Chapter Six
Different Cultures, Different Customs
"That was… bizarre," Flurry said as Ao and I touched down on the quarterdeck. "What was Ao doing all wrapped around you?"
"Black and white entwined is a common symbol of magical harmony in many cultures," I told her. "Apart, we're a couple of strange, probably dangerous creatures. Together, we're iconic… and probably dangerous, yes, but still something that usually inspires more awe than fear."
"O—kay. Did it work?"
I hesitated. I didn't want to criticize Flurry, but I found myself wanting to ask if her "research" into this world had been anything more than a glance or two through a mirror portal. "Yes," I said. "It worked like a charm. We got some very good direct information, as well as quite a bit of interesting hints about the culture of this part of the world."
"The gems?"
"We got a clue where to start looking," I told her. "Let's get Nebula headed east, and then hold a strategy meeting in the chart room."
A direct easterly course was near the limit of how close to the wind Nebula could sail. Sirocco seemed to have the best feel for steering, so I put him at the wheel. We luffed and slowed a few times, falling off and regaining speed before coming back on course, but he seemed to be learning quickly. "Watch the edge of the sails. When they start shaking like that, fall off just a hair. Half a spoke or so should do it."
"Yes, ma'am! Uh… Ms. Nightshade, I mean." He shuffled his wings in embarrassment.
"Don't be nervous, Sirocco," I told him. "Either is correct, but when we get back to our own world and I get my monster suit off, I want you to call me Twilight, okay?"
He didn't relax at all. "Yes, Ms. Nightshade!"
"Good!" I said, as cheerfully as possible, and then turned to the huge earth pony that I'd assigned to all the "lift heavy things" tasks on board. "Stalwart Lance, will you please join the rest of us in the chart room?"
He blinked in surprise, and his ears flickered uncertainly. "Me? But I'm just a ground-pounder. I don't know anything about airships or magic."
It was almost amusing seeing the big brute shift his hooves uncertainly. Ten years and several periods of posing as Nightmare Twilight ago, I might have laughed. "Just? You took the silver medal in jousting at the last Equestria Games, if I recall correctly. And aren't you part of the new league that's trying to promote the sport all over the kingdom?"
He forgot his nervousness and grinned. "That's right! I saw you run a few passes with Princess Luna at that exhibition we did in Ponyville the year before last. I didn't think you'd remember me."
I rolled my eyes. "Lance, I guarantee that every mare in Ponyville remembers you."
"Oh...uh…" His blush was amusing. And instructive.
I wondered for a second or so if I was getting too devious for my own good, then said, "Come on." I tossed my head in the direction of the short companionway that led down to the chart room and went ahead. After a few seconds, I heard his hooffalls behind me.
The chart room could have easily accommodated four average ponies, but cramming in two alicorns, a hulking athlete, and a kirin (who was considerably bulky despite her snakey appearance) took a bit of work. We had to fold up the chart table.
I explained to Flurry and Lance what the burros had told us, then I went into the implications of what they hadn't said directly.
"They automatically assumed that an airship crew would be earth ponies, whether pirates or representatives of the local government, and that those ponies would be hostile, regardless," I said.
Lance frowned. "Most aeronauts are unicorns, right? Maybe a quarter of airship crews are pegasi from what I've seen." When Flurry looked at him with a surprised expression, he added, "I travel a lot with the team."
"That's true back in Equestria," I confirmed. "But things seem to be very different here. We're dealing with an expansionist empire. They conquered this area within living memory of the burros, and are not kind to their subjects. In fact…" I paused for a moment. My next supposition was based solely on a muttered aside, but my experience in several less-than-pleasant worlds gave statistical support to my working hypothesis. "I think there is a good chance that this empire considers unicorns to be a servitor class, if not outright slaves."
When the resulting commotion died down, I went on. "So, we have a stratified society with earth ponies at the top. That's where you come in, Stalwart Lance. You may eventually have to front for us. Cream Puff isn't nearly as imposing as you are, and appearance is more important than ponies like to admit. But more critical is the need to arm ourselves, and you may be the only one of the crew who can safely achieve that."
Lance frowned. "But we've got plenty of weapons on board."
"I'm sorry," I replied. "I wasn't clear. I know you're a great athlete, but how are you at library science?"
= = =
The first town we came to was a small settlement around an oasis. We anchored a few furlongs outside the town, and Cream Puff and Stalwart Lance went in to gather information with the excuse of trading gold for supplies.
As neither our pastry chef nor our professional athlete had any experience in espionage, they were given very clear instructions to merely keep their eyes and ears open, and under no circumstances were they to get clever or ask leading questions. They were to say that they were traders and give no more information than that about themselves or the ship. As somepony who was experienced in espionage, I knew that being less inquisitive was more likely to get a pony to loosen up and talk freely.
It would have been so much easier if Flurry or I had been able to manage a disguise spell. I half expected some curious pegasi to fly up to greet us and perhaps try to do a bit of trading, and Flurry wore her greatcoat against that possibility. But there were no ponies in the sky at all. All we could do was wait and hope nothing went wrong in town.
"I wondered where that mark had come from," Flurry said to me as we stood watching the town about three hours after we'd sent our ponies in. She pointed down to a spot on the deck just behind the speaking tubes.
I lifted my hoof away to see a deep groove in the thick oak plank where I'd been unconsciously rubbing the fore edge of my shoe across it.
"It must have taken a long time to wear it that deep," she said.
"Years." I gave her a sheepish grin. "Nervous habit. I never like sending my ponies into danger."
Flurry grimaced. "Does it help? Because those two are my ponies, Ms. Nightshade, and I don't like it at all."
Well. "No, Captain, it doesn't help," I replied. "I've also been going over several rescue plans in my head, which helps only a little."
Captain Skyla turned away from me and resumed her vigil.
Two hours later, just as I was preparing a mental checklist of weapons and tactics we'd need to assault a fortified building, our wayward crewponies returned.
Their mission had been much more enjoyable for them than it had been for Skyla and me.
The town was called Rocas Rojas and was primarily a way-station for caravans. It didn't have any sort of library, unfortunately. There may have been unicorns or pegasi in town, but Lance and Puff didn't see any. The Equestrian bits didn't get so much as a raised eyebrow. A money-changer in the market quickly weighed them, checked their displacement vs. weight, and passed over the equivalent in local currency.[1]
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[1] Less his rather exorbitant fee, of course.
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Not much trade went on in town, but there was a small marketplace where the locals shopped, and it was there that Lance and Puff had spent most of their time.
"It was weird," Lance said to Skyla. "One of the merchants asked what I traded, and I had no idea what to tell him, so I shrugged and said, 'Oh… this and that. Nothing special.' He got really friendly after that. Said he'd be able to get me a good price on my cargo if I didn't feel like dodging the imperial revenue cutters."
"Good, good!" I said. "That tells us a lot!"
"It does?" Skyla asked.
"It makes it obvious that smuggling is rife here, Captain," Ao put in. "The common ponies take it as a matter of fact and are united in the disobedience of laws regulating trade."
Skyla tilted her head and raised an eyebrow. "How is it that you know so much about smuggling, Ms. Ao?"
"Ah… this one has… mm… been exposed to some…"
I laid a wingtip on Ao's shoulder to stop her. "Take it from me, Captain," I said to Skyla, "She's an expert."
Skyla gave me an elegant version of the stink-eye that had more than a little bit of her mother in it. "I'm beginning to think that your bedtime stories were heavily edited."
Poor Cream Puff and Stalwart Lance were looking back and forth between the three of us in complete puzzlement.
Puff broke the awkward silence by opening a package he had brought back from town."They make a really great pastry here! It's lots of really thin layers of dough with chopped almonds and date paste in between. I don't know how they bake it to get it so crispy and flakey, and the mare just laughed when I asked her for the recipe, but the final touch is to soak it in honey, and it's really, really good! Try some!"
It was good. But not as good as what Stalwart Lance had brought back.
"So, there wasn't a library, but there was a stall in the market that sold books and stuff. Also the stallion who ran it wrote letters for a fee." Lance paused and thought for a moment. "I guess that means that a lot of ponies here are illiterate?"
Good. He was starting to think. I told myself I'd make a spy out of him yet.
"Anyway..." He set a big bundle down on the deck and untied the cloth. "I bought all the maps he had and several books that looked like they might be of help."
"Oh Lance, I could just kiss you!" I breathed, levitating the top map up and unfolding it.
Skyla snickered and that made me look up. Stalwart Lance had half reared back and his eyes were showing white all the way around the irises.
I was a bit surprised to find that I was kind of miffed at his reaction. "Oh come on! I'm not that horrible looking, am I?"
Lance began to stammer out something but Ao interrupted him with a snarl. "You should be grateful for Her Majesty's slightest sign of favor! This one will allow no—"
"Wait!" I shouted shoving my wings between the two of them. "Stop! There's no need for a stupid fight over nothing!" Lance froze and looked to Skyla. Ao looked to me.
Okay. I should have known better, I suppose. The situation needed to be fixed immediately. I sighed and said, "There are no princesses aboard this ship, is that clear? No majesties or highnesses. There are the captain and the officers and the crew. We are in a very tricky situation and we need to work together without any divided loyalties or petty rivalries. Is that clear?"
There was some embarrassed mumbling and then Skyla said, "Well, you're the one with all the experience, Twilight. And this is really your ship. You should be the captain."
It would have been easy to agree. It might have been safer for everypony aboard. But I took the time to try to think about the situation from a more long-term point of view. Flurry's upbringing had provided her with everything a pony could want... but not everything a pony needed. That was a subtle danger of wealth and privilege... and an over-indulgent aunt, I suppose. I sighed and refolded the map, setting it back on top of the pile.
"No, you are the captain. I haven't regretted that decision for an instant. But I haven't wholly embraced it, either. I've held back some important information, and that was a mistake. If you're going to be responsible for Nebula and her crew, you need to know everything."
That got Skyla's attention. "What information?" she asked in a carefully neutral tone of voice.
"There won't be a rescue party coming from Equestria. The portal is jammed in a way that means it will only open from this side, and only with a huge amount of power. This isn't a game. We've got to get those crystals or we'll never see home again."
There was a very long silence, and then I asked, "What are your orders, Captain Skyla?"
= = =
Everything went perfectly smoothly from then on.[2]
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[2] It's odd, but I actually felt a slight twinge as I wrote that down.
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No, of course it didn't. But the incidents were fairly negligible, and we got more cohesive as a crew with each passing day. It would be wearisome to chronicle each minor bit of friction, so suffice it to say that we all did much better than the average green crew. Under the circumstances. Considering.
I think I may have had the worst time of it. I am not "bossy", as Rainbow Dash often accuses me of being. I am knowledgeable and experienced, and therefore I usually have a knowledgeable and experienced opinion about any given situation. It is only natural that I give voice to that opinion in order to give other, less knowledgeable and experienced ponies the benefit of my knowledge and experience.[3]
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[3] Another, slightly stronger twinge, there. I wish it was simply the consequence of so much close repetition.
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Let's just say it was a significant learning experience for me as well.
The maps and books that Stalwart Lance had bought gave us a much clearer, if less pleasant, picture of that foreign world. It was definitely a stratified and racist society. Earth ponies ruled in a hereditary feudal structure. There were absolutely no wings or horns among the nobility. Pegasi were a specialized warrior caste, and groups served individual noble families rather than the empire as a whole. It wasn't clear from the books how that worked, or why disaffected individuals didn't simply fly away if the whim took them, but there was a solid assumption of absolute loyalty underlying all of the texts.
The worst part was the fate of the unicorns. Being ponies, they were technically superior to the "subject" races,[4] but in actuality, they were slaves in all but name. Because of the limitations of the world's magical flow, they could only do simple and low-powered spells. No teleportation, no battle magic, or anything of that sort.
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[4] I had forgotten how horrifying it was to first discover that ponies could treat each other like that, but the reaction of Nebula's crew brought it back to me, afresh.
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But, however it had happened, thaumic engineering had developed to nearly the degree it had back home. The principles were well understood, even though no single unicorn could power the higher-level matrices. But those matrices could be engraved as mandalas on waveguides, and mana storage crystals could power those constructs.
And so, the unicorns of that land existed for one purpose only; to charge the gems that ran the technology of the Empire of Earth.
"We've got to do something," Skyla said, when the full magnitude of the situation hit her.
I didn't want to lecture her, and I certainly didn't want to advise her to ignore a great injustice, but the impulse to do both climbed up my throat like… something unpleasant and unhelpful.
"We will do what we can," I said quietly, "but cultures are harder to fight than empires."
She scowled at me, unsatisfied, but unable to disagree.
I understood. Back home, there was always something that could be done. Love and Truth and Justice—not to mention Friendship—were tangible forces that could literally move mountains. But the multiverse was a huge expanse, filled with places much colder and less caring than our own cozy little world.
Fortunately, I had a little experience at toppling corrupt regimes, as Sultana Rarity of Marezambique could attest. "What we can do is damage. Damage to their image, damage to their myth of innate superiority, and quite honestly, I'm not averse to a large amount of property damage incidental to retrieving those crystals."
Skyla's expression softened. "That sounds good, but I wish we could do more."
I floated over her greatcoat and settled it over her wings. "Don't discount the ideas our little adventure will sow in the minds of the oppressed. When a unicorn pirate captain defies the Empire of Earth, steals their treasures, and kicks some rump in the process…" I paused to straighten her collar and to do up the gold buttons at her throat. "...that is inspiring!"
She was grinning by the time I'd finished. "Then let us go inspire, Ms. Nightshade!"
I snapped off the cleanest salute I think I've ever delivered in my life. "With pleasure, Captain Skyla!"
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