Voyage

by Comrade Bagel Muffin

Méchanceté Aristocratique

"You know that his majesty king Awe, has sent us on a very tight time scheduled, correct?" Atlas asked as the group followed behind Maelstrom, who took his sweet time showing them around his palace. "I understand that you want us to be here but perhaps you could just let us have a feast and then send us on our way?"

"Hmmm. No. That just simply won't do, not at all," Maelstrom said after making a show of mulling the idea over. "You shall stay here for at least one night. Maybe longer, after all if you stayed with the minor lords and ladies of the plains you should stay with a higher ranking noble longer."

"Longer?!" Dusk said. "No, we're not staying longer! My entire village is in danger of annihilation, and I'm not going to let some ego maniac stop us form saving my people."

"Impressive the bat can speak our language." He looked over his shoulder looking Dusk over like she was a dog that had just done a trick. He then sighed. "The pony I hired told me that you spoke with chirps and unintelligible clicks and other bat like noises. Good help is just so hard to find these days." He then turned and continued his tour of his palace. "Come now I just simply must show you the alchemist labs that I've recently added to the North Tower."

"Excuse me you owe Dusk an apology." Escutcheon glared at the blue unicorn. Turkeylegs gave a threateningly low moan like sound of agreement.

"For what she's impressed me. Which is shocking given her being a lesser breed." He continued on. Escutcheon grit his teeth at that. Atlas looked over and shook his head before motioning for them to get closer to him. He slowed down as they caught up to him.

"What's this stallion's problem?" Dusk half hissed as quietly as she could to still be heard by Atlas.

"Yeah, I thought that this might be a problem, but Maelstrom is a bit of an aggravating pony but he is the second highest ranking lord in the kingdom, so please Dusk turn the other cheek. We will need his help if we're going to avoid war. And we're going to have to change his mind, since he is one of the loudest proponents for war."

"I already didn't like him." Dusk snarled.

"I know you don't like this stallion and neither do I, but we need to play this carefully," Escutcheon said quietly. "I've had to deal with ponies like this one many times before. We just have to deal with him for now." They continued to follow Maelstrom as he continued to give them the tour of his palace. It was nearly sundown when he lead them to his dinning room a large banquet had been laid out for them with for chairs at a large stone table."

"No we shall dine." Maelstrom took his seat at the head of the table. "Escutcheon, I'm told that you're a pony of status in your from your home do sit here nearest to me."

"There are only four chairs here." Escutcheon noted as he made his way to his seat.

"Well there are only four unicorns."

"What about Dusk?" Escutcheon asked freezing, Atlas and Red Wine doing likewise gazing at Maelstrom's statement in stunned silence.

"She can eat in the stable with the rest of the animals, unless she's a servant in which case she may eat in the servant quarters," Maelstrom answered.

"She isn't a-"

"And the servants quarters are where?" Dusk asked cutting Escutcheon off.

"Stone, Show her to her dining area." A grey earth pony stallion nodded and left. Dusk gave Escutcheon a nod before following the stallion Turkeylegs going with her.

She was lead to a very dingy looking room with a few wooden chairs. Some stale bread was on the table there was a pile of stale hay in the corner. "You'll eat here." He motioned her into the room. When she and Turkeylegs walked in the door was shut and barred behind her.