//------------------------------// // Chapter 3: Twilight Sparkle // Story: The Ties that Bind // by Birdco //------------------------------// The Ties that Bind By Birdco Pre-read by : Fyre-medi, Yoshimon1 “In this you are bound.  Speak of this not to any outsider.  Only those to whom I have shared my wisdom may bring others before me.” -Baolong to Celestia, during the Time of Chaos. Chapter 3: Twilight Sparkle “I really appreciate both of you agreeing to  watch the library while Spike and I are away,” Twilight said to Applejack and Fluttershy.  She had just finished reviewing with them the detailed list she had made the night before of all the things that needed to be done to keep the library running.    “This won’t be too much of a bother for you two, will it?” “Not at all, sugarcube.”  Applejack replied warmly, “The last harvest is in, an’ all ah really have to do is a little fixin’ up around the farm, an’ sellin’ some apple preserves.” “And most of the animals are starting to hibernate, so thing are getting easier for me as well,” Fluttershy added softly.  “I’m certain between the two of us we can keep the library open most days.” “Well, thank you very much”  Twilight replied, her horn glowing as she rolled up the list.  It had been a hectic several days getting ready to leave.  She had been worried how to keep the library open during her absence, but Fluttershy had offered a solution.  Twilight was over at her friend’s cottage arranging for Fluttershy to check up on Owlowiscious while she was gone.  She had intended for Owlowiscious to spend her absence at Fluttershy’s cottage, so he wouldn’t be alone, but the yellow pegasus had offered to care for her owl at the library.  She had also offered to open the library for the time she was going to spend there in the evening. “So, um... Twilight, how is Spike doing?”  Fluttershy asked, concern in her voice.  She had been checking up on the baby dragon regularly after his Rampage through the town after his birthday.   “Spike? Well... he is still brooding.”  Twilight replied.   To make amends after his hoarding rampage, Spike had apologized to the whole town and did what he could to help with the repairs. Twilight was proud of her assistant, and the hard work seemed to help Spike deal with the guilt he harbored. Spike had started returning to his old self, but this all changed when Celestia’s letter arrived five days ago.  The letter commended Spike for his efforts to make amends, but it said that the time has come for Spike to learn about himself in order to make the decision on his future.  They were to partake in a long voyage by airship, but beyond this, the Princess offered no details.  Since then, Spike had become really defensive and spent all his spare time brooding in the bedroom. “Spike doesn’t still think that the Princess is banishin’ him, does he?” Applejack said. “I keep on telling him that Celestia isn’t mad at him, but he doesn’t want to believe me.” Twilight sighed.  The purple unicorn really didn’t know where he got these ideas.  He had lived close to Princess Celestia all his life, and she has always been kind to him.  It’s was probably just because he was confused by the dragon urges he had felt.  He was a dragon living among ponies and no matter how much Twilight thought she knew her assistant, there would still be things she didn’t understand about him.  “I don’t think Spike will believe anypony until he knows where we are going.” “Well, don’t ya think it odd that Celestia hasn’t told you where y’all are goin’?”  Applejack asked. Odd?  No.  Frustrating?  Yes, Twilight thought.  Twilight had written Princess Celestia back immediately after receiving the first letter and asked her for more information.  Celestia’s reply had been just as vague as the first letter.  This was probably another one of her lessons.  She often gave Twilight  just enough information for her to figure it out, but no more.  Twilight has spend much of the past few days reading through her books, trying to figure out where she would be going.  “No, Applejack. I’m not really surprised.  When I first came to Ponyville, she didn’t tell me what I was really here for.  She just told me to make friends.  This is probably one of those things where it is more important for me to figure it out on my own.” “That must get frustrating,” Fluttershy said. You have no idea, Twilight thought.  “Not really, I’m used to it by now.  I think when we meet the airship captain today and find out more, Spike will feel better.” She said optimistically. “Rhumbline seems like a nice enough stallion. He should take good care of y’all,” Applejack said. “Do you know him?” Twilight asked.  He had looked familiar to her the few times she had seen him walking around town, but she couldn’t place where he was familiar from. “He buys some of mah apple products to trade.  But beyond business, ah really don’t know him all that well.  Ah know his wife and daughter a little better, since mah stand is near their shop.  They are nice enough, but they’re strugglin’ to make ends meet.”  Applejack said thoughtfully. “Really?”  Twilight said with surprise.  She had visited their store once or twice, to check out.  It was small, but it had some interesting and exotic things in it.  “I figured if they had an airship, they had a lot of bits.” “Their airship is like mah farm.  Ah bring in a lot of bits, but I have to spend ah lot keepin the farm fixed up, replacin’ apple trees that die durin’ the season, and other expenses.  Ah do ok, but one bad season could cause me a lot of problems.  Rhumbline has a lot of bits tied up in that airship, and the cargo he carries.”  Applejack explained.  “Speakin’ of which, ah need to be headin’ back to the farm to ready a delivery to the airship.  He wants to take a load of mah preserves where ever he is goin’.”   “Sure thing, Applejack, thanks for stopping by,”  Twilight said as she walked with Applejack to the door of the library.  She waved goodbye to her friend, watching her as she trotted off. “So um, Twilight, aren’t you scared?”  Fluttershy asked meekly, joining Twilight at the door. “About what?”  Twilight replied.  Fluttershy was sometimes scared of her own shadow, so she could be referring to any number of things. “Well, you’re going up in an airship and um... it’s getting to be winter.”  Fluttershy said.  “And Rhumbline is an earth pony and not a unicorn or pegasus.” “What does that have to do with anything.” Twilight inquired, arching her eyebrow.  She had never though of Fluttershy as the type of pony that would care about the differences between the pony races.  Especially since she was a pegasus who was doing a job normally associated with Earth ponies       “Well, earth ponies usually don’t like being in the air.  I though they normally preferred trains and ships, “  Fluttershy explained quietly, obviously embarrassed to be talking about another pony in this way.  “Also, with the weather starting to get bad, I figure that taking an airship anywhere would be dangerous.  I know a lot of pegasi who won’t fly long distances in the winter because the weather can be so unpredictable.” Twilight thought about this.  She did have a point.  The weather did get rough in the winter and she didn’t know of many earth ponies that worked on balloons or airships.   During the couple of times that Princess Celestia took her on her airship, she had only ever seen pegasi and unicorns onboard.  She only once seen an earth pony in the crew of an airship. “That’s where I know him from.” Twilight thought out loud. “Huh?” Fluttershy said with confusion, “Know who?” “Oh... Rhumbline”  Twilight replied quickly.  She hadn’t realized she had spoken out loud.  “I think I saw him on Princess Celestia’s airship, back when I was just starting as her student.  I think he was some kind of navigator.” “Really?  I guess if he served on one of Celestia’s airships, he must know what he is doing.” Fluttershy replied, inching towards the door.  “Um, Twilight.  I need to be going.  I have a few animals I need to get ready for hibernation.  Have a safe trip, and tell Spike I said goodbye.” “Sure thing, Fluttershy.  Thanks again for helping me out.” The purple unicorn replied, seeing her friend to the door.  They waved their goodbyes and Twilight Sparkle turned back to her library, looking longingly at her home.  This place had become as more of a home to her than her room in the royal library ever was.  It felt odd having to leave her home and her friends for such a long journey.  A journey that she didn’t even know the destination of. Twilight walked to the small pile of things she made near the door and looked through the list she had made one more time.  Since she was traveling on an airship, Twilight felt comfortable traveling with more things than she normally would for a trip.  In addition to the quills, parchment and ink, she had gathered a small pile of books she though might help her on the voyage. Twilight had thought a while on where they may be traveling to.  Celestia had told her that they would be traveling by airship and that they would be gone for several weeks.  Twilight guessed that they would be traveling across the Sunrise ocean and far into the heart of the eastern continent.  A lot of dragons lived in those lands, and it was the only place that where it made sense to risk an airship flight this time of year.  What Twilight didn’t understand is why they were taking a civilian airship, instead of one of the royal airships.       The pile included all the books she had about the area.  A lot was known about the coasts of the eastern continent from merchants frequent travels there.  However, the vast interior region far from the coasts were rarely visited by ponykind.  There were precious few books in Equestrian that talked of these lands. Also in the pile of things she was taking was her ‘gift’.  This part of the letter confused Twilight the most.  Twilight was supposed to bring with her something that she valued not for what it was, but for what it represented.  Twilight had agonized over this item for several days.  Eventually, she settled on her small telescope.  It had been a gift from her parents when she had been accepted as Celestia’s student.  It wasn’t worth much, and she hadn’t used it since she got her new telescope, but it was the telescope she used when she stargazed with Princess Celestia.  It would be hard for Twilight to part with it, but it was something she needed to do. Twilight glanced at her clock.  Pinkie pie had volunteered to help her to take her things to the airship with the Cake’s cart after she got off from work.  That was only in a few hours and there was still much to do.  Spike had been up in his bedroom since after lunch and Twilight really needed his help to finish up. “Spike!...  Spiiike.  Come on down here.  We need to finish getting the Library ready before we can leave.”  Twilight yelled up the stairs towards her bedroom and study.   “I’ll be down in a few minutes, Twilight.” Spike called down the stairs.  “Let me finish gathering my stuff together. “Alright, but don’t take to long, we need to head to the airship in just a few hours.”  Twilight yelled back.   Twilight heard a knock at the door and turned to see a light blue Stallion with a blue mane streaked with gray opening the door. “Excuse me, Ms. Sparkle,” The stallion said when his eyes met Twilight’s, “Do you mind if we come in?” Twilight immediately recognized her new guest as Rhumbline, and seeing him confirmed her suspicions from before.  He looked a lot older, but he was definately the stallion she had seen on Celestia’s Airship.   “Of course, come right in,” Twilight said, motioning the blue stallion into her library. “I wasn’t expecting you to stop by, Rhumbline.” “I have a few things I want to talk to you and Spike about before you come to the airship.”  Rhumbline replied as he entered the library  He was wearing a pair of saddlebags with a rolled up chart sticking out of one of them.  Behind him, a young Unicorn mare trotted in, giving Twilight a smile.  She had a yellow coat and mane that was a mass of purple hair, which was tied up but badly in need of a styling.   “Miss Sparkle, This is my cousin’s daughter, Kamelia Leyline.  She is my engineer.”  The stallion said, motioning to his companion. “Call me Kayleigh” the yellow unicorn said cheerfully, holding out a slightly greasy hoof out in greeting. “I’m Twilight Sparkle,” she replied, looking for a moment at the outstreched hoof.  It was a little greasy, but not to shake would be rude.  Whats a little grease, anyway?  Twilight thought as she returned the gesture. “Nice to meet you” The yellow unicorn shook Twilight’s hoof with vigor, with a grin from ear to ear.  “Its really nice to meet you.” She said with awe.  “I’m really looking forward to having you onboard the Dodo.  There are so many things I want to ask you.” “Kayleigh, let’s not be pestering our passenger.”  Rhumbline said, looking at the young unicorn.  “Why don’t you look around the library like you wanted to while I discuss business with Miss Sparkle.”   “Captain, would you check out a book or two for me for the trip?” Kayleigh asked enthusiastically. She gazed in awe at the large collection of books on the first floor of the library. “Sure, just as long as they are books on enchantments and diagnostic spells.” Rhumbline replied.  “Your entrance exams are in a few months, and I haven’t seen you do a lick of studying.  You might be good with machines, but if you can’t tend the enchantments on an airship, you’re not going to get through the airship engineering program.” “But...” Kayleigh started to plead, but Rhumbline gave her a hard look. “Ok...” “My magic collection is over there,” Twilight said, pointing to a group of shelves on the other side of the Library.  Twilight looked at the greasy hooves again, a small frown showing on her face.  “Could you just grab them with telekinesis though...  Grease is rough on books.” “Oh, Right,” Kayleigh replied, looking at her hooves and rubbing them on the floor.  “I’ll be careful” she said, trotting off towards the shelf. Both ponies watched Kayleigh look at the book shelf for a moment, then Rhumbline turned to Twilight.  “I’m certain you have some questions for me, and I have several things I need to go over with you...  Is Spike around? “I’m coming down” the dragon called from the stairs.  Spike had a small sack over his shoulder.  At the bottom, Spike looked appraisingly at the blue stallion, who towered over the baby dragon. “Hello Spike,” Rhumbline said, smiling at the small dragon, “You are a lot larger than the first time I saw you.” Spike looked at himself quickly.  “I don’t think I’ve grown that much since your welcome party a couple of months ago.” “Spike, I think he saw you earlier than that,” Twilight said thoughtfully,  “Rhumbline, you were on Princess Celestia’s airship several years ago, weren’t you?” “I was,”  Rhumbline replied, nodding.  “I’m surprised you remember.  You were so busy studying with the Princess that you hardly left her side.” “I remember asking you about how you navigated using the stars, when I saw you doing it one night”  Twilight reminisced.  Celestia had frequently stayed up long hours at night looking at the moon and stars, and she had frequently brought Twilight to sit beside her, so she could give a lesson, or just talk.  One such night was about a year after Celestia took Twilight as a student.  The Princess was on a tour of Equestria, and she brought Twilight along to teach her about the different peoples of her lands.  They were on the royal airship’s deck, and she saw a blue earth pony operating an instrument while looking at the stars. Twilight had asked Celestia what he was doing, and her answer was to tell Twilight to ask the stallion.  “You were really nice when you showed me all the calculations you needed to do so you could navigate by the stars” “It wasn’t every day that a cute filly came up to me to ask me about my job.” The blue stallion said warmly, smiling.  “I guess we will get an opportunity to continue that lesson.  It’s going to be a long trip, two to three weeks there and back, depending on the weather.” “Where are we going?” Spike asked pointedly. Rhumbline relaxed his smile, and turned his green eyes towards Spike.  “I can’t tell you” “What do you mean, you cant tell me?  You are the captain of the airship going there.” Spike responded, the volume of his voice increasing. “Spike, calm down.” Twilight interjected gently.  Although she really wanted to know were they were going as well, antagonizing the airship’s captain wouldn’t get them any closer to that knowledge. “No, Twilight. You won’t tell me.  Princess Celestia won’t tell me.  Now this pony won’t tell me.” Spike yelled, desperation creeping into his voice.  “The only reason you won’t tell me is if you are going to take me somewhere and leave me there.” Twilight went to open her mouth to respond, the Rhumbline beat her to it.  “Spike,” The stallion said firmly, with a voice that demanded attention, “It is true I know where we are going, but for reasons I cannot explain, I can’t tell you where we are going.  However, I will be teaching you, and miss Sparkle the route while we are on it.” This answer didn’t seem to satisfy Spike, he still looked agitated.  It didn’t satisfy Twilight either.  She had been hoping to get more information from Rhumbline, but his answer just raised more questions. “You can’t tell us where we are going, but you are going to make sure we know how we got there?  That doesn't make sense,” Twilight said. A pained expression came over the stallion’s face, like he was trying to think of some thing to say, but not coming up with an answer.   “I really can’t explain it.  It’s important I don’t reveal where we are going, but it is also important that you and Spike know how we got there,”  Rhumbline said after a few minutes.  He reached back and pulled a small book, and a rolled up chart out of his saddlebags, and laid them on the floor.  “It’s probably better I show you some things that might help.  Do you have a copy of ‘The Travels of Mareco Polo?’” “I do.” Twilight replied quickly.  It was in the pile of books she wanted to take with her on the airship.  It was written long ago, by a pony explorer who decided to find out what was on the Eastern continent.  It was a very interesting book, and told a lot about the geography and creatures there.  Twilight levitated the book out of the pile, and laid it next to the map that Rhumbline had unrolled on the floor of the library. Rhumbline quickly, yet gently hoofed through the book, showing a deftness with handling pages Twilight hadn’t expected from an earth pony stallion.  She and Spike inched closer to see what he was doing, and Kayleigh came over from the bookshelf to join them. “Start reading here, and continue through the first few pages of the next chapter” Rhumbline said, moving out of the way, allowing the two unicorns and Spike to read the book. Twilight read slowly, so to not outpace her reading companions.  The words were familiar, she had skimmed the book only a few days before.  The passage they were reading started right after Mareco Polo had been set upon by griffins, and had been forced to give up much of her supplies to the raiders.  She wrote about a valley cutting through an imposing range of mountains, so high that their tops were constantly in clouds.  The remainder of the chapter was about the trek through the pass, and about the dragon that watched their passage from a cave along the mountain path. The next chapter started with Mareco polo and her companions traveling down a river, passing flat farm lands. heading to the great Kirin cities on the coast.  This struck her as odd.  While there were some jumps between other chapters of this book, this one was large, just on terms of geography. “Captain, there is a big gap of time between the chapters” The yellow unicorn piped up, before Twilight could speak. Rhumbline nodded, and pointed to the chart on the floor.  “Now find the places on the chart.”   Twilight looked, it was a chart of the eastern continent, with a light pencil line drawn across it from the western coast to the great mountain range that split the continents east coast from the west.  Twilight quickly found the pass described in the book, since the pencil line ended at it.  the river was a little harder to find, but Twilight found it in about a minute.  These points were a great distance apart, nearly 8000 furlongs, if she read the scale correctly. Twilight pointed to the two points on the map. “They are a huge distance apart.” The blue stallion nodded, looking at the other three.  He opened the small book to a page he had already bookmarked “This is my mother’s journal, where she documented all of her voyages.”  Twilight looked at it, and it showed a similar gap, with entries separated by several days, and separated by a large geographic distance. “I don’t get it” Spike said, scratching his head.  “Why are there these gaps?” “The same reason I can’t tell you.” Rhumbline said cryptically.  “I can’t explain it further, but just understand it is the same reason these other ponies could not write about it.” Twilight still didn’t understand.  “You can take us there, but you cant tell where we are going, or who we are seeing beforehoof?” Twilight said, looking at the map.  Both Mareco Polo’s book, and Rhumbline’s mother’s journal skipped over the same area, the parts of the Kirin lands far from the coast.  It was a place Ponies never went, since the Kirin Royalty forbid outsiders in all but a few coastal cities.  “Are we going to see a Kirin?” She asked Rhumbline frowned, “It’s not a question I can answer.  However, we will meet with some Kirin, and that was another reason I came here, to give you this.”  The old stallion reached into his saddlebags, and pulled out another book, a small one, and placed it on the floor in front of Twilight. Twilight took a close look at the book.  On its frayed and faded cover read ‘The Culture and Language of the Jintudi’.  Twilight carefully opened the book, the pages were well worn, and the ink was starting to fade.  The writing in the book was not print, or the fine script of unicorns, but the rough script of ponies that must write with their mouth.  “What is it?” “It’s a book about the Kirin, written by one of the first ponies to establish a regular trading route to the golden coast.”  Rhumbline replied.  “Its pretty old, written back when the voyages there were made by sailing ship and took most of a year. “Where did you get it?”  Twilight asked, examining the book.  It fascinated her, it clearly was very rare. “My mother gave it to me when I made this voyage for the first time, some twenty years ago” Rhumbline said.  “Now I am giving it to you.” “Wait, you’re giving it to me?” Twilight said in shock.  “This book is mouth written, and clearly very old.  It has to be valuable.  I can’t accept it.” “Miss Sparkle,” Rhumbline said seriously, “My job is to get you and Spike to your destination ready to do what you will need to do.  I have the added difficulty of not being able to what you need to prepare for.  I have a rule on my airship: My airship, my command.  Even though this is your task, I am the only pony going that can get you to where Spike needs to go.  This is only going to work if you listen to what I tell you, and do it without questioning why I’m telling you to do it.” Twilight almost voiced a protest, but she stopped herself.  Rhumbline spoke with the tone of somepony who not only expected to be obeyed, but was used to it.  It was an odd experience for Twilight.  Normally other ponies came to her for direction and advice. “Rhumbline isn’t mean, it’s just that on an airship, sometimes there isn’t time for discussion.”  Kayleigh added cheerfully.  “When there is time, he asks us for what we think.  But sometimes, things need to happen fast.” “Kayleigh, that sounds very odd coming from you.” Rhumbline said, arching his eyebrows as he gave the yellow unicorn a glance.  He turned his attention back to Twilight and Spike.  “I have the greatest respect for what you’ve done for Equestria, Miss Sparkle.  But what we are trying to is risky, and I can’t afford there to be any doubt of who is in charge.” “I understand, though I’m not as special as you think I am,” Twilight replied.  It made sense, Twilight had very little idea what she would be facing, and Rhumbline seemed competent.  However, she didn’t like other ponies treating her specially.  “I wouldn’t even know what to do on an airship.” “Everypony has something to contribute on my airship, even passengers, and everypony will need to do their part to ensure we make it to our destination.”  Rhumbline said.  “The last time I made the trip, It was on an airship that had been purpose built for the voyage.  The Sandpiper was much faster than the Dodo, and we were able to avoid much of the hazards on the trip. Rhumbline pointed to an area on the map, west of the great mountain range that split the continent.  It was a vast open expanse of rolling hills spotted by isolated mountains.  “This is the Dragon Steppes.  It’s not a particularly safe place, but the quickest route to our destination is over this land.  Miss Sparkle, your magical abilities will be very useful should we run across something unfriendly.  Also, I don’t have somepony who can tend the enchantments of the lifting envelope,” Rhumbline quickly glanced at Kayleigh, “So any help you can provide will be useful.” “What about me?” Spike asked.  The dragon had become interested in the conversation, and seemed much less agitated. “My crew will be very busy running the airship, Spike,”  Rhumbline said warmly.  “There are many small tasks you can do which will help make things easier for me and my crew.  We will work on splitting up duties when you get to the airship. Rhumbline turned his attention back to Twilight, “I will be having dinner on the airship with Kayleigh and my family.  You both are welcome to join us if you want.” “We were looking to head over to take out things to the airship in a few hours.” Twilight replied  “Are you sure it wouldn’t be too much bother to have us for dinner” “Not at all,” Rhumbline said with a smile, “I’m going to be feeding you two for the next few weeks, so what’s one more meal?  Anyway, it’s sort of a tradition with my family, and you would be welcome to join us.” Rhumbline looked at Kayleigh, “So what did you pick” The yellow unicorn levitated a book to show the blue stallion.  “‘Methodologies of Artificer Enchantment’.  Is this book fine?” “I’m not a unicorn, Kayleigh.  It sounds like something that would help you study for your entrance exam,” Rhumbline said, shrugging, and looking towards Twilight. “It’s as good as anything I have here.”  Twilight replied.  “Its a little advanced, but it should do the trick.  I’ll put it on your families list, Rhumbline.” “Thanks, I’ll see you later tonight.” Rhumbline said.  He rolled up his chart, and put it and his book into his saddlebags.  On his way out the door, he turned back towards Twilight.  “Oh, and make sure to bring the warmest clothes you own.  We will be traveling at altitude, and fairly far north for a lot of the voyage.  I have heaters on the Dodo, but it will still be cold. “Thanks for telling me, I’ll see you later tonight,” Twilight said as she waved goodbye to the stallion and mare as they headed off towards the edge of town.