Twilight's Conquest

by Dinkledash

Rating: teen
Tags: Adventure, Human, Dark, Alternate Universe
Length: 5386

The second in a series of four planned works about the founding of the pony nation of Celestiana and Princess Twlight Sparkle's development as a leader.

In the first story, Twilight's Dawn, we saw Equestria destroyed, the few surviving ponies thrown up on the shore of a new and savage continent. In Twilight's Conquest, the new nation of Celestiana will grow, and growing will come into conflict. This is a story of intrigue, combat, betrayal and redemption. Unlike the first story, this tale will be told primarily in a narrative format. There is violence and some mild shipping, though nothing explicit. I would consider it appropriate for teen readers.

Note that it is now an Alternate Universe story, as the conversion of the Elements of Harmony into the Rainbow Powers cast the previous story utterly out of the canon universe. It would be impossible to rewrite this story without the elements, so I'm just rolling with it. My apologies to anyone who was hoping for canon.

And don't mind the mysterious albino unicorn. He's not in the story… hmmm…

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2014-06-13 16:10:09 UTC

Chapter 1: To Sleep, Perchance to Dream

Twilight’s Conquest

by Charelzzz

Twilight Sparkle looked up from the textbook on her desk.  “Princess Celestia, why can some unicorns channel more power than others, and in different ways?”  The princess smiled at her prize pupil and cleared her throat.

“Class, Twilight Sparkle just asked me a very good question.  You know that some of you are capable of magically lifting greater masses than others, while others are able to manage multiple smaller objects, and others are especially well attuned to a particular type of magical effort.  For example, my nephew, Prince Blueblood,” she nodded at the handsome white unicorn stallion in the back of the class, who lifted his head from his desk and tried to act like he hadn’t been half asleep, “has a particular affinity for location and mapping spells.  Sunset Shimmer,” the third year student perked up from her usual disinterested affect at having heard her name spoken, “is a summoning adept.  And Genuine Article is a truthseer.”  The black unicorn grinned shyly from his isolated desk in the corner of the class.  Being able to tell when ponies were lying didn’t make him a popular conversational partner.

Celestia smiled benevolently at her class.  “All of you are here because in addition to your individual talents, you also have the ability to learn new spells.  All unicorns have a particular talent related to magic, and many can learn simple spells, first and perhaps second level spells such as general levitation and translation.  You are all here because you have the potential to learn third level and higher spells.  You also have above average bandwidth capacity.”  Twilight nodded, having read ahead in the Magical Theory text.  Sunset Shimmer glanced sidelong at her, annoyed that the freshman was getting so much attention, deserved though it may be.

Celestia pointed her muzzle at Blueblood.  “Compared to mares, stallions have less bandwidth.”  Blueblood blushed as Sunset Simmer snickered in silence.  “This is no fault of theirs, it is merely biology.  Blueblood has exceptionally high capacity for a stallion, as does Genuine.  They both can channel more power than 90% of unicorns, male or female.”  This seemed to mollify the proud, noble-born senior.  The seer just shrugged.  “Certainly, there have been no mappers with Blueblood’s level of power in ten generations, since Encarta Raperio explored the Dragon Downs.  She is one of his ancestors, and he takes after her in more ways than one.”  She sighed as a memory passed behind her eyes but said nothing more.

Twilight Sparkle raised her hoof.  “So it is because of breeding, your highness?”

“To an extent it is.  The children of powerful parents are more likely to be powerful themselves, though this is not always the case.  Both of your parents have normal bandwidth capacity, for example.  You, however, inadvertently cast a 7th level growth spell on a baby dragon during your entrance examination.”  Celestia grinned.  “We’re lucky I was able to shunt the mass-energy conversion product into the core of the sun when he returned to normal size, otherwise we wouldn’t be here having this conversation.  You were just supposed to hatch him, you know.”  Twilight looked down, shamefaced.  “Oh stop, we’ve been over this.  You didn’t know your own capacity, which is 99th percentile at least.  I’m still wondering how you managed to cast a spell you didn’t know and where you channeled that power from in the first place.  What happened was my fault, not yours.  I should have screened the students myself first.”

“But princess, I’ve been going over my family genealogy for weeks in the Canterlot central library and I don’t have any ancestors who were all that powerful.  It doesn’t make any sense to me why I would be a gifted unicorn.”  Twilight looked at her mentor, confused.

Celestia shrugged, the aurora of her mane shimmering with the motion.  “Sometimes it just happens.”  Genuine Article sat up slightly straighter in his seat, looking at the princess strangely, but she glanced at him and he slumped back down, his eyes slightly unfocused.  None of his classmates noticed the brief interchange.

“Now, moving right along, shall we discuss current events?”  The classroom stirred as they all started speaking at once.  Then, as Twilight looked down at the textbook, the runes on the pages started to writhe threateningly.  Chaos erupted as bipedal imps burst in through the doors and windows, their toothy, ugly faces twisting in horrid sneers as they attacked the young unicorns.  Twilight looked up at Princess Celestia.

She was on fire, screaming, and there was something on her back.  Another bipedal figure, but not an imp.  The head was smaller, the body longer and overall it was much more pleasant to look at.  It regarded her coolly with large blue eyes from under a flowing yellow mane, set in an oddly flat face with a small muzzle and tiny ears.  The red-lipped mouth smiled and moved.  Bells seemed to ring as the creature spoke.  “My little pony…”

Twilight screamed.  She smelled the sharp tang of urine, paralyzing terror like she never felt before freezing her in her seat as she looked at the beautiful, impossible, cruel and whimsical being before her.  Sunset Shimmer shrieked as she erupted into a column of green fire.  Blueblood lurched past her, royal blue showing through his soaked coat as deep gouges seeped ichor.  Black tentacles erupted from the wastebasket at the front of the classroom and pulled Genuine Article down into a dark maw as he cried “Lies!  Everything is lies!”  She felt like a toy about to be broken.  Then Princess Luna was in front of her.  “Princess Twilight!  Awaken!”

Princess Twilight Sparkle, first of her name, sovereign ruler of Celestiana, Matriarch of Ponykind, the most powerful spellcaster by far in all of what was left of Equestria, swore by the name of her dead goddess-princess as she threw off the urine-soaked sheets.   “Pissed myself again, dammit!  Princess Luna, I thought you said you’d only see me in good dreams.  Spike!  Spike?”

She stopped herself.  Sometimes she forgot that Spike was dead on the Canterlot Plains along with thousands of ponies.  All the adult ponies except for her closest friends had perished, with the exception of Princess Luna, banished by Celestia to the Moon again for another thousand years, only to be spoken with in dreams.   Even her friends had sacrificed themselves in the final battle, killed by monstrosities from the cold vacuum of deep space as they bought time for her and the children to escape to the ark.  She had committed the darkest of blasphemies to bring them back from the Elysian Fields where they were enjoying their eternal reward.  The children would have all died, otherwise, she reminded herself sternly.  As she did every day.  I bet every villain throughout all of history has had a similar rationalization.

Part of her mind concentrated on something other than the usual morning self-loathing and as her horn glowed, the urine gathered in a pale yellow sphere floating in the middle of the hut that served as the royal quarters, the sheets and mattress dry and clean and the bed neatly made as she walked about, stretching and yawning.  Perhaps someday she would have palace servants, but for now everypony was engaged in the important work of survival; growing crops, building Armoria, capital city of Celestiana, and mainly going to school.  Eighty percent of her royal subjects were less than five years old.

There was a flash of light as the urine was teleported into the middle of Crusader Bay.  Now, what’s on the schedule for today?  Ah, as usual, I must first engage in relationship-building with the dragons.  After I am presentable.   A dozen minor spells, prepared in a “batch” as she called it, executed in rapid succession and her morning toilette was complete in a few seconds. No need to evacuate my bladder at least, she thought wryly.  She walked to the “throne room,” as it was styled.  The large wooden chair sat in the middle of the small room, rushes on the floor rather than the marble that had cladded the floors of the glorious royal palace at Canterlot.  Her tiara popped into place at the crest of her mane and she rang a silver bell that rested on the arm of her crude throne as she settled her royal rump on a lumpy and sea-salt faded cushion.

Immediately, the entryway was filled by a half dozen smallish but handsomely turned out flame lancers.  The royal guard of Celestiana, or at least the third that wasn’t on patrol, stepped into the throne room, crowding the floor in front of the royal princess.  “Good morning to you, Your Royal Highness.”   The squadron commanded by the dragon prince, bowed with precise synchronicity.

“Good morning to you as well, Your Highness, and also to your brave lancers.  You may rise.”  Princess Twilight bowed her head briefly, acknowledging the honor they did her as they stood straight as the lances of flame they went to battle with.  “Prince Sanaar Cargool, how did your date with Rarity go last night?”  The two had become something of an item, spending what little free time they had with one another.

“It wasn’t exactly a date, madam.  It was more of a working meeting.”  Sure, they have so much to work on together; he and the mistress of sailcloth and canvas had a high level consultation on the beach in the moonlight and much of great import was discussed. One of the lancers stifled a chuckle and the crown prince of Vanash Rittor hissed his mock displeasure at the interruption.  “Your royal highness will kindly forgive this rudeness upon the part of this detachment of miscreants.  I shall have them all flogged to ensure that discipline is maintained in the royal presence in the future.”

“All a flogging would accomplish would be to polish their scales even brighter than they already are.  You’ll have to come up with something else.  Is there anything to report?”

Snargle, as he was known, cleared his throat.  “The border patrol reports all is quiet, madam.  Two of the guards are on leave and one is in hospital,“ Tumar Keelwar had broken his wing last week in a bad landing, “leaving me with sixteen so-called effectives.”  His tongue licked out, a motion that Twilight had realized several weeks ago signaled a polite form of impatience among the cultured dragons of the West.  She quirked an eyebrow, silently indicating for the prince to speak what was on his mind.  “Madam, we have received word from the palace that a visit from an ambassador would not go amiss.”  So what you are saying is your father wants a pony to get information out of, other than me.

“Prince Snargle, we have been working on developing our diplomatic corps, but as you are aware, all the adult ponies are fully engaged in critical duties.  We could perhaps spare Fluttershy from her zoological cataloguing, but to be honest, she is not well suited for the position of ambassador.  In fact, none of my friends are.  Rainbow Dash is too brash, Applejack is too honest, Pinkie Pie… need I even say it?  Fluttershy would agree to anything just to ensure your father wouldn’t be upset, and Rarity?  Could you imagine the chaos that would ensue if I sent her?”  Snargle closed his eyes and shuddered as a ripple of quiet laughter went through the assembled guards.  Rarity’s singular appeal to dragonkind was purely pheromonal; three duels had already been fought among the guards over questions regarding her honor; none of them fatal however since all of the guards realized that their prince and commander was the only one of them with any serious chance.

“Perhaps Captain Blueblood?”  Snargle had once before suggested that the one-time prince of Unicornia, well versed in courtly etiquette, and now fearsome in appearance from his terrible scars, would make a good permanent representative at his father’s court.  And he was right, but he did not know the stallion as well as she did.

It would kill him to serve at court. Being a ceremonial apparatus in Celestia’s court when all he ever wanted to do was sail a ship and explore… it turned him into a bitter, sarcastic and cruel pony.  But his hooves being on a wooden deck, his sail set to the wind, the salt air, had transformed him into a hero, the pony he was always meant to be.  He saved over a hundred Manehattan ponies, training his crew of colts and fillies on his royal yacht, escaping the monstrosities from outer space, surviving terrible storms, and eventually escaping the whirlpool of Charybdis.  Now he is mapping the coastlines, designing new ships and training up crews for them… we are a coastal nation and he will be the father of our navy.  And, once everything here is properly organized, the father of my foals as well those of as many other of the adult mares as I can convince.  She used her magic to prevent her flush from being noticed.

“Blueblood cannot be spared at this time; he is the only sailor we have with more than a few months experience, and he is desperately needed to develop these skills for our future navy.”  That was true and all that the prince needed to know.  “We can travel with you to your father’s court and deal with him directly.  Fluttershy will accompany us and as usual, the remaining Elements will make the decisions here until we return.  No duties that we have are at this time more pressing than seeing your father.”

“I shall be honored to accompany you and Lady Fluttershy.”  Prince Snargle bowed, smoothly as ever, and made that little snarl-gargle sound in his throat to hide his disappointment that a permanent ambassador would not be appointed, eliciting a chuckle from the princess.  “When shall we depart?”

“Wait here.  We shall collect Fluttershy and return presently.”  The princess vanished with a flash of light and a pop, and Snargle turned to his detachment, with a look that suggested strongly that comments were not invited.

“We must let my father know that her royal highness will be arriving shortly.  Perhaps he will have a chance to prepare some semblance of a royal reception.  She is brilliant and brave but protocol doesn’t seem to be a high priority for ponies, does it?”

****

Fluttershy poured tea for the three animals which were sitting in the room that served as her parlor.  Mongo the mongoose sat opposite her, watching the green tea fill the porcelain cup.  A cobra sat to her left, eyeing the mongoose warily over a plate of cakes and a peacock sat to her right, paralyzed with terror and staring at the cobra.

There was a flash of light and the alicorn ruler of Celestiana popped into existence, causing Fluttershy to slosh tea onto the cobra.  The cobra writhed and hissed, the peacock flapped away in a panic with multicolored feathers flying, and the mongoose almost flowed like a liquid as it scooted under the table.

“Oh dear!”  Fluttershy mopped at the cobra with a napkin making comforting noises as the mongoose peeked curiously at Twilight from under the table.  A peacock feather floated in from the window.  “Twilight, don’t you ever knock?  Oh, sorry, I mean…”  The mare blushed deeply.

“I’m so sorry!  That was so rude of me, you’re absolutely right to be upset.  Um, how is your, uh, snake?”

Fluttershy glanced at the mongoose which was now looking at the snake with more than a bit of speculation, and perhaps hunger.  “Sometimes maintaining the balance of nature and trying to build up friendships between the animals is an impossible task.  The cobra and the mongoose are natural enemies, but they rarely hunt each other.  They both know other prey is easier, so I am hoping that they can come to tolerate one another, if not actually be friends.  Though if it came to a fight, I would have to give the advantage to Mongo here.”  The lanky, almost serpentine mammal beamed as Fluttershy stroked his head, and the cobra hissed disagreeably.  “Snake venom doesn’t seem to hurt a mongoose.”  She reached over to stroke the snake, who settled down.

Snakes are not my favorite animal.  Really not.  Interesting about the mongoose being immune to the venom; maybe some potential for some sympathetic magic there. “So, would you like to introduce me to your friends?”

Fluttershy blushed.  “Sorry, Twilight!  Where are my manners?  Mongo and Khan, may I introduce Her Royal Highness, Twilight Sparkle, Crown Princess of Celestiana.  The Mongoose made a quick bow and the cobra flared his hood.  “Your Highness, this is Mongo the Mongoose of Clan Quicktooth, and this is Khan the Cobra, of the Under The Overhang By The Side Of The Hill Where The Soil Has More Clay Than Loam And You Can Get A Good Spot Of Sun On The Rocks Tribe.”  She caught her breath.  “Cobra is a very compact language, Your Highness.”  The cobra hissed and bobbed his head, causing Fluttershy to blush.  “Ponies don’t do that!”

Twilight raised an eyebrow.  Fluttershy blushed all the hotter.  “He wanted to know how many eggs you’ve laid.  The number of clutches brought forth is how status is established in Khan’s tribe, and in most cobra tribes, I believe.  They’re quite orderly and matriarchal, as opposed to the mongoose anarchists.  The mongoose who can tell the most outrageous stories is usually in charge, though it depends on the mood they’re in at the moment.”  Mongo made a noise that sounded exactly like a giggle.

“Mongo, Khan, it is an honor to meet you and we hope to have good relations with your people in the future.  Unfortunately, we don’t have time to join your party; in fact we’re afraid we came to break it up.”  Fluttershy frowned and translated, chirps and hisses eliciting little sad faces on the animals.  “But rest assured that when we have time, we will visit properly.”

Fluttershy dismissed her little friends, showing them off with a mild admonishment not to fight on the way home, and then returned to Twilight, concern on her face.  “So what is happening?”

“Nothing bad.”  Twilight looked around Fluttershy’s little home and was surprised by the variety of decoration she saw; a nest of reeds adorned one corner serving as a flowerpot with a lovely pink orchid in bloom and several rough wooden carvings in the shapes of strange animals adored nooks carved in the walls of the hut.  The wood showed signs of toothmarks.  “I need you to come on a trip with me.”

“Oh?  Where to?”  Fluttershy was already moving to get her salt-stained saddlebags.  Gone were the tentative days when she would express fear or have to be dragged along.  With the exception of Pinkie, Fluttershy was the most profoundly changed by her experience with death.

“We’re off to Darkroon Veigh’s court.”  Fluttershy paused in her packing only briefly.  A year ago, such a pronouncement would have sent her into a spiral of anxiety.

“Why do you want me to come?  Is it because my work is less important than the others?”  The pegasus made a moue.

Twilight snorted.  “Sure, that and I want you to start networking with the palace critters in Vanash Ritoor.”  The Royal Spymaster grinned wryly.

“Now Twilight, do you really think we should be spying on our friends?”  She hummed, packing small bags of dried fruit and nuts, seeds, and even some dried mealworms.  “They did cede this strip of land to us after all.  That was nice of them.”

Twilight gave Fluttershy a mild glare.  “We aren’t going to use any information we gather to hurt them, as you well know.  Anything that may be important for the King to hear, I will tell him.  He did mention that there are factions in his court.  And you need the practice.”

“Alright Twilight, I’m all packed.  How long will it take to get there?”

Twilight’s horn glowed.  “About ten minutes.”

Chapter 2: Good Things Come in Small Packages

In principle, it was very simple to shrink an object, store its mass as magical potential energy, and then restore the object to full size.  Unfortunately, it was difficult to contain as much energy from the mass conversion product as would be generated by any object larger than a few kilograms, which meant that the energy was frequently lost through dispersion and had to be collected through natural absorption by the magician and the object restored over a considerable period of time.  And doing such a thing to living creatures was inherently hazardous; smaller creatures could be sat or stepped upon, eaten by cats, and most importantly, a magic user could only access as much power as his or her horn could absorb, and that was reliant on surface area, so small magicians absorbed power relatively slowly compared to larger ones.  Therefore, a unicorn shrinking herself and then restoring herself to full size was exceedingly impractical.

Twilight Sparkle tapped her breastplate, not for the first time thanking Sweetie Belle for her insanely dangerous phlebomantic creation, the blood stone set in the center of the blackened steel.  The stone was now dark, the energy in it drained and used to preserve food and speed the seasoning of wood.  The brass messenger ball, about four inches in diameter, sat on the table before her, as Fluttershy and Sanaar Cargool looked at her with considerable apprehension.  "Everpony ready?  The cat has been put out?"  Fluttershy nodded shakily.  "All right then."  Twilight began her spell.

To her perception, and those of her Spymistress and the Commander of the Guard, the room and those in it grew as they moved away from one another, the floor's growth spreading them out, until they had shed 99 percent of their mass.  The bloodstone blazed, very close to capacity as the rushes on the floor topped her head.  When she could no longer see anypony, she ceased her casting.  A red mite the size of her hoof looked at her from the side of a rush stalk which was as big around as a tree and it galloped off, disappearing with astonishing speed.

She flew up, noticing for the first time that the air was full of small flying things, mainly fairy wasps and the various no-see-ums that the fairy wasps preyed upon, and laden with coils of shed pony hair and thin wisps of dragon scale cuticle.  The air itself seemed much thicker to her.  She labored to breathe and flying felt almost like swimming... she almost felt like she had buoyancy.

The ruler of Celestiana flew up to the tabletop near the ball that was their agreed upon rendezvous, a candle with a white chalk circle drawn about it.  The candle stood tall as a tower, the flame atop it a mighty conflagration that she could hear spitting and hissing.  The prince landed beside her, and bowed, breathing as hard as she from his exertions.  On their current scale, the flight was a hundred feet straight up, itself not normally a tiring feat, except for the thickness of the air.  She returned his bow, but anxiously watched for Fluttershy.

"What takes her, your royal highness?"  Snargle peered over the edge of the table as one might a cliff.  Suddenly, two moths shot up over the edge and he fell back with a grunt.  They landed inside the chalk circle, and upon closer inspection, one of the moths turned out to be Fluttershy, who patted the moth-friend she had just made and warned it against investigating the candle flame too closely before it flew off.

The three looked up at the message ball, an eighth piece of which had slid open to reveal an interior which had been stuffed with cotton padding,  Twilight flapped her wings twice and was inside.  Snargle and Fluttershy followed.  Then Twilight's horn lit up and the cutout panel slowly slid shut, the alicorn grunting with the effort.

When it was finally closed, they were plunged into blackness, so Twilight kindled a glow from her horn.  The looked at one another in the dim light.

"Now what will happen, Twilight?"  Twilight looked at the dragon prince.

"Miss Fluttershy, we are about to be consumed by dragonfire."  He endeavored to look as grim as possible.

"What?  But why!?"  Fluttershy was genuinely concerned, as would anypony with half a brain.

Twilight laughed.  "We'll be fine Fluttershy.  We're just trying out a new method of travel.  It's been tested on animals, so we know it's safe."  Then she clapped her hoof over her mouth.

"TESTED ON ANIMALS!?"  The outrage on Fluttershy's face caused Snargle to backpedal into a pile of cotton swabs.  "We will have a little talk, your highness, when this is all over."

Fortunately for Twilight, the message ball started to move and they were all thrown off their hooves and claws, respectively.  "Hang on, folks!"  The flamelancer courier did his best to keep his claw steady as he raised the message ball to his snout, but the difference in scale magnified small shakes.  Twilight wasn't quite sure what would happen, since she wasn't able to speak with the mouse and the frog about their experiences.  Hmm, maybe if I had brought Flutters on board, she could have gotten them to volunteer anyway and then tell us what happened.

The world turned green, and there was a brief sensation of falling, vastness, disorientation, nausea and finally her ears popped.  Then everything went dark again.  Twilight rekindled her horn.  "Is everypony, or dragon, OK?"

Fluttershy nodded "Is that it?"  Snargle flexed his wings and grunted.

Twilight pushed against the side of the message ball with her magic and the door slowly opened.  "Stay here, please," she said, as she flew out into a dimly lit room.  There seemed to be giants somewhere nearby, speaking in deep tones.  Here goes!

She reached into her spirit mind, and dove down into her own blood.  The similarity between the vital fluids of her body and the structure of the bloodstone allowed her to bridge the magical potential gap between her body and the bloodstone.  The metal of the breastplate was a highly effective conductor as well.  She could access a vast amount of energy in a short time through this arrangement.

However, now that she was shrunk, so was the breastplate and the bloodstone.  Of course, that too had been accounted for in her calculations.  Just as the surface area smaller, the density of the magical field in the bloodstone's crystal lattice structure was also greater, so the two should net themselves out.  The magic inside the bloodstone would be straining to come out, and once she opened the pathway for it, it could come shooting out like water at extreme pressure through a small crack in a dam.  It would take some careful modulation, however.  This is the tricky part.

As she was making the connection, she felt a huge spark across the magical potential gap, and she nearly blacked out.  So powerful!  An alicorn is, however, more than a unicorn with wings.  She also had earth pony strength and endurance to sustain her, so she was able to absorb the initial spurt of raw power and was able to reduce the flow to something manageable.  I must re-inflate quickly, to reduce the pressure!  Without preamble, she called upon the molecules bound by contact to the bloodstone to remember their original mass and size.  As she grew, the pressure lessened and she quickly saw a ceiling come into view.  She was in a vestibule where the message balls would appear from what appeared to be an apparatus that, from the scorch marks around its brass mouth, belched dragon fire and deposited the balls into the basket that her ball was in now.  So they've automated the receiving process?  How interesting!  I bet they smelted the message balls and the receiver from the same ore, to maximize similarity.  The voices she heard were coming from a large, lit chamber behind her.

She leaned over to the opened brass sphere and whispered, "You can come out now."  Two diminutive forms emerged, flying, and perched on the edge of the basket.  "Fly up into the middle of the room."  The two horsefly sized creatures obeyed and Twilight released the magic in the bloodstone, first restoring Snargle and then Fluttershy to their normal sizes.

Snargle dusted himself off from the small bits of cotton that were snagged in his scales.  "That was remarkable.  We are in the message receiving chamber next to my father's privy council."  His whisper rasped with his snarling gargle.  "Somedragon will be here to investigate the green flash shortly, I am sure.  Princess Twilight, this has some pretty significant security implications, your realize."

"Indeed, but none of your enemies are aware of this vulnerability.  And bloodstones are few and far between, I am sure."  Twilight walked forward into the chamber where there were several dragons speaking as Snargle, unsure what protocol would be appropriate under such circumstances, followed, while Fluttershy tarried, looking about the small room.  The four dragons were gathered around a table with a map of the East splayed out across it, engrossed in their conversation.  Upon the map were numerous red markers, nearly as many gray, some green, and a few blue, concentrated on the south coast of Vanash Ritoor.  Ponies, perhaps, are the blue?

"Magaar, you should heed me."  A small grayish dragon, who seemed very elderly, wagged his claw.  "This princess carries the very Element of Magic itself, and she is not to treated lightly!  She has the friendship and respect of the King himself!  And her people are desperate refugees.  What you propose would deny them access to the fishing grounds immediately to the west of their coastline!"

"Bah, Ganash, what care I for friendship and fishing grounds?"  A thickset, rather ugly looking green drake snarled at the elder.  "Now that Scylla and Charybdis are no more, trade with the West can resume!  Our dragonships will be able to trade with the Griffons and Minotaurs once again, as it was before Celestia released that scourge to protect her precious ponies from the humans, leaving us to shift for ourselves."

"You know very well that the King approved that decision, reluctantly, but he saw the need."  Ganash sighed.

A tall and thin gold dragon put his talon on the coastline.  "This is the only place the harbor can be built, Ganash.  The great current to the north side of the coast would make outward shipping prohibitively expensive.  We wouldn't be able to export without having our ships run all the way up past Angara, and that would be madness.  I have to agree with Magaar on this."  A silver chain clinked around his neck. The Chancellor perhaps? thought Twilight to herself.

A short and otherwise very well-made dragon rounded out the quartet.  He almost appeared to have rainbow hues.  "Dorgon, we need to think in the long term here.  Ganash is right about that princess' relationship with our royal family.  Why, I wouldn't be surprised if Sanaar was trying finagle himself a royal wedding with that equine, the way he talks about her."  Twilight blushed and glanced at Snargle, who was wearing an expression of stone.  "It is our place to advise the King, not manipulate him."  Growls of denial were his reply.  "I know you want what is best for the kingdom, as we all do.  Perhaps the ponies could be made to see the benefits of trade with the griffons.  You are aware that they have some griffin chicks with them, are you not?  A griffon colony, right here!  Perhaps others would be persuaded to migrate from the west now that Equestria is in ruins.  Their economies must all surely suffer."

"Strahan, they have the greater incentive to move into the rich lands left vacant by the invasion!  And in any rate, while more allies here would of course be a good thing, I don't want to encourage any more immigration!  Could you imagine more of those western savages coming here?  The great, fat, greedy louts!  No, we already have enough of them here as it is!"  Magaar shook his scaly head.  "No more westerners, I say!"  The other dragons all nodded, having scant respect for their uncivilized cousins.

Snargle cleared his throat and the four dragons turned to face him and the princess.  For few seconds, all was quiet.  Then the privy council bowed, their eyes bulging and choking noises coming from several.  "Gentledragons, I present Her Royal Highness, Princess Twilight Sparkle."

The elder, Ganash, was the first to speak.  "Your highness, this is most irregular.  We are of course very happy to greet you, but we didn't expect you to be eavesdropping on our private conversations."

Twilight smiled and bowed her head.  "It was not our plan either, good dragons.  We merely wished to travel here by the fastest route possible, and that was by messenger ball.  We did not intend to spy upon the privy council. You have our apologies."

Magaar was plainly furious.  "Your highness, you have given me no choice but to petition our King to immediately begin work on the harbor we were discussing!  This interference in our internal affairs is intolerable and I must take decisive action!"

"By all means, my lord, build your harbor."  Magaar blinked twice.  "Perhaps you don't realize this, but ponies are vegetarians.  We don't fish.  We only need enough for a dozen griffon chicks and they are well supplied by the fish stocks in Crusader Bay."

Magaar's mouth dropped open and Ganash started laughing, followed by the other two concillors and Snargle.  Slowly a smile crept across his features and a belly laugh erupted from him.  "Some privy council we are!  Ha!"

Twilight quietly congratulated herself as Fluttershy came out of the vestibule, tucking a half empty bag of critter treats into her saddle bag with a conspiratorial smile at Twilight.  So far, it's been a pretty good day.