//------------------------------// // Chapter 24: Dead City // Story: Luna is a Harsh Mistress // by Starscribe //------------------------------// Faith dragged her hooves all the way into the housing block, then up several flights of stairs to Green level. Through a set of guarded doors—a position that was more symbolic at this point—she passed into the rotunda.  Faith couldn’t see the colors meant to indicate Green level, but she could smell them. Here, where the noble and great ones of Moonrise lived, there were living plants. Not just the entirely practical potatoes, carrots, or wheat either, but far more interesting smells. Mint, parsley, bay, oregano… and in the very center of the garden, an actual apple tree. Unimaginable luxury for the other ponies of Moonrise.  Faith couldn’t pretend to be a stranger here. There was no black level, and so her mother lived here in the same vast space that she had once shared with Iron Quill. But she wouldn’t be there, and Faith had no desire to go back. They wrapped around the corner, then through a metal door into Arclight’s home.  Every color had their own floorplan, so at least she only had to memorize each one once. But Arclight’s parents were the exception. Like all Greens they had their own kitchen, which they’d transformed largely into a laboratory. There were strange apparatuses of cold glass tubes and metal coils always up against the wall whenever she dared touch them with a wing.  A few bubbled and frothed merrily as they entered, mixing the smells of cooked grain and mushroom with something harsh and metallic. At least she never tasted it in the food. “You’re back,” Aunt Cozen said, her voice coming through the doorway in the little dining room. Of course she wasn’t really Faith’s aunt, any more than Sylvan was her uncle. But with as little she saw her mother… “How’d it go?” She reached down, holding up her necklace towards the sound of her voice. “Incredible,” Cozen muttered. “That’s amazing, Faith. You did it, congratulations!” Under her enthusiasm, Faith could clearly hear her concern. She wasn’t trying to make her worry obvious, but it was powerful all the same. You didn’t want me to get it either. “Blue?” Sylvan’s voice, from much closer. His hooves clopped past her, and from the smells and the odd three-step gait, she guessed he was carrying a tray. “Great work, Faith! We knew you could, uh… we knew you’d manage it!” No you didn’t. That smell, the mushroom with just a hint of something fresher. Moth. They’d cooked her favorite food, mothwraps, even though none of them particularly cared for it. They could claim it was just to celebrate with her, but Faith wasn’t stupid. She sat down at the table anyway, slumping her head against the cool lunarium surface. “It doesn’t mean anything,” she muttered. “What was that?” Cozen asked. “Master of Labor…” She looked up in the unicorn’s direction. “Master Needle says she’ll never let me onto the surface. My color doesn’t matter. She didn’t tell me that for my whole life, guess she never thought it would be worth mentioning while I trained for hours every day. But whatever. I get a piece of metal I can use to get all the bugs I want at commissary. Great.” There was a long silence in the kitchen. She could practically feel the pressure settling around her. But was it expectation, anger, or pity? If only she could feel their faces, she might’ve known. Nopony moved enough for her to be sure, which made her think they must be tense about it. Finally Sylvan spoke. “Reaching Blue was an incredible accomplishment.” “For someone as disfigured as I am?” she spat. “That’s what Needle said. I should just… take my color and be happy.” “It’s more than most ponies in Moonrise will ever see,” Cozen said. Her voice was soft, motherly in a way Penumbra never was. “I don’t think you should be happy, you should be furious. Obviously you’ve worked your whole life for something, and you deserve to get what you’ve earned.” “Can we eat?” Arclight asked. “I know Faith is upset, but… I’m hungry. Maybe you’ll feel better after some weird bugs.” “They’re not weird,” she grumbled, settling into her seat and folding her wings abruptly to her sides. She didn’t try to serve herself, not here. It wasn’t great to touch her wings up against the food other ponies were about to eat, particularly when they were covered with dust from the practice field. But she heard her plate scraping against the table as somepony pushed it, and she touched it gingerly with the edge of a hoof. She reached down, letting off a single quick burst of sound to judge how much she had and where it was, before taking her knife and spearing a wrap. It was simple food, not the usual unicorn fare. Quill had called them ‘marchwraps’ because they could be prepared in advance and eaten by an army on the march. But instead of simple grain, she liked hers filled with warm potatoes, and creamy cooked grubs. “Not that one, Arclight,” Cozen chided. “The grubs are in those three. The others are mushroom.” The others started to eat. But Faith didn’t, she glared down at her plate, tempted by the smell. But she was curious, and this felt like… accepting what had happened. “What should I do?” she asked, voice low. “I could…” There was only one pony who could change her color, the same pony who could change anyone’s color. “I could ask the princess for consideration.” Sylvan spat something against the wall. When he finally spoke, his voice was still shocked and horrified. “That’s, uh… a really bad idea.” “Yes,” Cozen added, without skipping a beat. “Nightmare Moon, uh… she values strength above anything else. If you come to her to complain, she’d probably just make you White for wasting her time. If she even saw you to begin with.” That made sense. Nightmare Moon had always insisted on strength and endurance from her ponies. Vengeance will come to those who work and wait. We will one day regain our inheritance. The princess wouldn’t roll over and accept this, she’d do something about it. Attacking Needle is wrong. The mare wasn’t evil, and she clearly wanted to protect Faith. She was misguided and infuriating, that was all. “Aren’t you going to eat, dear?” Her mind was spinning. Even chewing would waste too much of her time, time she could better spend on figuring out what to do. “When it looked like Moonrise was doomed…” she said, turning towards the two of them. “You didn’t give up. You figured out a way.” “Of course,” Uncle Sylvan said. “There’s always a way, I think we’ve learned that by now. The moon is like Nightmare Moon herself—dangerous, but not hopeless. She rewards cleverness.” “And endurance,” Cozen added hastily. “There’s nothing more important than that. Remember, we’ve always thought we were going home. We hope for it, but we have to accept that it will take time. I think that’s important for you too. Take time, take it slow.” Or do something so incredible, that they have to let me be a Dustwalker. Faith took a bite of the cooling wrap, letting the taste wash away her doubt. From her birth, life had been unfair. She didn’t have to accept it just because ponies told her to. But she wasn’t going to get any further with her aunt and uncle. She waited until the meal was over. While they cleaned things up, she slipped away with Arclight back into the garden.  They weren’t the only ones: the sound of other fillies and colts and play echoed through the hall, along with song and harp and a few ponies sparring with wooden swords. Faith placed each of them on her mental map, and they found the most secluded spot they could: in front of her own home. Iron Quill had not been an earth pony, but he’d once cared for his own flowers, which formed a little garden Faith had never seen. But when she was young, she had smelled it, and listened as the First Commander of Moonrise explained each one. They were dead now. The garden had its caretakers, but nopony had dared touch Quill’s flowers. Particularly with his widow, still haunting their quarters like her cave. She wasn’t home now, though. Faith knew that as surely as she could feel the metal under her hooves. “You stopped arguing,” Arclight said, as soon as they were alone. “Can we… be happy that you’ve finally come to terms with everything and you’re not going to do anything dumb?” She shook her head, grinning mischievously. “Arclight, we’re going to do the dumbest possible thing.” She began pacing back and forth, stopping just short of the dead planter-box without having to touch it. Even the echoes from her own hoofsteps were enough to hear it. “I figured.” He slumped to the floor not far away. “Why can’t we just… not?” “Our parents didn’t accept when the universe bucked with them. I’ve had to accept my ‘place’ in Moonrise my whole life. I’m sick of it.” She held up the necklace. “I earned this. I deserve to be able to work with everypony else.” “Okay,” he said. His acceptance was more soothing than any embrace could’ve been. “What will we do about it?” “Something big,” she answered. “That’s the only way. We have to help Moonrise so much that they have to recognize us. Do something that nopony ever dreamed of. Save the world.” “The world doesn’t need saving,” he pointed out. “Or… it needs saving all the time. Don’t waste water, don’t eat too much, wake up on time, care for the garden…” “I know,” she said, exasperated. “But there’s got to be… something.” She stopped pacing, resting one hoof on the brick wall. As if Moonrise could speak to her through its stones. “What does the city need? What could we do that nopony ever dreamed of?” “Break the Sun Tyrant’s curse and return to Equestria?” She hit him—or she swung her leg towards where she thought he’d be standing. But he could see her, and she couldn’t see where he’d moved. Her leg passed harmlessly through empty air. “I know you’re a blue, but you’re not that good,” she said. “You’re not better than the princess, and she’s had… if she doesn’t figure it out, we won’t. Besides, that would just be showing how amazing you are.” “I am pretty amazing,” he said. “Mom says I can enchant better than half of her unicorns. I’m gonna get a cutie mark for it for sure.” “Can you do the air-spell?” she asked absently. As casually as she could make it sound. “Yes,” he said flatly. “No, we’re not sneaking up to the surface. They’d take my Blue away for that” Not if we did something amazing. But as she opened her mouth to say so, something more powerful silenced her. Yes, success overpowered any rule they broke. But the moon was barren for miles around Moonrise. And even if they did find some rich ore—buck, even if they brought it themselves, that just wouldn’t be enough to excuse stealing equipment, and somehow sneaking past the guards. “I’m thinking bigger anyway,” she said instead. “Just being a Dustwalker isn’t enough. We could go up there, but we’d have to come back. They’d lock us up.” “They’d lock me up,” he corrected. “I’m pretty sure nopony in the colony would punish you. Only daughter of the First Commander. It doesn’t matter what your pin says, you outrank everypony.” I outrank them so much they won’t let me leave. She didn’t want to argue again, certainly not with the only pony who had been consistently on her side. The only pony who might help her with whatever insane scheme she’d yet to devise. “What’s bigger than Dustwalking, but smaller than saving Moonrise from the Sun Tyrant?” There was a brief silence as they both considered it. Faith never would’ve admitted it, but she didn’t actually know very much outside of her chosen career path. She never could’ve seen the bigger picture of Moonrise the way her father had. Or… maybe she could one day, but that wasn’t what she’d practiced for. “It has to be something that will make them let me have a real job,” she said. “Something that shows I can handle myself. Something that will really help Moonrise. Something ponies will hear about, and be furious if I can’t keep working.” “I…” Arclight lowered his voice to a whisper, his mouth right up against her ear. He spoke very slowly, as though he were watching their surroundings every second. “I might have one idea. But it’s really stupid and I shouldn’t even tell you.” She practically lit up, facing him. “What is it? No harm in saying.” He seemed to think there was, because he didn’t say anything for almost a minute. She posed as pathetically for him as she could, flattening her ears and purposefully looking a little past him, instead of where she knew he was standing. Finally he groaned. “We can’t do it,” he said. “It’s too much. Not even Mom and Dad did it. Not even your parents ever did it. It’s…” “Just say,” she said. “Even if we can’t, at least I can eliminate something from the list.” Empty words, obviously. Whatever Arclight didn’t want to tell her had to be perfect. “You learned the history of Moonrise at the Academy too,” he said. “You’re a Blue, you should know. Where did the first generator come from?” She answered by rote. “The Princess of the Moon took the First Commander to the Sacred City, where they communed with the gods for seven days and seven nights. He returned enlightened, and shared his gift with everypony. But… probably your parents first, because they’d know what to do with it.” “Right.” He pulled in close again, right up against her side. She flushed at his closeness, but didn’t push him away. “The Sacred City isn’t some… it’s real. Just like Equestria far away. It’s actually a place you can visit.” Obviously it had to be real, if Quill had gone there. But she stared anyway. “Why would we want to?” “Well…” He hesitated another moment more, then everything came out in a rush. “My mom always said that everything from there was incredible, she could barely understand it. Just look at what it did for your father—he was crippled, and one little machine from there made him able to walk.” “It…” She froze, utterly motionless. “He never said where… His metal leg came from the Sacred City?” Arclight was so close she could feel his nod against her coat. “He tried to get my mom to make more for some other crippled ponies in Moonrise, but it was too hard. They have… kinds of metals we don’t. Ways of putting things together we don’t. Iron Quill got a metal leg. Maybe I can find a metal eye. Then I’d be like anypony else, and they’d have to let me be a Dustwalker. “That sounds awesome,” she said. “All that ancient wisdom—almost anything we find would probably make us heroes in Moonrise. Let’s go!” She turned to go, though of course she didn’t know where the city actually was. Probably they’d have to go to the surface, but beyond that… Arclight yanked her back abruptly, dragging her along the stone. She could smell his sudden tension and anger. “That isn’t how it works, Faith. It’s the Sacred City. My mom and dad said that… the princess only ever took your father. Nopony else in the whole city ever got to see it.” “And I’m his daughter,” she declared. “You keep saying it, everypony keeps saying it. If the princess was going to allow anypony to go, it would be me.” She blushed. “And you’d go, obviously. I need air.” For a second, it almost seemed like he was going to agree with her. But then the moment passed, and he shook his head nervously. “That’s… I don’t think you realize what it would take, Faith.” “Then tell me.” “Well…” He twitched again, his head moving back and forth. “There’s no one close enough to hear us,” she said. “I’m listening. I’d hear it if they were.” He sighed. “Well, there’s… Okay, Faith. If I tell you, you have to swear not to share it with another soul. Nopony on Moonrise. I shouldn’t say anything, but… I know you’ll be awful about this if I don’t help you, so I’m gonna try.” “I swear,” she said quickly. “Anything, whatever it is… yes. I can keep a secret! It’s not like anypony besides you wants to be with me. They’re either too afraid of a pony I’m not, or I’m just ‘the cripple.’” He sighed. “My mom and dad have a secret cavern. It’s… not even possible to walk to. You have to teleport to it, through the rock. Mom brings air in and out when she visits.” He had her attention now. “A secret cavern filled with… incredible things we can use to get Moonrise to recognize me?” “No,” he said. “And yes, maybe? I don’t know. It’s where my mom and dad work on things that they’re not sure Moonrise should know about yet. Things that might not work… don’t want to get ponies’ hopes up, you know? And sometimes, it’s where they work on… a way rune to take ponies halfway across the moon to the Sacred City and study the incredible things there.” He said it so fast she almost didn’t understand it. But the words slowly slid into place in her brain, like cobwebs shaken free. She actually smiled at him. “So we can get to the Sacred City,” she said. “Vanaheimr. You know the way. We go through there, and… bring back something incredible for Moonrise. We’re both heroes.” “Well…” He sighed. “My mom and dad never used it. I think… I think your father might’ve been the one who asked to have it built. But Nightmare Moon was so dangerous about anypony who got near it. Do you really think she’ll be okay with us going because of you? If she’s not…” He shuddered. “She might not take our colors away, Faith. She might take our air away too.” She nodded quickly, looking as confident as she could. “It’ll be fine!” Especially if she never finds out. “So you can get us to the… secret cavern? You can use the way runes? Whatever those are…” “A really powerful spell,” he supplied. “Mom says it leaves a pony exhausted for days.” “How often do your parents go to this cave?” she asked. “If we go charge it together…” “You say we,” he muttered, annoyed. “But you’re not a unicorn. I’d be charging it. And it would probably take me a few days.” He glared at her for a few more seconds, or at least she assumed he had. “My mom and dad barely use it anymore. It’s more like our… vault, for all the things ponies won’t understand. Your father’s metal leg is in there, along with other things he brought back from Vanaheimr.” “It sounds like this might be our only chance,” she said. “Think about it. We get a whole day to prepare—I know you didn’t take your day of rest before you started at the Arcanium! So you claim your days off, we make a big deal about how we’re… sneaking off together.”  She blushed, but went on anyway. “Everypony thinks we’re… but really we’re going off to that secret cave to charge the way runes. I could probably use my mom’s necklace to get enough food for the other side. We’d be gone for… how long would it take you to recharge it?” He frowned, thoughtful. “If we could find somewhere to hold the air in, and it wasn’t too cold… two days. As long as we give me a day to rest before we use them. Or… maybe I’m completely wrong because I’ve never used them in my life, and I launch us miles away from everything and we die and nopony knows where we are.” He started to shiver, but she caught him with a wing, squeezing him until he stopped. “Quit that. Your mom made it, right? Would she make a mistake like that?” He didn’t move in her grip, not for a long moment. “No.” “Exactly,” she declared. “We are going to pull this off, Arclight. We’re gonna go do what not even your parents were brave enough to do. We’re going to visit the Sacred City, and bring back something amazing for Moonrise.” Like a pair of metal eyes. That sounds like exactly what the city needs. “Okay,” he said. “But… but if we do this, I want…” He made a noncommittal squeaking sound. “If we’re gonna get banished by the princess, or maybe frozen on the surface, or killed in the Sacred City… I don’t want to do it with just any mare. I wanna do it with my marefriend. So you, uh… you gotta say that you’ll be my special somepony.” “Sure,” she said, without even thinking. “Uh… what’s that mean?” “I… don’t know,” he admitted. “But lots of ponies have them. I want one too.” Then again, maybe she did know. Silver had said something about heirs. Faith might be young, but she wasn’t stupid.