The rhythmic thud of hooves hitting the ground was the only thing accompanying the knight and his horse as they quickened their gait to a gallop. It felt good for both of them to be riding without their equipment, free from the weight and constraint, open to the wind and the world. Sir Wallace stole a glance over his shoulder to the group he had left behind, relieved to see that his departure had not spurred the equines into action. From what he could tell by his glimpse, they seemed content to simply watch, which meant one less thing for him to worry about.
Duty was still running at a gallop but not knowing where he was going, nor having a rider to tell him where to go, was causing him to falter and hesitate, weaving from one direction to another. The pursuing pair could catch up to him quickly if they took the direct path, but Sir Wallace knew they risked Duty picking up the pace if he thought he was being chased. He might even assumed Honor was fleeing from the same threat as he. This was, after all, not the first time the gray pair had needed to catch a runaway horse. Though, come to think about it, it was the first time they had to do it in front of an unknown ruler of an equally unknown land, who they likely depended on to send them back to their own realm. So the knight felt it was probably best if he did not fall off Honor this time.
“Come on girl, you can’t let that stripling out pace you. Show them what you can really do.” Sir Wallace urged his dappled mount onwards, curving to one side so they could eventually cut in front of the fleeing gelding. They had to do this right the first time, or risk looking fools. More importantly, the knight knew his squire would never let him live it down.
“Princess they are splitting up.” Warned one of the royal guards.
“No look the gray pair are coming back around.” Chimed in one of the city watch a few moments later.
Half of the pegasi were now in the air hovering to get a better view. The royal guards, to their credit, were holding their stoic composure fairly well throughout the display. The city guards however were more open to showing their feelings and speaking out. Most had not been witness to the moment of the giants arrival, thus had not seen them being ridden. This display of agility and strength, though unplanned, was enough to get even more theories on just who and what these visitors were. Celestia was pretty sure she heard some quite substantial bets being placed, she just hoped the won bits were not all spent on salt.
As the commentary of what the watchers thought was happening buzzed around her, Celestia kept her own observations to herself. She had long learnt to stick to facts rather than speculation when it came to things she had no knowledge of. Of course, it had been a long time since she had had the opportunity to encounter something new. This thought saddened her slightly. Nowadays discoveries were made by her ponies, and the closest she ever got, was a report or a book detailing everything. It felt good to be on the cusp of something new and unknown.
Her eyes glanced down at the creature that had been left behind, but it’s own focus was on the scene in front of them. What would they learn from this new race? Why had they chosen to reveal themselves now? All these questions hung in the air around the princess. She was supposed to always have the answers, at least in her ponies eyes. So to finally be able to say the words ‘I don’t know’ was almost a relief.
More eyes watched as the brown stallion continued fleeing, but his course had altered, as had his pace, to match the gray mare who was now at his side. Gradually as she slowed, so did he. Even though the situation looked like it was about to be resolved quickly, Celestia found herself trying to answer questions of a more immediate nature.
Why had he run in the first place? From her very brief meeting with the other creature, and by the way the smaller one left behind had remained calm, Celestia felt safe to assume they weren't afraid. More so, why had the stallion not stopped when he could clearly see he was not in any danger? After all, his only pursuers were his companions. The princess was put in mind of the cloven hooved that lived in her lands. The cattle, sheep and pigs had been accepted as full citizens of Equestria for a long time now. With all the rights of her ponies.
However, while they were fully capable of speech, and very much intelligent, they had a habit of falling back on their instincts, especially when frightened. It was not something Celestia could really fault them on. It served them well, in times past, against the beasts that roamed the lands, particularly with no magic of their own to rely on. Now however, with peace ruling and the beasts confined to small pockets of wilderness, such instincts only hindered them, and all involved found the resulting stampedes a nuisance and embarrassing.
So was she to believe that this was also true of these-. Celestia found herself reluctant to keep using the name ‘giant’ to describe them. True, they were larger than her by more than a head, and they were certainly stockier than her, but they were not the hulking goliaths from her stories. Their longer faces, small eyes and slender feet with hard hooves put her much more in mind of the Saddle Arabian horses that lived in the south, not that they themselves would be flattered by the comparison. Perhaps ‘Mountain Horses’ would be a better name to give to them, at least until they learned of their true title. It would also be a much better name for her ponies to refer to them by, lacking the myths that might be inadvertently connected if they continued to be thought of as giants.
Celestia could not help but feel the excitement growing as she watched the gray pair swing round from his side to cut in front of the brown stallion, who at this point was moving at a gentle trot. The way the rider leaned over to snatch up the dangling head harness made her hold her breath. How he had not fallen from that angle, nor the mare miss a step from the added weight, she didn’t know but she found herself glad that chase was over, and that it had concluded without incident.
“Princess how should we proceed?” The guards were starting to get a little restless now that they could see the horses and other creature making their way back at a trot before slowing to a walk.
“Commander, until they prove otherwise we must assume these mountain horses-” Celestia spoke so that her voice carried to all of the pegasi in place, ensuring the use of the new name. Naming them also had the added benefit in giving her ponies the belief that she knew who, and what, they were dealing with.
“- and their friends are visiting dignitaries from the north. Whether it is help, friendship or a yet unknown reason that has brought them to our lands changes nothing. I must also stress that at this place of meeting everypony here is now representing Equestria.” Her words brought a distinct change to the ponies around her. Discipline and pride blossomed from their postures and their eyes, especially to those from Manehatten, who had likely never thought they would ever be involved in anything more than a parade when it came to royal matters.
However, this was not simply just a rousing speech to raise spirits and insure behavior, she meant every word. This was a dawn, but she was going to need everypony’s help to raise the sun.
“Well that was fun.” sighed a sarcastic Sir Wallace as he swung over a leg and dismounted from Honor. He made sure to keep a tight hold of both horse’s reins, not really feeling up to making a repeat performance. However, even though he was a little out of breath, and knew that he would be feel a few twinges from the un-padded gallop in the upcoming days, Sir Wallace could not help but feel happy that things had gone as well as they had.
“I’m so sorry Sir. It’s my fault for leaving him.” Gideon moved calmly to take hold of her mount’s reins, not wanting to spook him any further. Both horses were snorting and tossing their heads as they worked the adrenalin out of their systems and Giddy did all she could to help calm her friend with soft words and touches. Sir Wallace peaked over to where the equine group was waiting and watching, hoping that this show of affection would earn them a reprieve for having to make such a rude exit. Though technically the fault did not all rest of the squire’s shoulders.
“Yes it is, though that is only because you can’t blame royalty for anything without losing your head.” Sir Wallace patted his squire’s back as he stretch his leg muscles, working out the cramps in his thighs after having to use them to keep his seat on Honor. He was pretty sure the elves never had this problem when they rode.
“Speaking of royalty, I guess we should go try our luck with this one. How have they been?”
Gideon shrugged.
“Just talking for the most part.” She didn’t want to admit that she had not really been paying attention. She had been too worried about never seeing Duty again. Hugging his brown head she was rewarded with him chewing on her leather jacket and nickering softly.
“What sort of talking though? Friendly? Shouting?” It was clear that this pony queen, her crown and lack of anything below at least hinted at that much, was waiting for them to approach. Her guards now stood, stoically flanking her on both sides, and forming a very impressive, if slightly adorable, path towards her. Sir Wallace doubted she would want to be left waiting for too long but he would rather not walk forward completely blind.
“Err, they weren't shouting just, talking. Like the horses do in the field, just with more sounds.” It would have been hard for the squire to describe even if she had been paying attention. If she had spent more time on the task, Gideon could probably pick out the extremes but subtle emotions were beyond her range. She had rarely needed to rely on only her own interpretations to work out what was going on is a situation, that had always been left to Sir Wallace.
“Fair enough. Get ready with the cloak when I ask, no point giving it away till we can be sure these people can offer us help, but stay back here with the horses, we don’t need them to get spooked again.” The Wall patted, in turn, both Honor and Gideon on their heads before making his move, a gesture Gideon accepted with a roll of her eyes and a flurry of movement from her hand to return her hair back to its proper resting place.
In his forty two years of life, Sir Wallace was proud to say he had strived to see as much as the realms could offer. From things so grotesque it made even his iron will crumble, too sights that brought him to tears from their beauty.
This being before him now, with her pristine coat of white and ethereal mane of the dawn's light, brought forth feelings of awe that made him want to stand in front of her and shield her from all the impurities the realms had. When he stole a look into her large, lavender eyes, they spoke of kindness and age.
Up close, and trying to keep his observations to a more factual base, Sir Wallace could see that the queen was a little smaller than Honor, though still taller then him by about a hand’s length, so long as he didn’t count her horn. Truly, she was a magnificent creature and Sir Wallace could only assume that none from the Mortal realm had ever laid eyes on her kind before, as there were no tales that spoke of her. The horn of a unicorn, the wings of a pegasus, someone clearly had interesting parents mused the knight as he lowered to one knee . He tore his eyes away from her to look at the ground instead - it was far less interesting.
“It is an honor to be in your presence good Lady and while I am sure you are unable to understand my words,” and just in case you do, thought the knight.
“I must say that never before have laid my eyes upon a slight so glorious as yours, and while I know my memories will pale in comparison, it will be a memory I will cherish till my last breath,” which hopefully will not be any time soon. He added to himself.
The Queen nickered softly; at least, that was as close to a description as Sir Wallace could give to the sound she made, and he took that as a sign to rise. He stood there for a moment as the Queen smiled and spoke a few soft words. There was a lilt at the end that might have indicated that they were questions, but whether they were or not did not change the fact that he could not answer them.
Once again Sir Wallace ran through the languages he knew, hoping that something would be familiar. There was a moment of hope when he spoke a few words in Nerøs, the natural language of many of the south sea aquatic races but it turned out to be a simple matter of some of the sounds being similar.
The Queen herself tried a few different languages, but they did not vary that much from her own. In fact it was only due to her repeating them, and how she stressed the syllables, that Sir Wallace was able to work out that she was speaking in anything other than her native tongue.
It was frustrating activity, but not unpleasant, almost like a game that neither had yet been able to master. Sir Wallace watched the Queen turn to one of the guards close to her and talk to him for a few moments, he answered. The knight noticed the pegasus that was speaking to the Queen was the same one he had talked to first. If he had to make a guess, and really that was the only thing he could do, then he would bet the Queen was asking if the same language puzzle had played same way during the first meeting. Sir Wallace took that as a good sign. It meant she valued her subjects enough to listen to them, maybe even care about their opinions. Looks, after all, did not always relate to one’s true self.
With the impasse reached yet again, Sir Wallace had to make the decision on the best way to get across they they just wanted passage to the mortal realm. The problem was that he was starting to doubt these people, ponies, whatever, even knew of the other realms. There were stories of realms that lived outside the the main collective, cut off for some reason or another, maybe even failed worlds that the gods had given up on. Then again, you didn’t have to search far to find stories on all manner of subjects, so it was hardly something he could rely on being true. Thinking harder on the subject of stories Sir Wallace found himself almost tripping up over an idea, or at least an answer on how to start.
Bowing low to the Queen the knight walked backwards slowly. He didn’t know the customs here so it was always best to err on the side of caution. Bowing seemed to have the same connotations in this realm as his own however, so, for now, he could use it as a stepping stone.
With his face to the floor, and his direction dictated by the rows of hooves either side of his vision, the elder was unable to see the look of confusion on Celestia’s face. She had thought things were going well, all things considered. Did he really feel that their lack of communication was that much of a barrier? Celestia wondered if this was the reason their kind had remained hidden, but if they left now then nothing would change. They had to learn from one another and embrace their differences, not run whenever there was an obstacle in the path.
The sun princess was about to step forward and take matters into her own hoof when she saw the elder reach his equipment. Despite what she had said to the guards she simply could not let them leave after such a short amount of time. They were just so different from most of the races that the princess found herself eager to learn more. She could assume the elder was male, from his deep voice and beard like hair that grew along his lower jaw but that did not mean she was right; and what of the smaller one? Was it smaller because it was female or because it was younger? Perhaps they simply had a vaste range in size within their race. More questions about this race hung in the air then stars in her sister’s sky. How did they walked on two legs with perfect balance yet with a completely different joint structure to any animal she had ever seen? Even their rich range of languages gave rise to many questions and hinted at even more races that had never been encountered.
Watching, and willing herself not to plead with them to stay, Celestia witnessed the elder pull something from one of their bags. For a moment the princess was not sure what she was looking at. In his hands he held some sort of cloth, though at first glance she had thought he had some how managed to pick up a length of water. The fabric’s pattern, if it could be called that, was a shifting mass of blues that rippled like water with every movement. She watched the fabric as it was folded and smoothed with such gentle care by his bare hands. No fur or hair or scales adorned them, only bare skin. Celestia wondered if the lack of natural covering was the same for the rest of their bodies, it would explain their over use of clothes.
Words passed between the small group before the elder made his way back down the corridor of pegasi, the cloth held out carefully in front of him. When he reached Celestia, he bent down to one knee, and presented the cloth towards her. This was clearly a gift but Celestia was a little embarrassed to admit that she had not brought anything to give them in return. It was, after all, common practice to exchange gifts between meeting nations. Unfortunately this had been a tradition she had forgotten due to worrying of her little ponies safety.
After a moment of hesitation, before deciding it would be far ruder not to accept the gift then to admit to not having one to give in return, Celestia took hold of the material with a golden glow of her magic. The elder flinched slightly but seemed far more curious than scared as he watched the material flow and unravel.
With closer inspection Celestia realized that the material was a cloak. It’s small hood would not fit around her own head without some alterations but the rest of its length would accommodate her well enough. More so it was simply mesmerising to watch the rippling blues on its surface. Clearly it was enchanted in some manner, and there were a few spells that she thought might produce a similar effect, she would have to see if she could get any of her ponies to replicate the pattern. It was beautiful to say the least.
Placing the cloak along her back Celestia gave her thanks, hoping that her tone and smile would not need translating. They didn’t, but the elder creature seemed to be trying to tell her something more. It pulled at its own clothing, placing it near its mouth, and started humming a single note before looking expectantly at the princess. Wondering if this was some sort of strange custom, and perhaps the cloak had been given to her so she could take part in it, Celestia levitated the cloak back towards her face and copied her bipedal guest.
Much to her surprise, and to those around her, the cloak’s blue patten rippled outwards from her voice with a gold light. The princess smiled and gave a genuinely surprised laugh. The elder produced his own smile and started humming a different note. Eager to discover all the cloak could do Celestia copied him and produced a much lower note than before. The cloak now rippled with reds and purples, it was a musical cloak. Never before had she seen or heard of anything of its like before. The princess could hardly wait to see how it looked when somepony sang whilst wearing it.
Not knowing how to fully express her thanks, nor having a gift to give to the ambassador, Celestia chose to show her feelings through her actions and walked towards the the elder calmly. He continued kneeling but his head lowered. Gently Celestia lowered her own head so that her horn was just a breath away from the top of his mane. Softly, like a warm mist, Celestia let her feelings of thanks and joy filter to the elder - his reaction was not what she expected
Sir Wallace quickly pushed himself away from the white queen when he realized that the gentle feelings of happiness that fogged his mind were not his own. The feelings were easily pushed aside with his own and faded to nothing the moment he broke contact with the queen. Glamour. The word echoed through his head as a warning.
Sir Wallace could not abide glamours, and had to suffer them enough with the elves, but here, in a realm he knew nothing about, he had to be even more careful to shield himself from anything that might want to twist his mind into staying or forgetting. Glamours could weave sweet words and soft feelings into nets of steel, able to catch and hold even the strongest of wills.
Seeing the look of confusion on the monarch’s face Sir Wallace composed himself and bowed, but this time he made sure to keep his distance, before backing up to where Gideon was waiting.
“What happened?” Gideon was worried. She had watched as the gift had been taken, with nothing less than magic, and the Queen had seemed happy with the gift, but when the she had lowered her horn to Sir Wallace’s head he had acted like he had been burned.
The knight closed his eyes for a moment to try and clear his mind of anything that was not him. For even the most practiced, it was a hard task, and Sir Wallace had always preferred to keep away from any situation that might involve glamors, rather than learn how to repair the damage caused by them. He felt clean, but he knew he must now keep his guard up to both outside threats and inside thoughts, least they were not his own.
“She used some sort of glamour. I don’t think it was anything strong though.” This turn of events caused a problem for the knight and his party. They still needed to find a way to get back to their own realm, and quickly if they were going to make it on their current supplies, but it seemed that these people were more dangerous than they had first looked. Thorns amongst the roses.
“You’re OK though?” Gideon was unsure and her voice showed it. They all depended on Sir Wallace to be of sound mind and the thought that he might have been, or could end up being, twisted and swayed through magic, sowed seeds of doubt and fear in the squire.
“But what do we do now? They are not just going to let us leave are they?”
“I'm fine, but no, I don’t think they are just going to let us leave. From the glamour I would have to guess that they are trying to make us stay. The feelings I felt were those of joy, warmth and happiness, they were gentle but certainly not my own. I think we should be thankful that they seem to have little to no knowledge of humans or the queen might have been more skillful with her magic. Thankfully I realised what was happening quickly. Dammit, why can’t things just be simple for once? ” Sir Wallace started digging aggressively through one of the packs piled on the floor next to the saddles.
Gideon tried to say something but she decided against it and held her tongue. While the knight encouraged her to ask questions that did not mean she had to question everything he said. Right now it was answers they needed.
The squire was not sure what Sir Wallace was looking for, but he didn’t seem to be finding it. That in itself was not too surprising as it was her job to sort and pack the bags.
“Sir, can I help you find something?”
“Yes, where is my journal?” Sir Wallace moved to another of the bags while still leaving much of the first hanging out or cast aside on the ground.
“And map book, and realm scrolls to.” Gideon frowned slightly, unsure if this strange behaviour was simply Sir Wallace with one of his plans or something brought on by the glamour.
“The dragon hide bag, like they always are. Why?” The squire spoke cautiously as she moved to return the disturbed items back to their proper place.
“We need to find a way back home.” Gideon relaxed a little as Sir Wallace’s said that, relieved that he was still set on that goal.
“Words don’t seem to be able to do the trick, so maybe we can use pictures in the books to get the point across.”
Celestia watched in silence as the two bipeds talked in their chattering language while the elder searched for something in their bags. What she wouldn't give to be able to understand what they were saying and to be able to have them understand her. Something had gone wrong, and she was sure it had been her fault, but what? Everything had been going so well up until the point she had touched him with her magic. The princess fretted, wondering if it had simply been the use of magic.
The notion had merit, many races disliked dealing with ponies due to the magic they possessed, often due to fear and jealousy. However the cloth draped across her back was clearly magical and it had been curiosity that had painted the elder’s face a few moments before when he saw her levitate the gift towards herself.
The princess stomped a golden shoed hoof to the grass in frustration of both the situation and her own lack of insight into the matter but forced herself to regain her composure. She watched as the pegasi in front of her shifted slightly to stand even more upright, a feat she would have thought impossible had she not witnessed it herself. Everypony was relying on her to solve the situation, and losing her temper with her own abilities was not going to help.
Eventually the elder ambassador returned to walk up the aisle towards the awaiting royalty. This time the contents in his hands were recognisable to everypony, a couple of books and scrolls. Celestia’s heart jumped with the hope that maybe whatever was written within these pages would give her answers.
Celestia was sad to see the elder remained further away from her then before when he came to rest, he was clearly still scared of her, but he was still making an effort to communicate and that in itself held promise.
As he opened one of the scrolls she could see that it depicted a series of coloured shapes with angular markings next to them. Waiting a moment the elder looked between the image and Celestia but the Princess was unsure what the picture was meant to represent. She watched as the biped sighed before using a single digit from his hand to point to the middle, and largest, of the interconnected shapes. He then tapped his chest using the same digit while making a short but clear vocalization.
Celestia tilted her head in an effort to try and see something more than what she currently could but as she took a step forward for a closer look, the elder took a step backwards. Celestia turned her eyes towards the scroll’s bearer, sadness and confusion etched on her face. For a moment their eyes met but he either couldn't or wouldn’t hold her gaze and quickly turned his attention back towards the paper. The princess wanted to continue the search for the reason of his fear but was worried it might push him further away.
Not getting anywhere with the first scroll the elder opened up one of the books. There was a lot of the angular script again, and Celestia took a guess that it was the creature’s written language, but there were also pictures within the pages. The first one he showed the princess caught her by surprise.
It was, at first glance, a white unicorn. Closer inspection however revealed inconsistencies such as a tail that was much more like that of a donkey, and hooves that belonged more to a goat then any equine. The elder tapped the picture before pointing towards Celestia, and it only took a moment for the princess to see that, whatever this pictured creature was, the biped clearly thought she, and it, were the same.
Celestia shook her head and spread her wings. The drawn equine had an elegance but she found herself feeling quite insulted that she was being compared to it. The elder stopped his pointing and looked back down at the book before flicking through more pages and coming to rest at another image. This one showed a pegasus, but not like any of her ponies, and looked far more like the elder’s mountain horses. Incredibly its wingspan was over three times that of Celestia’s own. Again the princess shook her head.
More creatures were shown from the book. Most she recognised but even those were not quite right in some small aspect or another. Griffons were drawn with much larger wings but also with a far more predatory form, however the dragons looked the same as those she knew. Hope grew at each of the pictures she pointed to and nodded at but disappointment and frustration ruled the elder’s face when she shook her head at each of the bipeds shown to her.
The images left Celestia even more confused. Were all of these pictures of beings that existed? If so, then how had she never seen or heard about most of them? The ambassador looked equally confused. It was like they were trying to complete a jigsaw with only a few of the pieces. Princess Celestia looked down at the books held within the grasp of the elder. What they needed were more of the pieces.
“Captain Mistral. How well stocked is the Manehattan library?”