Turning Back the Winter

by Dinkledash

Strongwing the Fearless

Strongwing leaned back on his cloud couch as a servant refilled his wine cup. "And so my friends, as you can see, the influence of commerce with earth ponies and unicorns, as well as other races, over the past thousand years has changed the pegasus language forever! We only ever use the older forms of words, such as Strategos," he bowed his gray head to where he knew Hurricane was seated, "when in formal settings or discussing concepts such as democratic governance, which of course may not have equivalents in the trade speech which has grown out of ancient unicorn and earth pony tongues."

Hurricane flexed his wings and smiled at Gray Wind, who was reclining next to him. "We've started to use terms such as 'Commander' in day-to-day conversations. Our ponies spend so much time dealing with you groundies, no offense," Celestia nodded, smiling, "that it's just become easier to use the trade speech here. Even our names very different from those of our ancestors." He grabbed another piece of karydopsomo, a bread filled with walnuts, and dipped it in honey before stuffing it into his mouth and munching, making sounds of delight.

When I'm princess, a pegasus chef for certain! Celestia idly mused as she ate another forkful of delectable salad loaded with the indescribable feta. Starwirl sat next to her on his cloud couch and patted his belly, then let loose with a sudden belch, covering his mouth belatedly and apologizing as she giggled.

"No need to apologize, young unicorn. I shall inform my chef that you approve of his cooking!" Strongwing smiled and bowed, and then Hurricane released a stronger, well formed belch, causing the elderly pony to smile even more broadly, touching his hoof to his forehead. Gray Wind joined in, doing credit to the chef as could be expected of a farmer's daughter. Then Celestia realized that they were all looking at her expectantly, Starswirl with his saucy grin. Oh yeah?

Celestia exhaled, then opened her throat and swallowed a considerable quantity of air by expanding her diaphragm while not inhaling. Then when she was sure she was ready, she released said air, and used the Voice as she did so.

The resulting belch was audible three blocks away. Bits of cloud rained down from the ceiling where they had been shaken loose. Strongwind shook his head in amazement as all conversation in the room stopped and everypony turned to look to the source of that gargantuan, resounding eructation. Starswirl picked himself up off the floor as he had fallen off the couch in surprise, then he started to turn beet red.

Maybe that wasn't such a good idea... Celestia was starting to feel acutely self-conscious when the chef came charging out of the kitchen, sauce all over his front from a pot which may have been knocked over due to Celestia's over-exuberance. He ran up to her and stood in front of her, plainly shocked.

Then his face split open in a broad grin and he cried, "Opa!" The assembly all took up the cheer, "opa!" ringing out all around as somepony started enthusiastically strumming a tambouras while the others stood, clapped and started dancing. The chef kissed her on both cheeks, getting some sauce on her coat and joined in with the dancing as Commander Hurricane rose from his couch, saluted her gravely, then winked at her with a grin. Gray Wind and Strongwing were laughing heartily and clapping with the music and of course Starswirl was on his back on the floor again, laughing himself breathless, holding his stomach while kicking his rear legs in the air.

A group of the dancers came over and surrounded her, lifting her couch and suddenly she was hoisted up above the dancers, swirling and bouncing and trying hard not to fall off, while laughing almost as hard as Starswirl. The room spun around and she had to use some magic to stabilize her inner ear so that she wouldn't get nauseous. After a few minutes, they put her back and the dancing resumed with some close-in aerobatics providing a breathtaking impromptu indoor airshow. Watching the pegasi spin around on one another's wingtips was exhilarating; she had no idea why they didn't crash into one another, but they managed to perform one amazing maneuver after another.

Finally Strongwing stood up and called out "Opa, opa!" The dancing and music stopped and there was cheering and applauding, making Celestia wonder exactly what that word meant, and bags of ouzo were hoisted. Strongwing took his own bag and toasted Celestia. "Fillies and gentlecolts, I give you Unicornia and Equesse Celestia! Stin oraia zoe!"

"To the beautiful life!" cried a few dozen pegasi as they dashed back their drinks. Celestia bowed, blushing and rose herself, her own bag of ouzo before her.

"To my host, Strongwing, to his aerobatic guests, and to his glorious kitchen!" Then she tossed back her ouzo, the heat running down her throat as Strongwing inclined his head and the chef bowed deeply before her. Then the old hero turned to his guests.

"My friends, we are here to discuss some serious matters, but I am very glad that our friends from Unicornia realize the importance of eating, drinking, dancing and loving. Without these things, life is not worth the living, and our world would not be worth the saving. Now, let us set aside our food and drink for the time being, and take up our politics. It is time for us to get to business." He sat back on his couch and a servant standing next to him picked up a sheaf of small note papers and a quill. Celestia noticed that she and Starswirl also had a small sheaf of notepapers and a quill; one of her host's servants must have brought them out during the dancing.

"Celestia," began Strongwing, "thank you for joining us. The purpose of this little party is to allow us to come to a consensus informally, before the Ekklesia is called. This will allow factions to form around a variety of opinions so that we'll have to spend less time building power bases and more time with the necessary wheeling and dealing to come to a decision. You've made your case, very well, before the Boule this morning, despite the machinations of my grandson." Celestia gave a sideways glance towards Thunder Stormtrotter who reclined in a corner with his two cronies. His power play had been defeated, but he still had the standing to be heard. His influence was, however, much diminished.

"Only because of your intervention, honored sir. Umm..." she continued to look at the glowering trio, "they wouldn't really have thrown us off the cloud, would they?"

"I'm sure that was purely rhetorical." Strongwing frowned and the three plotters all suddenly found something interesting to look at in their ouzo. "They were just trying to get the crowd riled up to establish a bargaining position for their skeptical faction. I normally wouldn't have intervened, because it would never have gone that far. But we don't have weeks for the usual drama to play out. You see, Cloud Striker is my niece. We made sure that she won the contract at the Observatory." Celestia's eyebrows rose at that bit of news. "We knew what your mother had been working on. These kids just hadn't been read on to the program, until now." She looked back at his grandson who was staring at them, mouth agape, then returned her gaze to the blind ancient.

"Wait, you've been spying on us? On my mom!?"

"Of course, that's what nations do, you know. We don't have magic, but we do have eyes everywhere. Well, almost everywhere. Everypony needs pegasi for weather control and transportation. Don't be scandalized, it's a two-way street. You unicorns have your own ways of gathering information. I'm sure the Earth Ponies do too, though we haven't quite figured that out. Its almost as if once in a while, one of them does something impossible." He shrugged. "But that isn't possible, is it? By definition." His blind eyes smiled.

"I suppose not. What happens now?" Celestia leaned forward on her couch.

"We talk. I'll start. Everypony, in my opinion, what the unicorns have told us is true, verified by our own intelligence. I can see no other course than cooperation and support for their project. I think the only thing there is to talk about is who works what shifts and how we work out our delays with the freeholds and our noble unicorn customers. Our enemy here is not one another; it is time. If any would care to dispute this opinion, kindly speak now."

The room was silent. Strongwing allowed the silence to continue for a full minute before nodding. "That much at least is settled. Now, I recommend that the farms and herders dedicated to this project be chosen by lot." To that, the answer was a confusing hubbub as various farmers and factors argued for exemptions due to a variety of hardships, demanded tax relief or suggested that Unicornia pay a premium to make up for the inherent inefficiencies. Many notes were passed from one guest to another While this was going on, a servant came in from the kitchen and whispered to Strongwing. He frowned, then whispered back as the servant scribbled a note.

The servant, a white pegasus with a turquoise and white mane, walked the note over to Celestia. She smiled and thanked him, and read the politic. It was written in an exceedingly fine and small hand.

"Measure Legscye's life is in danger. A plate of Saganaki will be served to you. Eat the first piece on the left. You will become violently ill from eating all this rich food, and will have to retire early. The illness will pass and then my servants will take you to Whitherville tonight."

Celestia's eyes widened and she showed the note to Starswirl. A second servant came by with a plate of fried cheese. A slice on the left was set aside from the others. Celestia turned to Starswirl with a sickly smile and shrugged.

He rolled his eyes. "The things I do for love." He took the slice and bit into it.

______

"Uuuuugh."

"I'm so sorry baby, I'll make it up to you somehow." They laid in the back of a chariot, pulled by two pegasi. She wasn't quite sure why the chariot itself flew; perhaps the pegasus craftsponies had some way to imbue their flight magic in the structure of the vehicle. Starswirl looked up at her, green in the gills. "You can't upchuck again. There can't be anything left." He rolled over, leaned his head over the side and proved her wrong.

He rolled back and looked up at her miserably. "It was supposed to pass. It isn't passing. I'm passing. Away. Slowly. Write on my tombstone that... urrp!" He rolled to the side again and vomited again.

"How do you spell that, exactly? Oh I'm sorry I can't help it, you've been a bad influence on me." She smoothed his mane and wiped his mouth and beard with a napkin while he looked daggers at her.

Over the next half hour or so he did recover, at least to the point where he could stand and appreciate the ride. The moonlight painted the world silver and black as the raced under the stars. It was a far more exhilarating ride than the slow cloud up to Stratos. Strongwing had promised that the Ekklesia would send an embassy to Unicornia with its decision, and that the decision was at this point a foregone conclusion. But he also confided in her that they knew the rebellion in Unicornia was not finished with the Battle of Riverside. She would never look at a low-flying cloud the same way again. Privacy would only ever be indoors, and maybe not even then if what he said about unicorn and earth pony intelligence gathering was accurate. We live in a world full of spies!

Even with all his information, Strongwind had no idea of the identities of the rebels, just that it seemed that an outside agency was somehow involved. He promised to pass along any relevant information and hugged her before doing something strange. He tapped her gold torc and said the word "thyreos" after which the metal seemed to grow warm. She felt somehow safer, though she couldn't explain why. He smiled and kissed her on both cheeks, then ruffled the miserable Starswirl's mane before sending them to his garage and the waiting chariot.

So now, here they were, zipping along at breakneck speed over the treetop at night. It was hard to see their pegasi escorts; they were very dark colored, though their eyes were a luminous yellow. And their pupils were slits, like a snake's, which disturbed and intrigued Celestia no end. Still, they seemed to have excellent night vision as they ran a smooth course, nape-of-the-earth.

The forest started to thin, and Starswirl pointed out a group of rooftops to their left. The chariot slowed as they came in for a landing on a flat pasture about a quarter mile from the village. "Equessse Sselesstia, the road is fifty yardss up ahead. Sstrongwing ssaid the desssmaker iss in a shop on the north sside of town." The sibliant speech of the pegasus seemed odd, and getting out of the chariot, Celestia realized that the chariot itself was very hard to see, even at a short distance. Then she looked hard at her escorts, who were similarly hard to see. Bat wings? What!? "We trusst to your disscretion, Equessse. Sstrongwing ssaid that our interessts are clossely aligned." The forked tongue of a snake hissed at her through pointed fangs and the deep blue-black coat of the pony seemed to drink in the moonlight. Her coloring is very similar to Luna's. "We are nightwings. Mosst poniess do not know of our exisstensse, and we would be in danger if found out. Our hisstory is not a happy one, and we are few in number. I am Moondark, and thiss is my brother, Midnight Sstar." They both bowed their heads, luxurious dark manes and long tails flowing in the light breeze.

Celestia and Starswirl bowed their heads in return and then looked at one another uneasily. Starswirl spoke up first. "I am Starswirl. Sorry that I was indisposed earlier, but it was part of the deception. Thank you for taking us so far, so quickly. You are excellent fliers. And your secret will be safe with us. You honor us with your trust."

Both nightwings smiled, their sharp fangs gleaming white and disconcerting in the moonlight and Moondark replied, "A nessessity. You are the only unicornss who know of uss. Sstrongwing found uss oprhaned as foalss and ssecretly raissed uss ass hiss children. Our parentss were killed in a cave-in, but Sstrongwing heard our criess and dug uss out. He wass ssearching in the mountainss for that artifact that you are wearing right now." He pointed a hoof at the Torc of Ponyeidus.

Midnight Star suddenly started shaking. "Brother! What iss it? A vission?" Moondark caught him as he fell, and laid him gently on the ground. The seizure was mild, more of a shaking fit than grand mal, and the nightwing's eyes started to glow a bright silver. Celestia and Starswirl looked on, amazed and concerned. "He hass the gift. Three times before he hass sseen a thing and it hass been true, though it may be difficult to interpret. Brother! What ssee you?"

The silver-glowing eyes shone like the moon and laid themselves on Celestia. "I ssee a burning ssun with wings! I ssee a dark ssister and a plasse of honor under the moon! And I ssee three heartss of isse leading an army of foalss!" He sighed and his eyes returned to their normal luminous yellow, and the shaking subsided. "What did I ssay? I can't remember!" His sister told him as she helped him up. "What doess it mean?"

Moondark looked to Celestia. "It meanss nothsing to me. Do you have any ideass, Equessse? It sseemss that you carry more than a little fate with you."

She looked down, thoughtfully. "As to the burning sun with wings, that must be the project that the pegasi will be helping us with. Did Strongwing tell you?" They nodded. "Could that mean it will be successful!" She smiled brightly and hugged Starswirl. "Do you think so?"

He hugged her back. "I hope so. It should work, at least for a while, but the wings suggest that the cooperation of the pegasi is truly essential. Still, it is foalish to put too much faith in a prophecy; they're notoriously mysterious." Both nightwings nodded.

Celestia turned back to the bat-winged ponies. "And I have a dark-coated sister. Her name is Luna at that means Moon in the ancient tongue. Perhaps her fate is intertwined with yours. When we get the chance, I'll introduce you, if you like. She is young, but I can't think of anything that would make her happier than being let in on a big secret." The siblings' eyes widened at that. "And as far as three hearts of ice leading an army of foals, maybe that means that there are three conspirators leading the rebellion against Princess Platinum. That may also be useful to know."

"Equessse, we will confer with father Sstrongwing ass well," Midnight Star gave Celestia a deferential look. "Ass you can well imagine, he iss wisse in many wayss. If he thinkss that bringing your ssisster into Sstratoss to meet uss iss a good idea, then we will look forward to it. Now, we musst go. The ssun will risse in a few hourss and we musst be ssafely under Sstratoss when that happenss. We are blind in the daylight. We will return tonight and wait for you. If you wissh us to pick you up, make a light with your magic in the night and sshine it in the air. Flassh it three timess, twisse. If we do not come, we cannot, but we will do our besst. And pleasse, do not reveal uss to anypony. Our appearansse is, as you know, horrible, and poniess will lassh out when afraid."

Celestia's eyes widened. "You appearance is not horrible!" She walked to them and laid her cheek on Moondark's neck, then did the same for Midnight Star. "You are both beautiful and brave! And I would be happy to think of you as my friends."

Moondark stood silently for a moment, as a tear ran down the cheek of his sister. "Even our father never ssaid we were beautiful. He ssaid we would be frightful in the eyess of otherss, but he loved uss and ssaw uss for who we were insside. But he never ssaid we were beautiful. Do you mean that?"

"I swear it upon the sun, moon and stars!" There was a pulse of power, and Starswirl gasped. The nightwings both smiled, tears freely running down Midnight Star's cheeks, though her prophetic brother seemed made of sterner stuff.

Midnight Star was decidedly more loquacious. "And you are gloriouss, Equesse, a hero of the ancient age reborn. It iss a great honor to be your friend. Now we must go." They both bowed deeply and took off with the chariot, rapidly disappearing into the night.

Starswirl walked up to her and stroked her mane. "They are right. You are glorious."

She laughed. "You're just trying to get laid." He grinned in return.

"Don't blame a guy for trying." His eyes were warm on her.

"Tempting as the thought is, we have to get to Measure Legscye before the conspirators. The guards from the capital should be here in the afternoon to collect her, so let's get to her place and make sure she's secure until then. Come on!" She trotted forward to the road and he followed after, his eyes taking her in in the moonlight.

"Glorious," he whispered.

Comments

[NobleValor]

Any work that has a belching exhibition followed by dancing for its own sake has my seal of approval. (I wonder if one can get something like that? Hmmm?)
I also wonder how the earth ponies will be portrayed?

[Dinkledash]

4765229 Well... there's certainly been a lot of change in pegasi culture in the past 1000 years, so no doubt there is also a big difference between modern earth ponies and those of a millenium ago who are either freeholders or renting their farms from the noblity. Now, I don't believe there has been any canon establishing that the nobility of Canterlot own any land, however it is difficult to see what the point of being a noble would be if you didn't own vast tracts of land because of it. Not that the show goes deep into the economic system of Equestria. It just seems likely to me that land would tend to accumulate with the ones who have the most combat power, and unicorns, having an effective ranged attack in addition to the ability to manipulate objects at a distance, have a considerable advantage over earth ponies in combat. I mean, only unicorns are shown to be nobles, period. You could say that earth ponies are too practical to be interested in such snobbery, but even in the modern age, most earth ponies have more menial-type and retail jobs.

Heh. I started doing some research and stumbled upon this gem. http://www.overthinkingit.com/2012/11/08/my-little-pony-plato/

Amazing what's out there. The Noble Lie is EXACTLY what I am looking for. OMG the comments... how Transformers is also an example of Plato's Republic but a failed one and funny how both franchises are own by Hasbro... lol!

Also, belching after a meal is considered polite in Turkey at least... I don't know about Greece but it seemed like fun!

[NobleValor]

4765791 I'll have to remember that next time I'm in Turkey.

Interesting point on that count of earth ponies. However, I have to think that, seeing as how earth ponies are the only ones who can (or will) grow food, you'd think that they have some rights. Even branching into their own brand of government that allows them to have a say in policy, even though the unicorns here are the aristocracy. (Besides, from what I've read, only small percentage of the unicorn population would view earth ponies as 'beneath them.')

[Dinkledash]

4765870 This is a thousand years ago. I've made reference to freeholders, who may be the earth pony equivalent of nobles with the exception being that they work their own land and don't owe fealty to or live within the boundaries of Unicornia.

I'm working from the premise that the Hearth's Warmings Eve story is The Noble Lie that Plato said was necessary for a Utopian society to function harmoniously (read that article, it turns out Lauren Faust said the whole Plato's Equestria thing was completely coincidental but I think it just makes it all the more fascinating that way.) In pre-industrial societies, 90% of the population worked as farmers. Perhaps the earth ponies have a huge advantage in numbers that they are unable to exploit because they have no social organization higher than the family unit (as opposed to the pegasi who are "civilized" meaning they live in a city, within a true democracy, and the the unicorns who have a hierarchy of nobility.)

I caught an interesting comment on one of the threads; the term "Discord" was apparently coined by Plato to describe a situation in which Hellens (Greeks) are fighting each other. But it's still all a coincidence.