The Brass Conspiracy

by MadHighlander

The Celestians

Baltimare
Present day

Nopony spoke or moved. It didn’t take much to guess that the office’s occupants had recognized Poison, and the question at hand was more what they were going to do, and if Twilight and Poison should leave before they got the chance to do that.

Poison apparently reached that conclusion at the same time as Twilight, saying, “Sorry, wrong room,” and turning around, gesturing to Twilight to go back downstairs.

Before they had gone two feet, a pair of loud noises like a camera flashbulb emanated from the room behind, and the two unicorn twins appeared in front of them.

“Hey!” shouted one of them.

“What are you doing here?” asked the other. Closer up, Twilight could tell that their spiked manes seemed slightly singed, as did the identical welding goggles that hung around their necks. The only difference between the two stallions was their cutie mark – some sort of tool for the left one, and a toothed wheel and axle for the right.

“We were just looking for the foreman’s office. I can see we have the wrong room, so if you’ll just-” Poison said quickly. She tried to push past the twins, but they pushed her back telekinetically.

Midway through her utterance, a loud creak and a series of thuds emanated from the room behind. There was only one thing Twilight had seen in the room that could make a noise like that, and sure enough when she looked back the minotaur had stood up and was making his way in their direction. The bat-pony had also vacated the table and was following the minotaur. Spitfire, Soarin’, and Fleetfoot moved aside to make way for them.

The minotaur grabbed Twilight and Poison by their tails and pulled them back into the room, while the bat-pony alighted on the ground in front of the doorway. “No, you have the right room,” he said. “The question is, why were you looking for it?”

“Have you come on behalf of Cogspin?” asked Spitfire.

“And who’s that with the cloak?” asked Fleetfoot.

Poison raised a hoof. “No, it’s nothing like that. We thought this room would be abandoned-”

“A likely story,” interrupted the bat-pony. “The only reason you’d have to come to an empty room is to look for somepony who doesn’t want to be found.”

“Have you come to ‘arrest’ us, then?” asked the minotaur sarcastically, having released their tails and crossed his arms in front of his chest.

“Fat chance.” The bat-pony grinned. “They try anything like that-”

“Hey, now! Let’s keep this somewhat civil,” interrupted Spitfire loudly. “There’s no need-”

“They made the first move long ago, I say-” The bat-pony turned to her, interrupting her in turn, only to be interrupted by Poison.

“I told you, we mean you no harm!”

After that, several ponies tried to talk at once, to the effect that only snippets of the argument – despite its steadily increasing volume – could be heard at all.

“-Bull-“

“-Not barbarians-“

“-Can’t just send-“

“-Like you’ve ever-“

When the volume became loud enough that Twilight’s ears actually started to ache – not to mention the fact that the minotaur had made a fist – she decided it might be time to intervene.

“EVERYPONY CALM DOWN!” she shouted at the top of her lungs, simultaneously casting a spell that immobilised everypony in the room. Silence fell, partially due to the surprise and partially due to the fact that the spell had slammed everypony’s jaws shut and held them that way. Twilight noted with mild surprise that the earth pony on the couch had not reacted at all to any of the proceedings, still reclining with his shabby hat over his muzzle.

Lowering her hood and facehoofing, she said in a matter of fact tone, “First of all, if you continue like this a guard patrol may very well hear it from outside and show up to investigate, in which case the argument becomes a moot point and we all get arrested. Secondly, as a bearer of an Element of Harmony I can give you my word that Poison had no idea you were here, is not looking for you and means you no harm. Third, I’m sure we can in fact debate this like calm, civilised beings. I’m going to let you all go now with the understanding that we’re going to discuss this calmly.” With that, she released the spell, and the bat-pony – who had been in the air at the time the spell was cast – dropped to the floor with a loud thud.

He was up again in an instant and prodded Twilight with his hoof. “How can we be sure you’re an Element bearer? None have been seen in Equestria since this whole thing started, and I wouldn’t put it past one of Cogspin’s ponies to pretend to be one just to gain our trust.”

Spitfire trotted up and pushed the bat-pony away. “Do you really want to start this again, Ross? Especially with a pony who just proved she can hold all of us in place with a flick of her horn? Besides, we’ve met before, if briefly. I can vouch for her. The real question, Twilight, is it?” Twilight nodded. “The real question is, why are you travelling with Poison Point?”

“She saved my life. She’s seen the error of her ways, clichéd as that may sound, and is willing to help us take down Cogspin.”

Spitfire considered them. “All right, good enough for me. For now, anyway. Let me introduce you to the Baltimare branch of the Celestians.”

“Celestians?” asked Twilight.

It was the minotaur who answered. “We’re a group who refuse to believe Celestia would voluntarily abdicate the throne to somepony like Cogspin. We’ve been campaigning to get him to show proof or reveal the truth.”

“Yes, and this is most of us in Baltimare,” said Spitfire. “Soarin’, Fleetfoot, and myself are here from Cloudsdale, and we’re waiting on some information from Fancy Pants, who’s usually in Canterlot. This is Iron Will,” she gestured to the minotaur, “Chiaroscuro – but we call him Ross,” the bat-pony, “Ratchet and Gearbox Sparks,” the unicorn twins, “and this lazy old fellow is Box Car. He’s a leader of sorts around here.” The shabby earth pony hadn’t stirred an inch. “He could also sleep through Discord’s return.”

She prodded him with a hoof. “Hey, Box. We’ve got visitors.” He snorted and pushed his hat up, sitting up on his haunches.

“Well, you didn’t have to wake me. I would have found out eventually.” He pushed himself off the couch. “So just who do we have…” he trailed off and his eyes widened slightly when he noticed Poison.

She waved at him. “Hey, Box.”

He broke out into a grin. “Quill!” he shouted. “It’s been what, sixteen years? You were no more than about yea high last I saw you.” He held a hoof up just below his shoulder.

Most of the others were looking back and forth between them in surprise. Twilight, although she hadn’t connected the dots at first, remembered Poison having mentioned Box on the train, and so wasn’t quite as surprised as the others.

The bat-pony, Chiaroscuro, stepped forward. “You know Poison Point?” he asked, somewhat accusingly.

Box, evidently somewhat slow on the uptake, responded, “Ross, you know I don’t read the papers. I wouldn’t recognise Poison Point if I was looking right at her.” Ironically, at that very moment he turned back to Poison and smiled. Iron Will couldn’t resist a facepalm.

One of the unicorn twins (Ratchet, perhaps? Even with Twilight’s memory it would take a while to tell them apart) piped up at that moment, with bluntness that Twilight would have associated more with Ross or Iron. “You are.”

Box’s grin started to slide slowly away. He chuckled. “Nice one, Gearbox. You almost had me for a second there.”

“It’s true,” added the second twin (apparently this was Ratchet). “Not only does she look exactly like the news photos…” He cocked his head slightly. “Although admittedly a little less gaudy, she’s already admitted it to us.”

Box’s smile had deepened into a frown. “If that were true, Ross would have tried to throw her out of the window by now.”

“Twilight Sparkle vouched for her, and Spitfire confirmed that it was actually Twilight Sparkle, so that’s good enough for me. At least, for now,” stated Ross flatly.

Box seemed to notice Twilight for the first time. There was a momentary pause. “This is a lot of information at one time. Quill, or poison or whatever name you’re using, you need to tell me exactly what’s been happening.”

Quill nodded, and the two retreated to a corner of the room, where they began to speak quietly.

“So, Twilight,” said Spitfire. “We’ve got plenty of time now. Why exactly are you so certain that Poison Point of all ponies can be trusted?” The three Wonderbolts sat down with Twilight, while Iron, Ross, Ratchet and Gearbox went back to their card game.

“Cogspin had me trapped in time. Poison helped me escape from Canterlot. She claims she knows how to defeat him.”

“Defeat him?” asked Soarin. “So he is rotten, then?”

“As far as I can gather, Celestia did sign the throne over to him willingly, but he tricked her into doing it.” Twilight explained what Poison had told her in the Archives and on the train.

“Wow,” said Fleetfoot. “That’s quite the thing.”

“Did Poison explain her plan to you?” asked Spitfire.

“Not completely. She mentioned on our way to the train that since she wrote out the contract that keeps Cogspin from being harmed, she can void it, but she needs Celestia and Cogspin in the same room. That’s why we need to find her. But I don’t know how it all works.”

“So if we can find Celestia, then we can get rid of Cogspin?” asked Fleetfoot.

“Somehow, I doubt it’ll be that easy,” commented Gearbox, looking across from his poker game. “Even if you can manage to find her, which I somehow think will be impossible unless she wants to be found, you still have to get her into the palace past all of Cogspin’s guards and keep her safe for however long it takes Poison to do whatever it is she’s going to do.”

“And that’s if she even still exists to be found,” added Ross. “Poison might or might not have told you this, but about a month after Cogspin came to power, we missed a night.”

“What do you mean ‘missed’ a night?” asked Twilight.

“Exactly what I said. The sun stopped moving, it was high noon for twenty-four hours straight. So far as I know, Celestia has been in control of the sun for three millennia, and in all that time the only time the schedule was interrupted was during both Nightmare Moon crises and the second coming of Discord.”

“But the sun’s moving now,” pointed out Ratchet, “so whatever happened must not have been permanent.”

Soarin’ sighed. “I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but Ross might have a point. We were at the Crystal Empire for a show last month. If you ever make it out there, look at the palace every day at dusk and dawn. It’s Princess Cadenza moving the spheres, you can see the spell from anywhere in the empire.”

“But what could stop Celestia from moving the sun?” asked Twilight.

“We have to hope it’s nothing major, and that she can recover from it,” said Gearbox. “Until we find her, hope is the best thing we have.”

At that moment, Box and Poison stood up and trotted toward the door. Box gestured in Twilight’s direction. “Twilight, come with us. There’s something I think you should see.”

Twilight got up and followed Box and Poison into the stairwell and down a floor, at which point they entered a small room that looked as if it had once been used for storage purposes, but now contained nothing but a dresser and mirror.

“So what is it you wanted to show us, Box?” asked Poison.

“Patience. Do you know who Cogspin was, before he became,” Box gestured outside, “that?”

“Yes. He was the next in line to become king of Equestria when Discord took over. After Discord’s defeat, he tried to claim the throne, and fled when the populace chose Celestia instead, never to be seen again until now. What does this have to do with what you want to show us?”

“I’m getting to that,” said Box. “What’s not included in most history books is the fact that Cogspin was a personal guest of Celestia for fifteen or so years while he stayed in Old Canterlot. The two were very close. Some have said that he was Celestia’s best friend, second only to Luna. The princesses trusted him more than any other. Last year, he took advantage of that trust to betray Celestia and Luna.”

“We know all of this, Box. What’s your point?”

“Cogspin betrayed his best friend’s trust. And as I’m sure you know…” Box cleared his throat and looked up toward the ceiling. “Betraying a friend’s trust is the fastest way to lose a friend…”

‘No way…,” thought Twilight incredulously.

Sure enough, the dresser’s middle drawer popped open, releasing a puff of bright magenta mane over a similarly pink head, which proceeded to shout, “FOOOREEEEVEEER hey, Twilight!”

“Pinkie Pie?” asked Twilight.

“The one and only! Hey, Poison! Hey, Box!” Pinkie waved to them before hopping out of the drawer.

“Pinkie pie,” said Poison, “This raises a lot of questions, but first and foremost is, why are you not surprised to see us?”

“Tickly nose, itchy tooth, put a horseshoe on backwards.”

“What?” asked Box and Poison simultaneously.

Twilight, on the other hand, nodded in understanding. “Those are Pinkie Sense signals, right? What do they mean?”

“That I’m about to go on an epic adventure to save the world with a friend I haven’t seen in forever and a pony who used to hate me but doesn’t anymore.” Pinkie Pie said this as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “The question I should be asking is where were you, Twilight? We were super-worried.”

“I was frozen in time in the Canterlot Archives. Where have you been?”

“Everywhere. I stayed in Equestria because I wanted to ask Mac why she’s been such a meany-pants lately, but she’s been avoiding me.”

Twilight – knowing Pinkie like she did – found this the most surprising thing that had happened that day. “Avoiding you?”

Pinkie nodded. “She seems to know where I am ahead of time and makes herself not there.”

Twilight contemplated that for a moment, then pushed it aside. “All things considered, it’s great to see you, Pinkie.”

“You too, Twilight.” They embraced for a moment.

“There’ll be time for catching up later,” interjected Box. “I think Pinkie might be able to help with Quill’s plan.”

“You know where the Princesses are?” asked Poison.

Pinkie shrugged. “Not for sure, but I do know where they went.” To Twilight, she added, “They took Rarity, Dashie, Fluttershy, and Applejack with them. Spike, too. They’re all safe.”

“That’s good news!” Twilight smiled.

“Where-” began Poison, only to be cut off by Ross throwing the door open and barging in.

“Fancy Pants just arrived. Spitfire sent me to fetch you.” He threw an odd look in Pinkie’s direction, but didn’t comment.

After sharing a glance, the four ponies followed Ross back upstairs to the office, where, sure enough, they found Fancy Pants waiting for them. Fancy Pants, like Spitfire, was a pony that Twilight had met before, but only briefly.

He was already talking to Spitfire when they entered. “The news from Canterlot isn’t so good, I’m afraid. Shimmerthread told me that Poison Point would send us the relevant documents as soon as she returns, but I just so happened to be near the throne room while she was talking to Cogspin.”

“And?” asked Spitfire.

“He thinks we’re a threat to him. He’s sent Macaroon to find out who’s leading the Celestians and assassinate them. If the rumors are true, and Macaroon has the same abilities as Miss Pie, then we must do something, and soon. Going to ground would buy us a few days at best.”

“What exactly can we do?” Poison approached the newcomer.

“Ah, Poison Point. Spitfire informed me of your change of heart. In answer to your question, I’m not sure there’s anything we can do, depending on how quickly you can enact your plan.”

“That in itself depends where Celestia went six months ago, and if she’s still there.”

“You should stay here for a few hours at least,” suggested Ratchet.

“Until sundown, perhaps,” added Gearbox. “You shouldn’t take the train anymore – it’s too well regulated by the guard. I know a stallion who can get us a map of all the less-travelled hoof routes. They may be slower, but at least you’ll get to wherever it is you end up going.”

“You should get that map,” said Twilight. “We can plan our route better with it.”

Ross gestured toward the window. “I should go warn everypony else about Macaroon.”

“That’s a good idea.” Spitfire nodded approvingly. “Soarin’, Fleetfoot, and I will go around and spread the word outside Baltimare. You three,” she gestured to Twilight, Pinkie, and Poison, “should go as soon as it’s safe.”

---

Streets of Baltimare

Chiaroscuro flitted down out of the sky, his hooves coming to rest on the sidewalk. Looking around nervously, he approached a billboard hung on the wall of a nearby building. He reached up to the cluttered mass of papers, searching desperately for one specific group. He pulled down a tattered notice for ‘lyre lessons’ and discarded a month-old bake sale ad before he finally found what he was looking for: a row of six faded photographs, in two rows of three, with the caption:

BY ORDER OF THE KING
A reward for the capture of the so-named ‘Element Bearers’
or information leading to such, to the sum of one million bits apiece
On the charge of intent to commit high treason

In the top center was a photo of Twilight Sparkle. And just below that, just as Ross had thought, was a photograph of the pink-maned mare that he had seen with her.

“I thought you looked familiar,” he said to himself. Ross pulled down the poster and examined it.

“Two million bits, you say?” he muttered idly to himself.

There was a sound like a hoofstep somewhere on the road. Looking around guiltily, he shoved the poster into his saddlebag and galloped off towards the guard barracks.

Author's Note:

After the next chapter, we'll get another time skip and thus our third and final intermission chapter. Next chapter, though, we will finally discover where exactly Celestia is, not to mention witness the reappearance of Macaroon.