All that Glitters

by Starsong

Chapter 4

With Dusty and all of the others in full attention, Celestia looked towards the ceiling and spoke. “Your travels and your research must have made you quite acquainted with the Old Kingdoms. How much do you know of it?”

“Little more than stories,” answered Dusty. “An old land that Equestrians had to abandon, once proud civilizations that fell to an eternal winter, brought about by their ceaseless bickering. There's scarce a foal that doesn't know that, and no one I can find that knows more.”

“Pride,” said Celestia, her wings curling to her sides, “has much to do with that. Those that survived the journey did not like to speak of their heritage. And perhaps it is one better left behind. But it was not always a place of strife.

“Though this was a time before the rule of myself and my sister, we did come to mingle from time to time. Princess Luna grew fascinated with the master craftsmen and artists, the ingenuity of ponies of all kinds. And they would give her many gifts, many of which have been lost to time. However, I believe that some may still remain.”

Dusty shivered. Eternal winter. Worse than eternal night. “And you cannot send your guards?”

The princess gave him a look. A long, long look. “It is not that I do not trust them,” she said. “These are affairs of the past. Not to trouble the minds of our time. But seeing as you already make a point to be digging around in it...”

Dusty understood. Still, the pegasus couldn't let it rest. “Do you know how much he talks?” he asked, jerking his head towards Bruce.

“The old soldier has earned my trust,” said Celestia. Dusty leaned in for more but she left it at that, circling about. “In those lands, in the long forgotten city of the pegasi, there is a place which may yet remain untouched. My sister received many gifts back then... I want you to find them. No. I... want you to retrieve the gift I gave her so long ago. Even if it does not help mend old wounds, it may at least help put her at ease.”

“What are we looking for?” Dusty flapped his wings.

Ivory piped up. “Is it dangerous?”

“No,” said Celestia. “No more than the lands surrounding it. You will... know it when you see it. If it still exists. Forgive me if I seem uneasy in making this request.”

“It's quite alright,” said Dusty, sweeping his wings low. “For you we would do anything,” he said, fully aware of Ivory's gaze-- 'we would?'-- before continuing. “It is a long, long journey. But if you would ask it.”

Celestia bowed her head down and closed her eyes. She could not ask, but she could not refuse the help of her subject. The longing in her heart overpowered her sense of responsibility and royalty just long enough for her to slip through. “Please,” she said, and smiled. “There are parts of my request that you'll enjoy, I'm sure. If you will be so generous as to stay at the palace until I've gotten things ready for you...”

* * *

“We're flying!” Dusty whooped.

“You're a pegasus,” said Ivory, rolling her eyes. “A pegasus.”

The three of them now stood upon the top deck of an airship. Celestia had not said that they could keep it, but then, she did not give any indication that they would need to return it. Dusty chose not to interpret the worst way he could. And sure, it wasn't a luxury liner. More of a schooner with an old looking balloon to hold them aloft as the magical engines churned under deck. Room enough to sleep half a dozen people and hold their things. A handful of rooms below deck. About as cheap as you could get for a vessel.

But to him, it was the royal flagship. The lead of his world and he the officer.

The ramparts of Castle Canterlot shrank beneath them. Dusty could feel his wings flex as they ascended through the cloud layer. Both Ivory and Bruce were looking around, and in spite of their lack of apparent enthusiasm, non-winged ponies always had the same look of wonderment and surprise. No matter how many times they've been up in a balloon or chariot.

It didn't actually take that much effort to keep the vessel on track, at least in the Equestrian realm. Weather was on a scheduled pattern so all Dusty had to do was correct their course on occasion. Still he could scarce pry himself away from the wheel, and given how crowded it could get inside, the others preferred to rest in the open air.

“Hey Bruce, you've been in the service,” Dusty said, listing the ship a bit to port, “for what? Like fifty years?”

The earth pony snorted and tapped his hooves on the deck. “Thirty and going strong, thank you very much. Why do you ask?”

“I was wondering if you had any idea about who's gone to the Old Kingdoms. Patrols and expeditions and the like.”

Bruce hummed and strolled across the deck. Dusty could feel the ship shift with his weight. “Honestly, not a one,” the earth pony said. “As far as we know there's nothing living there anymore. No point to patrolling. Nothing to look out for. Though now that you mention it, I think the Long Patrol ended up there by accident.”

Ivory lifted her head from her hooves and blinked. “The ranger guard?”

“The one and only.” The earth pony stood so that the prevailing winds cast about his mane. “Now a patrol is a strange thing. The princess always keeps the most experienced and most trusted guard close to the castle. And when it comes to dealing with our neighbors, well, you can bet that the next greatest and loyal will be sent. But when it comes to the outlying lands...”

“Criminals and layabouts?” Ivory asked.

“Guardponies who got a little too violent?” Dusty leaned in.

Bruce flicked his tail and snorted. “As if their lot would last a day in service to the crown. No, but there was certainly something off about these people. It's not that they weren't fit for duty, they just felt... dangerous. It's like the idea of being sent to some strange and vicious part of the world was what they were born for. And don't ask me what their talents were, because I haven't a clue.

“Finding trouble might have been one thing. You probably didn't hear much about it since you were little more than a foal at the time, but even I couldn't help but share in the whispering going around the barracks. Her majesty had sent the patrol to the furthest borders of Equestria, in answer to some concerns about their safety.”

“Whoa, hold on.” Dusty waved his wings and leaned upon the wheel. “You're telling me that there's some secret squad of ponies that got lost in the north?”

“No,” Bruce gruffed, looking down. “Not really. I mean, they were a rough bunch that could handle themselves. Never could find any of the supposed trolls that were wandering in from the north. 'course they weren't satisfied with a sweep. Had to check the other side, on the wild lands. As far as we knew it was still cursed. Could see the chill of your breath even on a summer's day, and heaven forbid you hit during a snap. Well, all sorts of nasty beasts in there. The patrol drove them further and further back, and the land about seemed to be all the better for it. But...”

“But what?” Dusty fussed. He could feel a tingling in his wings that he only felt when something was amiss. “What happened?”

“They don't talk about it,” sighed Bruce. “Only half the patrol came back. Nothing about the others. No armor or nothing. No one knows if they died, or they deserted, or got lost, or what.”

The wind shifted, which made Dusty startle. The others not so much. It was little more than a bob that jerked the airship to the west. About two degrees off course. He hastily corrected it and glanced down. A handful of pegasi over Ponyville, some colorful, some as gray as the clouds, shuffling the weather about.

“Looks like they've rescheduled a storm down there,” he said. “I'll have to keep an eye on where we're going for a while.”

Ivory propped herself against the rail. “We've never gotten lost before,” she said. “This might be our best shot.”

Another feather twitched. Dusty frowned and locked the wheel, again. “Okay. Enough of that. No more depressing stories, no more vanishing comrades, no more doom and gloom.” He pointed a hoof at Bruce. “Go below deck and put on some coffee. And put a smile on that face.”

The large earth pony stood, eyebrow raised, whole hulk aimed at Dusty. The pegasus flared his wings.

“This is the captain's wheel,” Dusty said, nodding. “So I think that makes me the captain.”

Bruce tried his best to keep a straight face. “Aye aye, then,” he said.

Ivory watched him descend until he was out of eyesight and snickered. “Are you serious, Dusty?”

“I know!” The pegasus laughed. “I just can't help myself. It's like I've waited all my life for this moment, and now I don't know what to do with it.

Ivory looked at him, but he wouldn't back, too focused on the smattering of clouds ahead. Rolling hills and verdant forest for miles. There would be pony cities, but they were going far beyond that, into the land where the blue and white of the sky met and shadow lived during the daytime.

“You're worried we won't return, either,” she said.

“Princess Celestia wouldn't send us if there wasn't a chance we'd come back,” he said, quiet enough so that Bruce could not hear. “The danger is obvious, but she believes in us. Enough to entrust us with this.”

“Or get us out of the way,” Ivory suggested, “from snooping around where she doesn't want us to.”

Dusty shook his head. “I believe in her. And I believe in us. That should be enough.”

Ivory shrugged and pulled herself down onto the deck. “If it's good enough for you, it's good enough for me. I'm going to see what's taking that lunk so long.”

* * *

The three ponies fought the chilly nights with warm coffee and more stories. The further they got from Canterlot, the larger the spaces between pony settlements became. Eventually the train tracks ran out, and the land became more and more wild. They spent the daylight hours flying and landed overnight, usually by a city where they could find food and drink and good company, having to save their stock of all for the wilds.

After only a few nights, Dusty had exhausted his repertoire of tales that didn't end up with him and Ivory walking away empty handed. So while they recanted mountains and jungles, Bruce had far more to tell. Long journeys, small incidents, everything from rescues in the Everfree to keeping the rabble off of the princess in Manehattan.

“... and she thought she could hypnotize Celestia with a tuning fork,” Bruce said, rumbling with laughter at the crescendo of another story. “A tuning fork! Can you believe it?”

“I really can't.” Dusty wiped tears of laughter out of his eyes. “By the stars, I thought we were the craziest ponies in the world.”

“We're up there,” Bruce agreed. “Though now we're out far enough to find the rest of 'em.”

Ivory looked over at him. “I haven't met this many hospitable ponies in a long time, actually. It's almost otherwordly.”

Bruce shrugged his mighty shoulders and looked over at the constellation of lamp lights coming from the town a walk away. “The closer you get to the wilderness, the more people rely on that hospitality to survive. You don't live out here unless you're willing to trust, and you don't stay if you don't earn your own.”

Dusty curled his wings back and looked between his friends. They'd been through a lot together, and even Bruce seemed to be falling into their collective quickly. He thought of the guild hall back in Canterlot and how it would look if he'd managed to get another handful of friends, more recruits to his trade. They could scour the world anew, and always know that they had a family to come home to.

“Dusty. You should get a look at this.”

Ivory was standing on the back of the ship, looking up into the western sky. In the shades of twilight, they could see a dark shape slowly growing as it emerged from the mountains. Dusty snatched up the spyglass and dashed beside her to look. At that distance he couldn't tell how big the ship was or how many were crewing it, but he did recognize the colors they were flying: a black flag with a skull and crossbones.

“Exactly what we didn't need,” Dusty groaned. “How long do you think they've been tailing us?”

“Who?” Bruce asked, standing to rigid attention now.

“Pirates.” Dusty rubbed his temples. “I don't know who's captaining them.”

“And why would you?” Bruce chuckled. “The only thing we need to know is when to kick their flanks and lock them in the dungeon.”

But Dusty was already in motion, bringing the ship back to life. The balloon sighed as it swelled and they began to lift into the air. The pegasus took the wheel firm between his hooves and cranked it. “Ivory and I aren't really fighters. And how many guards do you see around here?”

Bruce blinked. “There hasn't been a patrol in... right. We're kind of on our own, aren't we?”

“It's not like we've got anything worth taking,” said Ivory.

“We have the ship.” Dusty growled and pointed them northwards. “And they won't be locking us up to take it. We can't get the town involved. Which means one thing. We fly, and hope they decide to turn back before we get to the Old Kingdoms.”

“Aye aye,” said Bruce.

“We're with you,” Ivory assured him, and they stood behind him, watching the horizon creep ever closer as the sun set.

Dusty knew he would have to coax them to sleep, soon, but not just yet. They would need their rest, because they would have to fly in shifts if they had a chance to keep ahead of the corsairs. If they could keep the ship running full tilt. If the pirates weren't going to try to burn them out. They had a long journey ahead. All the raiders had to do was catch up to them, and then worry about repairs later.

He gripped the wheel tight and covered it with his wings. The last time, he and Ivory had the advantage of stealth and surprise. But he wouldn't let it come to blood. All he needed was to think of something, before it was too late.

Comments

[statoose]

Still loving this story. It's got a real charm to it.