Peter
Do you know one problem that most people seem to forget about when they think of going into one of those fantasy settings is communication. Not the normal communication problems like where they speak a different language, but the more basic types of sending communication and getting a reply.
Back when America was being founded it took weeks just to send a message to England and possibly months just to get a reply. Villages would have to wait days or even weeks depending on the roads or if some natural disaster took out a bridge. In fact the further you go back in history the longer it took to receive new information. It’s one of those things we have forgotten after being so used to getting new information with just a few clicks of a button.
Moving out into the Badlands gave us independence… at the cost of sticking our heads in the sand. We have no idea on what’s happening in Equestria and at best we can rely on rumors which isn't exactly the most reliable means of information.
“I’m telling you that this is insane!” shouted Theodore the former human turned griffin “Why are we giving up our prisoners to Equestria?”
I sighed as I pinched the bridge of my nose as despite popular belief… I wasn’t completely in charge of New Terra. I was the mayor I didn't make all the decisions by myself, but I did have the final say in most matters.
I looked down at him and tried to keep it simple “We have a bandit, an illegal doctor, a mad griffin and some sort of weird monster bird sitting in a cage and that’s without getting into the former diamond dog turned into a dragon that is ‘mostly’ turned back to normal. If you have a good reason to keep them in our jail cells than go ahead and tell us.”
Theodore huffed in annoyance as his brown feathers ruffled together making him look more like a barnyard owl than an actual griffin. He shook his head as he muttered “I’m just saying maybe we should try asking for something in return. If we simply give them over then nothing happens… but if we trade them for some supplies… information…. just something of value than it would be a lot better.”
Ashley the former human turned diamond dog nodded her head “It might not be that bad of an idea to deny a prisoner transfer until we get something out of it. We only accepted their help with dealing with this 'cursed trader' incident. These new prisoners that they want are not even a part of the previous deal.”
Theodore rose his voice “They are sending someone else to talk about a prisoner transfer instead of using on one of the people they had already sent here! Are they doing this because these criminals have something important on them? Is this an attempt to get something else from our town without our knowledge?”
Ashley sighed “He does have a point… and if we just hand them over without anything in return some people may see us as simply bowing down to Celestia and letting her set the laws. While there are different reasons we people came to New Terra… I believe we all can agree that we came here because humans would be in charge… not to have someone from Equestria dictating the rules.”
William the former human turned donkey stared at her “Didn’t you say we should inform Celestia about this cursed trader problem?”
Ashley slowly nodded her head “That was because we needed help and Equestria was looking for this cursed trader. Yes having Remedy Cross helped out with some of the victims… but do you really want Celestia to simply came over here and tell us what we can or cannot do?
Do you want to set precedence where she gets the final say on all issues?”
William rolled his eyes “You make it sound like she’s ‘tyrant’ Celestia.”
Theodore chuckled softly “I doubt she’s a tyrant, but if we look at the facts… her nation is bigger than ours. Her kingdom is older than ours. We are left to our own devices simply because we are not worth the trouble to enforce. If one or a group of her cabinet decides that we found something of value than they will of course want to have it for their much larger nation.”
He held up a talon “Not that I’m saying their corrupt… but you don’t send a diplomat to check on a prisoner if all you're looking for is just a simple prisoner transfer. Otherwise Celestia would be just fine with asking us if they can bring the other criminals they caught back to Equestria instead of making us wait.”
William huffed in slight annoyance “Personally I don’t see any problems with shipping them back to Equestria. The ‘mad griffin’ is stuck in a cursed suit of armor giving us a perfect example of just why dark magic is bad. I’m pretty sure all he wanted was a little bit more strength without having to trade away his memories. Now he is a raging berserker just one minute away from shouting ‘Blood for the Blood God! Skulls for the Skull Throne!’ and we no idea how to treat him.”
He glared back at Theodore “The criminal known as Brass has committed so many crimes in Equestria… that Interpol would be after her. Just because she jumped state lines it does not mean she gets off scot free… It’s better to hand her over without any fuss than trying to let everyone think that just about any criminal can move into New Terra and not have to worry about the law catching up to them.”
“And ensuring the trust of the citizens… and being compensated for our troubles would help fix the damage caused by this cursed trader.” Theodore quickly replied “While ‘Rover’ the dragon may be back to being dog sized. There is a fair amount of damage left by this incident and this isn’t a comic book where there is a simple wave of hand to magically fix everything.”
I could see the point they were trying to make… but my biggest problem was that Equestria was sending another group to pick up Brass. They didn’t just ask us to help escort them back to Equestria as they decided they should bring their own diplomat and soldiers just to be safe. I want to think that there is a perfectly good reason for this… but if this was just another group of humans I would think there was something they weren’t telling us.
William shook his head “If this was just a simple problem like bandits or someone going on a power trip I can deal with it. If there is something more complicated than I can try to fall back on what I know from earth. The moment you place something that is completely foreign to us... then obviously we are going to need some help to fix it."
He cleared his voice "We know practically nothing about magical artifacts and curses other than the fact that magic is involved. The only doctor who knows how to treat the symptoms is currently on loan from Equestria.”
He looked back at everyone “I mean they didn’t have to stay and help clean up the mess this cursed trader left us. They could have simply packed their bags up and left after realizing that this cursed trader had left but they didn't. They stayed and are currently trying to help fix anyone who wants to be treated and you are asking if we should hold out just to charge them extra?”
Amber the human turned earth pony nodded her head “I know it sounds bad, but would you rather let Celestia come in here and take any possible criminals she is looking for? What if she asks for us to register all the changelings… or starts placing limits on what we are allowed to produce. I mean sure the musket rifles are inaccurate, but she might just end up banning them due to the possible danger they possess? What if she decides to tell us to stop with our weather production system because it’s not up to Equestria’s standard? I mean it took a lot of work just to set up the lake so that we could then be able to grow our own crops!”
William groaned “We are just letting a few wanted criminals be sent to an Equestrian jail and you make it sound like we are resigning from office and building a throne for her.”
Amber huffed in annoyance “Maybe you didn’t make a mistake in the past. I mean some of us figure out how to walk on our own right off the bat without running into any problems. A few of us weren’t so lucky as we ended up making the mistake of traveling with the wrong crowd. Some were simply misguided as they had yet to realize the reality of our situation.”
She took a deep breath before she spoke with a harsh tone “What if she wants to toss some of those people in jail. What if she wants to take our changeling residents back to Equestria to make sure they are ‘safe’ for the general public? I mean they are essentially psychic vampires that feed off of emotions so it would technically be a valid concern as she would have a valid reason for placing them all in jail... even if it’s morally wrong.”
I closed my eyes and took a deep breath as a part of me simply wished the criminals responsible for this entire disaster had escaped. If this was a cartoon it would have all been wrapped up after the criminal had been caught… but sadly reality had to kick in making a simple prisoner issue into a political debate. This is why seemingly simple laws have a hard time being passed back home due to all the extra things politicians tack onto those bills.
Theodore was trying to turn a prisoner transfer into a business trade. He didn’t want to give something for nothing and while his reason for it was bad… his reasoning wasn’t. There was damage caused by the Cursed Trader and we could use the extra funds… or any help that we could get.
Personally I would like to think the extra ponies being sent over are to help us rebuild and fix the damage caused by Rover the Dragon… but the human skeptic didn't believe it as there were various other reasons they could have been sent besides helping cart away a few prisoners. Maybe there is a problem back home or maybe they are looking for something around New Terra without informing us about it.
William on the other hand didn’t care about any of this as he just wanted to get rid of Brass. We already managed to stop one bandit problem and that cow wasn’t even a former human! If a normal cow wanted to be an 'adventurer' had caused us a lot of problems then how bad would Brass be if she managed to break out of jail and then decided to set up camp near New Terra?
Maybe she wouldn’t be as… inspired as the brown cow, but I couldn’t exactly fault William for wanting to get rid of Brass as soon as possible. The only problem was that he didn’t care about the aftermath. If Celestia wanted to ship anyone we had in a jail cell or walking on the street over to Equestria without any due process than he’d gladly do it.
“I think we should ship over Brass and the griffin… but we shouldn’t just give them the freaky bird or the doctor.” Silver Wind the former human turned Pegasus replied as she noticed the various stares from her colleagues. “Not that I’m saying we shouldn’t keep the rest of them.”
She flapped her wings until she was hovering over her chair “I mean we don’t have any use for the mad griffin and he’s a hassle to keep chained up. We already have a bandit in jail and Celestia has a long list of grievances against the one we just received. If we were back on earth I’m sure we would have been required to hand her over to Equestria unless we made it legal for any criminal to cross the border and not be held responsible for any major crimes they may have committed.”
She took a deep breath as she looked back at everyone “Still that does not mean we should give up the other criminals for free as they haven’t even caused any major crimes in Equestria, but they had broken a couple of crimes within our territory… Not Equestria’s territory."
She held up a hoof "We have some doctors who were former veterinarians or picked up a few healing skills from the menu but their expertice stops when you introduce magical problems. We lack a doctor in the magical medical problem field and while the unicorn doctor might be an illegal doctor native to Equestrian... He is still a doctor that we could use. It would also be within out legal right to simply sentence him to X amount of hours of community service.”
William groaned as he promptly face palmed “I’ll give you points for the unicorn, but why would we want to keep the other criminals? What about the other two? I mean the diamond dog also wasn’t under the influence of anything more than thinking that nothing could stop him because he was turned into a dragon.”
Silver Wind rolled her eyes “I’m more interested in the bird as that freak isn’t from Equestria. We’ve all seen the show or read some fic about MLP yet that creature doesn’t exactly fit the setting. If that bird isn’t native… and we got dumped here in Equestria as we also are not native to this land… then maybe there is a connection between it and what has happened to us and I for one would hate to give up the clue we have.”
She flew above the human turned donkey and chuckled “Besides that freaky thing was with the cursed fellow responsible for all this. If anything we should be trying to make it tell us where the cursed trader went or how he was able to pull off his magic tricks because last time I checked turning into a different race over night is a rare event… and when was the last time griffins snapping their fingers to cast magic as if they were unicorns a common trick?”
William stared at the Pegasus above him “You think this ‘cursed trader’ is actually Discord in disguise?”
“Na… I’d think the lack of insanity or dancing buffalos proved he wasn’t Discord.” Silver quickly replied “But walking into a mirror and smashing it from inside isn’t a part of the standard Equestrian playbook even by Pinkie Pie’s standards. Maybe he’s the same species as Discord or maybe he knows something important that we don’t know.”
William groaned “Well we were able to find out that the avian does have a menu so she’s probably human.”
Theodore coughed “She’s human? Heck how did she even tell you considering she lacks a freaking mouth?”
William shrugged “Remedy claimed that our caged prisoner has had a variety of enchantments and spells wrapped around her to the point she doesn’t even know what our guest originally was. Maybe she was the first mixture of attempts our cursed trader was trying to do to our citizens? That and anyone with a menu can apparently hear her voice. Natives of Equestria seem to be unable to hear her.”
I stared at him in disbelief "Are you sure she wasn't pretending to not hear her?"
William shook his head "Considering the criminal in question was screaming at the top of her lungs and the native Equestrians didn't hear a thing... I'm inclined to believe them."
Silver frowned “Okay… maybe ‘she’ is a human, but if that’s the case than we should keep her in order to figure out how our people were turned into a different race overnight. Some of us didn’t get to pick what we would appear as and I would like to know how they were able to swaps races overnight for anyone who does want to be a different race.”
Of course everyone knew that she was still curious about looking into the possibility of turning back into a human... or upgrading to an alicorn package.
William rolled his eyes “What about you? What’s your opinion on this matter mayor?”
I couldn’t help but chuckle as I replied “I still think making me mayor was a bad idea.”
Theodore shrugged “You’re the only one who went to law school or had been a politician before being dumped in Equestria. The public also did vote for you to put you in office.”
I sighed as I quickly muttered “If you’re asking for my opinion then I can’t say much.”
William shook his head “You don’t want to leave a commit on which side you take?”
“Actually I don’t want to pass judgment without seeing the lawyers.” I replied with a slight smirk “But personally… I think some of you are blowing things out of proportion. Celestia is sending a diplomat over to ask a few questions and check on the criminals in question.”
I rubbed my sides as I could feel some of the cuts left by ‘Rover’ the dragon. If there was a transfer request for the mutt than I would want to know what the reason was… as I was personally ready to string up that mutt and pin all the problems from the cursed trader disaster and let the courts tear him apart, but I couldn’t let my personal bias interfere with my job.
“Until we know exactly what they are going to do, offer, pass judgment, or whatever they are being sent here to actually do… guessing about it won’t solve anything.” I calmly replied “If they are anything like the people back home… I’m expecting a mixture of helpful commits or attempts to help keep peaceful relationships between New Terra and Equestria. They will ask a few seemingly harmless questions or give us a few ‘gifts’ to help us as they try to get a voice in our government. Nothing major like taking control and dictate what we should do, but making a voice just strong enough for them to ‘hopefully’ hold some weight in our decision making process.”
I looked down at everyone “They don’t need to set up policy if they control our income and Equestria has been around a lot longer than this settlement. The prisoner transfer isn’t so much the issue as it’s an excuse for them to take a look around at what we have and try to see just what we might be holding in our hand. Maybe they might try tacking on a few extra policies or items onto what should be a simple prisoner transfer, but that's politics... or politics back home.”
William frowned “You didn’t seem that worried about letting the other Equestrians walk about.”
“There is a fine line between tourist and diplomats.” I quickly countered “Tourists don’t try and steal trade secrets or look for dirt that can be used against their humble hosts. Besides we also need to know what’s going on with their end of the world if they want to poke their nose into our business.”
William continued to stare forcing me to sigh “But for the prisoners… I just want someone to watch during the questioning process. If they find anything of value than that’s great otherwise we end up with a few dangerous prisoners that we can’t do anything. Instead of being an asset they become a liability.”
I looked back at Thedore “If you can sneak in a deal to get a free toaster than by all means go ahead and do so… but I’d rather ship them all out for free than wait to see if Brass won’t have her gang of criminals try and bust her free.”
I know it wasn’t that great of a point but it was enough for them to work with. I didn’t care what happened with the other prisoners just as long as Equestria’s problems weren’t in my backyard.
Theodore took off ready to see what New Terra needed and what he could safely weasel out of Equestria. Amber went off to tell her allies to be on the lookout for any ‘0’ that came along with the diplomat as William prepared to check New Terra’s security once again as he prepared to send Brass away as soon as possible.
Silver glanced at my body “Are you a little bit ticked that you are not the biggest thing around now?”
I couldn’t help but chuckle as most people would have been happy to be a dragon considering how easy they could play out a power fantasy with my size. Heck I didn’t even need to use the menu system to empower myself due to the fact that I was already a dragon.
That was probably why life thought it would be funny to give it to me. I was stuck to a desk job for most of the day and rarely got to spread my wings out to fly. That and my size made working difficult since the town wasn’t built to accommodate fantasy sized dragons so I was forced to delegate a lot more than I wanted to.
In fact I kind of found my size odd as I didn’t really have a horde and I had actually been trying to make myself smaller. Maybe there was something ‘wrong’ with whatever force decided to drop me in Equestria as a dragon… or being mayor of this place had somehow made New Terra listed as ‘my horde’ for a better lack of term. Personally I’d just like to reach a size where I didn’t have to dictate everything I said just because I was too big to write anything down.
Silver smirked as she stared at me “So do you really think the previous group Equestria sent over here were actually tourists?”
“No…” I told the former human “I recognized their looks as someone who was being sent somewhere else to not cause any trouble. We didn’t care about Equestria and they didn’t care or even notice us until now. The fact that they are now sending a diplomat means that one of those criminals are important enough to play ‘nice’ with a fledgling settlement.”
Silver nodded her head “But not nice enough for her to come down herself.”
“That’s where you’re wrong…” I grimly muttered “If she came down here than it would be a simple prisoner transfer… the fact she is sending someone else means that something more troubling is happening either in Equestria… or she isn’t after Brass, but one of our other prisoners.”
Silver frowned “Then why would she send someone else?”
I couldn’t help but smirk as I remembered my business dealings with other people back on earth “You want an honest face you send an honest person. You want to keep something secret then you send someone who is good at deceiving others. Apparently Celestia wanted someone from the latter group to meet us is what’s bothering me.”
“As for why I didn’t bother telling everyone this…” I pushed myself up and smiled “I would rather prepare for the worst and be pleasantly surprised if I’m wrong than hope for the best only to be disappointed. That and the last thing I needed to say is anything to help fuel any paranoia towards Equestria’s actions.”
“Never think it’s malice when ignorance is just as plausible.” Silver quoted with a smirk
I nodded my head as it could be just as likely that Celestia wanted a better set of eyes and ears to understand what was going in my little city here. Personally I hoped that we got through this without any more trouble.
******
Regal Script
They sky cart was pushed through the air as one of the pegasi replied “We could have been looking around a swamp for a bucking cursed tree, but you wanted to try pulling strings.”
The other white Pegasus grunted “So you would rather be dealing with monsters spawned from dark magic than pulling a cart?”
“I’d rather be a member of the Royal Guard than being used as a glorified taxi.” The first one replied out loud.
The unicorn in the back who was growing increasingly annoyed shouted “You do realize I can hear you!”
The Pegasus shouted back “And it’s too hot outside for me to care!”
Regal Script let a soft grunt escape his throat as he said “And that I can have you punished for those comments!”
Regal Script huffed in bitter annoyance as he didn’t like when the lesser help refused to respect their betters. If the glorified feather duster couldn’t get him to the dirt hovels the savages in New Terra made than what good were they?
The unicorn sighed as he looked out the window of his prestige cart only to see grow more bland in this colorless desert. There was no scenery for him to watch and the fact he would have to let these peasants outside rest in his cart each time they landed or when Regal Script required a bathroom break irritated him to no end. The ruffians would always stink of wet fur and sweat forcing him to air the place out and let in even more heat.
“If only they had a competent weather team to deal with this Celestia Forsaken heat dump.” He muttered to himself “or do all the weather teams in Equestria just dump the hot air out here?”
“No they just give them seats in Canterlot Castle.” A Pegasus spoke out loud much to his annoyance.
Regal Script growled as he replied “Who was the pony who made that comment?”
“Bilbo Baggins.” A random glorified cloud mule replied
One of the pegasi whispered loudly “Bilbo Baggins?”
The one destined for being shipped to the frozen north replied “One of the others told me about him. Some little guy who followed a bunch of dwarves to stop a greedy dragon that liked to attack villages and steal their valuables. It was a weird story.”
Regal Script pulled out a quill ready to write down his name only for another Pegasus to say “Aren’t you afraid he’ll ship you up north?”
“Are you kidding me? That’d be great. I mean I’m kind of dating this adventurer mare who has this great gig up north for bug slaying and I’m sure my CO would probably want me to help slay any of the creepy bugs up north.” The cursed Pegasus replied “Heck I might even get a bonus if I work with her party.”
Regal Script hissed through his clenched teeth as he hated this pony. Not even the threat of having his tail frozen off seemed to be working. Maybe there was some spot near the badlands he could have this pony transferred too. Better yet maybe he should request good soldiers instead of simply demanding a regiment's best flyers.
A burst of green flames appeared in front of him as a scroll dropped onto his lap. Regal Script adjusted his tie as his white business suit was hanging near the window. He quickly took out a mirror and made sure that his brown coat was well combed and that his black mane didn’t look… oily due to the insufferable heat of this cursed land.
“Maybe there was an evil empire down here that Celestia removed by scorching the land dry with a piece of the sun.” He muttered to himself “Still if Celestia sent a letter than this will all be worth it.”
He popped off the seal as he… skimmed the letter “Dear Regal Script. I have come to inform you about… words, words, more words, fluff, don’t buck the locals… don’t buck the leaders…don’t leave a bad impression… and make certain you use the spell to double check the race of the caged monster that they have locked up.”
He looked over the spell as it was one of those boring old medical scan spells that had been mostly replaced by the newer/more flexable version that were not limited to checking for a single aliment. Regal mostly found them useful in making sure that a griffin or donkey didn’t have one of those rare temporary race change/mimic spells cast on them, but those old spells always gave him a horn ache after casting them a few times.
Alight that may seem like a bad reason to study how to cast old outdated spells, but to be fair he knew his future would end off being married to some old hag or greedy gold digger so naturally he had bought his rank in the Equestrian Military help to help bar that ugly future for a little while so that he could freely enjoy life's bounty.
He looked over the spell scroll as this was just another thing that Celestia wanted to check just in case he couldn’t make the prisoner transfer happen due to some obscure reason the local band of savages might have for not following the orders of their betters. In the end all that really mattered to him was restoring the proud Script name and possibly usurping the Blue Blood Family and standing on the top of the noble families.
He could see it now… the Royal Script family. The Blue Bloods would be back to… whatever they were in the past as his family would be in charge of ruling Canterlot… with the assistance of their beloved ‘aunt’ of course... and possibly annulling any political marriages his parents had set up.
Another scroll appeared as he opened it up and looked over the series of details she wanted investigated… apparently she wanted to see if he could figure out their weather system. He knew enough to talk about their Equestrian Weather System in a conversation… but not enough of the finer details to tell how it all worked out.
He just knew that there was some age old problem of trying to convert saltwater into fresh water which had limited the Equestrian weather system to be reliant on reservoirs or natural lakes. Apparently those who had been sent before him weren’t allowed to get a better look, but this was one of those secrets that would greatly help benefit Equestria (And his family) if he managed to figure out how it operated.
Simply saying ‘make it hot’ would be like saying a smith made a good sword was made by dumping rocks into pot over a pit of fire and simply waited a few minutes.
There was temperature control, heat dampening, cloud structure, or dealing with water pressure and cloud quality. It wouldn’t be safe to make a container out of a conductive metal only to accidently make lightning storms thus charging the container into a giant pony sized bug zapper… or somehow falling out of the cloud factory and smashing into the ground.
Something he thought was impossible until he read one of the reports of the… airship experiments. Apparently some ponies were switching to wood in the hopes of noticing it catching on fire rather than having pieces of their craft fall through the sky and crash into the ground.
Regal Script sighed as he thought to himself “Talk to the prisoners and make sure they are being treated fairly. Use the scroll to test the unusual cases for abnormalities and find some way into the weather factory so that Equestria can see if it’s a simple trick to copy or if we’ll need help setting up a salt to fresh cloud converter factory.”
“Why couldn’t these backwater idiots set up shop in Equestria and just give us what we wanted.” He muttered to himself “Most of them seem to be doing their best showing everypony and their grandmother... and yet the one time they manage to make something useful… the idiots in question decided to settle out in the middle of the badlands to keep it a secret.”
He poured himself a glass of ice water and took a long deep sip as this heat was unbearable for a unicorn. The pegasi were probably just fine as they had some sort of natural weather magic or something to cool themselves off. He was just happy he spent the time learning a few ice related spells instead of those flashy dueling techniques as his colleagues back in Canterlot would be drowning in their own sweat by now.
The cart shook a little forcing him to glance out the window once again only to see that the cart was slowly starting to descend. He was prepared to snap at the guards as they already had a rest break an hour ago, but stopped himself when he caught the sight of a couple of other flying races.
Regal Script quickly did his best to clean himself up and look professional. Leaving a good and proper impression was one of the most important things to start with when introducing oneself to an unknown pony. He quickly fell back to his many years of working in Canterlot as he prepared his ‘calm, caring, and polite’ noble persona as nopony really cared what he thought just as long as they heard what they wanted.
He stepped out of the cart and replied “Who are these fine ponies Sergeant?”
The pony in charge of his protection/transportation glanced at him apparently in surprise that Regal Script remembered him. That was of course a lie since he only memorized ranks. It showed a bit more respect when others saw him ‘remembering’ those underneath him without him actually remembering who they were. Sometimes the soldiers would also think that he would remember them which could be an added bonus sometimes.
The Pegasus straightened up “Apparently they are members of New Terra’s Weather shipment teams. They were setting up a spot to rest for the final leg of the trip.”
The voice sounded familiar… but annoyances were to be dealt with when the potential costs of punishments didn’t outweigh the need for a good impression. He noticed some of the guards that should have been pulling his cart was helping the other ponies land their carts.
Regal Script was surprised to see that they were full of water. Not fruit, vegetables or some sort of consumer product, but lots and lots of barrels, buckets, and other various containers full of water. Some of the griffins were pulling out water skins and taking a few sips before passing it around as none of them drank from their storage supply.
One pink mare with a yellow mane walked up and spoke with a strange accent “Name’s Buttercup… Sorry about the interference Gov, but my crew needed a stop and we kind of dragged your fly boys down with us.”
He nodded his head as he didn’t give the order, but he wasn’t going to let such an easy opportunity to pass away as he politely replied “It’s no problem at all since we are all headed in the same direction.”
The other ponies and griffins seemed to be at ease while his own guards stared at him in disbelief. Of course their opinion didn’t matter since he was not required for them to like him. Their job was to bring him to his destination and he actually needed the locals to like him.
Buttercup nodded “Well it was a big help all the same. Carting around this sea water is a rough on the wings.”
“Sea water?” one of the guards spoke in disbelief.
Buttercup motioned towards the various carts “One trip empty to the sea and a second trip back. Sure we get a fine bit back from the cloud system we have set up, but we still need to dump into the cloud factory up top and the sea salt does fetch a fine bit of coin on the market place. Well after we repair the damage cart or find some other way to bring the cargo with us.”
Regal Script nodded as he pretended to know about everything she had just said. The important thing was that this mare was a way to get what Equestria actually wanted from their backwater settlement.
“Taking it from a nearby water source could disrupt any nearby weather systems.” He parroted back the random sentence he once heard in his youth “Still I have to commend your strength to carry it for such a great distance.”
Buttercup rubbed the back of her head and smirked “Thanks love. Still there isn’t too much distance before we reach one of the outposts or the factory.”
Regal Script nodded as he used his magic to pull out a bucket of ice water and placed it in front of everypony. They all stared at it in the same manner a serf would stare at a sack of bits. Sadly one of his guards had face hoofed as if expecting a disaster.
Regal Script smiled as he placed the bucket down in front of them “Well tell you crew I’m happy to share some of my fresh water as we won’t be lifting off without you.”
Buttercup’s crew already stepped forward ready to fill their water skins up only for her to reply “You don’t have too as we can make it to the next outpost soon.”
He just simply just gave his best Celestia smile as he replied “Not at all. It looks like some of your crew could use a small break and I’d be more than willing to help out a fellow pony. Besides it will give us some time to get to know each other.”
Buttercup’s crew was already taking their fill of water as Regal Script pulled out another bucket as he gave it to his guards saying “We can take a small break right Sergeant?”
The guards simply nodded as they were confused at seeing the kind unicorn noble instead of the one that constantly complained and hoarded his water supply despite the unbearable heat the badlands had to offer. Now he was giving them ice cold bucks full of water and ice as he was helping out other ponies.
Buttercup chuckled “So what brings you to our little slice of terra?”
Regal Script chuckled “I’m here to act as a diplomat and talk to the leaders of New Terra about a few boring political matters.”
“You’re a diplomat?” Buttercup replied in a mixture of surprise and disbelief.
He nodded his head “I know… A diplomat’s job is to say ‘Nice doggy, nice doggy.’ while they try to find a stick.”
This got a chuckle out of the mare “Was that a joke?”
He shrugged as a small grin came to his face “Well you do have to admit it takes some talent to make a dog wait while you find a good stick. What about you? It must have taken a lot of skill to build a weather system all the way out here.”
Buttercup shook her head “Trying to sweet talk me or something?”
“I mean it.” He replied with (fake) sincerity “It would have taken us years to be able to make crops grow and have a weather system we could rely on and yet all of you managed to make a viable system all the way out here.”
That comment made the mare blush for a moment as she quickly replied “Isn’t your system a lot better than ours. I don’t see all of you taking trips to the ocean to pick up water.”
“There is a fine line between different and better.” Regal Script quoted “Just because your system is different than ours it does not mean it is inferior. There may be some parts that you do better and there may be some parts that we are better at. The trick is seeing what stands before you and being open minded enough to see what has been done and how it can be improved. After all the only perfect system is one that has never been introduced to reality.”
The mare beside him chuckled as he took a good glance at her. Strong wings… athletic body, but not too much muscle for it to look unflattering… sure she lacked a cutie mark, but that was because of the rather odd society they came from. Something about work before skill… not every nation could be blessed with a competent government system that reflected talent.
Who knows? Maybe if his family was born in their messed up society his parents would have still insisted on him trying to swing a blade instead of letting his natural talent in politics to blossom when he gained his cutie mark while his sister would have been stuck trying to memorize speeches instead of happily swinging a blade against foolish nobles?
Regal Script started to make some polite chit chat with the mare as all the unimportant ponies and griffins were left drinking some water and preparing to drag the rest of their cargo back to town. It helped to know more about who he had to impress before he actually meet them.
Things were so much easier when you knew that the ponies you were talking to couldn’t somehow stare into the back of your skull and somehow act if they had been listening to your thoughts instead of the words coming out of your mouth.
His thoughts froze as he spotted a changeling “Just out of curiosity… there were a few rumors about the pony in charge of New Terra being an… alicorn.”
Buttercup chuckled “Not an Alicorn.” Regal involuntarily cringed at the statement “He’s actually a dragon.”
Regal Script’s brain temporarily froze for a few seconds “And here I thought it was a changeling.”
“Oh no we have a couple of changelings and a couple of other folk on the city council, but Peter is a dragon and the mayor of New Terra.” Buttercup spoke off hoof as if she was talking about a unicorn or an earth pony that decided to take up residence in Cloudsdale. “Why is that a problem?”
“No the… I mean there was an issue with an individual called the cursed trader who was using dark magic near New Terra.” Regal Script quickly replied “I just wanted to make sure that my information was correct or if there had been a sudden…‘change’ in the situation.”
Buttercup rolled her eyes “Makes sense. I mean I knew some folks that had fur one day and feathers the next day. That and the local dragons of Equestria don’t seem to be the type that would be voted into office.”
Regal Script nodded as not only was it polite… but he was trying to figure out how he was going to talk to the dragon. Earth ponies tended to be blunt, while unicorns tended to prefer the game of politics more than the actual purpose of the discussion. Diamond dogs could usually be lead about by their greed as buffalos were a pain until you finally had them point out on the map where their tramping grounds instead of preparing to declare war on a fledgling town.
Dragons were an unknown as he didn’t have any… ‘racial patterns’ to follow so to speak. He was also starting to feel a little bit worried about a changeling being on the city council. This wasn’t because he was afraid of their admittedly creepy looks, but mostly because of some of the rumors floating about.
He already had to deal with one completely unfair cheater as it shouldn’t be legal to simply look at another pony and somehow know everything they were thinking in the back of their head. One should be allowed to lie, deceive, and use subtle tricks of trade or influence than wondering if the pony on the other side of the table had mind reading as a racial skill.
Celestia would play the game of politics as she would try to let on more than she knew. She played the game of politics like a grand chess master as her countless years of experience had her carefully plan each move out before finally putting cornering her opponent and forcing them to surrender.
Lockheart on the other hoof would pretend to play the game and somehow halfway through the game the entire board had been replaced. None of the pieces looked the same and the entire rule book was now written in some strange foreign language.
Sure his family did profit a little from the other foolish houses that tried to trick him... but they had enough stories to know that they shouldn't touch the 'not an alicorn' with a ten foot pole. That was reserved for their rivals who wanted to try passing something without Celestia's oversight.
Buttercup stared at him for a few moments “Are you alright?”
“I’m good.” He lied through his teeth as he snapped back to reality “I just needed to see the changeling say something.”
Buttercup looked behind her trying to see which changeling he might have been talking about “Oh right the… other bugs.”
“Demon bugs.” Regal quickly clarified “They are close enough to changelings to give a sense of unease, but all you need to do to tell the difference is to hear one of them talk. Sorry if I accidently offended…”
“So you don’t have any problems with them?” Buttercup asked as he knew she was testing him.
Regal Script chuckled as he politely replied “I am only afraid of those uncivilized enough to think that words are useless. If one cannot talk to another than I think that is reason enough to be worried.”
Buttercup rolled her eyes “You didn’t answer my question.”
“Well let me put it this way.” Regal Script replied as he added a small bit of charm “Equestria was not built with one type of pony. It was built with artists, explores, painters, builders, warriors, and speakers. It was built by those who talked with each other… what race, gender, or ‘tribe’ they were didn’t matter so why should I mind another humble worker?”
Buttercup grinned as she shook her head “Because he’s a changeling?”
“That’d be too difficult then.” Regal Script replied “Then I’d have to reorganized all my sheets. I rather liked my simple sheet. I mean why are you afraid of manticores and not dragons? By all accounts a dragon is a lot more dangerous than a wild beast.”
Buttercup chuckled “Because my mayor is a dragon… besides you can talk a dragon down if you’re lucky, but you can’t exactly do that with a manticore.”
“And that my dear is the reason why I’m not afraid of changelings.” He replied much to her amusement.
‘Just as long as they can’t read my mind.’ He added in the back of his head.
******
Pocket Ace
Pocket Ace placed down all the items he had gathered as he watched Maxwell start setting everything up. Sure he didn’t know what he was going to do with all of it, but if this helped him out then who was he to complain?
The door opened up as the guests/guinea pigs arrived.
“Glad to see you could make it Glory!” Pocket Ace replied with a smirk
The pegasus groaned “There isn’t much to do while waiting for the rest of the raid to form.”
The earth pony stallion beside her chuckled “Yes because it will be lovely marching out in the freezing snow trying to figure out where a group of bugs managed to make their home.”
Glory rolled her eyes “Griff. You didn’t seem to complain about the job near Crystal Cove.”
The earth pony smirked “To be fair surf and sand is a lot more interesting than ice and pick. That and unlike those lovely games back home we will actually be freezing instead of starring in marvel at the scenery while we prepare for the raid.”
A dark purple unicorn teleported in one of the nearby chairs “Is there any chance Celestia’s school for gifted foals has a refresher course or something…”
Pocket Ace stared at the purple stallion “I don’t think they take adults Marcus… but what seems to be the problem this time?”
The unicorn groaned “Oh I managed to get better at not wasting as much energy… but the mental exhaustion the spells take is getting to me before I run out of juice.”
Pocket Ace nodded his head “I think that’s called horn ache. You might want to take a look with a doctor about that or take some time off and recover as I heard some unicorns compare horn ache to running a marathon.”
Griff glanced at the table “So what’s the special? Poker, Blackjack, Go Fish?”
Pocket Ace shook his head as the next group arrived. A pegasus, unicorn, and earth pony… all being lead by Maxwell.
The sapphire coat mare with the lavender mane smiled as she politely bowed “My name is Jade Pin…”
Pocket Ace couldn’t help but chuckle as the pegasus mare simply waved to them all enthusiastically “Comet!”
The yellow earth pony mare with blue hair smiled “I’m Booknote. It’s a pleasure to meet you all.”
Griff stared at Pocket Ace in confusion “Uh… is this some sort of speed dating thing or…”
The native earth pony stallion chuckled “No offense but if this was speed dating than I’d be setting myself up for a date instead of trying to find one for the rest of you.”
The regular poker players just rolled their eyes at the native Equestrians seemed puzzled at the statement. Still all of them had been gathered to try this crazy experiment. Hopefully things wouldn’t get out of hoof if the group was kept this small. He wiped his forehead as he finished setting up the phonograph as he made sure the device was ready.
“Any unicorns want to make sure this thing hasn’t been tampered with?” Pocket Ace replied out loud.
Some of the ponies in the room nodded as Griff glanced at the device “Are you going to play a song or something?”
Pocket Ace chuckled “It’s just going to record our voice so that we can make sure nopony cheats.”
Booknote looked back at Maxwell “What sort of game would require something like this?”
Maxwell took a deep breath “It’s easier to show you than to explain it.”
The door opened up as one last pony… no a griffin entered the room. Most of the ponies flinched as Pocket Ace promptly face hoofed as this was one of the problems he wanted to avoid.
The griffin stared at them in confusion “I just need to talk to Maxwell for a moment… Are you having trouble with that old thing?”
Booknote looked back at the phonograph “Isn’t this brand new?”
Maxwell coughed “Is everyone alright with Verrat taking a look at it?”
Everypony backed away as Verrat promptly went to work on the device. Pocket Ace stared at the griffin in surprise as she certainly seemed to have a better idea with what she was doing that everypony else.
Booknote spoke up “Do you work at the Song and Thread store?”
Verrat simply grunted “Nope. My grandpa had one of these… Oh don’t tell me their natives…”
Griff rolled his eyes “Yes apparently we did plan on expanding our group without informing you.”
Jade spoke up “Is there a problem?”
Pocket Ace prepared to say something only for the griffin to reply “Keep your speeches about Molestia outside and we’ll be just fine.”
“Molestia?” Booknote spoke in a mixture of confusion and embarrassment.
The griffin reached into her saddlebags and was now starting to replace parts within the machine “I never thought I’d end up being thankful for having to repair antiques…” she pulled out a gem stone out of the machine and tossed it behind her “These stupid gems don’t even seem to work half the time.”
Comet frowned “What’s wrong with Celestia?”
The griffin turned around almost glaring at the smaller pegasus “Let’s see… for starters what reason does she have for running the government? I mean most of you ponies have cutie marks slapped on your rear telling you what your jobs will be and all of you thought that the pony in charge of raising the sun would be better than a pony with a cutie mark in politics, bureaucracy, or something government related?”
Booknote quickly replied in a firm tone “Cutie marks change with the times and so do some of the old meanings. During the Three Tribe Era it was more common for unicorns who lost their magic or ‘burnt’ themselves dry with the ritual for moving the sun and moon to take seats of government positions or help pass on their knowledge to a younger generation.”
She stared at the griffin “So while it may seem strange today to associate a cutie mark of the sun with a government position today. It was seen as a sign for ponies that had a talent in ruling or teaching and by the looks of it I would say Celestia has both of those qualifications.”
Verrat turned around as she stared at the earth pony who wasn’t backing down “Who are you?”
The mare just simply smiled “My name is Booknote miss Verrat and I helped look after the library in Canterlot Castle or does the fact that I’m an earth pony confuse you?”
Verrat shook her head “No I’m more curious about why you seem to stick up for Sunbutt to the point of butting heads with me?”
Booknote didn’t back down “How about the fact that I’m sick and tired of hearing countless complaints revolving around the alicorn issues!”
Maxwell cleared his throat “Verrat you might want to stop right now.”
Verrat continued glaring down at the earth pony “Well maybe if Molestia didn’t cause our problems we wouldn’t be complaining!”
Booknote rose her voice “Blaming all the problems upon one pony is not only foolish, but it shows just how little you understand how the government works. Do you think she runs the entire whole of Equestria without any assistance? Do you think that some noble in charge of their territory will pass a law or do some stupid action making it Celestia’s fault when she didn’t even know it happened!”
Verrat’s feathers started to stand on end as she countered “How about the current actions or maybe the current problems?”
“Verrat!” Maxwell snapped “What did you come here for?”
The griffin sighed “I should leave…”
“She probably came to see if you could help her out with her friend’s problem.” Booknote quickly replied of hoof
Pocket Ace glanced at the earth pony “What friend?”
Booknote rolled her eyes “Apparently she made friends with a native earth pony named Baldwin. The train system that is being switched over to focusing on moving cargo instead of parties for nobles has changed a few things about as some of the settlements are trying to adjust to them.”
Pocket Ace stared at Verrat in disbelief “What does he need? A job?”
Booknote chuckled “If I’m correct it think was along the lines of new apple trees or helping hooves to assist him on the farm. Apparently the demand for apples grew as the train system became a beneficial aspect instead of a detrimental one.”
All eyes focused on Verrat as she rubbed the back of her head “Look I just… sort of owe him… and…”
Griff was the first to speak “It’s official. It’s the end of the world. The crazy griffin has a crush on a native earth pony.”
The Pegasus beside him promptly hit him on the back of his head as the griffin pinched the bridge of her nose “Just because I do not blame one pony for my problems it doesn’t mean I’m going to get comfy with the fae queen.”
Maxwell cleared his throat “Well since your arrival was unexpected… what to join in?”
Pocket Ace opened his mouth to counter… until he realized that Verrat would probably be the easiest one to test… and the hardest one to deal with if something went wrong. He looked at Maxwell trying to make sure if this was a good idea.
Verrat shrugged “What are you doing?”
Maxwell took a deep breath as he tried to smile “We’re going to play a game.”
******
Everything started off just fine in the beginning as most of the game nonsense. They started off with charades before moving on to drawing pictures and seeing which pony (or griffin) would be able to call it out first. This had went on for a little while until the real reason for this ‘game’ was setup.
Maxwell passed out the small blackboards for everypony to write the answer down on “Alright… now everyone write down what I say and then we’ll see what happens next.” He moved over to the phonograph “And to make sure there isn’t any cheating we’ll test this thing first.”
Maxwell cleared his throat as he spoke out loud “She sells sea shells by the sea shore.”
He waited a few seconds before having the device play back “She sells sea shells by the sea shore.”
Pocket Ace frowned “A little gravely…”
Verrat sighed “Give me a second to fix it…”
Marcus shook his head “So… how was your shot at joining the royal guard Griff?”
Griff groaned “Night Guard filled up and the other spots left required you to pay for your job. I said it once and I’ll say it again… the Royal Guard is really incompetent.”
Comet frowned “Did you try the Canterlot branch or one of the other towns?”
Griff glanced at the Pegasus in confusion “What difference does that make?”
Booknote spoke up “One of the many issues with the Royal Guards being reorganized is the placement of tradition. Typically the lower members are fresh recruits who can go up to the rank of Sergeant through hard work and minimum amount of money or influence due to the connection or relationship to a noble house. Above that rank is where most officers are ‘commissioned’ as one must pay a fee while having their family history checked to help one go up the ranks even further. If an officer is deemed unworthy during their service in the Royal Guard then they will have to 'cash out' which essentially means they must either pay a large fine to help recover any ranks they may loose as punishment.”
Griff glanced at Booknote in confusion “Wow… that’s really messed up. I guess that helps explain why the Royal Guard is incompetent, what makes the Canterlot version any different?”
Comet quickly replied “That’s because they protect Celestia and the only way to go up the ranks… is to start from the bottom and work your way up meaning the pony in charge is can not only fight, but lead their ponies into combat should the worst ever happen.”
“It is also traditionally the highest ranking or high ranking officers from both forces that are suppose to come together and talk during peace negotiations, surrendering, or calling for a ceasefire between both sides.” Booknote softly replied
The earth pony continued to lecture them “So if you have a noble who is trained in solving a problem diplomatically... vs a soldier trained to fight and defend their home having only seen the ‘enemy’ as somepony trying to invade. Then when both sides most come together and talk for peace it is better to have the diplomat be in charge than the warrior. In the worst case scenario if the Equestrian captain is taken hostage it will not impact the army too much since the 'actual' commanders will still be back in camp.”
She smiled “So to summarize the officers are not so much leaders, but diplomats meant to keep the peace. The officers in Canterlot are not diplomats because if an enemy reached Canterlot then negotiations are probably off the table by that point.”
Griff slowly nodded his head “Okay besides the fact you allow a systems that puts people who have no idea how to lead an army to be in charge... why is the Night Guard version different?”
Booknote shook her head “Before Lockheart the Night Guard was held in less… esteem. Areas outside of Canterlot didn’t have a strong Night Guard presence… or those positions were used as demotions or punishment shifts for the Solar Guard in the area. In fact it was more common to serve the ‘grunt years’ in the Night Guard and simply transfer over Solar Guard after their first promotion since being a higher rank in the Night Guard didn’t really count for much outside of Canterlot.”
The earth pony frowned “After the Night Guard was ‘given’ to an alicorn they were trying to rebuild and since most of their higher ranking members were held in Canterlot… they just expanded their ‘tradition’ across Equestria the rest of regions.”
She rubbed the back of her head “So without any other higher ranking officers the Canterlot tradition was moved over to the other branches. This in turn had upset quite a few nobles who thought it was an action caused by Lockheart when in truth it was a motion carried by the commander of the Night Guard since the focus was on rebuilding the ranks instead of the traditions followed by the Solar Guard.”
Griff shook his head "And why is that a bad idea?"
The earth pony sighed “Because some saw it as an attempt to usurp the other captains or noble families who paid a lot of bits to buy their rank which in turn was used to help pay for the weapons and armor of the soldiers underneath them. The Night Guard who didn’t have access to this secondary funding was having their equipment upgraded by Lockheart since he wanted the Night Guard to have weapons made during this century. Now the once seemingly useless positions of power in the Night Guard were actually worth something and you didn't have to fork over a fortune in bits to get them.”
She grunted in frustration “Then combine that with some of the incidents caused by less than ethical ‘adventures’ or the fact that certain noble families quickly rushed to fill the ranks of the Night Guard to stand on ‘equal ground’ with their rivals and you can see how some nobles might have issues with the sudden change in power from the ‘orders issued’ by their alicorn and not to mention the plans he had left over for incase he suddenly disappeared…”
Jade spoke up with a hint of concern “Are you alright dear?”
Booknote took a deep breath and sighed “Sorry… it's just… you wouldn’t believe how tired I am of hearing about it."
The earth pony shook her head and tired to smile "So in case you were wondering what was the reason behind the bad PR event towards Lockheart. This isn’t because of some of his actions... some of the laws he made… or questioning if he actually is an alicorn. The sad truth is that all of it is just a basic political maneuver to damage his claim as an alicorn... is just an attempt to damage the rivaling ‘noble houses’ that have joined the Night Guard. This way the Solar Guard is the only 'Guard' that actually protects an alicorn.”
Griff shook his head in disbelief “Okay now that is just crazy.”
“In a feudal based system that does make sense due to the fact that rank in the military did coincide with money.” Verrat replied to everyone’s surprise “Commanders were granted ‘gifts’ by their rulers and one of the easiest ways to increase one’s standing was by their deeds and what better way than to sit back and let an army do all the heavy lifting? So either you were in charge of an army because you were rich or you became rich because you were in charge of an army.”
Silence filled the room until Glory spoke up “I actually thought you’d be all for Celestia being the one behind it all.”
The griffin grunted “If someone is going out their way to rant about the incident than obviously Celestia isn’t behind it. Her style is to simply hush up the incident before sweeping it underneath the rug while everyone else forgets it happened. If he didn’t accidently tick so many nobles off I’m sure Celestia would claim he was just fine as he ‘stays’ within his room without anyone visiting him without her consent.”
The Equestrian natives nodded their head as they weren't exactly sure what to make of the foreign griffin.
She pushed herself up “Testing, testing, one two three.”
“Testing, testing, one two three.” The voice replied back.
Pocket Ace took a deep breath and sighed as apparently everything was working out so far. Now it just came to the next part which Maxwell was also nervous about.
Maxwell got up and spoke out loud “Okay politics aside… is everyone ready?” only after everyone had prepared to write down what he was about to say did he reply “Hello. I’m a pony who has been turned into a pony holding Eques in my hooves.” Half of the room stared at him in confusion “Is there a problem?”
They simply shook their head as they went back to writing down what they had heard. The other ‘normal’ half of the room had already finished as Pocket Ace could feel himself sweating as he wiped his forehead. This was the real problem they were going to have to deal with as he couldn’t help but feel nervous as he began to wonder just what the others had heard.
Soon the timer had ended as Maxwell replied “Alright… let’s see what you had heard. We’ll go around the room and you just repeat what you had heard.”
“I’m a pony who has been turned into a pony from the planet Eques.” Was repeated by almost everypony… the only difference was that the griffin had said “I’m a griffin who had been turned into a pony holding Eques in my talons.”
The ‘native’ residents didn’t seem to know what was wrong while the ‘non-native’ residents seemed to be staring at the other half as if they were crazy. In truth Pocket Ace felt a little bit crazy considering what was happening.
What was worse was that he saw the small justifications they were making to explain what was going on. The Equestrians had simply misunderstood the statement. Maybe one of them misheard it or more likely wrote down the wrong answer thinking it was the right answer as they didn’t understand what they were suppose to write down as the correct answer.
He couldn’t help but flinch as he heard Maxwell reply “Now let’s see what you had written down.”
Pocket Ace closed his eyes as he already knew what was going to happen. He could hear some of them starting to argue or ‘asking’ if the chalk had been enchanted or if this was some sort of prank. When he opened up his eyes he stared at the griffin… who didn’t write anything down. She just looked tired as if she already knew what was going on.
Maxwell cleared his throat “I’m sorry for doing this… but play the recording as we have checked to make sure that the device has not been tampered with.”
Pocket Ace made the machine play back the record as he closed his eyes as Maxwell’s voice replied “Okay everyone ready?” there was a small pause before the recorded voice continued “I’m a…”
Everypony (and griffin) flinched as the unholy sound seemed to echo across the room as his hearing started to return “a pony holding” as the sound came again twisting about as if it came from an insane cultist wearing a hood in the middle of a graveyard instead of a pony playing a game of charades.
Now they were all looking at the phonograph in horror. Pocket Ace simply waited for one of them to make up an excuse to explain what had just happened. He could already tell that some were trying to rationalize what had happened as the truth seemed crazy.
Sadly for them the recording was still continuing as Booknote finished “holding Eques in my hooves.”
Pocket Ace covered his ears as the next adventurer spoke only for the same words to be replaced by the unholy noise. It continued until the phonograph was turned off as Marcus just shook his head in disbelief as he refused to hear it any longer.
Glory spoke up first in irritation “What type of prank is…”
“It’s not a prank.” Maxwell replied “I tested it and I didn’t believe it. I really felt that something was wrong when simply recording my own speech ended with… that.”
Jade shook her head “Why did you ask us to come if…”
Pocket Ace sighed “Because you girls wouldn’t cause a scene and they needed to see an honest reaction.”
“That and I needed to see if I was the only one affected.” Maxwell replied “Booknote has helped with cataloging some of the Everfree forest’s old cursed magical artifacts… and I needed to see if this was because of something during the Everfree Incident or if others have been… censored.”
Griff shook his head “Oh come on… surely someone would have noticed this sooner.”
Verrat huffed in annoyance “You think this is a trick? Try having a pony selling cheap copies of that device in a market place and have your argument get blasted out for everyone to hear. If there is a magical curse that hits us everytime we try to swear than why is it so hard to believe that there’s a curse that removes select words and replace it with something else?”
Griff shook his head “If that’s true then why is it that I fucking curse?” the leg of his chair suddenly snapped causing him to fall onto the ground “Why does this happen instead of something else!”
Jade bit her lip before she replied “I’m sorry to sound insensitive… but how bad is it to not be able to say a few words… it’s only a few right?”
Maxwell shrugged “What if I told you that one of the words I was using was an attempt to warn you? What if instead of hearing us say something like dangerous criminal and you heard fluffy kitten instead?”
Comet’s wings were pressed up against her side as she tried to make herself seem as small as possible. It was a scary thought to even think trying to tell somepony something important… just for them to hear something else. It was even more frightening to realize that almost Nopony had noticed it… except maybe the ones tossed into a 'happy farm' as the doctors tried to help them.
“So what did you say?” Comet replied “Was it actually dangerous?”
Maxwell shook his head “No… but it would be easy to see rearrange that sentence to make one group hear something innocent and the other group to hear something horrifying.”
Verrat sighed “That and you need help trying to figure out how to make sure everyone else doesn’t think you’re crazy… or this is a bad prank?”
Maxwell slowly nodded his head as everyone could tell it was going to be a long night.
******
Booknote
The earth pony stood outside the tavern as she looked at the other two native equestrians and said "So... does anypony else find it creepy that the adventurers didn't realize they were being censored?"
Jade shook her head "What about that speech? I mean... I'm a blank that been turned into a pony. Are they really ponies or something else?"
"Their ponies... and well gryphons, diamond dogs and so forth." Comet quickly replied "I'm pretty sure my sister would have told me if they weren't ponies or something."
She nodded her head "That whole... not a pony thing was probably some sort of crazy phrase like "I'm Nightmare Moon turned into a pony and holding Celestia's throat within my hooves.' which if you think about it... is pretty scary."
The other two ponies nodded their heads as that would certainly get a reaction from somepony. Booknote frowned as she thought about the strange occurrences... how certain actions from the adventurers didn't add up sometimes.
She looked at the other two ponies and said "What if... what if this 'censor' that is preventing them from saying certain things... what if it's also affecting other things?"
Jade frowned "Could you say that again in Equestrian?"
Booknote spoke in a firm tone "Well... before I just sort of thought the adventures were displaced. I mean I've read up of old spells, history, how the Breezies technically live in a different reality... or was it a dimension like Tambelon?"
Jade rolled her eyes "Now you sound like somepony who's been reading to many of those new lovecraft novels.
Comet glanced at Jade "Lovecraft?"
Jade shook her head "Despite what the author's name... they are not romantic love stories."
Booknote stomped her hoof down "Back to the main issue here... They can't curse due to a curse nopony really cared too much about. They can't say certain things due to another curse which is something that we really should be worried about. And even if we excuse the strange sentence Maxwell said..."
Jade rolled her eyes "I'm pretty sure Celestia would have realized if they had been magically transformed into a different race."
Booknote frowned "The point is that we can't just keep treating them as displaced citizens. Maxwell wanted to make sure he wasn't the only one inflicted by another curse... but what should we do?"
Comet shrugged "What can we do? Tell everypony 'oh you might also have a few other secret dark magic spells that are messing around with your mind, but don't you worry as we have no idea what to look for!' Even then I'm sure Celestia wouldn't want us to cause a panic because we know that they are good ponies!"
Jade rubbed her chin "Well maybe we should try telling Celestia. I'm pretty sure she would know what to do."
Booknote sighed as she slowly nodded her head "Okay so first thing tomorrow morning we just get ready to stand in line for morning court."
The earth pony hoped that she was just blowing things out of proportion.
******
Mort
Mort rested in the back of his jail cell as he had prepared to resign himself to his dreaded fate. Equestrian would send their delegate to poke about and ask a few routine. The citizens of New Terra would just shrug before letting Equestria drag them back to Canterlot where Celestia would have a few choice words with them.
He sighed as Brass would either rat out her allies or end up as a lawn ornament in the gardens if she really ticked off Celestia… or be sent to a very secure jail. Of course that would be assuming Luke’s group of idiots didn’t burst out of Canterlot Mountain launching their attack early just to ensure that Brass wouldn’t sell them out.
Then things would slowly descend into an unorganized mob as Canterlot would still have all their soldiers within the capital and instead of a simple trick to point the blame at somepony else… it would be a painful battle that the former humans would probably lose.
Oh sure he knew about some of the ‘gifts’ humanity had been given since they fell to Equestria, but he was an Equestrian born native and despite some of their unique ‘skills’ that could be gained by trading away their memories… Canterlot still had an army to fall back on. It had a Princess who knew far more spells than Luke’s little club had combined. Most of all they could simply collapse the tunnels the former humans were in thus avoiding a large battle before routing what was left of Luke’s resistance group.
He shook his head “And to just think… once Celestia left to the meeting with the other nations we would have won.”
Now the only question was what was going to happen to him and how was he going to save himself. He couldn’t help but chuckle as he doubted his old excuses would work against Celestia. After all working as an illegal doctor could be excused by simply asking “Was I supposed to let them bleed to death?” would probably not work against Celestia.
He flinched as he felt a faint… annoyance brush up against his mind. Mort couldn’t help but grit his teeth as he felt the alien magic trying to manifest itself once again.
Without leaving anything to chance he checked outside the jail cell to make sure Nopony was watching and checked for any possible detection spells that might have been placed on his jail cell. At this point he was thankful for the… lax security… the jail had. Sure it was under the guise of everypony being able to pull off insane feats of magic… with the promise of even more guards with the same tricks would come down and beat them up, but it was the small things that counted.
Like having Nopony watch him as he opened up a menu.
He bit his lip as he felt the alien thoughts and images creep into his head once again… distorting his sight, thought pattern, and possibly even his own sense of self… but it was important. He glanced past the frayed edges of his menu… and the few cracks he had tried inflecting upon it in order to weaken it before selecting the message system.
“Port to call within twenty four” the fractured message replied “Will you stay there for that time?”
Mort blinked a few seconds before a grin appeared across his face “Call to port, but in two spots. Can you manage the call?”
He gritted his teeth as images of earth started to creep into his mind… memories of a different life. A small sense of unease started to fill his body as he could hear faint whispers of something else… someone else panicking… asking for help… trying to find out what was going on. What went wrong… why was this happening to them?
The message came back “One shot or can you wait a few a little?”
Mort closed his eyes as he could hear the other voice growing… gnawing at him… The jail wasn’t built to hold people. It was built to show people. To place them in an area in the complete understanding that retribution would come smashing down the moment they stepped outside the door.
“Make the port stay for a while and we’ll both get through.” Mort replied
“Understood.” The message replied
Mort gritted his teeth as he summoned his magic. He had studied Brass’s accident for a long time and he had experimented… after all a human’s grasp on magic was rigid. They thought magic in the terms of math where one plus one would always equal two. Mort was a little bit more creative as he viewed it like art… or where one pony lacked one color of paint so he just mixed some paint together until it was close enough to work.
His own spell came to mind as he focused on the menu… every thought… method… idea and most of all… his fear surged forth as he blocked out the other thoughts and struck the menu. The strange magic started to crackle until… it was forced back once again. It was a little bit damaged… and he could feel the irritating sense of loss… depression… the idea that he might have lost something important… but he didn’t care.
With a deep breath as he tried to relax as he said to himself “Mort…wanted for various crimes in the state of Equestria due to some less than legal adventures. I was born in manehattan and I learned that morals and values don’t always equal money and power.”
He sighed as his mind calmed down. Earth was a story told by the former humans… it was not a memory. He had ideas, but they were best understood when someone else helped explained how they worked. Most of all he was himself.
He shook his head “Countless humans fall to Equestria and nobody noticed the pony that fell with them.” He chuckled “Then again the cost of memory for a trick? Who would believe a pony being a pony when they had the same curse a human had? Who would believe the truth when nobody knew what was going on.”
With another deep breath he focused on humanity and Equestria. What humans knew and what ponies knew… how everyone in humanity always joked about everyone knowing Morse code… and everypony knowing Radiant Flash.
His horn flickered for a few moments sending the message until surely enough… the equestrian resident in jail who wanted to leave sent the message down the line until Brass finally replied.
The message was of course rather simple “Stall and say hello.”
Mort frowned as he understood. Twenty four hours and they would be free. Twenty four hours to figure out a way out of their jail cells and most of all… in twenty four hours they had to be in the jail. The moment they left the jail was ironically the moment they would lose their freedom.
Mort tapped his chest as he got to work “Hello… my name is Mort… Why of course Equestria already knows you were originally humans. They just didn’t care.”
He sighed as… he was going to have to make it sound a lot more convincing… and hope that Equestria didn’t know as much about the strange magic that afflicted the adventurers as he did.
He looked back at his cutie mark as he frowned. His natural cutie mark was of a Bone Saw… crude, frightening, dark… and yet it did serve a necessary and important service in the medical industry. Now a small flower seemed to have been slightly smeared over the bone saw.
Mort summoned his magic as he muttered “I don’t care if you were real or an idea brought upon by this curse inflicted upon me Kathrin.” The flames started to ‘trim’ the edges of his cutie mark “But my name is Mort… and I was here first.”
Kathrin… human born somewhere on earth. Mort… an actual unicorn with proof in Equestria to show that not only was he alive… he also went messing roughly around the same month that a lot of other Equestrian natives went missing… and also returned roughly around the same period a large percentage of missing natives were also spotted returning… along with most of humanity suddenly appearing roughly around that same time.
Mort smiled as his cutie mark was still there… the bone saw was mostly intact though it ‘did’ sort of look like it had been recently used. Still a small bit of healing and a good night’s rest would fix most of it in the morning. Hopefully he could help ensure that the talks for the prisoner transfer… would be delayed.