I had been sitting there on the cliff for a while, just staring out at the midnight sky when I heard flapping coming my way. Looking down, I see a pony hovering in front of me. This pony appears to be another thestral, like Skyline, but unlike him, she has a dead serious look on her face. Also unlike him, she has a set of what I can barely call daggers with circular handle guards. I raise an eyebrow as she approaches. “Can I help you?” I ask.
The thestral regards me with her bright pink eyes before looking back at my face. “Your presence is requested in the training grounds.” she says without a hint of emotion in her voice, her messy deep purple hair and tail flowing in the wind.
“Training grounds? By who?” I question while glancing down towards it, seeing a couple ponies gathered around it.
“Princess Luna herself, sir.” she responds, her voice still devoid of emotions.
I sit there, watching her for a moment. I examine her with my eye, which causes her to visibly tense up from the glow. I raise my eyebrow at a particular piece of information regarding her. “Aria Star of The Crescents, and Skyline’s younger sister. Color me surprised, I didn’t know he had one.” I say cutting off the glow.
“How’d you know all that?” she asks defensively while raising an eyebrow.
I chuckle and close my right eye, pull down my lower left eyelid and stick out my tongue. “I can know almost anything about anyone.” I get up and stretch. “Cya down there.” I say with a wave, and prepare to blink down to the training ground.
“Wait.” she says abruptly.
“Huh? What is it now?” I ask, somewhat annoyed. First she tells me to leave, then to wait.
She looks down, the first show of emotion she’s made since I met her. “I… want to say thank you.”
“What are you thanking me for? We just met.”
“For what you did for Skyline. You lied for him in court earlier. Saved his life, his job, and just…” she trails off.
“I getcha. For what it’s worth, it looks like me and him are friends. Besides, nobody deserves to have their life ruined over so small a mistake. The fact I got a proper shot at Celestia is also a nice bonus.” I say with a cheeky smile.
She nods. “We’re still not gonna let that happen, so don’t get any ideas. Saved my brother or not, I won’t hesitate to put you down.” she says tersely.
I simply laugh. “You know, your brother almost said damn near the same thing.”
She scoffs. “Course he did.”
“Well, siblings do think alike. Anything else or can I go now?” I say with a bit of a smile.
She raises an eyebrow. “How are you gonna get down there? How’d you even get up here for that matter?”
I smirk and give her a mock two finger salute. “Like this.” I say as I look at the training area and blink there.
Winding up in the center of the training grounds gains pretty much everyone's attention. I care not, as I’m more concerned with the pain coursing through my eye.
My own attention is caught when I hear the voice of someone I don’t recognize. “Monkeys appearing out of nowhere… I didn’t even start drinkin yet!”
I glance at the direction of the voice and see a grey pegasus with a dull blonde head of hair and tail, along with a stubble beard and blue eyes. He also has a makeshift necklace made of string and metal, forming a circle with a crescent inside of it, and a halberd that looks way too big for a pony to wield, let alone a pegasus.
I note that his name is Twisted Brew, then look at the pony next to him. This one, a grey unicorn with long pale gray hair and tail, along with a tail wrap towards the base, is staring at me inquisitively with her blue and purple eyes, a strange book held aloft beside her in his magic. Examining her, I’m surprised to find it’s actually a him. Even more shocking, is that book is a grimoire of dark runic magic. Why would he have such a thing? this pony, Caiuss, is a curiosity indeed.
The one who went to collect me lands next to him, though he doesn’t even react.
I’m about to ask what this is all about, when I hear someone clearing their throat a bit behind me. Whipping around, I see Luna across the way, and Skyline standing a fair distance away from her.
I walk over towards her, and raise an eyebrow. “What's all this about?”
She motions over to Skyline, who I didn’t notice upon first glance, is wearing a set of lightweight night blue armor. “He wanted you here for his punishment. Moral support he said.”
“Punishment? For what? And why’s he wearing armor?” I ask.
“You and I both know you lied in that courtroom. While Skyline is one of my crescents, and by proxy, a friend, his actions still led to some very bad things happening. I do not take lightly to a threat on my sister's life.” She raises a hoof to cut me off before I can even try to say anything. “The fact it wasn’t his intent to bring harm upon Equestria is the reason I’m forgiving him. However, a punishment must still be dealt out. Hence the armor.”
“That… still doesn’t explain the armor. Besides, I thought he didn’t resume work until tomorrow?” I ask with a raised eyebrow.
“He is of the night guard, Null. it’s technically tomorrow for him. As for the armor, his punishment is trial by combat.” she says nonchalantly.
My eyes widen. “Trial by combat? You mean you’re just gonna beat the daylights outta him to deal with your frustration?”
She smiles and waves a hoof airily. “Nonsense Null, I will not be participating. He will be facing three other crescents, ones I have chosen to face him for various reasons.” she motions over to the three ponies standing together. “Twisted Brew, Caiuss, and Aria Star. though I’d bet you already knew that.”
I nod, glancing between the three. “I did. Though I am curious about that unicorn. Obviously you know about his book.” I say focusing on it for a moment before looking back at Luna. “why is he allowed to have such a thing?”
“A couple reasons. One, he displayed a remarkable affinity for that school of magic. Two, to protect him from himself; Dark magic is something that can easily corrupt one’s mind, much like it did Sombra. Caiuss was already too deep to back out, but not deep enough to lose himself when I found him.” she casts a pitiful look his way, though he doesn’t notice it as he’s nose deep in his book. “Three, he has proven his loyalty.” she turns back to me. “Dark magic itself isn’t inherently evil. It all depends on who uses it. I trust him with it.”
I stare at him for a while, still not sure about him. “It’s also why he is a Crescent, so that I may better keep an eye on him, and help him should he make a wrong turn. He is not nearly as versed in the dark arts as I am.”
“And you want him to fight Skyline? Despite him using that kind of magic?” I ask, concerned for Skyline’s safety. I know very well what that kind of magic can do.
“They have sparred before plenty of times, and he knows very well the rules about using his magic in a fight. He has been on the receiving end of each spell he knows, just so he knows personally what it does to others. Minus the lethal ones, of course.” she explains.
“Mhm… alright, what about the other ones?” I ask.
“What about them?”
“What’s their story? Seems like every Crescent has one.”
“You’d have to ask them yourself. I only told you Caiuss’s ‘story’ to address your understandable concerns about his magic. Now, do you have any other questions, or may I carry out Skyline’s punishment?”
I still don’t like the fact he’s getting punished, but I get why she’s doing it. I nod and back away.
“Crescents, make your final preparations, and assemble in the dueling circle.”
I saw the Darksiders emblem!
Keep it going! Take the negativity with a grain of salt, as most of them are trolls. See if you can ascertain any constructive criticism then toss the rest into the trash.
Good stuff can't wait to see what happens next!
Hmm.
Apart from Spears, it's always Halberds that people go to with the polearms in their fics on this site.
The Glaive is very neglected.
10430646
I don't have my glasses, but isn’t that Death's particular variation of the emblem?
Time for a fight then! Nothing like a nice rumble to get the blood flowing.
When you look at Caiuss all you can think of is that one Spongebob meme... "Oh god he's hot!!"
Well he doesn't need to ask them,he can just check it with his eye and then ask them if he will want to know more or confirm something he learned if they are vague
intresting so far just waiting and se what might happen next
10430767
not necessarily; his eye doesn't quite work that way. it can tell him alot, but it can't straight up tell him someone's past, at least not in this sense.
10430690
the issue with that is alot of the negative comments are allowed to be, and aren't necessarily wrong. none of them were trolls, and took stabs at genuine issues with the story; for that, I can't fault them.
10430726
I went with a halberd for Twisted Brew for the simple reason that it's a rolling fruckling madness of a weapon, meant to be brutal (at least with the particular design i chose, despite its probable practicalities if it were to be created irl). if you knew brew personally, you'd understand the weapon choice. totally recommend him though, go check out his stories m8.
This all just makes Null look like he is willingly being the bitch of someone who hurt him on purpose fir no reason, who has shiwn no real redeeming qualities.
Hm, is Caiuss a pony equivalent of bishie, or he had his gender swapped?
10431189
No it showing that he is changing he used to be a little ball of rage in the beginning. He lashed out at almost every one but showing that he is now willing to make friends even if they did him wrong shows character development. Plus let's not forget that he says that he got another shot at Celestia. That to him is a gift, so to him skyline did him a favor. Also he got away with attacking Celestia basically scot free witch to him is a bonus so how about you stop looking at the surface and start thinking more about what's underneath.
I'm getting mixed messages from Luna. She says that dark magic isn't inherintly evil, then states that the only reason Caiuss is allowed to use it is because she trusts him, but also that she's pelting him with every single spell he learns (even though she allegedly trusts him). None of those statements corroborate with each other, and I get the impression that she's lying.
10431295
Luna is Princess of the Night, and the night is dark, and therefor she has a personal bias with this form of magic with a dark theme. There is no reason she shouldn't have mercy on a pony who got caught up in dangerous magics, up until he actually becomes too dangerous to be left alone.
She messed up in the very same way that that Caiuss might end up, and being forgiving and merciful to him is almost the same thing as forgiving herself.
10431295
I think that was because this is a borrowed OC from a friend of the author. Its probably a little more complicated in the backstory but that character was probably wedged in there because friend OC's are as close as you can get to putting friends in a story without ruining it by making it self insert adjacent.
Ignore the haters. This is your story, not theirs...
10431267
The real tragedy of the situation that no one really seems to understand, is that Null isn't a fourteen year old boy who faced a tragic event and just has to suck it up and face the rest of his life.
Null is a very immature 2014 year old man whose entire existence has been conscious torment, who only has a tiny fraction of his life left to live. He will be dead in about 75 years. His life is more than 96% over, and of that time he has lived, 99.3% of it has been a form of torture that almost no one alive is even able to comprehend.
And absolutely no one is willing to give him justice for his wrongful imprisonment. Celestia is unwilling to allow herself to face an ounce of punishment for her actions, and no one else, probably not even Null, can change that.
I am honestly Disturbed by this, this isn't a Punishment for Skyline. It's Luna trying to Punish Null by Proxy for lying.
Not only is Skyline facing three ponies at once, but he is facing them at a disadvantage in what is supposed to be an Honorable Match. To those who don't know, Trial By Combat is meant to be used to resolve accusations that have no witnesses or otherwise a crime that has been admitted to. This is typically fought between the Accused and the Accuser or in some cases when that's not possible by Proxies.
If Null doesn't step in then I will have lost all respect for him, Just as I have now Lost all Respect for this Luna. This is something I would expect from Celestia.
I love this story, and I look forward to the next chapter, wondering just how far Sky Line's sister is willing to go to beat up her brother.
Good story, not great, understandably null is a bit cold to ponies in general, but you might have him open up a bit more, also the whole "we will put you down if you go after Celestia" thing is getting a little old, I believe it should either be already implied or get them to understand that if Null actually did actively go after Celestia there isn't much they can do, we've only seen a fraction of Null's power and Celestia implied he has far more potential, "last wielder was undefeatable in battle", none of the ponies seem to begiving any kind of thoughts to this or the fact that he would not make Luna angry by doing such a thing, on top of that he already said he wouldn't due to the imbalance it would cause, just cause he would love to have a shot at Celestia doesn't mean he will take one, he seems to understand the repercussions of such an act, essentially the ponies seem to be underestimating him and implying that his word/promises can't be trusted at all
(I will continue to read this story, hope you continue to write and continue to improve)
Yea, pls don't
10431471
I think you're reading into "trial by combat" a little too heavily. Nobody is to die, and I used the term for lack of a better word. Maybe it's different viewpoints, but I don't see this as a reason to lose respect for Luna. She never said anything like he has to keep going until he wins or anything, and he's faced each of them plenty of times before. Hell, they've probably done this for fun, and have definitely faced worse in their dreams (as per Luna's training). Not to mention the dueling circle stops everyone before any lethal or debilitating blows are dealt. I'm a bit lost as to how I can convince you of this, cuz it's genuinely confusing to me how you see the situation this way. Ask me some questions and maybe I can clarify?
10431295
I don't believe I said the was the only reason she trusts him. It was said after all the other reasons, and it's cuz of those other reasons she trusts him. As for the reason she pelts him with every spell he learns? She probably learned a similar way, and allot of things are some similarly. Like how cops get tazed before they're allowed to use a tazer. Mixed signals indeed. It's understanding your own strength in a way. How many people hurt others cuz they didn't know their own strength, thinking they wouldn't hurt anyone that badly. It's a dangerous magic, hence why going to the length to understand why.
10431807
Nobody also considers the idea that maybe the Left wasn't the only thing that previous bearer had at his disposal
Now I think we can agree Caiuss is a trap, and in my opinion traps are gay.
But...
Why did someone glue sword-y bits onto a broken one of those retarded spinning lightsabre toys?
Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, neodymium, equilateral, quantum entanglement, electoral college, Twilightlicious, serendipity, chalcedony, flittermice, xylophone, tritonal.
10438208
... ya know, it took me a moment to get wtf u were talking about. they aren't exactly nice words, but they are definitely words. A for effort, and A for apples, F for everything else....
(JK love ya)
10438829
I think they're nice words. Keep on trucking dude.
10438829
Is there a joke here ... ? A reference I'm not getting?
Inside joke?
10441864
In the authors notes I asked y'all to leave nice words in the comments. He left some words he thought were nice. Not much of a joke but it works
10441867
Ah, I see.
Maybe they thought those words fit. "Nice" is subjective to the person viewing it, after all.
I must have picked a bit too much armchair medieval weapons trivia from YouTube and other sources over the last few years because I certainly can’t look at those two weapons without flinching. Aside from having gratuitous points stick out and just wait to snag an unwary user, the “halberd” looks more like just an axe with too heavy a head and by contrast a too-thin haft that I wouldn’t be too surprised to see start cracking (or bending if it’s supposed to be metal for some reason) under the strain after the first few solid hits, and with the knife I don’t even know where to start -- if Aria was human and trying to grip this thing normally, the superfluous “inner” half of the knuckle guard would do a number on her thumb and/or wrist and limit her ability to properly swing and thrust her weapon around in general, but as she isn’t I’m not even sure yet how she wields it at all. I suppose she could just slide the round guard over her hoof, but then the central grip would get in the way in turn...
...ah, well. You’ve already acknowledged in the AN that those images are just what you could find and I’m in turn just in a bit of a mood to vent and doing so, so no harm, no foul. I just had to get that off my chest before bed.
10443517
lol, I getcha. I watch Skallagrim and understand practicality vs overly redundant fantasy weapons. I just rly like the designs, and allow myself to ignore real life practicality in exchange for fantasy funtimes just like everyone else. i just... really like them XD. on top of that, they are ponies. how they hold anything is beyond me (while the weapons in the images are designed for humans as well). i just imagine the ponies just do what they do for the most part, as we really don't have much of a way to understand it 100%. the daggers are meant to be held downwards in a stabbing orientation, so I don't think it particularly matters in terms of the ring around it. but meh. idk where im going with this, but suffice it to say i am fully aware of the legitimate impracticality of those weapons XD.
10432695
Those high socks looks delicious tho
You were going to name Caiuss as "Coltie" or something like that, were you not?
Found his image quite sometime ago in dA, iirc.
10446050
On forums it can get quiet mixed in the opinions i just hope we all talk about this calmly.
I know things can get heated when opinions clash.
10446076
Ikr I never thought I'd be gay for a pony trap
I'm going to have to agree with moonlight_stardust here and say the whole "trial by combat" thing is indeed abit ludicrous. I'm not railing against the idea as hard as he is, but I do disagree with the whole notion. Yes, there are specific circumstances that prevent anyone from dying, intentionally or otherwise, and thus makes it viable in ponyland. However, "trial by combat" as a punishment isn't a good idea for a military organisation because "hey, the three of you beat the ever-living ass out me last week! I'm going to save literally everyone else but you three because I'm sure Y'all can handle it after ganging up on my in a 3 to 1 fight." I'm not railing the idea too hard here because " ponyland = ponymagics", but i would have expected Null to be at the very least questionable about it. Just because 1 Private in the army royally fucks up, doesnt mean the General can send in 3 other privates to beat the shit out of him with batons in a "honoruabruu" match and expect great things to happen afterwords.
10446706
well then. first off, couple things wrong with your ideology there bud. not saving those 3 out of spite is something that would get ANY dickhead in any form of military reprimanded; and lets not forget, one of them is his fuckin sister. i really doubt he'd ditch her. not to mention, petty, which does not mix with Skylines Character (at least i'd think so). second, none of them are privates. im not exactly versed in military knowledge, so im sorta makin this shit up as i go, but Crescents don't necessarily have a rank. Crescent IS their rank. they're all equal to each other, and they all know and respect each other by proxy. third, its not one person getting the shit beaten out of him with batons, as they all got their weapons, and Skyline actually has armor unlike them, and you forget that Skyline himself is only a bit behind Luna herself. im not gonna say where the others are in terms of skill to avoid spoilers, but i'll admit they aren't slouches either. lastly, It's Luna. she runs shit her way. (aka, how i imagine her to. everything I write is based on my own view of the logic of each character, not much i do is based on "just cuz i want it this way".) suffice it to say, I think the outcome of the 3v1 will be different than what you might be expecting.
10446088
"Colty" is a very close friend of mine and the owner of the OC. "Caiuss" is the name I was told to use for character. it irks me how he's so well known though, and he fuckin knows it XD.
10447139
Alright, fine, I've tried to be nice about it. It is a God-damned metaphor you flaccid penis, and calling it my "ideology" is outright incorrect. I've tried not to be as hostile as moonlight was, but hey guess I should give it to you straight. "Trial by combat" as a punishment is out-right retarded, and you are using it as an excuse to show "how fuking epic my OC is in a 1V3 fight".
And frankly, I want no part in it. This series was quite interesting for the first part, but I honestly think it should have ended when luna was banished and null stopped thinking.
10447484
Ouch... Rude. Maybe ideology was the wrong word, but you still didn't need to go this hostile. The other individual wasn't even hostile, they just gave their opinion and stated they were a bit disturbed. In your first comment it was fine, as you were doing the same. Here, you're just repeating you're previously stated opinion as if you think I didn't see it the first time, and attacking me personally with direct insults.
I've never had to block someone (I don't even know if it stops people from commenting), but please don't make me make you the first. It's not that hard to refrain from leaving comments like you just did, and all it does is make you look like an asshole.
Good story. Minor gripe: trial-by-combat imo works as a means of induction into a branch of the military where the physical demands are much higher, not as a means of doling out punishment, but that's just my 0.02 bits.
10612172
I like the last Bit you did there
It is when we challenge our own selves we grow the most, and the greatest challenge is to be told one is flawed, and then to face the truth in it.
The second greatest challenge is to murder Celestia. Ancient Bitch is hard to kill!The crescents feel like a bunch of neurodivergent kids that learned how to use guns. I like it.
Holy shit, a Fempony !!!!!