Canterlot Castle was as sturdy and powerful as ever. Its white walls surrounding its grounds looked upon the surrounding lands with fervor as the guards stood upon it and watched for any movement. Thanks to the tending of many gardeners, the grass within the castle grounds were perfectly cut and a deep shade of green. Several pathways of brown gravel led from the massive wooden gates and stretched throughout the whole area. Many bushes spread randomly among the area were clipped to look like a wide variety of things, such as a giraffe or the ponies’ beloved ‘Celestia’.

The castle itself was enormous and rose high into the sky, several wings branching off into massive arms of bleached stone. The roofs were painted in a golden hue and were tended by the pegasi hired to maintain this monument’s glow and shine. Long, triangular flags fluttered from several poles built into the pinnacle of the tallest roof, letting everyone know the great symbol of Equestria being an alicorn of white and one of blue flying around a celestial body made from half a part of the moon, and the other half being the sun.

Three small steps led from the gravel pathway into the castle and into the main entrance. This place was quite enormous and led to a wide variety of different areas on the first floor of this building. There were several steps leading up to the second and third floors and were directly facing the entrance. Both the entrance and the beginning of the steps were guarded by several unicorn and pegasi guards. Neither of them had to worry about lighting thanks to the many tall windows letting in lots of the yellow sunlight outside.

The four guards at the entrance turned their eyes when they heard a loud rabble coming from the large gates atop the first set of stairs. The doors burst open from the forceful push of an extremely angered earth pony. His coat was a faded brown, and his mane and tail were a combed back color of dark gray and light blue. They both had a coloration similar to wet, gray clay. He was wearing a black suit over his two forelegs that stretched to the middle of his body. This left his cutie mark bare, allowing all to see a bit wrapped in a contract being pulled up like a bag.

“This is an OUTRAGE! I gave PERFECTLY REASONABLE demands to ease the tensions between our two countries, yet you refuse them WITHOUT even considering them?!”

“You asked us to give up our independence and live under the tyranny of the Anti-Copperlings, and that’s only ONE of the major issues!” a unicorn following after him shouted.

Meanwhile, in the throne room, Celestia rubbed her temples in irritation and Luna just slouched slightly in her chair. Both sisters had equally sized chairs sitting right next to each other that allowed for more serious matters to be discussed with both of them. The chairs themselves stood atop a large, round pedestal covered with a red carpet with golden trimmings, and this textile construct extended all the way to the two, large wooden doors that were being shut by two night guards wielding spears. The throne room was extremely tall. In fact, it required large pillars in sets of eight on both sides of this chamber to keep everything up correctly. The wall behind the thrones was rounded and the top most area was filled with five enormous windows letting light shine down upon the sisters. The floors were tiled in white marble and many many guards of all three tribes as well as the thestrals. They were all looking towards the thrones with concern in their still stoic eyes.

Luna glanced aside at her sister, adjusting from one side of her body to the other. A soft sigh escaped her lips. "Are we doing the right thing?" A brow raised slightly. "This seems a matter that could easily escalate."

Celestia turned her head slightly, showing only a tired eye from behind her hoof. “You know as well as I that those who rule over that island are devious tyrants that would destroy the lives of my little ponies. I worked so hard to make their lives as fruitful and calm as I could, but those...those ponies…” Celestia looked off into the distance.

Luna snorted, a look of irritation taking over her features. "They are right to fear magic. We should strike before they do, and bring them into line. Their abuses are worthy of swift and brutal punishment." She sunk her head onto two hooves. "I know you are wary of the idea of committing to battle, but it will come. It is only a matter of who has the initiative."

Celestia sighed and readjusted herself into her chair under the watchful eyes of the guards. “While I do appreciate your need for swift decision making, and it has served me...no, US well in the past, this is not a matter we can rush into. You weren’t here when they declared their existence to the world. They might fear magic, but they have technology we know nothing of. Nopony has ever seen the likes of it anywhere in the world.” The alicorn exhaled rather loudly and started to think to herself. “That alone makes me fear what would happen. Furthermore, simply attacking them would cause grave political consequences with the neighboring countries. Only we know what happens on Secantor. It would be seen as an act of war caused by our own dislikes of their ‘way of life’.”

"Then enlighten them." Luna waved a hoof in the air. "You are a pony with a silver tongue, speak to these neighbors of ours, and have them march at our side. This is not something we can simply ignore in the hopes it will vanish in time. Did that diplomat look pleased with us? Did he have the countenance of a peaceful pony, brokering for comingling of ideas?"

“You do have reason and I wouldn’t doubt the presence of a silver tongue in your own mouth, dear sister.” Celestia chuckled. “Unfortunately, I tried such a method. The one who leads the Anti-Copperlings at that diplomat’s country has a silver tongue of another league. More than once had I tried brokering an alliance, or a non-aggression pact at least, with the minotaurs and griffins, but they were not swayed. That stallion has managed to convince them to remain an ally of his without so much as a few words of disapproval. I have had my spies look into this, and they came back with nothing. The other countries ruled over by ponies have preferred to remain out of this discussion. Not just because they fear a war, but because they’re either too small to defend themselves or too far away that it does not concern them...or so they say.” Celestia looked away with skepticism, then turned towards her sister.

Luna raised her hooves towards the sky with a load groan. "We raise the sun and the moon! How hard can it be to impress our supposed friends?" Her face fell in a frown as she slipped from her throne, moving with a testy stomp. "Bribe them if we have to. Surely they can be shaken from their roosts long enough to get this done."

Celestia thought of the idea but immediately cast it aside with a head shake. “No. Bribery goes against my principles, and an alliance acquired from money and threats is no more solid than a bridge made from paper.”

Luna spread her wings. "It would only need last as long as their swift defeat." She moved back to her throne and slumped heavily into it. "Enough. This gets us nowhere." She shook her head a little. "What is next?"

Celestia nodded in agreement. “I understand your point of view on this, dear sister. It has simply lasted longer than I would have preferred. Neither of our countries knows much about the other, but a change of atmosphere would be best for both of us. Guard,” Celestia called out.

“Yes, princess?” one of them answered.

“Do we have further appointments?”

The guard took out a board from his back and began looking down it, then shook his head.

“No, princess. You both have at least three hours of resting time until the next appointment.”

Celestia clapped her hooves together and smiled widely. “This is fantastic news! Perhaps a treat for us both, Luna?” Celestia asked with a smile.

Luna waved towards the entry of the court. At her signal, a cart was rolled in with a large multi-layer cake with a small figure of Luna and Celestia perched on it in frosting. "I arranged a little way to pass the time. I am quite well informed you have a liking for this flavor." A knife drew from nowhere in particular, held firmly in Luna's magic as she advanced and cut out a slice and put it on a plate. "If it pleases you, my sister?"

“Oh. You always know what to get me!”

Celestia’s demeanor was that of a joyous pony, but Luna knew her sister very well. Even her foreleg stretching to grab a slice of cake was trembling ever so slightly. She was worried for the unicorns on that island. She was worried for everypony’s fate at Secantor Island.

Far to the north of Equestria sat an island near the country’s borders. It was a small island completely covered by buildings colored bronze and copper. Building after building piled on top of each other and chimney’s expelled vapor and steam with every turn of their insides. Several blimps floated slowly around this location without much movement. They were armored with thin plates of copper and moved around with the help of four propellers hanging on their sides.

While the highest tip of this island was the hardest thing to see, the enormous biodomes made for the farmers was not. They stood on extremely large and reinforced platforms standing away from the buildings and chimneys, allowing the glass domes to absorb all light and heat and let the farmers grow their crops for the island without many issues. However, they were the most protected by turrets piloted by griffins. All along the edges of the city sat extendable platforms where turrets would protect from potential, incoming threats. The majority were rounded shapes with the rotating base comprised of several gears. The seat for the griffin was made from brown leather, and the controls were basic handles and buttons to adjust rising and rotation. Ammo was funneled through a pack behind the weapon by springs and coils, allowing a sudden burst of steam to propel the tiny pellets out of the turret’s four barrels. Others had a single cannon made for long range combat, and all turrets were manned at all times.

Minotaurs policed the ground and all the floors. They were even tasked with making sure the markets were safe and in order. The width and sheer size of this place demanded a quick method of transport brought by steam boxes riding along reinforced wires hanging all over the city. Not one day would pass that a pony or griffin or minotaur wouldn’t see one of these boxes running along these cables and stopping at intersections. Others would park into an elevator and find itself brought to the lower or higher levels.

Due to the incessant usage of steam technology and gears, thick blankets of vapor could flood the whole island at times, owing to the malfunction of ventilators. The middle and high levels were lined with normal inhabitants, stores visited by many an eager customer attracted by the contents through the window and even the name of the store being illuminated by bright colorful lights. Several customized parts of the gray cement ground were carved open and filled with soil to accommodate grass, bushes, flowers, and even trees. All of these stood on supported platforms held aloft by outstretched, metal pillars coming from the lower level of a building, or tall, thick pillars coming from the true ground floor of this island.

Where farmers, the rich folk, and politicians remained on the highest levels; and the average pony lived in the middle area; the less fortunate lived at the lowest levels, far from the light of the sun, the comfort of clean streets, and the vanity of a good life. The lowest levels were turned into slums, at best, and were always filled with a copper-colored smog. This is where all unicorns were. It was a horrible place. Surprisingly, it was where the most police forces were employed, but also where they were the most corrupt.

The streets were often filled with junk that the cleaners would never take. Many a building was in a poor state, and most technicians would never go to this part due to the ‘dangers’ it held. Several buildings had been shut down or closed off due to structural integrity concerns, but they would never be fixed. Those that lived down here weren’t important enough and were hidden from the world. Mostly, it was where the hardest jobs were. These jobs were associated mostly to chain building of parts for the higher levels’ complex assembly lines, but the lowest levels had their own assembly lines, and woe be he who even stops for just a second of rest. Unfortunately, not everyone could get a job, so many a unicorn had to resort to some...unfortunate workarounds.

Due to its position near the base of the island, many gears jutted outside the walls, pillars, and even floors, and no preventative methods were employed to keep a pony from...falling in. No one dared to touch them, though, as the policing minotaurs and rarer earth ponies would viciously beat down on anypony crazy enough to to even look at them.

A white furred unicorn stretched as he slipped down his stairs towards the door leading out of his small apartment. The brown spot over his eye and splotched over his form gave perhaps a reason for the name that was called when he opened the door. "Hey, Milk Spot. You're running late?"

Milk nodded quickly, his brown mane bobbing about. "No time to talk, gotta run!" And off he went, galloping towards his duty with an expression of mild terror that increased with every tick of the gears he could hear grinding beneath his hooves.

As the pony hurried along, he narrowly avoid a very large unicorn walking his way with several pals. The large unicorn turned around to look at him with an intimidating glare. The whole gang there were covered in tattoos and seemed rather angry about everything.

Milk ducked down and around, trying to skirt the angry group of malcontents. "No time, no time!" he said to himself as he pounded the pavement with his hooves. Just up ahead, work loomed, a place of toil, and also salvation. He just had to get inside the building before… A soft bell began to rang and Milk dived, sliding across the threshold of the building just as a barred gate came down behind him. "Yes!"

Despite his near brush with certain pain and possible death, he had made it, and all was right with the world again. He whistled softly as he ambled inside, looking for where he'd begin the day.

Unfortunately, he’s joyful mood was interrupted by him smacking himself into a tall minotaur who was holding a golden pocket watch attached to his jacket’s pocket by a chain of white gold. The minotaur’s fur was green, and his eyes were copper colored, so it was nothing unusual. It was just his inquisitive gaze when he looked at his stop watch, every tick stressing out Milk Patch every time that sound resonated in his ears.

“You were nearly late by one minute, copperling,” the minotaur said as he folded his watch and placed it back into his pocket. He adjusted his glasses to have a better look at the pony in front of him.

Milk shuffled a little in place, his eyes going towards the ground. "Sorry, sir. It won't happen again, sir. I'll work twice as hard…" His form quivered in abject horror at the thought of what the minotaur could do, tail limp between his legs and ears fallen.

The minotaur hummed a bit and looked around to see the giant machines ready to start their shift and the other workers already prepared to start the day. “Mhmm. Well, ‘twice as hard’ is the ‘norm’ around here for your kind. What are you truly going to give me into return for your tardiness? After all, an hour early is an hour later around here,” the minotaur grinned at his bad joke. Was it a joke? Who knew?

Milk glanced left and right. "Uh…Whatever you want, sir?" A safe answer, perhaps. "Ready to get to work, sir. I've…uh…wasted enough of your precious time, sir."

The minotaur nodded and walked away, but several other minotaurs in a less casual outfit walked down from the stairs built into the walls, whips in their hands. One of them shout:

“Alright, you lot. Yer gonna stairt yer shift roight now, ‘n no pauses ‘ntil it be high noon.”

The ponies looked at him with confusion.

The minotaur simply chuckled at their confused expressions. “Means tree ‘o clock, it do. Now get to work!”

With that shout, the machines all started blaring their gears and moving their pistons. Bits of metal come from a forging pit started to roll along the conveyor belts, allowing the copperlings to work their lack of magic and control the machinery.

“Almost late, huh?” spoke a stallion next to Milk.

Milk settled into his post and let his magic get to work in the way the restraining device allowed it to, making the machine in front of him move along its singular path. Up, down, up, down. This was his life. "Yeah… I got up late. I stayed up at a birthday party. It was… fun, but I don't think it's worth all this for them." Not that there was a lot of time otherwise to get to social functions. "You?"

“Nearly ended up late like you. I think boss minotaur likes you. He had me whipped twice. Not much to do when you aren’t allowed much of your own life here. It’s…” the stallion sighed. “Yeah. Hey, have you heard about the legends?” The stallion sprung up energetically, brightening his features.

His coat was a bright shade of green with several streaks of cobalt that looked like they were carved into his fur. His mane and tail were a faded hue of orange and had not been tended to for quite some time, and his eyes were the same color as his mane.

Milk tilted his head. "I'm not sure I'm comfortable with that… I've heard what the minotaurs do with the ones they 'like'." He shivered softly, tail lowering again. "Uh, which one? I've heard a lot of stories." His eyes stayed rooted on his machine. Up, down, up, down.

The stallion chuckled. “It’s the one about this supposed ‘Equestria’. Apparently, it’s a place where copperlings live normal lives. Can you believe it?” he whispered.

Milk swayed a little left and right to the tune of the motions of his machine. "Sounds like wishful thinking. What would you even do…I mean…" He glanced towards the closest minotaur. "It sounds too good to be much more than a foal's tale."

The green stallion scratched the back of his head and waited for the watching minotaur to pass through the various lines. “Do you really think that this is all there is in life? To be slaves to these bastards?” He hissed and quietly kicked the conveyor belt with a forehoof. “I’m tired of this. We’re on an island. There has to be something else!”

"Verdure… You're rambling again. I mean, sure, those boats go somewhere, right?" He squinted at his machine, making it go up, down, up…He reached forward and knocked a bad part out of the way. Down. "But how are we ever going to find out more than that?"

Verdure’s eyes widened and he mentally strangled himself. “I don’t know. I...Maybe if we went to the forbidden zone below the habitations here and try to talk with one of the engineers? They must know? And it’s not like they’re having a better life than us.”

“Oy! What ‘tchu yammerin’ about?”

It was the minotaur from earlier, and he looked really angry...or constipated. The latter made Verdure chuckle a little.

Milk pointed at his machine. "Just some metal getting in the wrong parts, sir. All cleared up, sir." He gave a sharp salute and minded his machine. Up, down, up, down. He wasn't even entirely sure what his machine did, just that it had to keep going up and down in the right way, or he'd be sore for days at best.

Verdure just glared at the minotaur with narrowed eyes and a tightened mouth. “I really hate these ponies. What’s the most exciting thing we can do today? Get whipped more? Heheh.”

Milk gave a nervous laugh. "Yeah, get whipped more, for sure." Little suck up.

Author's Notes:

What will happen next? Will the two stallions ever be freed from this torment? Will the minotaurs cease their violence? Will David ever discover the lit firecracker I hid in his trousers? Find out next time!