//------------------------------// // Chapter 18. // Story: The Desert Prince // by Sparky Brony //------------------------------// Dawn looks at me for a long moment, I can see clearly the emotions warring across her face. I spare a quick glance at Ghaliya, who seems to be going through a similar range of emotions. Guerina, however, looks almost angry. She’s the one to break the spell. “Ki, some old legends in worn old books is going to fix Dawn.” She growls. “You don’t even know if any of this is real, or just some old pony tales.” “Of course it’s real, Guerina.” Dawn says softly, reaching out to touch the book almost reverently with her hoof. Guernia’s head snaps to look at Dawn. “Don’t encourage him, you don’t know that, you weren’t there.” Dawn voice takes on a cold tone as she turns her head, “You forget, I was Princess Celestia’s prized student. She was my mentor, even if for a short time. This is most certainly real. Her first childhood memories are of living through this cataclysm.” “I read one of her old journals or diaries,” Dawn continues and closes her eyes as she turns her head to the distance, “Don’t head towards the sun, you’ll burn up. Don’t head towards the night, you’ll freeze to death.” Opening her eyes Dawn looks back at the book, “She didn’t know at the time, that she would end up being able to move the sun itself. Nor Luna the moon. That didn’t happen until many years later. But the sun and moon started moving thanks to Starswirl the Bearded and the hundred companions. And then the daily effort and near burnout of more ponies.” She looks from me to Guerina and back. “Because it was more than just the ponies involved, but the Horses, the Griffons, the Hippogriffs, the dragons, and so many others.” She slams a hoof onto the table. “Wars had broken out over the very limited land left. Water was scarce, far more so than in the desert here.” “How? Why?” Dawn sighs heavily. “Imagine a strip of land, long enough to go around the planet, but not all of it is arable land. And that’s it. Some mountains, some valleys, the poles were pretty much completely uninhabitable. Not very much water, but the pegasi were able to help with cloud formation, with establishing a controlled weather system. That’s when Cloudsdale was founded, and the first weather factory. But they had to traverse a strip merely twenty miles wide.” She shrugs her shoulders. “I mean, depending on the geography, that strip could be a bit bigger, or smaller I guess. But there was not enough food, not enough land, not enough anything.” “How long did life have to endure that?” Dawn shakes her head. “The Journal of Celestia wasn’t completely clear on that. But at the very least, years. With all the different kinds of life on our planet vying for that little bit of land. No seasons, just life in a perpetual twilight. It was horrible.” “It’s amazing that it’s a dim memory now, that ponies and other creatures don’t even think about it.” Dawn looks at me. “For most on the world, it’s not even a dim memory. It’s forgotten history for much of the world. Some agencies of learning still offer the legends, but most ponies, most horses as well have no idea that it happened. When Starswirl was able to get attuned to the sun and start it on its daily voyage around our world, we had months of horrible storms. That was where the pegasi were able to learn how to fully control the weather. The first weather teams were charged with knocking down those storms. They were based in Cloudsdale at first, but other floating cities were slowly built to take up the load of worldwide weather.” I shake my head. “I really don’t understand how that’s possible. The sun is light minutes away from us. How would our planet get tidally locked.” Dawn tilts her head, blinking confused. “A light minute? A minute is a measure of time, why would it be light or heavy?” I close my eyes looking up. “A light minute is a measure of distance based on the speed of light. How far light will travel in a vacuum. So, about eighteen million kilometers.” I shake my head, getting my ears to flop. “Sorry, I remember hearing that from somewhere.” “Why would anypony measure distances in light minutes, or seconds, or whatever?” Dawn says, scrunching up her nose. “That seems like such overkill. The sun is only about three hundred thousand kilometers from the planet.” “What? That’s not possible!” I’m even more confused. “I know it’s hard to grasp. Princess Celestia has a model of it in her school. The sun is in orbit about three hundred thousand kilometers out. It may look small in the sky, but it’s massive! At about three thousand kilometers across. The moon is closer, so it’s a bit smaller at about two thousand kilometers across, but it looks about the same size because it’s closer in its orbit.” I lay my head on the table. “You are sure of those numbers?” Dawn cocks her head to the side. “Yes, Ki. Astronomy is a thoroughly studied subject in Canterlot. Remember, we have the one who moves the sun and moon as a teacher. I have personally watched her hold the sun in the sky motionless for hours as we’ve had to search for a lost herd after a disastrous fire. She doesn’t like to do it, the weather gets seriously messed up when she adds that much heat energy into the equation. But it was necessary to save a life. She let the weather factories know so they could initiate mitigation measures.” I look at Ghaliya, then at Guerina before settling my gaze again on Dawn. “Okay, Dawn, what is the sun?” That gets a smile. “I don’t know what you’ve been taught, Ki. But the sun is the ultimate physical expression of magic. It has essentially a will, it is magic.” She cocks her head again to the side. “Why?” I struggle to control my breathing. “I remember reading a book, grade school physics, but the sun is almost one point four million kilometers in diameter, and it is eight light minutes away from our world, meaning if something happens on the sun, we would see it eight minutes later. And it’s not magic, it’s a continuous hydrogen fusion reaction. It is energy, but physical energy, heat. The moon is the actually a little bigger than you say the sun is, but with the difference of distance, it actually nearly covers the sun in an eclipse as well.” I shake my head. “I can close my eyes and see the page clearly. I remember the information from that book. I think it was school.” I squeeze my eyes tightly closed. “Alright, stop right there, keep your eyes closed, Ki. Do you see the book?” “Mhh-hmm.” “Good. Now with that visual picture in your head, turn your head, or move your eyes, get some other mental picture than that book.” I pause for several seconds, trying to comply. Then it’s blackness. “Sorry.” I mumble as I raise my head to look at Dawn. Dawn comes up to me and nuzzles my shoulder. “We did try, didn’t we?” I nod. Guerina clicks her beak a few times. “So, what happened after Starswirl started getting the sun and moon moving again?” “Well, Starswirl had to spend a lot of time learning, he spent months traveling to get the necessary knowledge. Then he gathered up his Hundred Companions. One hundred of the most powerful unicorns of the time gathered together.” Dawn shudders. “So much magic, so much power. And yet they weren’t enough by far to be able to establish the necessary connection to the sun to allow it to move across the sky. In the end, it took thousands of unicorns, likely nearly the entire population of Unicornia to link and form the necessary circle to establish that link with the sun, and so many were burned out in that accomplishment. They gave themselves to save the world. And in the end, that link went to Starswirl, who with the help of the Hundred Companions, was able to move the sun in its daily trek around our world.” She looks over at me. “But even then, after starting the sun moving, most of the Companions were exhausted, and didn’t have enough power to light a candle for hours.” She sighs. “And they did this daily, for years. Decades, until Celestia was able to take up the mantle. And her sister, Luna, was able to take care of the moon.” She turns to the second book that Guerina brought. “Let’s hope this is more than simply a retelling of what I know already.” She stops and flips the pages slowly. I watch the candles slowly burn down as the unicorn mutters softly to herself. Ghaliya quietly excuses herself to head to her home, favoring me with a quick nuzzle before exiting. Then Guerina clicks her beak a few times before retiring upstairs. It’s not horribly long before boredom finally overtakes me. I wish I could simply read the books that the griffon brought. But my reading ability is limited, apparently the horses have a different written language from the old pony scripts. So, I’m going to have to learn more. Eventually I retire, before I head upstairs myself, I look back at Dawn, she’s got a roll of parchment and is writing notes, dipping the quill carefully into the ink before writing. She’s actually pretty good using her mouth to write like the horses do. My bedroom is on the third level of the home, and is by far the largest room. I crawl into my bed and roll my covers around me. It doesn’t really get all that cold in the City itself at night. But I usually leave those upper floor windows open, to have a nice breeze as I sleep. I slowly let my mind grow fuzzy. Though my eyes pop open at the feeling of another body crawling up close to me in bed. Her smaller size tells me it’s Dawn, instinctively I fold a wing around her and she sighs softly before her breathing evens out. And before long sleep overtakes me once again. The bright sun peeking over the horizon blazes into my bedchambers. I’ll admit, I like being woken by the sun. Though I see quickly that I wasn’t the first awakened. I’m alone on the bed, which has me sighing softly as I crawl off the bed and look back at it. It’s only a few moments work with my magic to make the bed and arrange the pillows just so. I turn to the door with a flick of my tail and head downstairs. It only takes a few moments in the bathroom before I can head down to the main level of the house. The smell of food being cooked draws me to the kitchen, and I can see a serving platter is loaded up. I glance over at the table, and can see that Dawn has fed herself. “G’mornin.” I look back and see that Guerina has followed me down the stairs, doubtless the smell of food has awakened her as well. Coffee has been made. Dawn is back to her research, Ghaliya had left last night, though she’s working on her next job, so it’ll be a few days if not longer until I see her again. Though she’s chosen our wedding day, I’m eagerly awaiting that day, it’ll be here sooner than it looks like on the calendar. She’s decided she wants a big affair, with much of her extended family attending. Though when I think of who I would ask to attend, Guerina, Dawn? Who else? Ghaliya has said Farris would be master at arms of our wedding, though why any weapons would be necessary at a wedding is beyond me. Who would I invite? “Ki.” Dawns voice breaks me from my contemplation, I look over at her. “This is utterly fascinating.” She pulls one of the books from the pile. “I wish I had read this book years ago. But what’s done is done.” She flips a few pages. “Okay, this is an account of Starswirl the Bearded’s travails as he looked for a way to save the unicorns that had gotten burned out in the linking to the sun.” She turns the book to read. “Not all of the unicorns were beyond help, the Zebras were of immense help in my search. The staff was a great help in comforting and healing those injured in the Attempt.” She looks at me for a long moment before looking back down. “He went on some sort of quest to find some sort of way to return their magic. A Zebra shaman told him of a great and powerful creature that lived below ancient pony ruins. A creature, or being, of great knowledge that grants its wisdom to those that are worthy.” She turns the page and continues reading. Then she looks back up at me. “With the help of this zebra, Starswirl was able to travel to the mountains and found a great cavern below the ruins. There, the creature helped Starswirl make a staff that would combine the magic of many to help move the sun without burning them out.” “So that is a staff that fixes…” I furrow my brow. “Broken unicorns?” She looks at the text. “That’s what it looks like from here. But Starswirl had to pledge to return the staff, once the children were old enough to do the jobs themselves. This was rather confusing to Starswirl since he didn’t know what children this creature meant. And he was told that two were left behind to bring the day and night again, to help fix what has been broken.” She turns the page and groans. “It looks like a couple of pages were ripped out.” She pokes at the last few pages of the book. “This book hasn’t been stored under ideal conditions. When he returned, he had a great staff in hoof. A large shaft of twisted wood ending in a great fork, in the crook of the fork a large crystal had been set, and a gold and diamond structure.” She turns the book to show me. “Set above the crystal.” “Any idea where it is.” She turns the book to show me a map. “This isn’t the most accurate map I’ve seen, but it gives me some distinct clues. We need to hire a ship.” “Ghaliya has never seen the sea.” Dawn scrunches her muzzle. “Why would she…?” I raise a single eyebrow. “Do you think we are going to be able to go on an adventure to find what is necessary to heal you without her?” She blinks at me for a long moment before cracking into a genuine smile. “Yeah, she’d flay my hide from my bones if I took you into danger without her.” “Your hide?” I scoff. “She’d do worse to me, she’d decided not to marry me.” That gets a giggle. “True.” *** Ghaliya walks next to me as we head out of the City. Our departure has been delayed by almost a full week so Ghaliya could arrange for a caravan. Trips to the Great Seaport city are a big deal due to the importance of trade. Once the Padishah had found that we were heading there, he chose to add a contingent of Royal Guard, a chance to show the flag, as he said. We are at the head of a fine procession, as we leave the gates of the city crowds wave. The horses of the Guard are even beating drums and sounding horns as we make our way out into the sand. Ghaliya sets a good clip, with Dawn and I following. Guerina and two other griffons have taken to the air as scouts, ranging ahead of the body of our Caravan. Though I think its just so they can get away from everyone, aside from Guerina, Gunther and Gina simply do not seem social, not even with each other. Farris has been placed in provisional command of the Guard contingent. He’s happily strutting in front of the first ranks of the Royal Guard, resplendent in his uniform. It’s different than what the rest of the guard is wearing, quite a bit more colorful than the white and gold of the Royal Guard. An idea from Ghaliya, keeping him and her contingent of former guards distinct from the City Gard. A matter of hours walking have us retiring to our wagon as usual. Hadi hadn’t gone ahead because of the griffons on point. So Ghaliya, Dawn, and I all spend time snuggling with the colt in addition to Ghaliya working on continuing his studies. He’s got a good head for math, so Ghaliya has been fostering that, he absolutely devours every concept that Ghaliya has been teaching him. Though watching her, I get a context on how well educated she is, compared to most of the horses in the City. One advantage to her Royal upbringing, I guess. Since the heaviest wagons are the water wagons, Ghaliya has been setting a pretty furious pace for the caravan. Though there are a few empty ones for some luxuries and other cargo that will be picked up as we head out away from Saddle Arabia. To the point that the camels pulling our wagon are being rotated out daily with remounts from the back of the caravan. We usually get well above sixty kilometers in a day, with Ghaliya spending her nights with the griffon guard for the most part. We make rapid time towards the port city of Dammam. Irfan walks next to us as we approach the port city. He’s been spending much of the time travelling. “Mistress, you know these port cities can get quite rough. What with the various ner do wells, the pirates, and even just the regular sailors. One such as yourself shouldn’t be cavorting with…” “Oh hush Irfan.” Ghaliya says. Though her tone isn’t of annoyance, but amusement. “I am not a Princess, I am simply a businessmare, doing my job as mistress of this caravan.” I glance over at Irfan, it seems the mild mannered stallion is endeavoring to not roll his eyes. “Mistress…” He is able to strangle out before taking a few deep breaths. “You are a member of the Royal family. Your sigil is known all through the land. You have violated convention and built a business that has been successful. But do not think for a moment, that you are simply a businessmare. You are royalty, the local nobles here will hear of you arriving into the City.” He glances over at me. “And while somehorse might be able to arrange passage for you wherever you plan on going. That doesn’t mean you should follow their advice.” “Oh Irfan. I will meet with a few of my distant cousins. I’ve already talked with my uncle about who to talk to and who to avoid. As far as anyhorse here knows, I will arrive with the caravan, and leave with the caravan. We will find a ship and crew to brave the Celestial Sea.” She makes a sour face, as if even saying the Princess’ name puts a bad taste in her mouth. We are approaching the crest of a hill on our patch. Sand has long given way to rocky, broken ground and even a few sparse thickets of trees. I don’t think Ghaliya knows, but as we’ve passed through some of the denser sections, I’ve tapped into my power, bolstering the life there. This kind of magic is right in my wheelhouse, so I don’t even notice any real exertion as I can see the plant life green up before my eyes. In fact the last couple of days have been quite pleasant for me, starting with the smell of the ocean greeting my nostrils, and the smell and sound of sea life we can feel before we even get to actually see the water itself. Though I’ve been told we are very close to the water. “And who will you be seeing, Mistress?” “My uncle wants to shift the balance of power here. We will be showing favor to a few cousins.” Her smile turns evil. “And pointedly snubbing others.” I frown. “Aren’t we going to get on a ship as soon as possible?” “Ki.” Dawn’s sharp rebuke has me taking a step back. “Ghaliya is part of the Royal family here. Such power plays are quite common. Princess Celestia has done much the same from time to time in Equestria. If a noble has been shirking her duties, Celestia would have some of her proxies let them know that noble is out of favor with her. This happens in every land. If the Padishah has a plan for Ghaliya, we can focus on getting our hooves on a privateer and get everything ready while she is doing that. Based on what Ghaliya’s said, this shouldn’t take more than a few days. Remember, ships have schedules. You can’t be counting on just boarding a ship and expecting them to untie from the quay and put to sea before you’ve settled into a cabin.” She huffs. “Even if we can get a ship going our way, or convincing a captain that our trip is worth the gold we will be offering, they must provision, they must prepare to be at sea for days or even weeks.” She looks over at Ghaliya then looks at me before softening her voice. “Though I would guess there would be at least one or two parties that would require your attendance.” “Parties? Me? Huh?” Ghaliya laughs before leaning closer and crooning softly. “Of course you’ll have to attend the occasional party. The betrothed of a member of the Royal Family must make his face known among the realm.” “But you aren’t the crown Princess. You aren’t to inherit the throne, right?” Ghaliya nods. “That is correct, Ki. But that doesn’t mean that I’m not a part of the family, that I don’t have the Padishah’s ear. I doubt the time I’ve spent banished from the family has even made it here. So, no worries on such things. The Padishah’s reach this far is rather thin. That’s one reason he sent the Guard to join us. We will be aboard a ship in a matter of days.” I look at Dawn then at Ghaliya. I want to find this staff right now. Any delay is making me itch, I swear. But the logic is sound. Just a few days, and we can handle the power plays of the horses. As we are waking, the sound of the ocean increases, I can hear the occasional wave crashing. I look forward and Ghaliya stops, forcing those behind us to stop. She looks around very slowly, taking it all in. “Beautiful.” She breathes. I find myself stumbling to a stop myself. Beautiful most certainly is the word that first comes to mind. Settled among the mountainous geography we’ve been travelling through is a massive valley, the mountains come down into a half moon shape, giving the bay natural protection from storms. The city isn’t nearly as large as the City of Gardens, there’s isn’t enough space for a truly massive city, but the port can be seen quite well from where we are standing. Small craft are darting across the wide river that comes in from our right, the City straddles that river, with houses and businesses crowding along both sides of the river. But most of all I can see blue, the deep blue of the water in the bay, and the ocean outside the massive bay. Even within the bay itself there are craft moving along, pulling in great nets for fish. I look over to my right, to the south, some farmland seems to be taking up much of the space left in the valley. I can see hundreds of farmsteads, along with a few vineyards. All in all, this looks like quite a prosperous city. Looking at the path ahead of us, leading to the gates of the City itself, we should be there before sundown. Ghaliya stands there for a long time, looking at the ocean, smiling softly as she can see all of that water. Then she shakes her head and looks back to call Farris. She murmurs a few instructions to him before moving off to climb into her wagon. When the wagon starts to move, I follow her inside. “I thought you would want to look more at the city as we approach.” She smiles as she shuffles through a large chest containing her clothing. “I wish I could, but I can’t let the horses here really see me. If they do, somehorse might see I’m not among the caravan as it leaves.” I frown thoughtfully. “So, you are going to cover yourself more?” She looks back at me. “Not in just some plain colors like you like to.” She blinks. “No offense.” I smile. “None taken, I like my simple robes.” Her voice is muffled as she pulls on a patterned burgundy item over her body, and takes a moment to adjust it. “I must look the part.” Her head emerges and she runs a hoof softly along the gold thread. “I’ve never been a fan of looking the part. I like what I wear on a normal basis. But not only are we going to conceal the fact I’ll be on a ship, but I must also look like Royalty. I must look like my station in life.” I sigh. Ghaliya has never really been all that interested in looking like the royalty she is. But I do understand why she’s doing so now. Time passes way too quickly for my taste as the caravan makes its way into the City. Being a port city, we are directed to a staging area much like the one back home. As the horses of the caravan are working to unhitch the camels and get everything organized. The City Guard march off to do their part in this adventure. Farris looks torn, Ghaliya has said in no uncertain terms that he is not joining us on the ship. Geurina, Dawn and I are given orders to explore the port area while Ghaliya will be doing her own work. She belts her own sword to her barrel before she stands before me. “How do I look?” I stop and look at her. I give her the only answer that comes to mind. “You are beautiful.” That gets a snicker from Dawn and Guerina, and a genuine smile from Ghaliya. “You’re biased.” I nod. “Yes, I am.” Ghaliya rolls her eyes. She looks over at Dawn. “Well?” Dawn smiles, her eyes flicking from Ghaliya to me and back. “Mistress, you definitely fill the role of royalty here.” Ghaliya grins, “I think you are biased too. But this will have to do.” She turns, her tail flicking. “Alright, off with you.” The wagon shifts slightly as she exits. I look over at Dawn and Guerina. Dawn simply has a small dagger within easy reach, though it looks much like the multiple daggers that Guerina has strapped about her. “So, are you protecting us?” I ask the griffon. Guerina smirks. “As if you need protection big boy.” She looks over at Dawn. “But yeah. I’m here for Dawn, she doesn’t have her magic, this is a hive of deception and villainy.” Dawn looks at me seriously. “I’ll be close to you, and anyhorse seeing you will think twice considering you are the size of the horses here, and you’ve got that horn on your head. Anyhorse thinking of doing anything would be afraid to do anything with a magic user of your size around.” She glances at the door. “Especially with a griffon that is armed to the teeth walking with us.” I frown. “Wouldn’t we intimidate those we might need to talk to?” Dawn shakes her head. “Those that might want to cheat us, those that might want to make off with a pony or one of us individually. But no, the honest crews might be a bit intimidated. But for the most part, we will make things work without too much of an issue.” “Are you sure?” She nods. “Remember, Ki. I am a merc.” She blinks a few times, reaching up to feel her horn. “Well, I was.” She blinks rapidly, trying to stop tears from leaking. “No, I’m not going to cry.” She sniffles a bit before wiping her eyes with a fetlock. “I used to hang around places like this port town looking for work. Remember, we aren’t on the same continent as Equestria. I had to take a ship to be here in Saddle Arabia. I’ve been here before. It’s actually quite safe, if you keep your head on the swivel and don’t advertise the gold we are carrying.” I’ll admit, I’m surprised I don’t make noise when I walk, with the number of bags full of gold coin secreted about my robes. “You know, this should be enough to buy a ship.” Dawn grins. “It may get pretty expensive to hire out the ship. The expenses of the ship itself, paying the crew, and let’s not forget the Captain. A older horse, though smaller and more sturdy then most of the Arabians calls out from a raised platform, “The ships are in, the griffin and parrot Barque Topfeather has arrived from the North Seas!” Several merchants look up at the calls, “A the pony Brig Rainbowdancer has been sighted and should be here within a few hours! The fishing Cutters Prosperity and Perseverance of the Proprietary Pony Plaza have put to port. I’ll pay one gold for anyone who can get that company to quit with the P’s!” I sigh and follow my compatriots from the wagon. The next four days end up being some of the most frustrating of my life. Calls after calls of ships coming in. Most ships are already hired, or have upcoming jobs that they aren’t willing to bump for our voyage. And I can’t forget the one time we actually got to discussing money, and that ended with me backing out of the inn with my horn lit, Guerina’s daggers in her claws, and even Dawn having her own dagger brandished in her teeth. Some of these species seem less trusting then others. We are heading down to the warehouse district, one of the horses had told us that it’s a great place to find crews working to provision their ships for long journeys. Many independent captains buy their goods directly from the warehouses. Several ships have come in with the last tide, so Dawn seems to be hopeful that we can find a ship today. Flicking my ears I hear the calls for the day. Standing on his platform with spyglass the stout horse scans the docks and waters, “The Minotaur leagues frigate Warsprite is on the horizon, the Parrots Caravel Harlequin is unloading at the docks, oh ho, Greenbeards Waveslasher slipped in sometime last night, they must have beat the Seaspray again.” The warehouse district has quite a few large buildings, but also various open air markets, I’m guessing that’s where merchants are vying to make coin off of provisioning ships for long voyages, or trying to sell goods to the crews before they can get deeper into town. Our little group winds through one of those markets when my attention is grabbed by a flash out of the corner of my eye. “I’m meant no offense!” The scream of the horse catches my attention as he runs past me from an alley way, a second following behind the first, a look of terror on his face a he runs full gallop. Turning I look down the alley way and the smell hits me, acrid smoke, sulfur, brim stone. A shiver runs down my back as I see the huge shadow on the wall, its mouth agape, filled with sharp teeth. “Ki, what’s,” Dawn starts as she walks up beside me, putting up my wing quickly to stop and shield her, I take a step back. “A dragon!” I shout, keeping between the creature, and Dawn and Guerina protectively. The dragon whips around stepping into full view. It snarls at us, narrowing its eyes, “What are YOU doing here?”