Login

The Mare from the Moon

by Evilhumour

Chapter 24: Chapter Twenty Three

Previous Chapter Next Chapter

Although most wouldn’t know it was Celestia that rose the sun this morning, there were a few that could tell a difference. There were those attuned to the morning and how she crafted it, and deeply appreciated the love and care she had put into it.

Spliced Genome was not one of those ponies. In all of her long life, she had not liked waking up early nor did she like the sun greeting her when she was in her bed. As she made her way to the kitchen for her morning coffee, she was intercepted by the other young alicorn in the castle.

“Go’morning,” Twilight mumbled at her, her eyelids heavy with post sleep, moved directly to the steaming coffee, poured herself a cup, drank it and made herself another one and repeated the action twice more.

Spliced raised an eyebrow at this before darting in to take her own cup, unafraid for her own safety as there was nothing that Twilight could to do to her that she literally could not walk off. So ignoring the low growling coming from the purple pony, Spliced poured herself some much needed caffeine to wake herself properly in a way that did not involve snapping her neck.

Once she was properly alert, she turned to face Twilight who was starting to be more aware of her surroundings beyond the ability to sniff for coffee with the mare now pilling food onto a plate in her raspberry thaumatics before she moved to the table with the notes Spliced gave her last night.

“So Twilight,” Spliced said as she made her own plate before she sat across from the other mare. “Do you think you could produce the materials to make it?”

Twilight, taking a drink from her cup, nodded her head. “This doesseem very advanced but I also recognize some formulas very similar to this… I could ask Celestia if she could help me contac-”

She was cut off as there was a knock on the door and a head poked into the room. “Excuse me, your highnesses,” Spliced flinched at that, “But I have a letter for Princess Twilight.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow at this but as soon as she saw that the letter had a gear as its wax seal, her entire demeanor shifted. “Thank you,” she told the pony, taking the letter into her thaumatics and broke the seal only for no letter to fall out. Both of them frowned before Twilight flicked out the envelope and Spliced caught a line of text on the side facing Twilight. Twilight quickly read the letter, her mouthing mirroring the words before she folded the letter up. “Well that was convenient.”

“Oh?” Spliced asked as she took a bite of her bagel.
Twilight nodded. “It’s related to some of the things I found out the other day; and Gear Shaft, who sent me this letter, will have the materials we’ll need for this array.” She looked at Spliced. “I need to take care of this in person, Spliced.”

“You’re not leaving again, are you Twilight?” Spike asked as he entered the room with the rest of Twilight’s friends.

“No, not this time; we’re heading to Manehattan to meet with a miss Gear Shaft, Spike,” Twilight said as everypony joined her at the table and made their plates.

“We, darling?” Rarity asked, raising an eyebrow at this.

“Yes; I am going to need Spike’s help with organizing all the materials I am going to need to acquire for Spliced’s thaumatic blanketing array as well as Spliced to make sure everything is correct. If the rest of you want to come…”

“I could visit my shop there,” Rarity said. “It would be lovely to see Coco again…”

“I’m going to stay here for Scoots,” Rainbow said as she took a messy bite of her food.

“Ah need to head back to mah farm,” Applejack said while she buttered her bread.

“And I need to go make sure that the animals are okay,” Fluttershy said while she had some of her own breakfast.

“Well I need to prepare two parties; one for Splicey and one for Sna- Saflag-Snflag-Snowflake,” Pinkie spat out the name. “Sorry, that one’s hard to pronounce.”

“It’s Snow-flin-ga,” Spike said as he munched on his own food.

“Thanks Spike,” Pinkie said as she pulled him into a strong hug before letting go before turning to face Spliced. “Don’t worry, I have everything planned for your party, Splicey.”

“I’m sure you are,” Spliced said carefully, making sure her words didn’t upset Pinkie Pie. “Thank you.” Those words seemed to have slipped out of her mouth out before she was even aware of the fact.

“It’s no problem, silly; throwing parties is my special talent, after all,” Pinkie Pie said with real warmth in her voice that caused Spliced to smile. “But I’m going to focus on… Snöflinga,” she paused to look at Spike for confirmation before she looked back at Spliced. “Because he seems a bit sad right now and a party is a great way to make a pony happy.”

“How can you tell Pinks; he seems like a jerk to me,” Rainbow Dash grumbled.

“That’s because ya picked a fight with him,” Applejack interjected with the pegasus snorting but in a way that she admitted she was at fault.

“The kid is still annoying,” Rainbow Dash said as she flew over for more breakfast.

“Actually, I’ve thought on the matter and I believe that due to the shift in how a culture would view what a kid is and what an adult is can change over time, he might have been considered an adult back then,” Spliced said.

“She is right,” Starlight added, looking thoughtful as she tapped her fork against her plate. “I believe that the term teenager is a recent creation, maybe a hundred years?” She looked at Twilight for confirmation who shrugged her shoulders.

“I don’t know and windigo culture might be vastly different from our own as well,” Twilight said. “I know that in some places in Equestria, as soon as one gets their cutie mark, they’re considered an adult and are expected to act like one in all aspects as in getting a job and providing for themselves.”

Spliced wrinkled her nose at this but before she could comment on it Applejack spoke up. “For real Twilight?” the farmer asked with disbelief. “That’s the most ridiculous thing Ah’ve done heard.”

“Thankfully, it’s very remote and Celestia is working on laws that really crack down on it,” Twilight said. “You know how she is about protecting children. In fact, I think one of the proposals involved would make that sort of thing legally qualify as child abuse if the pony getting their mark is under eighteen.” She glanced around. “Of course, if they want to get some part-time work, there’s nothing keeping them from doing so. But it has to be their choice, not something they’re forced to do. According to the records I was going through a while back, one of my old classmates at Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns found part-time work at a used bookstore as soon as he got his mark, and it was his idea to look for work in the first place.” She smiled. “He owns the place now, actually, since the original owner retired a year or so ago, and he’s very happy there.”

“That’s quite an accomplishment,” Rarity said. “I should know; it took me quite a bit of effort to set up my own boutique when I was first starting out.”

“Well, personally, I don’t see that much wrong with it,” Rainbow Dash said. “I’ve been on my own since I was around Snöflinga’s age and I’ve done fine. I’ve managed to hold down a job, maintain my home and all the junk that comes with it, and have enough time training to join the Wonderbolts, which I succeeded in doing. And I’m the one who left Flight School early.”

“And that’s what a lot of the opposition will say; that they did this themselves and they turned out fine,” Twilight said. “But not everypony is good at that sort of thing. You work better from experience, I did better from books and studying.” She blushed. “Um… even if I was more than a little obsessive about it. But forcing somepony who’s completely unprepared into a life like that just isn’t right. A lot of us needed the time to just be kids.” She gave Fluttershy a look. “Although I will admit that certain ponies need more encouragement to focus and improve themselves…”

Fluttershy nodded. “I know, I know…” She gave a wry look. “Like my brother.”

“Exactly,” Twilight told her. “He is doing a lot better now, isn’t he?”

“Well, he doesn’t quite have a place of his own yet, but he’s working steadily and saving towards it,” Fluttershy told her. “And he is getting good reviews from his boss.”

“That’s good.” Twilight turned back to Rainbow Dash. “Still, you were a teenager when you left school and started working. We’re talking about ponies who want foals the same age as or younger than Scootaloo to go out and support themselves.”

Rainbow Dash cringed. “Okay, I see your point, and eesh - I’d never send a kid the squirt’s age out on their own like that. But if the kid is able to work, like I was, they shouldn’t be forced to wait until they’re eighteen if they want to; I mean, AJ, you were taking charge of your farm when you were around ten or something; can you imagine waiting until you were eighteen before you could do anything serious?”

“And they wouldn’t be,” Twilight reassured her. “Like I said the proposed laws would only keep them from being forced to go early; if they choose to go out and find work of their own free will, they still can, but there will still be restrictions to protect them from being overworked by ponies who might try to exploit them.”

“And Ah may have done a lot of the work back then, but that was just chores to me,” Applejack reminded Rainbow Dash. “Granny still ran the actual business end of things, an’ Mac handles most of that now.”

“Right.” Rainbow Dash looked around. “I get your point.”

Starlight shook her head. “Back when I was running my village, I… er, may have had a lot of flaws in my system, but at least that was never one of them. Say what you will about how badly I messed up, but I encouraged the kids to be kids and not be in a hurry to grow up.” She looked down. “Of course, that was partly because I saw a friend get his mark and it got him sent away to another school, and I kind of went… crazy from it...”

Twilight reached over and gave her a reassuring pat. “But you’ve more than made up for that now,” she said gently. “So, are you going to stay here with Sunburst and Flurry Heart, or are you going to come with us?”

“I’d love to come,” Starlight said. “It would be nice to see the big city; well at least one of them. For some reason I’ve never quite made it to that particular one.”

Spliced tilted her head. “I suppose you’ve been to Canterlot, being the capital; what other ones are there?”

“Well, there’s Manehatten, where some of us are going,” Twilight said. “We’ve got the pegasus cities of Cloudsdale and Las Pegasus, and of course there’s Fillydelphia, Baltimare, Applewood, Vanhoover, Whinnyapolis… and that’s just some of them.” She smiled. “Equestria’s mostly wide-open spaces, but there are some areas where things have gotten really built up. Even then though, they take care to keep from completely covering the natural parts.”

“Sounds… nice if anything,” Spliced said. “I had view of my home planet back in my moon prison through a glass ceiling and while I was watching it pass, it was a bit of a pleasure to see the greenery opposed to the bulkiness of the massive cities all over the planet.” She sighed. “And when I looked up and saw how green this world was the first time… well, that was proof positive that I was somewhere else.” Then her face soured. “Of course, I would have been happier had my suit not started to fail right that moment, but it was a wonderful view while I had it.”

“Darling, that sounds… awful,” Rarity said.

Spliced gave her a pained smile. “Different dimension, different ways of life… I’m just glad your Princess Luna found me and brought me down here when she did or I’d be stuck up there, dying over and over again while I dragged myself back through the portal.” She sighed. “And even without that fate, and some of the technological limitations I’ve run across, this Equestria has proven to be a much more pleasant place than the world I came from.”

“We do our best; Celestia has spent years trying to make sure of that,” Twilight said.

“She has definitely succeeded, in my opinion,” Spliced said as Cadance, Shining, Flurry Heart, Snöflinga with Sunburst walking beside the windigo, Scootaloo and her aunts entered the room. “Hello everypony.”

“Good morning,” Cadance said as she found a seat while she used her thuamatics to make her and her daughter’s plate. “How is everypony tonight? I hope that everypony slept well,” she asked as Sunburst got into a quick argument with Snöflinga as the windigo was sniffing the coffee curiously.

“Somewhat,” Spliced said honestly. “It’s related to my condition, I’d get into more details but…” She trailed off as she looked at Flurry Heart who had Shining feeding her and Scootaloo who was moving her seat closer to Rainbow Dash.

Cadance nodded in understanding. “And everypony else?”

There was a quick round of “Yes”es, Spike translating for Snöflinga who merely grumbled as he drank his cup of coffee from a straw as his hoof was clearly not strong enough to hold stuff on its own, and then Twilight cleared her throat. “Actually, most of us have to get ready to leave today,” she said. “I got a letter this morning asking me to come to Manehatten for a meeting, and I need Spike and Spliced with me. Rarity and Starlight have also said they’re coming along, and Fluttershy and Applejack need to go back to Ponyville - Pinkie, are you doing your preparations here or there?” she asked.

“Here Twilight,” Pinkie Pie said as she pulled Snöflinga into a hug, causing the windigo to jolt in surprise. “He has more missed parties to make up for than Splicey does!”

“Right,” Twilight said as Snöflinga broke out of the hug with a huff. “Anyway, Rainbow Dash has said she’s staying here too.”

Scootaloo looked up at her surrogate big sister, and Rainbow Dash reached down and ruffled her mane. “Unless it’s an emergency, I ain’t leavin’ until you’re all good,” she said. “This is the off season for the team, so I don’t have any performances to get ready for right now, and I got Cloud Kicker to handle running the Ponyville weather bureau while I was away, since she is qualified.”

Cadance gave the pair a knowing smile, then turned back to Twilight. “What kind of meeting?” she asked.

“It’s related to making the array that we’ll be using to find Chrysalis,” Twilight said, and Cadance drew in a sharp breath before she nodded.

“Good,” Pharynx grunted from behind her, and Twilight almost jumped out of her seat, not having seen him come in. “And I’m staying here. Someling’s got to keep an eye on this guy.” He gestured towards Snöflinga, who gave him something of a dirty look and said something that made Spike shake his head before speaking to him.

“Right.” Twilight took a deep breath as she tried to calm her racing heart. “I’m not sure how long we’ll be gone though, hopefully not more than a day or two.”

“Just let us know when you’re on your way back here,” Cadance told her.

“I will,” Twilight promised.


About an hour later, four mares and a young dragon were on the train to Manehatten, with Fluttershy and Applejack having stayed behind to take a different one back to Ponyville. Twilight was watching how Spliced and Starlight were interacting and was grateful that they were not fighting this time, instead they were discussing how to properly attune the array. Rarity, on the other hoof, was talking to Spike about Snöflinga and possible outfits she could make for him.

Twilight was patiently taking notes when the train finally pulled up to the city with everypony moving off the train with the five of them staying behind before Rarity turned to face Twilight.

“So Darlings, where are you going to meet with Shaft?” she asked. “I’m sure that she would have some fancy office in the middle of the city with the fanciest of buildings if she knows Celestia.”

“Actually, according to her letter, she is located closer to the waterfront, Rarity,” Twilight said causing the unicorn to blink in surprise.

“Well darling,” she spoke slower, clearly off guard and doing her best to recover. “It takes all sorts to make Equestria what it is, after all.”

After that, they parted ways with Rarity heading for her shop on Saddle Row, while the four of them walked towards the less polished part of the town, keeping eyes out as things became more and more suspect and the people around them more shady looking.

They finally stopped in front of a large factory building with smoke billowing out that had the pegasi attending to it wearing coverings over their mouths as they broke apart the clouds and earmuffs to deal with the loud sound emitting from inside of the building itself.

Sharing the concerned looks between Starlight and Spike - Spliced look very interested at the moment - Twilight made her way forwards and knocked on the door before pushing it open and stepping into a much quieter but sparse reception office.

“Hello there, Gear’s Industry, how may I serv… oh hello your highness, “ a unicorn mare behind a desk said, smiling warmly at them “Miss Shaft is waiting for you, Princess Twilight; your friends….” She drifted off, looking unsure how to deal with the three of them.

“We were hoping to purchase some material for a special project,” Twilight said and directed Spliced to step forwards as she lay out her plans for her thaumatic blanketing array on the desk.

“Well, I don’t know…” the mare began before another voice over spoke her.

“It seems feasible to me, Note Taker,” a refined voice suddenly said, and all attention turned to the new mare in the room. She was a dusty blue unicorn with an equally dusty yellow mane, faded and fresh oil covering her forehooves and a gear and wrench cutie mark on her flanks. “We definitely have the materials to get this working,” she turned her head towards the what had to be the main factory room and then shouted in a very thick Manehatten accent, “‘ey Lughead, Ies wants ya to listens to des mares, ya got it?”

There was a shout from this Lughead making it clear that he did understand, and Starlight, Spliced and Spike all walked into the workshop area of the factory, leaving Gear Shaft facing Twilight. “If you will follow me, your highness, we have much to talk about,” she said in her refined voice once more, going up the spiral staircase. “About our Duties as the Lady of Magic and Lady of Technology and how we are going to proceed in regards to development of our world.”

Next Chapter: Chapter Twenty Four Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 50 Minutes
Return to Story Description

Login

Facebook
Login with
Facebook:
FiMFetch