Zecora had always had a way with words. She had to, in order to rhyme all the time. Even setting that aside, she could say things clearly and succinctly, a skill Twilight herself had yet to master. Twilight had never gotten into a serious, heated debate with Zecora, but it wouldn’t surprise her if Zecora could debate her under the table.
Zecora was also, Twilight was learning, an unparalleled master in argument by volume.
The surest sign that they were reaching the port (about half an hour late, but whatever) was when they ran into a small boat heading out of a large river mouth. Almost literally ran into it, considering the smaller boat was travelling fast enough that they almost didn’t see it before they hit it. The other ship puttered to a stop a next them, and when a zebra climbed on top of the cabin, they quickly hustled Zecora to the railing to talk with her. The two zebras then proceeded to have a discussion on right-of-way.
A very, very shouty discussion.
Twilight’s Zebran wasn’t the greatest (actually, it was kinda terrible), but she knew juuuuust enough to get the basic gist of what they were saying. Zecora was explicating on the lack of gray matter within the sailor’s head, to have missed such a large ship, while the sailor was stipulating that someone come down from the Flume so she could make some in-depth introductions; specifically, her hoof to their face. Much comparison between the speakers and female dogs was made, and much emphasis was placed on the marital status, or lack thereof, of their parents. (Zecora’s Zebran lessons often went in some very… interesting directions.) Twilight suspected other, more colorful terms were also being bandied about, but she couldn’t tell.
Eventually, Ponente got sick of it all, went to the helm, and briefly revved the Flume’s engines. It wasn’t enough to get the big ship moving, but it sent a massive rumble throughout the surrounding waters. The sailor suddenly remembered something urgent she had to get to and quickly piloted her dinky little boat away.
As the Flume began to move upriver, Zecora climbed down from the prow and huffed. “I’ve never seen beneath the sun,” she muttered, “a person stubborn as that one.”
But Twilight barely noticed as she squinted after the other boat. It wasn’t relying on the wind, like most Equestrian ships did. “It’s got a motor,” she muttered to herself.
“So?” said Ponente from behind her, making Twilight jump. Ponente sometimes seemed incapable of making sound while moving. “Flume’s got a motor. Other ships are getting motors. Small boats have motors. What’s so special about that one?”
“All our motors run on magic,” said Twilight. “In one way or another. But zebras don’t have magic. So what’s making it run?” She tapped her chin. “I suppose, theoretically if you contained a combustion reaction from something like lamp oil in a small enough space, you could use the rapid atmospheric expansion to push pistons an-”
“You’re saying they power their boats through explosions?”
“They might! We take for granted how much magic we use in everyday life, while zebras don’t have any of that, and limitations breed creativity.”
“Uh-huh. Sure,” scoffed Ponente. She glanced upriver. “Wonder how long it’ll take to get to port.”
She had a point. The river twisted right before it reached the ocean, keeping them from seeing too far up it, and in the unknown waters, the crew was taking it nice and slow. The Flume’s engines were turned so low Twilight suspected their no-longer-present thrumming was outside the range of a pony’s hearing. “I could go up,” suggested Twilight, “and see ho-”
But Ponente waved her down. “Don’t worry about it, Princess,” she said. “I’m not worried yet. Just thinking out loud a little. Inland ports are a thing, after all. Maybe in ten, fifteen minutes, you can head up.” She glanced over her shoulder at a certain armored pegasus and muttered, “If Stormwalker will let you. But not yet.”
“Alright.” And so Twilight turned her attention to the shore and the slowly-passing trees. Now, more than ever, she was glad they hadn’t decided to trek directly through the jungle, even with her limited view from the deck. The ground was uneven, covered in rocks and all kinds of ferns, the kind of ground it’d take ages just to go forward a halfway-decent distance. And she could just forget about taking any of the gifts along and expecting them to be intact at the end. Beneath the trees, she could make out a few shady animals flitting in and out of cover. They didn’t look to be large, and probably wouldn’t’ve been dangerous to her party if they’d gone, but small animals attracted large predators, and those could easily be dangerous. Yes, this port was definitely the best idea.
Out of the corner of her eye, Twilight saw something dart out of the jungle. She whirled to look at it, but it slipped back into the undergrowth before she could see it. Probably scared off by the ship. Twilight sighed; unless she got lucky, there wasn’t much of a chance of clearly seeing an animal that wasn’t going to bite her face off.
Her gaze fell on the shore of the river, and for the first time, Twilight noticed how straight the shores were. She leaned over the railing and looked up- and downriver to confirm her suspicions. Definitely straight.
“Noticed it, did you?” Ponente asked. She chuckled. “Took you long enough. Yeah, this ‘river’ probably isn’t really a river. Zebra-made canal, more likely.”
“A navigation, actually. Canals cut across drainage divides. Navigations follow similar courses to rivers.”
“Oh, close enough,” said Ponente, waving a hoof.
Twilight looked up- and downriver. “I don’t think it’s a pure canal, though. There was probably a river here that the zebras widened and deepened. Otherwise, it’d go a lot straighter.”
“Yeah. So the port’s most likely in a-”
The Flume turned a corner and the trees broke away to reveal the port. It was situated in a large lake, roughly oval-ish; it was maybe a few thousand feet across at its widest and several miles long. On the far side, Twilight could see lots of docks of varying sizes jutting out from the shore. The Flume was easily largest vessel in the lake, with most of the others being small fishing boats and the like. Beyond the docks, Twilight could make out buildings of varying sizes and no real similarities between them. Some were made of rock, some were made of wood, some were made of brick, some had been designed with laserlike precision, some looked like they’d been thrown together at random and dropped from the sky a few times, some were the size of warehouses, some would make a closet look roomy. They didn’t try to push aside the trees, but instead nestled comfortably among them. As a result, Twilight couldn’t see that far back before the trees crowded out her vision. The roads were dirt, a little too broad to be called narrow, and well-worn. There were plenty of zebras about in the town, even from what little Twilight could see, and several boats in the lake. The whole place was a bit too busy to quiet, and a bit too quiet to be busy.
Ponente nodded. “Yep, that’s a port.”
“Thanks, Captain Obvious.”
“Captain Ponente Obvious, Princess. Good place for it, too. Not too far inland, but far enough in to be protected from storms.” Then Ponente frowned. “How do zebras handle the weather here? Or does it work on its own? Oh, well, you’ll find out.” She leaned over the railing and began examining the docks. “That zebra said the port could take us, right?”
“Yes.”
“I hope she meant an actual dock, and not just putting in anchor. I like docks. Docks ar-”
A bell clanged from the other side of the ship. Twilight and Ponente scrambled across the deck and looked down to see a boat drifting alongside them. It was about the same size as the boat they’d nearly hit, but had an official-looking paint job. There was no risk of collision; they were a comfortable distance away. A zebra was standing on the boat’s deck, frantically waving a red flag.
“Hope that means the same thing here as it does back home,” muttered Ponente. Turning to the harbor pilot, she yelled, “Windlass! Bring us to a halt!”
Zecora was brought up as the boat stopped. Her conversation with this zebra was much less shouty and seemed to be actually civilized. After a few back-and-forths, she turned to Ponente. “That zebra there, she has some tips to assist the docking of the ship.”
“Poifect,” said Ponente, rubbing her hooves together. “Just poifect. What do we need to do?”
The talk turned to docking, and Twilight zoned out. This was just not her thing. Talking with zebras? Studying magic? Sure. Not docking. Her gaze wandered and fell on a small ship sitting placidly out in the lake. It was very spartan, not much more than a small cabin, a long and broad deck, and a crane. Twilight guessed it was a transport ship of some kind, but what would you transport here? And the crane was too low to be of much use for anything. Unless…
There was another zebra on the deck, staring inquisitively at Twilight. Too far away to say anything much (even without the language barrier), Twilight settled for a smile and a wave. The zebra cocked her head, then smiled and waved back.
Another zebra emerged from the water right next to the ship, wearing something that looked an awful lot but not quite like scuba gear. Divergent technological development, most likely; they served the same purpose, just went about it in different ways. The deck zebra said something to the scuba zebra and pointed excitedly at Twilight. Scuba looked at her, shrugged, and gestured at the crane. Deck let the crane’s hook down to Scuba, who grabbed it and plunged back underwater.
A light jolt ran through the Flume as its engines started running again, this time even slower. It was headed for the docks, the smaller boat at its side. But Twilight, intrigued by Deck and Scuba, paid that no mind began moving down the Flume to try and keep them in sight.
Scuba popped back out of the water without the hook and clambered easily onto the deck. She did something with the crane; Twilight guessed turning it on (which, in turn, meant the crane was also powered by a motor), because the line leading into the water tightened and the boat tilted slightly. After a few seconds, the crane hoisted out a net full of seaweed; Deck and Scuba swung the crane around and dropped the net onto the deck.
And then Twilight realized: it was a farming operation, just underwater instead of on land. It was so simple, Twilight could see it already: Scuba gathered seaweed and put it into the net until it was full, at which point it was pulled up. Given the lack of farmland around, it was a smart way to get some food without having to go out foraging into the jungle. Seaweed was a delicacy back in Ponyville, but it’d probably be cheap here. She’d have to see if she could get some.
“Steady!” yelled Ponente from the prow. The Flume was almost at the dock and she was directing the ship to a more precise position than Windlass could see. “Steady! Aaaaannnnnd… good! Kill the engines!” She waved a hoof to get Windlass to stop. Before the ship had completely settled down, the sailors were already at work, whether they were getting the gangplank ready or attaching the Flume to the dock’s bollards with rope. They did it with the practiced ease that said they could do it in their sleep.
Twilight took a few deep breaths. They were in it now. No turning back. Not unless she wanted to give some really awkward explanations to Celestia. She quickly assembled Zecora, Applejack, and Spike together, with Stormwalker and Cumulus looming off to the side. “Alright, girls-”
Spike coughed.
“-and dragon-”
“Thank you.”
“-this is it. Once we step onto that dock, our journey has officially begun.”
“So what’ve we been doin’ the past week?”
“You know what I mean, AJ. This’ll be the first planned contact we have with zebras. So…” Twilight sucked in a long breath through her nose. “Don’t choke. Or else this’ll all come crashing down on our heads and ruin everything we’ve done for the past few months and we’ll have come all this way for nothing and we’ll never be friends with the zebras ever at all!” Her legs and wings stiffened and her breathing got hoarse.
Spike and Applejack exchanged Looks. Zecora cleared her throat. “If I’m not wrong, you may be stressed. What bothers you about what comes next?”
“Yeah, Twi,” said Applejack. “Why’re you so jumpy all of a sudden? You had over a month to think about this, then you just go and break down?”
“And it’s not like this is the only diplomacy you’ve ever done,” added Spike. “You’ve worked with griffons and yaks with no problem. Heck, we were worse off with the yaks the first time around, and you weren’t freaking out quite as much then.”
Twilight’s legs unlocked and she rubbed her forehead. “I’m sorry. But I only just realized how risky this is. Like, a few hours ago only just realized. The yaks were, geographically speaking, right next door. You can take a train most of the way to Griffonstone. If I messed up previously, we could send others over to apologize easily. But if we get kicked out of Zebrabwe it’ll be weeks before we can send another envoy over and the zebras will start making up stories about why we got kicked out and they’ll grow in the telling and by the time we get back there’ll be way more stories than we can refute and any chances at friendship will be ruined forever!”
She looked between everybody else. “I never realized just how much of a waste of time this could all be until right now, and it all feels kinda heavy all of a sudden.” Another thought hit her. “And I almost messed up already with the group on the shore!” She began pacing back and forth, muttering to herself. “It would’ve taken longer, way way longer, but I should’ve gotten Zecora and guaranteed a lack of miscommunication, not tried to stumble my way throu-”
Zecora planted a hoof on Twilight’s chest to stop her. Given the earth pony in Twilight, the only result was Zecora getting pushed across the deck for a few feet before Twilight realized what was going on and stopped pacing. She opened her mouth to say something to Zecora, but cut herself off and closed it. If Zecora had something to say, it wouldn’t do any good to interrupt her.
“That may be true,” said Zecora, putting her hoof back on the deck. “It’s also past. You really need to just relax. You’re making all these problems seem far larger than they need to be. Maybe, if you were unskilled, the situation might bode ill. But you are not, so please, buck up.” Zecora grinned. “I highly doubt that you’ll muck up.”
Applejack nodded. “Pretty much that. Really, the only difference between then and now is distance. And zebras are closer to ponies than yaks or griffons are, so we’re already ahead compared to them. Seriously, you’re lookin’ at this way worse than it actually is.”
Silence reigned for half a moment, then everybody looked at Spike. He shrugged. “What? I got nothing to add, you two put it perfectly.”
“Okay,” Twilight sighed. “You’re all right, I know you are, but… well, stress.” She took a deep breath. “Alrighty then,” she muttered, “here we go.”
She headed for the gangplank, flanked by Stormwalker and Cumulus. Behind her, in order, trailed Zecora, Spike, and Applejack. As Twilight stepped off the ship, her rational mind pointed out, once again, that her friends were right and she was overreacting. Her emotional mind refused to listen and kept her heart working in overdrive. But she’d just have to live with it.
A tall, lean, smiling zebra wearing an official-looking uniform was already waiting on the dock. Like Twilight, she had her own bodyguards, both of them with something Twilight didn’t recognize strapped to the inside of their forelegs. However, her guards looked a bit more lax in their discipline, leaning casually rather than standing at attention, and they didn’t have much in the way of uniforms, almost like they were militia rather than part of an organized fighting force. None of them seemed to be staring at Twilight all that much. Or at anyone in the group, for that matter.
Before Twilight could say anything, the zebra bowed slightly. “Greetings, ponies of Equestria,” she said. Her voice was rich and flowing, and although it was accented, she spoke the words like she’d grown up saying them. “Welcome to Bandari Mji, our humble town. I am Idube.”
Well, to come across somebody so fluent in Equestrian right off the boat was unexpected, to say the least. Not to mention she knew they were from Equestria before any of them had actually left the boat. It took Twilight a few extra moments to get her thoughts together. Should she reply in Equestrian or Zebran? She knew from Zecora’s lessons that Zebran greetings could go back and forth for a while, and she didn’t want to waste time (their time was practically unlimited, but she still didn’t want to waste it). But if she responded in Equestrian, would she look like some boorish simpleton who hadn’t bothered to learn the native language?
Twilight took a risk. “Sijambo, Idube,” she said. The traditional Zebran response to the traditional Zebran greeting. Hopefully, it’d be enough to look like she’d attempted to learn the language. “I am Princess Twilight Sparkle.”
An amused grin pulled at the corner of Idube’s mouth. It was only for half a second, but it was definitely there. You go to diplomatic summits a lot, you learn to read faces. Twilight hoped to high heaven it was the “I like this pony” kind of amused, and not the “this pony just screwed up big time” kind of amused.
“We are here,” Twilight continued, “in the hopes of opening diplomatic relations with our country and yours.” So now what should I say? “And we don’t really know where to go from here”? No way, that’d make us look… Oh, how about- “Is there any way you could assist us in that manner?”
“There is indeed, believe it or not. Come.” Idube made a clicking sound with her mouth and turned down the dock.
Twilight briefly looked over her shoulder, flashed a broad grin at her followers, and nodded furiously. Then they all headed after Idube.
Twilight didn’t look around much as she walked; she was too wrapped up in her thoughts. Idube knew Equestrian really well and knew they were ponies. What did that say about her? Or about this place? (What was the name again? Bandari… Bandari Mji.) At first, the only phrase whirling through Twilight’s mind was How? How? How?, but it only took a few moments to swap some of the letters around and become Who? Who? Who? Because, really, the answer was simple: one of the ponies who’d traveled to Zebrabwe in the past had come here at some point and stayed long enough to teach Idube, and possibly other zebras, Equestrian. That would also explain the zebras they met at the river; they just weren’t that good with languages.
…Why, though? Why would they teach zebras Equestrian so thoroughly? Maybe Idube was good with languages, sure. But good with languages or not, you needed time to get that that fluent in a foreign language, not just a quick lesson or two. It could take years. Yeah, she could’ve put in the time, but why? Why would some zebra take the time to learn — not just learn, become fluent in — the language of a land she might never go to? Why would an explorer sit down for years mid-expedition and take the time to go so in-depth about her native language wi-
Twilight’s train of thought was derailed by Idube’s voice. “Here we are.” They’d stopped in front of one of the larger, warehouse-looking buildings. Actually, based on the incredibly large doors off to the side, it probably was a warehouse of some kind. The walls were made of a good, solid-looking type of brick, and were very weathered. The building was probably one of the older ones in the town. (But how old?) No real windows, but aside from the big service doors, the only entrance Twilight could see was the largish-pony-sized door (actually, the zebra-sized door) they were all standing in front of. A sign just below the top of the wall proclaimed something Twilight couldn’t read; Zebran used a different script than Equestrian, and her lessons had focused mainly on the verbal part of Zebran rather than the orthographic part.
“Right in here,” said Idube. She led them into the warehouse. It was wide and bare and empty at the moment, but looked ready to receive cargo of any kind. Yellowish lectric lights illuminated the whole scene. Idube simply crossed the floor, heading for a door on the opposite side of the vast room.
Twilight sped her walk up to a trot. “Excuse me, but where are you taking us?” If she’d been here for any other reason, Twilight would’ve thought the whole scene looked rather… murder-y, for lack of a better term. Isolated, badly lit, grungy. The kind of place serial killers hung out in. But you couldn’t murder a shipload of foreigners without everyone else in town finding out about it, and if the entire town was in on it, you wouldn’t bother hiding it.
“To someone who can better handle your situation than myself,” said Idube. “She currently works with shipping, but she has spent time talking with King Inkosi in Kulikulu.”
“Personally?” asked Twilight, her ears going up. Kulikulu, she guessed, was Zebrabwe’s capital, if that was where the king was.
“Correct,” said Idube. She was almost-smiling again. “I believe that she is able to find you an entrance into the Royal Court.”
Oh, yes. Yes yes yessss. That was exactly what Twilight wanted. It was just a shame that it had to be in such a dismal place.
They reached the door on the other side of the warehouse. “She is inside,” said Idube, pointing at the door. “I would join you, but there is not enough room for both of us.”
“Thank you,” Twilight said, nodding at Idube. She put her hoof on the knob and opened t-
-there was no knob.
Twilight stared at the place where the knob should’ve been, as if that would make it appear. Nope. Definitely no knob. Did the door open inwards, and you just pushed it? Twilight nudged the door. It didn’t open inward. And there was no handle to pull it outward. And it couldn’t work with magic, because zebras didn’t have magic.
She didn’t know how to open the door.
Her heart began racing again and it felt like everyone was staring at her. She’d made it over the first few hurdles, and now she was about to be undone by a freaking DOOR?! This was not good. This was not good a-
“Step on the pedal, Twi,” whispered Applejack.
Twilight blinked and looked down. Nestled up against the doorframe, right on the edge and quite innocuous, was a worn metal pedal. She stepped on it, and the door swung inward. Oh.
You could’ve boiled soup on Twilight’s cheeks right then and still had enough heat left over to roast a marshmallow or two.
The room on the other side of the door was on the smallish size already, just barely large enough for two, maybe three, ponies and a desk, but felt even smaller, due to the sheer mass of stuff inside. Mostly books, papers, and what Twilight assumed were filing cabinets, but there were also things like statues, for some reason. And the stuff was everywhere: on shelves, on top of shelves, on almost every square inch of the floor, sticking out of cabinets, everywhere. The librarian in Twilight started screaming and urging her to organize absolutely everything. It was hard to ignore. The whole scene was illuminated by a ceiling lamp with one bright bulb and one dim one that seriously needed to be replaced.
On the other side of a rather small desk sat, of all things, an earth pony. She was old but not exactly elderly, just entering the age where a gray mane was source of pride rather than anxiety. Not that she had much gray yet; her mane and tail, trimmed short, were mostly a rosy peach, offset by a pale yellow coat. She was hunched over a scroll, scribbling away with a quill in her mouth.
Twilight couldn’t resist sucking in a breath. She knew this pony. Not personally, but from pictures.
The mare looked up. She had a monocle in one of her green-irised eyes. “Hmm, hmm, yeth?” she asked around the quill. “What…” Her voice trailed off and the quill dropped from her mouth as she realized she was talking to an alicorn.
“Dr. Livingstone, I presume?” said Twilight. She did her best to keep her voice under control — Livingstone, one of the foremost experts on Zebrabwe, was right there! She wanted to burst out squeeing and gushing, but squeeing and gushing were quite unbecoming of a princess, most unfortunately.
Livingstone removed her monocle and grinned. “Yes, indeed, yes I am, Your Highness.” In a surprisingly spry move for her age, she vaulted over her desk — after all, it wasn’t like she could make more of a mess — and briefly dropped to her knees in front of Twilight. “So,” she said as she stood back up, “Equestria has a new princess, then, does it? I always said Celestia could do with a second princess to help with whatever, yes, yes.”
Right. Livingstone had last been in Equestria before Nightmare Moon’s return, hadn’t she? She wouldn’t know of anything since then. “It’s a bit more complicated than that,” said Twilight. “First of all, Nightmare Moon — you’ve heard of her, right?”
“Most certainly.”
“She came back from the moon several years ago, but some friends and I banished the evil within Princess Luna and redeemed her with the Elements of Harmony-”
“The Whats of What?” asked Livingstone with a frown.
Twilight paused, then said, “-with a collection of magical artifacts-” (Livingstone seemed to accept that.) “-and she now rules alongside Celestia.”
“Three princesses, then,” said Livingstone. She frowned a little. “Might be a bit much; I always thought that two would be plenty.”
“I’m not done yet. Cadance — have you heard of Cadance?”
“Indeed. Forgot about her, at first. She used to be a pegasus, if I’m not wrong.”
“Right. Her. She’s grown up and married — to my brother, as a matter of fact — and has her own dominion within Equestria.” Twilight decided not to mention the Crystal Empire yet. She didn’t want to throw too much at Livingstone at one time.
“Hmm. Hmm hmm,” hmmed Livingstone. She frowned again, a bit more deeply. “Four. That’s an awf-”
“And,” interrupted Twilight, “her baby daughter’s also an alicorn, so you might want to count her as a princess, too.”
Livingstone’s eye twitched, then she burst out laughing. “Well, I’ll be. Five princesses. At this rate, when I get back to Equestria, I’ll be the only normal pony in a land of alicorns, each and every one of them a princess! Or prince, as the case may be.” Her chuckles died away and she cleared her throat. “That being said, what brings you all the way out to Zebrabwe and my little business?”
“I’m on a diplomatic mission from Equestria,” said Twilight. “We hope to open up relations with the zebras, and Idube out there said you could help us.”
Livingstone blinked, bit her lip, and looked away. “Hnng. I… I can help you,” she said, “but the specifics could prove a mite tricky.”
Oh, boy. Just what they needed. Still, they were better off than they’d been when they’d arrived. “We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it,” said Twilight. “I’ve faced bigger problems before.” Technically true, but those were in a completely different category of “problem”. Here, you couldn’t just sling the Elements at the problem and make it go away, even if all the Bearers had been here. Actually, trying to blast your would-be diplomatic allies with a magic friendship laser probably wouldn’t produce the best results, well-intentioned or not. On the other hoof, there was always the possibility that it would just be a mite tricky, rather than a lot tricky. Probably not, but hey, she could dream.
Livingstone hmmed again. “Maybe,” she muttered. “Maybe.” Then she was smiling again. “But let’s be out of this minute room, hmm? You didn’t come here on your own, I don’t think, so why don’t you introduce me to the rest of your party quick a minute?”
“Sure,” said Twilight. “They’re right outside.”
Outside, Twilight’s friends and Idube looked like they were trying and failing to make idle chitchat to pass the time. Stormwalker and one of Idube’s guards were glaring at each other in imitation of the standoff a few hours ago. Cumulus and the other guard seemed to be trying to communicate with some bizarre form of charades. Cumulus couldn’t speak Zebran, and evidently, the guard couldn’t speak Equestrian.
“Hujambo, Idube!” said Livingstone brightly.
“Sijambo,” Idube replied.
The two of them started talking back and forth in Zebran. From what Twilight could pick out, it sounded like Livingstone was just confirming what Twilight had told her with Idube and a bit of speculation between the two about how to go about getting Twilight into Kulikulu. Zecora quickly shuffled behind Twilight and whispered in her ear, “They are talking, it seems to me, about how you’ll do diplomacy.”
“That’s what I thought,” Twilight whispered back, “but thanks anyway. Keep it up, just in case.”
Zecora nodded and took a step back out of Twilight’s space.
Finishing up her conversation with Idube, Livingstone turned back to Twilight. She looked over Zecora, Applejack, and Spike, and laughed softly. “The only way your group could be more eclectic,” Livingstone said, “is if you also had a griffon and a changeling.”
“Hey,” said Twilight defensively, “I-”
But Livingstone waved her down. “Just an observation, Princess. Why don’t we do introductions?”
Twilight nodded. “Livingstone, these are Zecora, my translator, Applejack, my aide, and Spike, my number one assistant.” She pointed at each individual in turn. “Girls and dragon, this is Dr. Livingstone, one of the-” Don’t squee, squeeing is unbecoming. “-most knowledgeable hippologists in Equestria when it comes to Zebrabwe.”
“It’s not like there’s much competition,” snorted Livingstone.
“Howdy anyway,” said Applejack, tipping her hat. “I didn’t expect to see a pony so far from Equestria.”
“You’ll find a lot of things in Zebrabwe you didn’t expect,” said Livingstone. To Twilight, she said, “Begging your pardon, but is there any way we can delay this until, say, lunch? I’m sorry, but I’m quite busy at the moment, and while I’d like to talk, I’m afraid I don’t have the time just yet, no.”
“I… I guess so,” said Twilight. It pained her to say it — her best link to the king of Zebrabwe was right there, and she couldn’t talk with her at all for the next few hours — but this wasn’t Equestria. She was effectively a nobody here, and it’d be a lot harder for people to open up their schedules for her. “We do need to unload our cargo.”
“If you want, you can drop it off here,” said Livingstone. She looked around the empty warehouse and grinned wryly. “It’s not like you’ll be displacing anybody.” And she was gone back inside her office.
Twilight took a few deep breaths. Okay. So far, so… decent, at least. It was hard to say if it was actually “good”, considering she didn’t know what the problems were. But they had a contact with the king — and an actual pony, no less — and a jumping-off place to begin. They had a long journey ahead of them, but landfall was nothing to sneeze at.
But for the next few hours, they had work to do. “Let’s get back to the ship,” she said to her group. “That cargo isn’t going to unload itself.”
Idube nodded. “I can help you with that.”
“If you could, that’d be great.”