The Phoenix and the Dark Prince

In an effort to shake off the nerves and fear Sunset was experiencing from the attempted attack earlier, her friends suggested they all go to a bar, specifically the one they referred to as the best bar in town. Skipting agreed to accompany them, as he felt he could use a drink as well.

The Drunken Sailor, named as such by its owner, Martin Ivan “Martini Shake” Shakesworth, was a quaint little joint in the west end of town. People came to the bar for various reasons, whether it was to drown their sorrows and troubles in a bottle or so of alcohol, meet with friends and colleagues, celebrate special occasions like birthdays or celebrations of life for lost friends and loved ones, or just to sit down at the bar and talk with one of the staff, including Martin.

Whatever their reason, The Drunken Sailor was a safe haven for people from all walks of life, where they could have a drink or chat and have a good time.

Skipting had not been to many bars, preferring to train, talk with his parents, or fulfill contracts, but he had been to a fair few, mainly sticking to the bar in the southern end of Canterlot, where he found a great deal of amusement from its patrons, and often got into fights, most of which he won.

Even almost half a century after it happened, Hvíslandi, up until his untimely death, still made sure to occasionally bring up his fight with—and subsequent loss to—High Lord Súilleabhán.

How in Akh’Kael’s name did I honestly believe I could win in a fight against the Dark Eye? The man’s undead, for Sanarath’s sake! Not to mention the fact that he’s the Abyss-damned son of Dorchadas!

To enter a bar such as the one he found himself in now was a welcome experience. He could already tell just from the atmosphere and the friendly appearances and behavior of the patrons that he was going to like coming here.

At some point, he would have to make sure to take his parents or lovers to the Drunken Sailor back home for a drink. He had friends and associates who were familiar with the layouts of their hometowns, and could thus help him find the establishment, although he figured either Lieutenant Razor Quills or Sheivkael would be the best people to ask.

"Well, if it isn't Sunset Shimmer!"

Skipting looked at the girls and saw that Martin was greeting them with great joy.

"How are you, Sunset? Have things been going any better for you?" Martin asked.

Sunset smiled and nodded, proceeding to inform him of what had occurred earlier.

"I see. Well, it's good to hear that you're safe and doing alright," he said.

He turned to Skipting, a wide smile forming on his lips.

"And as for you, Your Highness, for protecting my favorite employee and her friends, that desires a special reward."

He turned to face the other patrons in the bar.

"Can I have everyone's attention, please?!" he said loudly.

The patrons looked at him.

"As you all know, I take pride in making sure that every single one of my employees and patrons are safe! And Miss Sunset Shimmer, who has worked well and hard to help all of us for the past three years, is one of my favorite and most respected employees!" he began.

He stepped aside and gestured for Skipting to step forward. He obliged, and all eyes fell on him.

"Ladies and gentlemen, it is my greatest pleasure to present to you Prince Skipting Lunam of the Kingdom of Equestria! This man was asked by his mother, the ruler of his country, to come to our little town to protect Sunset and help uncover the identity of Anon-A-Miss, who you all know is the online account responsible for many students at Canterlot High School to become hostile towards her! And for that, I would like to announce that tonight and all week, all drinks are on the house!"

Everyone applauded and cheered, and as Skipting and his newfound friends went to find a table, several patrons came up to him to thank him for his service to Sunset. He modestly accepted the displays of gratitude, responding with kindness and humble formality.

He went to sit on one of the stools at the bar, where three other patrons sat, two men and a woman. He ordered a glass of Scotch whiskey, draining the glass in seconds before having more glasses.

He was on his sixth bottle when he felt movement to his left.

"Well hey there," a sultry female voice greeted.

He looked to his left, and saw a woman who appeared to be in her late twenties sitting on the stool next to him. She had short navy blue hair with gold streaks. Her gold and blue eyes held a sense of lust within them, combined with authority, intelligence, and warmth. They reminded him of Mother Chrysalis’ eyes.

"Good evening," he said, taking another shot.

The woman's eyes glanced at the empty bottles. They widened considerably when she saw that he was already three quarters of the way through his sixth.

"How are you not stone-cold drunk or unconscious, or at least so drunk you can't see or walk straight?"

He merely downed another shot, grabbed the bottle, looked at her, and downed the last quarter of the whiskey, before setting it down with the other bottles and wiping his mouth with a hand.

"Because, Miss,” he said, “in part due to my parentage and bloodline, I have managed to strengthen my system to the point where normal alcohol essentially has no effect on me.”

"What is your name?" he asked.

"How about you tell me yours first as a formality, then I'll tell you mine? I'd prefer to be introduced to the man who is protecting Sunset formally, rather than just referring to you by name before we've even properly met," she said.

He chuckled a little.

"A woman with formality like my own. Very well then. I am Prince Skipting Lunam," he said.

"Golden Striker. Commander in Canterlot’s S.W.A.T unit. Former Marine, and former Captain of the Solar Royal Guard," she introduced, shaking his hand.

Skipting’s eyes narrowed a little, then widened.

“Captain Golden Striker?” he said. “What are you doing here?”

“Well, when your mother overthrew Celestia, I decided to come to this world and start a new life. Couldn't let go of my military background, so I joined the Marines, until I was honorably discharged after I was badly injured. I joined the S.W.A.T team a little while after.“

She leaned back in her chair.

“What about you?” she asked. “What’s the son of Princess Nightmare Moon doing leading the Lunar Army and her personal guard?”

The assassin gave her a curious, surprised look.

“How do you know about that?”

The former Captain smirked and nodded her head towards him.

“Your armor,” she responded. “Its design is a weird combination of the armor given only to the most elite Lunar soldiers and highest-ranking generals, and the armor worn by Nightmare Moon’s elite personal guard.”

When Skipting’s look of surprise continued, her smirk seemed to intensify a little.

“My wife was one of your mom’s elite personal guard, and her sister was a high-ranking general in the Lunar Army,” she said.

Finally, Skipting snapped out of his odd daze.

“Well, Captain Striker, I wanted to fight to protect our country and our people.”

“Really now? That’s nice of you. You ever see combat while in the army?”

"I was the leader of the Lunar Army's deadliest group of soldiers, which became legendary after the Dragovanese War of Independence. We were known as the 'Twenty-Seven Fears.’”

The Prince downed yet another shot from his seventh bottle.

"I am afraid I must go. I merely wished to have a few drinks before going to sit with my friends. I bid you farewell. I hope that we shall one day cross paths again," he said, standing up and finishing the bottle.

He sat down at the rather spacious table with the girls, who all looked at him with interest.

"I see you've met Commander Golden Striker," Sunset said.

He nodded.

"Yes. She is quite an interesting character.”

He looked at Bon Bon, who was currently struggling to open a bottle of cider. With a sharp flick of his wrist followed by a flick of his fingers, his chain blade extended, shooting out towards the girl. The others' eyes widened at the sight of the weapon being released, and they widened further when the blade struck the bottle's cap at just the right angle and with enough force to take it off with a satisfying pop, before the blade retracted.

"What kind of weapon is that? We noticed that you have hidden blades and wrist-mounted crossbows, but when we saw that thing, we just thought it was an extra blade or something," Lyra asked, astounded.

"It is a weapon we call a 'chain blade.’ It functions like my normal hidden blades, but they also have a special feature. This feature allows the blade to extend further than its normal blade form. The extended form gives the weapon a reach of more than twenty feet. This is accomplished by the use of lightweight, magically enhanced wires within the blade.

"The blade itself is actually a series of many separate segments, which connect to each other through small special teeth and matching slots on either side of the blade segments,” he explained. “The two wires within the blade run through the segments via small holes in each of them. The weapon's special function is controlled by a mechanism that tightens the wires and connects the blades, or loosens them to form a bladed whip.”

He rotated his left wrist to show the mounted blades. The blade mechanisms themselves were on another mechanism that would rotate the blades to allow for use of either, with the blade in use pointing outwards, and the blade not in use pointing towards the elbow.

He flicked his wrist to extend the chain blade, the weapon's blade form coming out of its sheath to extend about eight inches past where his hand and wrist met. Then he flicked his fingers to turn the blade into its whip form, leaving the weapon hanging freely from its contraption.

"The movement of flicking my wrist extends the blade itself, while flicking my fingers transforms it into its whip form. This is done through small straps attached to the locking mechanism being strapped along my hand, the straps fitting over my fingers like a glove or brass knuckles.

“The ends of the straps that go over my knuckles have small wires running along my fingers, secured with rings that have small loops for the wires. Tension is created in the wires when I have my hand in a normal or relaxed position, or when I clench my hand into a fist. The tension is released when I flick my fingers, which moves the wires and straps.

“Upon being loosened, the straps shift just enough for the small pressure plate they hold down to decompress, causing the blade wires to be loosened and the weapon to turn into its whip form. It is a simple matter of creating tension to create pressure to lock the blade, then releasing tension to unlock the whip.”

To demonstrate, he flicked his fingers again, causing the whip to be locked back into its blade form, then flicked his wrist to retract the blade back into its sheath.

"Well, if it isn't the Lucky Six," a slightly low, raspy female voice said with a sense of mock surprise.

Skipting turned around to face the speaker.

Standing before him was an African American woman who looked to be in her late teens or early twenties. She had short snow white hair with long bangs colored purple at the tips, and hawklike golden eyes. There was a long vertical scar over her right eye, giving her a menacing appearance combined with her six-foot-five frame, powerful athletic build, and the cold, cynical, calculating look in her eyes.

Looking her over, he immediately noticed the large Bowie knife on her leg, the semi-automatic handgun in a holster on her right hip, and a gauntlet-like set of sharp talons hanging from her belt, much like his Gryphonian gauntlets.

The girl looked at Sunset.

"How are you, Sunshine? Anyone I need to beat some sense into for you?" she asked.

"I've been better than I was last week. And no, you don't need to beat anyone up," Sunset replied.

She went around and sat down at the table, sitting next to Sunset. She wrapped an arm around the fire-haired girl's shoulders and pulled her in close, ruffling her hair a bit with a hand.

"That's good to hear, Sunflower," she said.

She looked across the table at Skipting.

"I'm guessing you're her cousin she told me about?" she said.

He nodded.

"I am Prince Skipting Lunam, son of Princess Nightmare Moon, Diarch of the Night, and Queen Chrysalis, Sacred Mother of the Changeling Swarm," he introduced, shaking her extended hand.

"Name’s Gilda King," she introduced.

"It is a pleasure to meet you, Miss King. I take it Sunset has told you of her otherworldly origins?" he asked.

She nodded.

"Yep. I know all about Equestria, including the overthrow of Princess Celestia five years ago, and your status as the child of a goddess and a changeling queen," she replied.

Gilda tilted Sunset's head to look up at her, then leaned in and planted a soft kiss on her lips. When she looked back at Skipting, she had a smirk on her face.

"Sunshine and I have been together for about three years now," she said.

He reached into his coat and pulled out his revolvers, which he habitually inspected, unloaded, cleaned, and reloaded, then did the same for his rifle and shotgun. Once his firearms were cleaned, he pulled his mask out.

His mask, which he always wore while he was on missions and carrying out contracts, was made of a mixture of silver, titanium and steel for durability and style. It had gold lining along the jaw and eye areas.

It had been specially crafted by Silver Wind, the finest and most skilled blacksmith in Equestria, and was designed to look like a human skull, so as to strike fear into the hearts of those who laid eyes upon it.

It had a special magnification lens in the right eye for zooming in on distant things, a filtration system for protection against toxic or dangerous gases and smoke, a magnifying crosshair lens in the left eye for enhanced accuracy with his ranged weapons at various distances, and a special chemical/magic combination system that allowed him to breathe fire like a dragon.

The mask was enchanted with several spells, including one that made it impossible for the mask to be removed from his face unless he himself or someone he trusted removed the mask, an enchantment that gave it near-indestructible properties, and a spell that created a magic barrier around him that prevented enemies from using harmful magic against him, any harmful spells simply being interrupted upon coming into contact with the barrier.

He cleaned his mask of any dirt and filth, then put it back inside his coat.

"Are you going to come to CHS, Skipting?" Lyra asked.

He nodded.

"Indeed. Miss Soleil officially enrolled me a few days ago. I will be able to begin my first day on Monday. That gives me two days to begin forming a plan," he said.