//------------------------------// // Chapter 5: Celestia's Spies // Story: Faithful and Strong // by Golden Scribe //------------------------------// Once he was safely on land again, Hornblower spent the rest of the day in his cabin, mulling things over. While he certainly would be delighted to have his cannons in working order again, the fact that it came at the price of giving a foreign country a glimpse of British weaponry didn’t sit well with him. In another circumstance, this could be considered as giving information to the enemy. His only consolation was that Equestria seemed to be practicing a strict isolationist policy, and were unlikely to turn their cannons towards Britain anytime soon. Perhaps he could sign some sort of official pact with Princess Celestia to ensure that fact. But that was something to deal with later. More pressing was the issue of the “help” the princess was providing them. She’d all but openly stated that her student was being sent as a spy to make sure the Lydia held up their end of the bargain. Logically, he understood her rationale, but he couldn’t help but bristle at the fact that she didn’t trust him. Now he would always have someone breathing down his neck, and he’d have to be even more on his guard. As much as it irritated him, though, he knew there was nothing he could do about it, other than be as gracious as possible. He would be as accommodating as he could be to the princess’ “eyes”, and make sure the reports she sent back was favorable. Thus determined but still unsure of what the morning would bring, Hornblower finally went to bed at midnight, falling asleep with thoughts of repairs swirling through his head. *** “Sir?” Midshipman Knyvett’s voice came through the door, “Lieutenant Bush’s compliments. He says a chariot is approaching. I believe the guests you mentioned are arriving.” “Thank you, Knyvett,” Hornblower said, smoothing down his neckerchief one last time, “I’ll be up at once.” “Aye, sir.” Once Knyvett’s footsteps had retreated, Hornblower took a deep breath, straightened up, and went out to meet Princess Celestia’s envoy. His timing was impeccable; he arrived on deck just as the chariot touched down. His neutral expression faltered slightly when he got a good look at what was in the chariot. Not only were there six horse heads sticking out of the chariot, looking up at the Lydia curiously, but the carriage section was overflowing with boxes. Hornblower sighed and put his hands behind his back, recomposing himself. They’d find a place for everything, if necessary. One by one, the six horses (ponies, he reminded himself) descended from the chariot, a purple unicorn leading the way. They clustered around the gangplank the men had laid out for them, the unicorn putting one hoof tentatively on the wood. “Permission to come aboard, captain?” she called out, before shaking her head, “Ooh, I do hope I got that right!” “Permission granted,” Hornblower responded, lifting his hat, “Welcome aboard, all of you.” He’d planned to use the time they spent coming up the gangplank trying to take their measure, but before he could even take in the other five ponies, a pink blur shot up the gangplank and jumped onto the railing, and he suddenly found himself nose to nose with one of them. “Hi!” the pony practically shouted, her voice high and squeaky, “Are you the captain? You must be, since you’ve got such shiny gold stuff on your shoulders. No one else has anything near as nice, and I know all the big military people get things the regular old army guys don’t. Twilight’s brother looks way more decked out than any of the other royal guard. Why aren’t you wearing armor? You totally should, you know, it’ll keep you safe.” She (with that voice, the pony had to be female) was speaking incredibly rapidly, slow enough for Hornblower to understand, but too fast for him to get a word in edgewise. All he could do was take a few steps backwards and hold up a hand, though he wasn’t sure if he was doing it to get her to quiet down or to ward her off. “Pinkie!” the purple unicorn said, a note of fond exasperation in her voice, “He won’t be able to answer anything if you don’t give him a chance to explain it. Besides, I think it would be better if we all introduced ourselves first.” “Oh. Ok!” Pinkie beamed at Hornblower and jumped off the railing to rejoin the group of ponies. Blinking, Hornblower raised his hat again. “Captain Horatio Hornblower of the HMS Lydia, at your service.” The purple unicorn smiled and inclined her head. “I’m Twilight Sparkle, Princess Celestia’s student. I was originally going to come alone, but my friends were there when I got the letter, and they all insisted on coming along. I hope that doesn’t put you out.” “Not at all,” Hornblower said, resisting the urge to grit his teeth, “Although…it might be easier for everyone if you tried to find rooms in town instead of bunking on the ship. We’re a bit cramped for space as it is.” “Oh, of course!” Twilight agreed, “We wouldn’t want to make things difficult. I completely understand the need to get everything in order. I was going to suggest going through the ship and making a proper checklist of the things to be done once we were finished with the introductions. That way, we can figure out the most efficient order!” Her eyes were practically glowing at the idea of checklists and order, to the point that Hornblower would have classified it as “fanatic zeal”. Still, the idea had merit, so he merely nodded. “I’ll give you a tour of the ship once we’re finished here. Why don’t you introduce me to your friends?” Twilight smiled and stepped aside, gesturing to each of the ponies as they came forward, holding out a hoof. “This is Applejack…” “Mighty nice to meet ya!” A sandy-haired pony said, shaking his hand vigorously. “Fluttershy…” “Um…hi.” The yellow pegasus barely touched his hand before squeaking and running back to the safety of the group. “Rarity…” “A pleasure.” To Hornblower’s surprise, the white unicorn’s voice bore traces of an English accent. He wondered if it had crept into usage due to other British visitors to Equestria. “Rainbow Dash…” “Sup.” The other pegasus looked almost bored to be there, though at least she gave a proper handshake. “And you’ve already met Pinkie Pie.” Twilight concluded. “Hornblower, huh?” Pinkie said, shaking his hand so hard and fast that his arm continued to wobble even after she let go, “Does that mean your cutie mark is a trumpet? Or a saxophone? Ooh, ooh, or a tuba? Please tell me it’s a tuba!” Hornblower blinked at her. “What sort of mark?” Pinkie gasped dramatically. “You mean you don’t get cutie marks wherever you come from? That’s so weird! How do you figure out what you’re good at, then?” Before he could answer, she turned to the side and pointed to her flank, which had three balloons in a triangle pattern branded onto it. “That’s a cutie mark,” she explained, “And it means that my super-special talent is throwing parties!” She gasped again, sounding much happier. “Oh my gosh! I need to throw a ‘welcome to the weirdo humans’ party! I’ll get started on that as soon as we finish the tour!” Now completely perplexed, but happy to have gotten back on track, Hornblower interrupted her. “We should get started on that tour, then. I’ll introduce you to the crew as we go along.” “Right!” Twilight said decisively, “I’ll get that checklist drawn up. Spike!” “Coming, Twilight!” A small, purple and green reptilian creature suddenly appeared on deck, a roll of parchment and quill pen in hand. “Who’s this?” Hornblower said, wondering how many other friends Twilight had brought along. “Oh, this is Spike, my assistant. He tends to be my scribe in situations like this.” “And he’s…not a pony.” Hornblower said, mostly to make sure he had all his facts straight. “Oh, no,” Twilight laughed, “He’s a baby dragon.” Hornblower’s eyes widened. After taking a moment to try to come up with a diplomatic turn of phrase, he finally said “Forgive me for being impolite, Miss Sparkle, but I believe it would be unwise for your assistant to come aboard. We are a wooden ship, with many flammable objects. Gunpowder in particular is highly volatile; one spark and this entire ship could be destroyed.” Twilight clapped a hoof to her forehead. “You’re right! Ugh, I don’t know how I could forget something like that. Spike, give me that. You help get the luggage into the nearest inn.” Spike looked both disappointed and resigned as he handed over paper and pen. “All right, Twilight. Good luck.” Then he turned and headed back down the gangplank. “Now then,” Twilight said, unfolding the parchment as the glow came back to her eyes, “Shall we get started on that checklist?”