//------------------------------// // The Administrator // Story: Mission Begins in 10 Seconds // by Wandering Quill //------------------------------// THE ADMINISTRATOR Piles of dusty, thick tomes floated overhead across a classroom. They struck fear in the eyes of the students who watched them fly by. Upon reaching the other end of the room, the books were relieved of the magical aura that surrounded them, causing the table to shiver on its legs as they crashed upon it. "These," the unicorn mare who carried them spoke, walking behind the table while composing her purple-rimmed glasses with her magic, "compose the entire collection of books S.S. Belle wrote about long distance communication using a consistent string of sound-based magic. "Now, you remember that, in the last class, we were working on a device that could carry sound from one place to another. We learned that visual content cannot be transferred with magic; only sound. This time, I want you to make a report on that experiment, and why visual content doesn't work with magic." The students gave an exasperated groan. Their teacher grinned; she had long since expected that to happen. It was, she'd learned, a typical 'defense mechanism' that ponies who shunned work used. The only approach was to be more stubborn than them. A stick of chalk, enveloped in a purple glow, floated up and scratched the blackboard, leaving behind the first few words of a sentence. At first, the sound of the chalk tapping the board was barely audible over the riotous voices of her pupils. As the white lines persistently kept appearing on the black background, however, the clamor began to die down. Soon, the only sound in the room was the faint grating of the white stick, releasing clouds of colorless dust as it went. The mare closed her eyes so as to focus on the sound alone. "This is a real waste of time," one of the younger fillies whispered to her colleague. The teacher's ears twitched and her eyes snapped open behind the spectacles. She easily recognized who the student was from the way she leaned towards another desk. The other filly gave a small nod. "Why can't we just make ourselves smarter with Cavalium?" The sudden, insufferable squeaking of the chalk brought tears to the eyes of some students while others just cringed or covered their ears. The two fillies immediately sat straight. Their faces irradiated guilt - the kind of expression a thief would take on after being spotted. Unlike them, their teacher bore an unreadable expression. She stood still, studying her classroom with her eyes. Her gaze finally locked with the disorderly filly's. "If you have the bits for it," she said with the tiniest tinge of displeasure, "then perhaps you should." "Hum, miss?" a colt timidly called from the front rows. "You're from Ponyville, right? That's where they found Cavalium for the first time, ten years ago, isn't it?" The teacher was about to refute her birthplace, but thought better of it. She prompted the colt to continue with a nod. "Then, hum... Why didn't you go get some of it too?" The mare's mouth hung slightly open in reflection. The stick was no longer touching the board, having already left behind a rather ugly, squiggly line due to a distraction of the pony who held it. The delay in her answer sent the colt into a fit of panic. "I-I didn't mean to-" "It's a perfectly reasonable question," the teacher quickly stated. "Of course you would wonder that. I mean, why doesn't Twilight Sparkle, the prized student of Princess Celestia, just take some stone and suddenly solve all problems in the world?" An eraser levitated up and began to clean the board. Twilight waited for it to be empty before continuing, "Do you know what Cavalium does to you?" "It makes you smarter?" "And stronger!" "And you can sell it for lots of bits!" The flurry of answers continued. Twilight was unsure whether she should smile or frown at her students' naivety. She simply allowed them to throw random guesses into the air - most of them utterly absurd. When she found it was enough, she raised a hoof, demanding silence in the room. She had been their teacher for two years, so they knew that their best option was to not argue. "Thank you. And no, Cavalium doesn't make you smarter. Or stronger. Cavalium." The stick resumed its duties and scribbled the name on the blackboard. "A highly transformative and adaptable metal discovered and first documented approximately ten years ago in Ponyville by Macintosh Apple. Extensive research has proven that it can assume the properties of most every other element known to ponykind - even some we have yet to properly study. It's because of it that teleportation spells were made accessible to Earth and Pegasus ponies, among others." What she went on to describe to the stupefied young ponies was almost completely drawn from the memories of all of the events she had been invited to. All of them consisted of the same topic: describing and discussing the properties and benefits of Cavalium. Always an adept of forwarding the cause of science, Twilight gladly accepted the first invitations. It was in the midst of these studies that she discovered just how great her distaste for the versatile metal was. "To answer your question, Pumpkin, there's a simple reason for why I don't use Cavalium." She was now looming over the colt. The way she faced him eye-to-eye made the receiving end shudder. "It's cheap. It's an easy way to get to places. "When ponies are given something, they always end up wanting more. And more. And more. Until there's nothing left. You give them a hoof, and they'll end up wanting your whole leg." Trust me... she thought. I know what I'm talking about. "Miss Sparkle! Miss - Huff, excuse me! - Miss Sparkle!" Twilight's ears perked up at the call of her name. She raised her eyes from the little magazine in her front of her and smiled upon spotting a brown-maned stallion that pushed and shoved his way through the crowd. He dragged a hefty-looking saddlebag on his back, a habit Twilight still couldn't understand. "Time Turner! You're late!" "I know, I know!" the stallion spoke in his signature Bridlish accent, sitting across Twilight's table. He was perhaps the only one Twilight had ever heard with such a drawl, which made him all the more unique in her eyes. The saddlebag slid off his back, and he breathed out in relief. His neck popped with every movement of his head. "Those chemistry kids! Giving me a real hard time, they were!" "At least they didn't want you to talk about Cavalium!" "Like hay they didn't! Made me promise I'd order a sample from the Macintosh Hills first thing tomorrow!" Twilight gave a gasp of mock incredulity, to which he replied by looking away and straightening his bow tie. "Anyway, that's taken care of. So you had a flash seminar about it with the lil' ones?" "Yeah," the mare sighed, tracing the magazine with a hoof. Time Turner's derisive smile wilted into a frown. "Something wrong, miss Sparkle?" She flashed him a grin, one that he would have missed had he blinked. "You can call me Twilight, Time Turner." "Alright, Twilight, is something the matter?" "You know I don't really like all the fuss they're making about Cavalium, right?" The stallion nodded earnestly. "Well, they're giving the wrong ideas to the younger ponies. Some of my students thought they could get smarter with it!" "They're just colts and fillies, Twilight. They're just saying what they hear around." Twilight had zoned out halfway through his speech. A million thoughts popped in her mind when he rested his hoof over hers and gently rubbed its back. She briefly considered pulling it away, destroying the tender scene and saving her from a possible embarrassment. Her mind didn't obey, of course, and only surrendered when Time Turner's voice pierced through her thoughts. "Twilight? Are you quite alright?" "I-I, huh, yeah! Everything's just fine! Ahahah, what gave you that silly idea?" The stallion smiled sympathetically in response to her sheepish, exaggerated grin. Really smooth, Twilight, she mentally chided herself. "Oh! I almost forgot!" he suddenly exclaimed. His voice carried the same peppiness it had when he arrived. Despite that, she couldn't help but feel a touch disappointed when Time Turner removed his hoof so as to reach for the saddlebag. When he turned forward again, he was clenching a plain, white envelope with his teeth. Twilight gave a little giggle and grabbed it with her magic. "I'll never get why you don't use your hooves for that." "Forshe of habit," he said before releasing his grip on the paper container. "Honestly, why does this always have such a foul taste?" "Now you sound like an old friend of mine." "From Ponyville?" One of Twilight’s ears twitched at the sound of the name. She stopped fiddling with the lid. Upon noticing the way her entertained stare just withered down to a thoughtful one, Time Turner immediately wished he could take his words back. "Yeah... Ponyville..." she muttered. Before the stallion could say another word, the envelope was ripped open and the letter slipped out. What she noticed first, aside from the immense length of the text, was that the blue silhouettes of three diamonds adorned the top of the page. The acronym 'R.E.C.' was written over them. "This logo..." The unicorn took to reading the letter proper with renewed interest. The more she read, the more confused Time Turner became about her reaction. When the paper finally fluttered down to the table, she sought for answers in his eyes. "Where... Where did you find this?" "Ditzy brought it in and told me it was for you. Is everything alright?" She shoved the paper against Time Turner's snout, forcing him to pull it away until it was at a legible distance. "The rec's want to hire you?" Twilight motioned towards the letter with her head. After a closer inspection, Time Turner gasped surprisedly, "Invited by the chairmare herself, no less!" "Time Turner, do you know what R.E.C. stands for?" "Yeah, it's, huh, Rarity Excavations Company. What does that have to do with..." The increasingly annoyed look Twilight was giving him seemed to make the gears in his head shift. "Wait, are you saying that this Rarity chairmare is the same Rarity as..." "That's Rarity. The previous owner of Carousel Boutique." "Really?" There was silence as Time Turner faced Twilight with a puzzled look. “Wait, I thought you were friends?” Twilight opened her mouth to retort right off the bat, but found herself unable to conjure the words for it. Instead, she settled with hiding her face behind her mane, away from his eyes. Then, she inhaled once and spoke, “We were. I want to think we still are.” “I’m afraid I don’t get it. You’re the Elements of Harmony! Isn’t there some magicky, friendshipy thingy connecting you?” “Look,” she sighed, turning forward again. “Do you know why I left Ponyville in the first place?” The stallion shook his head. The question had never seemed relevant; he’d always assumed she was just pursuing her career – a very good one, at that. “It’s because they had to uproot the library. They uprooted a two hundred year old tree. And you know why?” Again, the stallion denied his knowledge. Her tone grew aggressive, fueling the fire that burned in her eyes. “Because they detected a Cavalium deposit right underneath it. I lost my home just so they could build a proper shaft to transport everything. But the worst part... “The worst part is that they found nothing. A false positive.” Time Turner fought the urge to clean the lonesome tear that rolled down the side of her snout. She was shivering, and that took an obvious toll on her voice. “And you know who detected the Cavalium?” The question didn’t require much thought from the stallion. As far as he was aware, not many ponies in Equestria were capable of tracing precious elements. Steeling himself with a sigh, he answered, “…Rarity.” Twilight nodded. It was an almost unnoticeable, cheerless gesture. “She didn’t know how to apologize for a long time. So she offered me part of her income, and allowed us to stay in her house.” She realized she hadn’t spoken in plural for a while. Though she saw her ‘little’ assistant every day, they no longer shared the same room for any longer than a couple of hours. She tried to smile, recalling how quickly Spike had accepted her apologies at the time. “Then somepony offered her a job. A high-ranking one. The head of her very own company, just so she could find more Cavalium for them.” “Macintosh Co..” “We just… grew apart from there on. She still gave me bits for some time, at least until I decided to move to Canterlot. I… I haven’t seen her since.” Time Turner took the letter in his hoof and read it one more time. “The position she’s offering you is very good, though. An… administrator?” “One of the highest levels in the company,” she flatly answered. “They supervise all the activity in the mining areas.” “Well, maybe she wants to redeem herself.” The stallion good-natured speech had no effect on her this time. “Come on, Twilight. You used to be friends! Don’t friends forgive each other?” Twilight felt like restating how her experience in the fields of friendship was the result of years of field research, or rather, of living it, just so she could prove his point wrong. Alas, there was truth in his words, and she had to admit that sometimes ponies made mistakes. Rarity had tried to make up for her mistake in the past, and had succeeded to some extent. Perhaps it was just a matter of letting her try again. Yet there was something else that kept her from simply accepting the proposal. It wasn’t the pony offering it, and it certainly wasn’t because of her salary. If she accepted this, she’d be embracing the one thing she’d been fighting: the rush for Cavalium. To supervise the wellbeing of Cavalium extraction was to ensure the proliferation of the activity. “I… I can’t do it,” she declared with a tone of finality, rising to her hooves. “Twilight…” “I’m sorry, Time Turner. But it’s not right.” The stallion still rose from his seat to try and catch up to her, calling her name and pleading her to stop. It was all to no avail, as Twilight was long gone, somewhere away from the letter. Regardless of how joyous a day could turn out, Twilight always considered that arriving to her tower was the most pleasurable thing of all. Today, that went double. It felt like returning to her very own house, her realm where trouble didn’t exist. Past the door, all of her worries were washed away. They would patiently wait for the next morning to assault her again. Above all, it was one of the few opportunities she had to socialize with Spike during a day, save for the random encounters in the school halls. Unlike the repulsive smell of the cafeteria’s usually nauseating mixture they called food, a soft, saliva-inducing scent wafted from their kitchen almost every night. Twilight knew that she’d find whatever stew the dragon cooked far more appetizing than most things that were shoved down her throat. Much to her annoyance, today wasn’t one such day. Though most of the torches were lit up, Spike was nowhere to be seen. For a pony who lived in a circular tower with two floors and a library on the top one, knowing whether she was accompanied or not was an easy task. She couldn’t hear the cackling of any culinary utensils either, which meant that she’d have to wait a little longer before satisfying her hunger. “Spike?” she tentatively called, letting the large, wooden doors creak to close behind. The echo of her voice was the only answer she got. Maybe he’s out studying late. Realizing that the meal she’d longed for all day wouldn’t arrive any time soon, she groaned and let the pair of saddlebags slide off her back. The flaps flew open the moment they hit the ground, and a torrent of books coursed out of the bags. She ran a mental verification on her list of tasks for the day. Aside from the smaller chores, such as assignments and class preparations, there was little left for her to do. Mondays were always like this. In times like these, the best solution to her problem rested in the second floor. Why she kept a library inside her own tower, Spike was never able to explain. Twilight knew the reason, and it went far beyond a simple desire to read. Above all, it reminded her of Ponyville. She vaguely recalled the last time she visited the town. It had been shortly after leaving for Canterlot. The way the rush for Cavalium had drastically changed the once peaceful settlement shocked Twilight out of her mind. In the middle of that landscape of mud and newly-built wooden barracks, she found solace in the fact that her closest friends, sans Rarity, had all stayed behind. All of them had offered her a way to stay in Ponyville. Still, she had rejected all of the suggestions. The contract from the REC inevitably returned to haunt her thoughts. Rarity's resurfacing just so she could offer her a position - an extremely important one, no less - left obvious doubts lingering in the teacher's mind. Even more so when it was related to something like Cavalium. Twilight winced at the thought. It was when she was just a few steps short from the library floor that a voice took her by surprise. The mere sound of it stung like cold rain on a warm day. "How are the blank flanks behaving, miss Sparkle?" If the use of the offensive adjective hadn't been enough of an indicator of who this pony was, then seeing a pale magenta mare leaning against one of the tables confirmed all of Twilight's suspicions. "How did you get in here, Diamond Tiara?" The mare snorted shortly. "I have my ways. Your assistant wasn't really careful enough to leave the keys in a safe spot, either." "I'm calling the guards." "I wouldn't do that, Twilight," Diamond Tiara quickly noted. "You never know what might happen to some ponies if you do." "What's that supposed to mean?" "I thought you would have figured that out by now. Let me make it clearer for you." She reached out for a dossier and retrieved from it a small pile of photographs. With a swift movement of her head, she spread them across the tabletop. Confused, Twilight took a couple of cautious steps towards them. Diamond Tiara grinned mischievously as Twilight's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates. The subjects in the pictures were varied, but she recognized every single one of them. Spike, her brother, her old friends, Time Turner... her parents. "Wha... What are these for?" "Safety measures, of course. Oh! And I believe you forgot this in the cafeteria," the younger mare added with an air of coolness. She produced the REC contract from within the archive and held it high up so Twilight could see it. Her annoyed reaction was every bit as satisfying as Diamond Tiara had expected it to be. "Oh. So that's what this is about." All traces of happiness were wiped off her face upon noticing Twilight's abrupt change of mood. The unicorn was actually smiling. "Well, bad news, Diamond Tiara. I already rejected the offer. So you can go tell your father that-" "No, you blasted moron!" Twilight stepped back at the outburst, and backed even further away when Diamond Tiara tossed the contract and stood on the table. "Daddy knew you wouldn't accept the offer, so he decided to make you accept it!" She stomped the table and the dossier popped open. A stack of thinner folders, overflowing with papers, was revealed along with a pair of tickets. "Now listen carefully, miss Sparkle, because I might not give you a second chance. You will accept that contract. In there are two train tickets to Ponyville, one for you, and another one for your assistant. Should you choose not to accept it..." She stepped on the picture of her parents. "They go first." “Mo-- Miss Belle?” As carefully as she could, the silver-coated earth pony mare eased the great door shut with a hind leg. She was now treading on the smooth azure carpet of her employer's office, surrounded by the eternally watchful faces of the countless paintings that adorned the walls. She shivered at the realization that very few ponies had ever set hoof on that mat. In spite of the strong flames that crackled in the fireplace, she felt cold. An intimidating wooden table awaited at the farthest end of the carpet. Behind it sat a suited unicorn mare. Her face was partially obscured by her brilliant blue mane, which made a perfect match with the room's overall color scheme. The book she read appeared to have her undivided attention even as the visitor drew closer. "I trust you bring news about the administrator spot in Damson City, Silver Spoon?" Silver gulped and nodded repeatedly. "Yes, miss Belle. Twilight Sparkle accepted the terms of the contract." The mare ruminated on the information for a moment. She remained fixated on the book. Then, with the slightest of smiles, she spoke, "Marvelous. You are dismissed." Offering the mare a curt nod, Silver turned to leave. Her departure was cut short by the clearing of a throat and a question. "What of Filthy Rich?" her employer asked. "Hum, mister Filthy Rich is on line two, miss Belle," Silver Spoon answered, pointing at the red, intermittent bulb on the desk's telephone. "He didn't sound happy."