Walking in Mairephis

by Sunka

Make New Friends, Keep the Old. One is Adamantie, the Other a Pain in the Flank

Mairephis. Like most pegasi cities it was an archipelago in the sky. There were the stratus slums ringing the local branches of the weather factories that were held up on cumulus clouds. With the fall of Los Pegasus they were responsible for the weather manufacturing for most all of the West coast. That meant the factory was churning as hard as it could day and night trying to keep up demand.

Above that was the alto cumulus clouds that supported the large government buildings and the homes of those that worked there. Above them still were the Cirrus Estates. Those with the means to live on their own little cloud lived high above it all. There were a few mountain tops, with clouds ringing them. Those provided for the mineral and agricultural needs for immediate consumption and the homes of the necessary few non-pegasi for a modern city to function.

The stallions stood on the ground at the locomotive depot. This was where large scale non-weather related goods came and went into the city. There was a lift system that carried cargo and personnel from the train depot on the ground up to the clouds.

Shining began to concentrate, working out a spell. Yards began to dig through his saddlebags. He drop a set of shoes on the ground and began to kick them on.

“So, guess you need a cloud walking spell too?” asked an exasperated Shining.

Yards held up a hoof. “Nah. We were going to call them stratus shoes. It lets anypony walk on clouds.”

Shining chewed on his lip, thinking while they stepped into the lift to the city. “So you guys had the sacking of Los Pegasus planned out that far in advanced?”

“No, these were intended to aid pegasi cities with their tourism trade. Not everything has to be about killing somepony.” They walked into the lift with a load of cargo and rode up and up and up, waiting forever to reach the city.

Shining's ear twitched as he popped his ear. Yards yawned then scratched his nose. Nopony was willing to say anything. Shining sighed and pulled a book out of his saddlebags. Yards pulled his water bottle out and sipped for a moment before putting it back. Shining pulled out a pack of gum and popped a piece in his mouth. Almost hesitantly he floated it over to Yards.

He was torn. He didn't want to accept anything from him, but his ears really needed to pop again. Reluctantly he slowly pulled out a piece before putting it in his mouth. It was peach flavored. Quickly he spit it out of the lift then pulled out his water bottle again. Shining chuckled.

“So, where are we supposed to meet up with the rest of our group?” Yards finally fully broke the silence.

Ever regal Shining looked up into the city. “Astro and Star are supposed to be working some of the lower neighborhoods, trying to mix with the locals to see if anypony has been hiring anypony for unusual construction jobs. So they're likely the ones we'll encounter first.”

Yards grunted in acceptance and stood still, waiting for the elevator to finally reach the end. He started looking around at the boxes that were going up with them.

“Did you ever wonder why inanimate objects are just fine with clouds but living things that don't fly fall right through?” Yard's curiosity was piqued.

“You know, I'd never thought of it.” There was a ding and the upward movement finally stopped.

“Oh, Sun Butt's supple rump! Finally!” The door opened and they stepped out onto the clouds. It was weird, almost like trying to walk on a trampoline or an inflated floor. His hooves gave some, but quickly sprung back out of the condensation. It made walking a tricky timing puzzle that took them several minutes to solve.

“It kinda feels like I'm walking on my bed or something,” Shining confirmed.

“Yeah, just waiting for your mom to tell me to stop. Oh wait, that doesn't happen.” Yards laughed at his joke while Shining grabbed something to beat him with. A flier came off the board that caught their eye.

“Oh, it's the Mairephis Summerbration lineup this year.” The two checked the three day list of talents and acts.

“Wow, 'Chained to the Plow' is going to be on this year.”

“You would like them, see Golden Note is playing at the other end of the park.”

“Sorry, not all of us got to grow up and have an easy revelation like 'I like to protect things' to help them find their place in society.” After a pause for breath Yards continued. “Though Golden Note isn't bad, for a golden oldie.”

“She's not that old.”

“Her first hit is older than me.”

Shining winced. “I'm not that old.”

“Sure, Grandpa, hey what was it like going to school with Starswirl? Did he blow the curve?”

Shining glared at his compatriot then returned to the list, rather than draw attention to them by busting his face open. That's when something very important caught his eye.

“Oh, there's a wet mane contest Saturday.”

Yards's attention was immediately drawn to the activities part. “Really?”

“Maybe...we should...” Shining started fishing for a phrase.

“Be very thorough...” Yards supplied.

“Yes, thorough in our investigation.” Shining rolled up the flier and neatly tucked it into his saddlebags.

“So, where are we meeting everypony else?” Yards asked.

Shining supplied a key. “We've gotten a cloudstone in the strata. We're using it as our base.”

The cloudstone was in a long line of buildings. As was traditional, it was adorned with columns. These were the simple Tuscan rather than the more fanciful ionic seen more prevalently throughout the city. The main door in was actually a balcony on the 'ground' level. There was also a balcony and sliding door on the second level that apparently led to the master bedroom. No thought was given for non-flyers.

“I don't like this, we're a unicorn and an earth pony walking into somepony's house. It's too conspicuous.”

Shining chuckled. “You're too paranoid,” and unlocked the door. It swung open easily. “We're a repair unicorn and his flunky.” The soldier gave the engineer an evil grin.

The whole “House” was about fourteen feet across. This opened up to the living area with a modest couch and chair. There was a doorway across with a simple dining table in front of a window looking out. Yards could hear ponies in the kitchen area, laughing. It was Starfall. Straight in front of the door there were rough hewed steps that clearly weren’t stock leading to a hole in the side of the ceiling leading to the second floor where apparently the bedrooms were stationed. This was the simple home of either a pair of laborers or a low level manager whose mate stayed at home to tend foals. It had a very heavily loved and almost abused feel to it.

Yards walked in smiling to himself while Shining shut the door. The door closing caught the attention of those ponies in the kitchen. Starfall stuck her head around the doorway.

"YARDS!” She launched herself around her friend. He wasn't quite ready for the embrace and almost fell over. “OH, I heard what happened after I left to watch over Apple Rhubarb. I'm so sorry!” Yards returned her embrace and those fabulous wings wrapped around him. He could feel himself blush from the contact. Starfall nuzzled his hair around the stump of his horn. “You don't mind if I look, do you?”

“Nah.”

She parted his mane. “OH, oh no. They really did. I'm so sorry, Yards.” She hugged him again. “Do we need to change this?”

“Well. Sometime tonight.”

She let him go and came around behind him, pushing him towards the stairs. “Let's get that taken care of now.” Yards allowed himself to be guided up the stairs to the second floor. The bathroom was over the kitchen, which struck Yards as odd and bordered on unsanitary. Once in the bathroom he sat down in the tub, to give her a better access to his wound and to not take up all of the space in the tiny room.

She had to keep those long wings tucked away while inside the small room. Starfall had been around the farm a little, but Yards had never spent any time alone and this close to her. He got a good look at the roundness of her flank. Her tail was just dragging the floor. It's soft silver color was dull in the dark room. Her cutie mark was a five pointed star with a thin line of a different color coming from each point of the star streaking across her dark indigo coat. She turned around with a foreleg full of bandages. One of her forelegs had a her Martyr's Charm around it to protect her from mind control effects, like changelings, the other had a cheap ribbon around it. She'd tied her mane back in a kerchief, but it came tumbling chaotically out the back. Her eyes were a deep green. Wow she was beautiful. She caught his stare and smiled quizzically.

“Oh, nothing. Say, did you see the flier for the Summerbration?”

“Yeah, Tangerine Shadows is playing. I love her.”

“Did you see the wet mane competition?”

She stopped for a minute while her brain made the connection then snorted a quick laugh. “Oh,” She stood on the side of the tub while she brushed away his mane from where she'd be working. It offered Yards an amazing view of her undercarriage.

He tried to look away and talk about anything but what was in front of him.

“So, I take it you and Astro are getting along well?”

She was pinning his mane back with bobby pins to hold it out of the way. “Oh yeah, he's a great guy. Warm, kind, funny, gentle.” Her voice was wistful.

“Something wrong?”

“Yeah, he was too perfect.” She was pulling the old bandages off. “You're not off the hook.” She pushed away gently and looked down with a smile. “Going after him would be barking up the wrong tree.”

“Really?”

“Yeah,” she sighed. “He's one of 'those'.” She began to clean the wound. “Wow, that looks gross. Did it get infected?”

Yards didn't so much nod as flinch from the digging out of the old damage. “I've got to take antibiotics for another week to make sure it doesn't spread.”

She dripped a few drops of iodine into there and Yards bit back the need to scream bloody murder. Then she squirted a heavy dose of cream onto a pad and applied it to the top of his horn before sealing it all up with tape. “So...it's, it's going to be okay, right?”

“Me or the job?”

“Both,” she gave a weak smile.

“The doctor said it would probably be at least two, probably three months before my horn was back and I could do magic again. And, I don't know. “ He looked away and she settled back onto the floor. “Shining may be a complete bastard, but he's a competent military leader. Listen to what he says and do it when he says. That should maximize your chances of surviving if we actually do get into something really bad.”

She smiled and leaned forward to kiss his boo-boo. “Better?”

“Yeah. You have a very gentle touch. I think you missed your calling.”

She laughed, “Nah, I can't stand blood. Especially after, well when I met Toffee and them.” She started pulling the pins out of his mane before recovering his stub, hiding his shame.

“What's the ribbon?” he asked her while she put away the supplies.

“Hmm? Oh, the club we went into today. I can't legally drink yet.”

“Wait, what? How old are you?”

“Nineteen.”

Suddenly Yards felt like a dirty old stallion.

“Well, I think we've given those two enough time to talk about their secret plans.”

“Secret plans?” Yards ears piqued up and his blush faded.

Starfall opened the door and walked back into the hallway. “Yeah, it feels like Astro is hiding something, but I'm not sure what.”

Yards sighed as he followed that rump downstairs. There were low murmurs coming from the kitchen, but it didn't stop when they walked in. Shining was sitting on a cushion by the table; a beer floating next to him.

Astro was just wearing a dark green scarf. It contrasted sharply to his dark red body. His brown mane was still in it's pomp and his tail was still bobbed. Yards had never seen his cutie mark. It was a six pointed star with a crown hanging lopsidedly to the left. He had a half empty bottle of beer in front of him and an unopened bottle in his hoof. “Yards, there you are!” He launched the bottle at the former unicorn.

Yards yelled in surprise and deflected the bottle away from his head, into a wall.

Shining laughed. “I didn't know you had a marefriend over, Star.”

“Yeah,” sighed Yards, nervously. “I screamed like you mom did last night.”

“Oh, Cez, Yards I'm so sorry.” Astro handed him his own beer before going to get a mop and broom. “I totally forgot you'd lost your horn. I'm sorry.”

“It's alright.” Yard's grabbed a towel off the counter and tossed it over the spill. “I guess I'm sloppier than Shining's mom.” He chuckled to himself, looking over his shoulder to see a scowling Starfall. Angrily she stormed off back upstairs.

Yards looked at the other stallions and shrugged, then took a pull from the beer. “So what do we have going on?”

Astro dumped the broken bottle into the trash and retrieved a fresh one from the fridge. “We can confirm that builders are disappearing here and there. They’re grabbing ponies right before they get their Mastership. Then they're telling everypony that they're working on the rebuilding effort for Los Pegasus.”

“We know they're not there?” Yards took another pull. Ugh. He looked at the bottle. “Is your backwash that bad or do pegasi need to learn how to brew?” Having taken the required polite sips he sat it back on the counter. Alcohol and Yards didn't mix well.

Astro laughed. “It's the local label. If we're going to fit in, we've got to be able to swill it. Yeah, I know a pony who's working in the rebuilding effort. I sent her a letter with names of the ponies that have disappeared from here and she can confirm none of them have shown up there.” He tossed the cap at the trash, it bounced once then dropped in. “So, what's you guys' cover?”

Yards sighed. He could have planted himself so easily instead he had to come up with a permutation. He waved at his saddlebags. They had long tails designed to cover a blank flank. Heavy chains wrapped around his rear. The bags themselves were embroidered with flames and the name “Chained to the Plow.” “Roadie. In charge of lighting.. If they need some electrical work they might grab me that way.”

Astro looked him over. “Well, you are a bit old for one of Sweetie's groupies.”

“That the new singer's name?”

“Yeah.”

“Great. I'll spend the rest of the night memorizing their tour schedule.” Astro nodded and the two turned to Shining.

“Command Control Coordination. I'm staying here to keep communications between the three groups flowing. Odds are good we're going to have to move quick and we're going to need everypony at once.” He pulled six sets of comm horns from his saddlebag. They levitated to the table and were charged. “Did you get me a city map?”

Astro pulled a map from the cabinet and brought it over to the table. “As best we can determine the homes of the missing ponies are in red. Where they disappeared from is blue. The numbers coincide with which pony it is. Key's on the left.”

Shining nodded. “Excellent work. Make sure to pass it on to uh...Star?”

“Starfall,” finished Yards.

Astro smiled. “Hey, she's looking for a stallion. It'd probably do you some good, Boss.”

“I'm married.”

Astro gave him a look of amused disbelief.

“You’re old enough to be her father, what about Toffee?” Yards asked.

“I told you I'm married. Oh, Bravo Team? They should be back soon.”

Yards bit back his bitter retort about not how could he consider himself married if he hadn't seen his wife in eight years. Delta was still gone, he might not ever see her again. She was just a friend. To have lost his wife, he really shouldn't be making jokes about that. It was so much fun to hurt him, though.

The front door opened. Excited hooves rushed into the room. It was Messer and Toffee. “We found it!” Toffee squealed.

“What happened?”

“Well, I was digging through the real estate tax records. It turns out that a Mr. Moissanite Springs bought a cirrus estate a year ago. He ended up with a zoning violation for moving it out near an old stratocumulus outside of town.”

Shining gave her a confused look, but let her continue. Yard's eyes had long glazed over. You couldn't weld clouds together so he had largely ignored them in college.

Toffee turned to Messer, waving a presenting hoof his direction. “So Messer here went looking into some old military base records. Turns out the stratocumulus in question used to be an old base.” She then puffed out her chest and wings in pride. “That was purchased by...” she looked around, waiting for an answer.

“That guy?” offered Shining.

Toffee beamed a smile his way. “Correct.”

“Wait, you can buy a military base?” Even Astro was surprised.

“Lotsa bits,” was all Messer said.

Shining looked over to the military liaison. “So, what do we know about the base's history?”

“Top secret.”

Shining rolled his eyes. “Alright, I'll send some missives in the morning. We'll get to the bottom of it. Great work everypony. Let's get some grub and then get some sleep. We've got another long day tomorrow.”

“Do you have a plan?” Yards asked.

“We're going to study it tomorrow. I”ll get a floor plan. We'll go over it and see what we can come up with, alright?” The other ponies nodded.

“Keep digging in your areas tomorrow, maybe we'll find out some more that's useful. Yards, it looks like you won't have to infiltrate anything. Uh, maybe you could help me find some sort of structural weakness in the base we could exploit?”

Yards shrugged. “I'm going to need a book or something on vapor tensile strengths. Going to need some groceries, too, if you're looking for some explosives to utilize on said weaknesses.”

“You didn't bring any?” Shining smiled.

“No, I didn't think it would be wise to bring military grade explosives onto a civilian train. Especially, considering that whole 'terrorist on a train' thing going around.”

“I bought cutting cord,” offered Messer.

“Good, then I just need to make something that could set that off. That's a lot easier.”

“Alright. Get Messer a list of what you need for the explosives, Toffee, can you find him some books before the library closes? And Astro...I'm thinking griffonies. Everypony else like griffonies?”

“I know I do.” Astro's amusement was confusing. He gathered up orders while Yards pulled out a notebook and a pencil from his saddlebags and began to write off a few necessary household ingredients for Armageddon.

After they'd left, the engineer moved to the table and started setting up some basic equipment.
“Are the scales for measuring how much you hurt other ponies?” The feminine voice behind him asked.

Yards turned around to look at Starfall. Shining had disappeared. “What?”

“Why would you say something so hurtful to somepony else?”

“He's a dick. He deserves it.”

“So what did his mom do?”

Yards searched for something to say. Starfall walked up beside him. “This isn't like you, what's wrong?”

“This is an old fight.”

“Why?” She threw a wing across his back, giving him a supportive hug. “Is it, what happened to you?”

“We've hated each other long before then. It's...it's a betrayal thing. He stabbed me with his own horn while I was trying to get Princesses Luna out of the Canterlot riots at the beginning of the war.”

“I can't imagine the Princesses fighting.”

“Well, they weren't like physically kicking each other. It was a lot of heated arguments, name calling, decrying of shortsightedness vs monstrous insensitivity. The actual war...Well, once war started they stayed somewhat hooves off. I guess they'd realized that their 'leadership' had whipped their minions into too much of a frenzy to stop.”

Yards moved around some of the equipment to make room for the bundle of electronics he pulled out of his bag. “Shining Armor was largely in charge of the Solari army. Well, that wasn't destroyed by Dash's buck ups.”

“He really stabbed you?”

Yards moved his head away and placed his hoof on his neck. “Here. You can still feel the scar.”

Tentatively she moved a hoof to the point on his neck. Softly she breathed a “wow.”

“And since he knew me, and knew that I was in the Lunari R&D, he blames me for all the horrible weapons of destruction I...we built.”

“Is it really him that's blaming you? I haven't heard him.”

“He's waiting for a good shot. He's...”

She hugged him softly as he stopped. “Sometimes, the hardest pony to forgive, is ourselves.”

He stopped everything and just remained still in her wings. She stood there quietly holding him.

Eventually he turned to her. “Wow...so...how's your sammich making skills?”

She laughed. “Not as good as Apple's.” Softly she pulled her wing back from him

“Thanks.”

She smiled back. “It's alright. I'm more than just a pretty set of wings.”

He returned her smile.

“So, no more of this bitterness? Especially to somepony's mom.”

Yards nodded. “I'll try.”

She kissed his cheek. “Good boy.”

“Operant Conditioning requires regular reinforcement.”

She gave him a confused look.

He waved his hoof as he went back to work. “Never mind. There's a reason engineers aren't known for being smooth.”