I looked out over the water as the sun in the distance slowly set over the valley.
The moons of Sanctuary were already poking up above the opposite horizon and the glow fish flittered back and forth above the surface of the water, catching insects, leaving glowing trails in the air from their magic.
"Page?"
My ear twitched and I glanced back, forcing a small smile, "Hey Sunshine."
Celestia moved to lay down next to me, looking out over the water, "Twilight and Sunset have left?"
I nodded, "Last morning," I agreed.
She looked at me thoughtfully, "Miss them?"
"...Yes," I admitted.
Celestia nodded as she regarded me before leaning in and planting a small kiss by the base of my horn, "But that's not what has you upset."
"No," I sighed, "While they're away, I'm taking the opportunity to run a small project. Just before they left, I talked with Tight Bit and went through the current future economic projections of the town. It's... not good."
Celestia sighed, "Page, if it's bits you are worried about, you know that you don't need to be, we ca-"
"No, Sunshine," I said and shifted slightly to look up at her, meeting her eyes, "If Nocturnis can't stand on its own hooves, what are we even doing here? If we're just going to be reliant on crown money, we might as well pack up and leave. Go back."
I sighed, "...Being reliant on charity from Equestria would be almost as disastrous as failing my bats completely. Especially now."
Celestia's wing brushed across mine, "How do you mean?"
I shook my head, "I started a project when Sparks and Sunny left. Figured it was a good time for it. I want to find out how to improve things, what we need to focus on and what we can cut."
She nodded, so I continued.
"Well, everypony I ask just tells me they are doing good. So I figured I'd see for myself. I conscripted Midnight, she made me some sort of transfiguration trinket and made me look like a newly arrived batpony. Amber is covering for me at the palace."
Celestia frowned at me in displeasure, but I just met her eyes. She didn't have a wing to fly on, I knew for a fact that she had done the same sort of thing multiple times and for similar reasons.
Buck, that's how she went on vacation last!
Finally she nodded, "And what have you found out that have you upset?"
I sighed and shifted to lean my side gently against hers and her wing lifted to settle across my back, "Well, first of all, we need to change our advertisement. Apparently arriving as a single stallion makes some of the inhabitants really friendly."
Celestia looked amused, "What did you expect?"
"Well, I didn't expect even Fluttershy to be mildly flirty," I admitted, "The transfiguration isn't even that handsome, we went with 'average looking'. Just some dude, I wanted to blend in."
Celestia smirked at me, "What else have you discovered, my pretty bat?"
I rested my head against her neck, "...The anti-equestrian current is a lot deeper and stronger than I thought. I talked with maybe a dozen ponies so far. They are extremely unhappy to have any of the Solar or Night guards around. They're happily taking their bits, and at a steep markup most of the time, but I get the feeling that they would happily forgo those bits if they could toss everypony in that training base in the river."
"Page, that's not wholly unexpected."
"I know," I admitted, "But I didn't think it would be that strong. I thought soldiers getting into the normal kind of trouble was most of it."
Her nose brushed my ear, "Page, most bats in Nocturnis have lived their entire lives fearing discovery. Disliking me and to a lesser extent when she returned, my sister. We're a symbol of what they used to live beneath. And our guards represent us. I'm not surprised that there is some hostility."
"...It's not just the guards," I mumbled quietly against her neck, "It's Equestria. All of it. They want nothing to do with anything or anypony from there. We're still in Equestria, we're a town! A small town at that!"
"Our silly Page," Celestia said gently and placed a soft kiss at the base of my ear, "It's not unexpected."
"...Some of them hate you..."
I felt her lips smile against my ear, "Also, not unexpected."
"I don't know what to do," I said against her soft coat, "Celestia, everything we do is reliant on the rest of Equestria! We don't produce enough goods to make up for our imports, we need some way to bring in additional bits. The training base helps, but it stirs up..."
I sighed and pulled back to look up at her, "If it's not the guards, if they really dislike even normal equestrians, even tourism wouldn't work. I didn't want this, I didn't want any of it! I just wanted everypony to be able to be safe, feel like they didn't need to hide!"
Celestia placed a gentle kiss on the tip of my nose, her wing shifting and she brushed tears I had not even noticed from my eyes, "Calm, my stallion. We'll figure it out," she reassured me.
"How? How can we possibly solve this?" I asked and shook my head, pushing her wing away with mine, "Either my ponies fall into poverty, or... there is no or because anything we can do to try to fix it, just makes things worse! I'm not exaggerating when I think there is just a matter of time before somebody gets shoved out of a tree! Oh, did I say poverty? Because I meant even more poverty! Everypony is already poor!"
Celestia's wing settled across my back as she met my eyes again, "Page. Deep slow breaths."
"But-"
"Blank Page," Celestia said in a tone I only heard her take a couple of times, "Slow. Deep. Breaths."
I did as she told me as I looked up into her eyes.
"Now, listen to me," Celestia said gently but firmly. Who spoke now was the Princess that had ruled for thousands of years, not my Sunshine, "My sister and myself have dealt with worse," she said, "I can think of several ways to navigate this already. Do you think that bringing all three tribes of ponies together was painless?"
"...No..." I admitted quietly.
"Exactly," she said before she sighed sadly, "It won't be easy, but we will help where we can. Continue as you have planned, I will discuss matters with my sister and investigate some things."
"Bu-"
This time she didn't say anything as I squeaked as she bit my ear tip firmly before letting go, "What did I say?"
I went back to taking slow deep breaths as I flicked my ear, trying to make it stop aching.
"Now," Celestia continued, "How long did you plan on investigating?"
"A week or so," I mumbled and reached up to rub my ear, "Why do you and Luna keep doing that?"
"Because that's how stupid colts got taught not to be stupid back in our day," Celestia said firmly, "So stop being stupid and it won't happen."
"...Did you have to teach it to Twilight at least?" I grumbled and put my hoof back down, flicking my ear twice more..
That got a small soft laugh from her, "I did no such thing. You may have to blame that one on Luna or her own parents."
I sighed and flicked my ear again before I looked up into her eyes, "...You really think we can fix this?" I asked her.
"I do think we can fix this," Celestia said and touched her horn gently to mine, "We just need to find the best way to do so. Just continue your investigation while Luna and I discuss some options on our end. Then we'll talk things through and find the one we think will work best."
"Alright," I agreed and her wings shifted, brushing across my eyes again, "...Don't tell Sparks and Sunny when they visit on the way," I told her, "They deserve this vacation, I don't want them worrying about it."
Celestia frowned a bit, "They'll be quite cross with you when they find out."
"I know," I admitted, "But that's on me. They deserve some time away."
"You're a good stallion," Celestia said and her lips pressed against mine.
I kissed back, feeling a lot better than before.
And Page returns to the Shudda, Wudda, Cuddas. It will never be easy to unite a tribe that has dealt with millennia of fear and extreme prejudice due to that fear. The best he can due is slowly work to help them in dealing with those innate fears.
Also First!
Who is currently in a relationship with blank page atm? Luna, Celestia, this worlds twilight, Sunset. Anyone else?
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Kitchen sink.
Nocturnis would be rather good to raise foals in for the Alicorns, it's relatively isolated from the nobels and their influence. A humble upbringing makes the young one appreciate the more luxurious lifestyle later on.
As a immortal towards time they can grow up decent as individuals and learn higher education later on.
Wonder when they developing computers and stuff.
What is the current waiting time on the human mirror universe? They should import computers, solar energy and other stuff.
Even cheap night vision googles are worth a lot in the jungle.
Maybe some bow and crossbow designs.
Tasers and flashbangs would be nice for guards and military to have.
But something they absolutely need to import are Nerf guns, this things are very entertaining to use.
I bought 2 guns with eatch 6 shot capacities and their a toon of fun.
Though I recommend 200 per player so darts are not to hard to find, reloading already takes some time already.
Countless hours of running and gunning
...MEANWHILE WITH AMBER DISGUISED AS PRINCE PAGE...
Amber: ...$^&$! I should have mentioned to Sir that I can't read. I never needed to learn at this point.
*Amber staring the pile of paperwork with doom*
Amber: It's fine. I'M FINE! Umm I have examples for Page's signature. I just need to copy that to all the papers with dotted lines at the bottom. Right? RIGHT?! How bad can this be??
...FEW WEEKS LATER...
Discord: Hey Page! Thank you for approving my proposal to selling chaos magic-laced pixie sticks! The
addictive drugcandy has been an instant hit on the Manehattanblackmarket!Page: I DID WHAT?!
Griffon leader and Queen Chrysalis in her "Thorax disguise meet for a situation overview."
Griffon Leader:
"To bad Blank Page has not participated by any means in breeding. Neighter with his mares or the village mares. I guess Skitters princess in the past will he his first after all."
Chrysalis:
"Indeed, I had hoped he cut lose somewhat. But not even foreplay, let's hope that changes over time.
The hive requires strong seed for the trouble to come."
Griffon Leader:
"Indeed, instead of mass, we always go for well trained and healthy offspring. Less Hive numbers, with all the more skilled individuals. But at least we hold monopoly on Griffons and now are expending towards the pony lands."
Chrysalis:
"I rather go for a in between, half mass and half high class. It hurts the Hive less that way if a Ling is lost, further more Lings allow for a wider use of harvesting grounds. Helps also to outnumber intrusive elements."
Griffon Leader:
"Both viable survivel tactics, I wonder what the others Hives go for. Probably smaller Hives, because feeding them is easier."
Chrysalis:
"Indeed, the Hive we assimilated was small, unfortunately as badly feed as possible.
The survivors have recovered, but the damage was already done.
We need to expand and Canterlot as well Manehattan nobels are a pain to manover around.
I miss the days we could pod them and helping Hive and harvesting grounds so mutch easier."
Griffon Leader:
"It is what it is, slow but steady growth. We will grow in numbers, educate and developing alongside, finally side by side.
In time we will mix and mingle relative freely.
Quite a shame we need to wait a bit longer for more Alicorn offspring, but every Alicorn will increase prosperity and in time we will have it all:
Peace, prosperity, population, foodin spades and development into future possibilities.
We will spread over the lands, eventually in time over the stars that can be inhabited as well.
The future holds many promises..."
Chrysalis:
"Promises unfullfilled, we have a long way to go. We plant seedlings that trees fruits we will never taste."
Griffon Leader:
"But our children childrens will enjoy, knowing we are to thank for he gift of water, food and potencial to grow.
As it is woven, so it shall be."
Chrysalis:
"The Hive is all, all are the Hive."
Griffon Leader:
"Changeling... and non Changelings in time."
Chrysalis:
"The eternal circle of life, expansion and growth towards the stars. I wonder if we meet more prey to feed on."
Griffon Leader:
"Exotic flavors are to be found yet, wonder what a alien Waifu would taste like."
Chrysalis:
"Exotic love~♡"
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They learn to adapt eventually:
Noone told him to speak in equine, so he always speak in Changeling...
Meanwhile in the Crystal Empire, Chrysalis Subhive is entertaining the
preycitizens:Work sucks.
This is nice
Celestia and Page staying in place with lazy beats of her wings. Celestia was giving Page somecombat lessons, something very valuableto get here in the rain jungle.
Celestia:
"From here I the air I could dominate the whole battlefield. Most enemy fire wouldn't even reach me, if they could even see me, because it is surprisingly easy to blind my enemies by using the sun position.to my advantage."
Page nodded and confirmed:
"It is superior position to operate from yes, but i hear you making preparation for something."
Celestia:
But but there are several ways here at least to bring high fliers down, never think you are untouchable on the field.of battle. Especially if it takes seconds of steady pause to eliminate an enemy with magic or crossbow bolt."
Page blinked and nodded, the bird with the head in the clouds crashes all the harder into the mountan.
The Alicorn Thestral wasgiving his teacher all of the attention that could be spared without leaving the necessity of keeping ones attention on the surroundings up.
Celestia:
"While I have noticed that you don't have unicorns here, let's assume that you might end up in combat here with them or similar opposition.
There are many ways for you to be taken down by spells. The uninitiated would argue that only strong unicorns would bring you down, given the distance and the limited amount of spells that could reach from the ground to our height fast enough to have trouble dodging them."
Page shook his head.
"They would be wrong. That would mean that only a small percentage of the guard would be able to be of any use against fliers. Bear in mind that the three main pony tribes themselves weren't always a single, cohesive group. Something Luna give a a assurance during my battlemage training.
Celestia noded and contined:
"By necessity, unicorns developed many ways to deal with flying enemies, be them pegasi, griffons, changelings, or dragons. And that's not including the monster species that also fly. Your worst enemy is the creative Unicorn or unlinear thinking opponent."
They landed so Celestia could easier conjure some illusions for demonstration:
"Why exhaust themselves with fire from below when they can teleport more than once close to you.
Or worse, you to them.
Why risk their health when they can turn the elements around you against you?
Why waste power when they can confuse you with illusions? Or even transform you into something else if you're not careful or able to dodge their spells?"
Combat for health and life has no real rules other than 'survive and life another day'."
Blank Page:
"Something I experienced over the years, the Yeti invasion was win thinking outside the box.
The Changelings as well."
Celestia:
Never underestimate the enemy and hope the enemy is arrogant enough to be less cautionary towards unexpected tactics.
Who dares to do the unexpected, wins the initiative to victory."
I don't know why, but I can't remember the first time Page and Celly kissed.
The kiss in this chapter happened so naturally, nonchalantly, and without fanfare that it feels like it can't have been their first kiss (would be totally on point for their relationship thus far, though), and now I'm going crazy trying to recall when that happened.
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His bottle of hard cider he keeps under his pillow too, I imagine.
If they can't find one in the jungle, perhaps Page could import a cash crop for the town to grow and sell, Soy, Sugar cane, cotton, Jut, cocoa, ect, ect?
If they can't get some from Equestria, get some from the human world the next time the portal opens, along with a few choice tech patents.
Time for some insistent kindness:
camo.fimfiction.net/RN3QphVAEtp4yC0uroF4zyApqECk3oD-PGwKW_TtSh4?url=http%3A%2F%2F2.bp.blogspot.com%2F-kQ_B1uuO_4k%2FT214h0ZPYRI%2FAAAAAAAAATY%2FSIX_lNdDAUc%2Fs1600%2Ffluttershy_canon.png
I wonder if Angel Bunny has by now a huge pack of dwarf Raptors conceived.
Bunnies have a rather short lifespan, so i can see him making lots of offspring in the last years.
If he can't rule Nocturnis in his lifetime, than the Jungle around it.
"My ponies, this sentiment must not continue as it is."
"We don't need them, they are just waiting for a reason!"
"So what would you have your children do? Your grandchildren? And their grandchildren? This sentiment will only keep the fear you lived with alive. We must find a way to let it rest."
Just an idea I had
But yeah thousands of years to doctor the history books but didn't have time to change the outlook of the thestrals?
Page needs to write another best selling book set in the three tribes era and all the tribulations that went on from the eyes of someone there probably make it a star-crossed love story. Might make the bats empathize with "regular" Equestrians. Might have to do it under a pen name to be effective.
So, there's still anti-Equestrian sentiment in Nocturnis. Hope it's not too late to nip it in the bud.
camo.fimfiction.net/raParj2kENKIfO7PL0cLR18pQGSht7341G6NUc8FaOw?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.imgflip.com%2F3427nm.jpg
I found yet another "have/has" error in this chapter, but I think I'm done pointing that 💩 out, unless it's funny.
Wrong, this is a breeding place. Literally saving a entire subspecies here!