Celestia
“This is outrageous!” snarls Speaker Etton at me, teeth gritted inside his beak. “What you are proposing amounts to little more than glorified highway robbery!”
“I suggest you take another look, honored Speaker,” I reply, keeping my tone level and patient. “I think you will find this proposal – which I will remind you is nothing but a suggestion at this stage – to have some merit. As other plans to split nature’s bounty between your nations have failed to gain traction, I simply have suggested one possible alternative for your consideration.”
It has been five days since I received the news of my adoptive niece’s success. I long to go and see for myself the results of her work, but my other duties keep me here. The effort to preserve fragile mortal lives must precedence over my personal wants, and in any case Shining Armor is far more likely to keep than the peace between these two nations.
“What you are proposing,” continues Etton angrily. “Is that the whole of the isles go to another nation, and we should receive economic compensation for a share of all resources extracted from it – the value of which should be determined by a “neutral party”, for which you conveniently volunteer yourself.”
“I simply suggested that course based on the fact that both of your governments chose to invite me to oversee this conference. If the Speaker has another such party in mind that both parties,” I nod at the gryphons, and the Prench delegates across from them, each seated around twin semicircular tables with myself on a chair in between, “can agree to, I would be more than happy to offer any assistance that I can to aid in convincing them to oversee this role.”
I am not lying. While it is true that I would certainly like such a position as arbiter of value and the consequent influence over the economies of the Gryphus Empire and Prance alike – I can always use more cards in my hoof – I am hardly wedded to the idea. In any event, the long-term importance of this conference has dropped dramatically in my view, leaving the prevention of war as the most important issue. The gathering of influence over mortal nations now has much less value to me.
Unfortunately, the good Speaker seems quite determined to shoot down every proposal I make, and then some. This is the eighth suggested plan for a split from the start, and all of them he has opposed most bitterly. Even a perfectly even fifty-fifty split of all the gems mined he opposed, on the grounds that the Prench had nowhere near a valid enough claim to justify such a division of spoils. I confess that I’m actually starting to feel something more akin to true irritation rather than the disappointment of a caring mother to a misbehaving foal. I should work to control my temper, I think.
“Yes, I’m sure you would be very happy to hand-pick the being who controls a substantial chunk of monetary flow in to the Empire, wouldn’t you, you-”
Before he can insult me officially, Emperor Serath interrupts, speaking the gryphon’s native tongue rather than the Equestrian that is most commonly used for international communication. Fortunately, I happen to be fluent in that as well.
“You are overstepping your bounds, Speaker,” the Emperor says. “Opposing specific settlements is one thing, but openly insulting our guest is another. Control your tongue, or I will be forced have you removed from this conference to preserve our honor.”
“Your majesty, this pony princess is clearly trying to cheat us and give herself and the Prench the greater portion of the bounty! She favors her own kind, just as I said she would. We must not allow ourselves to be played for fools by-” Etton answers, also in Gryphon, but is cut off by his liege.
“We have discussed this already! Cease embarrassing our nation by appearing the snarling oppositionist! Disagreeing with courses of action is your right, but it is not your place to make us look like squabbling chicks in public. Come to me with your concerns, again, after this is through. Do not violate our unity in public again. Is that understood?”
“Yes, your majesty,” he replies, again in the predators’ native speech.
I know for a fact that only two of the eight Prench delegates, including their Premier, actually understand more than a few words of it. But they must enjoy their rivals bickering in public all the same.
“Of course,” I continue, in Equestrian, once the Speaker has settled himself again. “If it were more acceptable to both parties that the islands should go to the Gryphus Empire, and Prance receive compensation, I would again be more than happy to-”
“Never!” I’m interrupted, this time by Prench Premier Radient Light, a blue-white unicorn with a greying mane and mustache. “We are the rightful owners of the isles, paid for in full by our hard-earned money! We will not accept any solution where we are pushed off of our territory!”
For all that I harp on the Speaker of the Imperial Senate, the Premier of Prance is almost as bad. A very belligerent nationalist, as I’d feared from the profile on him that my spies assembled for me. Worst of all is that fact that, from all I can tell, he appears to sincerely believe what he says. None of the usual inducements – money, political backing, sex – that have been offered by my agents have drawn his attentions as of yet. If only this negotiation had taken place a few years earlier – his predecessor was a much more compromising (and influence-able) figure. Regrettably, she was replaced in the last election, as more nationalist currents in the electorate gathered steam.
Republicanism. Is there any worse system of governance than that which gives the pony on the street – who knows little of and cares even less for politics – total control over who is in government? Nobles and kings and even tyrants are at least somewhat predictable, but the sentiments that can sweep the herd in mere weeks sometimes confound even my predictions. And leaders must answer to them on a regular basis, giving rise to a truly perverse set of incentives.
For even if Premier Light himself does not believe in nationalistic rhetoric, he has every reason to play along with it anyway: those who do are his base, and are unlikely to desert him even in war, if it does not affect them personally. And such a war would most likely be conducted far from the Prench mainland, no matter the outcome. If Light is like most leaders, the continuance of his political career is of far greater import to him than the lives of a few thousand soldiers. And so, he has good reason to oppose commonsense peace, if he thinks it will make him more electable.
The utter stupidity of allowing democratic politics without the firm hoof of an absolute, eternal ruler to manage its passions should be easy for anypony to see.
“Your territory?!” Speaker Etton speaks up indignantly. “Those islands are the rightful claim of the Gryphus Empire, dating back for thousands of years! You are the interlopers!”
The one thing I can say in the Premier’s favor as a shouting match descends on our conference yet again is that he doesn’t appear to be utterly opposed to my mediation – merely to anything that would make Prance look anything less than glorious. With Speaker Etton, I cannot be so generous. He does not want me here, and has political clout in the Empire to keep his seat at the negotiating table regardless of the Emperor’s wishes. I can’t help but feel that it would be much easier to save lives were he to no longer be in a position to interfere.
I resist the urge to roll my eyes and sigh as the two sides yell past each other and ignore my pleas for calm. Once again, the folly of mortal leadership is made plain.
Twilight Sparkle
I trot slowly through the rocky cavern with all eight of my observers trailing behind, my horn aglow to provide our party with illumination. Simultaneously, I’m furiously writing down everything I observe about the crystalline formations around us, along with the surrounding bedrock, in addition to indulging in a little hypothesizing. I’ll admit that I’ve found a puzzle, and my instincts are to keep going until I solve it.
To put it bluntly, from what I’ve found in my investigations so far, these things don’t make any sense. The mineral composition of the surrounding rock is all wrong for forming these sorts of gem. In addition, the rocks of the Senadas are almost entirely igneous and do not seem to date back particularly long in geological terms, while the gems I’ve examined thus far are primarily metamorphic. This, in and of itself, is not particularly cause for more than a raised eyebrow, but from the mineral composition of the bedrock, I’ve been able to reliably conclude that the magma that formed these isles was ultramafic. That is, it had very low silica content. However, the gems I’ve examined have almost exclusively been silicates, including zircon, zoisite, titanite, enstatite, scapolite, pyrope, and sphalerite. This is very unusual, particularly as many of the impurities that allow the gorgeous crystalline structures around me to form do not exist in any substantial amounts in the surrounding bedrock. And magic doesn’t explain it, as magic gathers in crystals after their formation, and it doesn’t tend to transmute them in such a manner. Certainly not on such a large scale.
To put it simply: these things don’t look like they should be here. Yet here they are.
While my mission is supposed to entirely consist of getting an accurate read of the Senadas’ bounty for Princess Celestia’s conference, I confess that once you give me a mystery, I feel bound to solve it. Science demands it!
So, anyway, my observations on the growths around me continue to baffle my mind. All sorts of gems, precious and semiprecious, have taken shape around me. But there are so many different kinds of silicate, in such close proximity, that I don’t quite understand how they would have all formed like this in a silica-poor environment. The formations are quite prominent, often sticking out of the walls in their apparent eagerness to be seen by anypony walking through here.
Don’t be ridiculous, Twilight, rocks can’t be eager to be seen. Don’t personify nonsentient formations of mineral, it’s unscientific. I mean, sure, crystals can be grown for display, but that’s only in the Crystal Empire, and…
Wait… crystals can be grown for display…
I recall a quote from a rather famous novel, “When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.”
Is it possible? Would somepony have somehow caused these things to sprout up in a rock in the middle of the ocean? But how? And why? Such a thing would make no sense, and the sheer magical power required… Maybe it was Discord? He hasn’t been around in a while, and this doesn’t seem his style after his reformation, but maybe it’s a remnant of his earlier antics? Like the plunderseeds in the Everfree Forest?
Hmmm…
I’ve only done rudimentary scans of the magic in these things so far, mostly to determine the average power level contained within. But maybe, if I looked deeper into the origins of this magic, I could see something about the origins of it. Oooh, how exciting!
I decide not to wait to return to my improvised laboratory aboard my boat. There are quite a few large formations that I can examine in the heart of their native environment right here, after all, and I’m more than practiced enough to do so. I choose a large, deep green crystal poking out of the wall for my target of study.
Walking up to it, I close my eyes and tap into my magic. The material world fades from view as the sight of the Aether replaces it. The flow of magic through the natural world surrounds me. I can see the energies of the earth – appearing to my mind’s eye as flowing brown streams of magic – flowing through the surrounding rocks, concentrating themselves in the crystal formations. It would look normal, if it the magic wasn’t pooling so thickly in spots I recognize as corresponding to the gems I could see in the real world.
My aetherial self, taking the rough form of an alicorn of blindingly bright violet magic, slowly reaches her hooves out to the closest of the magical pools. Slowly, carefully, I part the energies of the crystal, seeking for the source, the cause of the attraction that is causing these gems to swell with so much power.
Layer after layer of brown magic is carefully peeled away. As before, time in this realm is flexible and not always corresponding exactly to real time, so I’m not entirely certain how long I’ve been at it for. But even in the Aether, I can tell that a considerable amount of time is passing as I take this pool apart like a liquid onion. Currents of earth magic flow this way and that throughout the gem, and I set them aside one by one.
At last, I pull another strand of brown magic aside, and gaze in on what should be the core. It’s… more brown earth magic. A wave of disappointment crashes over me. That’s quite a boring answer, and…
Wait.
That’s not sensible. Like attracts like in free-flowing magic, yes, but not this powerfully. I glance around at the currents of earth magic flowing through the bedrock. They’re thin, and not particularly strong. They wouldn’t exert a pull this powerful on their own. Something else must be drawing magic into these crystals.
I reexamine the core, peering over it again and again. Nothing… Nothing… Nothing… Nothing… Nothing…. This is frustrating….
There!
On my twelfth recheck, I spot something. For just the slightest second, a tiny strand of red is visible amongst the flowing brown. It’s not something most would notice, but I would. I calculate the flow of the current in my head, guess where the red should be, and plunge my purple hooves in.
Gotcha!
I pull a squirming current of red magic from the gem’s pool. It seems to be actively resisting my pull, tugging back towards the place where it came from. For such a thin current, it’s very strong, and most ponies wouldn’t be able to keep a hold of it. But, not to be immodest, I’m one of the greatest spellcasters of all time, and I have the strength to force it to hold still while I examine it.
Now, my elusive little friend, let’s see what you are…
Identifying this takes me less than an instant. I gasp aloud, releasing the current in my shock. The current squirms itself back into the pool of earth magic, but I cease to care, returning my mind to the material world in my haste to report my discovery.
When I open my eyes, I find that the Gryphus and Prench delegates have occupied themselves in various manners, from pacing the cave to admiring the gems to resting against a rock.
“Dark magic,” I whisper aloud, panting with the exertions of my last actions. “Did you all hear me?!” I raise my voice and half shout at the delegates around me. “These things are the result of dark magic!” And that stuff isn’t natural. It wouldn’t show up here on its own. “Somepony made them!”
The gryphons and ponies glance at one another and… laugh?
The first to snicker is a pink-coated, blue-maned, golden-eyed Prench unicorn, who I recall is named Rosebud. She chuckles aloud, at first covering her mouth but rapidly giving up all efforts to do so. The laughter spreads from pony to pony, and from pony to gryphon, and soon everypony is laughing at me.
I’m flabbergasted. What is wrong with these folks? Didn’t they hear what I just said?
“Did you all not just listen to what I said?!” I demand of them. “These crystals are the creations of dark magic! They’re artificial! Somepony put them here, and I’m betting they wanted them to be found! Both of your countries are in danger!”
The chuckling continues, and I put a hoof over my face. Are these ponies stupid or just deaf or what? We need to warn-
My thoughts are interrupted by the sound of Rosebud’s voice.
“Right you are, princess.”
Huh?
I remove the hoof from my face, and look at the grinning pony who just spoke, meeting her gold eyes head on.
But her eyes aren’t gold anymore.
They’re green.