Prince Flawless Ice of the Dominion walked up to the throne. He had a shining white coat, kept pristine by the finest caretakers his father could offer. His icy blue mane and tail were straight, as was his personal style. The dragon-slit turquoise eyes of his, courtesy of his mother’s descent from the Dawncrusher thestral line, darted from side to side nervously. “Father, why are we even concerned about the Atlantean industrial capacity? They’ve clearly shown in Pacifica that it isn’t actually that much compared to ours, despite its importance to their war machine.”
King Jagged Edge looked down from his perch, over the bulk that was his fat stomach, and into his son’s eyes. Even with all that girth, he still had a steely blood-curdling glare that practically paralyzed anypony he focused on. Flawless Ice was no exception to this, and he practically melted under the king’s gaze.
“We will destroy their industry so that Atlantis will fall, their unsupplied army out of everything it has and starving. Once it does, they will gladly come to us again in need. We will of course accept out of the generosity in our hearts and then execute their fake Queen Atlanta to prevent any and all rebellion. This will be my legacy for you to continue. We discussed this before.”
“I know, Father, believe me. I know. But-”
“THERE IS NO ‘BUT’S’! I DO NOT WISH TO HEAR THAT WORD COME FROM YOUR MUZZLE AGAIN!” Jagged Edge roared. As he did o, he stood on his surprisingly strong legs and towered over his son. The guards around him fled to escape the wrath he was likely to incur on everyone in the room. Despite this, Flawless Ice stood fast and braced himself. The king continued: “Do I make myself clear, son?”
The prince gulped. “Yes, Father. I understand and serve.”
“Good.” The hideously fat king sat back down and waved his hoof in a dismissive gesture. “You may leave. Go play with your friend Mr. Legacy and stay out of the way.”
“Thank you, Father.” Flawless Ice bowed, then turned and walked out the side door to the grandeur of a dining hall. Trotting quickly through the massive double oak doors, he bumped into his childhood friend Lost Legacy.
The mid-shadow grey Unicorn was a scientist at heart. His mane and tail were dyed from their usual black to a lighter, but still dark grey shade, and his shadowy eyes reflected a sad, lost soul in search of home. That reflection had given him his name; otherwise, he would’ve been named Greymane. He typically had some aroma around him that consisted of stone dust and rotting wood, but that was because he was the guinea pig for his own personal experiment about smells and bug attraction.
“Good morning, Icy,” Lost said cheerfully. “Last night was so cool; too bad you weren’t there. We were looking through our telescopes up in the tree and we saw something so freaking amazing!”
“What was it?”
“I don’t know. But I do know it crossed the entire sky at high speed. Then, an hour and a half later, it was back! We got a good look at it once we realized that, and saw some pretty neat stuff. Plus, the metal-stick-with-a-talking-box we made made some noises like it was communicating to the sky thing!”
“You do realize I got that talking box smuggled here from Atlantis, right? Keep quiet or my father will take it and use it for the war, which we both know he won’t win anytime soon. Even then, he’ll probably lose. I was with one of the artillery divisions on the Emberforge bluffs, so I wouldn’t get shot at, and the Atlanteans were… honorable, to say the least. I saw as their army was destroyed and run back farther and farther, but they put up a fight like nothing I’ve ever seen. I came back the next day, for fear of discovery, and I’m glad I did, because our guys were annihilated a few days later by a Changeling force.”
“You never told me that.”
Flawless smirked. “I don’t tell you everything.” He gestured to the end of the dining hall, which led to the garden where their group of friends hung out. “Shall we?”
When they opened the doors and welcomed the cool, fresh mountain air, they were greeted by Lost Legacy’s ragtag bunch of guard’s sons. The colts, not much older than the prince himself, goofily saluted as the two walked into the garden.
The garden looked much bigger on the inside. Four massive trees not native to the area towered almost as high as the guard post across the way. Flawless had imported them from Equestria’s northern climate, hoping that they would already be slightly accustomed to the mountain chill in which they would live. Considering that the trees were already seven times as tall as their Equestrian cousins and just about done growing, he was certainly impressed. Their green leaves and tangle of branches provided the perfect camouflage for the fairly large treehouse, which topped the tallest of the four trees. Above the explosion of plant material, the sun stared down from the blue, cloudless sky.
The prince gazed past his friends at the six-foot-thick solid obsidian walls that surrounded the palace. Or at least, that was the impression. Other, more resistant rocks such as granite lay behind six inches of obsidian. The granite did not make up the center of the wall, however, which was a solid foot-thick wall of plate iron, mashed together by gravity and granite. Wooden logs braced the inner section and provided convenient places for stairs every fifty feet. Even though he knew what was really inside the formidable-looking wall, he was impressed by the fact. It, along with the rest of Buckingham palace, had been built by his forefathers and maintained for as long as the Dominion existed, which was a very, very long time. Obsidian, granite, and iron all were rare, expensive materials to build something of this scale from, especially back then, and the speed at which Buckingham had been completed - just under ten years! Celestia and her fancy capital Canterlot could never compete with that logistical and engineering feat.
Flawless, Lost, and their four friends climbed up the long ladder to their treehouse. Once they reached the top, the prince once again reflected on the six months he spent building it with his friends. Those had been long but satisfying, as he now had complete three-hundred-sixty-degree unobstructed view of the world, at least on the fenced roof, around him. They were still working on furnishings for the place, but they had to build all that from scratch up there. Right now, two high-tech stargazing telescopes and four observation spyglasses lined the bright oak fence posts up top. A couple couches and chairs sat scattered around the large center room. Off to the side was a bedchamber with three bunk beds for six ponies.
“So, Lost,” the prince said, “can you explain last night’s discovery more?”
“Yes.” Lost searched his mind for a second. “It had these two wide things on either end, like giant plates. The whole thing seemed pretty flimsy, like it wasn’t supposed to fly through air, but it went across the sky practically effortlessly. And modules. It looked like it was modular. That’s about all I could make of it. But think of it! Something as big as that thing, because it had to be really far away, built from little chunks! The technology would be astounding!”
“I agree on the part where it’s astounding,” Flawless replied. “If Father hadn’t started this stupid war, we’d be trying to get to it right now, or maybe trying to decipher what it sent to the talking box. Which, by the way, we can do. So start figuring it out before the guards down there realize we have one.”
“Exactly how did you get it from Atlantis again?”
“Smuggler.”
Lost burst out laughing. “You smuggled that in? I’m pretty sure the government is supposed to be against that kind of thing!”
The prince raised a sky-blue eyebrow. “I’m serious. That’s what the thing three months ago when I had you cover for me all night was.”
“Ah. I see. So, what does it do?”
“I don’t know. The smuggler said it picks up some kind of signal from other talking boxes. You just need to be in range to hear the other end.”
Lost looked up at the sky. “Judging by last night, that’s gotta be some range.”
“I agree. But that was probably line-of-sight, so it already could hear it. Remember, the world is curved. That means that what we can hear is obviously not going to be far if it only does line-of-sight communications.”
“Still, something to be reckoned with.”
The talking box started beeping, signaling that some kind of transmission was reaching it. Both Lost and Flawless immediately turned to the noise. When he realized what it was, Lost raced to it and listened. “Dot dash dash dot, dot dash dot, dot dot, dash dot, dash dot dash dot, dot [PRINCE]. Dot dot dash dot, dot dash dot dot, dot dash, dot dash dash, dot dash dot dot, dot, dot dot dot, dot dot dot [FLAWLESS]. Dot dot, dash dot dash dot, dot [ICE]. Dash dot dot, dash dash dash [DO]. Dash dot dash dash, dash dash dash, dot dot dash [YOU]. Dash dot dash dot, dash dash dash, dot dash dash dot, dash dot dash dash [COPY]. Dot dot dash dash dot dot [?],” he said as he wrote it down. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Flawless pulled a piece of paper out of his saddlebag. “Use this to translate it.”
Lost raised an eyebrow of his own. “Sure.” after a few minutes, he had it. “Prince Flawless Ice, do you copy?”
The prince nodded. “Use the paper to send acknowledgement.”
“Are we about to betray our own country by giving information to the enemy?”
“No, we won’t betray the Dominion. The first part of the King’s Oath says that he must do what he can to protect the lives of his citizens, and to not waste them in senseless wars. My father hasn’t been too keen on following through with that of late, so I’m going to do it for him.”
“We’re giving information to the enemy.”
Flawless sighed. “Yes.” He shrugged. “But by doing this, we may get more ponies to come home by convincing my father through strategic losses that he can’t win, and he may give up trying to conquer Atlantis.”
Lost shoved away from the desk. “I will follow you to the end of time because you’re my friend, but the only thing this crazy idea will accomplish is us dancing the gallows.”
“Trust me.”
Lost looked at their friends. Eying each of them, he said, “what happens here will not leave this room. Understood?”
“Yes, Lost!” they chorused. “Prince, do you agree with this?”
“Yes. you will not say any of what comes through this talking box to anypony. Ever.”
“Yes, sir!”
Lost turned back to the talking box. As he wrote the acknowledgement message on a piece of paper, he said, “Dot dot. Dash dot dash dot…”