//------------------------------// // Part 2 // Story: The Friendship Tower // by tigerpony89 //------------------------------// Part 2 School had let out nearly an hour ago but two students still lingered behind in the courtyard. "Aw Cid, I don't think I'll ever get this." "Relax Ami, you're making progress. Try this problem again," said Cid, a unicorn stallion with a blue-green coat. He pointed to the exercise in a textbook they had been working on for some time. "Ugh, I'm too worn out. Maybe tomorrow, ok?" pleaded Ami. "Ok," replied Cid. "If you had time to practice these exercises besides just these meetings after school..." "No," Ami replied flatly. There was an awkward pause. Cid hesitated, but then spoke again. "Surely your parents wouldn't mind knowing you're doing extra studying. They might even let you take the class yourself rather than having to learn from me." "No." Ami said with the same tone. She then continued bitterly, "You don't understand Cid. Maybe they mean well, but I have so little freedom. Some people think being rich gives you freedom, but it doesn't. I have to be their perfect earth pony daughter. And I can't have too many friends. And I can't take the extra class. Can't this. Musn't that. Ugh!" Ami stomped in frustration. "They say they want to take care of me, but it feels more like a cage!" Ami sighed and they shared silence for a bit. Cid looked up at the clock on the school and said "Oh, I guess we have to get going. I...I'm sorry I upset you." "I'm sorry too Cid. You're one of the few friends I have and I'm sorry I have to sneak in time with you. Thanks again for teaching me...Professor Placid Lake!" "Eck - just Cid, as you well know," Cid said with a playful scowl. "Well, take care Cid" "You too." The dream faded as Ami woke in her room in the Ponyville Inn. She sat up and signed, reflecting on her memories she had so vividly dreamed through. "I miss you Cid. But soon, we'll be friends again, and have many, many more." "Ow, hey leggo you big ox!" "We were just lookin' around, mister!" Three fillies without cutie marks were being escorted out of the construction site by Square Beam and another large earth pony. In this case, "escorted" meant pushing the fillies along while being yelled at by said fillies. "Now look," said Square Beam, "we can't have ponies just wandering around the construction site. We have heavy materials and machines and you could get hurt." "Aww, but we just wanted to see what's going on up close," said Sweetie Bell. "You have to stay behind the fence. Now don't let any of us catch you in here again." Square Beam and partner gave the fillies a final gentle shove out of the fence gate. Rarity was just outside the gate with Ami examining several paint chips in the sunlight when she noticed the fillies’ yells and galloped over to them. "Oh, Sweetie Bell, what’s going on?" "Indeed, how did you fillies get in to my construction site?" Ami asked the three in a raised voice. The three fillies looked at each other, then Scootaloo spoke up, "well, that gate toward the south side was unlocked, so..." "Hmpf," Ami interrupted and turned to Square Beam. "You are responsible for the security of this site!" She then turned back to the three fillies, "And you three ought to know better! No one outside my team is allowed on this site! Our work is very sensitive and we must complete it on time!!" Ami was shouting by the end and her big curly mane was shaking as if there were an earthquake. Rarity was shocked. "Well, Ami, I know what they did was wrong, but..." "It certainly was!" Ami interrupted, but suddenly calmed after turning to Rarity. "Hmph. Well...please keep these fillies away from our work site. Just let me know what you decide about the paint colors." Ami walked into the gate and jerked her head toward Square Beam. He shut and locked the gate and Rarity and the fillies turned to walk away. As they left, they overheard Ami talking angrily at Square Beam about security. "Well, I hope you fillies know you shouldn't be sneaking in to icky, dirty construction sites. I don't know why you would want to anyway - yeck," said Rarity. "Yeah, but that pony didn't need to yell at us," answered Sweetie Belle. "Hmmm...I am a bit disappointed at Ami's temper...I suppose she's under a lot of stress." As the group walked away, a pink pony peered out from an alleyway near the construction area gate. Pinkie narrowed her eyes at Ami behind the gate who was still angrily talking to Square Beam. She scribbled some notes on a notepad. A few weeks later, Ami Cleave and Square Beam were in the Mayor's office with Twilight Sparkle. Ami was visibly upset. "Look, this is hardly unreasonable. I'm just asking for a few days to move the girders and other materials from the river barges." "Yes, but you're going to block off a major road in town for that time," responded the Mayor. "And, you're going right past my, uh...the Ponyville Library, and a lot of heavy materials could hurt the root system," added Twilight Sparkle. "Actually," added Square Beam, "I'm not sure we need all these extra materials. The inside of the monument has a simple design..." "Well, I changed it...with...Rarity's advice. It will be more ornate and eventually have...um...displays inside about the Elements and their Bearers," replied Ami, glaring at Square Beam. "What exactly are these changes?" asked Twilight. Square Beam replied. "Well, there will still be a spiral staircase to the observation deck, but there will be more ornate structures inside. Some iron beams will be installed, some plated with designs of copper plus silver and gold trim..." "Oh, all that detail isn't important," interrupted Ami. "Anyway, the decision is mine. I'm funding the project, I already have your permits for construction, my site engineer says the transportation won't disturb the town except for closing the road. And, I remind you that Princess Celestia herself has blessed this project. I'm really only here telling you this as a courtesy." Ami huffed, jerked her head at Square Beam with a glare, and turned to leave. The large earth pony followed her a few paces behind. Once they left, the mayor sighed. "She's right. I can't tell her no when Princess Celestia herself has blessed this project. I'm sorry Twilight. Hopefully nothing bad will come of it." "Oh, uh, that's ok mayor. Thank you for inviting me." Twilight turned to leave but something Square Beam said had her curious. Iron, copper, silver, and gold. These were metals with some interesting magical properties. Though few unicorns needed any power beyond their own magic for their daily lives, she remembered some older books she had read talked about magical interactions with certain metals. "I wonder how many unicorns Ami has on her crew," Twilight thought to herself. Ami was by herself in the house that evening when the letter arrived. Not that she was alone as the house servants were there. They were kind but mainly stayed out of her way. She answered the front door herself and took the letter from the post-pony. She moved back to the sitting room and opened it. Dear Ami, I am so sorry to hear about the death of your parents. I'm also sorry I wasn't there to see you. Basic Training in the Guard ended last month and the mail is slow to get to our post near the Griffin Kingdom. My sergeant says I can't have leave as I'm so new, it's not for immediate family, and it was weeks ago. I know you had your differences with them, but an accident like that must be hard. Please write me back when you have time and let me know how you are. Your friend, Cid Ami sighed. It was nice to get a letter; she thought Cid was ignoring her. But in a way it made her losses worse. Her parents were gone. Her only good friend was now stationed as far away as he could be. But, she now had a purpose. This new project could change everything for her, and give her all the friends she wanted all those years her parents sheltered her. It wouldn't be easy, but the reward would be very great. Ami returned to the library and went back to studying and cross-referencing the three books she had open. "Let's see...combining iron with copper..." Ami shook her head to extract herself from the memory. She turned to see beams moving in to place in the tower. “All that work will pay off in just a few more days,” she muttered to herself. "Urg." It was the nicest thing Twilight said as she got out of bed, bleary-eyed. She could still hear the construction noise all the way to the Treehouse. She went to the bathroom and removed the ear muffs, then the cotton balls, then the ear plugs. She then realized two things. First, the construction noise really was louder now so she was glad she went to all that trouble. Second, her mane looked like three tornados had gone through it in different directions. "Umgh," was all she could say to respond. This was the third day that construction had been going on for 24 hours. The only people in Ponyville happy about it were the stores and restaurants that sold coffee and ear plugs. Twilight attempted to fix her mane and gave up when she realized she had dozed off. She came out of the bathroom and gave an unpleasant look at Spike, who was sound asleep. She meant to say "coffee" but it came out "grumgr" so she gave up talking or trying to wake him up and went downstairs. After two cups of coffee (or was it three?) she was only a bit better. At that point Spike came downstairs to the kitchen. "Good morning Twilight! I...wow, I think you need to brush your mane. And what's that smell?" "Coffee, Spike. Lovely, lovely coffee." "Ummm," said Spike as he looked in the coffee pot, "Twilight, where did you get these coffee grounds?" "Outta that can over there," Twilight pointed. "Twilight, that's not the coffee grounds, that's where I put the fireplace ashes." Twilight looked in her empty cup. "I thought it had a burnt taste to it." Spike tried hard not to laugh as he cleaned out the coffee maker and started to make an actual cup of coffee for her. About an hour later, Twilight was much better and visiting Pinkie Pie at Sugarcube Corner. Even Pinkie Pie seemed slightly run down from a sleepless night and constantly making coffee for customers. But she perked up as Twilight entered. "Hey Twilight! We've had the slowest ponies for morning rush I've ever seen today." "Hey Pinkie Pie. Do you have any coffee left?" "Yup, I have a fresh pot here. I'll pour you a cup. Head over to that booth in the back and we'll talk after I clean up the counter." Twilight made her way to the booth with her precious, precious coffee that didn't smell at all like fireplace ashes. Pinkie Pie joined her in a few minutes. She snuck quietly into the booth, eyes squinting. "Pinkie, what are you doing." "I'm looking for suspicious looking ponies. They could be SPIES." Twilight sighed. "I think we're in the clear Pinkie." "Oh, ok!" Pinkie quickly sat up straight. "Now, Pinkie, have you had a chance to watch Ami?" "Yes!" Pinkie furrowed her brow and looked more serious. She pulled out her notebook, lowered her voice, and told Twilight of several times when she saw Ami very upset, including the incident with the Cutie Mark Crusaders. "And it's been getting worse the closer we've gotten to the deadline. It's like she's getting more and more anxious about completing that monument on her schedule. And I had to take a break from watching her since my poor back leg was wiggling so bad I could barely walk." "Hmmm. Well, I've found some strange things too. She's building a more elaborate internal structure to the monument, and she's using an unusual combination of metals, including iron, copper, silver, and gold." "Wow, that sounds pretty," said Pinkie. "It probably will be, but each of those interact with magic in some interesting ways. There are some older spells I looked up recently that require the presence of one or more of those metals." "That's weird. But, why would an earth pony care about that or even know to use them that way?” "I don't get it either. I've seen a few unicorns around the job site. Maybe she's going to have one of them cast...something. I just don't have enough information to know what's going on here. One thing seems true: Ami is not telling the Mayor everything. Something is going on with the monument, the magically related metals used, her desire to get it finished by the deadline at all costs..." Suddenly they both realized they heard ponies cheering outside. They also realized something they didn't hear: construction. Twilight turned to Pinkie. "The job must be done! Pinkie, are you pondering what I'm pondering?" "I think so, but I’m pretty sure I cleaned out Gummy's box yesterday." Twilight just shook her head. "No, whatever Ami is going to do, she's going to do it soon. Pinkie, we need to find out what's going on in the Friendship Tower." "I don't think going over there today and asking is going to help." Twilight sighed. "I agree Pinkie. That's why we need to sneak in there…tonight." "Oooo, a ninja style entrance!" "Uh, something like that. Now Pinkie, listen carefully, there's a full moon tonight, so well have to be extra careful..." The two ponies put their heads together and made plans in whispers.