The Gilded Dream

The tension was palpable. Two sides facing off; Otto did not doubt for a moment that his fifteen hundred soldiers could annihilate this small force of… creatures, with but a single volley. But that was the response of a frightened fool, and while the Prince may indeed have been frightened, he was not about to be a fool now. Not after the expense he had gone through to bring them to this bright land. He held up a hand to stay his men as he strode forward, shoulders back and head up in confidence, but not enough to show undo arrogance. Stepping up to within a few feet of the beautiful white horse with both wings and a horn (a mix of the unicorn of peasant folklore and a pegasus straight from Greek myth), whom Otto could only assume was the leader of the party, he bowed respectfully, crossing an arm in front of his chest.

    “Greetings. My name is Otto von Heln, Prince of Collodia. I apologize if we have intruded upon your lands, but I do hope we might come to a peaceful arrangement.”

    He looked back up at the creature and put on his most winning smile. He sure hoped this worked.

    Celestia smiled softly as she watched the human bow, ears perking lightly. Well, this was nice. An improvement in manners from minotaurs, at least. She met his eyes, and was surprised by what she found. He was young, that she was certain, but his eyes held a certain maturity few had at his age, and a deeply held fire. A passion for his people, she suspected. She turned to scan the soldiers behind him; the silence was an old trick of her’s, useful to unnerve and set off-guard fellow dignitaries and diplomats. And it miiiight have also been to give her stealthily approaching guardponies to take up covering positions with crossbows and spears ready. Just in case. The creatures were only light armored, to her surprise, but carried short spears that they aimed like crossbows, with a single spike leading forward. It was an odd way to hold a spear, she thought curiously, till she spotted the hole just above the spear-point. Some kind of projectile weapon, perhaps?

    Finally, the Sun Princess turned her gaze back to Otto, and smiled softly, bowing her head low and spreading her wings.

    “Greetings, Prince von Heln of Collodia. Peaceful arrangements are the best kind, I find.”

    The Prince chuckled at that, and it was a pleasant, relieved noise. He waved a ho- no, minotaurs called them hands, and the soldiers behind him lowered their strange weapons. He motioned back to a set of canvas tents.

    “My people tend to discuss matters of state in private. We each bring a single guard?”

    Celestia nodded, smiling faintly as she twitched a wing; Captain Golden Wing, a broad pegasus with a golden pelt and fiery red mane, stepped forward quickly, bowing respectfully to the Prince. A soldier from the line, an older-looking creature with graying black hair and hard green eyes, quickly stepped beside his Prince. Together, they slipped into the Prince’s tent, while their peoples eyed each other uncertainly.

    Captain William Bensley was an Englishman, and as an Englishman he thought of himself as a tolerant and mindful. But… speaking to a horse princess… it was practically enough to send him into a case of shock. In his forty years of life in the militaries of both England and then Collodia, William had seen many strange things in his time. Werewolves in the mountains, cannibal men in the deep mines of Collodia, even saw the kraken once! But talking horses, no… ponies… He sighed beneath his breathe. He needed a drink.

    William sneaked a glance over at the soldier pony, and smirked when he found the armored creature gazing right back at him with a wide blue eye. As the two monarchs sat down to begin talks, the Englishman slowly scooted a bit closer to the pony, keeping his voice low as to not disrupt the proceedings.

    “Err… name’s William,” he managed awkwardly, “William Bensley, Captain of the Royal Guard.”

    The creature looked at him in surprise and grinned, holding out an armored hoof just like a hand, “Golden Wing, the same.”

    With a faint chuckle, William slowly reached down to shake the hoof, wincing; the pony only came up to his shoulder, and even the slight bend to shake had upset his back. Damn age. Golden Wing winced as well, nodding in understanding.

    “Your back?”

    “Indeed.”

    “Had the same problem. I have some tea that helps it, if you’d like.”

    William’s eyes brightened instantly, “Did you say tea?”

    This Princess knew her politics. Otto had always thought of himself as a reluctant master of the art, well taught by his tutors and late mother. But this pony princess, Celestia, was… very much a master of it as well, with great stores of wisdom, and a definite wish for peace.

    “I am quite willing to trade my gold stores for land,” he told her warmly, sipping at the tea her guard had brewed up for them over the tent’s campfire, “But I’m afraid I cannot sell you any of our ships. Until I can cut down enough lumber to build homes for my people, their hulls will have to be used to make temporary shelters.”

    “An understandable decision,” Celestia acquiesced, smiling faintly, “And a responsible one. You care a great deal for you people.”

    ‘A test’, Otto realized, smiling despite himself, ‘Clever. She’s testing my resolve for my people.’

    He cleared his throat, “Do you have a map? I would like to draw out boundaries.”

    Celestia nodded warmly, her graceful horn glowing a soft golden as it lifted a scroll from her pack, unrolling it on the meeting table. Otto gulped, forcing back his awe and some superstition. This… magic, she had explained to him, was not going to go over well with some of his people. The Prince leaned forward, eyes widening slightly as he looked over the expansive kingdom. Celestia daintily set a hoof over the spot marked as the “White-Tail Wood,” just north of a city marked as Los Pegasus. She slowly drew her hoof over half the wood, and the coastline down to the river that separated them from the city.

    “Will this suffice? I believe six thousand of your people will have ample room to build and expand within this area.”

    Otto looked it over, nodding slowly, though inwardly he was ecstatic. It was only just a few acres smaller than Collodia itself, and he could see enough plains for farms, and enough forest for plentiful hunting and lumber. He would have to split it among the nobles, certainly, but that should be easy enough. He hoped.

“Yes… yes, I believe it will, Your Majesty. This is very generous. What would you like in return?”

Celestia’s snow-white sides rose up and down once, and she fixed Otto with a serious stare. The human Prince immediately knew that what she would ask of him would not be something he could refuse of her.

“I wish to have a handful of your weapons, including some from your ships. Not all, but enough that my subjects might study them.”

“ABSOLUTELY NOT!”

    “Lower your voice, Count!” Otto snapped at Ellander’s infuriated outburst, pacing in front of the five noblemen.

    But Ellander, thin, sallow face purple in outrage, would not be quieted yet. He jabbed a thin, pale finger at the Prince.

    “You’re bartering for a pittance of land with… with animals! And for what? Our weapons! Are you insane?”

    The Norwegian man smashed a hand into the meeting table, and Otto vaguely hoped he broke something.

    “We should butcher those creatures and take ALL the land we need! They are armed with crossbows and swords, for God’s sake! If you were a true le-”

    “Enough!” snarled the portly man beside Ellander, drawing a surprised glance from the man.

    Count Ducaine had always been an ardent supporter of Ellander’s more militaristic policies, lending his Dragoons and horse trainers to his efforts to fight against Prussia and France. But now the ever-scowling, overweight man had risen to his feet, glaring with beady eyes at Ellander.

    “We cannot argue at this time, you fool! We are in a land we know absolutely nothing about. This… Princess, has offered us land to begin in, and she certainly does not have to. From what the Prince has told us, her country is large enough to easily overwhelm us in numbers. We must do whatever we can to ingratiate ourselves until we are in a position of strength and can resist. Just as our forefathers did.”

    “Thank you, Ducaine,” Otto added with a genuine smile, “I appreciate your understanding of this deal. And we are not giving them all of our weapons either, only samples. Ten muskets, ten pistols, and two cannon. They simply do not wish to be surprised, and I cannot blame them. We are rather strange to them.”

    “They’re animals!”

    “They’re thinking and breathing beings, Ellander!” retorted the woman beside him, her eyes narrowing dangerously at the thin man.

    Countess Mariatte was no woman to cross; the landlady for most of the farms and fishermen in Collodia, she had often used her position to sway the other nobles to her way of thinking. Hunger does that to people.

    “And apparently quite intelligent at that!” stated the gentleman beside her, whose son, a noble in his own right, nodded in agreement, “They are kind for now, and I suggest we take advantage of that and accept their offer.”

    All eyes turned to the still sputtering Ellander, his watery blue eyes going from noble to noble, looking for any ally to back him. Finally, without a word, he sunk back into his chair, glaring down at the wood. Otto grinned in triumphant, sighing softly in relief.

    “Then we are agreed. Welcome my friends, to New Collodia. May we find peace and prosperity in this new land.”

    Few paid attention as Ellander excused himself from the table, wrapping his cloak about himself as he disappeared into the shadows of the moonless night.