//------------------------------//
// Chapter 5 
// Story: Godly Promotion 
// by Dapper_Dan 
//------------------------------//

The City of Iram, the Atlantis of the Sands...I wish I had something good to say about it. I really didn’t though, not a single thing I wanted to say was positive. Sure I didn’t find a spear suddenly shoved in my face, but if looks could kill I would have burst into flames just from looking in this cities general direction.

I had been everything but directly attacked after setting hoof in this place, but I probably wasn’t too far from that either. At least the other races besides the zebra only gave me a cursory glance, while the ponies simply studied me like I was the most fascinating thing on the planet.

I didn’t blame them though, not many Thestrals travel out of their lands, so I’m likely the very first bat pony they had ever seen. The Griffons and Minotaur’s paid me little attention, most either ignoring me or going so far as to give me a wave and a smile. The zebra, well I don’t think I need to tell you what they did, definitely didn’t help that they were the majority in this city.

I didn’t care though, walking through the cobblestone streets with a smile on my face and pep in my step, which seemed to piss off the zebra even more. Their hatred definitely showed, especially when I tried to peruse the market out of curiosity. They were still willing to sell me stuff, but their prices were something beyond extortion. There wasn’t even all that much to see either, just a series of buildings and stalls with something that was probably supposed to look nice and decorative, but just came off as tacky.

This cities only saving grace in my eyes was a temple of Yemoja near the center, but it was in a sorry state after years of disuse. I was not at all happy after that, which probably didn’t help me in my discussions with the harbormaster. 

It turns out that violence was no longer the answer.

I remember attacking the insulting bigot after he punched me in the muzzle in an attempt to end the argument we were having that started out as a simple discussion over his extreme prices, eventually leading up to the two of us getting into an actual shouting match on what constitutes as a fair price.

I had all the money I could possibly want, but I still want my prices to be fair dammit!

One thing led to another and the two of us ended up in a one sided hoof fight, me being too worried about killing him to hit back, which quickly drew the attention of a pair of passing guards, leading to the second time I had spears pointed at me by angry zebra.

I wanted to say I handled the situation with the grace and dignity befitting my station, but things rarely if ever go the way I really wanted them to. 

“Sir, put down your weapon!” One of the guards shouted at me, not one of the original pair but one of the other several that came running after I handled the situation. 

Turns out that these guys were tougher than I originally thought they would be, only getting a broken jaw instead of a missing head in the case of the harbormaster. The armor of the guards was definitely subpar at best though. Seriously, I punched one of them and the breastplate practically exploded, didn’t even really try.

Maybe I should cut down the power I use...for the next vessel.

Now I had an entire squad of guards pointing spears and crossbows at me, all while onlookers watched on in curiosity, a few coin bags being exchanged between some of them.

Seems this was a common occurrence. 

Back to the guards though, which I’m happy to claim haven’t attempted to skewer me like a kabob yet. They weren’t all that far from it, though, the ones with crossbows seeming especially antsy; can’t imagine why though.

“I don’t have my weapon, this is his” I replied, pointing down to the unconscious guard, whose face was covered by scraps of metal that used to be his helmet. The one shouting at me blinked before raising a hoof, making the archers tense. Seems these people don’t understand the term excessive force. “It won’t work.”

“Fire!” he yelled, dropping his hoof, signaling his archers to loose their arrows, all four of them heading directly towards me...only to bounce harmlessly off of my chest.

“Told you” I chuckled, twirling the spear and planting the tip into the wooden dock. The guards just stared gob smacked, the spearman quickly regaining their resolve and pointing their weapons my way again. 

The archers stayed exactly how they were.

“DEMON!” Then they charged, the four of them thrusting their spears in unison...where they all snapped in half on contact. 

Good thing I made this body stab proof, sure it makes things hard to explain but oh dear me was it funny.

“Anything else?” Now the spear wielders were frozen, the archers now moving in their place, but only two of them choosing to reload their crossbows while the others moved to clear away the civilians, making little progress moving said statues.

The guards did start moving eventually, the leader somehow mustering the courage to point his used to be spear at me, then looked at the broken stick, back at me, back to the stick, then back to me. I just raised a brow and said nothing, merely raising a hoof and gently pushing the broken stick back to the ground.

“Now how well do you think that would have gone friend?” I asked him, watching his muzzle open and close a few times, not a word leaving him, until he dropped the stick and backed away into the group, starting to order his comrades in Zebricans, all of them looking about ready to bolt.

I just rolled my eyes and cleared my throat, remembering a phrase my daughters used to calm their children.

“Esse tranquillitas, filii mei, patrem vestrum, vigilias super vos simper” (Be calm, my children, your father watches over you always) I let out a breath and calmed my heart, looking into the eyes of the stallion and watching as his breath slowed and the others of his squad dropped their weapons and felt their legs tremble to avoid bowing to me.

It’s been awhile since I’ve used the voice of the Father, which everyone in infant Equss oh so lovingly called it. Last time was when I had to keep a world war from happening back when all of Equss was arguing over water resources.

This is how the fresh water ocean was made. It was a pain in the ass keeping it separated from the salt water oceans and making sure no country could claim it, but it saved me a lot of headache.

“You have nothing to fear from me child.” I walked towards him and placed a hoof on his shoulder, feeling his muscles relax as his fellow soldiers quit fighting their instincts and bowed down before me. “Calm your heart, still your mind, all will be fine.”

The stallion smiled and joined his brothers in bowing. “Thank you Father.” 

Oh boy, this is what I was afraid of. The voice of the Father was as close to mind control as you could get, without actually going all out on said individuals psyche. It puts them at ease, like a child who was being comforted by their parents, leaving them highly impressionable. It only lasts for a few minutes, so they’ll be fine.

“Arise; there is no need to bow to me.” They did so without a second thought. “Now please take this stallion to the nearest doctor, then tell your captain he is accused of assault, do not mention me.”

All of them saluted and moved to grab the harbormaster, dragging him away through the crowds, who were no doubt affected by the voice.

“The rest of you, go about your day any forget any of this ever happened.” All of them bowed and cleared out, resuming their lives while those too far away looked on in curiosity of what had just happened. I decided to join the crowd as well, letting a sigh escape me after watching the dock workers get back to their work.

There weren’t any ships docked in the harbor today, nor did I know when they would show up thanks to that bigoted harbormaster. Guy didn’t even keep a log for the ships coming and going, meaning I had to literally guess since the Zebra were still none to happy with me. 

This meant I was basically stuck here till I could either weasel out the information from one of the dock workers, or maybe the harbor master when he could talk again, or for me to just get to the point of saying screw it and teleporting to Equestria myself. Maybe if I had gone ahead and done that before I would be dealing with this, but then I might miss something.

After all, it’s not about the destination, it’s about the journey.

...I think I just died a little on the inside.

You can’t change the past though, not without major repercussions, so I was kind of stuck there unless I got lucky or turned the cheats on. Meaning I needed to find a place to rest whenever I decide to take a break in stalking the harbor. 

‘This shouldn’t be too difficult’ I remembered telling myself...about three hours ago. I still heard it on constant repeat after the first three inns I checked, then the next three, and so on. Turns out money can’t always get you what you want, at least my money can’t.

The coin I had was good, but it was still counterfeit, and the prices these innkeepers wanted to charge would send their entire economy in free fall. This just proved to piss me off more to the point where one of those inns was no longer there, it’s over there...and there...and there...still not sure how I got away with that 

Point is I was probably sleeping outside tonight. 

I still had hope though, hope in the one last inn in this city, The Drunken Huntsmare. I stood there staring at the sign, feeling an odd tingling in the back of my head and a small pinch in my knee, but eventually just shrugged it off and let myself in. What greeted me was a quaint little space with nothing in it but a few chairs lining the walls, several animal pelts decorating the room, and a simple wooden counter, empty save for a few assorted fruits and a small candle. 

The zebra mare behind the counter was quick to perk up from her dozing, her eyes blinking rapidly to clear away the drowsiness as her cobalt irises trained on me.

“Hello stranger, welcome to The Drunken Huntsmare.” She greeted with a smile, making me stop and blink in mild shock. I must have been stuck there for awhile, because the girl actually started to look worried. “You okay over there?”

I blinked before shaking my head to gather myself. “Sorry, haven’t gotten this far before in this city so you kind of threw me off guard.” 

She stared at me in confusion, scratching her head with a hoof. “What do you mean?”

I can’t tell if she’s messing with me or not. She definitely seems to be genuinely confused, which just made me confused. I gestured to myself with a hoof, making her raise a brow, and making my hopes rise ever so slightly.

“You do know what I am right?”

“Yeah, a Thestral, so what?” she shrugged, checking something behind the counter before turning her attention back to me. “Coin is coin, not like I’m going to turn away a paying customer over something as insignificant as species.”

I have never wanted to hug someone so much before in my entire existence. I couldn’t help but smile and chuckle a little to myself, eagerly making my way towards the counter with an actual smile on my face.

“Congratulations, you are already better and smarter than every other innkeeper in this city, trust me, I checked.” She chuckled and leaned against the counter, twirling a key in her hoof...somehow.

“Good to hear, no doubt I’m cheaper too, only three coins a night.” She informed, planting the key on the counter and sliding it my way, while I fished out three coins and placed them on the counter.

“Indeed you are, seeing as how I could use the coin that the others were charging me to buy a house.” I told her, watching her cringe and slide one of the coins back towards me.

“I’ll make your first night a bit cheaper; no doubt you’ve had a time in the city.” She said with a smile, making me chuckle and slide two coins back to her. 

“No thanks, I have the money, and this little conversation is already the best part of my hopefully short stay in this city.” She raised a brow but didn’t refuse the money, sliding the coins into a container behind the counter.

“Short stay huh, where you heading?” 

“Equestria” I readily answered, making her stare at me in surprise. She blinked, but eventually just shrugged and move back to lean on the counter, one of her hooves hanging over the side while her other held her head up.

“Wow, only ones going that way are the ponies themselves, can’t imagine why you would want anywhere near their lands.”  

“I have my reasons.” I chuckled, snatching the key with a wing. She shrugged again and went back to dozing behind the counter.

“Room seven, breakfast is at eight, dinners at seven” she muttered, making my ears twitch and my smile grow as I left for the rooms with my hooves quietly clopping on the wooden floor. Doing my best to not disturb the already snoozing mare, and whoever was most likely already asleep, I made my way towards the designated room and making myself at home in the comfortable atmosphere of the room. .

I couldn’t seem to get the smile off my muzzle, my mood going right back up from the depths of hell just from the smallest sight of acceptance from a creature that would have most likely been raised to see my current species as an enemy. Reminds me why I don’t just erase this planet, because I sure as hell have plenty of reasons to start from scratch. Not like my daughters would blame me, even their love and tolerance has a limit, which actually concerned me from time to time.

Putting the potential genocide of Equis to the side for now, I still had things to do tonight. Hopefully I don’t mess this up, very delicate process, high chances of possibly blowing a hole in the building...or the planet, but necessary risks.

I let my mind clear as my consciousness left my vessel nearly instantly, my consciousness warping into the void and into the vast emptiness of space. I quickly looked back at the planet, letting out a mental sigh in relief at the absence of an added hole in the planet.

‘Okay, I got five hours till dawn, plenty of time to get everything I need done.’ I told myself, opening up my little pocket dimension and looking down at hundreds of unfinished projects. ‘Now I just have to freaking find it...joy.’