A Cultural Exchange

by Illiad_Easle

An Exchange of Royalty

As she reached the main tunnel headed to the surface, she rounded a corner and came face to face with the Blackwater colt, Oglevy. She'd seen into his dreams before; he really wasn't vicious... just young and self-involved, as any child usually is. He regularly dreamt about adventure and daring heroism, mostly because he felt as if he were inferior to his two brothers, regardless of his mother's words to the contrary. He would possibly grow up to become quite the adventurer, like his idol Daring Doo.

Right in front of her, he stood there. His eyes were huge, and there was a water balloon filled with ink on the floor at his hooves. He was simply staring at her, not speaking a word. Luna may have wondered if he was traumatized by the events of what he had just witnessed, but he let her know exactly his state of mind when he spoke the first words to her...

"That... was... AWESOME!!!!!"

Apparently, he wasn't traumatized.

Luna sighed, that was not adventure, that was not what any should aspire to experience. It should be what one hopes they never encounter in their life. The fight against the evils of the world is often thankless, and few stand. Perhaps he could one day be noble? Righting the wrongs of the world like one she had once known? Perhaps.

Luna came close to him, "The battle was no doubt impressive, however it is not something thou shouldst seek to experience just yet. Come, let us leave this place."

Without waiting for a response she pressed forward, reaching the entrance to the cave quickly. She carefully lowered the two drained unicorns from her back to the ground where they could be taken care of by professionals. "I must speak to the owner of this quarry immediately."

"You want Father! HE'S the one in charge here. Are you really Princess Luna? What was it like on the moon? Why did you come here? Who sent for you? I really like your mane! What's Princess Celestia like? You're really tall! Is the Royal Palace as big as I've heard it is? What do YOU dream about? Have you seen my dreams? Do you know Princess Twilight? Are you staying for dinner? Are you okay? What WAS that thing? Are Slapper and Dax's friend going to be okay? How long did it take to get here?"

... and so on, as the excited little colt led the way towards the manor house itself.

Behind her, a zebra showed up out of nowhere, along with a couple of other workers. The miners took hold of the two and began to carry them where the zebra pointed; the shed with the big red cross on the side of it. It seemed as though they would be fine; the zebra had medical saddlebags on.

At the manor, Dax was making his way out of the front doors - finally getting back to Illiad and Slapper. From the balcony above, his mother poked her head over the railing and spotted him nearly at the bottom of the front steps.

"Daxter, darling - come here; I have need of you for a bit."

Dax groaned and rolled his eyes. "Can it possibly wait, Mother?"

There was a momentary pause.

"GET YOUR FLANK UP HERE, DAXTER BLACKWATER. NOW."

With a cringe and a sigh, Dax turned around and headed back up the steps and into the doors. The moment those doors shut, Oglevy and Luna rounded the bend, the little colt's mouth still going a mile a minute. He walked her up to the doors and let her inside. As he had turned the other direction, they missed Dax by mere centimeters.

The place was big for a personal residence, and it felt as if there was some real history here. There were fine tapestries, lovely vases and statuettes, and beautiful paintings placed for maximum effect in the most opportune places. All in all, it was obvious that this was the home of a well-to-do subject.

Oglevy actually stopped talking when they rounded the corner into the hall that led to Luther's study. Reaching the door, Oglevy looked at the Princess and gave her an honest smile.

"That was still pretty cool... I won't tell anyone about it, if you say not to. I promise - cross my heart and hope to die; stick a cupcake in my eye!"

"We thank thee for thy assistance."

With neither a knock nor expressed permission, Luna entered the study. "Mr. Blackwater? There are many things we must discuss with thee." The tone of her voice left it quite certain that it was important.

When the doors opened, Luther stood from his desk as if he were ready to stomp on somepony's head... but as soon as he saw WHO had barged through his door, his eyes widened and he froze in place for a moment. "Princess Luna!"

Then, of course, he bowed properly to her.

Standing once again, he moved around to the doors of his study and, with a look to Oglevy that sent him along with curious eyes, he carefully closed the doors. Turning back to face her, he looked worried.

"We can discuss anything, Your Highness. What is it?"

The look on his muzzle said that he may have a clue as to what it was about already...

Luna did not look too pleased, but she didn't look too cross either. "Primarily it is about the creature thou hast hidden in thy mines. How long didst thou know about it? And why did thou not report it to us sooner? We were down there not five minutes hence, it is contained once more. If we had not arrived when we did two of thy ponies and a dear friend of ours would surely have perished this day."

Luther's muzzle set into its familiar scowl, and he looked Luna in the eye as he spoke.

"It happened ten years ago. We found the deposit, and I was afraid my quarry would be militarily occupied if word got out; I KNOW what Cloud Diamond is capable of, and I KNOW what the soldiers use it for. I paid a handful of workers to help me extract it - that was when they found it. It was sealed up again by my forepony, Knee Slapper, and runic barricades were put into place. The barricades were moved, and THAT was not by my hoof... for that, I apologize."

Luther's face hardened.

"However, I made my choice to keep it under wraps - which nearly cost more lives. This is MY fault, Princess; I'll see no blame passed onto anypony aside from myself. I stand by my decision because I had felt, at the time, that it was for the better. I was mistaken, to be certain... but I will not deny my actions."

He bowed his head, closing his eyes as he spoke.

"If there is a punishment to be had, then I shall have it. No one else will be held responsible."

He opened his eyes, looking into her own as he spoke low and humbly.

"Please."

Luna looked a bit confused, "Soldiers? What... Tia how could you?" The confusion left her face as she refocused on Mr Blackwater. "Regardless, The only punishment will be the staging an LTF operative here to ensure the creature never escapes again, and that the deposit of cloud diamond it never misused. We don't take kindly to those utilizing our sacred mineral for evil."

Luther blinked a moment, the look on his face one of utter shock. Then slowly, as he realized his beloved quarry was not about to be taken from him, he relaxed visibly. He nodded at the Princess' stationing of one of her guards here; that would be a far better intervention than the takeover he had expected.

She sighed, she was never as good with words as her sister was. "If thou findest that acceptable then we can move on, thou hast mentioned that thou doth possess a measure of cloud diamond for sale? How great a measure?"

Luther’s brow furrowed as he began to consider such a request.

"I'll have to show you what we have. Please follow me."

He left his study and began to lead her through the manor and back outside again. As the doors closed behind Luna, Dax came walking through the front hall, a stack of pastel-colored outfits balanced on his back. He groaned in boredom and frustration while he brought these outfits to his Mother... who would, undoubtedly, make him try on each and every one.

Luther led the way down the side path to the quarry once more; all around them, miners and other various workers bowed before their royal Princess of the night. He took her through the inner yard, then brought her to the rows of sheds. He continued to walk, heading directly for the huge boulder at the end of the rows - sticking halfway out of the ground and STILL a few stories tall, there were massive steel and iron doors set into the front of it.

Reaching the tall doorway, Luther looked back at the alicorn.

"This is the Blackwater Vault."

He reached into his vest and removed a key that looked spectral - Luna could see right through it, like it was made of smoky glass. When he brought it around to the door, Luna saw there was no actual keyhole... yet, when he touched it to the place where a keyhole would be, it sank in as if it were an illusion. He turned it, there was a >click< as it unlocked the doors, and then he put it back into his vest pocket and pushed them open.

The inside was pitch black, an enchanted rather than natural darkness that prevented one from seeing further than a pace ahead of them. Luther stepped inside and motioned for her to follow.

Once in, Luther moved to the wall and flipped a switch; magic-filled lanterns in neat rows slowly lit up, their light fading on from the front of the massive chamber to the back. It was HUGE inside, as there were no other floors, simply catwalks and stairs leading all about the walls of the open-area vault. The entire inside of the boulder had been hollowed out, and was being used for storage.

Towards the back, there were display cases and curtains drawn over certain areas - that must be where the expensive gems were kept - but almost the entire front of this impromptu warehouse were shelves and shelves all lined with bundles of the same thing: sticks of DYNAMITE.

"In the back," Luther said as they began making their way inside.

The only thing that stood out as being extra remarkable was the column in the center of it all, supposedly holding the ceiling up. It was a gigantic, solid column of emerald, shaped like a twisting helix. It was magnificent; there was nothing like it that had ever been seen before - a column of emerald that stretched around three stories tall, and was as big around as a house!

Luther looked at the Princess. "This way."

Luna was quite impressed with the artistic style of the vault, she knew someone who would probably do a remodel if they saw it. Despite the low light she could see the walls clearly. "We must say, this extensive architecture and security is impressive, might we ask who designed this? The emerald column is certainly an exquisite work."

Luther nodded.

"My ancestor's design and build. Sturdy. Been here since before the quarry came to be; made into a part of it. Best place for the explosives... and my family's gem collection."

He pointed a hoof to the twisting column of emerald.

"That is the Blackwater Emerald - found by my son, Daxter."

He almost smiled. Almost.

"This way, Princess."

He led her to a section of the floor that had multiple vault doors, and moved to one off to the far side. Once there, he spun the wheel that opened the vault door, and hauled it back - it seemed quite heavy. A good deterrent for thieves.

Down inside the surprisingly deep chamber was a large boulder of some sort, covered by a very plain looking tarp. If THAT was Cloud Diamond, then it had to have been the size of half the Ponyville Schoolhouse!

"This is what we managed to pull out of the mine. What would you say is a fair exchange for half of it?"

Luna was truly stunned by the immensity of the deposit, and at the strength of the walls for preventing additional accumulate from finding its way here. A quick scan of the chunk indicated a purity of 17.5% a vast quantity of cloud diamond to be sure, much more than she initially expected to exist.

"Given the size and purity of this we wouldst say... 174 billion bits for half, not including the value of the diamond accumulate but we are hardly interested in that." She waited a moment to let the true meaning of her words sink in.

"I suppose thou mayest be interested as to why we are buying all the cloud diamond we can find? To put it simply, we want it to remain scarce. We want its value to be too high for anypony to acquire in any dangerous quantity, the purity and size of thy deposit threatens all of our efforts were it to be discovered, which is why we must advise that thou refrain from the sale of any part of it to those not approved by ourself. We simply cannot risk it falling into the wrong hooves. In a way, we suppose it is opportune that thou didst not tell our sister about the creature."

She sighed as she examined the deposit further, "It has the power to do so much good, heal injuries of the body and mind, but it is so much easier to use it for evil."

She shook her head sadly. "We of course will not stop thou from selling to whomever thou chooseth even though we can. All We will do is offer a better price. If you find our offer acceptable, we will have the payment arranged by morning. We would even be willing to purify all of the cloud diamond that thou possesseth."

Luna turned to face Blackwater, she knew that he would never get a better price than what she was offering and thus did not fear him rejecting her offer. She was already plotting what she could do with 87.5 cubic feet of cloud diamond. Perhaps she would construct something similar to the helix she had seen.

For what it was worth, Luther's face didn't even twitch when she spoke of the amount of bits offered. He stared hard for a moment at the tarp-covered rock in the vault, the cogs in his astute mind turning. After a moment, he nodded and turned to face her.

"An alternate deal: 5 billion to my personal expense account, 5 billion to the quarry itself, and perpetual rights to the land my quarry stands on, never to be reversed or annulled. As for the rest of what you are offering, it is too much - I cannot reconcile with the idea of accepting so much from royalty, especially in light of what has happened. Half of the deposit is yours, Princess Luna. The other half, I shall keep - as long as I breathe, it shall never pass into another's hooves."

He awaited her verdict.

Luna sighed, "Perpetual rights are beyond our power to grant, our sister hath been... slow, to restore our powers to us since our return. There are two options that we can bestow. Due to your proximity to the border we can name this place an independent protectorate, thou would still be subject to Equestrian law so long as thou desirest our protection, open boarders, and free trade. However, thou and thy family wouldst be the rulers of this land as far as thy line extends. The other option is similar, this land would be thine for the rest of thy days, but the agreement would need to be renewed with each change of ownership, this protects thee from simply being re-annexed by our sister or losing protectorate status, but the agreement could be revoked should the owner break any laws."

She turned back towards the gem, "Some day we will have the power to grant perpetual ownership and if thou art still alive then we will grant it. Thou hast done me a great service by keeping this deposit secret, we hope thou wilt find my ability to return satisfactory."

"An... independent protectorate. Yes." A nod to himself, then a glance at the alicorn. "Yes. That will be fine. I bow to your wisdom and generosity, Princess."

With that, he did bow in a most respectful manner - it was clearly obvious that somepony taught Luther his etiquette well. He closed and resealed the vault door, the Cloud Diamond deposit safely ensconced within. Turning, he began leading Luna out of the unique vault.

"I know what Cloud Diamond can be used for; that is why I kept it here. When Daxter showed me the piece he wanted to give to Illiad Easle, I thought he had gotten it from somewhere else in the mines... now that I know the truth, I will schedule a blasting for that chamber, and seal it. I hope there will be no more trouble. YOU have done this entire quarry a great service; that means more to me than bits."

He walked her to the main yard, miners and other various staff gawking at the sight of their Boss and their Princess in the same place at the same time.

"When your official arrives, they will have their own shed - a few of my staff already do. They will be provided for."

He faced the Princess, the scowl still firmly in place, yet his words were soft when he spoke them.

"Thank you, Princess Luna. Is there anything else we Blackwaters might do for you?"

"We will ensure the proper paperwork goes through once we return to Canterlot. Thou wilt receive thy bits by the morrow and thy protectorate status in a week or thereabouts depending on our sister. We will leave to thee the arrangements to transport our half unless thou thou desirest that we purify it here."

She turned here gaze out to the quarry. "Do make sure those ponies that were with us make a full recovery, we would be most displeased if they suffered any long term effects from that creature."

With that she turned and began walking towards the pony express station she started at.

Luther watched her leave. His scowl lightened, and he gave a sigh of relief as she made her way out of eyesight. Mind you, it wasn't that his relief came from any kind of guilt or moodiness; he was nervous around royalty since taking over here. All it would take would be one wrong word to one powerful individual, and he could lose it all.

Still, he had to admit that she was just as beautiful as he had heard she was - even married stallions aren't blind - but she still didn't inspire the awe and childhood crush she had when he was a colt... because his crush had been on Nightmare Moon, not Luna. Far be it for him to ever have admitted this fact - not even to his wife.

Still, he had been quite pleased that she had been the kind of polite and dignified that Equestria expected from those who ruled over the land. Even in light of what had happened, she had been quite generous. Knowing that he had already made a fortune from simply the mines alone, Luther had only asked for a fraction of its value because he wasn't truly greedy - ambitious and a bit paranoid perhaps, but not greedy.

He looked around at the other workers there, still staring either at him or after Luna, his scowl reset itself into its accustomed place on his muzzle, and he simply said, "Back to it." The other workers all went straight back to work, no delay.

Luther began walking back to the manor, yet lifted an eyebrow as he saw Dax, wearing a ridiculously dandy outfit, charging down the path towards him, headed for the quarry. As he passed, Luther said, "Doctor's Office," and continued on.

Dax's eyes flew open, and he double-timed it towards the sheds.

Author's Note:

Just a bit of an aside this time.

Don't worry, we'll be getting back to the adventures of Illiad and Dax soon enough.

A special thanks to my co-author Randimaxis for his insightful chapter commentary.

Comments

[Randimaxis]

I enjoy the idea of Luther Blackwater.

He's cold and curt upon first appearances, yet once one goes deeper, there IS a heart there. I've always liked the classic character who seems like a bad guy at first, but turns out to be so very deep and refined later.

Little things like his telling Dax where Illiad was before he said a word - there's a bond between Father and son in that; it's just not immediately obvious. But look back over previous chapters - there's a flow between them that seems short, but is simply comfortable and familiar for them both.

Plus, the thought that he had a crush on Nightmare Moon as a colt... I giggled when I came up with it.

Luther is ALREADY wealthy - not rich; WEALTHY - so he really would't need the money... besides, it was LUNA! He had to fight with himself to keep from GIVING it to her... Vylia would never have forgiven him for making NOTHING off the Cloud Diamond.

I think Illiad did a wonderful job for Luna's part - kudos to you, my friend!

[Randimaxis]

... and you are quite welcome, my dear friend.