Chapter Six
Different Cultures, Different Customs
"That was… bizarre," Flurry said as Ao and I touched down on the quarterdeck. "What was Ao doing all wrapped around you?"
"Black and white entwined is a common symbol of magical harmony in many cultures," I told her. "Apart, we're a couple of strange, probably dangerous creatures. Together, we're iconic… and probably dangerous, yes, but still something that usually inspires more awe than fear."
"O—kay. Did it work?"
I hesitated. I didn't want to criticize Flurry, but I found myself wanting to ask if her "research" into this world had been anything more than a glance or two through a mirror portal. "Yes," I said. "It worked like a charm. We got some very good direct information, as well as quite a bit of interesting hints about the culture of this part of the world."
"The gems?"
"We got a clue where to start looking," I told her. "Let's get Nebula headed east, and then hold a strategy meeting in the chart room."
A direct easterly course was near the limit of how close to the wind Nebula could sail. Sirocco seemed to have the best feel for steering, so I put him at the wheel. We luffed and slowed a few times, falling off and regaining speed before coming back on course, but he seemed to be learning quickly. "Watch the edge of the sails. When they start shaking like that, fall off just a hair. Half a spoke or so should do it."
"Yes, ma'am! Uh… Ms. Nightshade, I mean." He shuffled his wings in embarrassment.
"Don't be nervous, Sirocco," I told him. "Either is correct, but when we get back to our own world and I get my monster suit off, I want you to call me Twilight, okay?"
He didn't relax at all. "Yes, Ms. Nightshade!"
"Good!" I said, as cheerfully as possible, and then turned to the huge earth pony that I'd assigned to all the "lift heavy things" tasks on board. "Stalwart Lance, will you please join the rest of us in the chart room?"
He blinked in surprise, and his ears flickered uncertainly. "Me? But I'm just a ground-pounder. I don't know anything about airships or magic."
It was almost amusing seeing the big brute shift his hooves uncertainly. Ten years and several periods of posing as Nightmare Twilight ago, I might have laughed. "Just? You took the silver medal in jousting at the last Equestria Games, if I recall correctly. And aren't you part of the new league that's trying to promote the sport all over the kingdom?"
He forgot his nervousness and grinned. "That's right! I saw you run a few passes with Princess Luna at that exhibition we did in Ponyville the year before last. I didn't think you'd remember me."
I rolled my eyes. "Lance, I guarantee that every mare in Ponyville remembers you."
"Oh...uh…" His blush was amusing. And instructive.
I wondered for a second or so if I was getting too devious for my own good, then said, "Come on." I tossed my head in the direction of the short companionway that led down to the chart room and went ahead. After a few seconds, I heard his hooffalls behind me.
The chart room could have easily accommodated four average ponies, but cramming in two alicorns, a hulking athlete, and a kirin (who was considerably bulky despite her snakey appearance) took a bit of work. We had to fold up the chart table.
I explained to Flurry and Lance what the burros had told us, then I went into the implications of what they hadn't said directly.
"They automatically assumed that an airship crew would be earth ponies, whether pirates or representatives of the local government, and that those ponies would be hostile, regardless," I said.
Lance frowned. "Most aeronauts are unicorns, right? Maybe a quarter of airship crews are pegasi from what I've seen." When Flurry looked at him with a surprised expression, he added, "I travel a lot with the team."
"That's true back in Equestria," I confirmed. "But things seem to be very different here. We're dealing with an expansionist empire. They conquered this area within living memory of the burros, and are not kind to their subjects. In fact…" I paused for a moment. My next supposition was based solely on a muttered aside, but my experience in several less-than-pleasant worlds gave statistical support to my working hypothesis. "I think there is a good chance that this empire considers unicorns to be a servitor class, if not outright slaves."
When the resulting commotion died down, I went on. "So, we have a stratified society with earth ponies at the top. That's where you come in, Stalwart Lance. You may eventually have to front for us. Cream Puff isn't nearly as imposing as you are, and appearance is more important than ponies like to admit. But more critical is the need to arm ourselves, and you may be the only one of the crew who can safely achieve that."
Lance frowned. "But we've got plenty of weapons on board."
"I'm sorry," I replied. "I wasn't clear. I know you're a great athlete, but how are you at library science?"
= = =
The first town we came to was a small settlement around an oasis. We anchored a few furlongs outside the town, and Cream Puff and Stalwart Lance went in to gather information with the excuse of trading gold for supplies.
As neither our pastry chef nor our professional athlete had any experience in espionage, they were given very clear instructions to merely keep their eyes and ears open, and under no circumstances were they to get clever or ask leading questions. They were to say that they were traders and give no more information than that about themselves or the ship. As somepony who was experienced in espionage, I knew that being less inquisitive was more likely to get a pony to loosen up and talk freely.
It would have been so much easier if Flurry or I had been able to manage a disguise spell. I half expected some curious pegasi to fly up to greet us and perhaps try to do a bit of trading, and Flurry wore her greatcoat against that possibility. But there were no ponies in the sky at all. All we could do was wait and hope nothing went wrong in town.
"I wondered where that mark had come from," Flurry said to me as we stood watching the town about three hours after we'd sent our ponies in. She pointed down to a spot on the deck just behind the speaking tubes.
I lifted my hoof away to see a deep groove in the thick oak plank where I'd been unconsciously rubbing the fore edge of my shoe across it.
"It must have taken a long time to wear it that deep," she said.
"Years." I gave her a sheepish grin. "Nervous habit. I never like sending my ponies into danger."
Flurry grimaced. "Does it help? Because those two are my ponies, Ms. Nightshade, and I don't like it at all."
Well. "No, Captain, it doesn't help," I replied. "I've also been going over several rescue plans in my head, which helps only a little."
Captain Skyla turned away from me and resumed her vigil.
Two hours later, just as I was preparing a mental checklist of weapons and tactics we'd need to assault a fortified building, our wayward crewponies returned.
Their mission had been much more enjoyable for them than it had been for Skyla and me.
The town was called Rocas Rojas and was primarily a way-station for caravans. It didn't have any sort of library, unfortunately. There may have been unicorns or pegasi in town, but Lance and Puff didn't see any. The Equestrian bits didn't get so much as a raised eyebrow. A money-changer in the market quickly weighed them, checked their displacement vs. weight, and passed over the equivalent in local currency.[1]
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[1] Less his rather exorbitant fee, of course.
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Not much trade went on in town, but there was a small marketplace where the locals shopped, and it was there that Lance and Puff had spent most of their time.
"It was weird," Lance said to Skyla. "One of the merchants asked what I traded, and I had no idea what to tell him, so I shrugged and said, 'Oh… this and that. Nothing special.' He got really friendly after that. Said he'd be able to get me a good price on my cargo if I didn't feel like dodging the imperial revenue cutters."
"Good, good!" I said. "That tells us a lot!"
"It does?" Skyla asked.
"It makes it obvious that smuggling is rife here, Captain," Ao put in. "The common ponies take it as a matter of fact and are united in the disobedience of laws regulating trade."
Skyla tilted her head and raised an eyebrow. "How is it that you know so much about smuggling, Ms. Ao?"
"Ah… this one has… mm… been exposed to some…"
I laid a wingtip on Ao's shoulder to stop her. "Take it from me, Captain," I said to Skyla, "She's an expert."
Skyla gave me an elegant version of the stink-eye that had more than a little bit of her mother in it. "I'm beginning to think that your bedtime stories were heavily edited."
Poor Cream Puff and Stalwart Lance were looking back and forth between the three of us in complete puzzlement.
Puff broke the awkward silence by opening a package he had brought back from town."They make a really great pastry here! It's lots of really thin layers of dough with chopped almonds and date paste in between. I don't know how they bake it to get it so crispy and flakey, and the mare just laughed when I asked her for the recipe, but the final touch is to soak it in honey, and it's really, really good! Try some!"
It was good. But not as good as what Stalwart Lance had brought back.
"So, there wasn't a library, but there was a stall in the market that sold books and stuff. Also the stallion who ran it wrote letters for a fee." Lance paused and thought for a moment. "I guess that means that a lot of ponies here are illiterate?"
Good. He was starting to think. I told myself I'd make a spy out of him yet.
"Anyway..." He set a big bundle down on the deck and untied the cloth. "I bought all the maps he had and several books that looked like they might be of help."
"Oh Lance, I could just kiss you!" I breathed, levitating the top map up and unfolding it.
Skyla snickered and that made me look up. Stalwart Lance had half reared back and his eyes were showing white all the way around the irises.
I was a bit surprised to find that I was kind of miffed at his reaction. "Oh come on! I'm not that horrible looking, am I?"
Lance began to stammer out something but Ao interrupted him with a snarl. "You should be grateful for Her Majesty's slightest sign of favor! This one will allow no—"
"Wait!" I shouted shoving my wings between the two of them. "Stop! There's no need for a stupid fight over nothing!" Lance froze and looked to Skyla. Ao looked to me.
Okay. I should have known better, I suppose. The situation needed to be fixed immediately. I sighed and said, "There are no princesses aboard this ship, is that clear? No majesties or highnesses. There are the captain and the officers and the crew. We are in a very tricky situation and we need to work together without any divided loyalties or petty rivalries. Is that clear?"
There was some embarrassed mumbling and then Skyla said, "Well, you're the one with all the experience, Twilight. And this is really your ship. You should be the captain."
It would have been easy to agree. It might have been safer for everypony aboard. But I took the time to try to think about the situation from a more long-term point of view. Flurry's upbringing had provided her with everything a pony could want... but not everything a pony needed. That was a subtle danger of wealth and privilege... and an over-indulgent aunt, I suppose. I sighed and refolded the map, setting it back on top of the pile.
"No, you are the captain. I haven't regretted that decision for an instant. But I haven't wholly embraced it, either. I've held back some important information, and that was a mistake. If you're going to be responsible for Nebula and her crew, you need to know everything."
That got Skyla's attention. "What information?" she asked in a carefully neutral tone of voice.
"There won't be a rescue party coming from Equestria. The portal is jammed in a way that means it will only open from this side, and only with a huge amount of power. This isn't a game. We've got to get those crystals or we'll never see home again."
There was a very long silence, and then I asked, "What are your orders, Captain Skyla?"
= = =
Everything went perfectly smoothly from then on.[2]
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[2] It's odd, but I actually felt a slight twinge as I wrote that down.
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No, of course it didn't. But the incidents were fairly negligible, and we got more cohesive as a crew with each passing day. It would be wearisome to chronicle each minor bit of friction, so suffice it to say that we all did much better than the average green crew. Under the circumstances. Considering.
I think I may have had the worst time of it. I am not "bossy", as Rainbow Dash often accuses me of being. I am knowledgeable and experienced, and therefore I usually have a knowledgeable and experienced opinion about any given situation. It is only natural that I give voice to that opinion in order to give other, less knowledgeable and experienced ponies the benefit of my knowledge and experience.[3]
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[3] Another, slightly stronger twinge, there. I wish it was simply the consequence of so much close repetition.
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Let's just say it was a significant learning experience for me as well.
The maps and books that Stalwart Lance had bought gave us a much clearer, if less pleasant, picture of that foreign world. It was definitely a stratified and racist society. Earth ponies ruled in a hereditary feudal structure. There were absolutely no wings or horns among the nobility. Pegasi were a specialized warrior caste, and groups served individual noble families rather than the empire as a whole. It wasn't clear from the books how that worked, or why disaffected individuals didn't simply fly away if the whim took them, but there was a solid assumption of absolute loyalty underlying all of the texts.
The worst part was the fate of the unicorns. Being ponies, they were technically superior to the "subject" races,[4] but in actuality, they were slaves in all but name. Because of the limitations of the world's magical flow, they could only do simple and low-powered spells. No teleportation, no battle magic, or anything of that sort.
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[4] I had forgotten how horrifying it was to first discover that ponies could treat each other like that, but the reaction of Nebula's crew brought it back to me, afresh.
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But, however it had happened, thaumic engineering had developed to nearly the degree it had back home. The principles were well understood, even though no single unicorn could power the higher-level matrices. But those matrices could be engraved as mandalas on waveguides, and mana storage crystals could power those constructs.
And so, the unicorns of that land existed for one purpose only; to charge the gems that ran the technology of the Empire of Earth.
"We've got to do something," Skyla said, when the full magnitude of the situation hit her.
I didn't want to lecture her, and I certainly didn't want to advise her to ignore a great injustice, but the impulse to do both climbed up my throat like… something unpleasant and unhelpful.
"We will do what we can," I said quietly, "but cultures are harder to fight than empires."
She scowled at me, unsatisfied, but unable to disagree.
I understood. Back home, there was always something that could be done. Love and Truth and Justice—not to mention Friendship—were tangible forces that could literally move mountains. But the multiverse was a huge expanse, filled with places much colder and less caring than our own cozy little world.
Fortunately, I had a little experience at toppling corrupt regimes, as Sultana Rarity of Marezambique could attest. "What we can do is damage. Damage to their image, damage to their myth of innate superiority, and quite honestly, I'm not averse to a large amount of property damage incidental to retrieving those crystals."
Skyla's expression softened. "That sounds good, but I wish we could do more."
I floated over her greatcoat and settled it over her wings. "Don't discount the ideas our little adventure will sow in the minds of the oppressed. When a unicorn pirate captain defies the Empire of Earth, steals their treasures, and kicks some rump in the process…" I paused to straighten her collar and to do up the gold buttons at her throat. "...that is inspiring!"
She was grinning by the time I'd finished. "Then let us go inspire, Ms. Nightshade!"
I snapped off the cleanest salute I think I've ever delivered in my life. "With pleasure, Captain Skyla!"
= = =
=
Oh man am I happy that you're not going to play a game of idiot ball here. I really winced earlier when Twilight decided to shelter Flurry from that particular bit of knowledge.
Ah ha ha ha ha! This is going to be great!
8056968 in the immoral words of immoral Princess una... "It will be The most glorious Fun ever!"
Given the circumstances, I do wonder if there are any or ever were any Alicorns. If there weren't, then how might these ponies react to a race that not only represents equality among the tribes but also exists on a whole other level?
Also, I'm suddenly aware that as of yet no leader or emperor of any sort has been named. I reserve the right to be suspicious until I get a name.
Very interesting turn of events here...and I'm anticipating a sudden reveal of Flurry Hearts wings eventually...hmmm.........
Yo ho ho and a bottle of rum!
"places much colder and uncaring than"
"and more uncaring"?
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Something like that, thanks!
Let's go Skyla~
Twilight is right. Flurry NEEDS this. She needs to earn it and own it.
Skyla? *Sigh* Sit down and let me explain something to you.
You are a long way from home in an alien world with alien laws of nature. You do not know what is 'good' and 'right'. You don't know the history or how things ended up the way they are. You don't even know if things are worse now than they were before. You are not a god, alicorn or no; you are neither omniscient nor omnipercipient. You can't know what is good for these ponies and what the future may hold.
Slavery is never a nice thing but nopony appointed you as judge and arbitrator over the multiverse. Just concentrate on getting out of there as soon as possible, okay? The less you get involved in affairs, the less harm is likely to come to you and your crew (and this must be your main priority). Let the Empire and its peoples find their own future. If history teaches us anything, it is that even the most powerful tyrannies fall, become archaeology and, ultimately, dust.
Alright, so, they are stuck in a world where Unicorns are apparently not treated well (Which I can see causing all kinds of issues with the whole 'Skyla" disguise, and Earth Ponies run an evil empire. Flurry Heart, you really do know how to pick the best places to visit. Oh well, time for them to find how, even at a mere fraction of her full magical epicness, Twilight is not to be fucked with. The only question is, how bad will she end up fucking things up for the assholes here, and how soon till this turns from "Just get the gems and get home" to "Save these ponies from their oppressors".
Making Twilight really, really miss Luna right now.
And it works really well. Didn't even think of the whole 'black and white' thing, have to keep mentally slipping Twilight into "Nightmare" mode, plus don't think I ever really payed attention to what color Ao was. But yeah, good reasoning.
Twilight... you are smart... it should be clear by now the answer to that question is "No, that was the extent of her research."
Given only the three of them will be the ones needing to hear anything, (and Ao seems unlikely to do more then agree with Twilight, but maybe have some useful observations) hardly a need to call for a special meeting. Then again this is Twilight, and so everything should be by the book, orderly, and have the proper names.
The teeth are just for show, I don't bite. Well unless Luna and me are in a really frisky mood but, still won't be biting you.
D'awwwwww, again, still the Twilight we know and love, just a bit older and wiser.
Oh sure, make the Earth Pony be the dumb muscle, #ponyracism
Oh ship wide meeting baring the pony at the wheel? Well, good idea, keeping them all aware of things, especially given how few there are. Speaking of, how long till she stars taking on more ponies from this world into the crew?
And a few actually BEING her.......
Wow, learning how to make jokes like that.... she really has relaxed a lot. Also, spent a lot of time with Rarity.... Still, this is the sort of thing I could NEVER see Show-era Twilight doing, just being this casual about something like this, but fits in so well with her years of growth and development now.
Maybe...... Luna's rubbing off on you a bit I guess. Though if I didn't know any better, I'd think she was trying to hit on him a bit.
So not full crew...... OH bringing him in because this place seems to be Earth Pony dominated so getting him ready to act the part if needed?
Also, not like any of those charts will be doing any good right now.
Makes sense, Unicorns have an easier time dealing with the ropes, and sails and all that, and pegasi would likely prefer to just fly on their own.
Oh crap...... yeah these guys do NOT know what they are dealing with. Not only is it Twilight Sparkle with a load of maturity, growth and experience... but who has also become outright Genre Savvy! This is going to be so fun watching her deal with them.
Arm them with the greatest weapon of all, KNOWLEDGE! And... you know... that is so perfectly Twilight to see things that way. Let's hope he really is more then just dumb muscle.
Whose laying odds they return to the ship running from an angry mob and/or fleeing a large group of soldiers?
Again couple Twi's already enormous intellect and ability to problem solve, with experience and Genre Savvyness.... even with her magic nerfed to hell... these ponies still do not stand a chance.
Ohhhhh, very nice detail, thoroughly unneeded for the story, and yet so simple, so direct, so perfect, and saying so much about Twilight, her past, everything, just.... so damn good.
.... they aren't drunk are they?
That... makes a lot of sense, being evasive, unclear, it is easy to see how he'd assume they were smugglers, damn I'm loving this story!
AKA, Twilight is a very bad influence... in the best possible ways.
"Next you'll tell me that Rarity exhausting an entire group of royal guards through dancing with them wasn't how it happened, I know that seemed odd."
"Well, it was vigorous physical activity which often has 'dancing' used as a euphemism for it...."
And then derail into talking about something like local pastries....... again I love this story just, little touches like this, bits that are at first out of place in how serious things are and yet.. fit so well in with the show, keep the same tone, the same feel, these are still ponies, and, something so minor really can be so important to them, it keeps things from getting to dire, to tense, to serious, while feeling perfectly natural, and adding just the right touch of absurdity and fun to, well as I said, keep the story firmly feeling very 'pony'.
It's a book isn't it?
Of course.
Are Luna and Twilight at the point of being so sure of each other, they are willing to have an open relationship at times? If not.... Lance might want to think long and hard about going back to Equestria....
No, but he's heard of the quivering, empty shell of a pony that was once called Flash Sentry.
Good Twilight, keep petty bickering and stupid misunderstanding fueled 'drama' to a minimum. Still... Ao seems even more protective then Luna would be.
And ALL of the HELL YES! Both for Twilight, and the story itself, for realizing this quickly, not letting it drag out, but seeing a potential problem, and dealing with it right there and then before it festered and screwed things over later.
It might be better for this situation.... but letting Flurry be in charge would be more likely to ensure something like this never happens again, right?
So more or less, what I thought, but also more.. just Twilight knowing Flurry needs this simply, because she does... best Aunt!
And time to tell them just how serious this is and how bucked they are if they screw this up.
So, not fully Genre Savvy. Though all depends on when she's writing this down, the fact it's, well, after the fact means.. it really did, and she's just feeling that twinge because, being Genre Savvy, she knows how saying that would normally mean they'd be fucked, but doing so after the fact, when she knows it didn't, still feels odd.
Great use of the trope, and also, thank you for the reassurance that what issues they will be facing will be in dealing with the ponies they are having to, well, deal with, and not have needless, tacked on, forced, interpersonal drama getting in the way and making things worse..
I freaking love you story!
Okay, not FULLY perfect, but minor, foreseeable issues that were dealt with as they happened but still never really affected the main goal, and were to minor to be worth detailing.. more believable and again, I LOVE YOU STORY!!!!
So... bad news for Flurry and Twilight.... well more bad news for the Empire if they try to do a damn thing against those two or try treating them that way. Still, this is harsh, brutal, wrong... but makes sense.. in it's own twisted way.. just... I can't say I 'like' it, given how bad it is yet, really well crafted story.
Well... that bit from the start came around faster then I thought, also, OH HELL YES FLURRY HEART! See ponies in need, oppressed, crushed like this... and want to help! Way to GO!
Also, go twilight, knowing that, by all moral standards, by everything she believes in, Flurry is right, this needs to end. But also knowing just how HUGE a task that is, and how limited they are to do it. Seeing just how fundamental a shift would be needed in how the ponies of this world viewed things to really change stuff. That it won't be as easy as just 'beat bad guy X" or freeing a group or two of unicorns. That while she is right, something should be done, she also knows, they might not be able to do anything.
Yet not letting that make her not want to do it, to say no, she hates this as much as Flurry Heart, knows it's wrong... and if they find a way to help she will do it, try to change things, to help them, but is cautious about just what that might be. Again, It's Twilight, but mature and experienced enough to walk the line between idealism and realism, while always trying to lean towards the idealistic side.
Okay, emotes are not enough, the emotions in this can only be expressed in one fashion.
ALL OF THE SQUEE!!!!!!!!
In case it hasn't been made clear.. allow me to maybe.. sum up my reaction to this chapter.
ZOMG THIS IS AMAZING I FREAKING LOVE THIS THE STORY WAS ALREADY FREAKING EPIC AND AMAZING AND FUN, BUT THIS JUST ROCKETED IT ALL THE WAY INTO SO BUCKING AWESOME AND PERFECT AND SETTING UP SUCH AMAZING STUFF AND THE CHARACTERS BEING SMART, INTELLIGENT, BUT STILL DOING WHAT IS RIGHT AND JUST ALL OF THE YES!!!!!!!
Something along those lines.
But seriously the story was already doing good, but between noticing and quickly defusing internal conflict among the crew, even outright saying "Yeah it wasn't perfect, but nothing major enough to interfere with the main plot, Twilight becoming so damn genre savvy, and the whole, realism, but still working to help as best they can and planning maybe just a bit more collateral damage then needed in the process of getting the buck out of here, all while setting up a legend for these ponies to hold to as a rallying point to continue the fight......... just... just....... I have no words!
8057208 All hail Empress Applejack?
8058543 Buck! That! This is why these ponies are heroes, because they won't just ignore suffering for some cold, uncaring logic saying they should.
8058543
She's young and passionate. She'll get older and more cunning... kinda soon, actually.
8060215
So... you liked it, then?
.
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.
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So... a) I forget, is this something that happened in a previous story, or something that happened offscreen (because you drop so many noodle incidents it's hard to keep track) and b) was Rarity the corrupt regime being toppled or just the replacement...?
Because I can totally believe either.
(I now just have this image of Rarity Going Mad With Power (again) and Twilight toppling the regime with a good, solid smack upside the head.
"Oh, terribly sorry darling. Was I getting carried away again?"
(While an uncertain Spike (appointed consort maybe, I forget if that's true around here, but roped in to help Rarity regardless) watches from the middle distance...)
Some earth pony : "Bloody pirates!"
I am liking this fanfic more and more. I look forward to read about two pirate princesses and their crew doing some boarding and pillaging!
8063157 "Now, bring me that horizon!"
8058543 Utter nonsense. There are things in the world that are universally wrong... Slavery just happens to be one them. I told one of proffesors the same thing, we had a long argument.
wow, this reminded me of an old online comic called "crossworlds":
http://crossworlds.ws/?comic=k6lr
Huh. It seems I somehow missed this chapter, and my Favourites bookshelf somehow didn't inform me I had an unread chapter. Oh well, that's remedied now.
Whoop!
Go crew!
The world building is so sick! I'm sure this place and the Empire of Earth could be the setting for its own series with little difficulty.
"I was actually thinking about what Luna will do to me when we get back."
principles
She is probably anxious and scared, as she should be.
8060798
Sultana Rarity became a Sultana after the Mane 6 toppled the previous regime of Marezambique and Miss Rarity impressed the new Sultan so much that he proposed to her. That happened in the Twilight Enigma.
I somehow had pictured Twilight's teeth in that form as shark like, but the image drives that scene home for sure!
Holy shit that picture is terrifying
10493572
Waht?
10401447
Agreed
Lance was probably thinking something like this:
i don't think she said "knowledge and experience" enough, o.O
10838929
Close repetition for the win!
Sweet Jesus, I did not need to see that picture in the author’s note right before going to bed lol