Cause of Progress

***

While the royal disappointment of an aircraft was advancing in the direction of the Castle - Abigail pull out of her coat a round frame sunglasses, putting them on. She purchased them a long time ago, when some of the locals have been put off by her eyes. In truth - Abbi didn't need any kinds of glasses at all - her prosthetic eyes make them unrequired. But still - it was a good way to hide her eyes from others. Also, she looked good in them.

When the small blimp touched down on the dock of the castle - the doors have been open and guards started to come out. At this - Abigail and Tempest could only laugh in their minds. They greatly overestimated equestrians.

Tempest looked over the guards, checking their equipment and comparing it to the equipment of Stormwind army. Gold armor and helmets of ponies, compared to steel plates of stormdwellers. Iron shortswords and spears compared to steel halberds and longswords. The captain of the guards that came out after his squad wore the same armor. Only diffidence is his red cape with an insignia of the golden sun and instead of a spear he held a round shield. Not only gold was a bad choice for armor - the design was too bulky. At this moment - Tempest was glad that they had Abigail and her ideas on their side.

Speaking of the human, she too looked over the guards, but was more focused on the blimp. Not only the whole construction was partly made of wood - the main balloon was unprotected. The overall lenght would be around 30-35 meters, 6 meters in width. Two rotors for gaining speed and a simple wing on each of the rotors to change the direction of the thrust. An incredibly simple construction, she wouldn't let this lay down and if this piece of work was her - she would get to upgrading it in an instant. Speaking of 'pieces of work'...

After guards and captain exited - next was the Princess Celestia herself with a purple mare in tow. The mare held a notebook and a quill in her magic, looking around and taking notes."This must be Twilight Sparkle, student of Celestia. I should keep an eye on her..." Abigail thought to herself, adoring the neutral expression. While Raiju and Celestia greeted one another - Abbi caught the questionable stare of Twilight. She looked confused at the sight of the human.

"...This is Tempest Shadow, commander of the troops." - Introduced Raiju, holding his hand to Fizzy. Many of the pony guards looked at her, adoring the look of interest and a cheeky one sided smiles.

"She looked underdressed, king Raiju. No armor, only clothes and a weapon. Care to enlighten me on this?" - Politely asked Celestia, looking at Tempest.

"Make no mistakes - she is dressed as she should. The armor that she's wearing under her coat is strong enough to stop a bolt, launched from arbalet. Courtesy of our lead innovator." - Answered Raiju.

"Pff, please... Not even our armor could stop a direct hit from arbalet." - Annoyingly said equestrian captain.

"Captain Armor, stand down. I'm sure - king Raiju seen this armor in action, but we didn't. For now, I'll trust his words." - Said Celestia, changing her gaze from her captain to human, raising a brow. - "And who's on your left, your majesty?"

"This is Abigail Reznik, our lead innovator. Thanks to her - Stormwind Isles entered the new age of technology." - Introduced Raiju, while Abigail stood relaxed with her hands in the pockets of her coat.

"An interesting name... While we were in the air - we looked at the main city and I must say it looks... strange. Don't take this the wtong way, but it just differs from our home." - Admitted the alicorn, examining the human with careful gaze.

"Ah yes. Again - thanks to Abigail and her affinity with constructions - our city started to thrive. More space thanks to the new buildings, transportation from island to island within minutes, medicine, even entertainment and everyday aspects of life were redone by her and our workers hands." - Praised the king, looking at Abigail.

"And what, pray tell, is she? She's not any of the races I've seen in my books. And also - I can't detect her magic." - Voiced Twilight, looking at Abbi with caution.

"If she want - she will tell you." - Raiju said, turning to let the guests past to the throne room. - "Now, what about we transport our future conversations into the castle? It looks like rain..."

Twilight reluctantly nodded to this, as well as Celestia and Shining Armor. Raiju lead them inside with Abbi and Tempest in tow.

***

While Raiju and Celestia were talking out their future trades and agreements - Abigail was in her own world, writing down the ideas in her notebook and doing a little sketches of her future work. She left her house this morning with Fizzy unhappy. Not only because of this whole thing with ponies, but because she wanted to finish Coco. While yes, first tests of some of her abilities were successful - she still need a lot of work. Correctly place all of the 'veins', create a schematic of the 'skin' made of porcelain, check the connections of her limbs and maybe redesign them... There was a lot of work to do. She was close to complete her latest invention, just a little bit more...

"No, I'm against it!" - Loudly said Tempest, gaining attention of Abigail. She zoned out for the most parts of the talk, but when Fizzy was screaming with true emotions in her voice - it meant that something bad is going to happen or already happened.

"But it would be beneficial to Equestria, not to count the terms we're giving to king Raiju with our import and export." - Said Celestia, looking between Tempest and Abigail.

"Care to repeat your request, Princess?" - Calmly asked Abigail with a raised brow

"I was wondering if I could hire you to do the same job as you did in here. As to my understanding - you are quite capable of doing so many things." - Said Celestia, looking at Abigail.

"Well, I get enough money in here doing my job. What can you give me, so I would agree?" - She asked, closing her notebook, but keeping her thumb on the page she was writing on.

Alicorn opened and closed her mouth, seemingly thinking at human's question. Tempest looked at Abigail, thinking about her question too. Finally, Celestia spoke. - "To tell you the truth - I can think of nothing to give you as a reward. Maybe you could name your price?"

At this, Abigail smirked, fully closing her notebook and hiding it in her coat, along with the pen. Tempest could already see that she is had an idea. - "As a fact, yes. You see, I came to Stormwind Isles eleven months ago, soon it will be a year. Just think about it - it took me less than a year to make everything around us..." - She gestured around the throne room. The walls were covered in dark wood with metal corners on the columns, a giant mechanical clock covered half of the empty wall, displaying it's insides trough glass clock face. Complex mechanism of metal cogs and springs, always working. The chandelier was made of a different leveled crystals, like a staircase. In the center was half-sphere that indicated the position of the moon.

"What I want is the truth. As any other engineer and inventor - I care about details, so I could get the full picture, and now the said picture is just described, but not actually showed to me. I heard rumors and read a lot of historical books for past couple of months about Equestria. About you, about your sister, about history overall..." - She paused, taking a breath. - "And to say I'm disappointed in my experience so far - great understatement. I'm going to say this without any malice - your country degraded. Why? Because they too sheltered and because ponies put too much faith into magic and their governer. Look out from the balcony at the Isle. They achieved it not because I told others - what to do. I give them ideas. Made a showcase example. And they catch it and applied it to their lifestyles, because they see the effectiveness of new ways of life."

"What did you want to recieve for your work, Miss Reznik?" - Quietly asked Celestia, holding onto her dress and looking down, like she was being yelled at by her parents.

"If I'm going to work for you - I want to make sure that I'm working for the right persona. I heard things like 'ponies are xenopobic' and many things that could happen if I was going to enter the rich part of the city. If, and it's a big if, you could look into my and Tempest eyes and say 'you have nothing to fear in terms of populace while visiting my country' and swear to me that you will not abuse my inventions and my trust - I will agree to work for you." - Finished Abigail, leaning on the backrest.

All who was present in the throne room was stunned. To not request increased monetary reward, but a promise from Princess Celestia is something else entirely. Abigail was skeptical about the whole 'ponies are not great', and it was a good way to make sure of what is the truth. She would not only see other country, but dispell the nasty rumors. Or she hoped so.

Celestia raised her head, looking at Abigail, then at slightly frowning Tempest and slowly stood up. She took a couple of steps and when she was standing in front of unicorn mare - she looked in her eyes and said. - "You have nothing to fear from the population of Equestria while visiting my country."

To this Fizzy looked deeply into her eyes, past anger and distrust clearly showing in her gaze. She stared into alicorn's eyes for a couple of seconds, after which lowered her eyes and give out a heavy exhale. - "Be thankful that my beloved gives you a chance, Celestia. I wouldn't do that in her place." - She added silently for only Celestia to hear. The alicorn give her a small nod and slowly turned around, only to see the human before her.

"My turn." - Abigail said shortly, removing her sunglasses and revealing her prosthetic black and yellow eyes. Celestia was taken aback by this, covering her mouth and continuing to stare in Abbi's eyes.

"What... What happend to your eyes?.." - She silently asked the human.

"Higher up abused his position, which leads to me no longer having my eyes, my right hand and both of my legs. Now, please say what I asked you to say and let's finish this. I need to get back to my work."

Celestia reluctantly nodded, adoring more determined expression and while looking in the black and yellow eyes repeated her words. Abigail looked deep in the eyes of Celestia, trying to see - is she telling the truth or not. In the end - she closed her eyes for a couple of seconds, then looking at alicorn mare again. - "I trust you... for now, at least. Raiju?" - She called the king, turning her head.

"Yes?" - he answered with a calm yet surprised tone.

"Due to my soon-to-be absence - I'm stopping my active research and trusting the Research Group with weekly basic inspections and maintenance of anything technical wise. They have blueprints and instruments required for this job. Also, I want to request one of the ships to transport my instruments in Equestria and then return to Stormwind Isles. Finally, as much as I trust given promises - I need a guard to come with me on a unknown amount of time to Equestria. Can you do thath?"

"Hmm... Very well, lead innovator. You will receive the requested support. Anything else?"

"Yes. If I'm not needed right now - I would like to take my leave with Commander Shadow and start to pack our stuff."

"I will dismiss Commander in an hour. You may go, Miss Reznik."

***

"So we are going to Equestria? Didn't thought you would agree, Abbi." - Said Fizzy not too amused. They currently sat at the kitchen table of Abigail's house after dinner.

"Fizzy, as much as I trust your judgement on many things - I'm not convinced that ponies are that bad. This would be a good opportunity for me and you to learn - how things in there. Maybe Equestria is not that bad as you say." - Answered Abigail, taking a sip of her coffee.

"Maybe... But I'm still going to be on edge. All those years did a number on my perception of Equestria." - She admitted, leaning her head on the shoulder of her human.

"I'm not asking you to outright trust them and be buddies, hun. Be open minded but still have your guard up. Maybe in the future, if we agree on this - Equestria could become our second home." - Quietly said Abbi, lovingly stroking Fizzy's mane and rubbing her scalp with fingertips.

"We'll see, love. I'll trust you on this one." - She snuggled closer, her face adoring a peaceful expression.

"Thanks... wanna go to bed? Equestrians will leave after lunch and we have a busy morning with all the packing my stuff." - At this the unicorn just raised her head slowly and after nodding sharing a brief but loving kiss.

"I will prepare our bed and check our luggage, you deal with the dishes. I don't want you to leave a dirty sink." - She winked, starting to walk away with with a slight sway in her hips.

"Hate to see you leave, but love to watch you go..." - Abbi whispered, slightly hypnotised.

***

Morning came and currently Abigail monitored the process of transportation of her tools onto the aircraft. Hired workers carried everything important : her machinery, boxes with instruments, couple of cases with notes and files and a coffin-like box with unfinished automaton, disassembled of course. Those were set inside of a carrier aircraft, designed to move relatively fast and being able to carry the weight of 30 tons, counting with the crew. The whole thing looked like a medium sized barge, but instead of moving on the water - it used rechargable source of electricity in form of a cores with high capacity white crystals to move in the air and land if recharge is needed (white crystals are actually rare and used specifically in an industries, unlike usual blue crystals).

The barge itself was made out of light sort of wood painted in black and gold, steel and some more complex details made out of titanium, specifically the engine and both vertical and horizontal thrusters. It was forty meters long and thirteen in width, able to move at the distance of fifty thousand kilometres at 120 km/h without any weight on one white crystal core. Of course, this number was decreased to fifteen thousand fully stocked with the same speed, but it still was an absurdly effective craft. Hard to built, sure, but effective. It had a rooms for the crew and for the passangers, having a space for total count of thirty passanger on board without counting the crew.

Anyway, after everything was set - equestrians with both Abigail and Tempest got on the board - they were ready to depart. Captain of the equestrian blimp left yesterday and probably already landed in Equestria. Both unicorn and human choose the cabin for two and now were on the main deck, looking at the midday horizon of the sea. Captain told them that the whole trip would last around 5 hours if they don't meet any troubles on the way, to which Twilight's jaw dropped on the floor. Abbi honestly forgot about her, until she met her today. She was quiet and like Abigail was frequently lost in thoughts. As long as she didn't interferes with her work or started to spy on her - the human had no problems with that mare. Captain Armor was quiet as well, which was good and bad at the same time. Celestia was looking around the aircraft, amazed at the construction.

In 13:27 the barge successfully departed from Stormwind port and headed towards Equestria border. Abigail was in a good spirit, awaiting their arrival and seeing the famous Equestria for herself.