//------------------------------// // 40 - Doomed Demesne // Story: Fading Suns: A New World // by David Silver //------------------------------// Laud looked over towards the construction ponies that were already hard at work. Their shouts and unity were clear as they labored to undo the harm the ship had inflicted in its landing. They were moving dirt with shovels held in their mouths, one running off, undoubtedly to get some other tool. "They are not Shantor," spoke Laud. "And we shouldn't repeat that mistake even if they were. We're better than that, and they'll make it worth the time." He turned to Paul, studying his lines, though they had relaxed into careful neutrality. "They will change the universe." "Or be flattened by it." Paul pinched the bridge of his nose. "You're writing a document you don't have the authority to uphold. You want the entire house to mobilize for this, or it will fail." Laud held up his translator, sun reflecting gently off its glossy surface, "This was built by them. They've made about half a dozen of them. I never gave them schematics. They didn't even know what the insides were until they saw mine." Paul's chest swelled with a slow intake of air. The soldiers that ringed them tried to sneak peeks at the alien artifact, but largely held their assigned position. "I would call you a liar, but I've already heard there've been several of these sighted, and I doubt you had a reason to bring more than one with you. You realize, that compounds how much trouble this will bring? The guilds will come down on you, and this world." He didn't move nearly as much as he had before. No grand sweeps of his hands. Even his tone was dangerously even. "Let there be no mistake, Laud. You are inviting your house to war." Laud waved the translator with clearly increasing agitation. "If there is to be a war, is this not worth the price? Tell me this isn't what we were raised to believe in? These people await our command and help. By the Pancreator, they already have a queen, and she is friendly." He waved the hand with the translator towards Starlight and the others that were speaking beyond the ring. "Hawkwoods can make a move, a real move." Paul clapped a hand down on Laud's shoulder. "You are young, fiery, and ready to fight." His fingers dug in firmly, wrinkling the fabric. "I remember the time--" "--There's more," cut in Laud, interrupting Paul in a break of decorum that made the men uneasy. "They have access to a pre-First Republic society." His voice was tense, clearly ready to battle. Paul looked around with his eyes only. "Are they not one themselves?" "Further ahead." Laud took a slow breath, trying to calm himself. "Just at the cusp of star travel. Cars, information networks, mass-produced goods. Look, it doesn't matter in the end." He rose a hand to cross over his chest and stood stiffly straight. "I have promised these people that Hawkwood would do what was right. Is that not the Hawkwood way? Even if we fail, will that not be what we do?" "Like a whore in zero-G," agree Paul with a wry smirk. "We will rise and fall haphazardly. If they've messed with your head, they didn't remove what makes a Hawkwood." He slapped the side of Laud's shoulder. "Damn it all, you don't act in halves." The sound of approaching hooves on packed dirt caught their attention as one of the construction ponies trotted towards the ring. "Hey, we have the roller ready to go. Pavement will arrive tomorrow. Can we get everycritter out of here?" He tossed his head in emphasis. "Don't want any injuries." Of course, only Laud understood his sounds. Laud translated without delay. "It sounds like they have some heavy machinery ready to repair the damage caused by the ship and they request everyone leave the landing area so they can work." He took a step towards the exit of the field. "The people here are friendly, but there is an obvious language barrier. The laws are fairly typical. No stealing, no violence." "They accept any currency we're likely to have on hand?" Paul walked alongside Laud, heavy boots making the faintest marks on on the already stomped turf. He reached into his pocket, but the motion paused as his men suddenly grew concerned. Following their eyes, they saw another pony, but that one was busy defying gravity. Flying on wings that seemed far too small to hold up its mass, it was lazily drifting along the wall that seperated the field from the outside world. It was facing the outside, and talking(?) to others outside. Even the pace at which it moved was alarming, moving so slowly as to lead them all to expect it to plummet, but it did not. Laud pointed directly at the pegasus. "The ponies come in three main varieties. That is a pegasus. They can fly, as you can see. They appear to be able to do so by matter of will as much as any amount of their wings being involved. I've seen them fly upside down without stress. The pegasus being pointed at somehow seemed to notice the act and twirled in air smoothly, facing them. She waved a hoof timidly before coming closer. Fluttershy smiled nervously as she descended with little flaps of her wings. "Hello, Laud. Did you need to tell me something?" Laud gestured at her, waving over her form. "Fluttershy is her name." He said her name in English. He gestured to Paul. "This is Paul." He kept Paul's name in English, but the rest was in equine. Paul nodded to the pegasus. "Nice to meet you, Fluttershy." Fluttershy gave a nervous little giggle as she settled to the ground. "O-oh, nice to meet you, Paul." Her pronunciation of Paul was a bit imperfect, but she tried. "He did say 'hello', right?" She looked from soldier to soldier curiously, then back to Laud. "I'm sorry, am I in the way?" Laud took a step forward towards the exit. "I'm leading them on a tour. It's good for them to meet some locals though, no harm done." "O-oh, that's good, yes." She bobbed her head with confidence before lifting gently into the air. "I'd better get back. Have a nice day, Laud, Paul." She waved a final time before zooming back to the wall. In a great shower of sparks in a bubble, Twilight appeared. Even as the glimmer faded, Twilight found there were swords pointed at her in a fan of steel. "Is this... a bad time?" She asked, smiling nervously but making no sudden moves. "This is like when we first found you, Laud. Is this a natural reflex of your species?" Paul snatched Laud's translator out of his slack hand. Laud looked irritated a moment, but it passed. Confident in his rank, Paul slid the translator into place and locked it into position. "You gave us a surprise." Twilight's ears perked before a translator seemed to emerge from her rump and quickly floated along, covered in her magic. She had it on in a flash. "My apologies. My name is Princess Twilight Sparkle." "Are you the daughter of this Queen I heard rumors of?" Paul gestured to the men with their weapons drawn. "These are my men, who will stand down." They did just that, sliding their swords into their sheaths. "And I am Duke Paul Hawkwood." Twilight looked confused, brow arching. Laud quickly advanced in front of her. "Queen Celestia," he prompted helpfully, hoping she would follow along. "She prefers the title of 'Princess'," corrected Twilight bluntly. "All of our leaders are princesses." Paul glanced aside at Laud. Some of the men gave barely restrained snorts. "If Laud is an accepted royal here, is he, too, a princess?" Twilight's eyes followed towards Laud. "Of course not. He's a stallion." She shook her head as if the idea was quite silly. "Besides, he is not a leader of ponies, though he has been given authority over this--" she waved a hoof over the landing field. "--and the trading that occurs here." Paul's expression darkened from mirth to suspicion. "I see. Then would you accept him, as a leader?" Twilight looked pensive. Laud wanted to intercede, but there was nothing he could say that wouldn't immediately cause more trouble, just for him speaking. "He is a leader, just not of ponies. He understands your people, and has volunteered to help facilitate the interactions between us." She nodded at Laud. "I am thankful for that. Your people would have been difficult to speak with otherwise." She spread her wings in a great fan. "Welcome to Equestria! I, Princess Twilight Sparkle, formally invite you. Come in peace and enjoy our hospitality." Some of the tension seemed to flow out of the circle of soldiers. The formality was comforting to them, perhaps. One of them bowed towards Twilight. "I confess, you are the first princess I've seen." His peer beside him laughed at that, losing all decorum. "And it's a horse." For better or ill, the words were lost on Twilight. "Nice to meet you as well," she guessed before she leaned to the side. "We should not be in the way of that." She pointed with a wing to a large rolling machine that was powering across the field, flattening the dirt. Her eyes went up to the ship that loomed over them in a dazzling display of human technology. She could barely hold back the salivation that resulted. "If it... would not be improper... I would love to inspect your vessel." Paul shook his head firmly. "I'm afraid that request must be denied." Laud quirked a brow at the blunt refusal. No flowery misdirections or polite let downs? Just a no? Twilight dipped her head in reply. "Very well... maybe another time?" She turned away and began to trot for the exit. "Let's get out from underneath the construction-ponies in the most literal sense." Paul covered his translator with a hand. "The idioms are spot on, or you've improved the translators." The procession of about thirty soldiers, 6 ponies, and two nobles cleared the field, leaving it with just a large spaceship, the construction ponies, and Maud's workshop, with a Maud inside. Starlight caught up with Laud, not wearing a translator. "Your friends are as nervous as you were when you first came here. Are we really that scary?" Laud reached to pat her head, which she tolerated. "You have no idea. Almost every aspect of you is disarming and disquieting," he nickered in the horse way. Paul looked around Laud to Starlight. "And that one is...?" "Starlight," replied Laud in English as they passed under the archway that seperated the field from the rest of Equestria. "She is a student of Miss Sparkle, and the one that replicated the translators." "Ah, a noble." His eyes lifted up to the town they could more easily seen without the wall in the way. "It's like a child's whimsical book with its bright colors that start with its buildings and end with its residents." Starlight hiked a brow at Paul. "That's 'English', yeah?" She said the word English in English, as there was no Equestrian word for it. "I didn't even think of trying to use the translator to learn it. That had to take some serious dedication, and so fast! That girl is scary, pony or human." Twilight looked over her shoulder. "What's that?" Starlight smiled at Twilight. "I'm complimenting you." Twilight rolled her eyes. "In a backhoofed way." Her words were echoed in English, with the translator around her neck. "Duke, you can house your... guards? They are guards, yes?" "As good a name as many," agreed Paul, allowing the translator to work. Twilight pointed to her castle. "They can sleep there. I'll have rooms made up for them. How many do you have here?" She started counting under her breath, though the translator echoed each number at full volume. Starlight slipped her translator into place and coughed. "Sir, will you be wanting more translators?"