25 — Royal Visits, USA
Whether Castor had been dragooned, shanghaied, or ordered, he wasn't sure. Maybe it was all three. Everyone from his superiors to the ponies, it seemed, assumed he was going to go along that December Seventh.
Apparently, the consensus was that as their first contact, he should accompany the Equestrians in the event something happened or was said that needed explaining. Not that he thought there would be such problems. The Royals had studied closely the records of several State Visits that the Yanks had supplied.
He had been expecting them to take a plane across the Atlantic for the State Visit to the United States, at the invitation of President George Bush. Instead, here they were, in the back courtyard to the Equestrian Embassy in Little Whinging, Surrey.
As ponies.
Maybe, because out of the six of them he was the only one with saddlebags, they wanted to use him as a pack-mule?
While he and his family were pegasi in Equestria, only their daughter had the magic to transform on this side of the Portal. Princess Celestia had used her magic to give him the little boost he needed to make the change. It was an odd perspective to see how much taller everything now appeared.
Why she wanted him as a Pegasus, he didn't know. He would find out soon enough, he was sure.
Waiting with him were Princesses Celestia and Luna, and Prince Blueblood, the same as the State Visit to the U.K. this summer. What was different, however, was this time they did not include Princess Twilight.
Replacing her presence were the two other royals he had met in Equestria at the ball.
The first had a pink coat, and yellow, rose, and violet mane and tail. Unlike Princess Twilight, her mane and tail appeared to occasionally shift and move around in an unfelt breeze — but nothing like the non-stop, gently-flowing, movements of the other two alicorns. Her cutie mark was a crystal heart.
It was her Royal Majesty, Mi Amore Cadenza, Princess of Love, Mistress of Heavenly Affection, Earthly Passion, and Icon of Eros, Guardian of the Crystal Heart, Niece of the Heavens, Liberator and Co-ruler of the Crystal Empire.*
Accompanying her was her unicorn husband, His Royal Highness Prince Shining Armor, Liberator and Co-ruler of the Crystal Empire. The Prince had a light grey coat with a mane and tail that were a combination light, moderate, and dark blues. His cutie mark was dark-blue shield with a six-pointed pink star in the centre of it, and three pale blue stars above.
He was also Twilight's brother! What a coincidence . . . and, from what he could tell, it really was a coincidence. Discord had not been involved. The two ponies had met while Twilight was still a foal and was only a book-worm filly.
Castor was more than a little worried about what was happening — or, rather, not happening. The U.S. Ambassador had provided them with a detailed itinerary which required their plane to land at the Andrews Air Force Base in Prince George's County, Maryland.
In about fifteen minutes.
Instead, the three Princesses were carefully studying a video camera feed from United States of the reception committee waiting for them on the runway. He knew Prince Blueblood had informed the U.S. Ambassador that they would be arriving via their own transport, but he hadn't said exactly what that transport was.
Princess Celestia nodded firmly. "It will be no trouble at all," she said quietly. "Shiny? Bluey? Ready?"
Prince Armor rolled his eyes. "Yes, Tia," he said as he nodded slightly. Blueblood just boredly nodded.
A light-gold aura lit up her horn and the same surrounded the Prince and Blueblood, slowly becoming brighter until the pegasus had to look away. When he looked back, both had wings, just like he did!
Shining Armor and Blueblood gave their new wings a couple of stretches and flaps. "Excellent," Shining Armour said in a satisfied tone. "As natural as walking." He grinned at his aunts. Blueblood just nodded, again.
Castor was still blinking away the dots. No one had seen that magic before. How long would the wings last? Could they give wings to humans?
He shook his head. He needed to stay on topic. How were they supposed to get to the airbase in the next ten minutes?
"Time to go," Celestia said, spreading her wings and lifting up into the air.
Moments later, they were hundreds of yards in the sky. Celestia and Luna were in the lead. They slowed their ascent and coasted a moment. "Lulu, Cady, Bluey, follow my lead. I'll take Castor and Shiny."
Castor wasn't sure what she meant, but he found out an instant later as Little Whinging, and England, disappeared from below him. There was the faint sound of bells. Then he realized he was staring down at the runway that only moments before had been thousands of kilometres away and on a telly screen.
After the initial shock, it took only a few moments to pick out where they needed to go. Two barricades were erected on one of the airport's taxiways, with a small crowd behind each. He could see the obvious press contingents, the seated band, and audience. The soldiers in two lines between them were a dead giveaway that that was where they were expected.
After their visit to England, Castor knew that this visit was being broadcast, live, to the world. The U.S. wanted to milk this for all it was worth, and had been hyping it for the last month. Unfortunately for President Bush, the bad economy at home overrode any accomplishments from outside the States, which meant he had lost the election just two weeks ago. It had been close, but he had lost. However, he would be going out with a historic first that guaranteed him prominence in the history books. He would be welcoming the first ever interplanetary visitors to the United States.
It took a few minutes, and them losing most of their altitude coasting in loose circles, before anyone on the ground noticed the six flying ponies over their heads. Without the drone of propellor or jet engines to smother the sounds, the collective gasp that erupted from the ground was clearly audible. There were more than a few screams from little kids of, "Mommy! Look! Flying horses!"
Castor had to grin at the expressions of shock and surprise he was seeing — it really was amazing how good his eyesight was. He could see them all so clearly when he was at least a football-field away.
He had read that a raptor could pick out a mouse in a field of grass that was at least a football field's distance away, but to experience something similar, though not as distant, was another thing entirely. No wonder his marksmanship lately was 40/40.
The viewers watching on the telly and listening over the radio were probably stunned at the sight of six winged ponies landing at an American airbase. Whatever they had been expecting, this was not it.
The reception committee had lost their practiced composure as everyone pointed and stared. Jaws were dropping and the attending journalists were losing the plot.
Celestia and Luna were in the lead. To Celestia's left were Blueblood and Castor. To Luna's right were Cadance and Shining Armor. Castor found himself chuckling out loud at the dumbfounded looks headed their way.
He was positive that Celestia and Luna were using their magic on a very small scale to make sure they were in this specific formation, and not drifting too close or apart from each other. He certainly wasn't trying to control his flight any more than to keep gliding.
He was sure the officials had been warned about Princes' and Princesses' pony forms, with accompanying pictures — all of which were normal colours for horses and ponies on Earth. Well, except for their manes and tails which could be explained by hair dyes. However, Cadance's clearly bright-pink coat was a colour not seen in nature on Earth, which had undoubtedly raised eyebrows. Was it real? Or an affection?
He knew his own appearance matching Shining Armour except for the lack of a horn, would be oh, soo, confusing to the analysts. Was he related? But how could he be, when he was a verified human born in Britain?
When they came around on their final lap, the band leader realized that the winged horses were the intended guests. He immediately had the U.S. Air Force Band begin playing "Arrival Fanfare Number One."
One person, at least, had woken up and realized what the next step had to be. He had jumped into action as they were gliding on their final approach to the reception group and had unrolled the red carpet.
They lightly touched down at the foot of the red carpet.
As they had been told, military personnel, twenty-one total, formed two lines flanking either side of the red carpet. They were from the Third United States Infantry Regiment, the U.S. Navy Ceremonial Guard, the U.S. Coast Guard Ceremonial Honour Guard, and the U.S. Air Force Honour Guard.
At the end of the red carpet closest to them, a welcoming committee stood. Two officers from the Andrews Air Base Colour Guard held short poles with the flags of the United States and Equestria. A small welcoming committee waited for them at the foot of the carpet. The Chief of Protocol, John Giffen Weinman, a tall, thin man with receding grey hair, the commanding general of Andrews Air Force Base, General Ronald W. Yates, a fit man with greying black hair, and three other ranking officers smiled as they approached. After they landed, three wide-eyed American schoolgirls stepped forward and presented a bouquet of flowers to each alicorn, murmuring "Your Majesty."
Every dream the three girls had ever had about horses had just come true.
The Princesses graciously lifted the flowers in their magical auras, golden, deep blue, and light blue. They all replied with a warm, "Thank you." They studied the bouquets for a moment, then Celestia selected a red rose from her bouquet, and delicately munched on it. "Oh, Lulu," she said turning her head. "You must try one of these, they are a simply delightful snack." A red rose left Luna's bouquet and hovered in front of her sister.
Castor was trying mightily to keep a straight face.
Based on his horrified expression, which quickly turned bland, clearly the Protocol Officer hadn't realized just how herbivores might react to a traditional flower bouquet. Not as a nice gesture, but the offer of exquisite snacks! He was probably having heart palpations at the questions he realized he should have asked when the Equestrians announced they were coming for a State Visit. He should have realized the playbook would be thrown out as soon as he saw that the Equestrians were definitely non-human! That they had flown to the base — without a plane — should hammer that point into even the densest aide!
Why had he expected them to appear as people?
No wonder the radar operators hadn't said anything about an approaching aircraft.
He was probably in a panic over just how those flowers would taste to a pony.
As unobtrusively as possible, he signalled desperately to one of his aides. Castor clenched his teeth as he tried not to laugh at the thought that that poor panicking sod was going to dash to the limousine and ensure that any snacks inside were palatable to herbivores. Hopefully, there none of the pork-rinds that the President favoured on-board.
He imagined that the other Protocol Officers in the government were in the process of frantically calling their aides, and reviewing everything planned for the Royals' visit.
Celestia offered her bouquet to Castor. Castor found the carnation to be rather nice. Cadance took a yellow gardenia from hers, while her husband decided to sample of the Lilies of the Inca. Luna offered Blueblood a choice from her bouquet.
Children in the audience were jumping up and down enthusiastically, squealing happily. Their families, primarily from the air base, had to physically restrain some the more exuberant children from dashing under the ropes and accosting the ponies on the red carpet.
Celestia, Luna, and Cadance leaning back slightly and then waving their front hooves, obviously to the children, didn't help the parents. Although their children were ecstatic at being noticed.
Castor had to wonder how those watching on the telly were reacting to all this. The commentators were probably having a field day, he was sure.
Recovering, Weinman managed the rest of the ceremony with aplomb. The national anthems of Equestria and then the United States were played as they walked to their waiting car. The flowers, alas, did not make it to the end carpet, not even the stems.
John, the Protocol Officer was probably praying he hadn't just poisoned the visiting Royals, or any in their party.
Celestia and Luna took their time, studying the men and women to either side. The Sun alicorn stopped at one point and asked to see a sailor's rifle. Not to be outdone, Luna asked the same of an infantry woman. They both hefted the rifles in their magic and examined the bolt-actions as if they were on an official inspection.
Prince Armour looked as if he also wanted to take a look at the rifles, too. Cadance just rolled her eyes. Castor imagined she was thinking something along the lines of 'colts and their toys.'
The limousine waiting for them wasn't typical. Not having the expansion technology, and having seen that the Princesses were big, in both their forms, the government had either acquired or created a stretch-van and heavily modified it to simply look like a much larger version of a stretch-limo.
Eventually, and to the Protocol Officer's great relief, Castor didn't doubt, they reached the vehicle. The poor man would probably have a breakdown once they were out of sight.
Once the six of them were comfortably seated, they left for the President's Guest House.
Blair House, their destination, was a 119-room home across the street from the White House. The Blair House staff had been extensively briefed on the Royals, and that they could appear as either ponies or people. Castor planned to slip a word in the ear of one of the cooks that Celestia absolutely adored cakes — of all kinds. If they wanted to get in her good books, all they needed to do was make sure that there were always several on hand, and to serve at least one with every meal. Also, that chocolate was not a problem . . . far from it!
While they were visiting, as a sign of respect, lamp posts on Pennsylvania Avenue were outfitted with Equestria's, the United States', and the District of Columbia's flags. The Equestrian flag also would fly in front of Blair House and the East Executive Avenue entrance to the Eisenhower Executive Building.
The six would have the rest of the evening to settle in.
It would be quite interesting to see how the evening news portrayed their arrival. It would be the first time the Royals, except Blueblood, had seen television in use. It would give them an unparalleled look at how the "idiot box" could be used to shape opinion.
Seeing as how they were five hours ahead of the current time zone, while it was not much past lunch-time for those on this side of the Atlantic, for them, they had already had their dinner.
Tomorrow would be the official arrival ceremony at the White House, and the State dinner that afternoon.
Castor was a bit anxious that representatives MACUSA might show up. On the other hand, the separation between the magicals and the non-magicals was extremely strict over here. They had only allowed magicals to marry non-magicals starting in the sixties! The magical government might not even know the Equestrians were visiting!
After all, the only magic had been their teleportation, and a few minor others. From what he had been told, the ponies' teleportation didn't set off the detectors as normal wizard apparating did. So, the alicorns and unicorns hadn't done anything that would bring in obliviators. As long as the magicals kept their noses out of things, at this point, the Statute of Secrecy was perfectly safe.
Castor idly wondered how Twilight was doing.
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Spike sighed as he walked to Twilight's room. He had already searched the Map Room, the Throne Room, and the kitchen. The sun was getting awfully close to the horizon and there hadn't been any signs of Twilight since their early dinner when the Royals had left.
First, he checked under the bed. Nope.
Then he checked the closets. Nope and nope.
He sighed again. As he reached the door, he had a sudden inspiration. He turned, rushed into the bathroom, and yanked open the door to the shower stall. Disappointingly, that, too, was empty of any signs of his purple mum.
He once more headed for the door, stopping at the threshold to think.
He slapped his head with his paw. Of course. He should have checked there first.
He jogged into the massive library and looked around.
The book shelves were completely empty.
A massive book-fort, with a dry moat, on the other hoof, had been built in the centre of the room. The furniture not being used inside the fort had been haphazardly shoved to the edges of the room.
He walked over to the fort's entrance, currently blocked by the massive World Maps book, Third Edition, with New and More Accurate Maps of Places Ponies Have Never Been Before!TM, With Additional Annotations and Commentary by Princess Twilight and the Mane FiveTM.
"Twilight!" he yelled — merely talking would never make it through the book-thick walls or the equally thick book-drawbridge. "It's almost time for sunset!"
He jumped to the side as the massive Maps book, crashed down, revealing a distraught and panicked purple alicorn.
"No! It can't be, not yet! I'm not ready!" she shouted.
"Twi," he said soothingly, "Of course you can. You practiced with Tia and Lulu last night and this morning. They both said you did fine."
"But they were there, then. They won't be, now! What if I make a mistake!" She shrank back. "Oh, I could accidentally melt Griffonstone! What if I goof and raise the moon instead of setting the sun? Or the sun gets mad at me and refuses to set? I'll roast the world! They'll call me Daybreaker Twilight! Celestia and Luna will never forgive me! Everyone will hate me! They'll throw me into the dungeons, forever!"
She was backing further and further into her fort, shrinking down slightly with each sentence, her mane looking wilder and wilder while her pupils shrank to mere pinpricks.
Spike sighed again and followed her into the fort. This was going to take a bit of time. The book-drawbridge slammed shut behind him.
"Twi," he tried again, speaking as soothingly as possible, "Nothing of the sort will happen." He grabbed her by the hoof. "It'll be just like you practiced. Trust me!"
Her disbelieving look told him it wasn't going to be as easy as he had hoped.
Sunset that day was about an hour later than normal, and not nearly as smooth as when Celestia did it, ponies and creatures everywhere noticed. One moment it was there, the next, not. Then it was back, but lower. Then it was gone again. As they were blinking their eyes in the response to the transition from light to dark to light to dark, the Moon popped up like a scalded rabbit. Then it ducked back down with only a tiny bit over the horizon, as if it were cautiously checking its surroundings.
It shot up halfway to overhead. Then reversed direction in a series of jerks that left it at its normal moonrise position, just above the horizon, but a bit further north than normal — by half the normal distance. It stopped, but had an odd pinkish glow, almost as if it were blushing. Or Luna was. It slowly slid sideways until it was at its regular position. It turned a bit pinker.
More than a few nobles, who knew Celestia and Luna were visiting elsewhere, made notes to have a talk with the purple Alicorn. As soon as possible.
First, though, they'd have to find her.
She was positive they'd never think to look in her closet.
Spike heard her mumblings under her breath — she had parked him on her back in the mad dash to her room. She was calculating if it would be possible to use that obliviate spell she had read about in the Witching book on everypony in Equestria. Maybe she could make them forget her first unsupervised attempt at sun and moon manipulation before Celestia and Luna returned?
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The next morning started early, and the Blair House's staff hit a home run when they served a giant pound-cake smothered in frosting with Equestria's Twin Sister's emblem on top. Breakfast itself was an array of omelettes: apple and sharp cheddar; smoked gouda and asparagus; spicy sun-dried tomato and feta; corn, black-beans, peppers, cheese and tomatoes; mushroom scallion frittata with parmesan; and several others.
Celestia and Luna tried them all. Eating triple what the others consumed.
Celestia still managed to eat the entire cake by herself. That they brought out a second cake for the others showed Castor that the Head Cook had taken his advice to heart.
Today, they went as people instead of ponies in their special van to the White House where they were met by a civilian welcoming committee for the arrival ceremony. Also meeting them, in the background, were a large number of military personnel drawn from the 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment, the U.S. Navy Ceremonial Guard, the U.S. Air Force Honour Guard, the U.S. Coast Guard Ceremonial Honour Guard, the White House sentries, Alpha Company of the garrison of Marine Barracks Washington, and selected other personnel.
While they were being welcomed and introduced to both President Bush and President-elect Clinton, and their wives, the Presidential Salute Battery fired cannon volleys from a firing position in President's Park — the famous twenty-one-gun salute. The band was performing Equestria's national anthem at the same time.
Just as there had been in England, there was an inspection and review of the troops present. Then it was time for the speeches. The press, after all, had to be given something. The speeches were, thankfully, short.
President Bush started off.
"Your Majesties, Your Excellencies, and our friends here in the White House, on behalf of the American people, it is my great honour to welcome you to the United States." He stopped and waited for the applause to die down.
"Your Majesties, this historic house has witnessed many historic occasions, but as all of our guests here today I am sure will agree, and as those who are listening on television and radio will understand, no visit to this house has a greater historical significance than your visit today to the White House.
"Never has any president of the United States ever welcomed visitors from another world. A world that is both the same and yet different from our own."
The applause lasted a bit longer this time.
He continued in that vein for a few minutes, before concluding, "We wish you a good visit here, and we wish you the very best for the many years of leadership which we know you will continue to provide, not only to your nation, not only to your world, but to those who cherish and honour freedom throughout both our worlds."
Princess Celestia's speech was a bit shorter, and consisted of saying nothing important while appearing to do so. It was a skill she had developed far back in her career as leader of Equestria. About the only thing she did say was how much she enjoyed being on vacation, meeting new people, and learning things she had never suspected existed!
After the speeches, they moved inside to the Blue Room, called so for its thematic colour. There, the five Equestrians signed the Official White House Guest Book.
Then it was to the Red Room, where the Official Presentation of Gifts was to take place. Equestria's gift had already been handed to the White House yesterday and was waiting for them on the oak table in the centre of the room, as was the gift from the President to Equestria.
The American gift was astonishingly well-chosen, Castor thought. All the Equestrians were completely taken with the "Cook Book of the Americas" presented to them. Hundreds and hundreds of recipes that they had never tasted. To individuals who counted centuries, a new recipe was beyond imagining for them. All the cookbooks from England were heavy in meats, unfortunately. A few catered to vegetarian diets, but those were a definite minority.
That must have been a monumental effort to canvass recipes from almost every country in North and South America for ones that would be appropriate. Plus, it was quite clever to include all the Americas and not just restrict themselves to the borders of the United States.
The included countries would brag about being in the book while the US subtly implied it held influence over them.
The Equestrian gift was a box about a foot long on each side, thirty-and-a-half centimetres, and four inches, or ten centimetres, deep. Emblazoned in the top were both the Seal of the United States and the Seal of Equestria. Celestia smiled at the President as she opened hinged top, revealing the interior to the Yanks for the first time. The inside of the lid duplicated the outside, but with the words, "A Gift to The United States of America from Equestria, in honour of Eternal Peace Between Our Nations" above them
It would take a moment for anyone to notice that, however. What immediately drew their attention was in the bed of the velvet-lined box. It was a single, eagle-shaped diamond, replicating the Seal of the United States.
In lifting the lid, a soft light suffused the diamond from underneath.
The body was amber, the beak and legs yellow, and the head was white. One foot held a green olive branch with leaves, and the other held three yellow arrows with white heads and fletching. The shield on the bird's torso had a blue field at the top, and red and white vertical stripes below. The blue field held thirteen white stars.
If you looked very closely, Castor knew, you realized it was made of a single diamond. The colours weren't painted on, those were the colours of the diamond at those places. At almost five kilograms and ten inches, twenty-five centimetres, tall and wide, and two inches, five centimetres, thick it was the second most massive diamond in the world. Only England's new Block Diamond was more massive. With its intricate shape and colours, the eagle-diamond was, Castor knew without any doubt, beyond priceless.
While the Yanks stared, dumbfounded at the glittering diamond, Celestia said, "It took myself, Luna, and seven unicorn artisans almost an hour to fashion this. Afterwards, the artisans had to rest for a day." She paused, taking in their flabbergasted expressions. "In the bottom of the box is an 'eternal light' that will always light the seal when the cover is open." She smiled. "You need not worry about it burning out. The power-supply will not run out —your sun was gracious enough to agree to power it forever."
۸·_·۸
Author's Note: * Cadance's titles courtesy of suggestions from Ecuos Oinocernos, of FIMfiction.