//------------------------------// // Chapter 25: On Her Birthday // Story: Through the Aurora // by Starscribe //------------------------------// Manehattan swallowed them like a living thing, with streets so overflowing with ponies that Theo felt instantly lost in the crowd. This was certainly a good thing—even if Sharp Edge was right about the dangers of working with Feather. In a city this big, there was no danger of being recognized and attacked once they slipped into the crowd. Of course nothing will happen to us, because she obviously wanted to be in contact. The ponies who delivered this could’ve attacked me, but all they did was give me a letter. Just because a pipe had their symbol on it doesn’t mean they were the ones who put it there. Of course there was the one factor in that attack that she’d almost forgot—Sharp Edge hadn’t thought that it was possible for magic to target steel like that. The melted engine hadn’t seemed possible to him. If there’d been any evidence of thermite or some other human explosive in the engines, it had been lost when they crashed. But Theo didn’t need to worry about any of that quite yet—they wouldn’t be seeing Kate today. Today, they just had to worry about earning some bits, and one little girl’s birthday. Their first stop wasn’t the museum, though. So far as she could tell, Sharp hadn’t said anything to Emerald that suggested he remembered what day it was. Theo didn’t either, though it would get harder and harder to keep up the ruse the longer they kept it waiting. If Emerald gave up on them remembering, then the surprise would no longer seem genuine. “We don’t have to go to their headquarters,” Sharp said, gesturing into a shop door on the lowest floor of a nearby building. There wide glass windows gave them a constant view of the products inside, displayed on flat wooden tables as they had been in every Earth Apple Store she’d ever seen. The ponies inside didn’t have polo shirts, but they did have collars and tags in a similar style. “They’ve got all the same selection. I think their most valuable devices are the radios. If we focus on those, we should be able to make a few thousand bits.” From a radio? But Theo didn’t second guess, she just checked her letter for the coupon—still there—and strode meaningfully through the doors.  It seemed like the store had stolen Apple’s corporate manual as well, because she was soon swarmed by several helpful clerks asking what she wanted. “The portable radios,” she said, pointing to the part of the store with the largest price tags. They’d written the actual prices on them in tiny numbers, as though that would somehow trick her. She wasn’t fooled. Sharp Edge was right about how outrageous this place was. “I was wondering if you could let me speak to your manager,” she asked, after demoing the unit for a few seconds. “Don’t worry, you haven’t done anything wrong. I just have, uh… a letter from corporate.” Sharp Edge didn’t stand with her—he waited by the doors, watching the street and the ponies as they passed outside it. While Theo showed off her note and started piling up hardware, her companion waited in vain for an attack that didn’t come. Twenty minutes later, and they were back out on the street, carrying heavy brown bags over their shoulders. Well, Sharp carried them, Theo just made sure the pile was well-balanced. “Doesn’t mean we aren’t being watched,” he said. “There’s no reason for you to get an offer like that otherwise. If it wasn’t to stop you at the store, maybe they wanted to follow us when we left.” “Or maybe Feather was being honest, and they just want to help. Maybe they couldn’t just send the bits for some reason, but this way wouldn’t be noticed. What’s half a dozen radios, anyway?” “A lot,” Emerald said. She hadn’t looked at the radios much, but she did read over the receipt. The entire transaction had been processed as though they really bought something, and so they had a little strip of paper not that different from the one they might’ve got on Earth. “This is a bigger number than I’ve ever seen. I don’t think my mom made this many bits in a year, and that was trading with the whole village.” “A little quieter,” Sharp whispered, glancing over their shoulder once. So far there was no sign of anypony following them, not even some enterprising thieves who saw a group with too much wealth in one place. They had specifically asked for plain bags, instead of the fancy plastic ones that most customers were receiving. They weren’t using theirs as a status symbol. “Our best bet is pawning these at different shops. If we try to take too much at once, they’ll think we stole it. It doesn’t make sense to spend a ton of bits and only get half of them back by pawning, so…” “One each,” Theo said. “I can do that. I’ve haggled before.” She glanced briefly down at Emerald, who had started moping during the last few minutes, kicking her hooves against the pavement with distracted annoyance. “We have to finish quickly, so we have enough time for today’s main attraction.” “What’s that?” Emerald asked, perking up just a little. Summer shrugged. “No spoilers.” “What’s a spoiler?” She didn’t explain. It took about two hours, hours that were about as unpleasant as she expected them to be. Even though the products were completely unopened, every pawn shop and electronics resale shop she took them to told her that “if she really wanted full price, she should just return it.” She ended up taking away less than half the purchase price on each radio. But with each shop they visited, Sharp’s saddlebags got heavier while the brown bag got lighter. Then, after great length, she emerged from inside a shop to find Sharp and Emerald waiting without the oversized bag filled with radio supplies. “Last one?” she asked, tossing Sharp the heavy pouch of metal coins. Even this one was more than she’d ever seen Sharp carry during their trip. With just one letter, Kate had completely changed their fortunes. Now we have the money to go down to Mt. Aris. I’ll be able to go home. That realization should’ve thrilled her, but somehow… she felt only confused. “Keep this one,” Sharp said, tossing it back. “You and Emerald should go ahead. I’ll meet you after I’ve taken care of the dock stuff. Want to make sure we’re ready to leave if we were wrong about Feather.” “We weren’t wrong—” But he slipped off into the crowd, vanishing before she could meaningfully argue. She didn’t want to scream across the city like a crazy person. Emerald watched him go, then grinned. “So what are we doing, Summer? More flying?” She circled around Theo impatiently, as Theo tucked away the money in her own saddlebags. She felt self-conscious enough about being a different species around all these ponies, she certainly didn’t need to make things worse by showing off a ton of money while she was at it. They had already walked past the museum more than once, enough for her to silently confirm with Sharp that it was the one her apprentice wanted to see. The “Equestrian Natural History Museum”, with great big brass Sphynxes outside like watchful sentinels. “Let’s grab lunch first, give Sharp a chance to catch up with us.” “If you’re okay having it without him,” she said. “Yes.” They crossed a few blocks of city over to a food-cart that had caught Theo’s nose. Among all the other fried foods they were selling, she smelled a hint of fish. It was on the boardwalk, and she wasn’t the only non-pony here. Manehattan was so packed with creatures that they just didn’t have the time to stare at her for too long, even if they wanted to. “How about this?”  Emerald didn’t argue, so she bought her one of everything and settled down with her on a table overlooking the harbor.  “What are you two planning?” she asked, apparently unfazed by Theo’s plate of fish sticks. But out here the breeze off the sea kept any foul smells from building up. “Nothing,” Summer lied. “Nothing you shouldn’t have figured out by now.” Emerald wrinkled her nose, glowering at her. “Because we spent the day… selling radios?” “We started the day selling radios,” she argued. “And now we don’t have to worry about bits for a while. We can do things that we didn’t get to before. Things to celebrate important days.” Emerald’s expression transformed. Her face lit up, her ears stopped sagging. “He remembered.” Theo nodded. “Sure did. I wish we didn’t have to run errands first, but Sharp wants the rest of the day to be about you.” She pointed up the street. “Natural History Museum up there, looked like something you’d like to do.” “I would!” She bounced up and down in her chair, seeming to forget about her food completely. “I can’t believe Sharp would know that. Or did you tell him?” Summer raised a defensive wing. “I don’t know how I would know more about you than the one who lived in your village for years.” Emerald didn’t relax after that. She sat in her seat like a bottle of something ready to explode, glancing constantly back at the museum. “Are you… sure we have time for this, Summer? Don’t you have to get to Mt. Aris to get home? You’ve already been waiting so long.” “Exactly,” she said. “We were in Ponyville for weeks, Emerald. A day to look around the city isn’t going to make me much later than I already am. Besides, we need to find Mt. Aris. I’m guessing that the charts will still be missing, like they were in the Crystal Empire. But Sharp has a pretty good idea of what the mountain should be like. We find a natural map in the museum, and we can make an educated guess about where Mt. Aris really is.” “Okay good,” Emerald said. “Because I wanted to go anyway.” Summer reached out, mussing the filly’s mane with one talon. They didn’t actually go inside the museum, not until Sharp Edge finally returned from the dock. His saddlebags no longer sagged and clanked with every step, but instead he looked light and relieved. Or was that resolve? “Did Summer tell you why we’re here?” he asked, grinning at the filly. She hopped off the bench, darting over to Sharp and hugging him tightly with her wings. “You mean did she tell me that you’d remembered my birthday after all? Yeah, she told me. That we were gonna do what I wanted for the rest of the day?” “That about covers it,” Sharp said. “Before we actually go inside—I wanted to show you these. You can have them when we’re back on the Horizon.” He twisted to one side, removing a sturdy-looking container buckled across the front.  Emerald took it back to the bench, flipping it over. Even Theo looked over to see what was inside. A filly-sized hammer, chisel, and a few more little tools she could only assume were used in blacksmithing. They didn’t look brand new, though—the steel was dented and scratched many times, even if it had been scrubbed to a sparkly metallic shine. The case was old too. “They were my first tools,” he supplied. “My father bought them for me, when I apprenticed. Now I’m giving them to you.” Emerald froze, her eyes filling with tears. She held still there, staring off down the street. Ponies passing them on the sidewalk gave them plenty of space. They seemed far more polite than any crowd she’d seen in the real city—no one bumped into them as a sign for them to move, or swore at them for blocking foot traffic. The filly sniffed, wiping the moisture from her eyes. “Are you… are you sure about… about giving me…” “Yes yes.” Sharp scooped up the case, tucking it away into his saddlebags. “But we wouldn’t want you carrying them into the museum. That would give ponies the wrong idea about our intentions. They’re yours as soon as we’re back on the Horizon.” She sniffed, darting over and hugging him again. She didn’t move until Sharp finally nudged her away. “Alright, sweetheart. That’s enough. I know you’re grateful. You can show me by making something wonderful. Maybe… maybe down the road we’ll think about installing a portable forge on the Horizon. The safety concerns are substantial, but we do have enough weight to spare now that we’re missing an engine. Perhaps something we can deploy when we land.” Emerald turned slightly from him, looking at her. Theo shook her head sadly. “I wish I had something as meaningful as your master to give you, Emerald.” She could buy her something with all those new bits, but would that really make a difference to her? She’d grown up in a tiny village with nothing, and Equestria had precious few luxuries to offer. “I don’t want you to give me something,” Emerald said, stopping beside her and grinning up. “But you could do something else. You should sing for me! Birds are supposed to be great at it!” “Are you… I’m not a singer, Emerald. It wouldn’t sound very good.” Emerald shook her head. “I can tell, you have a great voice. My mom used to sing with me, but she’s…”  She blushed, ears flattening. There wasn’t much she could do besides pat Emerald on the head again. How was she supposed to say no when the kid put it like that? “How about when we get back to the Horizon. You wouldn’t even be able to hear it over all these ponies.” “Good point.” She lifted a hoof to her eyes, pointing it at Theo. “I won’t forget. Don’t you forget.” “I won’t.” They made their way to the museum doors. This time Theo stayed beside Sharp every moment, watching to see exactly how the transaction took place. The Equestrian monetary system wasn’t that complicated when you really broke it down—bits came in platinum, gold, and silver, ten to each. I probably should’ve asked about this to make sure I wasn’t being ripped off. Most of her negotiating had just been about getting them to promise bigger numbers. Theo watched Sharp pay with a single platinum bit, then counted the change carefully to make sure of her suspicions. One transaction later, and she felt prepared to do it herself if the need arose.  She would have to go over the bits in her pouch and see if the street-food stall had ripped her off. The museum wasn’t all that different from plenty she’d visited on Earth, though of course the Equestrians lacked any of the interactive displays that were becoming more common in her world. There were a few with little Feather logos on the plaques, with speakers that played simple recordings as they approached. Summer was almost as fascinated as Emerald by the displays, depicting a world that had little resemblance to the one she’d left behind. They had the same period of ancient life—but in the Equestrian display, ancient hoofed deer had befriended the saber-tooth-tigers instead of being hunted by them. On another display, ancient monkeys were shown with no more intelligence than any other creature, and there were no hints of what might’ve been. Actually it was the opposite—so far as the museum seemed to show, each period’s hoofed creatures were an earlier chapter of civilization. In the same way that man’s early progenitors went back a million years or maybe more with different definitions, the ponies viewed their past as starting much further back than that.  Tribal hunter-gatherers stretching back into mists of time that made humanity’s own look like a blink. No way. This is fiction. If they’d really started that long ago, they’d be flying through space and building megastructures by now. It wasn’t the time to have a conversation like that with Sharp, so she just made a mental note and kept following Emerald. “Ooh, look at this! Look, they have old Celestina armor!” There wasn’t any rhyme or reason to what she decided to look at—little Emerald seemed equally interested by everything in the museum, so long as there was some metal involved. But while she ran ahead to lead them from one place to the next, that gave Sharp and Theo time to talk in the back without being disturbed. “I’ve already checked with the gift shop,” he began, voice calm. “They’ve got topographical maps of the whole world. It shouldn’t be hard to use one of them to find Mt. Aris.” “That’s great.” “I think we should leave tomorrow morning,” Sharp went on, obviously trying to sound casual. “It’s possible that offer you used to get all those bits took time to make its way up to Feather. But they can’t do anything to us if we’re already gone.” If he hoped to slide that past Theo without her noticing just by virtue of talking quickly, it didn’t work. Theo frowned. “Hold on. We can’t leave until after I talk to Kate. We can’t just take her bits without hearing her out.” Sharp opened his mouth to argue—probably to say the same stupid non-answers he’d done whenever she came up. “No, Sharp. I’m grateful for everything you’ve done, and I appreciate how far you’ve taken me. But I’m not going to run away from the only one of my kind in your whole planet just because you tell me I should. If you don’t want me to see her… then tell me explicitly why. Otherwise, I’m going.” Sharp tensed visibly, as though she’d just hit him. Emerald didn’t notice, she was far too engrossed with an exhibit on “thaumic crystal deposits.” A few other visitors glanced sideways at them with looks of reproof. Compared to the near-silence of the museum, they might as well be shouting. Finally Sharp sighed. “I know Kat-ate,” he said. “She came through the Doorway before you, maybe… three years ago.” Theo’s shoulders sagged and her brain started to fuzz. Her mouth hung open, and she pushed it shut with the back of one leg. “I thought… You lied to me, Sharp. You said I was the first one.” She no longer cared that creatures were staring, even Emerald at this point. She puffed out her chest, spreading her wings instinctively, glowering at him. They were nearly the same height, so she didn’t have the size to intimidate. But she sure tried. “I said you were the first Traveler like you,” he argued. But even as he said it, his voice was weak, full of guilt. He knew he’d been lying. Unlike Theo, he wasn’t yelling. His voice was a low whisper, forcing her to lean close to him and listen if she wanted to hear. “Summer Ray, she was a monster. The things she was willing to do… nothing like you. She manipulated ponies, used them. She didn’t care who got hurt if it meant she could take what she wanted.  “For months I let her use me, the way she used others. But then somepony died because of her. Would you do that? No. You’re not even the same species. I refused to believe Travelers were like her.” Theo glanced past him, to where a pony with a uniform vest was approaching. She shut her mouth, lowering her head apologetically. She wouldn’t yell. That didn’t mean she would change her mind. “You should’ve told me, Sharp. From the beginning. We could’ve had an honest conversation about this. But you’re asking an awful lot from me right now. You’re telling me one of my people is a murderer, right after lying to me for months? What reason could you possibly have?” His ears flattened, his tail tucked in. For a few seconds, she wondered if he would answer at all. Emerald looked between the two of them with horror on her face, almost as bad as the way she’d looked in Sleighsburg. Some birthday this was turning out to be. “I thought she was someone else,” he said. “We were together for months, like I said. I didn’t want you to—” Together. Theo could feel the mental switch being flipped as she realized what he meant. He’d been used by this pony, and she’d done it through their relationship. They’d been together. I liked him. She looked up at Sharp’s face, then backed away. Whatever rational voice that might’ve made her stop—repeated how irrational it was that she expect someone never have a relationship before her own—that fell completely silent. Does he like Travelers because he wants to get physical with us? Is that all this ever was? She knew in that moment the one person she could ask, and it wasn’t Sharp. “If you want to leave tomorrow—fine. Maybe I’ll come with, I’m not sure yet. But right now… right now, I’m going to Feather. Kate Alasie said that humans should stick together. She said that she’d help. Once she realizes that we still have a way of getting home, I’m sure she’ll… I might not even need the ride anymore.” She ran. She ignored Sharp’s calls, ignored Emerald, she just ran. She dodged around displays, then rolled sideways off the balcony and glided down to the first floor. She barely even heard the indignant voice of the museum clerk as she stormed out the doors, and down the street. Crowd. Got to get lost in it. Can’t let him find me. The trouble with that was that Sharp would know where she was going. The Feather building was taller than any other in the city, with distinctive white paint over its otherwise drab brickwork. She ran the other way, into the thickest crowd of ponies she could find. She thought she heard the museum doors bang open, but she didn’t glance over her shoulder to find out. Instead she kept her head down, using the biggest crowds she could find to try and stay hidden. The further she got, the more she expected to have Emerald fly down on her from above, or turn a corner to see Sharp standing there.  She didn’t. After running for several minutes, she realized she’d lost them completely. Sharp Edge wasn’t there—maybe he hadn’t followed her at all. Ignoring her tears, Theo set off for the beacon of the white Feather building, its black painted logo visible even from this distance.  We humans need to stick together. Let’s get that portal back open, Kate. I know you’ll help me get home. She wasn’t really crying, that was just the pollution from the city’s automobiles. Sure, there weren’t any, but that was a minor detail. Happy Birthday, Emerald.