//------------------------------// // Chapter 26: Enter the Labyrinth. // Story: Harmonic Gift From The Stars // by DTavs exe //------------------------------// Winter wind blowing on the town of Ponyville, while four ponies enjoyed the luxury only a castle could bring on these cold times, one of them was having fun at the expense of the sole colt at the place. “Little brother I need your help!” Starlight said in a clueless tone while she followed Sunburst around the castle, Moondancer and Trixie following close behind, Trixie was  giggling like a schoolfilly meanwhile Moondancer was doing her best to keep a straight face. Sunburst’s face showed annoyance at Starlight, he was still not over the fact that their parents were an item now. He walked in the kitchen and served himself some hot cocoa, the three mares doing the same. Starlight grabbed the bag of soft candy pillows barely keeping a straight face, “do you want some marshmallows with that little brother?” “Would you knock it off? Our parents are not married, they are just lonely and found some relief in each other, it’s not likely to last…” Trixie fell on her back laughing while Moondancer bit her lip trying not to laugh covering her mouth with her hoof, Starlight was making a titanic effort just to keep her face with a tiny smile, “besides I’m older than you.” “Just by a week and not anymore since that time I came back to take revenge on Twilight, I used Starswirl’s time spell and we fought in different timelines for a bit more than eight days meanwhile we returned to the exact moment we left, making me at least a full day older than you now,” the group walked to the living room where they planned to spend the afternoon next to the chimney. “Hey that doesn’t count, using time spells is cheating, tell her Moondancer.” The yellow mare was blowing on her cocoa and was surprised by the sudden inclusion on the conversation, “hmm, Starlight makes a good case, if we take age just by the time one has lived, then, even with a magic spell, she is now older than you.” “See, even Moondancer agrees with me,” Starlight said triumphantly. Moondancer cleared her throat while fixed her glasses, “but then again age can be counted as the time you lived since your date of birth on this world, making any time spent on different world invalid, therefore you are still younger than Sunburst, Starlight.” “See, she agrees with ME!” Sunburst proudly puffed his chest. Trixie sipped on her cocoa and said, “technically, she just gave a valid point for each choice allowing her not to pick a side for fear of repercussions from either of you,” Moondancer coughed and looked at the other side hiding a blush for being discovered so easily, “in my insightful and humble opinion, we are avoiding what’s really important here… ” the trio paid attention to the blue mare, “that I was right from the beginning and your parents are doing the nasty HA-HA and another HA!” Sunburst and Starlight rolled their eyes so Trixie grabbed Moondancer by the shoulder, “come on Moony, I can call you Moony right?” Moondancer was going to object but Trixie interrupted her, “ok Moony, come and laugh with Trixie, now that we are roomies and colleagues we need to learn to enjoy each other’s company and what’s better than to laugh at your friends?” Moondancer removed Trixie’s hoof with her magic, “technically, laughing at our friends’ expenses might increase the animosity between the group, I would suggest against it.” Trixie pouted, “yeah right, weren’t you doing your best to not laugh earlier? The great and powerful Trixie saw it all.” Moondancer almost choked on her cocoa, she coughed a few times thinking a way to move the conversation in a different direction, “um… Starlight, did you ever got around to send a message to Princ… I mean to Celestia about becoming a teacher at the School of Friendship?” “Oh yeah, I forgot it due to the whole dinner fiasco, I should send a message to Spike so he can relay it to Celestia at Laburinthos, come little brother, you are better at redacting than me” Starlight left the room followed by an annoyed Sunburst. “Nice save Moony, I believe we are going to be really good friends you and I.” ~♥~♦~♣~♠~ “Dear sister, look!” Luna pointed at the huge gates on the black walls that protected the city of Laburinthos. “Freaking finally, my hooves are killing me, remember who’s idea was to come here by hoof instead of train or at least a chariot?” “It was yours Tia, I remember you said ’don’t be a chicken Lulu, let’s walk all the way to Laburinthos, it will be a test of endurance’ or something along those lines.” “I must have been drunk, I swear I drank my last bahama mama, no more,” both walked to the gate where there stood two Minotaur guards in uniform, carrying staves ending on a sparkly orb, “Oh, to be honest I don’t know how customs work here, I’ve only ever came once every few years and flew directly to the embassy on a chariot, hopefully our identifications will be enough.” “It can’t be that bad, I remember they were always a bunch of knuckleheads on the time before… you know.” “I wouldn’t underestimate them Lulu, I never had the chance to bring you since you returned but the Minotaurs, even if the bulk of them still lives on the walled city of Laburinthos, have turned on one of the most advanced species of Equum.” Both alicorns approached the guards who ignited their staves, sending sparks flying, “Halt! State your business!” the guard said in a raspy voice. “How rude, I should blast your face for such insolence!” “No Lulu, let me handle this,” Celestia picked some papers from her saddlebag and gave them to the guard, “here young man, I am Celestia and here is my sister Luna from Equestria, we wish to be granted access to the city.” The guard picked the papers and review them, he then touched his earpiece, “sir, we got two  ten-sixtysix at the main gate, they appear to be Equestrian VIPs… yes… alicorns… yes both, yes flowy mane… ten-four. You may pass Celestia and Luna from Equestria,” the guard pressed a button on a panel on the wall and the doors opened to the alicorns, “welcome to Laburinthos, enjoy your stay.” The pair of sisters entered the city and was marveled by the sight, buildings tall like the ones on Manehatten to where the eye can see, building after building creating a closed atmosphere, only open by the roads where self impulsed carts were driven by minotaurs of all type, “see Lulu, I told you they advanced leaps over ponies in this thousand years you were… out, they had to for their lack of every kind of magic.” they walked through the streets of the city and watched how the lights turned on the street turned on, when the sun started to go down. Filled with electricity instead of magic like they were used to, “it’s amazing what you can accomplish without magic little sister, but then again, after knowing of another species out of this world that has no magic I can see now that from necessity comes invention.” “But Tia, I don’t understand, how can they power those carts and this lights without magic?” “Well, after they created the engine and shared it with the world they went and tried to improve it. I believe that was around three or four hundred years ago that they started using fossil fuel extracted from deep inside the ground, but then just two hundred years after that, they noticed the contamination this fuel was causing, so it was unanimously decided that the advance on the fossil fuel engine wasn’t worth the damage they could cause in the world, you can still see this engines on museums anyway, they made several advances on steam engines and then they manage to garner the power of thunder in the form of hydroelectric dams.” “Like that one near Ponyville?” “Yeah, exactly like that one, but it has its downsides, to begin with this limits the reach of the power generated, luckily this city has the biggest river of the continent just next to it.” They kept walking for about another hour and the sun set “um Tia, didn’t we pass that building about five minutes already?” “Really?” Celestia looked around, “oh poo, and we can’t even fly due to a rule of the city that forbids flying over the buildings without a license, I was always carried on the chariot so I never bothered to request one.” “What kind of rule is that? What about birds and insects?” “That only applies to sapient beings, I believe it has something to do about privacy on the buildings, a big deal of them are apartments and some of them have crystal walls… wait, I think I know this place,” Celestia ran and stopped in front of a building with a paint of a big barrel overflowing of a white liquid. “Tia what is this place?” “This, my beloved little sister, is the Megamilk Inn. It was founded two hundred and forty three years ago by a friend of mine Cremia, may she rest in Harmony, it’s a family business and I’ve been coming here every time I’m in the city since then, come Lulu, if I’m not mistaken the current owner is Vanilla Dreams, her cakes are the best.” Both entered the establishment making a bell sound, alerting a young minotauress, her white fur adorned with some black patches covered by a dress and an apron, “welcome to Megamilk, how can I be of service… oh, Princess Celestia it’s been years since the last time you graced us with your presence, please allow me to take you to a table.” The minotauress directed them to a table while Celestia “little Cherry, it’s that you? My stars you grown, the last time I saw you, I could carry you on my hooves and now you are all grown and strong and you got your horns already,” the white alicorn was moved to see how the years have been generous with her friend, “this is my sister Luna.” “Princess Luna, it’s an honor to finally meet you,” Cherry said while curtsying. “Please child, there is no need for formalities, a friend of my sister is a friend of mine besides, we are no longer Princesses.” “Oh yeah, it was heard in the news that Equestria has a new sole regent, you must be proud of your pupil Princ… I mean Miss Celestia.” “Just Celestia is fine Cherry, and you bet I’m proud of her,” suddenly a letter spawned from flames in front of her, “oh… speaking of the Orbsah, Cherry, would you be so kind as to bring us one of your mother’s cakes and some ink and scroll, I bet Twilight will want an answer right away, oh please bring Vanilla here as well, I wish to talk to my old friend.” “I’m sorry Celestia, my mother is out of the city for business, we are planning on opening an inn in pony lands, on a town called Appleloosa, but my aunt is about to return from work, I bet she would love to see you”  “What a shame, I guess there is no helping it, thanks Cherry,” Celestia replied and the young woman left the table with both mares waiting for their order. “She is a lovely lady, Tia, gentle and hardworking as well. So what does Twilight needs?” “It’s actually a request from Starlight, it seems they need new teachers and they were wondering if I was willing to teach there.” “Are you going to accept?” “Hay no, I was planning to enjoy a vacation of at least a century or two before I focus on anything else.” The inn had a calm and warm atmosphere, with soft music that went well with the place, the guests were having dinner, talking among them and not paying attention to the alicorns that looked out of place, Cherry returned with a three story cake and some beverages for the mares, Luna cut a piece of the cake and so did her sister, piece after piece of the cake disappeared from Celestia’s plate while Luna was just on her second piece, the patrons started to notice and watched in wonder how the mare devoured the pastry, some of them even started cheering. Celestia was on the last piece of the cake when a raspy female voice interrupted her, “I see that you keep filling your maw with cake, Celestia,” the entire inn went silent and watched and the newcomer, it was an adult Minotauress, her fur black as night with a white spot on half of her face, she was wearing a long sleeve shirt and carried a coat on her shoulder. The white alicorn slowly turned to see who interrupted her cake, her eyes went wide open, “Tube Tester!” she stood and walked to the woman, “you rough, bark of a birch!” they shook hoof with hand together in a gesture of friendship, their forearms bulging, testing each other's strength. They continue the contest until sweat came from both their foreheads, Tube started losing, “ok ok, I give, damn you and your alicorn strength. How have you been Celestia?” “Can’t complain, finally retired, enjoying some peace and quiet, you?” “Well after leaving your School of gifted unicorns I returned home, I’m currently working on ways to use energy besides the dam, that has limited the minotaur expansion of the lands and I want to change that… but gotta admit, I really miss my teaching, hey how is little Twilight, last I heard is that you put her in charge of all of Equestria.” “Indeed, she earned it and I earned some R&R you were her favorite minotaur technology teacher you know? She even adapted some of the machines you showed her to work with magic instead of electricity.” “Yeah, you ponies and your fancy magic, I heard that your dependence on your magic almost doomed your entire race when that filly almost wiped it out from your kingdom” Both sit at the table where Luna was waiting, “give us a break, you wouldn’t blame fish for almost dying if they took away their water would you? By the way, this is my sister Luna.” The woman extended her hand and Luna grabbed it, “my pleasure, I’m Tube Tester, Celestia and I go way back, I used to teach at the school for gifted unicorns.” “The pleasure is mine, hey Tia, why don’t you ask her to teach at Twilight’s school?” “Oh I heard about that school, sorry Luna, but I’m really close to a breakthrough with my assistant,” she got closer to them and whispered, “I’m working on a way to use the sun as a source of energy and I’m very close.” “The sun? Wait, sister didn’t Twilight said that the music box-” “Lulu you need to be more discreet about things like this, Tube, can we go to the office, I might be able to help you with your project.” ~♥~♦~♣~♠~ The trio went to the back office where they closed the door with lock, Celestia wrote a letter to Twilight and meanwhile they waited for her response, she explained the music box origin. Tube Tester stood there, her eyes marveled with the story and asking a question or two. “If any other creature on the planet would’ve told me what you just did, I would have laughed, you better than anyone understands how immense the universe is right?” Celestia nodded, “the probability that another culture reach us is less than the probability of me launching a bunch coal to a scroll and this wrote a poem.” “But isn’t zero,” Celestia said while the minotauress drooled at the possibilities, at that moment a flame startled the trio, “oh that was fast, mmhmm oh, I believe you need to read this Tube.” She grabbed the letter with her hand and began reading, ‘In all of Equum, I would let any other creature try to tinker with the music box but the best teacher in technology of Equestria and Laburinthos, I’ll notify Starlight to be ready to receive her’ “my, my, she was always an eloquent mare, fine I’ll take the job on her school, but I NEED to bring my assistant, believe he is a trustworthy scholar, I trained him myself and I refuse to work without him.” “I’m sure that can be arranged, I’ll send a letter to her immediately, when would you think you can leave?” “What are you talking about, we are leaving tomorrow I’ll just pack some stuff and notify my assistant.” “Hey hey, Relax Tube, this wasn’t the reason we came to the city to begin with, my sister Luna heard that there is a minotaur working on a device to enjoy video games like the arcades but in the houses.” “Oh yeah, professor Fam Icon, not as interesting of a study, video games are just a phase, I bet they won’t be important and will fade away of the existence in the near future, but ok I’ll take you both to them in the morning you are staying right?” “Yes, Tia and I will need accommodations, you accept Equestrian bits right?” “Come on, Celestia has been practically family since my great-great-grandmother Cremia, you are staying, no charge as always, let me call Cherry to prepare your rooms.” That night after the Inn’s kitchen closed, the four of them enjoyed each other’s company while reminiscing about the past, with a bottle of their best goat milk and some more cake. In the morning as promised they left to meet professor Fam Icon to discuss funding on his project.  To be continued