//------------------------------// // 17 The Night Jewel // Story: The Queen is Dead // by Meep the Changeling //------------------------------// David - 27th of Megan '15 EoH - Late Afternoon “My kingdom for a travel agent.” I groaned, setting down the cart handles yet again, feet aching from a day of tramping up and down the rickety plank docks. “You have a kingdom?” Jade asked in a surprised tone. “I… no…” I sighed. If only ponies got my references. Jade made a confused sound from atop the cart, “Then, why-” “It’s a literature quotation…. paraphrase… Shut up, my feet hurt.” I retorted. Equis days are not like Earth days. They are way longer. I checked. Back when my watch still worked I noticed a full day night cycle was about nine hours longer than Earth’s. That might not seem like much, but it meant that morning, noon, evening, and night were about a movie’s run time longer than what I was used to. So, spending the afternoon tramping about looking for someone willing to give a ride to me was that much longer. Thus, there was that much more walking and cart pulling on shoddy, first year apprentice level boardwalks. I could have built better boardwalks than this with only hand tools. That’s counting me having to get the wood myself. There were gaps between the planks I could fit my hand through, and almost no boards were flush. Pulling a cart over this was hell on the back and arms. Walking on this even in my good boots was hell on my feet and knees. This wasn’t my old body, why did it feel like it? Because these docks sucked. That’s why. Fuck these docks with a rotting Cornish game hen on a stick. “Your feet hurt?” Azur, I mean Lily, asked in a sort of confused concern. “Yes. I don’t have hooves. I have feet. It’s soft skin. Why do you think I always wear boots?” I griped, giving the girly-colt a miserable glare. “I thought it was a fashion thing.” she admitted shyly. “I can help if you like. Do you know exactly why they hurt?” I turned to face girl-for-the-ship-ride and gave her a confused eyebrow raise. “Oh!” She giggled, giving me a small grin, “I can try to reshape your feet to reduce pain after walking long distances. Or, well, you’re a doctor, if you tell em the why maybe I can make a better solution.” “Ah.” I nodded. “It’s these god damn boardwalks. The shitty construction means I have to work overtime to stay balanced and to get enough traction to pull the old wagon here. Extra stress on the ligaments, extra pressure on the bones, muscles all working overtime. It’s just beyond my physical fitness, which seeing as I can pull this thing for days in the forest out there, makes me want to set fire to these docks and build them better ones.” Lily nodded and gave her tail a quick swish. “I can do that. Just a simple stamina boost. No big deal.” I felt my lips purse into an irritated frown. “Seriously?” She nodded. “This whole time, with the daily running, the constant threat of griffon soldiers, and the black-bug-hawks air raids, and you're only just now telling me you can just improve my overall stamina?” I demanded angrily. Lily frowned and shyly kicked a hoof against the dock’s crappy planking. “Well, yeah… Wizardry isn’t Sorcery… I need to know how you work before I can do anything. I got an okay idea of simple things now. You’re not a pony, I had to observe long enough and stuff…” “Oh.” Well, I felt like a bit of a dick. “Sorry about yelling…” “It’s okay. You don’t know how magic works.” Lily soothed. She took a few steps forwards and stroked her chin with a hoof, then nodded. “Yes. I think I've seen you move enough to make the spell work. I can’t like, make you have super-endurance, but I can try to put your body into it’s peak physical shape. But…” “But what?” Jade and I asked together. “It will take at least two hours, and I’ll be out of energy afterwards.” Lily explained with a sigh. “So, you know, we need to get a ship…” “Well, it’s not like we’ve found a ship so far.” Jade sighed. I joined her with a sigh of my own and sat down. One of the perks of being a dog was nopony here was going to tell me to move my cart. The racist dicks could stand something of a boardwalk bottleneck for a few minutes. It wasn’t that busy in the port anymore anyways. “I’m sorry guys.” I apologize. “If I thought you could make it on your own, I’d leave so you could get passage.” Fourteen ships, fourteen captains, and fourteen offers of more than a fair compensation in both coin and some of my cargo. Fourteen nos, because they don't want the ‘savage’ aboard their ship. Sure, there were a few more ships left to try, but statistically speaking, we should probably just build a raft and buy some sailcloth. “It’s not your fault.” Lily said, ears drooping, “they don’t know you’re a good dog.” Jade giggled at her unintentional joke, I smirked. “Thanks Az- uh, Lily.” I said shaking my head. “For what?” she asked, before her eyes widened in realization. “Oh my gosh! I’m so sorry!” “It’s fine! It was funny.” I chuckled. I turned to look out over the ocean. The small fleet of small single masted ships blocked most of the view, but the ocean was still pretty breathtaking. There had to be some way to get aboard one vessel or another. A sharp metallic scratch made my ears twitch. Halfway through my turn to see what had made the zippo-like sound an eerily familiar voice greeted, “Fancy seeing you two here.” I turned in time to see the pale white mare from Applewood, leaning against two crates, a freshly lit cigarette glowing between her teeth. “Holy shit!” I exclaimed, jumping up and ignoring the resulting protest from my shins. “I never thought I would see you again! That gun you paid for saved my life, thank you!” She smiled gently and brushed a lock of her mane to one side. “You’re welcome. See? That’s why you pay karma forwards. Wait a moment…” Her eyes narrowed for a moment before opening again in recognition, “Hey! Azur, you’re with these two? Fancy that.” Turning back to me she explained, “The two of us met at Butterscotch’s Pub last night.” Az- Lily, beamed what’s her name a smile of recognition, “Oh ja! That was you! I uh… I honestly can’t remember a lot of last night um, do you?” The pale mare cracked the biggest grin ever and shook her head, biting on her cigarette to hold back a laugh. “Heh… Sorry kid, but no. That unicorn brews a hell of a mead.” I frowned sadly. I’d been hoping we could have been enlightened on where Lily had been pierced. I would have loved to meet their maker. Or whomever had made her that contact. “Uh,” Jade asked in a concerned tone, hopping down from the cart. “Why are you here?” “Business.” She replied immediately. “Waiting on a ship to finish unloading. How about you lot? Following a mare around for no good reason?” She gave me a creepily playful wink at the end of her sentence. I shuddered. God I hope that nearly albino, frankly a bit creepy, mare wasn’t hitting on me. “Ah, no.” I said hesitantly. “We’re actually trying to book passage to Zebrica.” Jade quickly stepped over to me and hissed, “Why did you tell her that? She obviously followed us, she could be a changeling!” The mare chuckled, “I’m not a changeling. If I were, I would be a unicorn. The horns are cute. My name’s Dusk, I’m something of a businessmare around these parts. I can see why you would think I was following you, but I assure you I was only in Applewood for a brief… Humm, let’s call it setting up some dominoes for a personal enterprise.” Well, I did give her one thing. She certainly sounded like a businessperson. Jade narrowed her eyes and stepped back a little. “I still don’t trust you…” Dusk nodded with an understanding expression on her face, “I don’t blame you. I heard some changelings got squicked last night. Swarm types right? I’m guessing you were involved?” It made sense that rumors would have filled the city fairly quickly. I imagined that a public brawl against a roving warband didn’t happen here much. “Yeah.” I said simply, “Hence, the boat trip.” She took a long drag on her cigarette, letting out a puff of smoke which I swear for a second looked exactly like a pony’s skull. “How much gold do you have?” She asked. “Excuse me?” Lily asked abruptly. “I have a few ships in the harbor I might be able to get you on. But it will cost you. What can you pay?” Dusk asked, standing up properly. “Why are you helping us again?” I asked suspiciously. She rolled her eyes. “If the Demon Queen wants you, she will come for you, and then the whole bloody city will be a literal bloody city. If you were involved in what I heard was a changeling infiltration group clocking out, she wants you dead. Hence, if you stay here, my business will go in a direction I really don’t want. Thus, it’s in my interest to get you out of here. Get it?” Jade frowned, but nodded. “That… makes sense.” It did. I turned to give Lily a questioning look. She nodded. “Allright. We have two hundred Lions.” I answered. Dusk nodded twice, a look on her face suggesting she was in the middle of mental math. “Okay, and where do you want to go?” “We were hoping to get as close to Quis in Zebrica as we can.” I replied. “Quis?” She asked in surprise. “That’s a little far for a Stalliongrad ship…” I sighed, “So I’ve heard… But how close-” “Oh no, I can get you there.” Dusk said holding a hoof up in a ‘wait’ gesture. “Just not on a local ship. There is a ship coming in a few hours from now, assuming she’s on schedule. “She’s called the Night Jewel, a… well, if you don’t object to sailing with… let’s call her an independent merchant vessel. Eh, that is, I can get you safe passage on her. Her captain owes me a favor. With a little gold to grease his hooves and that debt considered paid, which isn’t very much before you object, I can get you and your cargo there to Quis.” “An ‘independent merchant’ you say?” I asked sarcastically. “I’m guessing that her captain trades in all sorts of random things and is an aggressive negotiator.” “Quite so,” Dusk agreed taking a puff on her cigarette, “But also a Zebra of his word. You’ll be quite safe.” “Er- I don’t get what’s wrong with taking some merchant's ship.” Jade said in a baffled tone. I heard Lily’s facehoof echo off the city wall. “She means it’s a pirate vessel.” Lily whispered. “And that means, what, exactly?” Jade asked. Dusk and I shared a long look. The look an old soul gives when the young has demonstrated the downfall of their youth. “I’ll do it.” Dusk said after a long quiet moment. “Thank you.” I grunted. “A pirate,” Dusk explained, “is a sailor, whose activities at sea, are not always legal. It’s not quite fair to think of them as bandits, see, running a ship is expensive. They are more like… business ponies who care nothing for the rules of landlubbers.” Jade’s fluffy pegasus ears drooped in concern, “Uh then that doesn't sound safe…” “In general, no it is not. However, in this case it is.” Dusk insisted. “Captain Sudi doesn't trade in slaves, and won’t break a deal with someone once it’s made. Mind you without that deal he would most certainly leave you bleeding out and sell your things at market, but so long as a bargain is struck he holds to it.” There was an important decision to make here. On one hand, we didn’t have to get all the way to Quis in one shot. On the other, the more distance we put between us and the Swarm, the better. Yet to get the distance we wanted, we would have to trust this mare and a pirate. But back on that first hand, if we couldn’t find a ship by sundown… “Shit…” I groaned. Turning to face Jade and Lily I shrugged. “She has us by the balls here. We won't get a ship on our own, so the sun sets and we have to leave town. That happens, and the Swarm gets us. We can’t escape them on foot. We need to take her bargain.” Lily nodded, biting her lip nervously, “You're right. I don’t like it though.” Jade nodded, “This is really risky… But yeah.” Dusk cleared her throat, “So then, how about you give me a hundred and fifty Lions, and I’ll have somepony sent to fetch you when your ship has arrived?” I narrowed my eyes in suspicion, “What is keeping you from pocketing it and running off?” She smiled for a brief instant. “Smart man! Will a contract ease your mind? I can write one up right now.” “It would.” I replied firmly, “Also half now, half later.” “Fair enough.” Dusk replied before pulling a black notebook from seemingly nowhere along with a silver quill. She scribbled out a few short lines, then signed her name on the page, and held the quill out for me. I scanned over the text, it was clear enough, a simple statement of agreement to arrange safe passage to Quis aboard the Night Jewel, with failure meaning the hundred and fifty to be returned to us with an additional hundred for the trouble. I signed the page, Dusk gently tore it out and handed it to me. “There you are.” I nodded, took out the coin pouch and counted out the agreed seventy five Lions. “And here you are.” She took the coins, tucked them into a small bag she had hidden behind her mane, and nodded. “If you three will simply wait on dock twelve, your ship will be here in three or so hours. I’ll have word sent to Sudi to expect you, and you simply pay him the rest of the gold. Sound good?” I nodded. “Sounds good… Thank you again. If this all works out, and I ever see you again, I owe you big.” She shook her head, “No you don’t this is benefiting me far more than you. This city is precious to me, it’s a growing crystal in this pig’s trough of a nation. In a thousand years who knows what she may be? I do not want to see it’ streets run with blood. You owe me nothing by steering the Swarm’s wrath elsewhere.” Dusk gave us a polite nod and turned, walking down the dock. “Have a nice trip everypony and dog.” Everyone stayed quiet as the cigarette smoking mare retreated into the distance. We all knew it. Only an idiot couldn’t tell what was going on. Yet someone had to say it. “Right. Odds are great this is a trap.” I said, just because someone had to. “Ja.” Lily added. “You said a few days ago, you could make mana potions… I think I should try to enhance you, und you should make some of those.” “Good plan.” I said in agreement. “Jade, what’s your input?” Jade stroked her chin with a hoof in thought, “Well, if it’s not a trap, we should try to help the crew. I might not know much about pirates, but if we can get them to see us as useful and not just cargo, that might help.” “Also a good plan.” I agreed. “How about if it is a trap?” “Uh…” She paused for a few seconds, her face twisting thoughtfully, “Have Lily seduce them while we run?” “Hey!” Lily objected angrily, spinning to give Jade an angry glare fast enough to make her dress billow. “Sorry… I had nothing.” Jade admitted with a blush. I shook my head slowly, “Right. So, walk me through this magic while we walk.” “Ja, good idea.” Lily said starting to trot down the docks. She explained as we moved. It was hard for me to understand most of it, which makes sense. I only had the two spells I knew. It was a lot like talking to a fighter pilot about flying after just barely learning how to keep a plane sturdy. From what I could tell, the biomancy was one of the most simple ones out there. The magic would slowly run through my body, and artificially make changes to it in the same way years of working out would. Apparently it was mostly used in Germaney to help ponies who were suffering from degenerative diseases, but back in the war had been a soldier's tool. The actual changes being done via the magic were simple, crude even, but medically sound. An eighth of the mana used worked to stimulate the muscles, tendons, and ligaments, the rest was absorbed by the body to fuel the development. By the time the spell was complete, my body would either be as additional fit as the available magic could make it, as fit as I could naturally be, or at the worst, incredibly sore in the manner of having just finished the most intense workout ever. Despite the risk of being too sore to move and thus, useless in the event of an ambush, I told Azur to go ahead. This body was amazing, and after years of travel it was in pretty good shape. There is always room to be better though, and I would rather know I can take whatever lies ahead and stay standing, than wonder if something may have prevented my fall in the moments left before death. What Lily failed to tell me is that the actual spell would hurt while she cast it. The whole two hours felt like someone was scraping their fingernails down every inch of my skin at the same time. It wasn’t agony, but it did hurt, enough to make my attempts at alchemy nearly useless. In the end I had to simply settle on making a ton of ginseng tea and hope that would work for our resident wizardess to refuel her own stamina. Before we had a chance to find out, the Night Jewel sailed into port. There was no mistaking the Night Jewel for any other ship. Dusk had said it could get us to Quis, meaning it wasn’t one of the local Roman trireme like ships we had been sitting near all day. The ship that sailed in just as the sun began to dip down in the sky had no right to be called a ship. It was a god damn floating palace. I hadn’t seen anything like this outside archaeologist’s drawings. The Night Jewel was at least three hundred yards long, and seventy yards wide. It was shaped like a huge rectangular prism with rounded corners, and had at least a hundred oars on each side, along with two towering masts sporting squair sales dyed a brilliant red. The ship itself was also painted red, and highlighted with dark stained wood fittings. Stacked atop that already impressive structure was a literal palace. The stern of the ship had a three story Arabic looking palace built atop it, with a goddamn garden out front including what looked like a small grove of fruit trees. The deck in front of that was filled with cargo, crates, and barrels stacked up modern container ship style. The ship must have been carrying at least eight hundred tons of cargo on that section of deck alone. With how tall it was, there could be twice that below decks. Even with the banks of oars. Six other ships had to actually set sail and head out to the port’s bay as the Night Jewel came in. The damn thing was so large it literally wouldn’t have fit in the dock if those ships had stayed moored to the adjacent dock. I was completely speechless. The sight of this ship which was only appropriate for Emperor fucking Caligula, a literal floating palace of ruby red, gold, and dark oak, was so completely mind breaking as to make me forget to speak in Equish as I exclaimed, “What in the flying fuck?” It took me a full fifteen seconds to realize that Jade and Lily had echoed something similar to my own surprise expletive. “What the fuck is a ship of that size even doing sailing into this port?” I demanded, jaw still hanging in awe. “She’s delivering a year of basic foodstuffs. Please clear the docks, we will be unloading for several hours.” A voice said as a large group of dockworkers trotted past towards the end of the dock. “Uh… So... “ Jade said, stopping mid sentence. I totally understood her inability to say a goddamn thing. “Faust Mähne!” Lily exclaimed in awe. “... I think we are safe.” “Why?” I asked curiously, not taking my eyes off the ship as it’s oars pulled up from the water and retracted into the sides as she drifted for the dock. “With how much that ship costs to keep working… Selling us into slavery isn’t a drop in the bucket of the money they have…” she added. I opened my mouth to object, saying that they probably needed every single penny, but then the Night Jewel slid alongside the dock passing in front of my face. The little gold colored decorations and embellishments were not as I had assumed painted or gold leaf. They were plates of actual gold riveted to the damn hull. Maybe girly-pone had a fucking point. A sharp whistle made my head snap back, looking up the two stories of ship hull to the deck, where a large Zebra with piercing green eyes was leaning over the side. “Aye! Are you three the passengers Her Finality asked the good Captain to take aboard?” “How the hell is a hundred and fifty Lions even enough for passage on this?” I asked, my mind still trying to process everything. The Zebra laughed and shook his head. “I will have a crew bring you and your wagon aboard shortly. As for your question, Lady Dusk’s services are more than equivalent to your fare in the good Captain’s eyes.” “Oh… okay.” I said ears drooping. “When you come aboard, I will take you to meet the Captain. He is eager to meet the Lady’s Dusk’s friends.” The Zebra called before vanishing over the railing. After three long moments of processing exactly what had been said, I turned to Lily and Jade. “Right. So. First chance we get we find out exactly who the fuck Dusk is and what exactly she deals in, because either she runs this country or the entirety of the underground in this country and likely beyond…” “Yep.” Jade agreed meekly. “It’s even bigger up close…” Lily murmured in awe. “Yes. It is.” I agreed taking a few steps back to admire the Night Jewel. Who the hell would have thought we would be leaving in this sort of style? I sure hadn’t. At the moment all I knew was that I didn’t care if this was a trap anymore. I had to see the inside of this ship. Simply watching it sail into port had added that to my bucket list.