//------------------------------// // 8 Landfall // Story: The Twilight Enigma // by iisaw //------------------------------// Chapter Eight Landfall Wherein the delights and annoyances of foreign travel are explored, and also a philosophy of gift-giving is examined. June 17th - 19th, 1012 Stone Town, Zanzebra Our experienced crew took it in stride, but the rest of us were terribly excited by our first look at the isles of Zanzebra. I was in my cabin when the call came down from the cupola. The speaking tube whistled and I leaned over and put my ear to it. "Land ho!, Twilight," came the tinny voice. "There's an island ahead of us!" I grinned. "Thank you, Spike! Good work!" Then a different voice came through the tube. It was Acorn, who had been on lookout with Spike. "Land, fine on the starboard bow, capt'n. I make it the southern end of Ungula. We should see Stone Town within the hour." I grabbed a chart and went on deck. The crew on watch were soon busy with spyglasses, compasses, and quadrants, fixing our exact location and course. Lee Helm put a series of pencil marks on the chart and laid it on the binnacle for Fluttershy to see. "Here's our course, lass. We'll take in sail, and on engines at half-ahead we'll be good for another half hour or so until we pass the southern tip of the island. A league past the point, you should bring her right to North Northwest and hold that course as we run up the bay. The mooring ground is a league further on after we cross the coast, just southeast of the city." "S-shouldn't I give the wheel to somepony more experienced?" "Nonsense, lass!" Mr. Helm scowled around at the rest of the ponies on deck. "None of these lubberly louts have your fine touch on the helm. I'll be on the engine telegraph right here beside you until we moor. It'll be a piece o' cake." There was actual cake involved. Pinkie Pie had baked it in the shape of the island and had little zebra and palm tree figurines all over it. She also arranged a four-confetti-cannon salute as we slowed to a stop at a mooring tower. The port officials took it all in stride, though they did make quite a bit of low-voiced conversation among themselves. I supposed that living in a city that was one of the hubs of the spice trade gave them a certain blasé attitude toward bizarre foreign customs. Speaking of customs, the customs officer spoke Equuish fluently and preferred to converse in it, but she seemed genuinely pleased by my greeting in the local Zebrish dialect. "You have a Zwahinny accent," she observed. "You did not learn this from a book, I think." "No," I admitted. "I have a very dear zebra friend named Zecora back home. She tutored me and helped me practice." "A zebra in Equestria? That is unusual, no?" "She's studying our plants and animals. She's amazingly good at making potions and infusions." "Ah, an mganga,[1] she must be! An odd sort, such zebras. I would not like to live so far from home." She finished the inspection, collecting the fees, and stamping our paperwork, and trotted back across the gangplank to the platform circling the mooring tower. ---------- [1] The word can be translated into Equuish as shaman, doctor, wisemare, or witch depending on context. The plural form is waganga. ---------- While I had been dealing with the officials, a swarm of colts and fillies had surrounded us. They were calling out from the tower platform and from various rickety-looking flying machines that hovered just beyond our rails. Most were advertising the services of various chandlers, provisioners, and other merchants who sold necessities of the shipping trade. A few were trying to sell local fruits and vegetables directly to the crew. I wanted to give my friends some advice on being careful to respect the local culture and to be wary of dubious enticements, but most of them were across the gangplank and out of sight before I could draw breath. Only Fluttershy and Rarity remained aboard. And Spike; he stuck to my side, playing the captain's servant to the hilt. "You'll be going to the trading hall, Twilight?" Rarity asked me. "Yes, Halter Hitch is taking me there. He's been here before and knows the procedure." "He may know the routine but I doubt he's a better haggler than I am, and I know you're hopeless at it… no offense, darling... so I'll be coming along." "Ah… sure. I don't see why not." Fluttershy still stood at the wheel, looking out over the bustling, colorful city with wide eyes. "Are you going to go ashore?" I asked her. "Maybe you'd like to come along with Rarity and me?" "Oh… I don't know. I think I'll just stay here and look at the town for a while." Lee Helm made a sad tsk tsk sound. "It would be a shame for you to miss the Caliph's animal garden. And there's beast sellers in the Grand Market. Why, they've got creatures that nopony in Equestria's ever heard of!" Fluttershy practically dragged poor Mr. Helm down the mooring tower stairs. "Don't let her buy more than her body weight in animals!" I called after him. = = = Books are wonderful. Books enable me to learn from others far removed by distance or time. But there's nothing like learning directly from a pony who really knows their subject. Rarity had always had a flair for the dramatic. Though I would never have said so, I had often thought of it as a weakness in her character. That day I learned that flamboyant acting could be a definite asset in trading, even when filtered through a translator. A scientific approach would have been much less productive in a setting where value depends more on attitude than hard data. We came out of the trading hall having promised our cargo in exchange for a load of whole nutmegs and cloves, with some complicated side exchanges that had yet to be specified. At a rough calculation, we would make a tidy profit on our voyage even if we didn't pick up any other cargo. "That was amazing, Rarity!" I said as we worked our way toward the Great Market. "Oh, it was nothing, really," she said, though she tossed her head happily and wore a smug smile. "Just shopping on a larger scale, and I'm very good at shopping!" Though I was itching to see the Grand Council in session and do some focused research in the Royal Library, we spent the rest of the day exploring the city. The Great Market was a riot of colors, sounds, and scents, and it was crowded with the most amazing people. It was the first time I had seen camels, antelope, gnus, and water buffalo in the flesh. There were also many zebra, of course, as well as a few griffins, horses, llamas, and even a hippogriff! I tried not to stare like a tourist from the sticks. Rarity did some more trading with the exchange tokens[2] she had received from the spice merchant and I picked up several little gifts for friends back home. There was a hanging incense burner whose chains were interlinked with dozens of little silver crescent moons. I was sure that Luna would love it. I also bought a gold serving platter with an intricate raised sun on its surface. ---------- [2] These are like a blend of private currency and promissory notes. A clever idea and very useful when engaging in barter trade involving bulk commodities. ---------- Then I had an awful moment of realization: How many useless sun and moon themed gee-gaws must Luna and Celestia have been given over the centuries? I was going to bring them back stupid stuff that would immediately be forgotten and probably disappear into a huge pile of junk in some storeroom. "What's wrong, dear?" Rarity had noticed my sudden distress. When I had explained, she dismissed my worries with a flip of her hoof. "Piffle! They will love them because they love you, Twilight. Though…" "What?" "Well… the moon one is just the teeniest bit tacky." "Oh no! Oh no! You've got to help me, Rarity! I can't give her the equivalent of an 'I HEART Manehattan' tea-cozy!" She smiled. It was a complex smile. "Well, then… do you know what this calls for?" "A party?" asked Pinkie Pie from right behind me. "Eeeagh!"[3] ---------- [3] No, years of exposure have not made me immune to Pinkie's sudden appearances, and I don't really think there is any justifiable reason for finding humor in my distress at that moment. ---------- "Please, Pinkie Pie! Twilight is having one of her 'moments' and you're not helping. What this situation calls for is more shopping! From this moment, we are on the hunt for the perfect gifts for the royal sisters." We found them, too. For Celestia we bought a mnara mwanga, which is a golden sculpture of a flame hung with pure crystals that make the whole thing sparkle and shimmer in even the lowest light. They are traditionally used in a ceremony welcoming the rising sun at the Winter solstice. The one I picked out was so impressive that I thought some sort of magic must be involved. But a quick check revealed its beauty to be wholly due to the skill of the artist who made it. For Luna, it was a carpet woven in a traditional pattern called The Goddess of the Night Passes, Unseen. It was a subtle design in black, dark blues and purple, accented in thin streaks of white, representing in abstract the touch of the light of the moon hidden behind clouds. When I heard the name of the pattern, I knew I had found the perfect gift for her. Not that we didn't pick up lots of other stuff. Poor Spike was groaning under his load, even though I was floating the majority of our purchases along in our wake. I could write an entire book about our visit[4] but here I'll just say that it was a wonderful whirlwind experience. Not all of it was pleasant, though. I could have done without the old camel offering to buy my "pretty cabin-colt" from me. On the second day, when I visited the library and sneaked[5] into the Council Ground, the mlo damu I bought for a quick snack from a nearby stall didn't sit well with me at all. Rainbow Dash lost a pouch of bits and was pretty sure that a nimble little zebra filly had plucked it from beneath her wing. But, all things considered, those were minor irritations. ---------- [4] I did, in fact. It's out of print now, but a copy of Opening the Gates of the East: A Traveller's Observations on a Visit to Stone Town, Zanzebra, One of the Great Trading Ports of Zebrica can probably be found at most good used book sellers. It was written under the nom de plume of Gloaming Gleam for obvious reasons. [5] Non-noble zebras were not allowed on the Ground, let alone non-zebras. I felt a bit guilty about it, but my disguise spells and a surfeit of local jewelry let me slip in and out without any fuss. ---------- By the third day, we had off-loaded our cargo, made mutual inspections of the goods, and loaded the casks of spices. Rarity had made a great fuss about stowing the various bolts of fabric and jewelry she had picked out as speculation items. We had twenty bales of the bluegrass hay left in the forward hold and were going to trade it at our next port. The merchants in Stone Town would have taken all of it off of our hooves, but my main reason for the voyage was to learn about foreign customs and government. The next leg of our trip would be a long one, but I was eager to see how the Saddle Arabians ran their nation. So far, I had learned that the Zanzebra approach was to talk problems to death. I couldn't imagine the Equestrian Parliament getting anything done if they required unanimous approval, but there was at least some merit to the idea that no action was preferable to something that caused serious division in the ruling body. It was certainly an element to consider. We were scheduled to set sail at moonrise, and everything had been made ready. I had several hours of free time left before departure and decided on one last visit ashore before we left. I went in search of one of my friends to accompany me, but didn't have much luck. Fluttershy was content to stay aboard and tend to her new pets. Spike had discovered that the local honey-drenched pastry could be made "totally awesome" by the addition of garnet shards, and was sleeping off his dessert binge in his little hammock. Pinkie Pie and Applejack were busy preparing a farewell meal to be shared by some of the tower crew and officials they had made friends with. Rarity had swatches of damask and brocade pinned to her cabin bulkhead and was furiously scribbling in her sketchbook and giggling to herself. I couldn't find Rainbow Dash, because I hadn't yet learned about her napping spot over the crossvent between gas cells one and two. I considered asking one of the other crewponies, but by then I was feeling very worldly and confident. I had picked up quite a bit of the trading pidgin and didn't have much trouble making myself understood in most circumstances. I wasn't afraid of being robbed; the little money I carried on me I could well afford to lose. And so I was alone when I discovered the changeling drones posing as merchants. = = = =