"And here it is! The Royal Suite!" Nilla hopped part of the way into the front foyer of the apartment. She pivoted around with a bright grin. "I do hope it meets your standards."
"Hmmm..." Arcanista stepped in, smiling at the polished decor and lush cushions that filled the inner lengths of the place. Rich reds and burgundies clung to the eggshell walls in draping fabrics from the front room all the way to the balcony. "Quite immaculate, if I do say so myself." She turned to look past her "servants." "Sir Mane?"
Ebon Mane trotted forward. He gazed from left to right. The lines beneath his neck almost lost cohesion, but he was able to tense his jaw and maintain the tattooed illusion. "More than adequate. Reminds me of many suites we have back west in the Xonan Empire." He pivoted about and bowed towards the smallest member of the group. "Your Highness? Do you approve?"
Kera stepped forward. Halfway into the foyer, her body froze. The filly's jaw dropped as her green eyes reflected the luxurious couches, beds, and reading sofas. "You... you mean we get to st-stay in here?"
"Unless you do not approve--" Ebon began.
"Oh, I approve! I approve! I approve!" Kera galloped forward, skirts flouncing, and jumped up onto an ottoman. "Heeeee!" She bounced up and down. "I love it! I love it! I lo--" She froze in place, her mane settling.
Ebon was wincing while Rainbow Dash dragged a hoof across her face. Past the fidgeting figures of Mamunia and Jet, Nilla stared with a cockeyed expression.
"Er... I-I mean..." Kera cleared her throat, dismounted from the ottoman, and tilted her nose up. "Dem'hulian sethul mennu krem'sen rannagan."
"Uhhhhh..." Ebon leaned over. "Fuku phwee?"
"Dreit."
Ebon looked up at Nilla. "Her Majesty approves."
"Dreit."
"I... I-I gathered," Nilla said with a nervous twitter.
Ebon added, "There is no need for the spilling of heretical blood today."
"Dreit."
"In fact, I don't even think there will be the sacrifice of... uhm... warrior ponies to the chaos dragon... aspect?"
"Dre--"
"WELL!" Arcanista strolled forward. "I am most certainly feeling the exhaustion of a day's worth of travel set in," she said. "I think it's best that my fellow equines and I retire for the evening." She cocked her head to the side. "I trust that a channel of communication will be opened with the Council?"
"And I will not let you down," Nilla said, gulping. "You have my pr-promise!"
"Then you have my gratitude," the Duchess said with a nod. "All our gratitude."
"Oh. That's good! That's very good!" Nilla stepped backwards. "Just... k-keep those battleships in check!
"Dreit dreit."
"A pleasant sleep to each and every one of you," Nilla said. "May the desert stars guide you into your dreams." And with that, she turned her white tail and was gone.
Arcanista tilted her head forward, firing a beam of electrical mana at the door, slamming it shut. Once they were all sealed away inside the apartment, the deer leaned her head back with a long sigh. A beat. She turned and bore a tired smile. "I do believe we are safe... for the time being."
"Pfft! Barely!" Kera rolled her eyes. "If only Ebon wasn't so awkward with his chaperoning!"
The changeling did a double-take. "'Awkward?!'" He frowned. "I wasn't the one who galloped in here like pajamas in bananas!"
"You got it backwards, Einstallion."
"You know what I m-mean!" his voice cracked. "And I totally saved our flanks downstairs when Nilla was dragging her hooves!"
"Yes," Mamunia remarked with a nod. "That was rather peculiar, wasn't it?"
"Not entirely, my dear," Arcanista said, trotting across the room and drawing the curtains in tight from before the dark-lit windows. "If the Council is good at any one particular thing, it's inaction. I've no reason to suspect Nilla of personal ill-will towards us, but she's likely a pawn to the likes of Fishberry all the same. No doubt there are many within the fold who wish to see Bountiful never seize any attention ever again, even if we have every reason to with our fellow 'dignitaries' demanding a royal audience." She cleared her throat. "Dignitaries... who clearly need an extra lesson or two on etiquette."
"Hey! So I saw a bunch of a comfy, bouncy things!" Kera folded her hooves from beneath her skirt and tilted her nose up. "I can't help it! I see luxury and I go crazy!"
"Isn't it comfy enough on board the Jury?!" Ebon exclaimed.
"Yeah, but that's only because Pilate and Belle are so fuzzy to sleep against! And you can't hop on a grown pony's belly and get away with it!" A blink. Kera giggled. "Unless it's Josho! Heeheehee!"
"Everything I did, I did to make sure we weren't lynched on the spot!" Ebon shuddered. He plucked his horn off and relaxed, his flesh turning back to a smooth burgundy. "I-I dunno how I'm even going to get us through the upcoming visit with the Council."
"What do you mean you get us through it?!" Kera frowned. "I'm the princess in the spotlight!"
"Something you hated until two minutes ago!"
"A girl can get used to things!"
"And a girl can blow her nose. What's your point?!"
"Uhm..." Rainbow Dash raised a hoof. "For the record?"
"Go on, dear," Arcanista said.
"I just wanna say that I've done my part of the bargain." She frowned at the other two Jurists. "By staying friggin' quiet while certain other ponies teased their moron glands!"
"But we were just--"
Arcanista stepped up. "I bet you're dying to perform the other task."
"Heh... as if..."
"Then what's stopping you?"
Rainbow blinked. "You mean...?"
Arcanista nodded with a smile. "We're situated. It's dark out. So long as you stay out of view of the Soul Sentries..."
"Awesome!" Rainbow Dash beamed. "And here I thought I'd be running up the walls in my sleep! Htttt!" With a grunt she shook, wriggled, and shimmied out of her dress. In a flash, the green mane'd pegasus flapped her wings and hovered in the center of the room. "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh yeah..." Her eyes rolled like a mare rolling her first cigarette of the week. "Oh air... how I missed you."
Jet giggled.
"Err..." Rainbow winced, looking the maids' way. "Sorry to... uh... ditch the whole 'servant' thing, especially now that it's time to unpack stuff."
"It's quite alright, Madame," Mamunia said with a smile. "You came here for a purpose, as did we."
"We'll keep your gown nice and straight for when it's time to don the disguise again," added Jet.
"Hopefully it will not come to that." Arcanista opened the door to the balcony. A cold desert wind blew in from the starlit world outside. "Hmmm... rather chilly. I forgot how quickly the desert drops in temperature this far east."
"S'okay! I can deal!" Rainbow zipped to the window. "It'll remind me I'm alive!"
"Just what will you be looking for, Rainbow?" Kera asked.
"Pffft! Duh!" Rainbow rolled her eyes. "Any funny business. Crud that the head hackjobs of this city might be up to beneath the shadows!"
"You know, it may behoove you to at least carry a map."
"Oye. If I had a bit for every time somepony said the word 'behoove' to me."
"You'd still be poorer than any silver-bearer." Arcanista folded up a scrap of paper and handed it to the mare. "Here. This should help you familiarize yourself with the Sandstone District and beyond."
"Thankie-Thankies." Rainbow slid the paper under her pendant. "Though I'm at my best when I wing it."
"Just don't wing it too close to the buildings around here," Ebon said. "That green mane of yours isn't going to hide the fact that you're a winged pegasus."
"Spoken like a true boogerhead." Rainbow Dash stepped off the balcony and teetered backwards, waving. "See ya in the funny papers." Fwooosh! She backflipped, twirled, and glided towards the upper spires of Val Roa as the stars came out.
Kera sighed.
Ebon glanced her way. "Now what?"
"Just thinking..." Kera pouted. "With wings of my own, then I'd be a real princess."
Silence.
Ebon trotted off with a groan. "I need a shower after that sentence..."
Me thinks Kera is rubbing off on her.
Ebon, you're trying to hard. Kera, you're not trying hard enough.
Forty side-straddle hops, ):(. Knock 'em out!
*sigh*
Dashie in the sky with diamonds~
Did someone say...
i443.photobucket.com/albums/qq157/Just_Bri_Thanks/HERESY.jpg
This does not belong here. It is absolutely haram. Nowhere in canon are these mentioned, and nowhere in Austraeoh fanon, either. Anachronisms are bad.
No, you don't need wings, we don't need any more alicorn drama.
All hail Alicorn Princess Kera!
The Princess of Grasshoppers. Mmm.
Unlike normal, wing-less pegasus.
5224631
Are you telling me you're not seeing the hints to the Rainbowcorn? It's all there, you know it's coming.
Looks like we've reached a checkpoint. Time to move on to phase 2.
I had no idea that there are wingless pegasi too.
Alicorn Kera?
the world would be overrun with grass hoppers,
5224803
Oh, I doubt there'd be many left after her voracious hunger decimates its population.
If anything they'd become a delicacy amongst snobby nobles due to its scarcity.
Kind of like lobster.
and so it begins
I am reminded of Wreck it Ralph. It is nice.
Just as I though Ebon is starting to go overboard with the act.
5224629
Regarding the cigarette: Yes, weird, but since its the narrator speaking it, he can kind of get away with it. Descriptions for the benefit of the reader. Plus, nobody comments on cigarettes, anyways.
5224803
Grasshoppers. Grasshoppers everywhere.
5224970
But the anachronism is still jarring. Its generally poor form to describe settings with descriptions that don't exist yet. You wouldn't say that a 12'th century knight drove a lance into his opponent with the force of jackhammer, as jackhammers did not exist in the 12'th century. It ruins immersion and is bad form. The narrator cannot, in fact, get away with this, even though he exists out of the story's setting, which includes the time.
High stakes and silly ponies, every last one.
Calling it now, Jet is going to be murdered somehow.
Someone please draw Princess Kera so I can squee.
Don't fuck it up, Nilla...
No pressure.
5221481
On the internet, there is no way to read inflection in voice. You may have noticed this if you've ever tried to make a sarcastic comment that was taken seriously(as sarcasm is hard to read). This means you have to be exceptionally careful to make things not sound pretentious, pedantic, or rude. Making honest mistakes are fine- that's why they're honest mistakes as opposed to the other ones(dishonest?) but in the future be more careful with your diction.
Besides, as Zaid said, if you ever feel like reading Austraeoh the community will have forgotten this incident, and if you read 2-3 chapters a day it's hardly time-consuming, just a good way to fill in the intervening 2-3 minutes between classes. And if Austraeoh seems too slow for you in pacing to get to the plot, you can read Eljunbyro, then Austraeoh as a flashback, and then continue to Innavedr, etc.
Dashie flies around, and Kera flighty. Watch out fo that Donner Und Blitzen?
5224995
yep, she will be dealt a fatal blow, then we shall go off screen before she is confirmed dead, then she will be not mentioned for a long ass time, and when it is asked if she died or not all we will get is "it was unclear"
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5224992 In this universe, mana rifles, tasers, skystone ships, movies, oracular arrays, bio-augmentations, sphere ships, and machine worlds exist. Cigarettes are not a stretch. At all.
If we were to compare realistic technologies, movie projectors with sound (as featured in Hurricane Fluttershy) became commonplace during the early 1900's. Cigarettes became machine-manufactured in the late 1800's and actually PREDATE sound-equipped movie projectors by decades. With that in mind, it'd be a bigger stretch to believe that cigarettes DIDN'T exist in Equestria, much less Austraeoh.
Show canon isn't wholly relevant, because Austraeoh already disregards technological limits established by the show.
Austraeoh canon is mostly irrelevant as well, as it is a non-static thing that IC can manipulate at will. If cigarettes have never been mentioned before, it does not necessarily mean they never existed in Austraeoh's fictional universe, merely that they have yet to be mentioned until now.
Tl:dr: Compared to show tech, they're technologically feasible. Also, if they weren't Austraeoh canon before, they are now.
My main worry right now is that Nilla is actually, um, not stupid.
5 bits. So yes,
This got a quite a few laughs put of me.
Great chapter, but Kera doesn't need those evil, devil wings!
5224996
i second this motion!
5225245
.....
have you been german this whole time, or is this a temporary thing?
5224641
5224673 Not counting alicorns, there are three types of flying ponies. They are all classified as "pegasus", to keep the pony races at three, for reasons. While in the show we only see winged pegasi, there are also ones with gas-filled balloons growing out of their backs, and another type with helicopter-like rotors.
Of course I have no proof of that, because they are invisible.
Does little Kera wish to be an alicorn?
Val Roa before Dash's visit.
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Val Roa after Dash's visit.
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It's possible, right?
I'm glad Floydien decided to civilize himself by studying foreign languages.
5225791
Ach, purely temporary I assure you. Normal incomprehensibility will be resummed momentarily.
Just be glad Pinkie doesnt have a pencil.
All hail her Highness Princess Kera Tin Mehjj, the Princess of Grasshoppers!
Thank you again, 5225525, you truly are the champion of champions.
Personal terror, more like. My job is to say "no" to ponies who will kill me if I do.
5225095 I CAN'T TAKE IT
5224996 I keep imagining her not with traditional wings, but just tattoos in the shapes of wings unfurling from her back and giving her flight.
5225503
For future reference, at least when discussing with me, you don't need to include a tl;dr- I tend to read what you say anyway, as generally find it interesting.
But I don't even think there's been any reference to the smoking pipes, or nicotiana tabacum, or any reference to that particular vice, at any point prior to this in the show(AUSTRAEOH FACT CHECKER PLZ). Having it established by the narrator before the actual characters/settings is poor form for a writer. Even if it had been established that several characters smoke, it would still be kind of odd to have Rainbow Dash use that particular expression when we know for certain that she, at least, does not partake.
Just to clarify, my main issue is not with tobacco. Having it exist as a vice (in Val Roa, for example) could add some depth and description to the setting. But the way it was introduced was jarring and poor form, and I kind of wish(though I know he won't) that he'd go back and change it to a better description. It really snaps the immersion in the story that's been perfect up until now.
She is so gonna screw it up.
5225791 I bit him.
I am quite certain they are going to have to pull the Floydien card if this crap keeps up. I'm frankly amazed they have managed to make it this far with such a pathetic effort.
Arcanista was right, the Val Roans are a load of idiots, but they are also intensely paranoid at the present moment. This can't keep up very long.
5226960
5225503
awfullibrarybooks.files.wordpress.com/2009/12/latawnya_2.jpg
5226839
If Kera ascended to Alicornhood I would explode twice from sheer awesome.
A lovely subtle callback to the chapter that started it all:
You're overplaying your part, Ebon Douche.
What? When did ponies give their food clothing?
Kera, you're cutting it close. I'm scared that Nilla will piece things together.
-Spirit
That ending
5227185 what a strange book that must be...
Yes, everyone becomes a princess. Wings for everyone!