//------------------------------// // More Discoveries // Story: The Nineteenth Century: The Saga of Equestria // by mint20 //------------------------------// Chapter 7: More Discoveries The Nineteenth Century: The Saga of Equestria The human’s night passed without incident. Princess Celestia had assigned them a rather luxurious suite of rooms, complete with plush pillows, drapes on every window, and a set of enormous beds with even more fluffy pillows, one of such bed for every member of the Majesty’s crew. Being the explorers that they were, they could have easily made do with much less, but they did not complain. The next morning, the crew awoke to a knock on door of their rooms. Slowly shaking off the dreams of the night, the first thing that Elijah Walter noticed was that the Sun was just starting to peak above the horizon; it was barely past dawn. Getting to his feet, he mustered the willpower to walk to the door and open it a crack. Facing him was a white unicorn with a bluish mane, wearing a decorative purple armor. “My name is Shining Armor,” said the pony. “I am the captain of the Equestrian Royal Guard, and have been assigned to be your...escort...for today and the foreseeable future.” He sounded none too happy about it, either. “I am Elijah Walter, captain of the HMS Majesty,” replied the human. “If you will allow me a moment, I will get my boys up and ready to see this grand city of yours.” The unicorn nodded. Closing the door, the captain took a deep breath. Then, he yelled in his best military voice, “Let’s go, boys! We have places to go, people to meet, and things to do! Get up, you lazy bastards!!!” Getting the sailors up and moving was a struggle, but in the end, the captain’s authority was enough to get them into shape. While still moving somewhat sluggishly, they seemed to function more or less normally as they got dressed and prepared to depart their comfortable rooms. Leaving the suite behind, the humans followed Shining Armor, noting that two other guards came up behind to escort them. For a holiday, the streets seemed rather empty, noted Walter. “Oh, right now, the ponies are just celebrating the first step of Hearth’s Warming Day,” said Shining Armor, when the captain voiced his observations. “Traditionally, the first few hours of the day are reserved for private celebrations for families. It isn’t until hours after sunrise that the public celebrations begin.” Was it Walter’s imagination, or did the guard sound rather annoyed when saying that? Pushing the observation aside, the human asked, “What do this familial celebrations entail?” “Usually, they involve the exchange of small gifts and the like,” came the reply. No, Walter was not imagining the note of irritation. “Is there a problem, sir?” he asked, deciding to attempt to defuse the irritation that he could not help but feel was pointed at him. Shining Armor walked in silence for a few paces, then said, “This is Hearth’s Warming Day...and I am here, escorting a bunch of strange creatures around Canterlot. Yeah, I would say that something is wrong.” Walter was many things, but stupid was not one of them. He heard the bitterness in the guard’s voice, and, based off of his experiences he had with his ‘Christmas,’ he filled in the gaps. “You have a family,” he observed. “One you want to spend this holiday with.” Shining Armor hesitated for several steps, but then said “...Yes. I do.” “And you’re stuck on guard duty with us,” continued the human. “Yes,” came the stony reply. “Tell me about them,” said Walter, genuinely curious. “Well,” replied Shining Armor, sounding as if he was not expecting the human to care and pleasantly surprised that he was, “I have a wife and a little sister. Though, I suppose she’s no longer little…” “Though I suppose that she will always be, in your heart, your little sister,” replied the human. “What is her name?” Shining Armor chuckled to himself, then said, “Why, you’ve met her already. Her name is Twilight Sparkle.” Walter missed a step as his brain processed exactly what this meant. Recalling what Twilight had said about the other Princesses, he said, “Which means that your wife is none other than Princess Cadance.” “Correct.” “A lot of royal blood flows in your family,” observed one of the other crew members. “I suppose,” replied the pony. The tour of Canterlot definitely started to go smoother after the conversation, as Shining Armor warmed to the humans. A few hours passed, as the party explored the city under Shining’s guidance. As the sun continued to rise, the Captain of the Guard eventually decided that enough of city had been seen, and brought the explorers to Canterlot Castle. Opening the doors to the throne room, Shining Armor led the humans into the chamber, which awed and impressed all of the humans. What really blew Elijah Walter away, however, was the presence of enormous stain-glass windows. Portraying what appeared to be groups of ponies committing feats of legend, they drew Walter’s eye. “Welcome,” said Princess Celestia. Following the human’s gaze, she saw that he was staring at the stain-glass windows. “Ahh,” she observed. “Enjoying the art?” Walter snapped out of it, and gave a small smile. “Yes,” he said. “They are simply beautiful.” “All of them depict an important event in Equestrian history,” reflected the Princess. “Be it the regime of Discord-” she pointed to a window depicting an odd creature controlling three ponies- “to the Lunar Restoration-” here she indicted a group of six ponies defeating a pony that looked like a dark version of Princess Luna- “to the ascension of Princess Twilight Sparkle.” “Just how old is this nation?” asked Walter, in awe of how much history stood before him. “Difficult to say,” replied Princess Celestia. “Equestria may be old, but this nation does see its share of political changes. Plus, there was that...unpleasantness...with Discord that destroyed many ancient records. But as far as we know, Equestria has endured in one form or another for over two thousand, two hundred years.” “Wow,” muttered the human, somewhat impressed by the tenacity of the country. “Enough of that, however,” said Princess Luna, shifting the conversation. “We must ask you to try to avoid interacting with the common populace. We don’t want them to become...distressed...by your presence.” Walter considered it for a moment, then nodded his assent. “If I was in your position, I imagine that I would not want word of totally different type of sentient animal leaking out without being prepared for it.” After a moment, a thought struck him, and he asked, “But, what of our ship? Surely it would draw some questions?” “Already addressed,” replied Princess Twilight Sparkle. “If you look in the place that the ship is, you will find nothing.” “What did you do with it?” he asked, slightly alarmed. “I cast a powerful invisibility spell on it,” she replied, then grimaced. “It was far from easy, but should keep prying eyes away from it.” “You...did what?” asked Walter. His crew had, of course, filled him in on what happened while he was in that pile of debris on the Majesty, but he did not quite believe them. “I used an invisibility spell. It’s simple magic, really.” Here, Twilight grimaced again. “I’ve just never done it on such a large scale before. Rather draining.” The human took a few minutes to be shocked, then he remembered what he said to his crew earlier. We cannot concern ourselves with the ‘how’ or ‘why’ right now. Deciding to just roll with it for now, the human closed his eyes for a moment, then re-opened them. With that, he asked, “Well, Your Highnesses, what do you have in mind for us?” “You’ll see.” Manetown, Equestria (On the eastern border of Equestria) Hearth’s Warming Day, 1014 CYP (December 26, 1815) “Now what do we have here?” asked the mayor of Manetown. He had been aroused by the sounds of the town awaking at a strange time. And when he came out, sure enough, the entire town was up in arms, so to speak. The mayor’s question answered itself, as he saw the citizens of the town had surrounded a group of...creatures...that the mayor had never seen before. Turning around, the earth pony spoke to one of his aides, saying, “I need you to send a message to Canterlot. Quickly.” Canterlot, Equestria “...Interesting story,” said one of the Majesty’s crew members. The captain, however, held onto his skepticism. “You mean to tell me that this country was founded after a three-way war between the three tribes of ponies?” “Yes,” replied Princess Celestia. “That hardly sounds like a recipe for a stable country,” he said. “And yet, here we are, two millennia later.” “And yet, here we are, still managing to defy all logic and reason.” Princess Celestia, along with the other princesses, raised their eyebrows at that statement. Personally, Princess Twilight took a second to be insulted. After all, she fancied herself as logical and rational, and the story of Hearth’s Warming made perfect sense to her. Discarding the statement, Princess Celestia opened her mouth to resume speaking, only to be cut off by another peculiar sight for the humans. A flame, green in color, appeared out of the air in front of her, and a scroll materialized in the flame. Levitating the scroll in her ‘magic,’ Celestia quickly broke the seal and opened it. The humans took a moment to be dumbfounded, then Walter asked, “Excuse me, but, what, precisely, just happened?” Princess Celestia ignored the question, and continued reading. After a moment, she looked up and said, “An emergency has arisen in Manetown that requires our immediate attention.” Directing her words to the Royal Guard, she said, “I hereby declare a quarantine on the township of Manetown. Nopony is to enter or leave the town or its associated holdings until further notice.” “Yes, Your Highness!” “As for you,” she said, turning to the humans, “keep your heads down, and out of sight. The guards will see to your needs.” Addressing the guard again, she added, “And call off the Hearth’s Warming celebration with the nobility. Tell them that an incident has occurred, and it demands our immediate attention.” “What is going on, Princess?” asked the human, with a note of utter confusion. Celestia paused for a moment, then said, “A group of strange, bipedal creatures have arrived in Manetown. And I will bet that they’re humans.” With that, the four Princesses left the room, and began their nine hundred kilometer flight to Manetown. Nine hundred kilometers is not very far, as the Alicorn flies, but it is long enough that by the time the four Alicorns had arrived, it was almost time for night. As they landed near Manetown, Princess Celestia took a moment to examine the area around it. To her satisfaction, all of the roads to and from the town had checkpoints on them, staffed by the Royal Guard. There were also air patrols, who kept the skies clear of wandering pegasi. Now on the ground, Princess Celestia led her fellow royals into the town’s perimeter. She could not help but notice a large amount of general discontent with the ponies there. Clearly the mayor did not do a good job keeping the humans under wraps. Upon arriving at the township’s center of government, Celestia knocked on the door to the mayor’s office. The door opened and revealed the earth pony mayor. “Princess! I didn’t think you’ll would make it so soon.” “Let’s just say that we take this report rather seriously,” replied Celestia. “Now, where are the creatures? And who knows about them?” “Everypony in the town knows of them, Your Highness,” said the mayor. Luna and Twilight let out a sigh. “Did I do something wrong, Your Highness?” “I wish that you hadn’t allowed anypony to know of them, but what is done is done,” said Celestia. “Now, if we may see them?” “Follow me, then.” The ponies left the mayor’s office, and walked down a nearby street for two blocks. This time, Twilight was the one to notice the heightened discontent in the town, and was somewhat alarmed by it. “Princess Celestia, have you noticed it?” she asked quietly. “The simmering anger?” guessed Celestia. When Twilight nodded confirmation, Celestia sighed. “Twilight, ponies get mad and scared over the most illogical of things. While some ponies run in fear of what they do not understand, others feel compelled to lash out at the unknown. It’s one of the reasons I have feared the human approach so much.” “What can we do about it?” asked her former student in reply. “The only cure for ignorance-based fear and anger is time. Time will eventually prove all their fears and concerns baseless.” “And...if their fears aren’t baseless?” Celestia did not answer. “Here we are,” said the mayor, stopping in front of the sheriff's office. “The sheriff...you arrested them?!?” asked Celestia, not sure what to make of the situation. “Of course not!” replied the mayor. “I just...put them under the sheriff’s protection.” Hoping this would not prove to be a mistake, Celestia entered the building and breezed past the sheriff, who did not stop her. Entering the adjacent room, Celestia beheld a group of seven humans. The humans were filthy, which made her think that they were explorers far from home. Reasonable enough, given the distance from any human lands. The humans recoiled at the sight of the Princesses. “Greetings,” said Celestia. “I am Princess Celestia, co-ruler of the Principality of Equestria. These are my fellow rulers.” As she introduced each of the members of the Royal Council, the humans exchanged glances. Eventually, one of them stepped forward and said, “I...I am Benedict Calvin. And we are the Second Corps of Discovery, from the United States of America, sent with the express purpose of exploring in order to discover a land known as the Principality of Equestria.” “Here we go…” said Luna, as they left the building behind them. “Did we have to invite them to Canterlot?” asked Cadance. “We can barely keep our other guests under wraps as it is, and somehow I think these Americans are not going to go out of their way to avoid drawing attention to themselves.” Celestia sighed. “I understand, Cadance. What you’re saying makes sense. But consider what has happened in the past few days. It is clear that at this point we can no longer expect to maintain secrecy. The ward around Equestria has been destroyed, and we have no way of rebuilding it. Two powers have already found our nation, and who knows how many more will discover us? No, hiding in the shadows will no longer get us anywhere.” “Are you proposing that we adopt these humans’ ways?” asked Twilight. “No,” replied Celestia. “We have no need for their warlike ways. Hopefully, they will leave us alone.” “Now, let us return to Canterlot. We need to see to those explorers and their needs. With luck, we can repair their ship and send them on their way.”