Camaraderie is Sorcery

by FireOfTheNorth

Chapter 3:5.1 - Foreign Sands

Chapter 3:5.1 – Foreign Sands

Twilight Sparkle pulled aside the scarf covering her muzzle as Maer-Dina resolved itself into more than just a mirage over the dunes, and immediately got a mouthful of sand. At last, the nearly month-long journey would soon come to an end. Given adequate time to acquaint herself with their destination, Twilight could have opened a portal and taken the Saddle Arabian delegation home in an instant, but they’d refused. They had a ship still docked in Balte-Maer to take them home, but even Twilight’s offer to open a portal to Balte-Maer had been refused. The Saddle Arabians wished for a lengthy journey with Celestia’s protégé, a journey that involved a trek through the south Equestry Valley to Balte-Maer, a sea voyage first to Neighples and then the port city of Horssan, and finally an overland caravan through the desert that covered most of Saddle Arabia. It seemed a waste to Twilight to spend so long traveling when she was now able to go almost anywhere in Equus in an instant, but it wasn’t all bad.

She’d gotten to know the Saddle Arabian ambassadors on the journey, especially Haakim and Amira, two members high in the Saddle Arabian nobility who had plenty to share about their isolated pony realm, much more detailed and accurate than the books and reports that Twilight Sparkle had been able to scrounge up. When she wasn’t learning about the regional balance of power, she used the time among the Saddle Arabians to familiarize herself with their peculiar accents when they spoke High Equestrian. Most everypony in the pony realms across the Shimmering Sea spoke one of the two Equestrian languages even though they weren’t in Equestria, a long-term byproduct of Celestia and Luna’s ancient reigns, as well as the prosperity and stability of the united Equestria of the 1^st Age that had induced the spread of the languages to other continents. Haakim and Amira additionally taught Twilight Sparkle a bit of Draenglic, the language most ponies on the Eastern Continent had spoken before the Zebrikaanian Empire had swallowed most of their realms; leaving only Saddle Arabia, Neighpoli, Noya Esta, and the Kingdom of Banner to remain currently independent. Though the language had mostly disappeared in the northern realms, it was still used relatively widely in Saddle Arabia by commoners, as the sultanate was so far to the south and isolated from other pony nations.

“Is that it?” Spike asked, peering out at Maer-Dina while he itched at the sand that had gotten beneath his scales.

“Yes, my little drrragonling frrriend,” Haakim replied, his voice muffled slightly behind the scarf that he’d very sensibly kept over his muzzle to keep the blowing sand out, “Dat is Maerrr-Dina, frrrom fhich Sultana Rrrashida rrrules over Saddle Arrrabia. Dah grrreatest oasis city dah forld has eferrr seen. You can make out dah golden domes, I trrrust? Maerrr-Dina is a rrrich city, fhere rrroyals, nobles, and commoners alike can so adorn theirrr ghomes and places of business.”

Twilight Sparkle and her page could indeed make out the golden domes clearly; however, the sun’s reflections off the gleaming hemispheres had been the primary reason the city was so obscured until now. There was a truly staggering number of golden domes spread throughout Maer-Dina, both great and small. Almost all of the city had been constructed from the same sand-colored stone, and all the buildings melded together at this distance, making Maer-Dina appear as a solid block of stone with golden balls set into its surface. The effect was strengthened by the solid wall that surrounded the city and the many walls that cut through its interior, separating districts and estates from each other.

With Saddle Arabia’s wealth on display like this in the capital city, it was no wonder that the dragons of Tyrannus felt it worthwhile to cross the nearby strait to raid or demand tribute. Gold and gems were what dragons craved most of all, and Saddle Arabia had both in abundance. Saddle Arabia was rich in gold, gems, and salt, but not much else. Almost all the food that nourished the sultanate was imported, the desert terrain not at all conducive to agriculture. The stop at Neighples on the way here had been to that purpose, to secure Neighopilitan grain in exchange for gold. The wagons of the caravan they were currently traveling with were stocked full of that grain, on its way to Maer-Dina’s storehouses.

“See derrre,” Amira called out, pointing to a dust cloud rising from the city gates as Twilight reaffixed her scarf over her muzzle, “Gherrr majesty is sending out gherrr honorrr guarrrd to meet us. Tonight, fe shall all dine in dah sultana’s palace.”

Hopefully, that would be the end of this adventure. Twilight had received no more instructions from Celestia than to meet with Sultana Rashida, and she wasn’t sure just how far her diplomatic privileges or responsibilities extended. Was she able to make any promises to the sultana on behalf of the Kingdom of Cant’r Laht? Probably not, for she alone would not be enough of an embassy to satisfy Cant’r Laht’s ruling class; but how was she to know what Celestia—who’d always gone her own way—expected of her? She hadn’t definitively answered any of Twilight’s letters on the matter, and the sorceress was beginning to suspect this was another of her mentor’s tests. She had been told to meet with Sultana Rashida and she would do so, but Twilight was not expecting much else to come out of this excursion. Surely by tomorrow, or at most a few days later, she would have accomplished her mission and would be able to return to Ponieville and her friends via portal. At least, she hoped so.

***

Amira had uttered no falsehood in her assertion that they would dine in the sultana’s palace on the night of their arrival, but Twilight couldn’t help feeling let down when she was seated too far away from the sultana to make her acquaintance. The same was true of the next night, and the next. She was unable to get close enough to Sultana Rashida to speak to her, which felt odd since she’d made this journey at the sultana’s behest. The nightly feasts seemed also to be the only opportunities that Twilight Sparkle would have to speak with the monarch. Her days were filled with court functions, and the earliest the grand vizier was willing to grant the Cant’r Laht sorceress a formal audience was weeks in the future. Twilight Sparkle did not intend to spend weeks here, far from her friends in Ponieville. She knew that at any moment she could cross over to Ponieville via portal, but that would be rude, and she didn’t want to upset the Saddle Arabian court.

Haakim and Amira made every effort to pacify and assure her that she would be able to do the one thing she’d come here to do, but court politics were complicated in Saddle Arabia (not that they weren’t equally so everywhere else). Rashida’s power relied on the support of her emirs, many of whom wanted no interference from Equestria, much less from Celestia. It seemed that at some point during the Equestrian diarchy, Celestia had launched an invasion of Saddle Arabia and attempted to bring it under the Crown of Cant’r Laht. They’d never forgiven her for that, nor for the concessions the then-kingdom was forced to make to the rapidly expanding Zebrikaanian Empire in order to repel the incursion. No wonder Celestia didn’t come herself. Even Luna might not be welcome, for she would have been complicit in that invasion. Twilight Sparkle was a foreign emissary who’d been invited here by the sultana’s embassy, however, so she couldn’t be rebuffed endlessly. The shuffling of seating at the sultana’s feasts was a power play as the anti-Equestrian emirs and emiras pushed their own seats closer to the sultana, and those in favor of an alliance with the Equestrian realms (among them Amira and Haakim) pushed to get Twilight Sparkle close enough to speak to Rashida. The game could take some time to play out for the sorceress, so she had to be patient and put up with other dinner companions until she was able to meet with Saddle Arabia’s sovereign.

When Twilight Sparkle wasn’t meeting with Haakim and Amira or perusing the sultana’s library (the codices within it written in High Equestrian or the Language of the Horns, at least), she explored Maer-Dina’s royal palace. The sultana’s palace was much like the others in the city, but on a much grander scale. Taking up its own district, the palace was further subdivided by walls and buildings surrounding courtyards. There were so many courtyards, quite a few of them filled with gardens, around the palace and connected by alleys and tunnels, that it felt like its own miniature version of Maer-Dina. Twilight Sparkle was even given her own courtyard and all the chambers surrounding it, which was convenient as it gave her an open space to practice sorcery without needing to leave the palace. It was quite confusing to get around the palace since it was laid out in no sensible way and buildings connected to each other peculiarly. Thankfully, the palace servants were willing to direct her when she was lost, and Twilight had learned at least enough Draenglic to ask for directions. As strange as it was, it was also an impressive palace, and Twilight might have enjoyed herself more had she not been anxious to complete her mission and return to Ponieville.

The stay would have been more difficult had she been completely alone aside from Spike, unable to talk much with anypony, but she fortunately was not. On the second full day of her stay in the sultana’s palace, Twilight had met and befriended a fellow sorceress (or magus, as she preferred to be addressed, a Saddle Arabian oddity borrowed from the gryphons). Shazira was a capable magus close in age to Twilight who served under the patronage of Sultana Rashida, as did the other hooffull of magi that dwelt in the palace. The two mares took a shine to each other almost instantly, both of a similar temperament and thirst for knowledge. Many discussions were had between Twilight and Shazira as they delved into the divergence between Equestrian sorcery and Saddle Arabian magery over the last two ages.

In the end, this budding friendship helped just as much as Haakim and Amira’s machinations to place Twilight Sparkle in a position to speak to the sultana. Shazira had managed to secure a high place for herself at the feast and had traded places with Twilight Sparkle at the last minute. At the fourth feast after arriving in Maer-Dina, the Cant’r Laht sorceress finally found herself near enough to Sultana Rashida to have a conversation. There was one other pony between her and the sultana, but even that emira’s best efforts couldn’t keep her from speaking to the sovereign the entire meal.

“Thank you for inviting me to visit your realm, your majesty, and for hosting me in your home,” Twilight Sparkle caught the sultana’s attention.

“Of courrrse Tfilight Sparrrkle. Fhateverrr you may ghave ghearrrd, Equestrrrians arrre most fhelcome in Saddle Arrrabia,” Rashida replied, referring, no doubt, to her desire for Equestrian soldiers to help defend against the Zebrikaanian Empire. “It is a shame dat no oders fere filling to come.”

“The other Equestrian realms are more concerned with their immediate positions. It is the Kingdom of Cant’r Laht alone, it seems, that considers the larger pony world and the threats that affect all of us,” Twilight said, though it was a very small number of ponies in the Kingdom of Cant’r Laht that would agree with that statement, if not the most important. “Celestia and Luna are both devoted to keeping the Zebrikaanian Empire from spreading any farther and are very interested in developments here.”

“Yes, I suppose so,” Rashida said as she pointedly looked at a mural on the wall that, though stylized, clearly depicted the Saddle Arabian defense against Celestia’s invasion, “I ghearrr dey arrre queens once morrre. Do dey intend to rrretake Equestrrria and again expand?”

Twilight didn’t know exactly what her mentor’s plans were; she mentally filed away a note to ask her sometime. Celestia was known to speak on the need for a united Equestria, but never did any specifics accompany such statements. If she intended to restore the Equestrian diarchy of the 3^rd Age, then why had she and Luna not taken the accompanying titles during their recent coronation? No, the titles they’d been given had been specifically to assure the other Equestrian realms that this wasn’t the return of the alicorn queens that had ruled the continent in the past, no matter how little the gesture had convinced them. Whether it had been sincere or not, Celestia and Luna had been set up as temporary rulers; but, how long could temporary be for an alicorn?

“I am afraid you are misinformed,” Twilight Sparkle corrected the sultana, “Celestia and Luna are the Regents of Cant’r Laht. Their successors will be kings and queens, but they have taken no royal titles.”

“Successorrrs like you?” Rashida asked.

“Well, I am later in the line of succession than Lady mi Amore Cadenza, but yes,” Twilight replied modestly, “Celestia and Luna would have to perish or abdicate first, however, and Cadence would have to produce no issue before similar circumstances befell her.”

“Dat aside, you could one day become queen of Cant’rrr Laht,” Sultana Rashida stated, “Saddle Arrrabia can neverrr forrrgive Celestia and Luna for deir past sins against our rrrealm, but you arrre differrrent. One ding fe arrre in agrrreement fith fith Celestia is gherrr concerrrn about Zebrrrikaania. Do you sharrre herrr view?”

The Zebrikaanian Empire was the largest realm in all the known world, occupying almost the entirety of the Eastern Continent. Even if Celestia’s dream of a united Equestria one day came to pass, the Zebrikaanian Empire would still be several times its size both in territory and population. Centuries of political fragmentation in Equestria and Stygra would suggest that a realm as large as Zebrikaania could not be stable, and yet it had endured for over a millennium and gradually grown. Twilight’s talks with Zecor had revealed that the empire was not a sham banner draped over disagreeing sultanates as ponies in the west had often wistfully imagined, but a united and powerful realm. There was internal strife, to be sure, as was inevitable in an entity so large and complex; be that as it may, most padishahs were able to deal with any issues that arose, and Padishah Ulm was rumored to be a truly exceptional zebra. The Zebrikaanian Empire was stronger than it had ever been and was led by a capable and beloved emperor. There seemed little it would not be capable of.

“Yes. The Zebrikaanian Empire is an existential threat not only to the independent realms of the Eastern Continent, but also—if not today—an existential threat to Equestria’s realms, should they choose to cross the Shimmering Sea,” Twilight answered.

“I see,” Sultana Rashida replied, “If you ferrre queen of Cant’rrr Laht, fhould you rrraise arrrmies and send dem acrrross dah Shimmerrring Sea, should dah Zebrrrikaanian Empirrre attempt to seize ourrr land?”

“I am … not sure how to answer that,” Twilight Sparkle said, hesitant that her answer would reflect on the Kingdom of Cant’r Laht and obligate Celestia and Luna to keep a promise they had never made, “I am not queen of Cant’r Laht.”

“Hmm, dink about it,” Rashida said as she sipped at a goblet of wine, “I am eagerrr to ghearrr yourrr answerrr beforrre you rrreturrrn to Equestrrria.”

***

“I hope that you will keep all this in confidence,” Twilight Sparkle told Shazira a couple days later after explaining the situation into which the sultana had place her.

“But of courrrse,” Shazira replied, “I fould not betrrray dah trust you ghave in me.”

“Even if I did have the power to raise an army, how would I get them here? The Kingdom of Cant’r Laht’s only ports are in the west. They would have to sail through Los Pegasan waters and past the Storm Isles and the pirate kingdoms before they could even cross the Shimmering Sea. That, or they would need to march through the Kingdom of Manehattan or the Duchy of Balte-Maer and secure ships there,” Twilight reasoned out, “And that is even if I should raise an army in the first place. The Kingdom of Cant’r Laht alone would not be able to keep back the Zebrikaanian Empire, so is it really wise for me to make an unconditional promise to help, even if it is a promise that would only be called into effect in the unlikely case that I become queen of Cant’r Laht?”

“You must of courrrse do fhat you dink is rrright, Tfilight, forrr yourrrself and forrr yourrr rrrealm. I am not imparrrtial, of courrrse,” Shazira said, “At dah moment, Saddle Arrrabia has no allies—none fe can depend on, anyway. Dah Neighopolitans and Noya Estans trrrade fith us, but dey fill not ghelp us if it comes to farrr. Even dah assurrrrance of ghelp frrrom just fone of dah Equestrrrian monarrrchs fould be a rrrelief. If dah zebrrras attack, fe cannot ghope to ghold out against dem alone.”

“If it is as dire as that, is it wise to promise troops that could do no more than delay the inevitable?” Twilight asked.

As Twilight pondered what she should do, the sorceresses trotted down one of Maer-Dina’s streets. With a local to guide her, she had set hoof outside of the royal palace and was exploring the sultanate’s capital city. Without Shazira, she probably never would have wandered out into the maze that was Maer-Dina. Buildings were piled up on each other, and walls sliced through the city with no pattern to where gates would allow passage. Everything was built out of the same stone, though ponies had taken to decorating their homes with colorful banners and canopies that flapped feebly in the slight breeze that brought a little relief to the hot, dry city.

The residents of Maer-Dina attired themselves much in the same way as they decorated their buildings, covering themselves with colorful wraps. This brilliant display was evident from the noblest to the most common, though there was a clear disparity in the quality of the fabric. All residents of the city dressed this way, pony and zebra alike. In the distant past, long before the Conjunction, Saddle Arabia had been known as Zahar and was a zebra kingdom until the Church of One spread to it, along with the unicorns that followed. Many of the zebras here had willingly embraced the Church, but they were quickly outnumbered by the unicorns that moved in and took over.

Then, the Conjunction came, and the Saddle Arabians appeared along with monsters, magic, and several other intelligent races. A breed of earth pony taller than average—something that Twilight had quickly noticed, especially after walking through so many doorways in the sultana’s palace with more than enough room to spare over her head—the Saddle Arabians had first spent some time in the Z’harran Desert before crossing the mountains and subduing Zahar. The Saddle Arabians consisted of both earth ponies and unicorns now (but not pegasi, who hardly ever crossed the Shimmering Sea to see where their conquerors had originated), and they lived alongside the zebras who hadn’t fled to the Zebrikaanian Empire or been forced out. Things had to be tense between the two communities, especially with the zebras who’d abandoned the Church of One and turned instead to the Zebrikaanian sun religion.

“Yourrr ghonorrr! Yourrr ghonorrr!” a mare in peculiar clerical garb cried as she approached the duo of magical ponies, “Most Ghonorrrable Magus Shazirrra, dah fice-pontiff rrrequests you attend gherrr immediately.”

“I should go,” Shazira said aside to Twilight, “If you wish, you can rrreturn to dah palace.”

“No, I will go with you,” Twilight replied, privately thinking that she wasn’t confident she could find her way back to the sultana’s palace herself and was still unsure if it would be rude to open a portal to get there, “This sounds important.”

“Please, follow me,” the cleric said as she turned back the way she had come.

From her tour today of Maer-Dina, Twilight Sparkle had come to doubt that anything that could truly be called a street existed in the city, but she was soon corrected. The cleric led them onto a great boulevard that cut through a portion of the city, completely unimpeded by walls and gates. Some estates’ walls abutted it, but it was mostly individual buildings stacked up against each other that lined the street that stretched forward into the distance. It was an enormously wide roadway, even with the market stalls that spilled out over the edges, cleverly making them impassable. Stands had also been set up along the street’s median, in the shadows of statues, many of which looked like they’d seen better days. The stalls suddenly came to an end, revealing a single large space where one statue stood alone, larger than any of the others. It depicted a mare rearing up with a sword in her teeth while her mane flowed back from beneath a crown. Bits of the mane and tail had broken off and one of the forehooves was badly chipped, but all in all, the statue was in good condition, especially compared to some of the others.

“Dat is Crrressna, Saddle Arrrabia’s last queen and its firrrst sultana,” Shazira explained, stopping with Twilight as the cleric trotted on, “Fhen Padishah Kirrran infaded Saddle Arrrabia, she led dah defense dat pushed him back oferrr dah mountains.”

A call to prayer went up in Zebrikaanian, starling Twilight, and she turned to the right, toward the voice. On this side of the abandoned street stood one of the Zebrikaanian sun temples, with its three minarets. The zebra making the call was standing atop the central one and calling for the noon prayer, when the sun was at its zenith, and the zebras who’d been making their way to the temple at the time stopped in place and heeded the call.

A great clamor of bells drew Twilight’s attention in the opposite direction almost immediately. A basilica with no rival on the western continents reared up before her, a massive edifice of stone covered with murals and statues depicting the long history of the Church of One. The Basilica of Saints Pergamus and Lotentius was an architectural marvel, a building of such astonishing scale that one couldn’t help but be overawed. From a distance, it would appear as a massive cube of stone with an enormous set of domes atop it, and it was only when one got closer that one could see the columns, arches, windows, and artwork that were equally impressive. Their guide had disappeared, but there was no way that Twilight and Shazira could miss their destination when it towered over them like a mountain.

Shariza led the way inside, bringing Twilight into a structure that put even Sultana Rashida’s palace to shame. Ancient murals and statuary rose in endless rows to dizzying heights and climbed onto the ceiling far above. Column after column of marble marched down the nave, separating off wide aisles that still left an incredibly broad open space between them; Twilight and Shazira could have trotted down these, following the cleric who’d resumed her course after they’d entered the basilica. At the center of the ancient church, the ceilings rose even higher, up to a majestic dome covered in even more artwork—massive in scale to be discernible from this distance.

The Basilica of Sts. Pergamus and Lotentius was far from empty, and the two sorceresses passed by many priestesses, nuns, attendants, and congregants on their way to meet with the vice-pontiff. Their course took them underground briefly as they passed beneath the basilica’s foundations, before coming back up into one of the buildings behind the basilica—the residence of the vice-pontiff, judging by the signs of rank prominently displayed. Saddle Arabia’s chief priestess had a unique and peculiar title that she would remind ponies of whenever she could. Long ago, the Saddle Arabian archbishop had demanded recognition for two things: the importance of the desert peninsula on the border with the heathen zebra lands, and her own position with a special title.

The head of the Church of One, at the time known as the pontiff, had agreed and declared the head of the Church in Saddle Arabia to be a vice-pontiff, only one step below the pontiff herself. Many centuries passed, and the Church of One moved its seat from Maene first to Manehattan and then to Cant’r Laht. In 418 4A, Pontiff Sullivus V chose to demote herself from pontiff to high priestess, feeling that the head of the Church was unworthy of the lofty title now that most of the Eastern Continent (where the Church of One had been born) was under the sway of the Zebrikaanian Empire. The vice-pontiff of Saddle Arabia, however, kept her title and refused to relinquish it, despite repeated attempts by the Church’s high priestess to revoke a title that now seemed to place the Saddle Arabian priestess above her.

“Dah Most Ghonorrrable Magi Shazirrra and Tfilight Sparrrkle to see you, yourrr beatitude,” the cleric introduced them as they entered the vice-pontiff’s study.

“Fice-Pontiff Sabalus, fe arrre yourrr ghumble serrrvants,” Shazira addressed the vice-pontiff with a half-bow, “Fhy did you fish to speak fith me?”

Vice-Pontiff Sabalus was an older earth pony mare with a dappled gray coat and a russet red mane that had mostly gone silver with age. She was extraordinarily restrained in her appearance—Twilight thought—for a pony whose surroundings clearly flaunted her wealth and power. She had no fancy crown-like hat to match those worn by bishops and cardinals of Equestria, merely a simple circular cap over which a veil was draped to cover her neck, of the same deep purple fabric as her cassock. Both were made of fine silk, but completely unadorned. The only ornamentation on the pony was the chain of office that hung around her neck, standing out all the more prominently for its contrast with the rest of her apparel. Its centerpiece was a golden disk which depicted Faust recreated with diamonds for her body and rubies for her mane and tail.

When the vice-pontiff opened her mouth to speak, she addressed Shazira sternly in Draenglic. Twilight was only able to pick out a word or two from their exchange, but the sorceress gathered that Sabalus was not pleased that Shazira had brought Twilight with her. After a few back-and-forths, Sabalus cleared her throat.

“Dah ghonorrrable Shazirrra assurrres me dat you can be trrrusted fith dis sensitive matterrr,” she addressed Twilight in High Equestrian, “Is gherrr judgement sound?”

“Yes,” Twilight replied, not knowing exactly what she was agreeing to, but not wanting to contradict her friend’s trust in her, “Your beatitude.”

“Hmm,” Sabalus said, “Ferrry fell. Merrre ghourrrs ago, it fas found dat dah Staff of Kipit is missing frrrom dah basilica’s crrrypt. Fe suspect dat somefone ghas stolen it.”

“Dat is terrrible news!” Shazira gasped, “Ghow many know?”

“Only a ghooffull at dah moment, but ferrre ford to sprrread, it could spell panic and disasterrr.”

“Excuse me,” Twilight Sparkle piped up, “What is the Staff of Kipit?”

“A magical rrrelic crrreated by Nostrrracom dah Fise forrr Kipit dah Gholy Sworrrd to defend Saddle Arrrabia frrrom zebrrras and drrragons,” Shazira explained. “Dah staff ghas dah powerrr to contrrrol dah feather and ghas been used many times to tfart zebrrra naval invasions and drrrconic aerrrial attacks. If its absence becomes known to dah Zebrrrikaanian padishah or dah drrragonlords, it could mean disaster forrr dah rrrealm.”

“And odds are it was stolen for one of them in the first place,” Twilight Sparkle said as she paged through The Complete Guide to the Artifacts of Nostracom the Wise.

She’d kept the book with her since the recent fiasco with Trixie and the Alicorn Amulet, learning about the countless magical artifacts crafted by Nostracom the Wise, and she had taken it from her saddlebags as soon as the alicorn had been mentioned. It had been strange that she’d encountered two of his relics in the span of a few months, and even stranger now that another had appeared. Would she see more before the end of the year? If so, she’d better continue to keep this reference on her. She located the entry for the Staff of Kipit, which contained all the details that Shazira had told her and more, as well as a description of the staff. The shaft was black yew, topped by a silver seven-pointed star with a sapphire the size of an orange in its center. If the Staff of Kipit was lost, the Saddle Arabian navy alone would not be able to stand against the full might of the Zebrikaanian fleet that would shuttle thousands of soldiers across the narrow strait the separated the peninsula from the mainland.

“Fe must find dah Staff of Kipit beforrre dah Zebrrrikaanians learrrn of dis,” Shazira said.

“And you must rrrecoferrr it,” Sabalus added, “Nopony sensed any magic, so a zebrrra shaman did not drrrop in unannounced to steal it, and fe can rrrule out a drrragon stealing thes staff demselves. Dah dieves arrre likely still in dah city, but dey will take dah staff farrr afay at dah firrrst opporrrtunity.”

“I can help locate it,” Twilight said, putting away her book, “I will need a map of Maer-Dina, blue ink, an owl feather, silver shavings, and a sieve.”

Vice-Pontiff Sabalus gave Twilight Sparkle a long, measured look before clapping her hooves together. One of the doors to the study slid open, and a mare in a crisp uniform adorned with the vice-pontific crest trotted in.

“My chamberrrlain will see to any need you may have,” Sabalus said, “Find dah Staff of Kipit, brrring it back to me, and you fill ghave my grrratitude.”

***

The spell that Twilight Sparkle had in mind wasn’t overwhelmingly difficult, though it did take some time to put together. Fortunately, she wasn’t alone; with Shazira’s help, they were able to get things ready much quicker than she would have even with Spike’s assistance; both being sorceresses, they spoke a common language. Once they had all the ingredients from Sabalus’s chamberlain, they quickly put together everything needed for the ritual. The very large map of Maer-Dina was laid out on a long table in one of the vice-pontific manor’s rooms, as Twilight had requested. While Shazira mixed the silver and ink together with an owl feather and ran the mixture through a sieve to sift out the larger bits, Twilight wove a magical web over the map in preparation for the ritual. Once everything was in place, she spoke a few words over the ink mixture before splashing it onto the map.

A large ink blot with silver specs in it stood in the center of the city for a moment before beginning to spread out across it. As the ink spread across the paper, pooling and dividing, Twilight hoped that the map was not too big and the ink wouldn’t dry before it reached its destinations, but she needn’t have worried. After a minute or more had passed, the ink had spread into dozens of spots spread all across the map of Maer-Dina, the blue standing out against the black lines the map had been drawn in. Everywhere an ink spot had ended up, there was a magical artifact. This included any kind of enchanted item, so there were predictable concentrations of spots in the sultana’s palace, on the estates that hosted magi, and in the Basilica of Sts. Pergamus and Lotentius; as well as a surprisingly large number in the market along the street the ponies had gone down to get here. Some blots were larger than others to represent more powerful artifacts, and more silvery specs shone from them as well. There wasn’t a great variation except for a truly large spot in the southwestern part of the city, where the ink obscured quite a few buildings.

“Unless there is some other grand relic created by Nostracom in the city, that must be the Staff of Kipit,” Twilight said, pointing to the spot.

“Fascinating,” Shazira said, referring to the spell, which she’d taken meticulous notes on while they’d been preparing it, “Dah dieves arrre ghiding in dah grrrain storrrehouses.”

“Let us find them, then,” Twilight said as she sought out a basin of water or looking glass with which to scry their destination.

Once she had a good sense of the grain storehouses, she opened a portal to them (outside of the vice-pontiff’s manor). Twilight Sparkle was still uncertain what the Saddle Arabians would think about her opening portals within Maer-Dina, but time was of the essence. Shazira didn’t seem too put off, at least, though she had looked a bit surprised when Twilight had suggested it.

The layout of the grain storehouses made no more sense to Twilight Sparkle than the rest of the city, but at least the twisty streets never ended in a wall, since all the storehouses were great blocks of stone. The streets here were mostly deserted apart from where one storehouse was being restocked, grain hauled up in a great basket and dumped in through an upper door, the process overseen by two workers and a guard. Twilight Sparkle was immediately assailed by the heat that had been somewhat lessened by the vice-pontiff’s home and the shade of the garden they’d come from.

Their spell had revealed that the Staff of Kipit was somewhere among the grain storehouses; but the ink blot had covered a large area, though, so it could be in or among any one of them. Shazira spoke to the guard overseeing the unloading of grain and sent him off to find more guards while the sorceress and the magus began their search independently. Each of the storehouses had a notice board where inspection reports were pinned, and though Twilight could make sense of the characters, her Draenglic was not so good yet that she could understand the words or their meanings in the context of a grain storehouse. Shazira could, and she paid careful attention to the reported grain levels. Only at certain levels would the interior of a storehouse be useful for the thieves: either the grain was at a level where they could easily bury and retrieve the staff, or it was nearly empty and the thieves themselves could hide out.

There were some signs of thieves, though not the sort they were looking for, as they picked through the storehouses. The doors to the storehouses were barred and locked, so some magic was required to enter them without permission … except in the case where criminals seeking a hideout or attempting to steal grain had done their job for them. They were climbing down from another failure when Twilight spotted a fluttering cloak quickly disappearing behind the corner of another storehouse.

“Hey! Stop!” she called out, before teleporting to that corner herself and catching a better glimpse of who she’d seen.

A zebra face looked at her as the fleeing equine turned back for a moment before darting around another corner. Twilight teleported again to where her quarry had vanished, but he was a fast one, already darting through the lanes that ran between the storehouses. She pursued the zebra until she was quite lost in the maze of buildings. It would certainly be easier if she could just fly above the jumbled storehouses and look down on the zebra she was pursuing; on the ground, she still managed to lose track of him a couple of times. She always spotted him right before he could disappear, until at one turn, he vanished. However, the sorceress noticed that a door at ground level on one of the storehouses was just swinging shut.

Twilight hurried into the storehouse after the zebra and pulled up short. A full dozen zebras stood within the mostly empty grain storehouse, looking in Twilight’s direction. A couple moved behind her as the door swung closed, boxing her in. A few of the zebras were dressed in local garb, but most wore snug uniforms with sandy-colored cloaks that would serve as camouflage in the desert. If their stiff but nimble bearings didn’t give it away, their attire did: these were no ordinary thieves, but were Zebrikaanian imperial agents. Though she was surrounded by them, Twilight Sparkle was not afraid. She could easily teleport away, and none of them had shown the least inclination to harm her; not yet, anyway.

“Twilight Sparkle of the House Haltrotsun,” the leader of the agents addressed her in near-perfect High Equestrian as the zebra she’d pursued here removed his disguise, trading bright, colorful wrappings for clothing designed to blend into his surroundings, “Current apprentice of Regent Celestia of Cant’r Laht, and her ambassador to Sultana Rashida. Leader of the Brave Companions.”

“Yes, and who are you?” Twilight asked, not expecting an answer.

“I am Fatir’ri-Metzah mol’Kyria, humble servant of His Imperial Majesty Padhishah Ulm the Great Light,” the zebra leader replied.

Ulm the Great Light? I wonder if Celestia knows about that yet. Zebrikaanian Padishahs were only given that title if they were truly extraordinary or expected to be. It was a title that could only be bestowed by the zebra sun priests, a sign that they recognized the padishah as the avatar of Sun God Akash. To have been granted that recognition so soon into his reign, Ulm was surely as terrifying a threat as the Saddle Arabians made him out to be.

“Why are you here?” Twilight asked as she eyed the zebra agents, “Are you preparing for an invasion?”

“Always, but I do not think that is what you are really asking,” Fatir replied with a cold smile before gesturing for another agent to draw the Staff of Kipit out a grain pile, “You wanted to know if we came here simply to steal this staff without letting us know that it had been stolen, in case we weren’t the ones to take it. I do so relish games, Twilight Sparkle, but do not play them with me.”

“There are Saddle Arabian guards searching through these storehouses this very minute,” Twilight bluffed, although it might have been true by now. “Do you really expect to escape with the Staff of Kipit?”

“I dare say that we could if we wanted to, but that is not our intention,” Fatir said, and with another flick of his hoof, the zebra holding the staff threw it down before Twilight.

“I do not understand,” Twilight said as she cautiously picked up the Staff of Kipit and probed it with her magic to confirm it was legitimate.

“The padishah wishes to send you a message, Twilight Sparkle,” Fatir said, “Why is not for me to question, but perhaps he has taken an interest in you. Stories of the Brave Companions have reached the imperial court, and you were already known because of your closeness to Celestia. There is a potential for you to be a great adversary of the padishah, and so he deigns to seek you out now. If you are to be an enemy of the Zebrikaanian Empire, that is your decision to make, and if you choose so, you ought to bide your time until you are a worthy opponent. Stay on your side of the Shimmering Sea until then.”

“You stole the Staff of Kipit just to tell me that?” Twilight asked.

“It got your attention, didn’t it?” Fatir said wryly. “Besides, the staff is part of the message. It was completely within our power to take the relic that the Saddle Arabians consider their perfect defense, but we have stayed our hooves. With or without the staff, Saddle Arabia will bow to the Zebrikaanian padishah sooner rather than later.”

Without a word spoken, the zebra agents prepared to leave. Twilight Sparkle felt a tingle pass through her horn as she sensed magic, its source evident as the zebras smeared a grease over their features that turned their coats the color of their surroundings and allowed them, along with their cloaks, to blend in almost perfectly. It was no wonder they were known as invisible agents, though the name wasn’t quite accurate; she could still catch glimpses of them, if only to lose them again in the next moment.

“Goodbye, Twilight Sparkle,” Fatir said before he vanished and departed, “If the time spent observing you in the palace has taught me anything, I shall see you again.”

***

“The Honorable Magus Shazira requests permission to come into your presence,” Sultana Rashida’s captain of the guard whispered to her as she strolled through one of the palace gardens.

“Very well, let her approach,” Rashida said before dismissing the courtiers who’d been walking with her.

When the magus she patronized appeared on the garden path, she was not alone. She had brought Twilight Sparkle, the Equestrian envoy, with her. Both mares paid their respects, but it quickly became apparent that the real reason Shazira had requested to speak to her was so that Twilight could address the sultana without having to go through her previous rigamarole. A bit of an abuse of Shazira’s privileges as her client, but Rashida would forgive it after she’d heard what Twilight Sparkle had to say.

“Your majesty, I have been thinking about what we spoke about at the feast, and I have come to my decision,” the Cant’r Laht sorceress said, “The Zebrikaanian Empire cannot be allowed to expand unchecked. I vow that if Saddle Arabia is attacked by the Zebrikaanians, I will do everything within my power to help defend it.”

Comments

[FireOfTheNorth]

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Lightning Charge is an original character, though I guess coincidentally he's come to fulfill a similar role as Flash Sentry in some ways (especially since Flash has been deleted from the Equestria Girls universe).

As for how the Northerners will react to this development, well, you'll see in a couple chapters.