24
“Well, here we are,” Fluttershy said as the lake came into view.
“Figures he’d keep us watin’” Applejack muttered.
The lake on the other side of White Tail Woods had been selected as the exchange’s meeting point/landing strip, far enough outside of town that the presence of their diplomatic partners’ means of transport, to say nothing of the partners themselves, wouldn’t cause comment and/or mass panic.
“They do have a long way to come, dear,” Rarity soothed as they cleared the last of the trees. She was the only one not carrying a saddle bag, which rankled. She was throwing off the group’s aesthetic! She’d have conjured one of her purses, but she’d just have to lug it back to town. And what to put in it?!
“I thought Dogzilla was pickin’ you up.” Dash smirked until the stretching beat and her subject’s distracted staring into the distance made it clear she’d wasted the line. “Yo, egghead!”
“Mmm?” Twilight blinked and shook her head. “Sorry, was doing a quadruple check in my head, what’s up?”
“Like we don’t all know.”
Dash grunted in surprise as Applejack elbowed her right saddlebag hard enough to almost knock her out of the air.
“Just seemed like you’d have the fastest trip is all, sugar cube.”
“Oh, yeah, right.” Twilight nodded to herself. “Uh, Crystal sent a letter. Lockjaw’s…hibernating or something, I guess. The Unknowns have amazingly fast airships, so I’ll probably be there in a couple of hours.”
“Really?” Pinkie cocked her head. “What’ll you do for in-flight entertainment? Wanna take one of my bags?”
“It’ll be fine, thanks,” Twilight smiled. Then squinted. “…why?”
“It can be used as a flotation device!” That indefatigable smile.
“That’s alright,” Twilight said carefully, “you keep it.”
“Here’s hopin’ ya don’t need it,” Applejack smiled ruefully. She sat on her haunches as they came to the edge of the lake and adjusted her Stetson.
“Oh that’s okay AJ, Mr. Mariner made it prrrrretty clear I’ll only be staying with him for a day.” Pinkie beamed as her eyes glinted. “So I’m just gonna have to pack every single possible party into a single day.”
“Feel bad we’re gonna be all the way over in the Carrineighian now?” Dash smirked.
“Point,” the farmgirl smirked back then glanced at the surface of the water. “Though if we gotta hang around here much longer I’m considerin’ signin’ up with one of those Hex teams so I can kick his can!”
“Diplomacy suits you, darling.”
***
The group wound away the next few minutes talking about their destinations, their hosts and what Applejack would do to Magnate if she could. All except Twilight, eyes on her book. Fluttershy wrestled with herself for a bit but knew she couldn’t just leave it at that.
“Um.”
“Mmm?” Twilight looked up. “Everything okay Fluttershy?”
“Oh, I don’t mean to intrude, just wondering how you’re doing.”
“…better for having something else to focus on,” Twilight admitted distantly.
“It’s okay that you’re feeling however you feel, you know!”
“And, uh…” The book wobbled in Twilight’s field slightly. “What if I’m not sure how I’m feeling?”
“I think that’s okay too.”
They shared a smile as Twilight put her book back in her saddlebag.
“I should really be asking how you’re feeling!”
“Um…” Fluttershy adjusted her saddlebags for something to do.
“Excited, obviously!” Twilight beamed. “I mean, if the prince of one of the most powerful nations of a whole other continent invited me to experience it for a week, I’d sure be excited!”
“That would be the polite thing to be, wouldn’t it…” Fluttershy resisted the urge to chew on her hair. She wasn’t at band camp anymore, she was a big filly now…
“I almost wish I was going with you!”
“Maybe next time?” Fluttershy tried not to sound too hopeful, then thought about it. “Oh. I suppose that since this is the first time we’re doing something like this then there’ll be a next time, and a next.”
“Of course! Prince T’Challa asked for you based on reputation, he’ll absolutely trust your judgement after at least a day or two.”
“W-well,” Fluttershy smiled, colouring, “I’m nopony special…”
“What’s up?” Rainbow Dash asked, flapping over. “Egghead teachin’ you the words to A Wizard’s Staff Has a Knob on the End?”
“Please don’t tell the Genoshian government about that song,” Twilight muttered as Fluttershy put a shocked wing over her mouth.
“Hey, if y’wanted confidentiality you shouldn’t have told me about it in confidence.” Dash scanned the hills. “Man, why do we have to wait around? I could be halfway up the continent by now and you could just ‘port everypony else!”
“It’s kind of nice we all get to spend a little more time together though, isn’t it?” Fluttershy asked. “You know, before we go a week without each other.”
“…I guess,” Dash admitted, nonchalantly not making eye contact because she only had cool feelings like being awesome and not homesick.
“Are you sure you and AJ need to go?” Twilight frowned. “You know he’ll be just as much of a snob about you attending as declining. He needs Equestria to be lesser either way.”
“Pretty good reason to go, then! Anyway, it’s not like you’ve got it so rough. You and whatshername are practically married, and it’s only been five minutes.”
“Crystal. And she had a lot to say!”
“Whatever,” Dash said too limply to be a comeback.
Twilight and Fluttershy exchanged glances.
“How do you feel about her?” Fluttershy mumbled, then went cross eyed trying to ask herself why she’d just done that.
Nose and wing flare but no eruption. “Whatever.”
“It’s…okay that you feel however you feel you know,” Twilight tried, and almost elevated into a cloudbank behind them as the Wonderbolt cadet rounded on her.
“What, I need your permission all of a sudden?” Dash huffed, eyes narrowing.
“What?!” Twilight boggled. “I…no? Just…I get it! Kinda!”
“What do you get?” Dash snapped. “Oh wow, a stallion who’s too into your life! That must be sooooo hard!”
“Now that you mention it,” Twilight icily shot back. “Thanks for being on my side, by the way.”
“Man, if you were anypony else right now--”
“You’d what?”
“Girls, please!” Fluttershy’s ears folded. Twilight vs Rainbow was pretty rare as these things went but then again so was spontaneous combustion and they both went off twice as fast. “It’d be awful if this was the last thing we remember about each other before we have to leave!”
“Everythin’ okay over there?” Applejack called.
“…yeah,” Dash called back but without much enthusiasm. Twilight looked equally deflated.
“I mean it, though,” the mage said quietly after the obligatory awkward beat.
“You haven’t been there,” Dash replied limply but too quickly.
Twilight squinted. “Huh?”
“You and the web-head. It’s not the same.”
“…is this about—?”
“Don’t, okay?”
Dash sighed, eyes squeezing shut. Fluttershy took an uncertain step towards her, which did somehow make her feel a little better. “Just…it’s not the same. For starters? You guys could maybe actually fix things.”
“Any idea how?” Twilight sighed. It would almost have been better if she’d been sarcastic.
They were interrupted by Rarity’s startled yelp as a platoon of armoured blue merponies burst from the lake, towing a clear crystal bubble with golden filigree. They could see a spongey throne-like thing within, connected to a bubble helmet on it’s seat by a hose.
“Ms. Pinkamina Diane Pie?” gurgled the leader, resplendent in his fin-eared dolphin helmet. His muzzle was covered by some sort of see through membrane, bubbles rising every time his lips moved. It ruined his professional tone a little.
“Yeparoonie!” Pinkie smiled, bouncing up and holding out a hoof. The other’s exchanged glances as the merpony shook it with a flipper almost the size of her head and covered by armour plating. “I like your gills. Very streamlined.”
“Thank you! This way please, ma’am.” He gestured, indicating the bubble as two hulking dragoons, their fish tails covered in grass blades from the shore, slid it open. “We hope you like the oxygen, his majesty had it shipped from the top of Mount Everhoof itself.”
“Wow, fancy! And here I was ready to make do with the backup supply in my mane.” Pinkie spun for a group hug. “See ya soon, everypony!”
“Always remember to wash your hooves, darling!” Rarity called, waving a handkerchief as the Aqualusians sealed the bubble.
The leader bowed to Twilight and the creatures under his command began the awkward process of shuffling back to the water, rolling the bubble in after them. Pinkie was somehow now dressed in a smoking jacket, wearing the helmet with the contemplative face of a connoisseur.
***
“Well there she goes,” Twilight mused.
“Too much to hope the rest of us get the luxury treatment,” Applejack muttered. “I’m half expectin’ bucket head to pick us up in a tin can.”
“No way I’m carrying you all the way if we have to go it alone,” Dash clarified with a raised wingtip. “Just sayin’.”
“Oh please, he’ll want to rub it in,” Rarity beamed, “so you two should turn the tables on him and enjoy it!”
“Or maybe that’s what he wants us to do,” Applejack huffed.
“Um.” Fluttershy’s eyes were fixed on the sky. “I think this is me…?”
Two glints on the horizon became two aircraft, both with a strange feline quality. The effect increased as they drifted almost silently to the ground, wings and turbines folding away to become almost cat leg like struts. Their front sections opened and readjusted, now looking even more like roaring panther heads.
“What up,” Shuri smiled at the Elements, casually trotting down the lower jaw of her ride, followed by a griffon Dora Malajie that looked more cheetah-like than usual, though no less muscular.
“Princess,” she said sternly, talons gripping her spear a little harder.
“What?” Shrui pouted. “They're cool! Fine, fine. Ahem. Hello, noble ponies! Wonderful to see you all again, this is General Okoye.”
“Greetings,” Okoye said. She crossed the leg across her chest as well as both her wings with a nod at the group.
“Don’t worry, she won’t be staying,” Shrui smirked with an eye roll.
“Nice wings,” Dash said to Okoye, nodding at them, “what kinda mileage ya get?”
“Rainbow!” Twilight and Applejack grumbled with Okoyeian sharpness.
“Enough to add momentum to my spear throws,” the general smiled, making the Pegasus blink because it wasn’t a brag. “Wakanda once again thanks you for accepting our princess and our invitation. Ms. Fluttershy, if you would like to follow me?”
“Oh, of course,” Fluttershy said as Okoye stepped off the rim of the airship and began to walk towards the other. “Um, goodbye everypony! I’ll write!”
“’Scuse me,” Applejack cut in, addressing the griffon and indicating the two craft, “but, uh, ya seem to be leavin’ one o’ these beauties with us? Not that I mind, she’s a fine piece o’ work! But, ah, this a gift or somethin’? ‘Cause I can promise ya right now we don’t got anythin’ nearly as good to trade.”
“Oh, that’s for me!” Shuri said. “In case I need to jet back home in a hurry. O was only on board because royal bodyguard stuff, you know how it is.”
“You can tell Spike and I—” Rarity began.
“Spike and me,” Twilight corrected automatically. Okoye gave an approving smile.
“—all about it once you’ve settled in at the boutique,” Rarity beamed as if nothing had happened. Her smile became a little concerned as she (tastefully) indicated a saddlebag carelessly strung over Shuri’s vest. “Oh, is that all you need, darling?”
“Huh?” Shuri looked down at the strap. “Oh! Duh! Hold on.”
She casually spun one of the beads around her wrist. Fluttershy took a few steps behind Okoyo’s muscular frame as a line of futuristic suitcases wheeled themselves out of Shuri’s ship. One was flat and a feline Dora was riding it with a look of intense concentration. “Just the essentials!” Shuri beamed at the staring Elements.
“Hold it.” Okoye held her spear in front of the last case, bumping it to a halt. With moves a little too casual to make the ponies feel comfortable she slipped its tip into the seam and twisted, letting the case fall open.
“H-hey!” Shuri protested.
“Essentials, eh?” Okoye dipped her spear into the pile of—Twilight squinted, it looked like…pouches mostly, and hefted out a bulletproof vest and a pair of night vision goggles. Some throwing stars toppled out of the vest.
“…adventuring essentials,” Shuri mumbled.
“Friendship is the adventure your brother has chosen for you.”
“Oh yeah, great sales pitch.”
“Thank you for making this easier,” Okoye smiled, tapping the edge of the case. It snapped shut and began to whir to her side, making Fluttershy take even more steps back.
“Ooooooooo!” Shuri whined. “At least leave me the grapple gun!”
“No,” Okoye said pleasantly, crossing both forelegs this time. “Wakanda forever. If you will please step this way, Ms. Fluttershy.”
The Pegasus followed the griffon into the jaws of the other airship, nervously eyeing the case as it followed them.
“Eh, no sweat kid,” Dash smirked as Fluttershy’s ride rose into the air with the purr of vibration harnessing turbines, “you can borrow mine.”
“We can even make a little holster for it in your new dress if you’d like,” Rarity beamed.
“…I’m gonna like it here, huh?” Shuri smiled.
“We certainly hope so! There’s an entire binder to choose from if you don’t like how your room has been set up. Oh, and you simply must meet Sweetie Belle, we can swing by the school on the tour!” Rarity managed to keep up her enthusiasm even as she realised that one Dora Milaje was still perched on Shuri’s suitcase. “Oh, I, uh, can make up the, uh, sofa for your…?”
Shuri looked at the cat, who was looking straight ahead and through the Elements. Applejack put out a hoof to stop Rainbow experimentally waving hers in the Dora’s face. “Oh, no, it’s cool. She’ll watch me, stand guard outside then come back and swap with her partner. They can nap in the ship, those quarters are like really, really tiny hotels.”
“Less is more,” Rarity decided. “I suppose this is au revoir for now girls, make sure to bring back some juicy stories!”
“Make sure Shuri survives the Ponyville experience!” Dash smirked as they went in for the group hug. She winked at the zebra, who giggled.
“We do hope you enjoy your stay,” Twilight smiled, “this town is one of the best things that ever happened to me. If you still want to understand the magic of what we do, well, you couldn’t ask for a better way to study!”
“I’ll bare that in mind,” Shuri smiled back, trotting after Rarity, followed by her automated cases and the ever-silent Dora. “Say hi to Crystal for me!”
“Will do!” Twilight called as they all waved.
“Cute kid,” Dash mused. “Rarity’s gonna eat her alive.”
“Rainbow!”
“Can’t blame a filly for bein’ honest,” Applejack said simply.
And then there were three.
***
Minutes went by as they settled in to wait for whatever would happen next. Applejack watched as Dash began flying for something to do, other than share awkward silence with Twilight. The farm girl rested against a tree for a while before she looked Twilight up and down. “You okay, sugar cube?”
“I don’t feel like talking about Manehattan right now,” Twilight said, trying to keep her voice empty and her eyes fixed on the lake.
“Oh, nah, nah, I just mean…” Applejack rubbed the back of her neck, abashed. “With all...that, ya only really had the weekend to get everythin’ ship shape. Normally you could have a bazillion years an’ still be worried ya didn’t make enough emergency checklists.”
“No such thing as a bazillion, AJ,” Twilight protested, because that was the only part she could protest.
“I just mean this is a pretty big step for all of us, an’ you’re, I dunno. Dealin’.”
“Oh.” Twilight blinked. “Thank you?”
“Just sayin’!” Applejack smiled, putting a foreleg around her shoulders. “It’s nice when you’ve got as much confidence in ya as we do.”
“It’s Crystal, really,” Twilight smiled back, blushing a little.
“Figured,” Applejack said. She glanced over at Rainbow Dash, who was making lazy circles around the lake. Still, for a filly who only listened out for her own name, or the words “chilli hay dogs” and “free”, the rookie Wonderbolt had almost as powerful a sense of timing.
“She really wants to get to know the rest of you,” Twilight put in quickly, “and not to push it but, y’know, might not be a bad idea to talk about that night.”
AJ nodded. “We can’t keep ‘em apart forever. Besides, she didn’t take Dashie’s head off or nuthin’. I’m on my gal’s side but that whatever-it-was with Johnny was rougher than waxin’ your legs with sandpaper. Wouldn’t blame Crystal for havin’ a hurt feelin’ or two.”
“We’ll see how she is when I get to Attilan.”
“Yeah. Lookin’ forward?”
“Honestly? Yeah! I wish you guys were coming with me, even with Johnnycake and Rainbow’s situation, but on the other hoof we’re all going to come back with a ton of stuff to talk about!”
“Oh, trust me,” Applejack smiled grimly, “the whole world’s gonna know what I think of that high ‘n’ mighty--”
Pink flash!
“Whoa!” Rainbow Dash cried, almost missing her next wingbeat and plunging into the water. She zipped back to shore, landing behind whatever it was to make sure they were surrounding this…pony in a tour guide outfit?
“Hey!” she said, beaming. Her magenta mane tamped down her colour scheme a little too much for her to come off like Pinkie’s missing sister, but she had the right attitude.
Her solid green eyes threw it off too, along with a strange diamond marking (growth?) in her forehead, and if nothing else her ears were elfishly slipped back. Then there was the suit she was wearing, a bit too retro air hostess for a filly so young and far too mint green to work with her coat colour. Her coat had a strange, overly glossy sheen that brazenly set it apart from the fabric. It wasn’t unpleasant but also a bit like someone had wrapped her in clingfilm.
“Oh,” she said, mistaking the Elements’ stupefaction for her manners rather than her appearance. She put a hoof to her mouth and coughed, then saluted. “I mean, uh, hello! My name’s Blink, well it’s not my name name, but if you wanna make it big you’ve gotta have a Hex-name…not important. It is my pleasure to be your guide to the amazing world of Geno— Hang on, this is Ponyville, right?”
“That it is,” Applejack managed, tipping her Stetson back as a comfort thing. “Nice to meet ya, Blink.”
“Thanks, but I’m just your tour guide,” the filly smiled, though she clearly appreciated the courtesy. “And, uh, ride, kinda. If you’ll just take my hooves, I’ll have us on the cruise ship in, well, a bink of your eye!”
“Cruise, huh?” Applejack allowed herself an impressed whistle. “Old man didn’t mention that.”
“The Minister wants to show all our guest the best Genosha has to offer!” Blink grinned.
“Show off, more like it,” Applejack muttered. Twilight flicked her with her tail as a crestfallen uncertainty spread across Blink’s face. “But on the other hoof our friend was just tellin’ us we should enjoy it, so hay, whaddaya say we get to showin’?”
“Cool!” Blink grinned. “I mean…that would be lovely Ms. Applejack. If you’ll both just take my hooves--”
“Wait, hold on!” Twilight backed away. “I’m not... Attilan? I’m waiting for the Unknowns’ delegation!”
“You are?” Blink looked mildly panicked, trying to dig a piece of paper out of the breast pocket of her uniform. Applejack wondered if it was just that she really needed the job, then swore she’d rip Magnate’s helmet off with his head inside if it was anything more than that.
“B-but it says here, yeah, Applejack and Rainbow Dash?”
“Yeah,” Dash said sternly, her voice making the poor kid spin in her direction, “me and AJ. We’ve been waiting for ol’ bucket head’s ride for forever!”
“It hasn’t even been ten minutes,” Twilight insisted.
“Oh, you’re…?” Blink looked over her shoulder at Twilight, her cheeks starting to glow magenta in a way that had nothing to do with mutant powers. “That makes sense, I was wondering why you weren’t rainbow coloured. And…an Alicorn. I’d, um, I’d appreciate it if you didn’t mention this to anyone back on the--”
Dash winked. “Mention what?”
“I don’t do lies, but I don’t tattle neither,” AJ smiled and threw in her own wink, holding out a hoof.
“Have fun on your little cruise, guys,” Twilight smiled as Blink gripped the older mares’ forelegs a little too tightly.
“We’ll bring ya back some plastic umbrellas,” Applejack chuckled.
“Hey, listen,” Dash sighed, “about before, I shouldn’t have gone off like that.”
“It’s okay,” Twilight half lied as Blink’s face scrunched with concentration.
“If you say so. What I’m really trying to say is, you and…” Dash caught herself, looking at Blink, who’s expression was going strangely blank. “Well, I meant it, you guys can fix this, so good lu--”
A pink flash and Twilight was alone, which figured.
***
She went back to her book with a sigh, half keeping up with the chapter on telekinesis as a tool for weather manipulation, and half of herself in Manehattan to…what, not be her own person anymore? Was that it? Was that how it was going to be now?
A party animal she was not, even in a post Pinkie Pie world, but she’d been a teenager once and duelling club could get intense. All that horn work, that overly articulate trash talk, and, when she’d hit 16, that one winter break where Mom and Dad had gone to see some friends in Las Pegasus, allowing her to stay at the school.
It had honestly been so she could practice a few spells in a colder environment, up in the mountains without anypony listing lame reasons she couldn’t use the lab freezers to do it, but other students often took that option as well, if only for the lavish spread Princess Celestia provided.
…which, now Twilight thought about it, might have to do with not just letting her mane down but also that her sister had been sealed in the moon longer than any of her students had been alive, and the most immediate descendants of her family by marriage included the Blueblood clan. Huh.
Good thing so many of those memories were good, genuinely good, because the idea she may have ungratefully, obliviously spurned the princess (more) filled her with enough self-disgust to make her almost throw herself in the lake after she was done with this chapter.
What had she been going on about? Oh! Right, yes…the point was, there'd been other ponies. Not like Peter, definitely not like Peter.
But, look, she’d been 16, she’d had more downtime than she could fill with work, Spike was sneaking off to the kitchens all the time or napping in the boiler room after a snowball fight. She’d been responsible about it and that was all she’d ever say if the girl’s found out, which they wouldn’t if Twilight could help it.
There’d even been some experimental thoughts, not that those had gone anywhere. Winter Mist had graduated next year anyway.
And while she liked to think she hadn’t been an ice queen about it, none of those dorm room antics had been a relationship and both parties had known it. The R word just hadn’t figured into Canterlot Scholar and/or Probably- Going-Into-the-Steno-Pool-if-She-Doesn’t-Settle-on-Anything Twilight’s world. Celestia’s assistant, probably, not like that would really be much different from what she did now, even though they were kind of the same rank.
Yeah. Right.
But it would have been different, wouldn’t it?
For starters, Celestia was surrounded by enough professionals. For whatever reason, she’d wanted her first student since Sunset Shimmer to have a life outside her magic…probably because of Sunset Shimmer. Twilight was really going to have finish that gateway sometime, it felt wrong to put off seeing the Canterlot High crowd just because the Empire was so far away.
…Peter had offered to help by hitting up ponies in the business who had experience with wavelengths and materials.
Would the Twilight who stumbled on the Nightmare legend really have been at all interested in anything more than resources? She was still in there somewhere, under all the parties and letters. Her life wouldn’t have been lesser without Peter, but to make a connection like that, even back when they were working cases together and pretending it wasn’t, y’know, like that, it had been…something she wasn’t sure she’d have done before Ponyville.
And now, because she’d humble-bragged about that stupid thing with the Cauldron (yes, she’d been full of herself and an idiot and pretending not to be scared, and yes she and Shining would’ve probably wound up in the river if they hadn’t both been out there that night, shut up) it was the last thing she wanted to think about. And she didn’t want to stop thinking about it either! But she didn’t want to be defined by their relationship either! But a solution just wouldn’t come!
She had liked having Peter Trotter in her world very much, even for all his stupid Everfree think nonsense, and it was eating her alive to even hypothesise a world without what they had. But she’d meant what she’d said. She did question herself too much, and he’d had a point, she did also get so into herself she didn’t have a plan for when things didn’t work, but that didn’t give him the right to…to…to shackle them to each other! To reach in and try to fix her!
And she had to put aside what his calling meant, what those bruises he wouldn’t tell her about meant, how dare he suddenly just decide that he couldn’t with hers! How dare he care so much it turned itself into one of the worst things she’d ever felt, and it was just because he was scared too and aaaggGHHHHHHH—
Twilight telekinetically slammed her book shut. Accidentally coinciding with a thunderstorm happening right in front of her.
***
She yelped in confusion, tripping over her saddlebags and dropping to the grass, shielding her boggling eyes as the light took shape. She couldn’t process what it was at first, some sort giant insect perhaps, but the turbines got her thinking enough to notice an increasingly familiar fork rune on the nosecone.
“Uh…”
She staggered to her hooves as the ship lowered towards her. “H-hello?”
Lightning bolt decorations on the belly peeled away from it like falling rose petals and extended glass slabs that formed a gangplank. Twilight gulped at the shadows coming towards her, and those were just the hooves.
A lion-like chunk of Unknown muscle, almost an Earth Pony but for the satyr horns stabbing through his mane and, of course, his cloven, volcanic rock like mega-hooves that could clearly grind Big Macintosh to paste, towered over her. His eyes were as serpentine as they were bovine and feline, shrinking her through the slits of a domino mask he was wearing for some reason. Twilight couldn’t stop likening it to an executioner’s hood. The impression of a demon king, finally come to claim her for ignoring Celestia’s attempts to make her a worthwhile person, was aided by a crown like stretch of silver that separated his mask from his mane.
“Do I have the honour of addressing Princess Twilight?” the apparition asked in a cultured baritone.
“bwugh?” Twilight managed.
She could feel his voice in her legs but more like hearing a storm at night, in bed and knowing how far away it was and how safe you were. He sounded like some kind of wrestler version of her Canterlot lecturers and it had completely thrown her.
“Well, obviously,” the mountain chuckled, his chest swelling so much Twilight could make out every detail of the almost chain link markings that ran down to his hind legs, “my cousin was very clear that I should be on the look out for a purple mare! A fine colour, I hope you don’t mind me saying so! Ah, and I must ask your forgiveness again for not introducing myself!”
He bowed, almost dragging Twilight down with his head’s gravitational pull. “Minister Gorgon of Attilan, cousin to King Black Bolt and to fair Crystal! A pleasure!”
“Oh!” Twilight’s legs stopped shaking, allowing her to return the gesture. “Yes, Crystal had so much to say about you!”
Like how for-real-freaking-massive he was.
“All good, I hope,” Gorgon chuckled again. A brown scarf around his neck shook from the motion. Twilight could be forgiven for not noticing it at first because Gorgon was a very brown, very big, big, brown, brown, big, brown, brown, big, big, big…Gorgon. It was the only word that could encompass all of him.
“Yes, and I trust her judgement,” Twilight smiled.
“Then you are an excellent judge of character! Unlike my cousin I fear, though I hate to disappoint her! Ah, but enough. I’m wasting your time! Would you please follow me?”
As if Twilight wouldn’t just be pulled up the ramp after him by the magnetism of his hooves. No, seriously, if she hadn’t had better manners she’d have asked what they were made out of. You’d think a cliff face at first, but there was a metallic sheen, but also too organic…
Then again, Twilight was now one of the world’s rarest breeds of pony, named after the substance of her horn. Who was she to judge?
“This is amazing,” she breathed, looking all around the spacious cockpit. It was like a futuristic Cloudsdale waiting room, Dash and Fluttershy would’ve fit right in. “And the amount of power it must take to run all this and with barely a sound…”
“You are a princess of Equestria!” Gorgon rumbled. It was weird how charming he was, because Twilight could swear he sounded like the grumpy alien from Star Trot. “And we owe Princess Celestia herself much for respecting our secrets! How could we do any less? And for a champion of the world, to boot!”
“Champ…?” Twilight blinked as he gestured to a sofa (with a harness, because still an aircraft) “Oh! N-no, I mean, thank you, but it was a group effort! I couldn’t have done anything without my friends.”
“Ah, and modest as well!” Gorgon said, stowing her saddlebags into a small alcove built into a column. “No wonder Crystal was so taken with you! My cousin Triton told me it had to be more than just Sousaphone Storm’s recommendation!”
“Oh, you’ve met--” Twilight caught herself with an abashed chuckle as she strapped herself in. “Of course you have, I asked Dr. Rivers for information about you. Can I just say, your culture is fascinating? I mean, you have a city in the sky! A technological one! And even more all over the world! It’s astounding!”
“You flatter us!”
Gorgon walked (the word was too tame) to his flight console and began to make adjustments. The major influence seemed to be sliders like on Vinyl Scratch’s turntables, seamlessly winding their way up and down lightning bolt shaped inclines. Gorgon had to do it by using the very tips of his hooves, perhaps because he’d crush the entire apparatus any other way.
“You know the art of teleportation I trust?”
Twilight gripped her harness a little harder. “Yes?”
“Splendid, splendid! Then you’ll be familiar with the experience of travelling in an Unknown ship! However, it would be remiss of me not to inform you that the first jump can be slightly disorientating! Would you perhaps like to take a moment?”
“O-oh, sure, thank you.” Twilight squeezed her eyes shut on principle. “Okay?”
“Very well! Three, two…there we go.”
Twilight blinked. She’d felt…a breeze, maybe.
She looked out the window, then through the glass of the cockpit as Gorgon contentedly adjusted his instruments. The sky outside was flickering, as if the passing clouds weren’t sure what their cue was and perpetually bumping into each other, passing through one another. Her ears hadn’t even popped and there was barely any sound, except for a low-key mechanical burbling like flowing water and Gorgon idly humming to himself.
“Yes, that should do it,” he decided as miles of water shuttered into itself below them like a badly stung projection reel.
He placed a hoof on a sundial like part of the console and the world slowed to something more like what Twilight saw from her balloon. “We should be arriving in a few minutes, Princess, though Crystal tells me you like to read so feel free to entertain yourself however you wish!”
“A few...?” Twilight blinked. “Are we in the Himaneighayas already?!”
“Goodness no!” chortled Gorgon, almost shaking the craft apart. “That would be a trip though! Ah, forgive me, you would have no reason to know. Fair Attilan has moved.”
An unreadable but definitely not happy expression fell across his face.
“Moved?” Twilight squinted, curiosity overriding her uncertainties. “Well, I see, of course you could, but that region’s your ancestral home. Not that it’s any of my business Mister—agh, Minister Gorgon, but is there any reason to move?”
“The threat of discovery by those less enlightened then yourself, Princess,” Gorgon smiled grimly. “Thankfully, that was not the case this time.”
“Huh. Guess that’s why Crystal didn’t keep in touch that much over the week…” Twilight mused to herself.
“It can affect communications, yes, though we are always careful about signal traffic. It is one of the concerns of my post as a matter of fact!”
“Oh? Then were you part of the decision to move the colony?”
“No,” Gorgon said simply. “While we hope to create stronger ties with Equestria, I could not give any reason to bring Attilan as close to your coast as it currently is.”
“Huh. Then if you don’t mind me asking, why…?”
“Not at all,” Gorgon smiled, but it lacked any trademark joviality. “King Black Bolt shall do as he shall do.”
Twilight sat there, in a semi extra-terrestrial airship, miles from her friends, her mentor, her home and her lover, who she was not sure how to feel about, and wondered what to do. Maybe it was harmony or maybe it was Princess Celestia. Maybe she could hope it was part of her all along, but it was the instinct.
“Would you mind telling me more about your family?” she asked. “Crystal loves you all and she clearly wanted to tell me more than she could.”
Gorgon smiled, puffing out his chest. The rumbling commentary and Twilight’s laughter lasted the rest of the almost twenty minute flight to the hovering dais of spires and domes that was Attilan.
***
Green eyes watched the craft approaching from the shadows inside one tower. Fangs gleamed in a sneer.
To be Continued