings. She began swimming west towards the shore outside of Canterlot, dragging herself onto the black sands. She didn’t make it very far before collapsing, rolling over onto her back just as a wave collided with the beach.

She remained there, lying on her back, for a good long while, trying to collect her thoughts on what had happened to her. She remembered being set up by Deep Six and chased down into the cargo hold. She remembered a crate bursting open beside her, then everything going black until now.

Zeestone groaned, lifting her hoof to her head, and recoiling at the cold sensation she felt. On her hoof was a peculiar gauntlet, appearing to be made of crystal, which had the feel of iron, but was as light as paper and gave off a faint blue glow.

“What in Celestia’s name…?” Zeestone whispered to herself, looking over the gauntlet. She lifted her other hoof to it, trying to get it off, but no matter how hard she tried, it wouldn’t budge. She gripped it with her teeth, attempting to wrench it off, but when that didn’t work either, she shifted position, bracing against a nearby rock. She lifted her hind legs to the gauntlet, trying to push the gauntlet off with her full strength rather than just her free hoof.

“Aaaaaaah! By Celestia! Ok, so it’s not coming off.” Zeestone snorted, having stopped just before her leg became dislocated from her shoulder. She stood up, wiping the sand from her body, and looking towards the lights of Canterlot. “With any luck, they won’t be looking for me because they think I’m dead.”

Though in her head she wanted to get moving, her body was in no condition to do so. She could barely stand up and taking the first step sent her face first into the sand. The adrenaline rush from fighting against the cold embrace of the zee had faded, leaving her body aching. Everything she had experienced since being thrown off the side of her ship suddenly became painfully obvious, numerous bruises suddenly making themselves known.

“Come on, get up, get up.” Zeestone muttered through clenched teeth. The zee was not friendly to those it considered weak and a mare lying on her stomach within reach of the tide was going to be an all too tempting morsel for the ravenous deeps. With a pained groan and whatever strength she could muster, Zeestone forced herself back up onto her hooves, biting her lower lip to keep from crying out in pain as her muscles caught fire in protest.

The Hoofget Sound was still in its usual place in the harbor, but was teeming with Deep Six’s cronies. Zeestone, looking down from the walls surrounding the harbor proper, watched as they wrecked her ship, taking everything from within and dumping it all on the top deck. The cook’s supplies, the gunner’s ammunition, Zeestone’s own personal effects. One particular item thrown from her cabin caught her attention, her safe.

“No, no, no, if they break anything in that safe I’ll gut every last one of them.” Zeestone swore under her breath.

There was no way for her to get down to her ship right now, though given she was still sore all over and was on her own, there was no way she could take on all of the goons on her own. She couldn’t get to her safe for now, but, at least for the while, she had a more pressing concern.

“Well, I can at least start looking for somepony who can tell me what this thing is, or at least how I can get it off.” Zeestone sighed, looking down to her hoof. She knew most of the supposed ‘zee experts’ here in Canterlot were shams, so she’d have to poke through the more obscure areas of the Bazaar or leave the city.

The Canterlot Bazaar was one of the strangest places in the city, some saying that it was here before Canterlot itself sank, which of course was just superstition, but it didn’t help the air of eeriness which permeated the great dome of the Bazaar. The main nooks and cells in the Bazaar were held by mostly legitimate businesses, though those weren’t the only services the Bazaar had to offer, provided one looked just beyond the crowds.

“Listen, you have never been wrong before telling me what the stuff I find is, so what can you tell me about this?” Zeestone lifted her gauntleted hoof onto the counter, taking a look back to the curtain separating the cell from the dark alley it was on.

“Zeestone, you usually give me some forewarning before you show up, and where’s Cock Up?” Wreck Diver raised a brow as he took a look at the gauntlet. The look on Zeestone’s face discouraged the veteran salvager from pressing the subject further. “Well, is there any way we can get this off of you?”

“Your guess is as good as mine, Wreck, nothing I did could get the thing to even budge.” Zeestone shook her head, brushing her mane out of her face.

“Hold on, I got some jelly in the back, should do the trick.” Wreck’s horn illuminated as he levitated over a jar full of petroleum jelly and a dull knife. Dipping the knife in the jelly, Wreck pulled out a sizable glob, slathering it all over Zeestone’s leg, right above where the gauntlet ended, trying to get as much of it between the gauntlet and her leg as he could. “Alright, this stuff dislodged a giant scintillack from the inside of a cannon, so getting your hoof out should be easy.”

“I certainly hope so, just try not to take off my hoof, alright?” Zeestone steeled herself for the strain of Wreck attempting to pull off the gauntlet.

“Just tell me when to stop then.” Wreck said as he nodded, taking hold of the gauntlet with both his hooves and his magic, before yanking hard. Just like before, the gauntlet refused to budge, and no matter how hard Wreck pulled, it was Zeestone who felt the most force.

“Aaaaah! Stop! Stop! You’re going to tear my hoof off, Wreck!” Zeestone pulled her hoof away as Wreck let go, shaking it to try and dispel the painful tingles. “Ok, that didn’t work either.”

“I’d be impressed if it didn’t mean I can’t keep it to sell.” Wreck huffed, shaking his head as he put the jar away. “Alright, well, if you’re willing to risk it, I know a Sun-Touched merchant who can get you down to High Carnelian. If anypony will know what that thing is and how to get it off, it’ll be those glowing-eyed boffin types.”

“The Sun-Touched? Are you sure? I’m pretty sure they’re too busy worshipping that machine of theirs.” Zeestone was always skeptical of the Sun-Touched. Last time she visited High Carnelian, they wouldn’t let her off the pier, and they always left her feeling like a part of her was missing.

“I know, it’s not ideal, but unless you’d rather wander the Elder Continent, the Sun-Touched are your best bet on finding out what that thing is.” Wreck confirmed, though it was clear he didn’t think it was the best option either. Compared to the jungles of the Elder Continent though, the fortress port of High Carnelian was preferable.

“Alright, if that’s the best you got, where can I find this merchant of yours?” Zeestone asked. “I assume that they’re not in here with us, right?”

“Nah, she’s down by the docks, probably loading up to head back to High Carnelian. If you leave now you should be able to catch her. Her name’s Fallen Dawn.” Wreck gestured to the door, causing Zeestone to groan.

“You could have told me sooner. Goodbye, Wreck.” Zeestone turned and bolted out of the cell, pausing only to grab a heavy overcoat from one of Wreck’s shelves, donning the heavy, concealing garment as she rushed past the crowds in the Bazaar to make it down to the docks before the Sun-Touched left.

Compared to the ships surrounding it, the Sun-Touched cargo ship was almost offensively bright, the gold hull seeming to glow brightly in the dark waters. Of course, that made it very off putting to Canterloters, who were far too used to the dark environment in which they resided.

What struck Zeestone as odd about this particular Sun-Touched ship, the Golden Shores, was that she wasn’t disturbed by it. The feeling of unease that she always felt when being near the Sun-Touched wasn’t there. It wasn’t comforting, but it at least wasn’t unnerving.

“Dark-lighter! I think you’re at the wrong dock!” One of the Sun-Touched zailors called down to Zeestone, looking over the gunwale down at her.

“Well, that depend!. I’m looking for a mare named Fallen Dawn!” Zeestone shouted back up to the zailor. “I was told she was on this ship!”

“Really now?! Alright, hold on!” The softly glowing zailor moved away from the gunwale, out of Zeestone’s sight. He returned a few moments later, this time with a well dressed mare. She had the same soft glow about her body that the rest of the Sun-Touched possessed, her coat was a rich red color, unlike the muted tones of Canterloters, her mane a series of bouncy orange and yellow streaked curls, and her eyes… They were like all other Sun-Touched eyes, that eerie glowing gold color, one which seemed more like a pair of lanterns were lit behind her eyes instead of the nerves which were behind the eyes of normal ponies.

“I wasn’t expecting any Dark-Lighters to call on me, state your business!” the mare, presumably the merchant, Fallen Dawn, looked down over the gunwale at Zeestone, her expression a mix of irritation and exasperation.

“I’m looking for passage to High Carnelian! Wreck Diver said that you would be able to carry me down there!” Zeestone rolled her eyes, glad for the positions of the two Sun-Touched, as they wouldn’t be able to see her gauntlet from where they were. Most of it was hidden beneath the sleeve of the overcoat she ‘borrowed’ from Wreck, but the bottom of her hoof was still exposed, and the last thing she wanted was to wake up during the voyage to find one of the Sun-Touched trying to saw her leg off.

“Wreck Diver?! That salvager?! Fine, I’ll take you down to High Carnelian, I owe the Dark-Lighter anyway, so this is repaying that debt!” Fallen nodded, then turned to the other Sun-Touched, the zailor. “Go open the boarding hatch, let her aboard.”

“Aye aye, ma’am.” The zailor disappeared from view and within minutes, a door near level with the dock opened with a hiss of steam, a gangplank falling onto the dock beside Zeestone. Just inside was another Sun-Touched zailor, his bored expression alleviating Zeestone’s worries of the gauntlet being noticed just yet.

“Come on, Dark-Lighter, we’re not going to wait long.” The zailor rolled his eyes, lazily gesturing for Zeestone to come aboard.

“You are very, very lucky that none of the crew care enough about Canterloters to actually question about the unusual ‘horseshoe’ beneath that coat of yours, Captain Zeestone.” Fallen scolded the zailor once they were alone in her quarters, except Fallen was no longer a Sun-Touched. She was a Changeling named Silent Whisper, in service to the Admiralty as an agent. Her task was to spy on the defectors who were now the Sun-Touched.

“Well, Deep Six tried to have me killed, presumably for this thing, so yeah, I can imagine the Sun-Touched would want it too . Unfortunately, that means they might know something about what it is, since I can’t exactly say that your own employers will know anything, given that they hire out captains like me to tell them everything.” Zeestone said as she rolled her eyes, shedding her overcoat. The gauntlet shown in the faint light which seemed to come from every exposed surface on the ship. Silent groaned, shaking her head.

“Fine, I can understand why you’re going. When, not if, things go bad, I’ll do my best to have a ship ready for you to get out of the city on. At least that way I can tell Wreck Diver that I kept you alive to the best of my ability. If you die after you leave, then there was nothing I could do.” she said while poking Zeestone’s chest with a chitinous hoof.

“Well thank you for that much, I guess.” Zeestone rolled her eyes, taking Silent’s hoof, and moving it away from her chest. “Now, I’ve had a long, painful day, so I’m going to sleep. Wake me when the galley’s got food set out.”

Zeestone walked past Silent, the exhausted and bruised zailor falling down onto the nearby bed, the one belonging to Silent, falling asleep on the spot.

“This is the last time I help a zee captain.” Silent muttered under her breath, her form changing back to that of Fallen Dawn in a puff of green flame. “Admiralty be damned.”

High Carnelian was originally a coaling station for Canterlot ships on their way to Port Shining, but when the light of the Dawn Machine reached the island, its denizens declared their independence from Canterlot, and since it was most of what was left of the Royal Navy and the Royal Marines who were declaring independence, there was nothing Canterlot could do to stop them.

That was the rumor spread through the Bazaar anyway. While there is a lot of truth to it, given there is a lot of old Royal Navy ships and equipment there, there’s likely a lot more to it than that.

What Zeestone knew for sure about the city, past that it was built on top of a massive crimson gemstone, was that it was the home of the Sun-Touched, and for the most part, Canterloters weren’t allowed past the harbor. Zeestone hoped that her past service in the Royal Navy, back before they were forced to live in this ‘almost-hell’, would allow her to get further into the island, to find somepony who could tell her what the gauntlet was, or how to get it off without removing her whole leg.

“Hold it. No Dark-Lighters allowed past the docks, return to your ship.” A Sun-Touched Marine scowled at Zeestone, pushing her away from the gates of High Carnelian with the butt of his rifle. Zeestone scowled back, before taking a deep breath.

“I am Captain Sapphire Crescent of Her Majesty’s Royal Equestrian Navy, I request permission to speak with the governor of the island.” Zeestone declared in as authoritative voice as she could muster. It had been a long while since she had needed to use a militant tone of voice, so she just hoped that she didn’t come off as out of practice to the Marine. The Sun-Touched soldier’s eyes narrowed, but he relented, moving just out of the way.

“Very well. I will take you to the Governor’s Palace to meet with Admiral Countersunk, Captain Crescent.” The marine took a place beside Zeestone after she walked through the gate into the city proper, leading her along through the clean, cobblestone streets of High Carnelian.

“I must say, it’s been a good long while since I’ve spoken to a, ahem, former captain of the Royal Navy.” Admiral Countersunk waved a shimmering wing at the Marine who brought Zeestone to her, him leaving the two alone.

Countersunk was a soft teal color, possibly having been a deep blue before becoming a Sun-Touched. Her blonde mane was done up in a tight bun, while her tail hung out free from beneath the coattails of her fitted naval peacoat. Her eyes, like every other Sun-Touched, glowed that soft yellow light, an unnatural yellow light too reminiscent of the Sun to be anything other than off putting.

The room the two were in was lavish, clearly modeled after the finer manors of Canterlot before it fell. The floors were a checkerboard pattern of marble and granite, interrupted by woven rugs from Saddle Arabia and the Ottomare Sultanate. Above their heads, a row of golden chandeliers ran straight down the center of the ceiling, running between a grid of corbels. The furniture in the room was remarkably plain in comparison to the rest of the room, being simple carved wood and beige cushions. In fact, the only bit of ornate furnishing was a large fainting couch, placed against the far wall, facing the strangest part of the room.

The exterior facing wall was lined with large, arched windows, looking out over the zee. In the distance, just far enough for Zeestone to be unable to make out clearly, was the source of the light which graced the bodies of the Sun-Touched, the Dawn Machine. Zeestone reflexively looked away from the light, the great machine being almost sickening. Even though the usual unease of being around the Sun-Touched was gone, the sheer unnaturalness of the Dawn Machine was far too great.

Countersunk took notice of Zeestone’s discomfort and while it amused her to watch the Canterloter recoil in fear from the Dawn Machine, she truly wanted to speak with the captain, which she was unable to do so long as Zeestone was fighting against the light. Taking a brief moment, the Admiral flew to the top of the three closest windows, unfurling a trio of large, near opaque curtains, throwing the immediate area around Zeestone into shadow.

“There, now we may discuss issues without the fear of the Machine.” Countersunk mused as she landed, making her way to one of the plain couches, leading Zeestone along with her.

“Yes… Thank you, Admiral.” Zeestone let out a sigh of relief as the light of the machine was blocked, the captain gladly following Countersunk onto the couch. “There are a few things I wanted to discuss with you specifically. Given our shared past in the Royal Navy on the surface, I feel you would be the best option available to me.”

“Well, is that so? Pray tell, what exactly is it that you believe worth invoking any perceived camaraderie?” Countersunk raised a brow, though her eyes widened with surprise and shock as Zeestone rolled up the sleeve of her overcoat, revealing the entirety of the faintly glowing gauntlet.

“That would be this. Through a series of events I myself do not fully understand, I have come to possess this gauntlet. I have no memory of putting it on and no matter how hard I try, I am unable to get it off.” Zeestone explained, giving the gauntlet a tug to emphasize her point.

“What do you remember of the end of the war, Captain?” Countersunk asked, seemingly out of the blue.

“The war? I was fighting zee demons off the coast of Manehatten, why do you ask?” Zeestone lowered her sleeve, now it being her turn to raise a brow.

“That is similar to the armor worn by Elder Ponies towards the end of the war, made of scintillack and bound with the leather of zeebeasts.” Countersunk explained, taking Zeestone’s gauntleted hoof in her own, pulling back the sleeve once again. “But this looks to be of a quality much finer than those of the vanguard of the Elder Ponies. I may be able to have my boffins remove the gauntlet for you and… perhaps compensate you in exchange for keeping this?”

“That’s the whole reason I came down to the city to begin with. It was either hope you could remove or have Deep Six pry it off my corpse.” Zeestone nodded, not entirely trusting Countersunk, but still allowing a hint of relief to bleed into her voice. Countersunk’s expression upon hearing the name ‘Deep Six’ only served to help Zeestone’s mood.

“Deep Six.” The Sun-Touched admiral growled. “That ass kissing gibfaced hedge-creeper. It figures she’d resort to violence to get what she likely has no understanding of.”

“She tried to have the Port Authority arrest me by hiding zee beasties on my ship, probably thinks I’m dead right now.” stated Zeestone nodded, pulling her hoof away as she stood up from the couch. “So, on to getting this thing off of me? It’s caused me enough trouble.”

“Very well. Come, I’ll take you down to the boffins. We’ll get that off as fast as physically possible.” Countersunk assured, getting up herself, and walking past Zeestone out of the room.

“The Admiral was not wrong, this is no surface-made object.” One of the boffins, a Sun-Touched stallion in a tailored suit and a bowler hat, nodded as he examined the gauntlet on Zeestone’s hoof, turning it over.

“Agreed, this is blue scintillack affixed to some kind of beast hide.” Another boffin agreed, tapping the gauntlet with a mallet.

“Good for you then, now can you get it off?” Zeestone rolled her eyes. She wanted to know about the gauntlet, mostly so she’d know what a good price to ask Countersunk for, but that want was second to the desire to get it off of her hoof.

“Hmm, we’ll have to… discuss options for getting it off, but we should be able to. One way or another.” The head boffin muttered darkly, looking back at her as he walked towards an operating room.

“Um, alright. Well, while you discuss, I’m going to look around.” Zeestone tried not to betray her feelings of worry as she nonchalantly made her way out of the examination room.

“Oh no, we’re going to need you to stay right… Guards! After the Dark-Lighter! She’s carrying something valuable to the Great Machine!” The head boffin shouted down the hall, not getting to finish his original sentence before Zeestone took off running down the hall.

Zeestone barreled past a number of Sun-Touched as she made her way down to where she remembered the main entrance was. She didn’t plan on using it, but it was on the ground level, which meant jumping out one of the huge windows was an option. A much faster option than taking the time to open the door.

Bracing herself, Zeestone crashed through the huge ornate window directly to the left of the main door, very nearly tripping on the window frame. She stumbled for a brief moment, before regaining her balance, bolting from the manor at a full gallop. Behind her, a shot rang out, an ornate pot beside her exploding in a shower of topsoil.

At the speed she was going, it didn’t take her long to make it off the property of the manor, vaulting over the stone fence and making it out of sight from the marines who were attempting to shoot her. Even in the relative safety of the city, she was still surrounded by armed Sun-Touched marines and zailors. She had to make it down to the harbor, hoping that Silent Whisper had actually made good on her promise to have a ship waiting to get her off the island.

The replacement for the marine at the entrance to the harbor wasn’t expecting anypony to came at him from behind, especially not somepony whacking him hard against the back of his head with what felt like a heavy steel gauntlet.

He crumpled to the ground in a heap, Zeestone running over his unconscious form as she made her way down into the harbor. She looked around, cursing under her breath as she realized that Silent Whisper never told her just what ship she’d leave for her.

“Captain Crescent, we’ve got to go.”

Zeestone nearly jumped out of her skin as she felt a hoof touch her shoulder from behind, before relaxing ever so slightly when she saw the face of ‘Fallen Dawn’.

“I know, they were shooting at me.” Zeestone nodded, letting ‘Fallen’ lead her to a Canterlot-built frigate, the fast, thankfully dark-hued warship crewed by equally dark colored Canterloters.

“I’ll thank you for blowing my cover later, not that I didn’t expect you to do it.” Silent Whisper snorted as she reverted back to her normal form, pulling Zeestone onto the frigate. She turned towards the bridge, shouting to the helmspony. “We’re aboard! Engines at full power!”

The frigate groaned in protest as its smokestack began billowing smoke, rapidly picking up speed as it pulled away from the harbor. It couldn’t outrun the Sun-Touched ships all the way back to Canterlot, but there was once place where the Sun-Touched refused to go near. Aetheria, the City of Light.

Author's Note

Thanks to Javarod, I finally have this this edited, and big thanks to Silent Whisper, for allowing me to use her character.

I never said what her fate would be.

Farewell for now, my delicious friends