Elise hesitated, as if she hadn't expected Starlight to agree to listen so quickly. She opened her mouth, paused... and said, "Well, then. The shortest way to put it is that in the Steel District, Factory Chief Mobius has had many lovers, and never taken a wife."
Another silence passed, this one to allow Maple and Starlight to think through the implications. "Wait," Maple began. "You don't mean... he's your father? That you're all children of a Sosan leader?"
"She did say half-siblings," Starlight added, nodding at Redshift. "So what's the rest of the story? You made it sound like it would be long."
"That is just how we're related," Elise said with a gentle smile. "From there, and how we got here, the story gets a lot longer..." She sighed, and looked up to the vaulted ceiling.
Maple nodded, shivering slightly. "I'm not very fond of ponies who... you know..."
Elise's eyes flicked between Maple and Starlight, watching them nestled together, and softened in understanding. "Who leave mares to raise children on their own? Neither am I, my little pony. It happens all too often, especially in times and places as desperate as these. And when deceit or coercion is involved..." Her eyes closed in a grimace. "Mobius didn't do that, at least. His reputation preceded him, and not in a bad way. He was sought after. And those were wealthier, more prosperous times, when it was easier to raise a family on one's own..."
"There's a 'but' coming, isn't there?" Maple asked, swallowing a lump in her throat.
"There is." Elise's smile returned. "The 'but' is that eventually, the foals from those hasty unions grew up... and began to ask why if their father was so important, they couldn't be too."
Maple and Starlight sat silent in rapt attention. Elise continued, "I was one of the oldest, if not the. It's difficult to tell, when so many mothers never tell their children their heritage, or don't even know for sure. But I was the first to ask. I was fourteen, and it remains one of the clearest memories of my life."
She bit back a sigh. "My mother had told me stories about my father. I bothered and pestered her to take me to Sosa, so I could meet him and ask if I could be important as well. I was eager, ambitious, and optimistic, just like all of Ironridge. Those were the days of Project Aslan, when we thought we could construct a ship that sailed both the skies and the sea and lead the world in a new technological revolution."
Maple's eyes glazed over slightly, thinking back to the museum timeline and the fiery explosion Starlight had found. Project Aslan, shuttered when the maiden voyage dramatically crashed...
"There was nothing to stop us from seeing him," Elise continued, likewise staring into space. "Ironridge wasn't worried about anything, then. The workers thought we were a curiosity, a mare and her filly wandering through construction yards and complexes of factories and docks. They were polite and helpful, and extremely surprised when I told them why we were there. I don't think the fact that Mobius had children had ever crossed their minds."
Sadly, she looked to the gray window, rainwater that missed the gutters tracing its way down in rivulets. "My mother hadn't seen him since their stand fifteen years ago. He remembered her, somehow. She remembered him, too. We stood there in his office, and they talked, and..." Her head turned down. "He didn't even acknowledge my presence at first. When I tugged on the sleeve of his suit, he flicked me away. I got louder, and the most he ever said to me was that children couldn't do anything useful for him."
A bitter sigh passed. "We left, after that. He told my mother he'd like to see her again... without me." Her face darkened, sky-blue mane shadowing her eyes. "Two days later, she went. I didn't care to find out what happened. I was too upset. I just left, and went to make my own way in the world. I..." She shivered. "I wasn't a filly any more, and had a strong horn. Times were prosperous. And I did fine. Well, even. Because I was ambitious, and told myself that if a pony selfish enough to be my father could hold that respected of a job, I had to do better."
"You ran away," Starlight interrupted. "Because the world you were in was rotten and you knew there was something better." She hung her head. "I know what that feels like."
Elise bit her lip, looking like she wanted to skip straight to a valuable life lesson. "As I said, I did well for myself," she murmured instead, continuing. "I moved to the Earth District, to Grand Acorn. My mother still lived in the Stone District, in the house where I was born. She may very well still be there. But I vowed that I would once day take Mobius' job and become a factory chief in his place, and share it with any offspring I ever had."
At that moment, Fernand pushed through the door with his head, a tray of teaware balanced on his back with outstretched wings. "Here you are, sister."
He deposited it nobly on the table, and Elise gave him a smile. "Thank you, Fernand. We're just getting to the part where you come in."
Fernand smirked good-naturedly back. "Are you, now?" He turned and nodded at Maple and Starlight. "Sometimes I think she has nothing better to do than make sure as many ponies hear her life's story as possible. Then again, there aren't many better things to do in this city. Carry on!"
"As I was saying..." Elise cleared her throat. "I set my sights on becoming a Sosan chief. Chiefs choose their own successors, so I needed Mobius to acknowledge me... and went about that by becoming a regular presence there, in the construction yards. Sosa has few mares by tradition, not rule, so nopony stopped me. I made friends with the smiths and carpenters and technicians, brought them food I prepared myself, never got in the way, talked with them for hours both to know them and learn their jobs and how everything in the factories was managed. I showed them I cared, and it worked. They grew very fond of me, without ever being told why I was there. I'm sure some remembered I was their leader's daughter from my first visit, with my mother, but they didn't care. I was just me."
She nodded at Fernand. "I became enough of a Sosan myself that when another mare showed up one day, I was just as interested as the rest of the ponies. She was a pegasus who worked as a housekeeper here in Blueleaf... and was carrying another of Mobius' foals."
"Myself," Fernand added.
"Yes, you," Elise confirmed. "She had the same idea I did, I learned, wanting some of Sosa's greatness for her unborn foal. We became good friends, even though she was half again my age or more. After that day, we decided to work together. I had the idea that if we found as many of my siblings as possible, I could ask on behalf of us all, and perhaps rally ponies beyond Sosa to our cause. It has a feel to it, does it not? Scattered siblings, all come together in search of their birthright, working as one?"
She sighed wistfully, closing her eyes. "Fernand's mother quit her job and devoted her time to searching for more possible siblings, first in Blueleaf, then moving in with me in Grand Acorn when her funds ran out. I kept going to Sosa and talking with the workers, and eventually started telling them my plans, one by one in secret. They..." She swallowed.
"They loved it. They thought it was poetic and inspirational, that I was an accidental outcast, an exiled princess back to reclaim my throne. They treated it like something from a storybook." She wiped the corner of an eye with a forehoof. "I don't think any of them wanted me to depose him then and there, of course. I wasn't even fully grown. But they supported me. They wanted to see me succeed. I was so close, and it should have been easy. But then..."
A pause. Elise regained her composure, kind and regal as ever, and continued. "That was when the crash happened. You've heard the stories about that, haven't you?" She inclined her head.
"Sort of," Maple answered, rearranging her fuzzy robe. "We read about it in the Sky District museum, but it's been a while since then and I've had more important things to remember..."
Elise didn't even hesitate. "Then you probably know the important parts. It was the biggest shock Ironridge had ever received. Chief Arad, the oldest chief and the program's biggest supporter, was killed. Mobius wasn't even there. He had left the celebrations early after the launch, before the crash occurred. Arambai, the third chief, was there and watching when it happened. I was there too. It was the first taste I had of how much weighed on the chiefs, and just what could happen if they failed."
Her horn lit with a gentle shimmer of blue, and drew a line of magic down the center of the coffee table. "Before that, Sosa had three chiefs. After, it had two. Arambai wanted to try again, and continue the program at all costs." Her aura shifted the teapot clearly to one side of the line. "Mobius wanted to close it; to keep Sosa's focus on water travel. He always had, but not as strongly, and when Arad was alive, he was overruled two to one." She shifted a large saucer to the side opposite the teapot. "But then, it was a balance of two sides... and ponies were scared."
Looming large over the table, Elise's glow brightened, and the cups began shifting themselves away from the center line, some to the side of the teapot, others to the saucer, crowding together in an effort to escape the middle. "Suddenly, I realized, there were ponies who wanted me to take over... no, to usurp Mobius then and there, in hopes that I would break the stalemate and let their side win. Just as many wanted to defend their side at all costs, and saw me as a threat. My name was the one whispered in passing, used in gossip, rallied around or against and spread underneath the city. There were ponies too who didn't care what I did so long as Mobius was gone. That he wasn't present for the crash... caused some controversy, and some even suspected him of causing it. But I was practically a filly, and I was terrified."
She swept the table's contents out of focus, one tiny plate sitting exactly on the wavering magical line, a bigger one at its side. "I sold my house in Grand Acorn. I considered going home to my mother, but didn't know if she was still there, or if she would speak to me after I ran away, or if it would be right to bring my own attention and danger onto her. Instead, I adopted a permanent disguise, learned how to defend myself in a fight, and went with Fernand's mother to the ground floor of Blueleaf, where we found a place to live. We hadn't found any more siblings or relatives in the short time we had been looking. It was just the two of us... or three."
Elise looked sadly at Fernand, horn dimming and arranging the table back to normal. "Your mother managed to get her job back. She really should have been on leave. I had enough money of my own, given in secret by supporters before I disappeared and left over from my time in Sosa, and she was far enough along to stay at home, resting. Eventually, you were born, and then she was forced to stop and live off my money. And for many months, we lived like that. I did what I could to support us. Somehow, I was never attacked and never found, even as I heard whispers of my own name everywhere I looked. Everyone said I would return one day, a destroyer to some and a savior to others. It was... hard."
Starlight's brow furrowed. "Kind of like how everyone's obsessed with how great Shinespark is, even though she never actually does anything?"
"It's interesting that you bring her up," Elise hummed, triangular hairclip glinting as her expression grew bemused. "I wonder what you'll think of what happens next..."