//------------------------------// // 5: Diplomacy // Story: Culling of the Hives // by law abiding pony //------------------------------// Rasua was in her room on the third story of the manor packing her possessions away, everything from undergarments to various odds and ends. Thanks to the Deception, she was allowed to take whatever she wished, provided anything dangerous was declared ahead of time. Rasua didn’t take long since she had little beyond work clothing and an assortment of blacksmithing tools. She always kept her trade secret tools in her chambers when not at work. The runed smithing hammer that she paused to study was her particular favorite. With her room in upheaval, she took the time to shift both forelegs into hands and gently rubbed the expertly crafted handle as one would a lover. I hope I get to continue to shape metal wherever it is they’re taking me. My old master would be spitting curses from the hereafter if he knew his teachings would go to waste. Before she could put it in its travel case, such was the care she had for the tool, Rasua grabbed some mana infused oil to recharge the runes. She was half way done before a knock on the door broke her concentration. “Enter!” A guard popped his head in. “Princess Aegis Altair wishes to speak with you.” “The princess? I thought she’d be busy with the deliberations.” The guard fully opened the door, allowing Aegis to canter inside. “I’m keeping tabs on it,” she answered for the guard. “But all of it is as I expected it to be. Our side is leveraging our ancient claim to the land and ability to enforce it, while your father and… oath-brother, I believe, are countering with the fact that there was no Equestrian presence in the land and how none of us have been using it in the slightest.” Rasua stiffened at her new master’s abrupt entry, and did her best to ignore the invasion of privacy. “I see. Is there something you require of me, Princess?” She couldn’t help but to notice the glint of red-ish metal underneath Aegis’ heavy clothing. “Since you’ll be coming with us to Phoenix's Roost, I thought we should get to know each other better. Perhaps I could even help you pack, if you like.” Rasua was caught flat-footed by the offer and her mouth hung agape for a brief instant before she waved the guard to leave, and spoke once he shut the door. “I am all for expedience.” How is she going to do that without hands? She better not drool on anything. She pointed at a trio of small painted statues. Aegis immediately identified Ventras and Thaddeus were depicted in two of them, but an unknown winged female with a caring face was the third. “Since that ship of yours is so spacious, I’m taking everything except furniture. So if you could wrap them up, it’d save some time.” “Of course.” Aegis saw a stack of silky towels next to the statues. If these are of her family, she must love them a great deal. I wonder why she’d let a stranger do this. With the greatest of care, Aegis proceeded to wrap them up with her telekinesis. Rasua was already familiar with her brother’s own form of telekinesis, so Aegis wielding the same power only produced an inquisitive hum out of Rasua. So that’s how they manage without hands. Does it work with everything or only certain materials like brother’s power? I’ll find out soon enough, and at least I don’t have to worry about drool or skin oil on them. The pair passed into silence long enough for Aegis to finish wrapping one statue and to begin on the second when Rasua asked a question that was bugging her whole family. “So tell me, Princess, why do you changelings look so much alike? Do you dye your fur and hair to signify which queen you champion or something?” Aegis couldn’t help but to giggle behind a hoof at the notion, earning a slightly sour look from Rasua. “No, it has nothing to do with social reasons. Any purple changeling you see from our hive is Twilight Sparkle’s child, while all the blue drones came from Rainbow Dash.” Hive, drone? Rasua stopped packing at the strange ideas Aegis’ comment was giving her. “You mean figuratively, right?” she asked with an edge of fear. Aegis wrapped up the last statue with a sly grin, completely missing the sphinx's fear. “Nope. My queens can lay up to thirteen eggs a day, and I came from one of them.” Her heart went aflutter. Oh, I can’t wait to lay eggs! To feel the love of thousands, no tens of thousands of children would be divine! Aegis stopped swooning over her future to notice Rasua was staring at her wide-eyed. “We may look like mammals, Rasua, but that’s only skin deep. We changelings are actually much closer to insects than anything else. At least that’s how we think of ourselves.” Rasua had noticed the gossamer wings, but between the fur and eyes she hadn’t made the connection. Aegis watched her open and shut her mouth repeatedly, but the words never came. “If you’re wondering why I’m telling all this, it's because my queens feel understanding can defeat ignorance induced fear. It’s worked fairly well with the ponies, so they hope it will with your kind as well.” Vath! As if being technologically superior wasn’t bad enough, now she tells me they’re bugs too? Rasua’s mood sunk rapidly thanks to her entomophobia. She looked away to hide her creeping hyperventilation. J-just don’t focus on that. She’s lying, yeah, just a big joke, that’s all. Her wings ruffled at the thought of maggots, flies, spider webs, and even butterflies. It’s all a lie! she screamed at herself. She has fur, and hair, and, non-bug eyes, and only four limbs, and stuff. She’s a damn mammal, and she’s going to like it! With her mental gymnastics done, she calmed down enough to look back at Aegis who was inspecting how Rasua had folded her clothes and was trying her best to mimic it. The act alone puzzled her. “Say ahh… Do you always fold your own clothes?” “And the laundry, and my own weapons’ maintenance,” Aegis replied plainly while turning to look lovingly at the flamethrower strapped on her back. “Why, aren’t you a princess?” Aegis had made a point to avoid any obvious undergarments, and only looked at Rasua briefly as she spoke between folding. “I was a soldier before I was a princess, with all the trappings that came with it. I wouldn’t have been chosen to become a royal if I was a self-centered prick. Everypo-everyone has to contribute to the welfare of the hive, and sitting on a pedestal all day complaining about trivial things is unacceptable.” Mother would sooner die than allow me or any future royal daughter become like those self-centered rich “noble” girls from Canterlot. “I see.” Rasua finished packing her tools and moved several large pieces of luggage over to stuff her clothes in. She was operating under the assumption that she wouldn’t find any tailors suited for her in the heartland of the Equestrian Alliance. “Well I’ve told you about my people,” Aegis commented as she helped levitate some of Rasua’s larger belongings into a crate. “Could you tell me about yourself and sphinxes in general?” She paused a moment before adding, “like what do you say to distinguish between gender and the possession of wings?” Rasua looked at her funny before remembering that they had been speaking in Equestrian the whole time. It was also a harmless question enough. “Adult males are called toms while females are called janes. Being a winged sphinx I’m called a Grecian while those like my oath-brother and father are Egyptians. That’s a holdover from the original civilizations both races came from, but our two races united early in recorded history due to the actions of the Prophet Felryan. By the time that old religion died out, unification remained entrenched in our general society and mindset.” “Fascinating,” Aegis hummed curiously. “That’s far quicker than ponies unified.” Aegis went into the abridged version of Equestrian history revolving mostly around the Hearth’s Warming Eve story. Rasua took the story as heavily sanitized half-truths, but said nothing to potentially insult the changeling princess. “An interesting tale to be sure,” Rasua focused on how non-bug Aegis acted, which was helped by the fact that she looked mammalian. “Since you told me of your history, it is only fair I do the same. We are a federation of seven nations bound by steel since the last of the Geyser Wars ten years ago. We used to be eight territories within an equal number of empires, but the wars ended up killing off all the royal families in the end, with one province being totally wiped out in the process. After that, the rival army marshals called for a cease fire since it was the ruling caste of the two empires that wanted the war in the first place. Those army marshals ended up becoming the first members of the Council of Seven.” Aegis was stunned long enough for a small crew of movers to come in and take the luggage and crates away. “How did your people unify so quickly?” “It’s… complicated.” Rasua remembered stories about the Old Families. “Let’s just say the people were more than happy to see the old imperials lines finally wither away. They were the only ones who really kept our people so divided. Plus one of the marshals declared this was an extension of Prophet Felryan’s will. He tried and failed to resurrect the old religion, but it helped expedite cooperation.” With the movers and all of her possessions being passed over to a parked shuttle out front, Rasua felt it would be a good idea to get one last look of her new home. “Would you like a brief tour of Stratholme tomorrow? I’ll likely not see it again anytime soon, and there are some sites you might find of interest.” I’d like to see if anything catches her eye so I can use that later. “Sounds cold.” Aegis shivered at the thought of going back outside, and the frozen over window didn’t help at all. “But intriguing nonetheless, I’d like that.” With tomorrow planned, Aegis switched gears. “You said you were a warrior earlier,” she said to pull attention away from the blizzard. “Do you have a weapon of choice?” “Aye, well, two of them.” Rasua brightened considerably at the question, and dearly wished the question had been brought up earlier. “My new love is my smithing hammer: Thul. I’d never swing him in combat, but with that hammer in my hands, I can forge arms for others to fight with. In that way, I fight with not just my hands, but with all of those who I craft for.” “I hadn't thought about that line of reasoning before,” Aegis decided to leave out the hive’s assembly lines for the time being. “And the second?” “The Spark Cannons. Militarily I’d imagine they operate the same way your muskets do, only far too big to carry by hand. They rend the skies with lightning, making flight during combat all but impossible.” She subconsciously rubbed her right foreleg. “I would not be here today were it not for those weapons.” “I can sympathize with that.” Aegis pulled her pride and joy off her back. “This is my flamethrower: Burny. This guy’s saved my skin more times than I care to count.” “Flamethrower?” Rasua commented absently, earning a bemused eyebrow out of Aegis. “My people have always excelled at harnessing lightning ever since we witnessed nature brandish it during storms. Yet aside from the cook, hearth, and forge, we’ve never trusted fire or explosive things. Between this flamethrower, the explosions on the hill, and that explosive powder we found on the first explorers, your people must use it far more extensively than sanely possible.” “I see,” Aegis said at length as Rasua lead them to the kitchens. “So you guys were,” she tried to put it diplomatically, “compelled to concede the position of power to us, due to concerns about our fire based weaponry and having a flying ship?” Rasua nodded with a grimace. “Why didn’t you try to use those cannons on us once we moved into the city to grab power back?” Rasua paused on the stairs and turned to look at her. “Just because we were caught off guard by your ship’s display of power and the fact that it appeared out of thin air, doesn’t mean we couldn’t think.” Aegis almost recoiled a bit at the taste of venom coming out of Rasua. “We tried making airships before a long time ago, but lightning technology was too far advanced by then, and all the early flying ships were destroyed long before they could ever influence the battlefield.” She wasn’t sure if Equestrians had railroads, which ended up killing any future airships had in the Federation, so Rasua left them out. “And those early ships were made from wood and rubber hulls, I could tell even at that distance, your warship is made of metal. Which means you found a way to shrug off lightning from thunderstorms, and if you could do that, our cannons are worthless against you.” What Rasua didn’t want to add was how much destruction the flamethrower armed changelings could cause if they targeted the city instead of the guards. Aegis recalled Gethar’s failed attempts at using lightning against the Deception. “I’m surprised you perceived all that so quickly.” Well, father wanted to lead that ship into the city until I convinced him lightning would be folly. “A huntress must think quickly or she becomes the prey instead.” Aegis wasn’t actually sure anything she could say would be correct, so she opted for silence. The pair started moving towards the kitchens again. “In any event, I wish to have an early evening meal.” It may be the last chance I can get ribs. “You have no need to join me, princess.” “Hey, I get hungry too! And I think it’d be interesting to see what kind of food you guys have.” “I think it’s a fair compromise,” Twilight stated in front of the conference room. “The Alliance is willing to part with sixty thousand square kilometers of land, centered on the logging camp we passed over into Stratholme, and in return, you build a land trade route to Vanhoover in the north, along with guarding and maintaining it for the next decade after completion.” There were other smaller details, like regulations, but she didn’t want to drag it out by speaking of each one. “With that, we can enjoy open borders and trade relations.” Thaddeus had to admit, he couldn’t have asked for better. “And you also desire to send a diplomatic envoy to the Federation homeland, as well as set up an embassy here.” “Correct,” Luna replied with carefully measured grace. “I assume you’ll wish to wait for a formal response and diplomatic team from your homeland to arrive. Just remember the land we trade is more of a gift than an actual bargaining chip. If you desire more, you will have to pay full price for it.” Ventras looked over the two scribes, a sphinx and Slippery Shadow, who were jotting down all the details of the negotiations. “Before we finalize this agreement, I must ask. Why are you not demanding more concessions for so much land? What sort of back dealing are we going to have to put up with?” Twilight gave him an acknowledging smile, and stood up to pace around the square table where they all sat. “While I do not subscribe to most of them, I whole heartily believe in the thirty fifth Rule of Acquisition: peace is good for business. Demanding what we perceive as the full value of this much land would cost you dearly, and may not be what you would find fair.” She reached Ventras’ chair and gently dragged a wing along the back of it. “Were that to happen, all future relations between the Alliance and Federation would be soured by the notion that we bullied you into giving too many concessions. So we’d prefer to start things off where everyone is happy.” She rounded Ventras’ chair and flashed him a winning fang-filled smile. The bigger the smile, the sharper the knife. Ventras studied the purple mare intently, it was only now that he felt he truly saw her. “Your words are gentle, and yet...” He turned to look at the Deception through a window. “They have weight. “Yes... I can see you clearly now, Queen Twilight Sparkle. Your forefathers may have been prey, but you, you are not. I can see it in your eyes, in your stance, in your teeth, you are not prey, you are the prime huntress of your people. For that, you have my respect. “If you have seen fit to have these ponies be your close allies, then they too are undeserving of the moniker of prey. We would be honored to work alongside you.” “Wonderful,” Twilight replied as she settled back down in her seat. Celestia’s training served Twilight well as she took the compliment in stride. “I look forward to a prolonged friendship with both you and the Federation.” While Rainbow Dash was more than happy to remain silent the entire time, Twilight prodded her to add a token voice to the proceedings. “We’ll have the formal papers written up by morning. You can review it to make sure there are no errors before signing it.” Thaddeus clasped his hands together and bowed graciously. “We’ll be doing the same in our language to send back home.” He had to admit, he felt good about how everything turned out. Thank the stars Ventras didn’t try to push for anything outrageous. We need to keep these fire mongers happy. “We should celebrate! Since the weather would make for a poor hunt and we do not yet have any enclosed stadiums, why not join us in a game of strategy and chance?” Ever since becoming an officer in the Wonderbolts, Rainbow Dash had grown to value strategy games. Helps keep the mind sharp when you can’t get any explosions. “I’ll have a go at it.” “As will I.” Twilight mirrored her sister’s enthusiasm but for different reasons. Games are an excellent way to learn about culture. “And afterwards we can play some from my homeland as well.” “An excellent idea,” Ventras agreed, if only so the Equestrians would share some of their culture. “Why don’t we start with the Federation’s most widespread and competitive game?” A fire was lit under Rainbow Dash the instant “competitive” left Ventras’ mouth. “OOoo, sounds fun.” She raised her eyebrows at Twilight and Luna who nodded with a grin and relented with a sigh respectively. “So how do we play?” Ventras turned to the soldier behind him. “Evocati, gather all the rule books and other objects for Vaults and Villains from my quarters.” “Sir!” the soldier replied with a curt salute before leaving. Rainbow’s alarm bells started ringing at the mention of multiple rule books. Poker only needed a single sheet of paper for its rules, but maybe this will be more like Peril, or Apologize. Limited small talk ensued as they all waited for the guard to return. Soon enough, the soldier came back with a stack of five books, a few pieces of elaborately painted folding mahogany wood, a couple of sacks, and a large carrying case full of small figurines. Ventras grinned maniacally as he was given a large collection of papers. “I will tell you now that I am a world renowned Vault Lord. I will give you all time to read the rules while I prepare a starter campaign that I’ve always enjoyed. Thaddeus, why don’t you assist them in this?” “For our new acquaintances, I would do it gladly.” He waved at the three royals to gather closer together as he brought the books over. Rainbow Dash eyed them with intense trepidation, but her time as a WonderBolt’s officer and queen, (along with a helping hand from Twilight’s DNA,) allowed her to keep from rejecting the idea out of hand. Luna couldn’t help but to be curious, even if she was always bored to tears at board games. All in the name of diplomacy. Tia, you owe me big for this. Out of all of them, Twilight was beside herself with glee the moment she cracked open the one inch-thick rule book, and started weaving her translation spell. “Okay, girls, this is going to be so. Much. Fun!” Twilight had Thaddeus move over to her to begin translating the text to speed up the rate at which her language spell could work. Rainbow replied with a thick helping of sarcasm. I hope Aegis is having more fun than I’ll be for the rest of the day. It was only when she was escorted to a lavatory did Rainbow finally let off the massive groan she had been saving for the past five hours. “And so that’s how our race came to be what it is today,” Aegis finished with a flourish of a hoof. Rasua was a poster child for deep thought as she nestled on a bench just outside the manor. The frigid winds helped her think, and calmed her nerves somewhat at the prospect of living inside an insect hive for who knew how long. She calls herself an insect and yet she’s warm blooded! No matter how Aegis described her home, all Rasua could see were beehives, ant hills, whole chambers full of maggot worms writhing in their own mucus, and halls full of chittering clattering insects the size of teenage sphinxes. “Hey, Rasua, you listening?” Blushing furiously, the sphinx nodded hastily. “Yes, of course, Princess.” She quickly racked her brain to catch up to the conversation. “You say your kind used to be thestrals like Slippery Shadow. Why did none of you wish to try and change back?” Aegis had told her briefly about alchemy, but lied about how it could be used on anyone, not just changelings. The last thing she wanted was fear popping up about Rasua potentially getting converted. “I can’t tell you to be honest,” Aegis sat on the bench while trying to mimic Rasua contemplatively rubbing a finger on her chin. “Maybe my ancestors tried and failed, or didn’t think it was possible. I’m sure there could be a way, but nopony’s in a hurry to discover it. At least not anymore, it all happened thousands of years ago after all.” “I see.” Rasua scanned Aegis’ face as non-confrontational as possible. “So what is it you changelings do for entertainment?” The first thing that came to Aegis’ mind was sex. She almost said it too, but she caught herself in time. I’ll never understand why non-changeling species tried to hide that universal fact, buuuut I better not risk being so blunt. “We’ve ahh, taken most of our stuff from Equestria. Hoofball mostly, but we have music, dance, theater all that stuff.” She noticed Rasua’s didn’t look impressed in the slightest. I guess they do that sort of stuff too. “While I haven’t participated in one before, every year we hold a technology fair in the hive, during which teams of engineers, scientists, and independent parties can showcase their inventions and discoveries. It's a chance to introduce new things to the world at large and try and get them out to the general public.” Well, outside of the hive anyway. That got a curious hum out of her feline companion, but it wasn’t enough for Aegis. “In fact, we’re going to be hosting the fair in a few weeks. I’d love to see you there.” “Will metallurgists be there?” Aegis saw the perfect opportunity to bring hands into the conversation. “Oh yeah, we recently finished building a whole lab for them.” She pulled back the sleeve around her left foreleg to reveal her gauntlet fully for the first time since arriving in Stratholme. “This little number wouldn’t have been possible without them. This alone was enough to give our metallurgists a specialized lab of their own.” Now Aegis had Rasua’s full attention again. Even a few of the nearby guards risked lapses in their vigilance to try and get a closer look at Aegis’ armor. “What is this thing? If you don’t mind my asking.” Aegis barely suppressed a squeal as Rasua shifted a paw into a hand to poke at her gauntlet. “This is a prototype meant to give me hands, in a sense.” “Hands? Are there other species out there that inspired you to make this?” Since Aegis had not given any resistance to her gauntlet being prodded, Rasua shifted to sit closer and started to inspect the gauntlet more closely. “These are based off minotaurs, but smaller so it could fit me. I’ll show you some pictures of them later.” “I would like that.” Aegis gently cleared her throat and tugged her gauntlet free so she could extend the fingers. “I have to admit, I’m still trying to get the hang of using fingers.” Her eyes lit up. “Why don’t you teach some pointers and I’ll give you a grand tour of the hive when we get there.” The mention of the hive brought the fact that Rasua would be leaving her home and family right back to the forefront, and into a nation revolving around the love of fire. “As you wish, Princess. If there is nothing else, I would prefer to spend this time with family.” “Oh, sure. Family is a changeling’s whole world, so I don’t mind. Your brother and father are most likely still in the audience chamber.” She wanted to be vague to hide the existence of the hive mind. “Then I should be there.” If only to be at their side a little while longer. “Can you tell me when your ship will depart?” “That’ll depend entirely on my aunt and mother. Although I suspect they will want to stay in port for a while and try to break the ice, as we say, to get both of our people to coexist more easily.” That was a welcome relief. The longer Rasua stayed around, the less time she’d have to spend in a bug hive. Now I just have to conjure a reason to intrude on the deliberations. Maybe pull some fake tradition out of my ass so the Equestrians aren’t offended? They seemed pretty understanding so far. As Rasua went back inside, Aegis scowled at having to wait for her hand lessons. Great, now what am I going to do? A sudden jump in wind speed cut through Aegis like a frozen knife. Preferably going someplace warm. Plus I think I got plenty of scent samples off of Rasua anyway, so I think I need to move on to some of the stallions, er I mean toms. She pinged the hive mind to gather some information. Hey! Intel’s squad is off rotation since the cats proved cooperative. Maybe I can catch her and the rest of Squad One at the pub before they go back to the ship to sleep! I can hang with them and get plenty of scents while I’m there, it’s a win-win. With her mind made up, Aegis raced off to the pub two city blocks away. She took note that two sphinx guards tailed her at a discrete distance, but made no action against them. If Boss Cat’s enthusiastic game fanaticism is any sign, I doubt those guards will try to screw with me. Much to her surprise, only a scant handful of drones were at the pub. They directed Aegis to the stables on the east side of town. With everyone either staying indoors to escape the blizzard, or looking up at the two airships, there were only a handful of sphinxes that noticed Aegis moving along the streets. Some of the growing criminal underbelly may have considered attempting to kidnap her for ransom were it not for the two burly guards tailing her already. The hive mind’s chart of Stratholme was still sketchy. Even with the observers on the Deception attempting to build a map, the dense snowfall coupled with the completely unknown function of most of the buildings made locating anything difficult. Nevertheless, a few sphinxes were trudging through the blizzard. Strange visitors or not, life must go on. All Aegis needed to do was ask a question or two, and she found her way to the stables within an hour of leaving the manor. The stables themselves were situated along a major avenue with one covered, heavily burdened wagon being pulled into the marshalling yard within. Aegis was about to enter the door underneath the sign-statue when she saw Intel and her squad through the closing gates as the wagon entered. There they are. I should have known Intel would have kept the squad sober until we return to the hive. With the stables’ roof in the way, flying in was out. So Aegis had to go through the reception area, and was admitted inside to join her kin. She passed through the small office to find Intel’s squad gathered around one of the beasts of burden in its stable, along with a Grecian tom who Aegis assumed was a salesman. Or would that be salestom? He was dressed in a finely tailored suit, and seemed to be trying to calm two Egyptians and one Grecian who looked angrier than Rainbow Dash after Pinkie drank all the cider. It didn’t help that the three belligerents were both armed and armored for battle. Intel was at the front of her squad with Ferrum and Counterspell flanking her. While the changelings were armed, they looked vulnerable with only cold weather uniforms, and no armor of their own. “You may be high and mighty with your ship above our heads, but down here, I wager I could take all four of you,” the lone Grecian tom jeered. Aegis saw Intel was keeping a cool head, but Ferrum and Counterspell were on edge. “Until our queens say otherwise, we have no reason to fight you. Why don’t you wait your turn to talk to the salestom?” Aegis started marching over as one of the Egyptian janes heavily slammed the head of her warhammer on the ground beside her. The tell-tale crack of electricity resounded throughout the chamber. “This is our city, prey. Get out of our way.” Not one to shy away from a fight, Aegis barked at the group once she was within earshot. “Anypo- anyone want to explain to me what’s going on?” Thus far, Thunderfury, the fourth member rounding out Squad One, had been staying out of the confrontation by studying the multi-horned blue beast of burden, but the moment he heard Aegis’ voice he raced over to in a prismatic flash to interpose himself between her and the armed assailants. The level of tension shot up to papable levels among the rest of the changelings, causing them to adopt a defensive posture, yet refrained from drawing their weapons quite yet. The leading sphinx glanced in disgust as the salesman slipped away. None of the antagonistic sphinxes had seen any of the royals up close on their way to Ventras’ manor, and didn’t know what a changeling princess looked like, but from the squad’s reaction they knew Aegis was of importance. “Yeah we got a problem. Your kind barge into our territory like you own the place!” The jane with the hammer stepped with an equally foul sneer. “You ain’t got the right!” “Funny,” Aegis replied derisively. “This land belongs to the Equestrian Alliance until the treaty is signed. And our right is floating above your heads with its cannons pointed down.” She saw the rebuke coming before it left their lips. “And I would just love to see you try using lightning to bring it down.” That stopped the two janes from speaking further, but they still scowled in defiance. The tom wasn’t so easily cowed. “You really think this colony represents the might of the Federation military?!” He scoffed harshly. “The legion alone numbers in the millions, and once the council hears of today, they’ll bring the hammer down on you all.” He stepped forward to glare Aegis down, trying to force his prey to reveal any weakness. “You can act like predators all you want, but your little fire show can’t fight the fact that all of you are prey to the core.” Aegis nonchalantly brushed some snow off her jacket. “I think the steak I ate for lunch would disagree." Thunderfury cautioned as he crouched low, ready to spring. Thunderfury’s warning made Aegis scan the rest of Intel’s squad. Each of them had their kinesis gripping their weapons and were slowly pulling them from their holsters. Counterspell was already flooding his staff with mana to enable highly empowered spells. Thunderfury however made no attempt at subtlety, and summoned his two Quadrinix alloy tech-shields, and had them hovering at his sides, which made the two janes shoulder their weapons as well. The shields themselves were teardrop shaped and flared out to cover him in a full 270° arc. They also had the tell-tale shimmer of artificial Arcane Wing magic, but Aegis was unfamiliar as to what configuration was active. Shouldn’t those guards be telling these guys to back off by now? She didn’t want to turn to look for them out of concern that the sphinxes would use that as an excuse to attack. As it turned out, they didn’t need any further provocation and the tom took to the air so his forelimbs were free to reshape into hands and grabbed his Chu-ko-nu repeating crossbow. “I refuse to allow prey to act as equals!” Spittle flew along with his rage. “Kill the-” A rainbow blur and the sickening crunch of breaking bones on metal resounded through the stables. Thunderfury’s left shield slammed into the tom’s jaw, fracturing it and knocking several teeth free. The shimmering surface of the shield remolded slightly around the impact area, and added a second kinetic push that sent the tom to the dirt and out cold. Thunderfury raced back over to stand guard over Aegis. “No one threatens the princess!” “That will be quite enough,” a feminine voice called out from the office door. Everyone turned to see Aegis’ sphinx guards stroll up to both parties with cold malice. Both janes forgot their Grecian leader and started backing away from the newcomers. “The Sestapo’s here?!” “Cheese it!” The two Egyptians tried to make a break for the side fire exit behind the stables. The thus far silent Sestapo agent sighed. “They always try to run.” Pulling out a Chu-ko-nu of his own, he fired two quick shots at the fleeing sphinxes, hitting both in the rump. Trailing wires from the crossbow bolts allowed him to channel electricity through them. The two janes dropped within seconds, prompting his partner to fly over and restrain them. Eying the changelings with an oily grin, the agent holstered his weapon. “I must thank the lot of you. Baby Face Callion has been a stain upon the Legion for too long. Assaulting a recognized dignitary is the perfect excuse to… discharge him.” “Is this sort of behavior normal for your citizens?” Intel inquired with as much tact as possible. The agent’s oily grin vanished and was replaced by a lopsided frown. “We are a very proud people, changelings. Your warship’s stunt stepped on a lot of toes, although personally I find the backlash will be far too amusing to feel insulted myself.” The comment made Aegis look at the criminals who were being restrained as several normal police officers entered through the office to take them into custody. “That may be so. But I find it difficult to believe any of you would have seen us as anything other than prey had we taken a softer approach.” The agent laughed wholeheartedly for a good half-minute, long enough for his partner to return. “You may not have realized it, Princess Aegis, but politically, you did the correct thing in asserting your influence. No matter how much my people will squirm about it. That above all else is why I’m greatly looking forward to the coming years.” His partner interposed herself as the officers gathered up the disgruntled sphinxes behind her. “Come, we have processing to take care of.” “Yes, your right. Callion has a lot of friends that need,” he paused as if remembering the changelings were still there, “a deft hand.” He turned again towards Aegis. “It has been a pleasure, Princess. But I suggest you return to the governor’s manor when your business here is done. At least for the time being,” he added with a sly wink. With a slight bow, the two agents excused themselves and departed, but not before running into the salesman within the office. “So that’s where you ran off to. I trust you’ll accept any worthy offering of trade and report back to us immediately.” Despite the blistering cold weather, the salesman sweated in his suit. “Y-yes of course.” “Good man,” the lead agent replied with a winning smile and a hand clap on the salesman’s withers before both Sestapo operatives departed to chase after the police. With everyone gone, Aegis turned to her protectors. “Well that was fun. What brought all of you out here anyway?” Intel jabbed a hoof at Thunderfury who was in the process of unfolding a long finely tailored weapon teleportation scroll to send his shields back to the ship. “Fury here wanted to see if we could buy a few breeding pairs of the talbuks. That’s what the Feds call those blue beasts in the stables.” Ferrum giggled at his squadmate. “I told him it’s a bit big to be a pet. Not to mention we could barely fit one in the cargo hold, let alone two.” All eyes turned to Thunderfury who was muttering to himself while a small abacus click-clacked in front of him. A few moments of silence led Counterspell to groan. “You should really leave the math stuff to good mathematicians.” “Sush, I can figure it out!” Aegis glanced at the salesman reentering the stables out of the corner of her eye. “Figure what out? We have no use for anything like these…” “Talbuks,” Intel provided. “Right, talbuks back at the hive. We have trolleys and rail carts for transit.” Thunderfury’s ears shot up and he hastily looked away from his abacus. “It’s not for us though.” He flew into a low hover so he could gesture with his forelegs, his abacus clicking constantly with his movements. “Think of rural Equestria, especially places without a railroad. These talbuks are stronger than even earth ponies, and their wide round feet allow them to walk on Stratholme’s cobblestone roads without damaging them. Since Aunt Applejack already has a small ranch for sheep, pigs, and cows, they could expand that to talbuks and sell them as beasts of burden. I’m sure they would make farm work easier at the very least.” Counterspell and Aegis had to pause and think on that. Intel caught on right away. “Hey, that’s not a bad idea. Rural Equestria doesn’t have the infrastructure in place to support railroads in every village, but even a small community could tend to a few of these guys if they can graze on grass or hay.” The salesman was feeling extremely uncomfortable eavesdropping on a conversation in Vespid. “H-have you come to a decision, Mistress Intel ‘La Gence?” “Huh? Oh, right.” Intel looked to Aegis. “Well I guess since you’re here, it’s your call, Princess.” Intel’s response was to whistle and look away with an insanely innocent look. Sighing, Aegis looked to Thunderfury who hugged his abacus out of hope for his idea’s acceptance. She pinged her mother to see if she could spare a moment. Aegis couldn’t help but sense intense amusement and a touch of a competitive edge in her mother’s tone. Aegis relayed Thunderfury’s plan in its entirety. she added with disdain. Aegis flew over to look the beast up close, and saw nothing but the eyes of a dim-witted animal slowly chew on cud. She waved a hoof over its eyes and only got a slow blink and a lazy chew on some feed. Twilight paused for several seconds as she spoke briefly to Rainbow Dash. Twilight replied warmly. For the time being, she would operate under the assumption that the talbuk was as animalistic as the sphinxes claimed. As Aegis set events in motion to buy the animals, Twilight refocused on the game when Rasua returned and immediately asked to join in. Thaddeus had provided the three royal Equestrians with premade character to jumpstart the Vaults and Villains game. What had surprised Twilight most was the stack of papers outlining a hundred premades to choose from. The three of them played along for different reasons. The interest of diplomacy on Luna’s part, while Twilight had to trade away three days of laying to Rainbow Dash to get her to give more than token involvement. I don’t mind, Twilight mused with a wry grin. I had a few years of laying before she got a chance, so this will help even out the population just the tiniest bit. Twilight however was more intrigued by the game than any of them. She spoke as she tried to settle on the three best looking character sheets. “I must ask how a game of this nature became a national sport.” She looked up to Ventras for an answer. “We have something remotely similar, but it hasn’t garnered much public spotlight outside of being a hobby.” Rasua couldn’t help but chuckle inwardly at the impossible idea that something similar to Villains and Vaults could be anything except wildly popular while her father tried to remain diplomatic. “We sphinxes have a long tradition of hunting to prove one’s worth as a predator. We have… less bloody sports to test one’s teamwork and physical prowess. We even have some games that challenge strategic thinking as well.” He started speaking extremely dramatically to the point of embarrassment on Rasua’s part. “But Vaults and Villains is a test of everyone’s creativity and cultural richness. It is the Vault Lord’s job, nay, privilege to present and direct a riveting tale, while it is the players’ task to bring fresh ideas and plot twists to life.” He tapped his chin before grinning at the Equestrians. “Something I’m sure the three of you will offer in spades.” Time melted away for Twilight Sparkle as the campaign Ventras picked out cast everyone’s characters into a pitched battle right from the start and didn’t let up for hours. Thaddeus and Rasua’s characters were teamed up with the Equestrians as the gathered party tore through goblins, gnolls, the undead(Rainbow’s particular favorite), and beasts of questionable nature. Everyone tried to keep things simple for the Equestrians by only playing Egyptian sphinx characters. The campaign lasted for hours, and at the end of a long slog through a virtual sea of monsters and hostile soldiers, the group arrived at the warlord: Warchief Guth the Butcher of Fangly Harbor, who rode upon a large fire breathing winged serpent. Luna took a moment to notice quite a crowd had gathered around the room. At least three dozen guards and servants watched on from the sidelines or up in the rafters. With a manic grin, Rainbow Dash jabbed a hoof at Ventras after winning the roll of the dice to go first. “I, the masked monk Tiburón Perdido, charge in for a tackle!” Ventras gave her a set of dice for Rainbow to roll. A hoof pump heralded the results. “Eighteen!” “Alright,” Ventras started as he formulated what happened next. “You latched onto the rear section of the winged serpent a meter behind the saddle.” He rolled some damage dice before turning to Luna. “I guess I’ll go ahead and preemptively start casting a healing spell for her.” Everyone else joined the battle with far more caution. The battle ended up going poorly thanks to some bad rolls and the overall difficulty of the campaign. Through sheer luck, Rasua’s character managed to rip the Warchief’s halberd away, leaving him with only a shield and his winged serpent. It had been a winning move the last time Rasua had played this, but her father’s eyes glinted in predatory malice. He propped himself up on the table and bellowed in his best intimidating baritone voice. “Foolish mongrels! You think disarming me will save you? Serpent! Fly above these worms and incinerate them from above!” Breaking character, Ventras also added, “Since Guth still has his shield, he casts Omni-Reflect, protecting him and his mount from spells for twenty turns.” He looked upon the horrified faces of the audience and players. “Queen Rainbow Dash, I’ll give you a chance to let go before the mount flies too high.” Thaddeus and Rasua slouched back in their chairs in defeat as their melee characters were rendered useless, while Luna and Twilight tried to comb the spellbook for a way to break the reflect barrier. Thaddeus was about to announce his intent to duck for cover and look for a discarded crossbow when Rainbow Dash slammed a hoof on the table. “Screw that, I roll to pin.” The room went dead silent. Even the blizzard outside seemed to give pause. Fearing Ventras would null the action as impossible, Rainbow clarified. “I move to grapple the serpent’s wings together so he can’t fly.” Everyone looks at Ventras. He worked his jaw as an internal war debated on whether or not to accept the action. After a long pause he nods. “Roll it.” Everyone scrambled over each other to watch Rainbow toss the dice into the center of the table. The whole room followed the dice as they bounced on the table and came to a stop at the center. A collective gasp resounded throughout the chamber while a fang-filled toothy grin cleaved Rainbow’s muzzle. “Natural twenty, baby! Wooo!” Cheering erupted from the crowd, buying time for the flabbergasted Ventras to recover from the shock. Only a tenth of any fresh party groups ever survive this campaign. Laughing at himself, Ventras made a large sweeping gesture to silence the crowd. “You succeed in grappling the serpent’s wings.” He rolled the dice twice. “And the warchief fails to dislodge you. All three of you plummet to the ground, snapping the winged serpent’s neck and throwing both you and the warchief to the dirt. Roll for fall damage.” As it turned out, Rainbow’s character was knocked out with several broken bones, but the warchief was still able to shakily climb to his feet, only to find Thaddeus and Rasua waiting to finish him off. Luna weaved a spell to mend Rainbow’s character while Twilight lifted her sister’s foreleg and cheered to the crowd as if she was a sports announcer at Cloudsdale. “And the winner issss Tiburrrrrrrrón Perdidoooooo!” Ventras closed his campaign book, signaling the end to the game. The whole room thundered in applause, and money changed hands as bookies doled out gamblers’ winnings. Most of the sphinxes were quickly shooed out of the room by the guards within a few minutes after the game was over. Ventras couldn’t help but to feel uplifted by how well the game went, and how enthusiastic the two changelings had gotten halfway through. He gathered up the rule books and several other paraphernalia and put them in their case before walking over and presenting the package to the two queens. “Seeing how you two have taken to the game so strongly, I would like to present to you, all you need to learn the greater depth of Vaults and Villains. Perhaps in the future, one of you can host a campaign of your own design.” Luna was more than happy to miss such a present while Rainbow Dash took the case in her kinesis. “I gotta say, Venny, a game like that is like living through a Daring Do book, crazy fun stuff.” “I’ll take your word for it,” Ventras replied having no idea what a Daring Do was, “The cooks should be done preparing our evening meal.” Both queens had noticed the delectable aroma of smoked ribs and steak leaking in through the western doors. Twilight tried to hide her growling gut. “Well if the smell is anything to go by, I’m sure it will be excellent.” As the night continued on into early morning, both the Equestrians and sphinxes enjoyed a much warmer atmosphere since the game broke what little ice was left after the treaty negotiations were finished. The rumors spreading out from the servant staff about a respectable treaty and the highlights of the game lifted many fears and concerns, allowing its denizens a moderately restful night-early day sleep. Ultimately however, it would not be the actions of leaders who would see peace in their time, but the will of the people. Only time could answer the hundreds of questions that danced in the minds of every citizen of the Sphinx Federation and Equestrian Alliance.