//------------------------------// // Chapter 22: Visitors from overseas // Story: Equestrian Paradox: "Worlds at war" // by An Sturmmann //------------------------------// Deep, deep in the middle of a rather nasty storm, stood a convoy, with several wooden ships, each one of them as big as a house or perhaps maybe even bigger, those majestic wooden ships travelled in the middle of the wrath of the sea, as waves clashed against them, their gigantic sails being quickly dealt with to protect them from the wrath of the winds as the skies seemed to become alive sending waves after waves of wind to clash against the wooden structures. Several figures could be seen on each of those ships, as despite the strong nature of the background and the ocean, the biggest and sturdiest ships stood close to each other, connected with planks wich despite the brutal onslaught of nature, kept protected by a thick but beautiful white membrane wich aislated the group of eight great ships from nature's wrath. "Excuse-moi, monsieur, encore, je ne suis pas sur que vous est pret pour le voyage" A mare, a unicorn Mare spoke out loud as her horn shone with bright light, she was currently walking over the plank wich connected the eight major ships, the plank was surrounded by the light like a tunnel, and she seemed to be concerned about a Younger-looking Hippogriff who walked behind her, the Hippogriff tilted his head before slowly giving a negative answer withouth the use of a single word, but alas sooner than later a bigger, clearly male Griffon lifted his claw behind him and caught him in a sort of forced shoulder to shoulder hug "Do not worry kind miss, I'll take care of this chick, go ahead and join the rest, we'll wait until you can cross the plank" The unicorn did a soft bow wich both answered in kind, before the Smaller Hippogriff broke the contact with the bigger Griffon. "Please, no matter how much you try to sweeten things up, I won't open that kind of negotiations here, this is a matter of Global security, we cannot allow the world's power balance to break, not in these trying times" Spoke the Hippogriff as he began to walk over the plank while the Griffon rolled his eyes. "Do not be fooled into thinking that the others are your friends, we both share the same origin, and that's enough for them to not trust us" "As if being born male wasn't hard enough, we'll find a way to deal with these old mares and hens, but for now it is our upmost important duty to stablish contact with this new world, and make sure our homelands can survive whatever threat may come with the current situations" The hippogriff answered before he bumped against the butt of an outright gigantic Griffon, the female in question looked back at him before chuckling. "Oh my... I heard that new world males were daring... but I never expected to be in the receiving end of such... "affection". The Hippogriff quickly took a few steps back before giving a polite bow. "I'm sorry for the sudden impact, I wasn't paying attention, but alas, I can assure you this wasn't any bold act, merely a minor mistake from my part" The Hippogriff spoke as the male griffon walked next to him and stood tall and proud, lifting his wings in defiance towards the bigger female, she smiled at the by comparison tiny Hippogriff before getting closer ignoring the bigger Griffon. "Ahem, señora, no crees que estas muy vieja para perseguir pollitos?" Questioned another hippogriff, this one female, easily towering over even the male griffon, just being slightly smaller than the female Griff, both of them shared glances before clashing heads as their eyes leered on each other, their foreheads bleeding from the sudden headbutt. "Oh?, Look who is talking, aren't you busy burning colts by the orders of those on Thracia?" "Take care of what you say, perfidious hen, for there is a big difference bewteen a "brujo" and a colt who uses magic, one will not hesitate to sell your soul to any demon he can find, the other will always protect and cherish those he loves, for there is barely something more pure than the love of a father or a son". Both took a few steps back as a big Bug-like horse separated them, its black chitin body and long silver mane contrasting to both avians mixes of white, red and blue, the creature was no other than a Changelling it seemed, for it suddenly turned its head in impossible angles ordering the two males to march inside the ship, as the marched a pair of Changelling guards bowed down in respect at both males, the griffon blushed and waved his claw in an almost flirty manner while the Hippogriff kept a more serious approach, saluting in a military way. The changelling at the left who was waved at by the Griffon blushed but lifted her cap in response, while the one at the right did a serious salute with her hoof, leaving them to enter the ship. "jetzt drinnen" Spoke the Changelling as both rolled their eyes and followed suit, entering the ship too. Darkness covered everything and everywhere the only small glimpses of light came from the fire of the torches of those who were under the cover of the magical membrane, or those who were in the ships that were facing the storm headfirst, once every few seconds, a mighty thunder would soar the skies as blue light covered the horizon and the proximity alike. However things were different inside the central ship, there was a room were a Pair of unicorns were sitting both of them using their magic, one unicorn was the tall white-coated mare from before, the other was a white and golden coated one who was sitting at a rectangular table hooves crossed while slowly massaging her temples. "Another Clam-fest, I take?" Spoke the younger one who was currently sitting, wherein the older one was slowly taking seat, and with a single motion of her head denied what the younger one had said. "First of all, young one, you should be... less... vulgar, and stop thinking that just because of our noble blood we deserve to always be surrounded by colts, second, there do are two males, emmisaries of the two newest great powers who are taken accounted into the balance of power, i just met them." "Heh, perhaps this meeting will be more interesting that what we expected, the balance of power is after all shifting ever since the last war twenty years ago, we finally got rid of those pesky Saqlaqui, no longer will they be considered a great power" The younger unicorn smiled widely as she lifted a cup of coffee with her hoof and gave a little sip to the scorching hot liquid, while the older one gave a little sip to a glass full of what may as well be the finest looking wine. "Affirmative, ever since the Colonial revolutions twenty years ago, the balance of power has slowly shifted, i'm glad my homeland is getting some of their invests back... how about yours? Last I heard you had problems with those Changellings after the partition of Tartaria". "While the Changellings had got stronger after the partition of Tartaria, the truth is, unless something of the proportions of the lifetime of war happens, my homeland will remain as powerful as ever, no matter how hard they try, they won't become stronger than us, even if we have some... undesired races under our domain, at the end everypony has to deal with undesirables, as a colonial power I'm sure your nation has to deal with lots of them." "For Queen and For country we had to do some... unsavory things, to keep balance, but alas, it is a worthy price to keep the balance of power in check..." Spoke the elder one before both unicorns felt something in the tip of their horns, looking towards the same direction... Since they were inside the ship they only saw wood, but they both knew that something wasn't exactly right, standing up both went upstairs and met the two smaller representatives, both, Griffon and Hippogriffon gave an small bow in respect, unlike the meeting with previous representatives this group of four seemed to show genuine respect. "Pardon moi monsieurs, encore, nous nous rencontrons à nouveau, Ont-ils déjà vu quelque chose d’étrange dans l’océan?" The older mare spoke in a quiet, respectful tone while both avians shook their heads, the bigger one being quick to speak. "Not in the ocean but we have news from the scouts up ahead, it seems that pirates had seized advantage and attacked the natives, but the natives managed to conduct a successful rescue operation, the fleets ahead captured as many pirates as possible but they are a mess of blabbing about an... "Apecubbus"? I think they called it like that, and an unicorn mare who thankfully saved the captured natives, the pirates are only admitting their crimes since they are truly afraid of whatever creature they called demon, they think they're going to tartarus unless they repent, and honestly i don't blame them. Spoke the Griffon as he fooled around a bit with an small long object, getting a clearly anxious Hippogriff to his side a bit more anxious than before. "Un demonio, 'el diablo carnívoro' que cuentan las leyendas de la isla de Filly" Said the Hippogriff while he clutched an strange necktale made of a tiny shield and a pair of swords, holding it deep against his chest. "That creature had terrified the island of Filliyi for a time, it hunted down the holy birds and many other great beasts of the creation, beasts wich were the base for the creation of all smart beings like us, it is a merciless demon whose body is made to tempt those who do as much as to glance at him, While at first many believed him to be a mere ape of sorts, when it began to make clothes out of the bodies of the creatures it hunted, and when it ate the boar huntress wich was sent to capture him... well you can pretend for only so long that the creature is not a demon..." "A meat eating murderer... if it wasn't outright evil it wouldn't have ate the boar sent to kill it... let us hope it hasn't seduced any native leader, but if it had succeded at infiltrating the natives, I can only hope our nations civilizing mission won't get threatened by this... demon..." Spoke the unicorn as the group looked back and saw the rest of the emissaries, drawing nearer and nearer with each step. "Let's keep this low for now, if those two find out, they will either call for a civilizating mission or a crusade right now." "My beak is shut". With that, the group left towards the room again, followed suit by a the Big ones from before, however, not too far, there was another Mare who despite being even smaller than the unicorn came running towards the group, it also wore good quality clothing like them, but she seemed extremely... well, small by comparison to the others, the mare in question was a pegasus, but what she lacked in size she had it in wing lenght and muscle, she was small, yes, but truly she had enough muscle to if needed fight her way towards the group. Once the eight representatives were inside the room, it got shut quickly, as guards of different races quickly went to protect the doors, once in a while a Zebra or a boar in a butler or maid outfit would draw near to bring refreshments or drinks into the room, and once in a while the guards outside swaped duties with others, for a time it was a changelling and a zebra, at the other a boar and a unicorn, at other a griff and a hipogriff. And there seemed to be some sort of important discussion that they were having inside the room, discussion that no one could hear but the eight inside. Out of the protective field that surrounded the major ships, however, the thunderstorm raged on, as in the distance some kind creature, half pony, half fish looked at the convoy with eyes full of worry, before quickly sinking back to the deeps of the ocean, the creature was heading southwards, the same direction the ships were heading right now... But who could judge her haste to return home? after all it isn't every day when your home has visitors from overseas...