//------------------------------// // Four // Story: Under The Northern Lights // by CoastalSarv //------------------------------// The feasting hall of the Reindeer Kings was, according to Twilight's pre-journey researches, apparently also the throne room, the assembly hall, and occasionally the place where the castle servants dried the laundry. It dried well here, because the hall was perpetually heated with huge bonfires, in a way that was probably meant to be impressive, but mostly caused Twilight to wonder if the king was wasting firewood. Now, however, it was meant for a big welcome party, and a series of long, broad tables had been placed along its length. White tablecloths embroidered in deep red and blue covered it, and the tables had been set for a hundred with silver cutlery and carved wooden (there it was again) bowls and jugs. There was, at first, no illumination beyond the huge fires, but at the same time as Twilight seated herself at her assigned place, a pillar of light shot up from somewhere in the shadows, struck the roof and spread out to a shimmering cloud of light hard blue, eerie green and dead white. Just like the fabled Northern Lights, which Twilight had hoped get a chance to observe on her journey – the reason she brought her telescope. It made Twilight wonder about reindeer magics again. As Twilight and the rest of Luna's entourage seated themselves, she couldn't help but notice that the seating arrangements were a bit different. Instead of mixing guests and hosts side by side, all the reindeer court were seated on one side with their backs to the throne. The visiting pony embassy was seated on the other, barely able to see the throne just behind the King's back. Princess Luna was placed right across King Ukko, and then the rest of the hosts and guests were seated down the table in both directions in decreasing order of importance. This was the reason Twilight was far away from her Princess, but she couldn't really fathom why Spike wasn't with her. As she observed the seating order, she realized that ”the visiting pony embassy” had been the wrong way to describe it. It was more like ”any important pony in Tarandroland right now,” since Twilight had a Russ judge from Trotholm on her right. Or maybe ”equine,” because she saw a donkey jenny further up the table from her, and her ceremonial harness showed she was the mistress of the Longshoremane Guild. And to her left was... ”A zebra?!” Twilight blurted out. The zebra stallion smiled sadly. ”It's the stripes, am I right?" he said. "They always give me away!” Twilight blushed, and tried to use her fan to hide her embarrassment, as she had been taught. However, as usual when she was stressed, Twilight's magic flunked, and her telekinetic waving struck the zebra on the muzzle. Twilight wondered whether she should creep under the table or teleport away, but he just laughed. ”That was actually pretty funny,” he said amiably. ”Please put your weapon down, Miss, before you hurt me for real.” Twilight lowered her fan. ”Sorry,” she said sheepishly. ”I mean, it is just that I only know one zebra, and I'd never thought I'd find one of you here – you are kind of rare up north.” ”Apology accepted. I'm here in Poatsula because of business,” he said, using the reindeer name for their country. “My family's trading house sells coffee, and Poatsula has the highest rate of consumption per capita in the world.” ”I see,” said Twilight. Then she steadied herself, probed her aura, and found that the spell she had used on Zecora still worked. She switched to Nuuban, the zebra tongue, and said: ”I am Lady Twilight Sparkle, daughter of Star Sparkle and Nightlight, personal hoofmaiden to Her Royal Highness Princess Luna. Pleased to meet you!” It was the zebra's turn to be stunned. His mouth hung open. ”You speak my language!" he said. "I have never met an Equestrian who didn't speak Equestrian with everyone! And so well – how is this possible if you only know one zebra?” He leaned his head to the right. ”Did you have a sleeping dictionary – that is, is that zebra your husband?” Twilight grinned sheepishly. ”I am afraid it is unicorn magic trickery," she said. "And she is just a colleague.” The zebra stallion absorbed this but didn't stop smiling. ”Where are my manners?" he said. "Paki Saada, son of Dalila and Mandisa, Consul to Tarandroland by the grace of His Royal Highness Mansa Eze Aidoo.” They both bowed, then Twilight switched to a curtsey and almost fell off her chair. ”Two names, that's a lot," she said. "'Observer Guide'?” Paki looked uncomfortable and Twilight suddenly remembered you don't ask about names and cutie marks among zebra. ”Oh, I am sorry!" she said. "Forgive me for asking!” He smiled again. ”It is no big thing in this case... I have always been watching things closely, that is why my destiny brand is an eye," he said. "Pretty banal, really. So it is good for my family to have me keeping an eye at things here... And the second name is more like it came with the title. A consul is supposed to guide other zebra, after all.” ”How did you get that position, anyway?” said Twilight. Paki laughed. ”By being the only zebra to actually live in Tarandroland. I got a small package with a letter that said it was my duty and this thing,” - and he pointed to one of the necklaces he wore, - ”as my badge of office. And that's it.” At this, he and Twilight had to move around a bit as the first course was served. ”Soup,” Twilight said, stating the obvious. The zebra looked dismayed. ”Yeah. Lichen soup,” he said. Twilight tasted the broth, which succeeded in being bitter, bland, runny and crunchy in a distinctly un-soupy way, all at the same time. She avoided grimacing by force of will. ”Um, what kind of lichen?” she said. ”The one called 'reindeer moss' in most languages," said Paki. "It's what nomadic reindeer graze, at least when there is nothing else. It is like a pony or zebra eating grass. It is one single step off the ground.” Paki was sort of stirring the soup with his tongue. ”It's... interesting,” Twilight managed to say. She look up worriedly to the people next to her, both the ponies and their reindeer hosts. Most ponies ate like her, out of courtesy but with no great show of joy. The reindeer on the other side of the table, however, just sloshed it around and looked rather blase. They certainly didn't relish it. For the first time her borrowed knowledge of Poatsi kicked in as she heard an angry vaja telling a sarv that presumably was her husband that ”he” was having a childish tantrum again, and that next time he should get them out of this chore that was courtly duties. Then Paki spoke again and removed her attention from the reindeer couple. ”So speaking of cutie marks, as you ponies say, what does your mean?" he said. "'Service to the Night' or something, given your position? Or why does an astronomer work as a hoofmaiden?” Twilight hesitated, but she was an awful liar. Better tell the truth. ”It stands for magic," she said. "I am very good at learning it, understanding it. Not always at actually using it, I'm afraid, I am just a student yet.” Paki looked at her a long time instead of at his horrible soup. Then suddenly his eyes widened very much and he stared down his soup instead. He quickly collected himself in a way Twilight instantly envied, and said ”I see.” But she saw him throwing a quick glance at the bundle of beautiful necklaces and anklets he wore – Tarandrian silver and amber, unlike the typical brass and crystal of a zebra – and she realized that they all were magic charms – gri-gris – and if Zecora had taught her right, they all protected against magic. ”Why the hay would a coffee trader, that sometimes have to help drunk sailors getting home, need that much anti-magic gear?” Twilight mused to herself. Spike was very, very angry. They had put him at the foals' table! Or table end, rather. OK, he was a kid, but not that much of a kid. It didn't make it better that the kids next to him were all the colts and fillies of various Russ dignitaries (none in Luna's entourage had brought their foals) and they were very small kids. Russ are dwarf ponies after all. The fillies next to him made Dinky Doo, the smallest unicorn filly in Ponyville, look like a Clydesdale wrestler on steroids. In other words, to Spike he was sitting at a table full of babies. That they shyly avoided him didn't help. He tried to say something across the table to some fawns on the other side (he only saw one who had antlers yet) but either they ignored him or the rather wide table made him inaudible. The first course did nothing to cheer him up. Spike could eat the strangest things, but it didn't mean he liked all of it. Unlike Twilight, he didn't even get the chance to know what the offending soup was. He had no chance to hear the reindeer complain, but it was clear they didn't like it. Only the young sarv with antlers – Spike reckoned that was somewhat like actually having your cutie mark, or being able to control your fire – was eating. ”Do you really like that?” Spike asked him. The sarv noticed him and held a cloven hoof to his ear. ”Do you like that? 'Cause, um, you can have mine?” Spiked tried louder. The reindeer shook his head and waved his hoof as if saying ”Come closer.” Spike only hesitated a little. Then, with a gasp and a yelp from the Russ fillies, he dived under the table and came up on the reindeer side. ”Won't they get angry?” he asked the Soup-Eating Reindeer. “Who are 'they?'” he answered Spike. “Them,” Spike gestured to the older reindeer up the table, not really wanting to say “grownups” and indicate he and the sarv weren't. The reindeer shrugged. “They don't care what we do anyway," he said. "They are too busy with themselves.” He looked at Spike. “So, are you really...” “A dragon," said Spike. "Yeah.” “I was going to say Equestrian, but I guess it is pretty cool to meet a real dragon as well,” he said and smiled. Spike frowned. “You can't tell me being Equestrian is more special than being a dragon,” he said. “Well, to me it might. I mean, Equestria...” he moved his right front hoof in the air. “It's going to sound silly, but Equestria, it's not really real to me, OK? Dragons are more real.” “What?" said Spike. "Is this... I mean I know you're from a different country, but sure you know its a real place, right? I mean geography in school and... sometimes Equestria must be in the news.” “Of course it's in the news, stupid!" said the reindeer. "Its the biggest and most important country in the world, maybe, so of course it is in the news. But... a lot of... made-up things are from Equestria as well, and I see much more of those. Like, comics and books and movies.” He lapped more soup. “You get Equestrian comics in Tarandroland?” Spike asked, somehow made happier by this possibility. “Of course," said the reindeer. "It's not like there are many good comics made here, is it? One of my teacher says it's like the biggest export of Equestria, media that is. But listen to me: I see something in a paper, because Mom wants me to read it, and there is this big picture of Canterlot. But me, I just see Supercolt flying over it. Or my geography teacher asks me how big Manehatten is, and the only thing I can remember is the last detective story from there on the telly. It's everywhere, and its all made up to me. So its good to meet someone who is real from Equestria, and its not like one of these boring foreign nobles wants to talk to me.” Spike still looked skeptical but shrugged. “This real person is called Spike, anyway,” Spike held out his claw. “What do they call you?” “They usually call me Vigg, because that's my name,” said the reindeer and answered with his fore-hoof “Brohoof?” “Brohoof!” said Spike and the reindeer laughed as claw and cloven hoof smacked together. “So they do that for real and no only in stories!" said Vigg. "Ponies came up with that, you know?” Spike nodded. “So Equestrian comics...” Spike said. “Have you read Sampo?” Vigg snickered. “Yeah, but you can totally see a reindeer didn't write it.” “Hey, what's wrong with Sampo?” Spike felt a little defensive in a vaguely patriotic way. “Well, first, this Sampo guy, he was real, he was like a king long ago," Vigg said. "You have to read about him in school if you're a reindeer. So it feels silly when he is an Equestrian superhero. In some way he feels less real than Supercolt who is totally made-up.” Spike acknowledge this but didn't seem to agree. “Then, if they base a hero on some foreign dude, they should have read up on him first," said Vigg. "There are like a ton of mistakes in the hero's powers and background and all, and he becomes totally different.” “So what's wrong?” said Spike. “OK, I so wish my history teacher was here, the whining old bore, because I am going to show I should really had a better grade! I'll tell you the real story of Sampo...” Thanks to krdragon for help with proofreading!