Fading Suns: A New World

by David Silver

42 - We Come in Peace

Cheerilee smiled at her classroom. "As I'm sure many of you are now aware, Ponyville has become host to a, well, literally, alien guests. I'm sure you all have questions, but we do have lessons to get through. Let's get a few questions out of your system, then we focus on the task at hoof. Alright?"

Silver Spoon raised a hoof. "Miss Cheerilee, will we have a project on them?"

Cheerilee's smile inched a bit beyond normal. "While I am certain there is much we could learn from... our guests, I have been informed that they are anxious people, and I don't want any of my precious little ponies being hurt."

Sweetie Belle thrust up a hoof, waving it wildly. "I met one! Laud! He's nice and increasingly eloquent. If the other ones are similar to him, how bad can they be?"

Snails nodded. "I've met him too. He seemed alright."

Pipsqueak chimed in agreement, "A perfectly reasonable stallion, if not a stallion." He tapped at his chin. "What do they call themselves again?"

Apple Bloom leaned towards her smaller classmate, precariously over air from where she sat in her school chair. "Ah heard him call it a 'man'." She said the human word in English, slow and specific.

The entire crowd erupted into noise as different ponies asked different questions, many amazed that Apple Bloom knew a human word.

Cheerilee waved a hoof down towards the ground. "Simmer down, class. If they ask you a question or talk to you first, you are free to reply, but please give them space for now. Now then, for our first lesson..."

---

Paul strode through the town. He had several of his men with him, but not Laud. The ponies he saw reacted in very different ways. Some waved in friendly waves, wobbling their hooves in a fashion that would be impossible for a horse. They weren't horses, of course. They were... long ago... countless years ago... human, or so Laud had posited.

The more he saw of their architecture, the more he was inclined to agree. Though some of it took leaps of fancy, too much of it was something a human could have made and none would have thought them mad for doing so. The races he'd met were all very distinctly different, only taking up human norms after meeting them, and even then, their touches were hard to miss. These ponies had only just met humanity.

They were too normal, even in their absurdity.

One was approaching him. An 'Earth' pony, colored just as his name implied. He had blue eyes and a red tie. He also seemed to have the very start of a shirt at his shoulders, but it didn't bother continuing past that, as if it were just a tag that said 'I am a business person', and served no other purpose.

Paul's curiosity demanded he stop and await what the pony desired. Thus far, their requests had been small and harmless. Most were echoes of curiosity. He saw the pony had a translation collar on, that was good. It was awkward when they just made horse noises at him.

"Good day," spoke the pony. "I am Filthy Rich, and it's an honor to make your acquaintances." He put out a hoof towards them all, but it veered towards Paul, as if realizing he was the one in charge. "I'm certain you didn't come all the way from another star just to sightsee. I'd like to talk business."

Paul regarded the hoof. What was he to do with it? He decided to just pretend it was a hand and he clasped it, shaking it firmly. Had the pony really just bragged they were rich? "A local merchant?"

"The local merchant," assured Filthy, wagging his hoof up and down in time with Paul's shaking. "Good grip, just like the minotaurs do it. Now then, what can ole' Filthy do for you?"

Paul got it. Filthy was his name. He was Filthy Rich. If ponies named themselves after their abilities, that meant Filthy likely was wealthy to match his name. Still, at least it wasn't a casual brag. "I am Duke Paul Hawkwood. What is it you're offering?"

Filthy reclaimed his hoof and gave a firm nod. "What aren't I offering? I have contacts across Equestria, and you represent an opportunity, for the both of us. We can start with sundry supplies and work up to other, more exotic, wares." He dusted his not-suit lightly with the end of a hoof. "I'm told you represent a much larger body of, uh... My apologies, what do you call yourselves again?"

Paul had an easy out. "While I am interested in seeing what you have, I believe Sir Mountbatten is the final word on what passes through his dock. He should be present before we begin trading negotiations." That and he wasn't sure what Filthy could immediately offer. "Can you make more of these?" He pointed at the translator at his neck.

"I'm afraid I couldn't, not right away." Filthy reached for his own. "But, give it some time. I have some ponies already working on getting a production line running. I'll become the primary source of these wonderful things."

Paul considered that. "You are working with Miss Glimmer then?"

"Who? Oh! No, I wasn't."

Trademark was not a strongly-enforced thing, clearly, but it wasn't in much of the rest of the universe. Starlight was being stolen from by a guild leader, a pony one, of course, and there was likely little she could do about it. It was almost comforting, knowing ponies could play those same games. "Of course. We may have business to speak of when you finish that. What other technologies can you already make?"

Filthy looked quite thoughtful a moment. "We have telephones, light fixtures of various sorts. Ah! I almost forgot. We have protection against unicorn magic that may interest you."

It was an almost magic thing, how all the humans, guards and their leader, perked up at his suggestion. Filthy tried to take advantage of it, "Oh, we have all manners of things for any budget. From entire suits to little necklaces, depending on the protection desired and the need for subtlety." He leaned forward, voice lowering, though the translator missed the volume change. "I understand unicorn magic can be quite intimidating, even for us. I've seen what they can do when they want to."

Paul nodded slowly. So fear of magic wasn't an entirely alien concept to ponies. That was... reassuring in its own way. Still, Filthy was a merchant. He could be saying what he thought wanted to be heard. Paul could not assume there was no duplicity in the choice of words. "Mister Rich, you have my attention, but the basic point remains. Your own Queen authorized Sir Mountbatten to oversee these matters. Until he gives us proper methods for conducting trade, I will not sidestep him."

"There's nothing against a little gift." He turned away with a little smile. "I'll have one sent your way, as a sample of what we can offer. Enjoy it, entirely without obligation. I'm sure you'll want more, later."

"You are aware, Mister Rich, that we are without a single of the local coins."

Filthy waved that objection away. "Coins are only a shortcut to barter. Without them, we fall back to it. You have countless things worth trading for, not to mention your own currency. I should want the ability to trade with other humans that visit, and your currency would be ideal to that end." He half turned back to them. "We both have things the other wants. As a human in charge of others, we can see eye to eye."

Paul looked down at the pony. They would not see eye to eye in all ways, clearly. "I will consider it. Good day, Filthy Rich."

"Good day." He nodded with his eyes closed, a formal looking gesture, and trotted away without fear.

One of Paul's men slid closer, speaking in quiet English tones, "Merchants don't change no matter the species, eh sir?"

"Too true," he replied, covering his translator. "Still, I want to see this gift of his."

---

Laud lunged forward, striking the blade with his own and knocking it back. The soldier holding the other blade danced backwards, getting his sword back into position quickly, but Laud was pressing, swinging and thrusting purposefully.

Bon Bon sat to the side. She was not the only witness to the battle by far. Many other humans watched the two duel with intent eyes. She wore a translator; it was a requirement around all the humans. "With a sword," she spoke softly, though the translator spoke at full volume. "--I would think they would be more careful. One slip could seriously hurt either of them."

The ring of steel on steel was loud and distinct as the two warriors clashed. One of those watching shook his head just slightly at Bon Bon. "Pain is a valuable teacher. The stakes are high."

The soldier facing Laud pushed to the offensive with a sudden, and clearly unexpected, kick. It was all Laud could do to deflect the incoming strikes as he tried to recover from the sharp blow. The crowd murmured their thoughts eagerly.

One of the soldiers crouched down to be on Bon Bon's level. "Have you fought with a deadly weapon before?"

"Several," replied Bon Bon, only thinking of what she had admitted a moment after. She went tense. "I mean, in practice..."

Laud caught the sword against his crossguard and gave a sudden twist. The other soldier's blade few several feet to the side, but before it even had a chance to land, Laud had brought up his sword to his foe's neck.

The soldier laughed. "Bested, again. Here I thought you might have softened in this land of sugar and cream."

Laud sheathed his blade and slapped the other man on the shoulder. "It'd take another few years of this to bring me that low," he said in a joking tone. "It's good to get in a real spar."

"The feeling's mutual." Their hands met in a firm shake that turned into a half hug, either patting the other's back. "Do these ponies even know what a sword is?" Neither of the sparring men had translators on, their words solely in English.

Bon Bon pointed at them. "What are they saying?"

"Of course they do," replied Laud. "They just don't use them very often. They fight bare handed, or hoofed, as the case may be, most often. Their guards seem to prefer polearms."

The sparring partner shrugged. "Wouldn't want to be kicked by a hoof, pony, horse, or shantor. Still, it lacks reach. Their guards have a better idea of it." He turned to face Bon Bon. "I see one of them is curious about how we do it." He went for his sword to get it back in his sheathe.

"Hello, Bon Bon," spoke Laud in Pony English. "Come to see me fight?"

"I heard they were fighting with swords and wanted to see it for myself. I didn't expect you, specifically." She looked Laud up and down. "So, these are your friends?"

"Yes and no. Subordinates, but I know some of them quite well." He clapped his sparring partner on the shoulder once more before leaving him and approaching Bon Bon. "Just as I am sure Mayor Mare and Princess Celestia, and even Princess Twilight make friends and approaches people without stiff formality at times."

Bon Bon rolled her eyes. "Twilight treating things with 'royal decorum' is the exception, not the rule, and I think we both know that. She's still getting used to wearing that crown on her head." She pointed at Laud's sword. "Do you ever fight without those?"

"We did that once ourselves, if you haven't forgotten?" He patted his sheathed blade. "We can fight with our fists. It's a valuable skill. It lacks the grace that a blade brings, however, and some beasts are unimpressed by a punch, but think twice when sharpened--"

"Laud," barked one of the many soldiers. "--pardon the outburst, Sir, but we can't understand a blasted thing you're saying to the pony here, just her half of it."

Author's Note:

In this chapter, no huge bombs are dropped on the narrative. The humans are mingling about Ponyville, and nobody or pony, has been brutally murdered. Success! Now if those humans could be talked into slicing the typos for me...

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Comments

[No one is home]

"Dammit Laud! Stop talking in horse noises!"

[bonberjean]

uh?
where is the rest?

[Booster Spice]

I would say a canon, if episode 100 is accepted, level of skill for Bon Bon unless otherwise prefered, is that she ran for it when the Bugbear attacked because she was on her own and had Lyra as a dependant. Given that the Mane 6 took time to deal with it, is assumes BonBon and her crew are Extremely well specced ops.

Against the starship though, unless it has ablative or other mechanical energy manipulating hull surface passively active, then Octavia could play it like her cello, selecting which part to resonate or harmonically chord. This is possibly a reason why Earth ponies are so physically strong. And the Music of Magic.

Their current belief of Ponies and ranged weaponry I think would take a major hit if Maud decided to toss Tom.

[Comnislasher]

8770134
Well, in one of the books it hinted that SMILE has cream of the cream of Equestria tech (like long-range comm device installed in the wristwatch). So it's possible that without all sort of nifty SMILE devices Bon-Bon severely limited at what she can do.

[tsaukpaetra]

Yes, multilingual people can get caught up if not attentive.
BonBon's reconnaissance remains undetected. A lengthy report is to be expected!
Filthy tries to take advantage of a potential loophole but thankfully Laud has already covered that one up...
Keep going! ;)

[Vutava]

"As I'm sure many of you are now aware, Ponyville has become host to a, well, literally, alien guests.

[David Silver]

8770951
I deem this typo entirely in character for the awkward situation.

[LordNobady]

8770527
I think that not having somepony spying is more offensive in this case. Like they dont even expect to need to understand there visitors.

[Glenn]

8773450
Hi, Uncle Bene. It's nice to hear from another fan of the Fading Suns setting. I've just been looking through a few of my old books, and I think you are right that the Orthodox do blame Human sinfulness for the Fading Suns phenomena to a greater degree than I'd remembered. However, there may have been some subtle shifts of emphasis in different editions of the setting, which would help explain why our views of the setting are slightly different.
. For example, here is a quote from the 2012 Player's Guide:
"While the Urth Orthodox stance may seem suffocatingly authoritarian in theory, in practice it allows its priests much leeway to choose their own means and even to interpret doctrine in their own way. The Church is built upon the ongoing creation of the Pancreator and humanity’s participation in that creation, seen as a sort of passion play. The darkening light of
the suns is due to humanity’s sins in overreaching their part in the play. Through humility and good works, humanity can part the curtains which block the light from the stars and again take part in the revealed light of creation. But until that time, humans are on probation and must temper their actions. "
This quote illustrates two shifts I think somewhat significant, first the idea that human history was like a passion play may have became increasingly important in later editions, and therefore was more explicitly described as being part of Church Doctrine; and secondly, in an attempt to make the fading phenomena more scientifically plausible (and thus at least partially answer the lightspeed objection you raise) the authors of the setting started to suggest that maybe the fading wasn't so much due to an alteration of the Suns themselves, as it was to something that was blocking some of the light of the suns.

I'd like to continue this conversation later when I have a little more free time, if you are interested in doing so. But thank you for a thought provoking post.

[Rokas]

Bit of a fluff chapter; not much going on, and it feels a bit cut off in how it ended so abruptly. Filler, really. Still, nice to see that the Space British have Reasonable Authority Figures.

[Norad2]

8777900
Oh, good! In that case, I’m already doing what I need to do. All that’s left is practice.

[Uncle Bene]

877392

Oh, I'm usually up for discussion if you like at some point.

I'd have to say that Fading Suns is good for storytelling and drama, and offers a nicely variegated setting - but it's is a fantasy setting with rather thin science-fiction window dressing. The results you get when you start considering what little technical information they do give you are pretty silly - and since my playing groups tend to include a bunch of technical types who try to figure out how things work and how they can be applied in other situations, they're actually much happier with purely magical "physics" (at least as long as it;s detailed in the setting) than they are with loose physics.

[Yutah123]

"Of course they do," replied Laud. "They just don't use them very often. They fight bare handed, or hoofed, as the case may be, most often. Their guards seem to prefer polarms."

Polarms —> Polearms

Another kill!

[David Silver]

8920028
Fixed!

[Okie Brony]

Typo!

Paul had an easy out. "While I am interested in seeing what you have, I beleive Sir Mountbatten is the final word on what passes through his dock. He should be present before we begin trading negotiations."

Remember, i before e....

[David Silver]

11801629
Historical document corrected.