Chapter 16. The invitation and The Mechanics ride.
Two days after Twilights f*ck up at the festival...
After the Equestrians where given a ride back home, things had settled down in both Tanah kahijian and Southpost. After the locals had told about the mess at the festival, any newer tourists luckily understood the mildly cooler reception. This had also starting to wear off, so the local tourism had not suffered too big of a hit due to purple alicorn princesses outburst. Even the resident marilith was a bit hopeful that said mess-up would not sour what little friendship she seemingly had perhaps gained among the six mares and a dragon.
After waking up, still lightly feeling a little stress from the festival debacle, Naja was at the moment having one of her meditation moments at the temples altar-room to calm her nerves for a bit. There was no zen-phase to be reached this time, due to sound of knocking on the side of the doorway.
"Miss Naja? May I have a moment of your time?" asked a familiar voice.
"You may Hera. I was needing an distraction anyways. So what do ya have to say? Hopefully not about the festival mess, since we both pretty much talked it to the ground yesterday." Naja said, turning around to see the white feathered hippogriff, still wearing her sash, with a few materia crystals in it.
"Oh, its not about that. It's more about this." Hera said, while pulling out an opened letter, with Equestrian royal seal on it.
"It just arrived today morning. Even has a post-return-spell on it."
"So what does Equestria want from here, while being polite enough to even send an actual letter to you?" Naja inquired, with a raised brow.
"Basically, it is an invitation to a national diplomatic-ball, once again hosted by Canterlot, and also mildly in the Crystal Empire, due to some flag stuff. Other guests are representatives from other nations and towns."
"So plenty of diplomats talking and otherwise hobnobbing with each other will be arriving there... Have you been in one?"
"Once, with my mother, who has retired from her position in the council. It was about fifteen or so years ago. We had pleasant enough time talking with other representatives, even making a few good starts to a few trade-agreements with some of them... Until the Sun Princess started try and converse with us, I guess trying to receive a forgiveness of sorts from our towns for her past deeds. It soon devolved into a sugared attempts to maybe have us join Equestria proper, 'for the shared prosperity and harmony for all'..."
"And I guess your mother did not take it well?"
"No she did not. My mom pretty much told Celestia to 'shove it', in so many lengthy words, and then we left the ball early. Since then she has declined every invitation; politely if its from a different host, and not so politely if it's hosted by Canterlot. And after she retired, the invites started coming to me... And I'm actually thinking of going."
"To talk to the other representatives?"
"Yes indeed. I plan on talking about few things with them on behalf of the Council... And potentially to tell Princess Celestia to 'shove it' if she tries to talk about us joining Equestria in a wording of any form, if only to follow on my mothers footprints in that. And this invite also includes a 'plus one', so I basically thought if you'd join in. If anything, you could get to know few of the guests there-."
"And maybe talk some past issues through with the princesses?"
"Yes... That too... I hope I did not offend you with this request."
"Not problem. What I'd like to know is how are we going to arrive there? It would take days for me to slither all the way up there. And I think we can both agree on the formal-wear, right?"
"I put on my finer material sash, while we find you a big enough cloth to make an improvised toga? And as for our ride, I have someone in mind. Hope you have good lungs though... You'll see soon why."
Mechanics residence.
"Well, this fellow sure loves technology." Naja commented to Hera, while watching all of the moving metal doohickey's around a rather homey looking house with a fence and large hangar-like building behind it, that was a little walk away from the main town.
"Indeed he does. Cid is the foremost mechanic and pilot around these parts. Aaand maybe just a teensy bit crazy-"
"And has some serious Iron-lungs, with all the smoking he does." came a continuation from a kirin lady, now standing at the houses front yard, with a wheelbarrow full of cigarette-butts.
"Oh, good day Shira. How is your family doing?"
"Great Hera. Hubby is working on final touches on one of his projects, and our daughter, Shera is doing great at her job at her uncle's restaurant. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to haul these in the burn pile and make some tea, before Cid reminds me again" kirin said, and continued to move the wheelbarrow somewhere else.
"You can find Cid in his workshop." she said, just before a small explosion could be heard from the hangar-building. And soon after that, the door in there opened up, letting out a huge amount of smoke, and out stepped a scruffy looking grey colored griffin, covered in some soot, wearing a pilots jacket and goggles. Even under the soot, one could see he had a blonde head-plume.
"Wow, I can't believe that thing actually worked!" he happily yelled in a rough deep voice, while putting cigar on his beak.
"Shira! Can ya make some-"
"Working on it, after this! And you got guests!" Shira yelled back, due to distance.
"Oh hi Hera. What brings ya and snake-butts huge behind here?"
"Well Cid, we happen to be in need of a ride to some diplomatic trip to Equestria. Don't you still have that airship in working order?"
"Sure do. Come in and I'll show it to miss Naja too. Mind the second-hand smoke, even though the explosion displaced some of it."
After this exchange, all three of them went inside the hangar, Naja needing to bend over slightly, in order to avoid the thick layer of smoke stuck in the ceiling. This bird indeed seemed to possess some iron-lungs.
A moment of walking past several piles of metal pieces, including a cannon of sort, they arrived next to an obvious airship. And it sure looked like one capable of hauling heavy cargo.
"I call her, 'Levea Kuljetus', or sometimes, 'The Flying Brick'. It uses something more advanced stuff than just a balloon filled with hot air." Cid said in a very proud tone.
"Really now? So what does it use to get itself flying?" Naja inquired, while looking at the metallic flying machine.
"Something we here named 'Magitek'. Kind of a marriage between magic and technology, which I ain't giving to Equestria, due to plenty of reasons." was his answer.
"Despite his quirks, Cid is actually also a member of the Materia Keepers. He did some experiments with some Thunder-materia, he had bonded with, and noticed that it got along well with some of his prototype machinery. So he experimented some more, and now we have an airship, with tech that would have been 'heretical' in the olden days on Equestrias side." Hera continued telling, while Cid went to check the ship a bit, even showing a panel with some Materia orbs in it, sparking to life in the presence of the griffin mechanic.
"That is truly fascinating..." was all Naja could say.
And on that moment, miles away in Equestria, in Ponyville specifically, Twilight could feel her 'science-sense' tingling. Only to feel its cause coming form the direction of the two free towns, where she pretty much had ban of entering, in all but name... It caused some slight whimpering, before she returned to her books.
Back at Cid's hangar, he had just finished giving a simple rundown about the overall mechanic's of the ship.
"And it can haul about hundred and fifty metric-tons, and yes, I tested it. Should be enough to carry your heavyweight behind without much trouble, right?" he commented while opening up the loading-ramp-doorway, that was wide enough for Naja to fit through.
"It does seem capable of that. Can you warm it up, while we get ready for the trip?" marilith asked.
"Sure can. And while you're leaving, do have some of Shira's GOoODDAMN Tea." was Cid's answer, with a request, emphasized by a swear. He must really do that often.
And the ladies indeed did have a little tea-break, Shira and Hera enjoying a nice cup each, while Naja was given a large bucketful of the warm drink. And it indeed was some really tasty stuff.
It took only few hours for them to get into some formal-wear, Hera wearing her sash that was clearly made of finer material, while Naja just got the agreed on cloth on in toga-style, but still keeping her basic clothes on, just in case if there was a wardrobe malfunction at the ball.
Their departure was only lightly delayed, due to Cid's need to et some of the 'cobwebs' out of the ships engines and took it for few test rounds around both towns, in order to see everything was in order. This did give Naja and Hera some time to tell the news to the locals, and keep the kids away from the ship, just in case.
Said worrying about the kids was fortunately unfounded, thanks to the smell of smoke from the pilot. And little ones parents also helped in this, some with the classic 'when you're older' or something similar points.
The delay also gave Hera a change to send the invite back to the Princess, with a message of her arrival to the ball with a plus one, in a peculiar metallic transport.
"All righty ladies. Your mildly rusting carriage awaits." Cid said in a joking, yet polite, tone with a small bow. And with that permission, they climbed aboard the ship. Hera without any problems, while Naja had to be careful to not put her full weight on the loading ramp, but did eventually got on safely. And of course Cid got on too to drive the thing.
"Ok, now let's go give miss sunshine and miss moonshine a visit!"
With that, the engines roared alive at full, lifting the ship in the air and proceeded to fly towards Equestria. And the engine only coughed up smoke three times before the border, while Cid vented the inside maybe five times in order to get his second-hand smoke out.
Soo many birds dropped down mid-flight behind the ship during those venting's...
Equestria, Canterlot...
Celestia had just finished putting away some documents in office, and was about to prepare for the diplomatic ball, that was starting this evening.
Her thoughts where interrupted by the appearance of another scroll, which seemed to be a returning invitation.
"*sigh* If I have to guess, it's most likely 'the decline number thirty-one'..." she muttered to herself, in a slightly sad tone.
The little sadness subsided fast, being replaced by amazement, when she saw that the answer was actually positive one.
"... Luna!" Celestia suddenly called out for her sister, who arrived there fast.
"WHAT SISTER!?" moon princess yelled back, while almost breaking her sisters office-door. "Did something happen?"
"I just received the invitation to Tanah kahijian representative, miss Hera. And she's even bringing somepo-... Someone with her, in an 'peculiar' airship." Celestia explained in a much more positive-sounding tone.
"Really? Well I guess we shall see who is her plus one when they arrive here. And hope nothing bad happens." Luna said, before proceeding to knock her back hoof against the wooden part of the office-door thrice, maybe trying to use the good old 'knock-on-wood'-thing. One can hope...