Archimedes
Chapter VIII - A Conversation Between Two Sisters.
Moon Dancer yawned and smacked her lips as she slowly opened her eyes, giving her body a stretch. The mare blinked lazily as she looked down at the rusty metal slab she was lying on. The dimly lit room made it hard for her to concentrate after just waking up, but she did wonder where her bed was and why she wasn’t lying in it. She looked around her surroundings at the very dimly lit room.
Soon coming came face to face with two dimly lit yellow lights.
“Morning,” Archimedes casually waved.
Moon Dancer let out a high pitched shriek as she jumped before landing on the robot’s chest, her own chest heaving as she tried to catch her breath.
Archimedes couldn’t help but chuckle as he poked her muzzle making her scrunch it up, “Cute, if I do say so myself.”
“Don’t do that!” Moon pouted, “I hate being surprised like that!”
“Figured a guards pony, especially one belonging to the night division would not be so easily spooked,” Archimedes teased.
“Oh… shush, you,” Moon glared, “What time is it anyway?”
“I’d say… around five in the morning,” the robot replied.
Moon grumbled, yawning before curling up on his chest again, “Wake me up when it’s eight, I wanna have brekkie before you get your body fixed.”
“I thought your race were nocturnal?” Archimedes asked.
“Sorta, most of my species are nocturnal. However, there are few of us in the guard that are trained to be diurnal in case of emergencies and the Solar guards need assistance,” Moon replied with a yawn, “It started around the time after the changelings invaded.”
Archimedes nodded and gave the mare a soft scratch behind her ear, to which Moon sighed happily as she settled back to sleep. The robot slowly rolled his head to look out of the window. Whilst he himself couldn’t sleep, he could opt to power down but he decided not to in order to let his mind wander.
Despite how much she had insisted she was okay, Archimedes couldn’t help feel worried for Celestia. Especially after he blacked out and she asked him to say something again.
He wasn’t quite sure what she meant, nor why she was so excited. All he could remember was the three talking about the unicorn Starswirl and he just, for a lack of a better description, lost consciousness and his mind went blank. That is until he woke up with Celestia looking up at him with excitement.
Was it something to do with Starswirl? It wasn’t the first time something… weird happened when that name popped up. Was he that important? After all he was technically his creator, so why would the mention of him cause him to have moments of forgetfulness.
As he pondered, he groaned a little and felt his head hurt. Not wanting to wake his friend, he decided to think on the subject matter later, and slowly powered himself down. The last thing he saw before his eyes dimmed into nothing was the smile on the bat ponies face.
Moon impatiently tapped her hoof as she kept looking over to the large clock in the palace gardens every few seconds. The mare then bit her lip as she looked back at the large robot who was currently engaging in polite chit-chat with the gardener, who looked like he was about to faint from shock at just who he was talking to.
“Oh man, oh man!” Moon Dancer panicked as she trotted in place quickly, “We’re so late! Hurry up tin-can!”
“Oh, you worry too much. Why don’t you just enjoy our walk to the blacksmith?” Archimedes replied as he slowly trudged behind her, saying goodbye to the gardener before said pony finally fainted.
Moon groaned and gritted her teeth, “I would. But you keep stopping to talk to everypony we come across! We’re already fifteen minutes late for your appointment!”
“Well, if I remember correctly,” Archimedes started as he caught up to her, “You were the one who just insisted in a second round of crumpets.”
Moon blushed and scrunched her face as she looked away in annoyance, “I can’t help it! Have you tried crumpets with apple jam?!”
“I’m afraid not, my friend,” Archimedes chuckled, picking up the mare who squeaked as she was carried in his arms, “But I’ll take your word for it. Now, lets see if we can’t make up for lost time, hmm?”
“Whatever,” Moon grumbled as she clambered onto his shoulder and huffed, “Now, git!”
Archimedes snickered to himself as the lunar guard pointed forwards with her hoof, “Right away, captain.”
The two made the way through the gardens with relative ease and soon came to the exit, Moon dancer pointed to a large plume of smoke that was coming from a nearby hill and grinned.
“There it is, that’s where the blacksmith is,” Moon said.
Archimedes nodded and as the two made their way towards it, Archimedes took note of a unicorn stallion nearby who was walking around as if he was looking for something. He had a crazed look in his eyes and his black mane was short and gelled up, the glasses on the end of his muzzle nearly falling off. What was more curious was the fact he was levitating a small key in front of him.
The robot merely shrugged it off and continued his way over the hill. As the two came to the top and began their descent, the robot took a look at the blacksmith and was impressed with what he saw.
The blacksmith was larger than he thought and was made up of two buildings. It easily was near the same size as the castle barracks, from the description that Moon Dancer gave him the previous night. It had two chimneys stood tall and proud from its roof, and unlike the other parts of the castle. The roof would dip before ending in a slight upwards point.
From where they were standing, Archimedes could see that the slightly smaller building was what appeared to be a home of sorts, probably where the blacksmith would reside. The building next to it, however, was taller than the former. It had one large room with in the far back and dominating the area was a large forge, the embers glowing brightly from it. Attached to it were the bellows being operated by an earth mare and nearby, a stallion was hard at work at an anvil.
All around the forge were several benches that had various lumps of metal, coupled with some ores. The robot also spotted a few benches that had weapons and armor on them. Aside from the mare working on the bellows and the stallion by the anvil, there was only one other pony present. A strong looking stallion with a grey coat, though Archimedes reckoned it could’ve been white and covered in muck.
The stallion noticed the robot approaching and unlike the mare and other stallion who both yelped in startled surprise, he kept his demeanor. As Archimedes and Moon Dancer got closer, he made a note that the stallion was a lot taller than others, and had very defined muscles. His mane and tail were black and his cutie mark was a symbol of an anvil, around his neck which went under his stomach and was tied around his midsection was a dirty brown apron. What stood out to him was the fact his left eye had a black patch over it and two faint lines of an old scar that dragged across his face hidden underneath it.
The stallion raised a brow as Moon Dancer hopped off Archimedes’ shoulder.
“Archimedes I presume?” he asked as the robot nodded, “You’re late.”
“Private Moon Dancer,” Moon said with a salute and a neutral expression, “I’ve been assigned to escort Archimedes here to be fixed up on orders of the Princess.”
“So I’ve heard,” the blacksmith replied before walking around Archimedes, sizing him up, “Caused a lot of ruckus yesterday.”
Archimedes winced a little and coughed, “Uhm… yes I’m afraid that’s correct, sir. As I’ve said too many of the noble ponies and guards I’ve seen today, I’m truly sorry for my actions.”
As Archimedes bowed, he and Moon Dancer were caught in surprise as the blacksmith burst out into a deep hearty laugh.
“Don’t be, you must have broken a lot of doors given how many locks, hinges and other things I’ve been commissioned to make. Not to mention the nice pile of bits the Princess’ gave us if we are quick about it,” the stallion smiled and offered his hoof, “Name’s Flint Lock, Royal Blacksmith.”
Archimedes took his hoof and gently shook it, “Archimedes, uh… robot.”
Flint chuckled as he turned back inside and suddenly scowled as he spotted his two assistants still gawking at the robot.
“Iron Horn! Silver Hoof! Stop gawking and get back to bloody work! We have orders to fill from the Princess!”
The mare and stallion jumped at his words and quickly resumed their work, “Y-yes, boss. S-sorry, boss!” the said in unison.
“Foals today,” Flint sighed shaking his head, “Anyway, if you’d like to follow me, Archimedes. I’ll see what I can do about fixing you up.”
Archimedes looked at the ceiling of the building and carefully bent down as to not bash his head and followed Flint Lock inside. Before he fully entered, he turned to Moon Dancer.
“Are you coming?” he asked.
Moon Dancer shook her head, “Afraid not, Archy. Got a few other things I need to do, I’ll be coming by later anyway with Princess Celestia as she’s requested to see you as soon as you’re done. How long will it take roughly, Flint Lock?”
Flint Lock rubbed his hoof on his chin, “Hard to say… give me, say… five to six hours to get it done.”
“Can’t you do it faster? Archy— I mean Archimedes has got to get ready to do his community service later,” Moon Dancer replied.
“I may be good, kiddo, but even I can’t perform miracles,” Flint replied with a wave of his hoof, “Just remember that I haven’t exactly worked on anything like Archimedes before.”
Moon sighed but nodded, “Fair enough, I’ll bring the Princess in about six hours then to see how you get on.”
“Very well,” Flint nodded as he trotted over to a space near the back of the smith.
“I’ll see you later today, Archy,” Moon said.
“See you then, my friend,” Archimedes replied, “I’ll make sure I look my best for my beloved.”
Moon snickered before she spread her wings and took flight, making her way back towards the castle.
Celestia sighed to herself as she sat in her study. She was currently having an hour or so break from dealing with the nobles all morning and most of the afternoon and had decided to take a break for some tea in her study, however, she found it extremely difficult to get relaxed.
Her mind was just racing with dozens upon dozens of thoughts, all of them about Archimedes and Starswirl.
She was brought out of her thoughts by a knock at the door and looked over to it, a soft smile on her lips as she composed herself.
“Come in,” she said softly.
“Tia? Are you okay?” Luna said as she poked her head into the study. “You weren’t in the courtroom and the guards said you’d called it off early complaining of a headache.”
“That’s right, I just have a slight headache. That’s all, Luna,” Celestia replied.
Luna raised her brow, “Discord was right, you are a terrible liar.”
Celestia grumbled as her younger sister giggled and trotted over to her, taking a seat opposite the sofa Celestia was laying on.
“So, spill. Something is clearly bothering you,” Luna said.
Celestia levitated her cup of tea to her lips before speaking, “Its… just something Discord said the other day. It’s gotten me thinking.”
“What about?” Luna asked.
“Starswirl.”
“Ah, your favorite student, other than Twilight,” Luna nodded, “What about him?”
“Well, Discord asked me whatever happened to him and we sort of got talking but I never actually answered him,” Celestia replied.
“Well, I’d thought it was obvious even to him. Starswirl was mortal so he obviously passed away as does all mortal life,” Luna said as she poured her own tea.
“You’d think that…” Celestia sighed, “But it’s worse than that… I couldn’t answer him if I wanted to.”
“What do you mean?” Luna asked, sipping her tea.
Celestia lowered her ears and looked away, almost shamefully, “He was my best friend, Luna. I cared greatly for him and I really miss him…”
She then slowly looked over to her sister, tears threatening to burst from her eyes.
“So why can’t I remember when or how he died? Or where he’s buried?!” Celestia all but screamed.
Celestia choked on a sob as Luna quickly rushed to her sister's side and wrapped her into a loving embrace, softly stroking her back and giving her a reassuring nuzzle.
“Tia, it’s okay…” Luna whispered.
“No it’s not!” Celestia cried, “I can’t even remember how my best friend died, let alone where he’s buried! What kind of friend does this make me?!”
Luna held her closer and frowned as the sun princess continued.
“I spent all night scouring the archives for any record of his death and burial grounds, but there is nothing down there!”
Luna raised her brow, “Are you sure?”
“Of course I’m sure!” Celestia shouted, “There is nothing in the official records, nothing in the palace employment records and nothing in his own personal wing!”
Luna winced as her sibling shouted at her, but let it slide when Celestia sniffled into her neck, “But what about his work? That’s all down there, am I right?”
Celestia nodded as Luna continued.
“And up until now, you’ve never really thought about his death or grave specifically. Just about him, the stallion, now and again, right?”
Again, Celestia nodded.
“So I’m sure there’s a reasonable explanation, Tia. Maybe, you might have just missed something in the archives. You only did search for one night, It’s not like somepony could just up and vanish, even Sombra’s fall over a thousand years ago is kept in a record to the date. And goodness knows the old part of the archives need proper organising, especially in the Starswirl wing.”
Luna nuzzled her sister’s cheek affectionately.
“You’re under a lot of stress, Tia. What with Archimedes arrival and the… fiasco it’s brought on. Not to mention, we have the alliance meeting with the Griffin Emperor next week to discuss our continued alliance with them.”
Celestia sniffled and used a wing to wipe her eyes, “M-maybe you’re right, Luna. I have been a little stressed… a more thorough search can be done at another time.”
Luna smiled, nudging Celestia with her hoof, “That’s right. And besides, I doubt he’d be that miffed if you’d forgotten. So much has happened since then, you’re bound to forget a few things. And from what you’ve told me about him, he’d have told you to ‘stop being so silly for goodness sake, you silly little thing, you’,” Luna said, adding a deep voice, puffed out cheeks and a goofy wiggle with her body to the last part trying to mimic Starswirl.
Celestia giggled softly, “That does sound like something he’d say…”
“What’s this? A thingy-ma-jig? A do-dad? A do-hickey? A knick-knack? I must study it and find out what it does! What’s that… ? It’s called an umbrella? Fascinating...’” Luna continued.
Celestia brought a hoof to her face and stifled a snort of laughter.
“‘But Celestia! You do not understand! I need to continue my research into why ponies like socks!’” Luna continued.
Celestia burst out into a fit of giggles and leant against Luna, tears of laughter now running down her face, “O-oh, Luna! You have him spot on!”
Luna grinned as she joined in on her sisters contagious laughter. After several moments the two calmed down and Celestia gave her sister a firm nuzzle into her neck.
“Thank you, Luna. I needed that…”
“My pleasure, Tia. Sisters should stick together when in trouble,” Luna replied, nuzzling back, “Don’t be afraid to come talk to me if you ever need to vent, Tia.”
“Likewise,” Celestia replied with a smile.
There was a knock at the door, making the two alicorns turn their heads to it as the head of Moon Dancer peeked into the room.
“Your highness’?” she asked, “Flint Lock says he’s finished with Archy.”
“Wonderful,” Luna replied with a clap of her hooves, “I cannot wait to see how he looks now!”
“Neither can I, shall we?” Celestia added with a smile.
“Same here!” Moon grinded before chuckling nervously, “I mean, as do I, your majesties’.”
The two princess’ giggled at the guard before they rose from their seats and followed Moon out of the room and down the corridor.