Agnelia of the Red Rose froze when she entered the room, the part of bulky guards following her, carrying spears stopped behind her, filling most of the door.
I smiled pleasantly at her, giving her a small bow, “Lady Agnelia,” I said, “I hope your journey was not too tedious.”
“It was not, Prince Page,” she finally answered, “Thank you. I was unaware of whom Equestria had sent to mediate these talks.”
I smiled at her, shifting my wings slightly, “Equestria is a neutral part in this and so am I,” I said before adding a bit more fang to the smile, “I’m mostly here to see that everypony… behaves,” I then continued before looking towards King Darkfeathers, “On both sides.”
His wings shifted but he nodded firmly, “Just so,” he agreed and then gave the white furred Yeti a small polite bow, “Lady Agnelia. Welcome to my home.”
She bowed back, “Thank you, your highness,” she answered, “And I bring you greetings from The Storm King.”
Interesting, he seemed to have quietly dropped the rest of his titles.
“You bring more than that it seems,” Darkfeathers said and moved around to his side of the solid stone table, “Your Kingdoms forces are raiding our villages!”
Oh, we’re on that part already?
I gave Agnelia a small bow and motioned towards the table. She seemed to collect herself before walking over towards it.
I shifted my wings and walked over towards it where Twilight was waiting, “You have met Princess Twilight?”
“We have met,” Twilight agreed and nodded to Agnelia, “Welcome.”
“Princess,” Agnelia agreed with a small bow to Sparks before she sat down by the table, “And yes, our forces have been raiding your territory. Or perhaps I should say, our former forces.”
“Former?” Darkfeathers asked, putting his hand on the table as he glared at her.
Agnelia didn’t look happy at all, “Former,” she repeated, “After our…” she glanced at me and Twilight, “...Negotiations with Equestria, we had some internal difficulties. There are several rebel groups, one of them close to your borders.”
“And your forces gathering along our border?”
“We are simply defending against any ill thought through retaliations,” Agnelia answered, looking at him, “Your force movements indicated that you were preparing to attack us.”
Darkfeathers visibly bristiled, “Now listen here you-”
“King Darkfeathers,” I interrupted him and turned towards him, “Personal attacks are counter productive to these talks. I’m going to have to ask you to avoid them.”
He took a deep breath before he nodded and looked at her, “My apologies,” he said and shook his head and continued, “Griffons has died.”
“And while I am deeply sorry about that,” Agnelia said firmly, “It has nothing to do with us.”
“They are your soldiers!”
“Not for years. They are traitors and rebels and should be hunted down and destroyed,” the yeti said with a small scowl, “But they keep escaping across your borders or we would have crushed them already!”
Darkfeathers shifted his wings, “Oh would you have?” he asked and and snorted, “You mentioned other rebel groups as well. Only one is here, are they? Do you require assistance?”
Agnelia’s fur visibly stood slightly on end, “We have things well in hand, thank you.”
“Then why are they raiding our villages!?” Darkfeathers growled, “I’m holding your King personally responsible for any damage done and demand reparations!”
“Absolutely not,” Agnelia said and before she smiled, “But we would be more than happy to send in forces to assist you if you are unable to deal with them.”
“Absolutely not!”
“Good that everypony is agreeing,” I said with a smile, interrupting before things escalated, “But maybe a small break for refreshments would be a good idea?”
Best let everypony take a step back and clear their heads.
Darkfeathers blinked and looked at me before he nodded, “...Yes, of course,” he said and gave Agnelia a small slight, barely visible bow, wings spreading slightly, “My apologies, Lady Agnelia. Prince Page is correct, would you care for something to drink?”
Agnelia looked slightly uncertain before she nodded, “An Equestrian brandy, if you would, your highness.”
Darkfathers studied her with something of slight approval before he looked towards me and Twilight.
Twilight shifted her wings with a smile, looking up from her notes, “We’ll have the same, please,” she said and I nodded in agreement.
He motioned for somepony unseen and it didn’t take long for our drinks to arrive.
I picked it up in my magic, sniffing at the apple brandy, giving it a sip. Hmm, good stuff too.
Darkfeathers was the next one to talk, “Your rebels entering our lands is unacceptable,” he said quietly, holding his own class in his hands, claws scraping across the glass softly, “They are killing my citizens and burning villages and harvests.”
Agnelia looked down at her own glass, “We’re not overly fond of them either,” she said dryly before sipping at her drink, “They have caused damage on our side of the border as well. They have an airship as well.”
He frowned, “We haven’t seen any reports of that.”
“You haven’t?” she asked with a frown of their own.
Excellent. They were actually talking now.
I sipped my drink, shared a look with Twilight and then settled down for the long haul. This would take a while.
man, they were at each others throats as soon as they set eyes on eachother
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And thus a new ship design was given a go.
If both want this troops gone? Page can locate em. A joined mission to capture or kill em after Page pinpoint there camp and help hunt down stragglers.
Win-Win-Win!
- Storming get rid of the Rebels and can gloat that he hunts down deserters plus neutral stand restored with Griffonia
- Griffons get rid of the Raiders, neutral stand to Yeti's offical leadership
- Page can show that his treat was legit and noone is save from him ones asleep! Guarantee Equestria & Allys become a dreaded target for every hostile nation that think Alicorn are bark without bite!
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And to add further insult to injury, both countries will owe Page and Equestria big time for the assistance.
THINK PAGE! THINK!
Nice
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Perhaps a Griffon Hen and Yeti female as way of thanking him
...MEANWHILE HUNDREDS OF MILES AWAY...
Apple Bloom: What's wrong Applejack? You stopped mid-kick on that apple tree and I was ready with the bucket and everything!
Applejack: I felt it...and it was painful. One of my friends BETRAYED ME!! They picked something other than APPLE CIDER!
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*Tears of Joy flow down the face* Comedy Gold 👏
Rebels? Or Privateers?
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Didn't they denounce privateers as pirates in the end anyway?
Wait, what if the ambassadors are the rebels who have a ship? They have a ship.
That actually makes a fair bit of sense
A good start to Page's job as a mediator
That's pretty clever actually, jump back and forth between the border of two nations that don't get along and they'll be to busy glaring at each other to chase you
Yeah, but it's looking good so far so... keep it up
The plot thickens! My my my, rebels is it, or are they plausibly deniable? I could believe either, to be honest. I love your characterisation of Darkclaw, he's a vivid character to be sure, even if I keep wondering where Grover VI is to myself.
Griffons might have different forms of address to most real monarchies of course, but normally calling Darkfeathers 'your highness' would actually be a backhanded compliment. That address is normally used for relatives of the monarch and is lesser to 'your majesty', which is how you address an independent ruler. This applies only as a greeting, however. Later in the conversation you use 'sir' or 'ma'am' (pronounced to rhyme with jam) in either case. Given the tensions right now, it could escalate hostilities, which I suppose would certainly explain part of why Darkfeathers blew up like he did a moment later.
Not so much a grammar jackboot as a grammar parade today:
This line really needs reworking, perhaps to 'Agnelia of the Red Rose froze when she entered the room, the detachment of bulky spear-armed guards who had been following her following suit, filling most of the door.'
Should be kingdom's, since the forces belong to the kingdom.
Multiple griffons, so it should be 'Griffons have died.'
'holding his own glass in his claws, talons scraping softly across the glass'
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Given the development level of this world, we're still in the golden age of the privateer and will be until countries develop the industrial capacity to raise and maintain standing navies of significant strength with centralised command and control.
*Spots Sgt Murphy in the dark corner chuckling gleefully*
Things are about to become "interesting".
Depends on what rebels' goals are.
If they want to destroy Storm King's tyranny and establish democracy, I'm rooting for them.
You think that rebelions that resulted in current governments looked black and white?
i belive you looking for the word talon instead off hand for the griffins
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I think the best bet would be to wait long enough for luna to make her assumptions, come to terms with it, and approach page and celly separately about it
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To be proper privateers, these ‘rebels’ would actually have to have a formal commission from the Storm King and be able to prove it -- say, with an actual letter of marque or similar documentation. And since they are either supposedly or actually rebelling against exactly his authority, that doesn’t exactly strike me as the most likely of developments...
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Unless he's backstabbing them, of course.
Nooo! Now I'm caught up and have to wait!!!
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Only after the privateers had done sufficient work against the enemies of their sponsors. And even after they were "officially denounced", they were still often unofficially approved. However, whenever they were caught by to nations they were raiding against, their home countries instantly denounced them.
It took nearly 200 years for European nations to finally make it outlawed in actual practice, and that was only after the Americans started getting in on the game as their own country.
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American Privateers made up the bulk of US Navel power before the 1830's
I wonder if that airship could be Captain Calaeno's... The journey to Mt. Aris is long overdue.
Raiding for supplies is understandable to a degree, burning is absolutely not. Therefore locating them to taking them prisoners is something Blank Page could offer and do a lot to get him famous to allies and infamous to his enemies!
The game 'Civilization V' has taught me how rebel and Barbarian forces are indeed supplied through given or stolen gear and are a costly threat that can't be reasoned with easily.