The Great Gathering: Part 4
Barbican had been merrily chewing on an oatcake when White Tower had charged in and told him that the princess wanted to see them, almost causing him to choke on his meal. After the pegasus had recovered to the fretful apologies of his assistant, the two ponies raced off, White Tower getting Barbican up to speed on what had happened.
“High Commander-, I mean your majesty!” said Barbican with a salute. At the sight of the white pegasus, Vaultaire’s cheeks flushed. Immediately, her yellow hoof shot to her mouth and she bit on it to prevent herself from going into oh-my-gosh mode.
Barbican, more commonly known as Silver Shield, was one of the most famous pegasi in Equestria. Although he was the same age as Vaultaire, he had been knighted by Celestia for his valiant service during the War of the Sun and Moon. Equipped with lean muscles, tousled golden hair, almond shaped brown eyes and an immaculate white coat, he was very handsome. Mares had fought to catch a glimpse of him when he had visited the cloud city. To her silent embarrassment, Vaultaire had been one of those mares that had been inflicting and taking blows.
“Greetings Sir Barbican, we did not know thou had a hoof in designing the venue. What part of the design process was thou involved in?” asked Princess Celestia.
“I was…basically designing the placement of the venue’s stalls, the location of the guard towers and the route of the pathways, basically the venue itself. That was the job His Grace Golden Triangle charged me with while he dealt with supplying, promoting, staffing and financing the venue. My assistant, the lady White Tower, basically double checked my designs and calculations and was more involved in the security aspect of the plan,” explained Barbican. Celestia nodded with acknowledgement and then turned to White Tower.
The earth pony cringed as the alicorn’s attention was directed to her. Although White Tower had met Celestia when she was inducted into the Order of Equestria, meeting with her briefly in a ceremony and actually being talked to was completely different.
“Thou said that there were precautions designed into the venue. Will thou explainest those measures?” asked Celestia with a smile. White Tower gulped and then trotted over to a site plan of The Great Gathering. Noticeably, the captured ponies in the holding area strained their ears to listen as White Tower began her explanation.
“When Barbican and I were designing the venue, we tried to make sure that we had eyes everywhere and that the paths would not prevent the flow of our guards if a pursuit happened. At the same time, wanted the venue to prevent the thief or troublemaker from escaping. Thus, we have a main pathway with no branches to the central common area. Meaning that anypony wanting to escape would have to go down that pathway. Guard towers with unicorn watchers and pegasi patrols sight trouble and report to the waiting guards in the guard tents. All of which are strategically placed so that every part of the site seems to be watched by guards. Extra guard patrols provide flexibility and give presence to where there are no guard towers or tents. You see princess, just the knowledge that one can be caught can change ponies minds about causing trouble,” explained White Tower. Throughout the short lecture, the alicorn had worn a warm, encouraging smile that served to make the earth pony more confident. At the explanation’s finish, Celestia nodded her head in assent.
“That is a wise saying, young pony. Thou hast rendered and continued to deliver Equestria great services. We are very pleased with the efforts of both of thee to provide a safe environment for our ponies,” said Celestia sincerely.
“It was an honour princess,” replied Barbican as he saluted, his mouth curved in a smile.
“I would not live for anything else your majesty,” said White Tower solemnly as she saluted. The alicorn dipped her head and then turned to the holding area.
Chartres had been watching the entire exchange like a pony watching a race in the stands. While, Barbican and White Tower had presented themselves, she had felt very distant from what was happening between the two designers and their sovereign.
Now that was changing with every step that Celestia took towards the holding area where she was sitting.
The various thieves, pickpockets and troublemakers that had been snared by White Tower’s and Barbican’s clever layout lowered themselves to the ground and began to beg. A few pleaded for mercy and many begged for forgiveness. Some of them whispered and murmured like they didn’t want to be heard and others made pitiful wails that caused many some of the tent’s occupants to flatten their ears.
The ivory unicorn slowly extricated herself from the mass that had crawled forward to warm themselves around the light that was their princess. Silently, the mare faced tent wall and sunk herself into her own thoughts. Chartres didn’t feel worthy enough to approach the princess. The glassblower compared herself to a piece of badly-made stained glass that would only block the sun shining through it. Not only was she a helplessly naïve pony who got herself in debt, she had the nerve to violate the rules approved by her beloved princess, just to satisfy her own goals. The princess’s sudden appearance only made Chartres feel even guiltier. It was as if a hoof was digging into her back.
Wait a moment. There is a hoof on my back right now... Chartres then noticed the long shadow of a winged and horned pony looming behind her. The unicorn’s jaw hung open limply and her legs wobbled unsteadily.
When Celestia had walked toward the holding area, the alicorn expected to be mobbed by begging crying ponies asking for forgiveness. Thus, her interest was perked by the one mare that had snuck away and stood alone. After quickly issuing a Royal Pardon of all of the troublemakers, much to the chagrin of White Tower and Barbican, Celestia had slowly stepped forward behind the white unicorn. So absorbed was Chartres in her thoughts, she didn’t even register the alicorn’s pardon, much less her approach.
The alicorn slowly turned the dumbstruck and open-mouthed unicorn to face her with a tender hoof and lowered her head to the unicorn’s level.
“We noticed thou did not approach us at all for any favours. For what reason did thou not approach us?” asked Celestia kindly.
No word was spoken for the next few seconds, for all Chartres could do was open and close her mouth. She was unable to speak due to the astonishment that the ruler of Equestria was speaking to her face to face. Quite used to this reaction, the princess waited without complaint for the better part of a minute, until the unicorn finally realized she had a voice.
“I…tried to…sell without a-a stall your majesty…I have a debt... ” stammered Chartres.
“Ah, what wert thou trying to sell?” inquired the princess. Numbly, with shaking hooves, Chartres reached into her saddlebag and produced the glass window. That raised an eyebrow from Vaultaire who had been watching Celestia closely. The arrangement of the multi-colored stained glass seemed random, but the pegasus had worked with glassblowers before and she could see that the workmanship was excellent. The pegasus’s instinct told her that there had to be something else in the window.
“Your majesty…if it isn’t too troublesome for you…may I ask you if you could please shine some light through the window?” asked Chartres so softly that Celestia had to lean closer toward Chartres. Nodding, the alicorn lit her horn.
As the white light of Celestia’s magic passed through the window, it began to take on the different hues and shades of an image. With one hoof, Chartres raised the window so that the image was transposed onto the tent.
Vaultaire’s instinct was confirmed as an image of a group of three foals happily prancing on a green lawn was projected brilliantly onto the tent wall. Astounded gasps and cries rang out through the tent as ponies admired the image of light that had been formed.
Even Celestia, who had seen the work of many a glassblower in her long years, had never seen something that demonstrated so much ingenuity and beauty.
“You…bent every single glass piece at different angles to form the image?” gasped the yellow pegasus, her scarlet eyebrows almost disappearing into her mane.
“Um…yes…” said the ivory unicorn. Celestia managed to recover her voice.
“We thank thee for showing us your work. Thou hast been graced with great talent. What is thy name?” asked the alicorn.
“I… my… name is Chartres,” squeaked the mare.
“Dost thou have more examples of thy work?”
After bidding goodbye to Barbican and White Tower and disguising herself once more, Celestia exited the guard tent with Vaultaire, Chartres leading the way. When they had left the tent, the white mare couldn’t be more ecstatic. Celestia, the sovereign of Equestria, wanted to see her work. However, every step closer to Glassy Hoof’s stall brought up worries for Chartres. Glassy Hoof would never admit the works being displayed were not hers and what if there were no pieces left? At the least, Chartres would be humiliated. At the worst... Glassy Hoof would be able to take the praise for her work and try to trick the princess! The very idea of such a scheme almost halted the blue-maned pony in her trot, but fear of not obeying the princess command blanked out the unicorn’s mind. So Chartres trotting forward, stuck on a doomed path.
The trio arrived at the green stall, Glassy lounging on a chair. To Chartres’s slight relief, the greedy pony had set the prices of most of the glass artwork at exorbitant prices and not a single piece had made it to anypony’s pocket.
“Chartres! Where have you been! I’ve had to…” The medicine-yellow pony took in the two well groomed mares behind Chartres and put on a too-wide smile.
“Oh excuse me! My name is Glassy Hoof! Good greetings to thee! What brings two young and beautiful mares to my humble stall?” said Glassy as she did a little curtsy. The wings on Vaultaire’s back twitched and the pegasus had to subdue the urge to glare at the older pony. There was something in that lilting, brittle sounding tone of Glassy’s that Vaultaire did not like.
“We were going to see the works of young Chartres here,” said Celestia with a smile. Glassy put a hoof to her mouth and her eyebrows yanked upwards.
“Oh! Heavens! What lies have my apprentice been telling you?” gasped the unicorn. The pupils in Chartres’s blue eyes shrunk to the diameter of a hair with horror. With a stern hoof, Glassy yanked the paralyzed ivory unicorn to her side.
“Chartres here can’t do any work of her own! She’s my apprentice and only knows the basics of glass work.” Glassy Hoof with her rear right hoof, stepped on the end of Chartres’s blue tail, a silent warning that the unicorn was not to speak. The ivory pony couldn’t if she wanted to. She was frozen with horror at what the other mare was attempting.
“We do not understand…Thy apprentice showed us a magnificent masterpiece of glassware that was creative beyond belief. Thou art saying that she lied to us?” asked Celestia, voice disbelieving. The yellow unicorn frowned for a moment, snorted and then glared at the cringing Chartres.
“So you have not only resorted to lying, but to stealing as well? I was wondering where that window went! So you took it and decided to sell it to some unsuspecting buyer! Shame on you!” shrieked Glassy. Celestia and Vaultaire turned their eyes to Chartres, who shook her head rapidly.
“No I didn’t! You…She…stole…” Chartres burst into tears. Glassy was going to steal from her again and there was nothing she could do to stop it. Chartres could see the disguised Celestia’s smile disappearing and her eyes narrowing. The princess was going to believe Glassy’s lies.
“Enough of that! Chartres, leave while I attend to the customers!” ordered Glassy. The pony didn’t have to say twice, the crushed unicorn ran into the tent, tears streaming from her eyes.
“Now ladies, I am deeply sorry for that commotion. Which one of my works would you like to buy?” asked unicorn sweetly. The alicorn-in-disguise raised up a window depicting herself and her recently imprisoned sister. The glass had been masterfully blown, the lead strips cut to perfection, holding each of the finely cut glass shard in place. The two alicorns themselves were back to back their respective realms of day and night dividing the window.
“Thou made all of this?” The pony with the pink mane gestured to the array of glass artwork displayed on the table.
“Yes, each and every one of them made with loving care! Now which one would you like to buy?” asked Glassy Hoof. The unicorn’s eyes focused on Glassy Hoof, who took a step back in surprise.
A glower from magenta eyes that sparked with fury was what the envious unicorn had seen. Glassy barely had the time to notice the accompanying pegasus mare chuckle coldly as a crackling column of brilliant light erupted from the unicorn. It quickly faded to reveal a towering pegasus unicorn, pink mane flowing in an ethereal wind, a pair of raging pink flames for eyes and a horn radiating scorching white rays. The earth pony was so stunned, fear hadn’t set in and she was still standing.
“GLASSY HOOF! DOST THOU RECOGNIZE US?” bellowed the ruler of Equestria. The roar deafened Glassy and caused ponies nearby to fling themselves down to the ground in fear. Across The Great Gathering, stallions and mares turned their heads at the sound of their ruler’s voice as she passed judgement on the one who had tried to deceive her.
“THY “WORKS” HAVE BEEN SATURATED BY THE MAGIC SIGNATURE OF THY 'APPRENTICE.' NAY! THE MAGIC SIGNATURE OF THY “APPRENTICE” IS INGRAINED AND WOVEN INTO THE MAKING OF THY “WORKS”. THOU DID NOT HAVE A SINGLE HOOF IN MAKING THESE MASTERPIECES. THEREFORE, THOU ART CHARGED WITH: THE UNLAWFUL AND UNJUST DECEPTION OF THY FELLOW PONIES, THEFT OF PROPERTY AND FALSE ACCUSATION! GUARDS!” roared the princess.
Two impassive golden-armoured pegasi alighted next to the alicorn.
“Take this pony to the holding area for further investigation and her future trial. Whatever debt Chartres owes thee shall be repaid, but under Royal supervision,” stated Celestia coldly. The two guards saluted and took up positions beside the unresponsive earth pony. She was still unresponsive as the two stallions ushered the pony away.
“I... I... Is she…Will she be alright?” stuttered a small voice. Celestia turned to see Chartres standing by the tent flap. The ivory pony was looking at the disappearing back of her former mistress with worried blue eyes.
“She will recover and hopefully learn from this lesson,” said the alicorn. Her magenta eyes wandering over the myriad of objects, the alicorn pointed to one of the most elaborate stained glass creations.
“How much is this piece?”
Author’s Note: Sorry for taking so long…I had a bit of trouble, but it’s taken care of. All of Sa’id’s inventions are actual devices. The heating system that is Sa’id’s first invention is known as a hypocaust. It was an actual Greek/Roman invention that was used to heat their baths and houses. Only the richest of the Romans had them and during the fall of the Roman Empire, much of the Greco/Roman hypocausts fell into disrepair (which is the reason why much of the medieval peoples didn’t have cheaper baths). The second whirlpool filtration system was used by the Moors and can be found in the Alhambra Fortress at Grenada, Spain and still functions today! If nobody knows what a Moor is, google, is it that hard? I found out about that invention from the documentary Ultimate Engineering on Discovery Channel. The third device is the rope pump, used by the Chinese in ancient times and now services villages in third world countries.