City of Bronze

City of Bronze

Chapter Three: The Dinner

Twilight Sparkle was a foreigner.

Anypony with a measurable IQ score who observed the princess long enough could understand that simple fact. Bog and its canine inhabitants had little in common with the equine nations to the south, and customs differ greatly between them. Where ponies value friendship and love, diamond dogs value honor and strength. The dog that has the hardest life gains the most respect, and it clearly reflects in the way they keep their homes. Her supposedly lavish guest chamber was spartan in design and decoration. It housed nothing more than a rough wooden cabinet, a few shelves, a nightstand, and a bed made from cold grey stone covered in animal pelts.

Twilight's back was killing her. She was much too reluctant to make prolonged contact with the flesh and hair of what once was a living being, so the only thing she had to rest on was the smooth slab of rock that could hardly pass for a bed after she swept the furs to the side.

It was her own fault for being squeamish. She had to admit that they were quite soft, but not so soft that she throws her disgust out of the metaphorical window. Twilight needed some quiet time to reflect upon the day's events. It wouldn't she be long until she was called to the banquet that was to be held that evening. The lack of proper bedding did nothing to quiet the storm that was brewing in her head.

Hundreds of questions raced through Twilight's mind; questions like "Why would a demon choose to send some weak ex-guide like Meat to attack two powerful alicorns?", "What does it want with a city full of dogs?", and "How are we supposed to fix the trade issue with a something like that on the loose?" Those three in particular were at the forefront of her thoughts.

Of course, after a day as stressful on the body and mind as that one had been, "When's dinner?" was a common reoccurring thought. The empty space in her stomach definitely agreed with the less than empty space in her head. In fact, she was starved. With nothing much to occupy herself, Twilight could not help but let her mind wander toward food. She could've really gone for a nice big and greasy quarter pound hayburger. Princess-like behavior and expectations be damned, fast food still tasted like heaven.

Naturally, thoughts only got her so far. It was not long before she pried open the granite door with her magic and asked the guard stationed outside when dinner will be served.

"Dinner soon." Hod, the meek guard from the prison, answered.

"Okay," she replied "what time will that be?"

"Dinner soon." he echoed.

Why did these dogs have to be so difficult all the time? "Yes, I understand that, but what time, as in on a clock, will that be?"

"What is clock?"

She let out a long and loud groan of frustration. Why was she so surprised that diamond dogs couldn't tell time? It was like she was talking to a bunch of caveponies. So far only Oakfang and the Alpha had shown signs of having an average intellect, but she had yet to meet a dog she could call "smart."

It was better not to know anyway. If she were to know the exact time, she would just stare at the nonexistent clock restlessly until said time came. Watching seconds tick by one by one was not something she could find very entertaining.

Without any possible form of diversion to pass the minutes, Twilight elected to crawl back on to the bed and meditate until dinner. Zecora had taught her a particularly effective form about year before when Ponyville was turned upside-down by Trixie. She hadn't had a good meditation session since then.

Getting into the right position was a pain at best and a nightmare at worst. It involved her standing on not three, not two, but one hoof only. She hadn't practiced since before she earned her wings so they threw her off-balance. It took a few tries and a new bruise on her hind leg for her to find the best position.

Balance was what that form of mediation was all about. She recalled Zecora words "Balance between the six is what you must find if you wish to clear the fog that clouds your mind." Or something like that. It rhymed, so it must have been right.

Of course, by "the six" she meant the six basic aspects that the entirety of modern magic was based upon. Fire, water, earth, air, order, and entropy: she had learned the meaning and use of all of them in magic kindergarten. In her mind's eye, she lined up all of the aspects in a perfect six pointed star, each one in its correct position. She concentrated on only that image and nothing more. She had to pour all of her focus into it, lest her thoughts betray her and veer off in an unrelated direction as minds tend to do.

Soon the whole world melted away into oblivion. There was nothing but the six; not the floor beneath her, not the walls that surrounded her, not the permanent chill that seemed to permeate all of Bog, and especially not the troubles that ran her brain ragged. It was merely her and the elements. She had found balance, and in balance she found inner peace.

Of course when somepony was hyper-focused on a single simple concept, high-pitched loud noises tended to yank him or her from meditation like a fish on a hook from its watery home. That was exactly what happened to Twilight.

"Wow!"

At once Twilight lost the balance that she worked so hard to achieve. Anything that was not nailed to the floor came crashing down after being released from the telekinetic grip that held it suspended in the air. The wooden furniture splintered, the stone bed split in two, and the numerous furs were sent flying in all directions. Twilight flopped helplessly to the floor.

She pulled herself up and brushed the stands of frazzled mane from her eyes. Standing before her was the dumbfounded expression of Hod, his mouth agape like a venus flycatcher and a stray pelt hanging limply over his shoulder. He locked eyes with the princess for brief moment before turning around and shouting "Hey, Oak, look at this!"

A moment later Mr. Tall, Dark, and Quiet- more commonly known as Oakfang -was standing in the doorway. Oak let out a low whistle of appreciation. "You really know how to trash a room." He dryly observed.

"Aww, it gone!" Hod lamented. "Princess pony have shiny wavy hair and glowy eyes but it gone. Why princess pony stop?"

"I- I did?" Twilight stammered. Shiny wavy hair? "Well that's new." It was a gross understatement, but nonetheless true. Celestia had said that her body would undergo changes to accommodate for her new alicorn magic, she just didn't expect them to be so soon! Though, she was surely a long way from towering over everypony and sporting an undulating magic mane as Celestia and Luna did.

"Whatever." Oakfang said. He beckoned Twilight to follow. "Dinnertime."

Twilight, Princess Luna, and five red-scarved Hellhounds led by Oakfang marched down the narrow hallways like a small parade. Alpha Arrel had apparently amped up their bodyguards after the incident with Meat. Thankfully, no crazed assailants came at them.

The group turned a few heads as they entered the full dining hall, but nothing more. Nobody stood up, nobody announced their entrance with blaring brass horns, nobody seemed to care much. It was another little detail that set Bog apart from the rest of the world. The diamond dogs had little use for such ceremony, they prefered practicality over aesthetic nine times out of ten. It was a breath of fresh air to the two alicorns who had been to many formal dinners that dragged on forever with ceremonies and announcements. It usually took ages before any food was served.

The dining hall, like most everywhere else in The City of Bronze, was plainly decorated. Unlike most other rooms, it had a fairly high arched ceiling that partially relieved Twilight's sense of claustrophobia. Stretching the length of the hall was a grand dining table carved from raw granite, gilded with bronze, and covered with a ragged burlap sheet as a tablecloth. Over two dozen dogs sat at either side, merrily conversing with one another over their empty bronze plates and silverware. At the head of the table at the end of the room sat Arrel Whitefur in an iron seat that was equally as big for a chair as he was for a diamond dog. It could have passed for a throne.

Arrel's ruby eyes spotted the entourage from across the room. "Ah, my new pony friends!" He declared.  "C'mere, we were just about to get this started." He gestured to the three empty seats near him.

Twilight took the seat closest to the Alpha, Luna sat right next to her, and Oakfang directly across from the two. The other guards went off and claimed random spots in the midsection.

"Care for some bognog? Best stuff in the house." Arrel offered the princesses a clay pitcher filled with some murky green liquid.

Twilight had been to enough foreign gatherings to know not to refuse the first time someone offers her something to drink. Some people really, really take their alcohol seriously. "Yes, thank you."

The "bognog" poured from the pitcher into the silver chalice like oil. She scooted the hooch to Luna, who then poured herself a glass as well. Twilight sloshed the stuff around in her cup and took a deep whiff if it. She didn't smell much, maybe a hint of rubbing alcohol and that was it.

Throwing caution to the wind, she telekinetically lifted the glass up to her lips.

Luna put a firm hoof on her shoulder and murmured "Be careful, Twilight. We have had drink like this before, Twas a strong one indeed."

Twilight took an experimental sip, thinking Oh, please,  how bad can it--

"Urk!" She immediately spit it back into the cup.

It was bad.

"We told thou such."

"Ha ha!" The alpha barked, pounding his fist on the table and shaking his silverware like an earthquake.  "Equestria's greatest hero can't even handle a little nog 'fore dinner. 'Course, this stuff does taste like shit, so I don't blame ya. But hey, we don't have much to make booze out of up here. We have to improvise."

"Anyway," Arrel turned away and yelled "Burntmeat! Where in Tartarus is that lazy bitch? C'mere, pup!"

A wiry female diamond dog with a fluffy white fur like a poodle appeared from behind Arrel's sizable throne and irritably asked in Growl "What do you want, Alpha? Make it fast, all the kitchen dogs are too damn busy making dinner."

"Get our guests a bottle of that purple stuff." he replied in the same tongue.

"The purple stuff is a pup's drink! The ponies don't want any bognog?"

"No!" he snarled, flashing her a set of pale yellow fangs. Twilight noted how Burntmeat didn't even blink, whereas any common equine facing down such a beast would have messed themselves.

"Fine!" The dog said in Equestrian and threw her paws in the air. "Burntmeat go get some purple stuff since ponies too good to drink nog." She turned around and sauntered out of the room past a set of old west-styled doors.

Burntmeat returned a moment later with a pair of fresh goblets clutched in one paw and a brown glass bottle in the other. She set them on the table and did a face-heel turn back to the kitchen, sparing the princesses a leer on her way.

"The purple stuff might be more your speed, Twilight Sparkle." Arrel said.

Twilight was more cautious with this one. She user her magic to uncork the bottle and gave it a tentative whiff. The scent of it was oddly familiar somehow...wait.

"Wine!" Twilight exclaimed. "Oh thank the sun and stars, it's only wine." She greedily poured a glass and drank. The wine was quite sweet and left a mellow aftertaste. It was undoubtedly Equestrian.

"Drink as much as you like." Arrel said. "We've got plenty of it to go around. Most dogs don't like the fruity taste of- what did you call it? Wine? Got a whole rack of the stuff in the kitchen when that smooth-talking trader pony passed through 'bout a year ago."

"It was a good thing he did, too. To be honest, Alpha, I really hated that bognog stuff. It was less alcohol, more paint remover." That comment in any other dining hall anywhere else in the world would have shocked offended many, many people, but she felt that diamond dogs wouldn't care if she bashed their crappy drinks. They didn't seem to be easily offended.

It turned out that she was right. Arrel laughed loudly, his booming voice echoing through ought the hall. "Oh, you're a funny one, Twilight. I always thought that all Equestrians had a stick shoved so far up their holes that the didn't know what humor was! Look's like that's just Celestia's deal alone, Gods bless her soul."

For the first time since passing through the gates of Bog, Twilight legitimately smiled. She was beginning to warm up to the City of Bronze. It seemed to her that the line between royal and not royal was much fuzzier a hundred feet below the earth. The dogs seemed to treat each other equally there. Even the humblest of chefs could speak to her leader like he was another working dog. It was the same way that all the diamond dogs treated Twilight as well; not as some important diplomat, but as a common tourist.

Looking out at the dozens of dogs gathered at the dining table, she couldn't help but see how happy they were as they sang drinking songs and laughed with one another. If Twilight didn't know better, she'd say that they were one big family. The way that they all got along was uncanny. She was reminded of her fillyhood with her own family on the nights when they'd all sit around the table, eat cheese, and play board games together. They looked so jolly.

...right up until the food was served. Forty diamond dogs whipped their heads around the moment that Burntmeat burst forth from the kitchen with a squeaky iron serving cart that could have be ten feet long, loaded with all manner of canine dishes. Then the entire group burst into a cacophony of unintelligible cheering,  barking, and howling as dinner was wheeled up in the table.

The trays of food were emptied as soon as they hit the table. Dozens of sets of paws clamored for a piece of the prize with Burnmeat and the other kitchenpaws fighting just to keep from spilling the food in the floor - not that it would have mattered to the diners.

As soon as the food was -more or less- evenly distributed amongst the dogs, the eating began. The dogs stuffed morsel after morsel into their gaping maws. Meat, boiled carrots, baked potatoes, loaves of bread, meat, grilled leeks, wagon wheels of cheese, meat, meat, and many different kinds of meat. So much to choose from and the dogs ate with indiscretion.

"My my," Luna shouted over the chorus of gleeful noises "you subjects are quite an excitable lot!"

Arrel turned to her and cocked an eyebrow. "They are? Seems pretty tame to me. Usually the fighting starts right about - wait, nevermind, there we go." The alpha gestured to a pair of hounds clawing and biting at each other over the cooked carcass of what used to be some kind of fowl. Fur was torn from flesh as the happy barking was replaced by vicious snarling. They were in a grapple, each one trying to topple the other. Neither side gained the upper paw, so one of them decided to give the other a surprise haymaker right in the jaw. The victor had a leg clutched in his paw before the other even hit the floor.

"Such fervor!" the night princess observed. "I have almost forgotten the eating habits of your people, Alpha."

With his mouth too full of rib to speak properly, Arrel waved a paw dismissively and said "Yurh gut ushed to it."

"Got pony dinners!" the cook said, wheeling up a smaller cart between the princesses. She served them two wooden bowls filled with a mishmash of various mildly fresh vegetables, mostly cabbage, and two warm loaves of bread.

"Thank you." Twilight said with a nod toward Burntmeat.

"Whatever." she replied, wheeling away the cart.

Twilight halfheartedly picked apart her salad with a fork, occasionally popping a piece in her mouth every once in a while. She had lost most of her appetite after seeing so many dogs tear into food like that. Twi knew that she was not at all dainty when it came to good eating, but what they were doing was absolute carnage. Most diners had already eaten their fill by the time that she even made a dent in her own food. To see them eat so much meat in so little time made her stomach do backflips.

Wait.

So much meat... the thought echoed in her head. Something wasn't right with those words. Bog was clearly and unquestionably subarctic, what with the massive snow drifts and serious lack of any vegetation in the cold seasons. No veggies meant no herbivores to consume them, which means no meat for carnivorous beasts to prey upon. Where were they getting all of it from? Even Equestria had to cut back on daily meals to make it through the winter, but those diamond dogs were eating like meat fell from the sky like snow.

"Luna." Twilight whispered to her partner, whose appetite was much greater seeing as how she had already eaten her loaf of bread in three bites and drank half the bottle of wine.

"Aye, Twilight, what is it?"

"Do you see what I see?" She pointed a hoof at the remaining few dogs.

"We see quite a large mess of dirty dishes, We feel sorry for whomever is the buscolt in this hall. What of it?"

"Think of what's on the plates. Meat, and lots of it. Don't you think that it's a little much with winter coming soon?"

Luna narrowed her eyes, casting a glance at the alpha. "We do. Now that it has our attention, these hounds dine like royalty tonight. Most unusual."

"Where do you think they get it?"

"We have a good theory, let us test it to be sure."

"Alpha Whitefur," Luna said.

"Yuh?" the dog said, causing several bits of slobbery cheese to fall out of his mouth. "What'cha want?" He washed down the food with a cup of bognog.

"Why does the City of Bronze favor the Griffin Republic over Equestria as a trade partner?"

Arrel lost his wits for the briefest of moments and forgot that he was was drinking heavily from a goblet, making him choke on the nog. "Dahmn!" he coughed some of it back into the cup "How the he hell did you know that?"

Bingo.

"It is only obvious," she said as if stating that the snow was white "I do believe only the gryphonfolk raise meat animals in such great quantities that they can trade so much of it away."

"Well, uh, yeah but-" he started to say, but was cut off by Luna.

Ah ha! She had him. Thier primary goal had been accomplished: find out why the trade was stopped. The Gryphon Republic had been trying to surpass Equestria in its growth and development for decades, but couldn't secure any good trade agreements until then. The gryphons both impeded Equestria's growth and multiplied their own in one fell swoop by diverting Bog's ore exports. A clever move, but the gryphons did not count on Luna's tenacity at the game of trade and her love for arguing. Twilight was sure that she would haggle the alpha over.

"And whilst I cannot deny your people prefer to have a large stock of meat to a large stock of crops, I needn't remind you of this city's longstanding relationship with Equestria. Your great great grandfather was the one who originally forged the commerce agreement with my sister all those years ago. It would be a shame if that relationship were to suddenly turn sour if one side was to dishonor that treaty without the other's consent." Without missing a beat, Princess Luna levitated the bottle of wine and poured herself another goblet. She locked eyes with the dog. "You are not a dishonorable leader, are you?"

Ever since Twilight had met Arrel Whitefur, she had seen nothing but a jovial look on the alpha's face. What came next was not so. Arrel had leaned back in the iron throne, his bushy brows furrowed and a scowl upon his muzzle. She caught a brief glimpse of his long and slender teeth, made for ripping the flesh from a bone. For a long moment, he said nothing. He chose to sit silently with paws folded and elbows on the armrests.

"Are you, Alpha White fur?" Luna pressed on.

"What if I am?" His voice had taken on a deeper, much more demanding tone.

Luna was caught off guard. She had clearly not gotten the answer she expected. "Well, I never-"

"Why should I be bound by all of the rules that a bunch of dead dogs and pompous ponies made?!" Arrel shot up and slammed his fists upon the table, knocking off a small collection of dining implements. "I didn't sign any damn contract with any damn ponies! As far as I'm concerned, that treaty died when my ancestors did. The gryphons made me a better deal than the Equestrians ever could, and I sure as Tartarus signed an agreement with them. Not because my grandfather did, but because I did. Me."

Uh oh.

"You want trade?!" Arrel leaned forward as far as he could. Twilight could smell the cooked flesh on his breath. "You give the City of Bronze something that it wants, and it'll give you what you want, thats what trade is. And we don't want any more of your shitty vegetables and fruit, we've got enough to last us a lifetime." He turned to regard the crowd of onlooking dogs and raided a cup of nog. "Does that sounds fair to you studs and bitches?!"

"Yeeaaaah!" A chorus of partially drunken dogs agreed, who in turn raised their own half-empty glasses as far as their arms could reach.

"The people have spoken." Arrel said. "We don't want what you're offering. Business is business, as you horses say. If you want your precious metal back, you're going to have to trade us something that we can use, you're going to have to make us a better offer..."

"If not, then get the hell out of my city."