Even though it hadn't actually been that long in the grand scheme of things since their last meeting, Sunset still smiled happily when she saw her mentor stepping out from her shuttle and into the hangar bay of the Phoenix. The senior Councilor looked around, satisfied over the quality and condition of the place, before looking ahead to her protégé. Several other members of the crew were here, giving a respectful salute as they stood in a row behind their captain. Celestia nodded in thanks and acknowledgement to all of them, continuing her walk towards Sunset. Eventually, the two were close enough that they could actually start speaking. "I trust you've been keeping busy since we last spoke, Captain?"
Sunset chuckled. "You've read my reports, Ma'am. You know I have been."
The two shared a laugh, after which Sunset nodded silently to her aforementioned crew. They all saluted her in response before returning to whatever their previous duties had been before this arrival. For Celestia's part, she seemed keen to catch up. "So, anything interesting going on today?"
"Aside from the meeting?" Sunset asked jokingly. "Well, Twilight continues to fawn over her young charge, Applejack and Rarity are debating having an overhaul of some of the ship's systems, and Rainbow has been busying herself with a few not-so-secret adjustments to the engines to try and get them to go faster."
Folding her arms, Celestia arched an eyebrow. "Your pilot does know that this is a science vessel and not a racer, right?"
Sunset sighed. "I assure you, Councillor, that is a conversation I have with her every other day."
"I see," Celestia replied with no small amount of amusement. "In that case, we should return to the matter at hand."
Sunset's smile returned. "I must confess, it was more than a little surprising for me for you to choose the Phoenix for this mission. We're not exactly known for our diplomacy these days," she said with a degree of discomfort.
"All the more reason," Celestia explained. "This meeting is going to go down in the history books, Sunset." She turned, looking out to the stars beyond the hangar. "The Hypps of planet Aris have been isolationists for many generations now. Convincing them to try and establish diplomatic relationships with others has been no easy feat. There's no telling what benefits there might be to this relationship." She looked back to Sunset, smiling. "And when words spreads that it was your ship this all took place on, well, maybe people will stop harbouring such disapproving thoughts about you."
Sunset nodded solemnly, knowing her leader had the right of it. Though she was loathe to consider asking for any favours to boost her popularity, there was no denying that this was a good move on Celestia's part. However, part of her doubted just how good that particular plan might pan out. She had little time to consider it though, as her attention was soon drawn to the outside of the ship, wherein another shuttle-sized vessel was approaching. This one was far more ornate in appearance, looking like some kind of graceful bird, and it landed in the hanger with just as much finesse as one might expect from an appearance such as that. After a solid minute of waiting, the doors of the new vessel opened, and from it emerged three figures. At the head was an older woman, akin to Celestia's age, dressed in an incredibly fanciful way, as befitting of royalty. There was no question in Sunset's mind who this was, and so gave a bow. "Queen Novo. It is an honour to have you with us."
The new woman smiled back. "And thank you for hosting us, Captain." Her eyes then drifted over to Celestia, and she approached the other woman. "Councilor Celestia. At last we meet. A pleasure."
"Likewise," Celestia returned. "I trust you had no difficulty in getting here?"
"None at all," Novo replied amicably. "A few stray asteroids here and there, but nothing to worry about."
It was all going well, at least for now, thus allowing Sunset time to turn her gaze to the other two figures who had arrived with the Queen. Here, she was somewhat taken aback to discover that these were not fellow diplomats, but a pair of teenage girls, younger even than her, both of whom seemed excited to be here. One was dressed in yellow while the other was in pink, and both of them were sporting long hair of different shades of blue. Sunset speculated that these had to be relatives of the Queen, but that notion soon gave way to another, prompting her to look to the monarch in question. "Apologies, Queen Novo, but I'm somewhat surprised that you didn't bring any security contingent with you."
Novo looked to her, almost amused at the idea. "I assure you, Captain, security is...unnecessary."
Sunset, naturally, would have wanted to ask more questions about that, but instead allowed Celestia to take the lead in this conversation. "I realise, your Majesty, that you've travelled far. But I hope you're up for the discussions?"
"Indeed, Councilor," Novo answered. "By all means, show me to table." Then, she glanced behind her, to the two girls. "My daughter and niece will be eager to be given a tour of this fine vessel."
To that, Sunset spoke again. "I'll see to it personally, Ma'am."
Novo nodded to her, smiling at least a little in appreciation, before heading off with Celestia. Once the two older women were far enough away, Sunset again looked to the teenagers, stepping forward and reaching out a hand. "I'm Captain Sunset Shimmer. Welcome to the Phoenix."
Now, she had been expecting some prim and proper response, as befitting the young of a noble family. What she had not expected though was for the one dressed in pink to rush forward, grab her hand and begin shaking it with such happy enthusiasm that she nearly ripped her arm off. "I'm Silverstream! Queen Novo's niece! Thank you so much for having us!"
Sunset, having taken a moment to recover from this unexpected and happy attack, soon put on a smile. "Well...nice to meet you." Then, she looked to the other girl. "I suppose that makes you the Princess?"
The young royal nodded to confirm that, replying in a much more reserved way than her cousin by simply bowing slightly. "Skystar. And do forgive Silverstream. We've never really left the planet."
Sunset's smile widened. "Then I hope to give you a good first impression of what things beyond your world are like."
Silverstream clapped happily. "Oh! Have you seen all sorts of weird and wonderful things?!"
"A few, by this point," Sunset answered.
"Any bizarre aliens?"
"Definitely one I'd call bizarre," Sunset remarked with some side-eye.
"Have you engaged in an epic space battle that decided the fate of the galaxy?!"
Sunset blinked. "...Er...no. I can safely say that one is off my list, thankfully."
"Oh, well, early days," Silverstream replied with her now-expected chipper attitude.
Skystar, shaking her head to her relative's antics, looked to the captain. "So...I believe there's a tour?"
Sunset composed herself, nodding to her. "There is indeed. If you'll follow me, we'll stop off at our science department first."
Silverstream remained her giddy self, with Skystar doing her best to restrain her abundant enthusiasm for everything she was seeing. Though certainly happy that their visitors were taken with her ship, Sunset was still harbouring surprise that a people from such an isolationist planet had come across as so friendly. No matter, she told herself. Just show them around while Celestia does the big talking. No problem. So, on they walked, with Silverstream stopping every minute to stare in awe at everything she came across in the journey. Eventually, they managed to make it to the science department. Sure enough, Twilight was there, and seemed to be in the middle of looking over Spike, with the youth having his mouth open while the scientist looked within. "Yes...seems your teeth are coming in nicely." Sunset cleared her throat, gaining the attention of her right hand. As soon as Twilight saw her, and the two girls accompanying her, she understood the situation, standing at attention. "Oh! Captain! I wasn't expecting you here."
"Figured your side of the ship was a good place to start showing them around," Sunset explained. After which, she looked to Spike briefly. "I take it he's doing well?"
"Growing every day," Twilight answered proudly. Then, after again looking to the girls, she assumed the posture one might expect of a tour guide rather than a scientist. "This is our science department. Whenever we encounter something new or unexpected, we bring it here for study." She giggled briefly. "Size permitting of course. We're not getting any asteroids in here any time soon."
Skystar glanced around as she entered. "What kinds of things have you studied?"
Twilight adjusted her glasses, with the lenses shimmering in the light. Sunset knew exactly what that motion meant, as she braced herself for her chief scientist to answer that question with great showmanship. "Well..."
Sadly, she was cut short in her presumably hour-long presentation when, at that very moment, Gallus popped in around the corner, looking down at a data pad he'd likely been studying. "Sorry to bother you, Twilight. The thing stalled again."
Though initially annoyed at being interrupted, Twilight regained her smile shortly afterwards, taking the pad from the boy and looking it over. "Ah, yes, I know the problem. These models suffered with a frequent lag issue. Thankfully, word is that they've solved the matter and will be sending updates shortly."
Gallus smiled, then suddenly noticed that they weren't alone here today. He nodded in acknowledgement of the captain, who nodded back, before finally looking to the two visiting princesses. When he saw Silverstream in particular, his entire demeanour changed. Suddenly, he seemed at a loss for words, with his mouth hanging open slightly. Silverstream, for her part, had finished fawning over the sight of Spike, now looking to the other boy. She rushed forward, shaking his hand with the same vigour she'd done with Sunset. "Hi! I'm Silverstream! Pleasure to meet you!"
Gallus, gulping, developed a slight blush as he fumbled for an answer. "I...um...Gallus...hi."
Sunset and Skystar cast a glance to each other, knowing instantly what was happening here. But, they silently elected to let the scene play out, with Silverstream looking to Gallus more closely. "Huh...you're not human, are you?"
Gallus, having regained at least a few of his faculties, looked away from her. "No, er...I'm a Gryff."
Silverstream gasped. "I get to meet two new species today?! This is amazing!"
"Three," Twilight corrected her. "Don't forget Spike."
"And don't forget me either!" chimed in the sudden voice of Pinkie. "Although...do AI count as a species? Might need to look that up."
Of course, Silverstream was enraptured by all this new information, looking like she was on her verse of a total breakdown from excitement. Skystar, thankfully, was coping better, and so stepped forward to look to Gallus. "No offense, but I thought Gryffs didn't really like other races all that much? What are you doing here?"
Gallus sighed, looking away. "It's...a long story." Then, a degree of curiosity came to him. "If I remember right, Hypps weren't exactly the outgoing type either. Why are you here?"
Sunset winced, worried that the boy might have broken some kind of rule of etiquette when concerning visiting royalty. Thankfully, that seemed to not be the case, as Skystar let out a long sigh. "Well, you're right. My people have spent a lot of time hiding away from the rest of the galaxy. We...we had a bad period in our history, and we sort of shied away from everything, even when it was over."
Silverstream, contrary to how she'd been acting up until now, frowned. "We spent years being attacked by this really bad warlord. The Storm he called himself. On and on his ships came, battering our people. Eventually, he was stopped, but the damage was done," she finished, looking saddened by her own tale. "We were so scared by what was out there in the stars that we just turned away from all of it."
A similar look of sadness came to everyone else in the room, especially Gallus, given that he'd asked the question. "I'm...I'm sorry. I can't even imagine what kind of damage your people had to go through."
Here, Silverstream perked up slightly. "Well, it wasn't all bad." She shrugged. "Sure, the Storm ravaged all of our surface cities, but he could never get to our underwater ones."
Gallus stared at her in confusion for a time. "Um...pardon?"
Skystar smirked, reaching up and pulling down the collar of her outfit. She turned her head slightly, showing off the side of her neck, revealing that she, and likely the rest of her kind too, were sporting a set of gills there. "We're amphibious. Living on land and under the sea."
Gallus looked to them both, actually seeming impressed. "Wow, that's...that's amazing!"
Folding her arms, Skystar took a moment to look slightly smug about the whole thing. "Yeah, it is, isn't it?"
"I'm sure you've got lots of interestign stuff to tell us about Gryffs too, right?" Silverstream asked excitedly.
Gallus immediately looked embarrassed, scratching the side of his head while his blush returned. "Well...no, not really." A long sigh escaped him. "Our home, our people...there's not a lot to write home about. Maybe we did have good things going for us once, but that was a long, long time ago. Now?" He scoffed. "Now, were just a bunch of infighting, greedy isolationists living in the dilapidated remains of what used to be an empire." He turned away, looking angry. "Trust me, there's nothing good about my people."
Skystar recognised that he was unhappy talking about it, and so, without even missing a beat, offered him a sweet smile. "Well...there's you, isn't there?"
Gallus looked to her, his blush becoming even more prominent. And in turn, Silverstream seemed to develop one of her own. Everyone looked to the two and, with the possible exception of Spike, understood what was happening here. Though certainly enjoying this sweet moment, Sunset reluctantly cleared her throat to get everyone's attention. "Apologies, Princess, but we have a whole ship we need to show you around." Then, a slight sense of mischievousness came to her as she regarded Gallus. "Of course, I'm sure Gallus wouldn't mind tagging along with you?"
If Gallus had been drinking any water right now, he'd have likely been choking on it upon hearing that suggestion. Instead, he just got back to his prior word-fumbling. "I...work...over there...no time...bye!"
And with that, he was off, darting past all of them and out of the science lab completely, leaving a very confused Silverstream behind. "Well...he seemed nice," she remarked obliviously.
Sunset, having enjoyed that whole interaction a great deal, gestured to the princesses. "If you'll follow me, your Highnesses, I believe a good next stop will be the bridge."
Silverstream clapped her hands. "Oh! The place where all the big, important decisions get made! Where history gets made!"
"Or trouble," Skystar added with a smirk.
Sunset chuckled. "Or both in our case," she freely admitted. So, on they went, giving a quick wave to Twilight and Spike before finally heading back out. As they journeyed on to the command deck of the Phoenix, Silverstream got back to her usual habit of enthusiastically greeting everybody she met, which naturally slowed their progression somewhat. But, in the end, they made it to the elevator and, subsequently, the bridge, which was smiled at by Sunset. "And here we are!" As expected by this point, Silverstream had stars in her eyes as she looked to everything and everyone up here. However, this time, Sunset also shared in that surprise, as she soon saw that there were two figures here she had not been expecting. It was none other than Celestia and Novo, both of whom turned to look to the newly-arrived trio with smiles of their own. "C...Councilor?" Sunset exclaimed. "What are you doing here?"
Celestia gestured to Novo. "Oh, I thought it might be best for me to show Novo around myself since we've finished our signing of the treaty."
Sunset blinked. "Wait...already?!"
Novo chuckled. "Of course, Captain. Little known fact about diplomacy. Most of the legwork with these sorts of negotiations and treaties is done long in advance of two leaders ever actually meeting face-to-face. Oh, there's been months of discussions by our various diplomats, ambassadors and representatives. This meeting today? Really, it was largely for the signing of the paper. And as you can imagine, that doesn't really take all that long."
Though somewhat taken aback by this turn of events, Sunset nevertheless smiled to the outcome. "So...it's all done? The treaty's agreed upon?"
Celestia nodded proudly. "Indeed. After today, we will be establishing official embassies on our respective homeworlds."
"And trade will begin shortly afterwards," Novo added. "As well as other diplomatic agreements that I won't bore you or my young charges with."
Silverstream's shoulders slumped. "Oh. Are we going home early then?"
Novo considered that. "Well...I suppose we could stay for a spot of tea." She smiled to Celestia. "Spending time in a royal court, it's been a long time since I've had the chance to speak to someone who can actually provide a decent conversation."
Celestia snorted. "Let me tell you about life as a Councilor one day."
The two women laughed together, and as they did, Sunset looked back to Skystar and Silverstream. "You know, if you're staying a bit longer, I'd be more than happy to keep showing you around."
Silverstream let out a near ear-piecing squeal of delight, which was quickly interpreted by her cousin. "That means yes."
Sunset smiled. "I thought as much." She then stood aside, allowing them entry back into the elevator. "Well then, how about we stop off at the engine room. I know a certain someone who'd be delighted to tell you how our propulsion systems work."