The immense airship in the distance had a roaring drone that rivaled any angry dragon. Sundance, who’d been woken up from his nap in the infirmary, now watched as the ship approached. It came from the west, and the setting sun was behind it. From where he stood, he could see that it was one of the newer designs, at least the placement of the airscrews. Four of them in total, two up front, with two in the rear, all of which were on pivots and allowed for excellent steerage. As for the ship itself, he’d never seen anything quite like it. The airship was longer than a high-rise tenement was tall. Longer, really. As long as a skyscraper, perhaps. Maybe even longer. With the sun behind it, and seeing it head on, it was hard to tell.
It was a strange ship, with modern airscrew placement and an old soft nacelle.
He knew next to nothing about airships, but liked to watch them when they came to port in Baltimare. Equestria’s martial supremacy was owed to its airships, which were said to be the best in the world, due in no small part to shared research agreements with some other country that he couldn’t recall at the moment. He couldn’t tell if this was a military airship, and truth be told, he didn’t know a corvette from a cruiser. But this one sort of looked like what he imagined a frigate might be, or perhaps a freighter; he couldn’t remember which one was which and confused the two.
“That’s done up in Princess Luna’s livery,” Turmeric announced as he squinted westward. “You can see the dark blue and silver. Hard to imagine that’s not some kind of gunship. Why do you think it’s stopping here?”
The roar came to a sudden end and the silence that followed was almost deafening.
“Is it stopping here?” asked Corduroy.
“Seems to be,” Turmeric replied. “It’s slowed down and dropped in altitude.”
“I invaded Princess Celestia’s wine cellar.” Sundance’s jaw firmed for a moment, and he shook his head. “Could be that they’ve come to collect my head for that trespass. Perhaps I won’t go quietly.”
“Well, it was nice knowing you,” Turmeric said to Sundance. “Fare thee well, sweet Baron.”
With the sun just behind it, the airship was large enough to cast its own patch of darkness. Sundance thought about laughing at his own joke, but was too tired, too fatigued to do so. Whatever strength he had left would probably be needed for whatever came next. The big ship was almost silent now as it drifted closer, and for the first time, he noticed movement on deck. Just how many ponies could a ship that size hold? A hundred? A thousand? He had no idea.
“Holy alicorn shit”—Turmeric’s outburst caused Corduroy to growl—“that thing has to be at least sixty feet wide! What’s a ship like that doing here? I mean, just the fuel bill alone for pulling out of port would be astronomical!”
“Quick,” said Corduroy to Sundance. “Stand up straight. Look noble. Wipe that smirk off your face. We’ve got company incoming. Flyers inbound!”
Sundance was puzzled by the stark-white alicorn wearing ornate armor, but was glad to see Nuance and Corbie. He watched as the trio approached and couldn’t help but notice that the alicorn wearing ornate guard armor was a lousy flier—such a terrible flier that there was no way they had been born a pegasus. And then, after a bit more thought percolated through his sleep-deprived brain, he concluded that this was no alicorn, but a pony with magical wings.
A pony desperately in need of flight lessons.
Corbie was the first to land and when she caught a crossdraft, he worried that she’d get flipped over. The portly filly didn’t fly so very well and from the way she panted, he could tell that she was out of shape. Nuance, held aloft in a bubble of glittery magic, cringed as his sister made a clumsy running landing and with a cry, she came to a skidding halt.
Overall, it wasn’t a bad landing, and it was one she’d walk away from.
A few seconds later, the flying guard came down hard, his heavy armor clattering. Sundance winced, but did not turn away as the guard just plopped down. There was no running, no stumbling, no nothing of that sort, just a hard, brutal impact. At least Nuance wasn’t jostled, and was set down mere seconds after the crash. After a moment of recovery, the guard gave themselves a shake, which, again, caused a cacophony of clattering.
“Solar Olive, you told me that you’ve been working on your landings!” Nuance said as he hurried away from the armored guard.
“I have,” was the gruff reply from the guard. “Why do you think I didn’t smash into the ground face-first?”
There was a visible shudder from Nuance, who now stood near his sister. But the young unicorn was quick to compose himself, and with a charming smile, he turned to offer greeting. “Baron Sundance. A pleasure to see you. The Gringineers have arrived, as promised.”
“A bit late in the day,” Turmeric remarked before Sundance could say anything.
“Oh, that.” Nuance’s smile vanished and his ears splayed level. “We’ll be setting up through the night so that tomorrow, not an hour of sunlight will be wasted. We’re scheduled to spend a week here, but that could change, depending on circumstances.”
“Good to see you, Nuance. Corbie, are you okay?” Sundance took a few steps closer to the two foals, and as he did so, Olive pulled off her helmet.
“Outta breath,” Corbie panted as she leaned against her brother.
“You’re sweaty and gross!” Nuance tried to get away from his sister, but she clung to him with moist unpleasantness. “Away with you! Away with you, I say! Olive, help!”
“Did you steal cookies from the commissary?” Olive asked.
“No.” Corbie’s ears stood up straight and she did not meet Olive’s stern gaze.
“Corbie—”
“I did not steal cookies,” the filly said to her guardian.
Sundance watched as Olive rolled her eyes, the sight of which caused him to smile. “Good to see all of you. Welcome to the Sunfire Barony.”
“Baron Sundance, there is somepony I want you to meet.” Nuance was nervous as he introduced the weird filly that stood beside him. “This is Quiet Dark—”
“Your smoochy-smoochy filly friend,” Corbie said in the annoying manner of sisters everywhere. “Smoochy-smoochy!”
Somehow, to his credit, Nuance held it together, and Sundance held his smile in check.
“Since I am doing community service, Quiet and I get to spend time together.” Nuance ignored the kissy-kissy smoochy-smoochy noises that his sister made and kept his eyes focused on Sundance. “Quiet, this is Baron Sundance. A friend. I’ve made a friend. Are you proud of me, Quiet?”
“Charmed,” Quiet said, and she flashed a smile that gave Sundance quite a fright.
Embarrassed, he was quick to recover, but something about Quiet Dark unnerved him. Her teeth… she had a terrifying toothiness. Big, broad, triangular teeth. A shark’s grin. She was no mere, common earth pony, as evidenced by her teeth. Then, he noticed her swishing tail, which looked as though it belonged on a lion. Was Quiet… a juvenile sphinx? He couldn’t tell, and he couldn’t remember if sphinxes had wings or not. She was terrifying, but also unflappably polite.
“She’s great, isn’t she?” Nuance wore an eager expression as he looked up at Sundance.
“Oh, she’s an exotic beauty,” he replied and much to his relief, the nightmarish sphinx-creature laughed.
Standing on the deck of the massive ship, Sundance did his best to relax. Corduroy was peering over the rail, with Turmeric right beside her. The deck was crowded with ponies, griffons, diamond dogs, and even a few minotaurs, all of which seemed incredibly young. Sundance figured that they all had to be younger than him—secondary school age, perhaps. Fresh recruits, maybe, and this might be their first assignment.
“We’ll be testing some new construction methods,” Nuance said in an adult voice that belied his tender age. “These are already tested designs, not to worry. But improvements can be made. We have a directive, which I am charged with achieving. My father gave me orders and I am directly responsible with ensuring that they happen.”
“And what might these be?” asked Sundance in response.
“Well…” Nuance licked his lips and his expression became one of intense concentration. “Forty houses. We’re to build forty houses. One large general-purpose bunkhouse, as requested by Twilight Velvet. The dining hall is to be expanded greatly in size, and upgraded with insulation. Uh, there was something else—”
Quiet whispered into the colt’s ear, “A kitchen, Nooncy.”
“Yeah! A big communal kitchen. Oh, and basic sanitation stuff. And we’re supposed to help you with any projects that you might already have going.” The colt’s face reddened a bit as his sister continued to make kissy-kissy sounds, but he somehow maintained his fragile focus.
The smoochy sounds came to an abrupt end and Corbie asked, “Where’s Skyla anyhow?”
“She has a headache,” Quiet replied. “Tried to do magic. Got frustrated. Gave herself a headache.”
“Hmph.” Corbie’s wings slapped against her sides as she gave them a flap. “And here I thought that it was the ice cream that gave her a headache. I told her that she couldn’t eat it that fast, but you know how she is. She never listens.”
Nuance and Quiet exchanged a glance with one another, and then the two of them smiled. Sundance lapsed into thoughts about when he was young, and for a moment, he was lost in pleasant reverie as the three foals laughed together. Not that he had many friends back then, but he had friends now, and there was no time like the present to make up for lost time.
“What’s this about ice cream?” Olive glowered down at the three foals, whose laughter came to an abrupt, sudden end. “Well, well, well… looks like there’s no point in serving dessert after supper. I’m thinking that some time confined to quarters might also be necessary—”
“Olive, no! Please… Quiet and I get so little time together.”
The hard mare’s face softened a bit, but not much. Her eyes narrowed, the corners of her mouth pulled down into a strict frown, and Sundance saw pain in her eyes. Pain? Not just her eyes, but her face as well. For whatever reason, Nuance’s words struck a nerve and Olive’s reaction was difficult to watch.
“It was my idea,” Corbie said to the harsh mare. “Don’t punish my brother, I dragged him along and he fought me every step of the way.”
“As you were,” Olive barked, and then the hard mare stomped away, her armor clanking as she retreated.
Officer’s Mess, as Sundance heard it called, was a rather smallish room, considering just how large this ship was. Perhaps there were multiple little rooms like this one. One thing of note, it was devoid of officers at the moment. Quiet Dark sat across the table, smiling her terrifically toothy smile, and Nuance, who sat beside her, seemed to only have eyes for her. Corbie sat beside her brother, and she was openly studying Corduroy, who sat beside her. Turmeric sat to Sundance’s left, and the worn out unicorn was almost unusually quiet.
Overhead, the ceiling was a mess of pipes and conduits.
“Thank you for having us over,” Corduroy said to Corbie. “It’s been a stressful day.”
“How so?” Corbie asked while her brother continued his worshipful ways.
“Now that I think about it, I’m not sure I should stay. I might be needed.” Corduroy frowned as she rested her paws upon the rounded edge of the stainless steel table.
“Which reminds me…” Sundance wondered if his nurse would stay or go. “We found an old wine cellar. It’s currently flooded. Think we could do something about getting it cleaned out so we can use it again? The cold storage would be beneficial.”
“You remind me of Skyla,” Quiet said to Sundance while Nuance fawned over her.
“How so?”
“She seeks constant improvement,” the curious shark-toothed filly replied. “If she found a flooded cellar, she would do the same. She’s practical like that.” She signed, brushed her mane away from her face with her foreleg, and continued, “I think Skyla is out of sorts because her routine got interrupted. She’s queer like that. Keeps to a rigorous schedule and does pretty much the exact same thing every single day. She only agreed to this trip for the sake of diplomacy.”
“Diplomacy?” Sundance found himself intrigued.
“Diplomacy.” Quiet blinked, almost batting her sooty eyelashes, and her mismatched eyes glittered with mischievous goodness. “That thing that civilised, tea-drinking, proper ponies do so that disagreement can be kept at bay. It was quite diplomatic of you to say nothing about my appearance, Baron Sundance.”
“It was just recently that I started to hammer out my prejudices,” he replied, and then immediately worried if he had said too much.
“How curious…” Even though she had hooves, the strange sphinxian filly crossed her forelegs over one another on the table in front of her. “Once those take root, they can be quite difficult to weed out from the garden.” As she spoke, her eyes, one pink, one amber, cast a sidelong glance at the colt gazing at her with syrupy adoration. “How have you managed?”
“My most trusted advisor and close friend is a diamond dog.”
A nightmarish display of sphinxian dentata spread from ear to ear on Quiet’s face.
“So, am I to understand that the Crystal Empire has an interest in the Sunfire Barony?” Corduroy’s claws clicked against the stainless steel surface of the table and she looked somewhat uncomfortable as she craned her head to look over at Quiet. “To what end, I wonder? What do we have that you might want from us?”
“That is my task.” Still smiling, Quiet bowed her head. “My assignment is to establish good relations so that in the future, mutually beneficial exchanges might be made. It’s never too early to secure the future, you know. Skyla has the eye for details, but as for me myself, I provide the charm that she lacks.” She turned and looked Nuance right in the eye. “Am I not charming, Nooncy?”
Blushing, the colt smiled.
“Dees-gusting.” Wincing, Corbie stuck out her tongue. “It’s worse than when Dad gets in a mood. You can hear him crooning all over the castle.”
“We’re too small and insignificant to be of any use to the Crystal Empire.” Corduroy lifted her paws, and then tented her paw-fingers together just in front of her nose. “I fail to understand how there is any sort of practical interest. Is this just a sort of test, a school assignment perhaps? We lack anything of any importance.”
“The Crystal Empire desires goodwill,” said Quiet as her demeanour had a drastic, sudden change. Her smile vanished and her eyes had a predatory gleam to them. “This expedition was funded almost entirely by Shining Armor and my parents, from their own coffers. We’re not doing this to leave you beholden to us. In fact, we expect nothing in return. Just goodwill. A foundation of goodwill is beneficial to each of us, and there is no telling what sort of future might be built upon such a foundation.”
Corduroy inhaled, almost said something, but remained silent. Corbie’s head turned from left to right, as if she was watching a tennis match. Now wearing a thoughtful expression, Nuance no longer fawned over his filly friend, but was paying attention to the conversation. Turmeric scratched the back of his neck whilst he heaved a tired sigh. As for Sundance, he understood that he was in over his head, but could not fathom just how much. The mere fact that Corduroy seemed to have some understanding of the situation left him hopeful, but he was frustrated by his own cluelessness.
What made everything worse was the fact that a foal, a foal had a fine grasp of the situation. No doubt, she’d been raised and schooled from an early age in statecraft, which only made Sundance even more uncomfortable. If she wanted to, she could talk circles around him, bewitch him, and probably get him to agree to all manner of things.
But, he doubted that Princess Celestia would allow that to happen.
It dawned on Sundance that this was Princess Celestia’s method of teaching him statecraft in a safe, secure manner, with minimal consequences. Could that be what she was doing? Was this a matter of pegasus see, pegasus do? He looked into Quiet’s eyes and tried to read her face, but she was a perfect blank with nothing to be gleaned with his keen powers of observation.
Politics was a game he had not yet learned to play.
Of course, when he’d started out, he had no idea how to earn the trust of his subjects, but he had that now. They trusted him, implicitly, perhaps even more so after rescuing Amber. He’d brought them Corduroy. So far, his short rule could be summarised by a struggle to do right. Then there was the owlbear, and Cucumber’s death. Yes, Sundance realised, he’d learned quite a bit in a short period of time. But for him to be a better baron, he’d need to get acquainted with politics, and now was as good a time as any. He trusted that Princess Celestia gave him a safe, fair, even playing field. He could make mistakes here and the consequences wouldn’t be too harsh.
“I’d like for us to be friends,” Sundance said at last after several long moments of silence. “Nations”—he paused for a time, thoughtful—“well, my barony is not a nation, but the idea remains the same. Nations can be friends. Equestria has friends. I’d like for us to have a good relationship, even though there is little we can offer you in return. Well, perhaps our gratitude. I for one, am thankful for your kindness, and I appreciate your generous offering of aid. If in the future, I can repay that in some way, I will.”
Just as Quiet was about to reply, the door opened. There was a clank of armor from just outside, a jingle of straps and buckles, and then a pale pink alicorn stumbled through the door. Her eyes were bleary, she still had bedhead, and her sluggish movements suggested that she wasn’t entirely awake. Though an alicorn, there was nothing particularly regal about her, nothing graceful. When the door shut behind her, she paused for a moment so that she might study Sundance.
“Hi.” Sundance tried to be his usual sunny self.
“Let’s get this out of the way,” Skyla said in a flat, weary monotone. “I’m Skyla. I’m an alicorn, but I’m not yet a princess. Not like my sister, Flurry Heart the Destroyer, who earned her princesshood by beating up some mud monsters. Not that I’d ever do anything that barbaric.” Covering her mouth with her wing, she yawned and her ears folded back against her head.
“My mother and father,” she continued, “being the wise, just, benevolent rulers that they are, have decreed that my appointment to princesshood depends entirely upon establishing trust and a working relationship with another nation, province, district, or barony. I chose to go with something small, which I thought would be the most manageable. You… you’re a baron. You have a barony. Let’s be friends of the mutually beneficial sort, shall we?”
“Ladies and gentleponies,” Quiet said with astounding snark while also gesturing at her friend. “Skyla, future ruler of the Crystal Empire, and princess-to-be. A round of applause for our diplomacy honours student.”
“There is value in being straightforward,” Turmeric remarked.
“Thank you,” Skyla deadpanned as she sat down beside Sundance. “So… what’s for supper?”