I: All the world's a stage
Intro: Lullaby for a Princess
AN: This introduction was inspired by the song of the same title by PonyPhonic...Lullaby for a Princess I highly recommend that you listen to it!
It had been years, unknown, uncounted years, since Jack had headed east in exile from Equestria, into the distant lands beyond the mighty mountains that divided Equestria from the lands beyond. It was there, somewhere in the Far East, beyond the sight of Celestia and her corrupt monarchy, where Jack stood atop a mountain. As he regarded the moon in the sky, he turned his muzzle skyward and in a somber voice began his lament…
“Fate has been cruel and order unkind,
How could you’ve sent her away?
The blame was my own; the punishment, hers,
The harmony's silent today…
But into the stillness, I'll bring you a song,
And I will your company keep.
Till your tired eyes and my lullabies,
Have carried you softly to sleep…”
Little did he know that leagues away, upon the battlements of her mighty solar-citadel, the alabaster mare he ever so briefly considered his sister, had unknowingly joined him in lamenting their exiled sister, with her own powerful voice…
“Once did a pony who shone like the sun,
Look out on her kingdom and sigh,
She smiled and said, "Surely, there is no pony
So lovely and so well beloved as I…”
So great was her reign and so brilliant her glory,
That long was the shadow she cast.
Which fell dark upon the young sister she loved,
And grew only darker as days and nights passed…”
Without the two realizing it, they were both singing a lullaby to their imprisoned sister…
“Lullay moon princess, goodnight sister mine,
And rest now in moonlight's embrace.
Bear up my lullaby, winds of the earth,
Through cloud, and through sky, and through space…
Carry the peace and the coolness of night,
And carry my sorrow in kind.
Luna, you're loved so much more than you know,
Forgive me for being so blind…”
The mare once again took the lead…
“Soon did that pony take notice that others,
Did not give her sister her due…
And neither had she loved her as she deserved,
She watched as her sister's unhappiness grew…
But such is the way of the limelight, it sweetly,
Takes hold of the mind of its host…
And that foolish pony did nothing to stop,
The destruction of one who had needed her most…”
Once again, the two unknowingly joined their voices to sing to the heavenly body that was both their sister and her prison…
“Lullay moon princess, goodnight sister mine,
And rest now in moonlight's embrace.
Bear up my lullaby, winds of the earth,
Through cloud, and through sky, and through space…
Carry the peace and the coolness of night,
And carry my sorrow in kind.
Luna, you're loved so much more than you know,
May troubles be far from your mind…
And forgive me for being so blind!
The years now before us,
Fearful and unknown…
I never imagined,
I'd face them on my own!
May these many winters,
Swiftly pass, I pray.
I love you; I miss you,
All these miles away!”
One last time, Jack took the lead for the final verse, his voice became at once, soft and tender, only just holding back a tear…
“May all your dreams be sweet tonight,
Safe upon your bed of moonlight…
And know not of sadness, pain, or care,
And when I dream, I'll fly away and meet you there…”
He turned his head back towards his side, where his wings once resided and his tears flowed. If only he still had them, maybe…just maybe, he could’ve actually flown to the moon and rescued her from herself…?
“Sleep...sleep…sleep…”
II: We are merely players
I: All the world's a stage
The Princess and ruler of Equestria, Celestia, strolled to the balcony of her boudoir, high above Canterlot, to watch the setting sun. It was a solemn moment for her…for, when she raised the sun the next morn, it would be the one-thousandth year of her sister’s exile on the moon. One thousand years of relative solitude, amongst a sea of ponies… Certainly, she had her fair share of disciples and protégés, but none of them could truly understand her. How could they? She who was seemingly timeless and immune to the rigors of age? No matter how she tried, she always ended up seeming aloof, untouchable to the common pony, just like her sun…
She sighed, deep in reflection, only for a green wisp of smoke to materialize before her as a scroll, bearing the seal of her current protégé… It read:
My dearest teacher,
My continuing studies of pony magic have led me to discover that something really bad is about to happen! For you see, the mythical Mare in the Moon is in fact Nightmare Moon, and she's about to return to Equestria, and bring with her eternal night! Something must be done to make sure this terrible prophecy does not come true. I await your quick response.
Your faithful student,
Twilight Sparkle.
Celestia gasped slightly at this, somewhat surprised that the young mare had stumbled upon such a secret. Though she shouldn’t have been too surprised, she remembered, upon discovering her, Celestia realized that she would likely be the strongest unicorn in ages. Perhaps ever? A gentle chuckle escaped her… If she only knew the half of it! Nevertheless, a thought crossed her mind… What if Twilight Sparkle is right? What if sister is returning? Without being able to use the elements of harmony, what if she does indeed return as Nightmare Moon, instead of my beloved sister? There was only one thing to be done, if Equestria had any hopes of surviving as it now was…
Quickly grasping a quill of her own, in her golden aura the Princess quickly, but immaculately, wrote her response:
My dearest, most faithful student, Twilight,
You know that I value your diligence and that I trust you completely...but you simply must stop reading those dusty old books! My dear Twilight, there is more to a young pony's life than studying, so I'm sending you to supervise the preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration, in this year's location: Ponyville. And I have an even more essential task for you to complete: make some friends!
With a spark of magic, the scroll burst into green flames, to be returned to Twilight’s assistant, the drake, Spike, instantaneously. She cocked her head to one side for but a moment, there were things that must be done before her sister’s return…
Suddenly, mid-thought, Solar-Princess vanished without a trace.
It had taken me years to secure passage across the sea that separated my homeland, from the distant lands to the southeast! Now, I stood upon the top of the tallest mountain I had ever seen, deep within the Himallamas – a range of mighty mountains in the land beyond. So high was the mountain that the natives refused to go more than half way up… They were a most unusual breed, not unlike the Cervinus that they shared land borders with to the north, they had long necks and two hooves at the end of each leg, instead of one…how odd? One would think that their long, fuzzy coats would protect them from the cold, but now that I stood at the top, I saw why they refused to follow me the whole way… The air was dreadfully thin, to the point where I wondered if any other living creature could breathe this high up. Because of the thin air, my breath instantly froze, coating my dark-brown muzzle in the tiniest ice crystals.
Indeed, the spire of rock was so high that as I stood at its peak, I watched the sun settle over the horizon, taking note of the curvature of Equis beneath my hooves…I felt as though I were sitting at the edge of space. Indeed, at that moment I was as close to that great, dark void as I ever had been. Even in my hay-day, I could not dare to touch it with the mightiest of efforts! That never stopped me from trying though…on more than one occasion, I made it so high that though I stopped flapping, I did not fall, nor did I slow dramatically. Now that I am older and wiser, I know that the only reason I did not asphyxiate was thanks to a subconscious magic spell running through my veins, pouring life-giving oxygen directly into my blood, much as it did now… As I drew in a deep breath of the frigid air, a tingling sensation ran up my spine, causing me to twist my neck around toward the east. There, I regarded the moon opposite of the sun, at the other edge of Equis. However, as I did, the face of the mare on the moon vanished! A spark of elation jumped across my synapses…
“Luna!” I exclaimed as a tear formed at the corner of my eye, “My sister, you return!” I laughed like a maniac, not in a thousand years had I felt such pure joy, “I am alone no more, my exile is over! Sister I am coming home!”
It seemed almost prophetically ironic, as I thought about it, in the days leading up to my returning to the coasts of Equestria. I had spoken to Celestia metaphorically, but now that I thought about it, it had been exactly one thousand years since Luna’s banishment. One thousand years since I had bid farewell to the land of my birth… In the short decades after I was dethroned, the kingdom had changed so much, now I wondered what had become of it in the centuries since I had left? In what ways had the kingdom changed? What new works of art and architecture had ponydom created? I wondered if I would even recognize my old home?
The answer, I found was not the one I wanted…
III: Performers and Portrayers
II: We are merely players
It was evening as my ship came into dock and only the lightest of fog settled over the cool water’s surface. I was stunned to see the port city largely unchanged since the time of my rule, though I noted that their methods of lighting were far better, granting me a better view. Familiar ships of sail still went about their business, so I gathered from the docklands. However, the heavy sea-trade that had dominated the port city of my time was all but non-existent, judging by the small ships docked for the night. If it were not for the population boom that apparently had taken the city, I doubted it would’ve been one-tenth the size it was now…
Much of the city had conveniently settled in for the night, when I disembarked, spilling me into the near-empty streets of Meripolis. Only the random, likely drunken, sailor and the less reputable ponies that skulked in the shadows after darkness remained in the streets…and of course the, ahem…Mares of the Night. I stumbled about the streets, utterly lost. In the time I had been gone, things had changed greatly. I looked to the street-signs and to those of the businesses, but was unable to read them. The alphabet had remained largely the same, though the iconography of some of the letters had changed a bit. However, the words themselves were gibberish, jumbled in every way imaginable, but the ones that would make sense.
“Tae-vern?” I tried to read the sign without much luck, “Whatever could that mean?” I pondered aloud, before receiving my answer.
Just then, the main door was flung open, and the sounds of merriment and conversation spilled out into the street, as well as one rather intoxicated pony. He stumbled into me without so much as a regard to my presence, before a rather guttural grunt. I regarded him curiously as he stumbled up the road on unsteady hooves. Yep, definitely a Taberna… I walked in the still open door with great care and a cautious eye. The crowd didn’t look overly rough, nor too intoxicated. A decent sign. Striding up to the bar, I looked the eager bartender in the eye.
“Panis et vinum.” I instructed him simply, however, the stallion did not seem to comprehend…so I repeated it once more, slower, and still he did not understand. Finally, I tried one more time, this time speaking very slowly and enunciating every syllable, but still nothing.
Finally, just about to fume at the ears, a pale-blue mare with a black mane and brown eyes approached the bar next to me. She had no horn and wore the long, black vest of a sailor, which I found only slightly odd. Typically, Earthbound ponies did not take to the sea, but that was not always the case. Her brown eyes regarded me curiously and in the most interesting dialect of Easternlings, she addressed me…
“Quite ‘a accent, yeh got thar.” She remarked, before turning to the barkeep, to tell him that I had simply wanted bread and wine. With a nod, he fetched a decently sized bottle and a loaf of hard looking bread, before grunting at me once more, simply earning him a blank stare, “’ee says six coins.”
With a nod, I slipped the bartender six, plain looking gold coins, their faces long since warn away. He took them without protest and so I was left with this interesting mare, at a bar, in a tavern, surrounded by patrons with which I could not speak to.
“Thank you.” I said simply, “Would you care to join me?”
“Certainly.” She nodded, extending a hoof, “Black Sails.”
“Jack.” I took her hoof and placed a kiss upon it, eliciting a cute giggle from the mare.
“My aren’t ve chivalrous?” She commented, “So, vere you from? Yer accent’s most unique…yeh hail from Prance?”
“No, I call no port home.” I shook my head, before breaking the loaf of hard bread in half and passing her a piece, “I did spend some time there a long while back, but I’ve spent most of my time across the sea.”
“Ooh, an e’splorer…” She cooed temptingly.
“Something like that…” I chuckled, “I’m on my way to Canterlot.”
“Canterlot?” She remarked, at least there was one word that had not changed, “Business, ‘a pleasure?”
“Family.” I stated with a smile, “I am to meet my sister as soon as I am able.”
“Too bad, I’m puttin’ out ta sea on t’morrow.” She said with a grimace, before hoofing forward a glass, which I promptly filled with the crimson wine.
“’Tis a shame.” I said with a nod, before regarding the room curiously, “Celestia’s kingdom is quite a change…”
“You mentioned the Lands Beyond? If you don’t mind me askin’ where a’bouts are you returnin’ from?” She asked, before taking a sip of wine.
“The last year I’ve spent with the Cervinus, preparing to climb the Himallamas.” I said casually, however she clearly took it as anything less than extraordinary.
“Really? What are they like?” She asked me, putting down her glass, eager to hear of the far away land.
“They’re an interesting race, surprisingly pony-like, yet not. Their culture was already well established during the founding of Equestria…” I began, however, a tussle in the corner of the tavern drew her attention from me.
“Aw, damn…” She sighed, “I’ve got to deal with this…”
I watched as Black Sails jump from her seat and into the scrum between no less than a dozen sailor ponies, all of which clearly had too much drink for their own good. I have to admit I was surprised that she could hold her own with the best of them. For her size, she was impressively strong, yet nimble at the same time. Had I not known better…No… I shook my head. That is nonsense… I internally chastised myself.
As the fight escalated, I noticed the barkeep send for the guard, or so I assumed. I snorted, no one that I knew was going to be thrown in the stockade, not if I had any say in it! Scarfing down the last of the bread, I stood and walked slowly toward the fight. Tapping one of the stallions on the shoulder, he turned around only to receive a sucker-punch to the jaw and was sent sprawling to the floor. Just then, I heard a loud snap and a yelp that could have only come from a mare. I found a rather beefy stallion looming over Black Sails menacingly, a shattered chair littered around her, while delivering some sort of monologue, like a two-bit villain from a foal’s tale…
“Cavere!” I shouted as I spun on my heels to deliver both rear-hooves into his flank. The poor guy flew into the nearby wall, before crashing through a table on his way down… “Anyone else?” Though none of the fighters spoke the language, the message was heard loud and clear, as they all stepped back in awe. Turning to Black Sails, my mind stumbled over itself, “Are…you’re a…?”
I regarded the mare in shock, what I had taken for a vest, was merely a clever way for her to hide her black, leathery wings. She was a Nox-Pegasi, one of the rarest breeds, save for us alicorn! I gritted my teeth as I looked up to see the thoroughly beaten thug that had hurt her, in a pile against the wall, which placated me for the time being. Looking back down at her, those tan eyes of hers had narrowed to the telltale slits of her kind – she did a good job controlling that. That was when I noticed that her wing was laying on her side at an awkward angle. That brute had broken it! Oh, how I wanted to break a few of his ribs in exchange, however, her gentle groan of pain as she tried to move, brought me back to her. Reaching down to her with a hoof, she exposed her sharp teeth and hissed at me, clearly without thinking…a first.
“Come now, I’ll have none of that.” I said in a chastising tone, silencing her, “We need to get you out of here!”
She was far heavier than the average pegasi, but even still, she was easy enough to throw over my back. I motioned with my head for her sailors to lead me back to their boat and though it took them a moment, they quickly hustled out of the tavern with me right behind them, as they headed back towards the docks.
“Why are yeh doin’ this? Why are yeh helpin’ me?” Black Sails groaned on my back, as she cradled her broken wing.
“I owe you.” I stated plainly.
“No, yeh don’t.” She said dismissively, “Anypony could’ve helped yeh.”
“It was you that helped me, but that’s not the whole story.” I said evasively.
“Than what?” She near demanded in my ear, “Why would yeh want ta help me?”
“I owe you.” I repeated.
“You already said that!” She exclaimed as our short run ended at the docks, where she jumped off my back, “Now talk!”
Her crew, as drunk as they were, all turned to face me – no real threat in their current state, if they ever could be. Nonetheless, their show of unity was rather inspiring. I realized then, as I looked over their shoulders that the ship behind them, the schooner, was none other than a pirate ship… I got it. Not a bad life she had made for herself.
“You know how you’ve remarked that I have an odd accent?” I said taking a step forward, and as I did, every one of her crew took one too, before she waved them back.
“Yeah, half the things yeh say are horribly pronounced.” She said frankly, “So what? Are you some kind of spy? From Germaneigh are yeh? Neighpon?”
“No.” I stated, earning a raised eyebrow, “I do not speak Prencais and I am not from Germaneigh, or Neighpon. I was raised in Everfree.”
“Nopony lives in the Everfree.” She stated defiantly.
“No.” I nodded, “Nopony has for a thousand years.”
It took her a moment for her to comprehend what I was insinuating. “No…it…you can’t…” She finally stuttered.
I trotted the few feet between us and without asking, took hold of her wing and reset the bone. She yelped in pain, before snapping her head back to see what I had done. Rather, what I was doing, because I was not done.
“Suos eximendi ossa.” My voice reverberated with the latent magic in my blood.
Releasing her wing, she hesitantly flapped it once, then twice, then finally, she flapped both wings hard enough to momentarily lift herself off the ground. She observed her wing once more, before looking to me in pure awe.
“How…?” She murmured completely baffled.
“Is it not clear?” I asked her.
“Yeh are…? Yeh are really...he?” She asked me once more, putting a hoof to my chest, as if I were a ghost.
“Yes, it is I.” I nodded, “Luna has returned and I plan on seeing her.”
She blanched and tears of joy filled her eyes, before she snapped around to her crew and barked at them. It took her shouting at them a second time, before they knelt before me. I honestly had not expected that…
“My king.” She said, joining her crew on their knees, “It has been so long since the rule of the fair alicorns…”
“Rise.” I commanded her and her crew, “I will not speak to you on the ground. No pony will grovel before another in my presence.”
She instructed her crew to rise, with a hoof and a word. “My kin have been in hiding since the fall of our princess.” She informed me.
“I see.” I nodded, “Do you, Black Sails still serve your rightful rulers?”
“I do.” She affirmed.
“Very well, then I have a new task for you and your crew.” I declared, “I need you to rally your tribe, inform them that their princess and her brother have returned to Equestria. Your elders shall know what to do. Can you do this for me?”
“We shall make haste.” Black Sails bowed her head.
“Then, I name you Dame Black Sails, for all that it is worth.” I placed a hoof on her shoulder.
“I shan’t fail yeh.” She declared.
“I will need a pair of the strongest stallions to join me in Canterlot as fast as they are able. For I do not know Celestia’s plans…” I wondered to myself, what her reaction would be? “…But make it clear to them that I do not want a war with the Princess at this time. Her throne and crown are not in contest at this moment.”
“As yeh wish.” She nodded.
I looked over my shoulder, hearing the clatter of hooffalls and armor – sounds of the guards.
“You best push off.” I suggested, before she took my hoof and kissed it, in a sign of fealty, “My Dame, that is my indulgence…” With a sly grin, I took her hoof and tenderly kissed it, casing her to blush, “Now, go on! Don’t give the guard so much as your sails as a goodbye!”
She nodded to me and spun around, before her and her crew ran to their ship. As nimble as it was, none of Celestia’s ships could hope to catch it! Turning around, to see the dozen guard-ponies bearing down on me, I knew that I could not say the same. Even if I had wanted to, I could not escape their grasp without injuring them. I simply sat on my rump and held up my hooves… Things were about to get interesting!
A dozen ponies and a dozen spears encircled me and I merely sat motionless. Before a moment could pass, a single guard pony, his golden armor edged in purple, approached me with a determined look. The next I knew he was shouting at me, in that strange, new language of theirs. Oh, things were going to be interesting indeed!
“Ego sum Jack, educ me Celestia.” I declared without moving a muscle.
The guards glanced at each other nervously. They could not understand what I had said, but the mention of ‘Celestia’ certainly drew their attention. The pony in the purple trimmed armor, which I could only assume was their captain, handed off his spear and got right up in my face. His suspicious glare and low, growling speech ending with the one word that we both knew, allowed me to assume his question.
“Ego sum fratris eam.” I once again stated, but this time there was no connection.
He glared at me a long moment, before barking an order over his shoulder to his guards. The next I knew, I was being hustled through the city streets, escorted by a dozen golden armored guards…
