I caught up with Skystar after a few minutes.
I had to put on a little speed, but it wasn't too strenuous. She wasn't the most powerful flier, and she was kind of just flitting around in the vague direction we had taken off in. Plus, I didn't think that she wanted to get too far ahead of me. She stopped just as I reached her, only starting up again when I continued flying.
"So, uh... are you sure about this, Skystar?" I asked. "I mean, you just leaving Mount Aris is--"
"Oh, psshh, that's all fine," she said with a wave. "Like I said: we'll send a note to Mom telling her where I've gone and she'll be okay with it. I need to get out of the nest sometime, right?"
"Right, but I'm not sure this is the way to do it."
"It's totally fine, I promise," Skystar said. "I've been cooped up underwater for a long time, Kristen! I wanna see the world a little bit!"
Even though I was irritated by how spontaneous this all was, I couldn't exactly ignore that point. I love being underwater a lot, but if I had to just be underwater in one place for years, I would definitely go a little stir-crazy. Besides, Skystar wouldn't be the worst companion while I went... wherever I was gonna go. I found it likely that she wouldn't want to do all of the dangerous stuff anyway.
"Okay, fine," I said. "You can tag along. If you want to go back home at any point, just say the word."
Skystar gasped and wrapped me in a crushing hug, which probably wasn't a good thing since we were high up in the air. "Oh thankyouthankyouthankyou!" she cried, crushing me harder. "I'm so excited! This is gonna be great!"
"For sure," I replied, waving my hoof to get out of her grasp a few feet before we hit the ground. "I warn you, though: this might be difficult. I'm the god of chaos so I could walk around the world without stopping for anything."
"Yeah, yeah, but I'm in pretty good shape, too, you know," Skystar replied as we got going again. "Plus if we need to stop for food or whatever, I'm sure you've got us covered. You've gotten better at real food lately."
"I did have a lot of time to practice," I admitted, looking out to the horizon. "So..."
My thoughts trailed off as I saw what was in the distance: Klugetown. I grimaced and sighed. I really had a moron for a brother. I really, really did. Skystar followed my gaze and tilted her head as the two of us flew closer to the town.
"So it's gotta be better now, right?" Skystar said. "Your brother--"
"Is going to go too far someday, if he hasn't already," I growled. "I'm surprised that Celestia and Luna didn't put a stop to it, even if he's been getting more aggressive with how he rules. In any case, it's as good a place as any to stop and rest for a bit. I admit that I am kind of curious to see what it's like now."
"Can't be any worse than the last time you were there," Skystar pointed out. "No crime bosses, right?"
"Probably not, but it can still be worse in other ways," I pointed out, not breaking my gaze from the town. "Klugetowners strike me as beings that value their independence. Verko might be gone, but if he hasn't been replaced with somebody just as bad or worse, it's because my brother is ruling it with an iron hoof and keeping a very close eye on things there. Either way, I don't think that the Klugetowners are happy about the way things turned out."
"Probably won't like ponies any more than they already did," Skystar agreed.
I scoffed and nodded, a knot forming in my stomach as we got closer and closer to the newest Equestrian town. "Yeah. They just about tried to gut me and my brother when we were there last. I remember one of them saying something about how all ponies are thieves, and stuff."
Skystar flinched back. "Oof. That doesn't sound too good. They're definitely pretty mad at your brother, then, yeah?"
"No doubt." I grimaced as we went in for a landing. Even from high up I could see that the city looked a lot different. When we landed, the stark contrast was even clearer. Back when TD and I had been to Klugetown the last time, everything was run-down and ratty looking. "Mos Eisley" were the words I used, if I remember correctly. Now, though, everything was different. The buildings had all been repaired and painted, and the roads were paved, including concrete sidewalks. None of the stalls in the market were worn-down, with the locals selling chipped and dirty pots. Now each one wouldn't look out of place in the Ponyville market. They were made of polished wood, with hand-painted signs showing what each stall was named.
The craziest part, though? The craziest part was the locals. Before they all seemed like there was anger bubbling underneath their auras. They looked like they were going to get in a fight at any moment. I would know: they threatened to kill TD and I when we where here last. Now they all just looked kind of... broken. None of them had any sparks of life in their eyes. They looked like zombies just kind of going through the motions of day-to-day actions.
My brother is an idiot.
"They don't look very happy," Skystar muttered as we went down what I presumed was the main street.
"Probably because they aren't," I grumbled. "When I was here last, they didn't seem happy then either, but they didn't look like all of the fight had been taken out of them. I wonder how many were killed trying to resist TD's annexation."
"Maybe none of them," Skystar replied. "Maybe they just kind of realized that fighting your brother wasn't worth it. I mean, it's not like they had an army or anything, right?"
I groaned and facehooved. "Yeah, that might be worse. Regardless of what happened, there's no way they're better off now than they were before my moron of a brother took over."
As we passed by the locals, several of them glared at me. One or two of them even curled their hands into fists. They might have attacked, but I'm sure that there would have been extreme repercussions for that. The guard probably had this place in line. I'm sure that TD would say that it was for the greater good. I mean, all of these people were technically Equestrians now.
"So who do you think is in charge of this place?" Skystar asked, looking around for a building that looked like it could be some kind of seat of government. "I mean, your brother isn't just letting all of them be in charge of themselves, right?"
"Probably..." I tapped my jaw and looked in the direction I remember Verko's compound being. If there was any place that had the ability to house any leadership, it was Verko's compound. I beckoned Skystar to follow me and started walking in that direction. "I think I have an idea of where some leadership could be. I'd be pretty surprised if it was a local in charge of everything. TD probably has some kind of governor ruling over things until he feels like the locals can take charge and won't just break free." I grimace and flatten my ears. "Who knows when that will be? A hundred years? Two hundred? Long enough that the locals won't remember a time before Equestria."
Skystar frowned. "Well that doesn't sound very good. Isn't there an example on Earth of why this is a bad idea?"
"Absolutely," I said through gritted teeth. "In any case..." I looked down at myself and determined a small problem. "So, I just thought of something. I kind of stick out a bit. A lot of the ponies here would probably recognize me as Princess Kristen, sister of their beloved Prince Antares."
"Oh, yeah, that might be a problem," Skystar said.
I shrugged and shook my head. "Eh, not really." I motioned to a nearby alley and looked around to see if anyone was watching, then cast a spell on myself. My green mane shortened a few inches and turned light gray, while my coat turned into a slightly darker shade of gray. My muzzle elongated ever so slightly, my wings vanished, and my eyes turned gray-ish blue. To complete the picture, a cutie mark of a rolled-up scroll tied with black ribbon appeared on my flanks.
"Whoa," Skystar said with wide eyes. "I didn't know that you could do that!"
"Well, I can," I replied, my voice an octave lower and with a touch less personality. "I'd be shocked if anyone saw Silver Scribe and thought she was the chaos god Princess Kristen."
"I know that I don't recognize you at all!" Skystar poked my side to see if she could still feel my wings. She couldn't but thankfully they were still there. Not gonna lie, I was glad that I'd ended up as a pegasus when I'd turned into a pony. Flying was awesome.
"Well, no sense wasting the day," I said, walking out of the alley. "Might as well go see what's going on around here."
As the two of us get closer to where I remember Verko's compound being, I can tell that my guess of the government moving here is correct. I saw several ponies in armor and carrying spears surrounding it. I guess that TD and whoever ran this place didn't want anyone getting in and overthrowing what TD had set up here. When we got nearer to the gate, the two earth ponies guarding it crossed their spears in front of the door.
"Halt!" said the one on the right. "What business do you have here?"
"We're here for our meeting," I replied. "Princess Skystar and I have been invited to meet with the governor here to strengthen the bonds between our nations and possibly open up more trade."
The guards exchanged an uneasy look. "I have not been notified of that," the guard on the left said. "What time did you set up your appointment?"
"Yeah, I didn't see anything on the schedule here," the second guard said. I saw him reach into a side pocket and produce a clipboard. Bingo. With a slight smirk, I waved my hoof. That should fix up any issues. The guard checked the clipboard, and his eyes widened. "Oh, my mistake! I see you on here for three o'clock."
"Sounds right to me," I replied with a little tilt of my head.
The guards stepped aside and opened the doors for us. "Then please, ma'am, Your Highness, we shall have somepony escort you to Governor Overwatch at once."
I forced a smile on my face and tilted my head in a nod. "Thank you, sir. I appreciate it."
The second guard opened the door, and the two of us followed him into the compound. When I crossed the threshold of the gate, I shuddered a little bit. The last time I had been in here, I found TD in a cell where he had been tortured for a few days while almost dying. I'd rather not be reminded of that, thank you very much.
As we followed the guard, Skystar leaned in to me. "Kris-- er, Silver Scribe, we don't have any appointments like that. What are you doing?"
"Just getting a feel of what's going on here and see if there's anything I can do to help," I whispered back. "I doubt that I can totally free Klugetown from Equestria, but if there's something that I can do to make it so that the locals here are at least happier, then I'll do what I can. Maybe the guards are abusing people, and I can put a stop to that, or at least bring it to TD's attention. As much of a mistake as annexing Klugetown was, I doubt that he'd let people be abused around here.
The guard handed us off to a servant, who led us to a main room guarded by two more guards. Thank goodness it was just a few minutes until three, or else we might have had to wait for a while, and the longer we waited, the more likely it was that somebody would see through our story. In any case, the guards at the door opened it up, and the servant who was leading us brought us into the main room.
Previous experience almost made me expect to see some big golden throne where some fat noble sat, looking down his nose at me and Skystar. Instead, I saw an earth pony who couldn't have been a few years older than me sitting at a desk doing paperwork. The room was a lot smaller than TD's throne room, so that probably had something to do with there not being a throne. Plus, you know, the room was barely bigger than TD's office back in Baltimare.
The earth pony, who I assumed was Governor Overwatch, looked up from some paperwork when the door opened, and stood up with a smile.
"Hello, hello, Miss Silver Scribe, Princess Skystar." He walked up to us, but stopped a few feet in front of us for a bow. "It's an honor to have you here."
"Yeah, it's great to be here," I replied. "Princess Skystar and I are just... you know, checking up on things around here for Queen Novo. We're neighbors, after all, and she hasn't had a lot of contact with you guys since my brother took over."
"Oh, pshhhh, I wouldn't call it taking over," Overwatch said with a wave of his hoof. "More like coming in to help them by..." Overwatch grimaced and scuffed his hoof on the ground. "Okay, maybe it was taking over a little bit, but we had a good reason."
Skystar tilted her head. "What's that? I don't see any happy locals here."
"Yeah, they don't seem to be too thrilled about being Equestrians now," I said, narrowing my eyes. "Queen Novo has some concerns about it."
Overwatch widened his eyes and he held his hoof up. "No, no, you don't have to worry about anything like that!" he insisted. "Prince Antares in his wisdom has no intention of moving south to take over Mount Aris! We're doing our best to help the people of Klugetown!" Overwatch walked over to his desk and motioned over to a large stack of paperwork on it. "On top of making Klugetown a wonderful place to live, Prince Antares is attempting to turn the badlands into a breadbasket! He's recruited the top weather pegasi, the most skilled earth pony farmers, and the unicorns most skilled in agricultural magic. In the past year, we have made significant gains in turning the badlands into something wonderful for the world!"
"So Prince Antares annexed the badlands on top of Klugetown?" Skystar asked, tilting her head.
"W-well, it's not like anypony was doing anything with it," Overwatch said, poking at the papers on his desk. "With Prince Antares's reforms in the area, it's doing a lot of beings a ton of good! Within five years, crops from the old badlands will help feed beings from Baltimare to Vanhoover and beyond! We can even send food to Zebrica, Saddle Arabia, Minotauria, and even the old Storm King's empire!"
Skystar and I exchanged a look at the mention of the Storm King's old empire. Skystar's uneasiness told me that the scars from his invasion hadn't completely healed. Given everything that he'd done to her people, I couldn't exactly blame her.
"Yeah, about that..." I began, turning my attention to Overwatch. "What exactly happened with that? My brother hasn't told Queen Novo, and she's beginning to worry that he... took some measure of revenge against the people there in response to their invasion and the deaths of his officers."
Overwatch emphatically shook his head. "Not at all! The situation there is very similar to what happened in the south here. The sovereign nations have been liberated, and the Storm King's original country has been occupied to be rebuilt."
My eyes narrowed. "Rebuilt? What, was there a battle, or something like that? I thought that The Storm King's army was destroyed in the invasion."
"Most of it. The vast majority, really," Overwatch said with a shrug. "There was a bit of a battle, though, and Prince Antares... wanted it over with quickly."
My jaw tightened, and I looked down to the floor at that. The more I heard and saw about the stuff TD did in combat, the more sure I was that there wasn't a lot of the guy I knew of as my brother left. War changes people, I know that, but the TD I knew would never do something like that. Sure, he was rebuilding afterwards, but I can't imagine that he was as merciful as he could have been."
"Prince Antares wished to limit casualties as much as he could," Overwatch continued, either unaware of my mood or unwilling to comment on it. "In the past year, much has been done to rebuild their nation."
"Well, do you know if they're actually happy?" Skystar asked, putting a wing on my back. "I mean, Mount Aris rebuilt a lot in the past year, but we're really happy because we all got together and restored our home. We don't have anyone from Equestria leading our country. We're independent."
"Well, I mean... you were allies to Equestria," Overwatch said. "I see no reason why we would need to have anypony in your nation."
'Whatever," I said through gritted teeth. "I guess they're happy there." I motioned to a nearby window. "And what about the locals here? Are they happy being Equestrians?"
Overwatch's uncomfortable demeanor faded, and he puffed out his chest with a smile. "Oh, we're doing everything that we can to make Klugetown the best it can be. Over the past year, crime is down ninety percent, and the town is in a state of repair that I don't know it has ever been in. I've coordinated with a local council to improve the life of Klugetowners everywhere. I know that you said that you're here to see if Mount Aris can resume trade with Klugetown, and I am happy to say that we will be ready to shortly."
"Well, I guess that's good," Skystar said. "Mom will be happy to hear that."
"I'm glad. If the improvement of Klugetown can help everycreature, then any unpleasantness is worth it, right?" Overwatch replied.
I don't know about that. I get that sometimes not everybody is going to be happy with changes, but in this case, changes meant that a foreign power took over. I guess I can see the logic of annexing the badlands since Equestria can actually improve it in a way that help everybody, and nobody actually owned it, but Klugetown was its own thing. These people weren't former Equestrians that the Storm King took over, they were their own town. On top of that, I can't see the Storm Kingdom's old nation faring much better. In fact, it was probably doing worse. Even if TD wasn't telling them to be cruel, a lot of the soldiers he was using to occupy the land would have bad memories of the war. They might want a little revenge, and that could lead to all kinds of unpleasant stuff.
"So, is there anything I can do for you right now to resume trade?" Overwatch asked, breaking me out of my thoughts. "I can't say that we could start tomorrow, but we could have things started in the next month or so."
Skystar and I exchanged a look, but after a moment, I cleared my throat. "Actually, if you could send a message to Queen Novo for us, we would appreciate that," I said. "We have a few more stops, and Queen Novo would like this information as soon as she can."
"Of course, of course!" Overwatch said. "Do you need some paper, or...?"
"That would be great," I said, walking up to Overwatch's desk. "I should just need a pen and some paper."
"Of course." Overwatch grabbed a piece of loose paper and a quill, and pushed them over to me. "Let me know when you're ready and I can have a messenger deliver it at once."
I smiled at him and took the materials before beckoning Skystar to follow me and going over to a small desk in the corner of the room.
"So what are you thinking?" Skystar asked, sitting down at the chair on the desk. "You have that look like you have a plan of some kind."
"Nothing concrete yet," I admitted, casting a weak privacy spell around us. "But first we're going to send a message to your mom."
Skystar frowned and tilted her head. "My mom? What for?"
I gave her a flat look and put the quill and paper on the desk.
Hello, Queen Novo, this is Kristen. I'm writing to say that yes, your daughter is with me, and she's joining me on some travels. Don't worry: I'll keep her safe. I'm the chaos god. I can take good care of us.
Skystar read over my shoulder, and once I was done, she grabbed the quill for her own note.
Hey, Mom, this is Skystar. I wanted to join Kristen to see the world and stuff. I gotta get out of the nest sometime, right? Don't ground me when I get home, whenever that is. Love, Skystar.
I smirk and roll the paper up. We go back to Overwatch, and I hand him the paper. "Here, if you could deliver that to Queen Novo as soon as possible, that would be awesome. Obviously it's private, so discretion is appreciated."
Not to mention that I cast a spell on it that meant that anybody who tried to read it that wasn't Novo would get a nasty surprise of a bucketful of ink right in the face. Sometimes being the chaos god is rather nice.
"Of course, Miss Scroll," Overwatch said, tilting his head in a bow. "I shall have my fastest courier deliver it at once."
"Kind of you."
"Is there anything else I can do for you?" Overwatch asked as he took the note from me.
"Yes. I'd like to meet this council of locals that you were talking about."
Maybe they could shed some light on how things were around here.