Nurse Redheart, Sheikh Fahd and several of the Janissary bodyguards entered the Halls of Healing to find that the 'hall' is a small room, utterly devoid of anything except for a single short table on the floor with a stallion sitting in front of it. The stallion manning the table is but a teenage colt, with light purple coatm a green mane and matching green eyes. For some reason Nurse Redheart is reminded of the the Ponyville Librarian's assistant when she looks at the stallion, and she could only chuckle at the resemblance. This caught the teenage colt's attention and as he turns up to see his unexpected visitors, his eyes are wide open and his jaws are wide open from the armed Janissary bodyguards
"We are sent here by Ramallah." Nurse Redheart decided to take the initiative to calm down the stallion, using her calming voice that have seen action in calming down many colts and fillies that are about to get an injection. It seems that her trick worked, for the colt is now much more calmer. The colt nods, and he walks towards a section of the wall and pushes something on the wall. To the surprise of the entourage, the wall behind the stallion opens up revealing a wide corridor.
"Just walk straight ahead, and you will find the Chief Healer at his sanctum." The teenage colt said to all of them.
After a short walk through the passage way, the entourage is greeted by an odd mix between an alchemy lab and a greenhouse, with many herbs and plants hanging from pots suspended in midair by suspension robes, with the workbenches and countertops are filled with many laboratory glassware filled with liquid interconnected by tubes, with some of them on top of small burner or holding stands. Several diagrams of pony anatomy are also being spread out on drawing boards or are hanging by the the countertops. Nurse Redheart could also see that there are some herb grinders and some mortar and pestle lying around with herbs inside them. It was then that the Nurse heard a lough cough and she turns around to see the old, wizened stallion from before that asked her about her analysis of the Emir's condition.
"Welcome, healer mare from Equestria." The old stallion gives a chuckle. However the Sheikh and the Janissaries are still on their guard, despite the disarming appearance of the old stallion. The old stallion then takes several steps forward to the group, and gives them a warm smile.
"So......why have you called us here, Chief Healer Ramallah?" Sheikh Fahd asked the old minister. The old Chief Healer gives the Sheikh a smile, and proceeds to search around his tables for something as he talks to his guests.
"It is simple really; as dictated by the Healer's Organization I am required by the Trottingham Accord to show my inventory to the visiting representative of the organization. However, until the council decides that you can proceed with healing the Emir, I am unable to do anything more than to show you these inventory. I would like to work with you in healing the Emir, but I am unable to as the council had not approved of our collaboration yet. " It was then that the old stallion hands in a piece of paper showing the inventory of the Hall of Healing, with another piece of paper on it with writings on it. Nurse Redheart takes the pieces of paper from the old stallion and started reading the small piece of paper;
To Nurse Redheart and Sheikh Fahd bin Mohammed,
The organization is such an understanding organization, for they still send a healer through the system after hearing about the state of the Emir despite me telling them that there is a small chance that the country would let any foreign healers to see the Emir. I will tell you with a certain amount of confidence that your next meeting will not end well for your mission.
My arms are tied as of this moment due to the strife that is going on within the palace, and I am not to take sides as my role as the physician of the Emir himself allows myself only as an observer, not a policy-maker. However, I want to save my old friend from himself and thus I wrote this paper for your eyes only.
There are three Sheikhs that might be sympathetic to your cause which wield considerable influence in the court; Sheikh Bashir of the Al-Geria clan, Sheikh Zamzam of the Al-Nusra clan, and Sheikh Khalid of the Al-Turan clan. Sway them to join your side and they will be able to stall the meeting to allow more time for other sympathizers to rally to your cause.Yes, there are other sympathizers, but their clans are not powerful enough to sway opinions and will only act if you have the backing of powerful allies. Your main opponents will be the clans of the east, for they are the most power-hungry of the clans and will benefit the most from the current strife.
I hope in the name of Ista that He will watch over you and let you prevail.
Yours Truthfully,
Chief Healer Ramallah
It was then that the Nurse Redheart looked at the old stallion before she looked at the Sheikh, who now notices the sudden change in behavior. They then turned their attention back to the Chief Healer who winks at them with an approving smile.
"With the list given to you, I have fulfilled my duties and thus I must ask you to leave the Hall of Healing." the old stallion said with a wink and a smile on his face.
"I can't believe what the council had decided upon......"
Sheikh Abu Hamza could only stomp his hooves on the ground to vent away his anger. The indecisiveness of the council have caused the meeting to be adjourned. The power play is such that there will be even more meetings for the next few days or even weeks as befitting the byzantine nature of the courts as the shifting alliances will affect how long the process would be. Nonetheless, some of the Sheikhs have approached the Sheikh and Big Macintosh in an expression of interest in some unfathomable scheme of theirs that are congruent with the Sheikh's own goals. Although the Sheikh had accepted or considered some of these alliances, but even the Sheikh knows that fully half the court is against him and any decision in the court will be filibustered to kingdom comes.
Big Macintosh is utterly beat from his time at the council, and as he walks back to their quarters with Sheikh Abu Hamza and their entourage of bodyguards he could only think about the utterly volatile situation of the courts and how he could not even say anything to the Sheikh. Somehow this is getting from bad to worse, and some piece is missing right now that would make sense of everything around him. Indeed, seeing the full play of the byzantine courtly politics for a few hours running caused Big Macintosh to play his part in the whole thing especially after what he have said to the Grand Vizier causing a great uproar among the Sheikhs.
Before long, they could see Nurse Redheart and Sheikh Fahd with their assortment of Janissary warriors coming towards them . Without any commotion both groups combined together to become a large entourage and moved as one towards their quarter, not muttering a single word at all. Nurse Redheart slowly gravitates towards walking side by side with the red stallion, and for that Big Macintosh is thankful. For some reason, he always feel much more comfortable when the mare is beside him and it made him less tense than before. As for the white mare, she appreciates his taciturn nature and thoughtful nature, and he is an overall nice pony with principles. Also she is slightly motivated by a rather selfish and material reason; she could not help but to be next to a stud like Big Macintosh and his personality helps in making it easier for her to justify her actions.
The entourage is now feeling rather tired from their entire day of being in the courtly drama of the Palace of Blossoming Lotus, and they could not help but to think about the simple joys of life; taking a bath, eating a warm and nice meal and some much needed distraction and sleep from all the stress accumulated during the day. However that will not be the case, as the entourage was greeted by a bizarre scene as they opened the doors to their quarters. The Janissary corp that are in the room guarding Vinyl and Fatimah as a whole are now tapping the walls and floors with their feet with their ears sticking closely to the surface that they are tapping on, with a very excited Vinyl and Fatimah now moving objects within the room with their hooves.
"What the......." Sheikh Abu Hamza and Sheikh Fahd said in unison as they realized that their Janissary warriors are acting rather unbecoming of their stoic nature. It was then that Vinyl and Fatimah realized the return of the entourage and soon rushes towards them, their excitement almost impossible to contain. They came to an abrupt stop in front of the group and ushered them all to enter into the room. Utterly puzzled, the entourage could only watch as the filly and the blue-maned pony looked outside their door before closing it shut with a big slam. With their backs facing against the door, both of the ushers shouted out in unison.
"YOU GUYS WILL NOT BELIEVE WHAT WE FOUND!"
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It was not long before everyone told each other about the bits and pieces of what is transpiring in the capital; Nurse Redheart and Sheikh Fahd with the news of the unwillingness of fully half the council in letting Nurse Redheart treat the reclusive Emir, Big Macintosh and Sheikh Abu Hamza with the news of revolt within Saddle Arabia and them seeking Equestria aid to quell the rebellion in a violent manner, and lastly, perhaps the most disturbing of them all, Vinyl and Fatimah with the discovery of the mysterious passageway and hearing of an unknown plot hatching within the palace. After their exchange of information, the group as a whole is now silent, trying to digest the situation in the capital right now and the little filly had no idea about what the adults just said among themselves and decided to keep to herself.
"So lemme get this straight; the council is a bunch of trolls fully in control of the country as a result of a boss that is sick and forever alone. Half of them want their boss to be out of the loop so that they can troll forever, and say to everypony else 'U mad bro?". But then, half the country went into trololololol by sticking it up to the man and now they are like 'Fuuuuuuuuuuuu!!!!!' and they want to kill it with fire?" Vinyl broke the silence in her usual vernacular manner, causing the little filly to giggle at Vinyl's odd words. In many ways, her deduction is surprisingly sharp despite the rough manner in which she puts it together. Both Sheikhs are utterly confused, while the Equestrians are horrified at this butchering of the Equestrian language.
"In essence; yes. You are right Vinyl." Nurse Redheart nods her head, despite her barely resisting herself from choking the blue-maned mare for using so much memes and slang in one word. She then tells the two Sheikhs in proper Saddle Arabian about what Vinyl just said to all of them. Both Sheikhs could only nod in surprise over the mare's reasonable explanation of the situation.
"But still guys, that make no sense now. Wouldn't your boss have anything to say about this? Why is he so quiet about it?" Both stallion Sheikhs looked at each other for a moment before, the burly Sheikh started speaking.
"You are right the Emir is known as a fair and just leader and he would not just condone aggressive action against our own, and he tends to talk first rather than hit first." Sheikh Fahd said while smoking on his hookah.
"Perhaps he have tried, but failed?" Vinyl said in a question, but then Sheikh Abu Hamza answers the blue-maned mare.
"From what I heard, the new of war had only just reached the capital, so talks between the two sides are highly unlikely. If there are talks, there will be time gap in which talks will be held. The Emir apparently had send his army without even sending a word for talks. As for the Emir and the council, I am unsure about their current dynamics now, as the Emir had essentially used the Grand Vizier as his emissary to the council. "
"What do you mean by that?" Nurse Redheart asked.
The Grand Vizier may be the right hand of the Emir, but he does not command the same respect from the council as the Emir himself, so they would not truly listen to him to begin with. The best he could do is to babysit the council so that they do not kill each other on sight." Sheikh Fahd interjects before the light brown Sheikh could even explain. Nonetheless the point still remains that Vinyl had brought up a very valid point.
Meanwhile, Big Macintosh is now thinking even harder as he try to put these new information to help him in solving the question that he have been asking himself all this time, and it is helping him a little more.A looming war, a divided court, a presence of two Equestrians that could affect the power play of the court somehow, and the disturbing tone of all of these combined into one convoluted plot that he have no idea about as of this moment. Due to his deep thoughts, Big Macintosh did not pay his attention to the conversations of both Vinyl and Nurse Redheart, and thus when he asked himself a question , he did not realize that he was speaking out loud and is cutting into their conversation.
"So how does Vinyl's little snoopin' fits into all of this?" Big Macintosh asked everyone in the room accidentally, and everyone's eyes is now upon the red stallion. It was not long before the farmpony realized what he just said and the looks of the other equines and soon enough even the Janissary corp are now looking at Big Macintosh as a result of noticing their masters' actions.
Horseapples..............., Big Macintosh said to himself, this time managing to not say it out aloud.
Thus our intrepid protagonists now stands at a precipice of fate, for the pieces are now in place for the greatest upheaval that had ever strike Saddle Arabia. Such guile, such intrigue, such scheming....truly part of a grand magnificent plan that is beyond the scope of everyone save that of the grand conspirator. However it is within the turning of the wheels of this grand plan that heroes are forged in the crucible of change , and it is with heroes that a nation shall have a beacon of hope.
But first before the bright light of any future, the present must be enveloped in the embrace of its darkest hour.............