Chapter 12: Isolated
Daring Do: the Legend of the Algae Photis
by Wanderer D
Chapter 12: Isolated
Sky Beak paced around the room, not daring to face the scowling image in the crystal ball he had been given. He brushed back his feathers in desperation, trying to figure out how to explain… "They know I'm lying!"
The unicorn in the crystal sphere rolled her eyes and shook her head with contempt. "Sky Beak, you should know better than that. If they knew, you'd be questioned right now, wouldn't you?"
"Well, it doesn't help that it's my word against that of an Equestrian Princess!" he retorted, turning to look at his blackmailer. "She's nothing like you said she would be! She's not shy, introverted or bumbling! She's ready for murder!"
"Equestrian Princesses are full of hot air," Tempest replied, unconvinced. "Just keep confronting her and creating the distraction. Soon it will be all over."
"Tonight is the banquet," Sky Beak grimaced. "Novo will do the job of distracting Princess Twilight as well as anygriff, but that still doesn't mean that I can simply steal my sister's key. The pearl is our most powerful magical artifact! You don't understand how—"
"Difficult it is?" Tempest interrupted, her tone bored. "Oh, I can imagine, but that doesn't mean it's an excuse you can use. Do you think it would be easier for a common griff or a soldier? No. You are close enough to her that you have access to it. Do not mistake me for a fool, Sky Beak. Digging for time will not solve this. It's the key for your daughter, or you lose her forever."
Sky Beak was quiet for a few seconds. "Can I talk to my daughter?" he asked in a soft voice.
"No." Tempest held his desperate gaze with a completely dispassionate one of her own. "You are asking for a reward when all you can do is try and find excuses to not do what you need to?" She snorted. "Don't make me laugh. You see her when we get the pearl."
"But—" the communication cut and he was suddenly just talking to an empty glass ball. It took all of his self-control to not scream out in frustration and shatter the damned thing.
When the transmission cut, Tempest sighed. She walked over to the window and stared down at the clouds below and the rocks protruding around them. She had little respect for the Storm King's generals as a whole, outside of herself. But the fact that such weaklings were causing so much trouble… to the extent of keeping the brunt of the Storm King's forces at bay was inexcusable. This land should have been theirs—would have been theirs if the Storm King had deigned to leave her in charge instead of his simian minions.
Even Ahuitzotl would do a better job of conquering the hipogriffs and he barely understood the modern world!
As she was about to make her way up to the deck, her ears twitched. Tempest growled, turning around and stomping off to the metal doors that would lead to the room below. She made her way down the metal staircase until she stood right across from where a young hippogriff sat, sobbing inside a cage made of iron. "Stop that whimpering!" she ordered, making the child jump in surprise and hit her head.
The room where their captive was held was within the airship, and was right above the engines. It was uncomfortably warm, smoldering even, when the ship was moving, which it wasn't at this time; a small blessing for her current prisoner, even if the hippogriff was not aware of it herself.
Tempest grunted, glancing at the whimpering, sobbing figure that slowly pushed itself up to sit up, rubbing her head. Silversteam had been pathetically simple to steal from her home. Barely any effort had gone into breaking in and procuring her, according to Ahuitzotl.
And even though she painted a pathetic figure, it did not stir any compassion within Tempest. It just made her angry. "I said: quiet! Do you think I have time for a weak little hatchling?!"
Silverstream sniffled, looking at her with watery, red eyes. "I want to go home."
Tempest snorted. "You will, when your father does what he's supposed to do."
"Why are you doing this?" Silverstream asked, grasping the cage bars with her claws. "We haven't done anything to you!"
Tempest glared at her. "You didn't have to." She leaned in, horn-stub sputtering plasma. "I didn't do anything to the creature that did this to me either!" she snarled, before leaning back and looking down at Silverstream in contempt. "But it didn't care, and as it took away my horn, it also taught me a lesson." She smirked. "Do you want to know what it was?"
Silverstream gulped pushing away from the enraged unicorn as much as she could. "W-what?"
"That power makes right. That—if you're strong enough—it doesn't matter what others feel, or what you take from them, because they are not worthy of defending what they care for." Tempest leaned in. "Someday you might have to choose. And then you'll have to decide if you're weak, like your father… or strong." She grinned viciously. "Like the pony that put him in his place."
"My dad's a good hippogriff!" Silvestream said, raising her head. She was still terrified, however, trembling and hesitant to Tempest's eye.
"And where has that led him?" Tempest snorted. "He's pathetic. Breaking down the moment you were taken. Barely able to even do the mission I demanded of him for your release!" She smacked the cage with her hoof. "All he needs to do is provide me with the key to the room containing the Pearl and keep Princess Twilight Sparkle and her "friends" distracted. And he can't even do that!" She narrowed her eyes. "Not even for you. This is what I mean by "weak". He can't do anything about you being captured, and he can't do anything to rescue you. He is, in a word: pathetic."
"My dad is scared that you'd harm me," Silverstream hissed, her face twisting in anger. "He'll get here and find you and—"
"And what?" Tempest asked, leaning in suddenly with an eager grin and making the young female hippogriff yelp. "What do you think he will do? Do you think he has it in him to fight me? The Storm King's strongest general?"
"H-he'll show you! He's stronger than he looks!"
Tempest laughed. "He's a whimpering knave. Gutless and cowardly. I've been right in front of him and all he could do was grovel for mercy."
She turned around, smirking at the furious look in Silverstream's face. "I'll have to figure out how to put you to good use when he fails completely to deliver."
She laughed as she slowly made her way out of the room, her anger at the weakness of her prisoner somewhat abated as her smile faded. "I hate weaklings."
"So what can you tell me about Queen Novo?" Twilight asked, glancing at Daring Do with some annoyance. "All of this could have been handled differently if you had actually shared with me who we were meeting."
Daring Do sighed, sitting down and glancing at her with a bit of an apologetic smile. "I know, but I was under oath to not share my relationship to the Hippogriff nobility… you might notice that they keep mentioning I'm a friend to their people.... and yet there's barely any mention of hippogriffs in my books."
Twilight nodded. "I did notice that. Why is it?"
Daring leaned back. "I found my way here several years ago, before the war with the Storm King had begun. At the time, Queen Novo had heard of me, not as an adventurer, but as an expert on certain magical artifacts. I had no idea what I was going to find but… I came anyway. Turns out, there was an ancient prophecy about a subterranean cave under Mount Aris, where "fire would consume the unworthy"," she said with a smirk. "Classic volcano-spell left behind by an old sorcerer. Could only be deactivated with a specific item that had been lost in the forgotten, sunken ruins of Old Griffonia. Partially submerged in water, partially buried under the mountain itself. The way was—"
She coughed, interrupting herself and physically wincing. "Needless to say, we're all here, and that awarded me their trust… but even back then, the hippogriffs did not trust Equestria's insular attitude and as such made me swear to never reveal everything that I saw, or even my relationship to the Queen, or her entire race. They placed an enormous amount of trust in me when the let me go, so I was not going to betray them by writing the whole thing in a book… until they release me of the promise, I mean." She smirked, then frowned. "When your problem arose, I wrote to Queen Novo directly, explaining some of the situation, and asking for her blessing to bring you here for help. Since you're a princess, she figured you were bound to learn about them from Celestia at some point or another, and well…" she shrugged, motioning to the room. "Here we are."
"I can't understand how a people so forgiving and so… embracing for the most part, can be so insular," Alejandra said, looking back at them over her shoulder. "Equestria seemed so… idyllic, it's hard to equate that to a country that would close their borders or refuse to help others."
"It's not as simple as that," Daring Do said before Twilight could say anything. "The lack of world experience has made ponies in general very soft and unwilling to deal with problems in a way that doesn't involve crying out in dismay or downright fainting. Ponies are content to not involve themselves in the matters of others because it's more simple to live a life where you are not questioning your beliefs, where you can simply pretend that you're the center of the world because you have more than everycreature else."
Alejandra sighed. "That sounds sadly familiar… at least before the war back home."
Twilight shook her head. "Princess Celestia closed the borders about a thousand years ago. When Luna transformed into Nightmare Moon."
"That's correct," Daring Do said. "There were many reasons at the time—griffons, zebras, yaks… all creatures had seen the night overwhelm the day. I still find the occasional temple or story passed along by generations about that terrible moment. Who was to blame if not the Queens of Day and Night? What other creature besides the goddesses of Equestria could do that?
"There was strife at the borders, as armies approached, especially when they perceived Equestria to be weak. Some came to aid. Some came to lay claim to lands. Celestia of course was in no mood at the time to take prisoners or calm their leaders." Daring took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "History says that they never dared to attack again. Celestia closed the borders except to a select few and Equestria was sealed from the rest of the world… each day and night reminding the other creatures of her power."
"And until Luna came back," Twilight added, "Celestia was wary of anyone even getting close to her… like Sunset."
Daring nodded. "I imagine that now that Luna is back, the borders will slowly open, we'll have the whole world again as part of our identity… but it's not a process that most ponies are ready to face, ignorant as they are of there even being a world out there, outside of Equestria."
Twilight shook her head. "It's still not right. And I'm going to change it."
Daring smirked. "Well, we first need to deal with this current situation."
"She's here," Alejandra said, pushing open her window a little bit, and allowing Tala to sneak in.
"Well?" Twilight asked.
"Rainbow Dash is working on it," Tala replied. "Galahad thought that I would be needed here."
Twilight nodded, smirking back at the others. "That is a good call. And I have just the mission for you."
"So this is the beach where they say they saw an alicorn?" Rainbow Dash asked, landing on the hard, gray gravel. The jagged boulders around the beach broke the waves as they approached the land, spraying salty water into the air.
"Doesn't look like much," Capper muttered, staring at the desolate beach.
"And yet, this is so far the only clue we have," Galahad replied.
"Alright, everypony," Rainbow Dash said. "Let's spread out. See if we can find some clues."
The small group did as told, with Capper sticking close to the base of the mountain, while Rainbow Dash and Galahad did sweeps of the area in general.
"Hey! I found something!" Capper shouted, drawing their attention.
Rainbow Dash was the first to arrive, landing nearby and trotting closer. "What did you find?" she asked, frowning as she studied the area.
"This," Capper said, moving some of the rocky sand out of the way. "It's close enough to the sea that it will be covered easily, but if you know what to look for, you can find them… it's a ferry hook."
"A what?"
"It's a contraband thing… if you're bringing in merchandise to one of the islands, especially where there's guards, you don't want to waste too much time if your boat drifts away," Capper said, digging in and pulling up slightly a metallic rod. "This is buried deep enough that it's not going to be dragged out, but that way if you moor your ship and the tide comes up, it's not going to just float away. This one is not rusted, so it's fairly recent."
Galahad scratched under his beak, before turning around and studying the area around them. "If they're using a rowboat, that means that they can't be too far away, but they must be somewhere around here where they can hide their actual airship."
Rainbow Dash followed his gaze to a nearby rocky island with no beach to speak off. It rose, like so many around them, up to the clouds. She grinned. "Time to take a quick look."
End Chapter 12
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I enjoyed it for sure!
Didn't Imagine Daring was connected to the Pearl, but it makes a lot of sense here.
Well well, looks like Tempest is going to face that execution for treason at Twilight's hooves sooner rather than later (Assuming Dash and the others get the drop on her successfully).
- Thunder
"Did they not see the irony?"
"Novo did. After dealong with Celestia for as long as she had, she didn't think it was funny."
I'm not a fan of so insular an Equestria, though I can't deny a fair amount of evidence supports it. That said, Canterlot and Ponyville are in the dead center of the nation, so it's not like we have a good idea of what the borders are like. And Celestia did try to reach out to Novo in her time of need... though she was completely unaware of the hippogriffs' plight.
Mind you, now we're moving from Celestia's iffy foreign policy to the writing failures of the movie.
In any case, looking forward to more.
Well now ... what have we here ...
they
I imagine that, now that Luna is back, the borders
That's actually a very good explanation of why Equestria is so Isolated from the rest of the world.
Headcannon accepted!
9734787
It's one of the better explanations for sure.
Welp, I’m embarrassed, didn’t know this existed. Now I’m caught up, and loving this one as well. I’m glad that the Equestria stuff and human world stuff were split, as the main story was getting a bit crowded with all the different perspectives, and this makes it easier to keep track.
As for this story, I’m very interested to see what happens with the whole Tempest traitor thing. While on a technical level, Tempest could be considered a traitor, that would also have to be extended to any rebel or Skirmisher born after the aliens took over and may even include the likes of the human CMC. Tempest was shunned for being crippled in Equestria, any arbitrary birthplace loyalty is gone at that point. Tempest is at most a traitor in name only. Twilight might be going down a “race traitor” path, which would be incredibly dangerous. Still, hopefully she realizes that Tempest jumping ship from Equestria isn’t the same as selling out your friends, even if the surface level details seem the same (someone going to a tyrannical enemy for self benefit).
Time to kick Tempest smug face in, or at least make preperations for it.
Really looking forward to Tempest getting her ass hooked to her actions. The Storm King probably don't just drop her yet. Canon fodder is always useful.