Azur Lily - 19th of Megan '15 EoH - NoonAzur Lily - 19th of Megan '15 EoH - Noon
Stalliongrad just might be the worst country in the world to live in. If it isn’t, it’s definitely in the top five worst places. That’s not just because they are about 500 years behind the times, it’s also because they can’t fix their problems. Like, at all.
The whole nation is either dense old growth forest, or swampland. That makes it hard to find or make places to farm. Every nation that can be traded with has plenty of timber too, so it’s not like all those trees can be exported. What Stalliongrad can export is iron, but that’s like, it.
In a nutshell, the whole country is poor as, well, me, aside from a few small cities which have some good farmland. Those cities get all the money because the whole country has three options to buy their food from. Applewood is one of those cities.
That’s a big deal. It means that there is basically exactly enough food to feed everyone a little, but not too well. This meant Stalliongrad’s own citizens will sometimes raid the farm cities occasionally. Which in turn means that anyone living in Applewood who is fighting fit has to serve in the city watch for at least ten years.
This would be fine with me, I decided to leave my homeland and come here after all. I thought that hey, maybe I could do some good here, I’m a pretty decent wizard. I could spend my time working on spells to grow better crops, be someone of importance, and just maybe after a few hundred years have a nice pile of coins to my name.
Ha! Nope!
Anti-intellectual, braindead, superstitious peasants. That’s who lives in Stalliongrad! I magically make food better for you, grow faster, and yield more food, they refuse to eat it because ‘it t’aint natural’. With providing an abundance of food off the table, I was quickly forced to join the City Watch, and stare mindlessly out over the walls in case someone happened to approach.
I could have spent the two years I’d been in Applewood inventing an artifact which would watch the entire town perimeter and warn everyone of people approaching, but no! That’s not natural either. No wonder they were so behind the times. Just about everything which could be made so much easier or better with magic isn’t okay.
I should never have left Germaney. I didn’t regret leaving my home city, but I was starting to regret moving out of the fatherland. Or at least, to a bottom tier nation.
This morning was the first watch in three weeks that a single thing had even happened. Some diamond dog merchant and a pegasus came to town. Just one, he might have maybe hurt the meat-brick of a guard at the gate if hostile before being filled so full of arrows he would have looked like a porcupine.
Whee! Such a great use of my talents! I was totally necessary to protecting people from those two guys!
Sure a raid had happened few times while I was on duty, but well, the inexperienced person gets pushed away from the wall tops to let experienced troops do their thing. So, when there was a job to do, I wasn’t ever the pony to do it. I was just the ‘sit on wall and yell things pony’.
I wouldn’t complain if I were allowed to read while on duty, I could at least improve my thaumaturgy then. But nope, no distractions. Come on, I’m a trained wizard for Faust’s sake!
You want to prevent raids? I could probably do it myself with enough funding and time to study. Work out a ritual spell to make hostile people forget where the city even is. Or maybe hex the surrounding forest to attack things passing through it. But no, sit on the wall, yell if you see anything, then get out of the way.
This city was a waste of my life. I could go anywhere else and be much better off. I’m a wizard, I could easily get a job as an apprentice enchanter in any other country. I should have gone to Equestria, a country that I couldn’t even compare this place to, because these bumpkins thought it was mythical. Making me the ‘Silly pony who believes in fairytales’.
Ah well, at least I was off duty now. I could walk back home to my tiny room, maybe get a little practice in, and see if I had saved enough up to buy passage out of this dump yet. I had enough for three ship fares by now; one or two more would be enough to get me to a port in Zebrica where better ships could be found. That would be my place to rejoin the modern world!
Only problem was I was to much of a scaredy cat to travel alone again. I may be a wizard, but a lot of powerful casters have been done in by guys with pointy bits of metal. Also I didn’t exactly get training as a Battle Mage, I got training as a Thaumaturgist, general purpose magery. It would be nice to be stab proof and unmuggable, but that wasn’t a part of my skill set. If it had been, I wouldn’t have been trapped here for two years so far.
I climbed down the ladder from the guardpost on the upper wall, hooves moving with practiced ease. Most people don’t know that ponies can chose to walk on all fours or just two legs. Our spines, hips, and shoulders even adjust to make the new posture comfortable. It’s not an easy thing to do though, and you’re so slow while doing it that few ponies choose to, aside from fighters who need to use their hooves a lot. I mostly did it because half the places I needed to get to had ladders.
On the upside people think I’ve mastered balancing on my hind legs as some kind of wizard meditation. There are unicorns who I have seen studying me to try and improve their magic by walking on two legs. It’s hilarious! Silly bumpkins.
As my hooves touched down on the plank floor of the small storage room/officer’s post below, a gruff male voice called my name, “Hey, Azure. Mere a minute.”
Ah, ponyfeathers!
I looked over, recognizing the voice as Captain Stonehide. The minotaur was so big his horns scraped the ceiling of the room. He always looked like a big gray statue someone made in their workshop that was just too big to fit through the door.
“Ja, Herr Captain?” I asked, knowing full well that he had some kind of extra work for me today.
He shifted on the log he used as a stool. “I have an extra job for someone today. I’m making that someone, you.”
If I said no, I would loose my whole day’s pay. That’s how this jerk worked.
“Alright, what is it?” I asked careful to not let any of my irritation seep into my tone.
“Something bad is happening tonight. Our scouts came back today. The Swarm just destroyed the Diamond Hive.” Stonehide said in a very serious voice.
Oh.
I winced slightly, “Are they headed this direction?”
“No. The griffons though, they moved into the hive minutes after the Swarm left. They set up a base. They are annexing it.” Stonehide explained.
That settled it, I needed to get out of here now! It was a pretty widely spread idea that the Griffon Kingdom was going to try and annex Stalliongrad. They hadn’t withdrawn the troops King Mustang let them station here during their war with Venisneighla. That was five years ago. Faust knows why they would want this place though.
“You think they are finally starting to make their move?” I asked fearfully.
“Yes.” the Captain clarified, nodding his head and scraping a line into the ceiling, “Diamonds mined good magic holding gems. Griffons need them to supply soldiers. That’s not important now. The Griffons sent out lots of scouts after taking the mines. Scouts say they are looking for a changeling and a dog.
“Don’t know why, but if that ling and dog get away, Griffons will have to abandon the mine.”
It clicked. I knew exactly what was happening today. “The griffons have tracked down those two to here, and they will try to kill the dog and 'pegasus' in the city.” I put air quotes around pegasus, just in case the Captain thought I didn't know that would be the changeling.
“Yes.” Stonehide said with a grim nod. “Bug dies, Griffons keep mine, Stalliongrad falls. You’re going to keep the bug alive.”
The Captain’s eyes softened suddenly, “Also get it out of Stalliongrad safe. Know you hate it here, we don’t need you. This is your last mission. Get bug away from here safely.”
“W-was?!” I asked reverting to my native Germane in shock.
“You’re bad in fights. Good mage, bad soldier.” he sighed.
I couldn’t dispute that. I hated fighting.
“You’re a wizard, scary to folk who don’t know you’re… you. Griffons will think twice. You use magic well. You can get bug safely away. Would lose a good soldier if I sent someone else.” he grunted.
That was mean! Also hurtful. Accurate though. But mean!
“Okay.” I said, agreeing to this ‘mission’, “Traveling is expensive though, can I have-”
“No. Walls need repairs. No money.” the captain grunted again.
I sighed, shifting my weight enough to make the floorboards creak. Which was scary considering how scrawny I was. “Not even some goods? A backpack, some trail rations?” I asked.
Stonehide stroked his chin for a moment then nodded slowly. He reached over to his left into an open crate and tossed a small canvas shoulder bag at me, which I barely managed to catch. “Scout kit. Map. Bread. Flint, tinder. Small knife. Water skin.”
Well… that was more value than I would get from a week’s pay.
“Danka, Herr Captain.” I said, slinging the bag over my shoulder, so the strap rested between my shoulders. “Do we know where they are in the city?”
“No.” he said before pointing to the door. “Good luck, die well.”
“You too, Herr Captain.” I said as I headed for the door.
Faust, I hated that minotaur idiom.
I decided to walk home a bit slowly. I needed time to process things, and the winding maze of streets was a good place to do it. The streets were packed with all kinds of people, some of whom I recognized, three of whom I had hoped would try to date me, and one of whom was angry about me having tried to date him.
I avoided that particular Minotaur. Working out a plan to get out of here with a changeling in tow was hard enough without dealing with someone who was still mad at me for asking him out. Apparently the overly macho minotaur was just overly macho, and nothing else. Another great reason to leave!
Right, leaving. I was going to be leaving now! Wunderschön!
There were few ways to reliably get out of the country. Walking to a border was out of the question. The Griffon Kingdom was the closest, and everything else was too far to risk going to with the world’s biggest army after you.
Besides, only Spurta and Venisneighla bordered Stalliongrad aside from the Griffon Kingdom. Spurta killed all changelings on sight as a general policy for national security, and Venisneighla was now a province of the Griffon Kingdom. That meant we would have to leave by sea.
I would only have to safely guide the changeling to the closest port, where I would be free to find a new country to go to. Maybe Equestria. They certainly appreciated magic there. I mean, my spellbook was a copy of one written by their princess.
I arrived at my home just after thinking up that little plan. Home was pushing it a little, it was a small farmhouse with walls added to make a bunch of bed, nightstand, and footlocker fitting rooms. I would be glad to never see this leaky old place again.
I quickly trotted over he warped floorboards, entered my room, collected my bag, spellbooks, and the pouch containing my savings, and put it all on my back with the other bag. After scribbling a quick note to the owner that I was leaving under orders from the Captain, I set back out into the streets. I had to find a changeling.
I made it three steps before realizing how many ponies were going out and about today. “Well… Maybe we find the dog instead…” I decided to myself.
It was just after noon. If I were a dog, I would be thinking with my stomach about now. While any traveler packed both food and drink, nopony I knew would pass up a warm meal at a town’s inn. Fortunately Applewood had just one inn, and I knew right where it was.
Right across town, in the nicer side of Applewood, right across the town square from the Lord’s keep. An easy walk. A short walk even. But today it was made into what felt like a day’s march due to what looked like the entire town all out walking at the same time.
I hated market days.
By the time I made it to the square, my hooves hurt from the constant starting, stopping, and side stepping on the unevenly cobbled streets. I had been bumped into so many times my plot felt a little numb, and worst of all, I had probably been delayed so much that I would miss if they were getting lunch.
As I trotted into the square, I immediately spotted the inn to my right. Its old wooden signboard hung from a roof beam near the door by some chains, and depicted a two-headed falcon. Ironically the sign was quite close to my family crest, which always gave me a little bit of a shiver as I passed it. The Frightful Falcon was aptly named as far as I was concerned.
The Falcon was a tiny inn. She looked rather rotten with her old graying timber, and was always a bit dirty, but no more so than any other inn I had ever been too. The inside was not so bad. there were plenty of windows which kept the place brightly lit, nice carved furniture was built in many sizes to fit all sorts of different species, and the wooden menu for the pub was painted so it could be easily read from across the room.
The common room was as packed as I expected it to be, given how many people were out today. The aisles between the tables were taken up by as many serving mares as customers. Only one of the servers was a unicorn, and thus able to simply levitate her tray over everyone's heads. The others were carefully moving platters and pitchers around the full house, knowing damn well that a spilled item would come out of their pay.
For once the big crowd made me happy. With the place so jam-packed with townsfolk, travelers would stick out like a Neighponese soldier trying to hide behind a bush. Which may sound racist, unless you have seen one of their soldiers. They would need a very big bush for that to have a chance of working.
I swept my eyes over the crowd slowly. There was one table filled with guards. They noticed me, but as always didn’t wave me over. I saw one of the town's smiths, and a few other ponies I recognized: a baker, a candlestick maker, and two cobblers.
Ah ha! There they were, the one table people were giving a bit of space. Right in the middle of the far wall, just the two of them, a surprisingly small reddish and white furred diamond dog in a green cloak. Just like I remembered from this morning.
I started to push my way through the Falcon’s common room, making my way slowly towards the table.
“Oi! Watch it you git!” A minotaur growled as I passed behind him.
Assuming my bags had bumped him I uttered a quick, “Sorry, sir!” and continued on my way.
As I neared the dog’s table, I was able to see the two were nearly finished eating. The pegasus had a little fish and hayfries left, while the dog was slowly sipping at a mug of what I assumed was the local swill. A few moments later, and I was able to start hearing the conversation the two were having over the buzz of the crowd.
“I don’t mean to be rude, but can you get that wrapped up?” The dog asked in an anxious tone, “This place is… very close to one I was ambushed in.”
The pegasus looked up, her ears perking, “Oh? Why didn’t you say so before?”
“Well, there’s nowhere else for starters. Also I’m well aware that it’s an irrational fear. It’s simply eating away at me is all. I keep thinking someone is about to ask me for my papers… That’s how it started.” The dog finished with a weary sigh, and started to take a deep gulp from his mug.
His words struck that little part of my soul that loves a slightly mean spirited prank. Perhaps it wasn’t the best way to introduce myself, but when given a setup like that…
I quickly trotted over, used my magic to tap the dog’s shoulder gently and asked, “Excuse me, herr traveler, may I see your pa-”
The dog spit his drink out in the most comical way, his voice cracked in terror as he shouted, “Contact!”
I had a brief glimpse of a blurring fist which filled my entire view, stars exploded in my eyes, and suddenly I was on the floor, ears ringing.
“Verdamme dich gehirn!” I groaned feebly.