25 - Episode 4, A Very Important Date
Cherry had reduced the poor clock to a veritable explosion of parts. It did not tick, sway, or show any signs of life. How could it, with all its vital pieces laid out carefully side-by-side for Cherry to take in with wide, curious eyes?
Indigo leaned in over them, his curiosity more tempered than his friend's, but quite present. "Why did you break it?"
Cherry waved him off. "It's not broken. I know where every last piece goes, mostly." She stuck out her tongue a little and grabbed the first part to be returned in her mouth, carefully stepping between parts back to the main body of the grandfather clock and slipping it into place. "I see how it works now. It really is very amazing, considering how many parts it has, and they all work together!"
Indigo crept a bit closer, his forelegs pulling him along as well-oiled wheels held up his back section, powerful tail swaying a little as he looked over Cherry's work. "It's amazing that you understand any of this. It feels like countless little parts."
"I guess it is a lot." Cherry tilted her head before grabbing the next piece and slotting it in. "That's what makes mechanical things so amazing in the first place. I want to make something so complex, but smooth. To have a thousand million parts, but feel like it's all one part, dancing in harmony."
Spike suddenly came running in, holding a scroll. In his hurry, he tripped right over Cherry's pile of parts and went sprawling. Cherry squawked in dismay at the mess and threw up a hoof. "My baby! If you bent anything..."
Indigo moved to help Spike up to his feet. "Did something happen? Why are you in such a hurry?"
Spike nodded at Indigo. "Hey, sorry about that. I have to get this to Spike."
Indigo tilted his head. "You are Spike."
Spike shook his head quickly. "I mean Twilight. It's a letter from Princess Celestia, top priority!"
Perhaps attracted by the noise, Twilight appeared suddenly. She laid eyes on the scroll and her horn lit up as she grabbed it with her magic and unfurled it quickly.
As Twilight read it, Indigo smiled at Spike. "You did it, good job."
She let out a gasp, the scroll vanishing with a pop. "She's coming tomorrow!"
Cherry took another piece and carefully examined it for damage before carefully putting it in its place. "Who is? The other princess? Are you friends?"
"Friends?" Twilight rolled her eyes. "She was my mentor for years! She's more then a 'friend'. Besides, she's Celestia! Of all the princesses, she's the biggest and most respected."
Indigo tilted his head. "Oh, it goes by size? I suppose that's as reasonable as anything else."
"No!" Twilight began to frazzle around her mane with worry. "It's not that. Look, you know the sun, right?"
Cherry waved a hoof even as she worked to get her clock re-assembled. "Of course we do. It's hard to miss it."
Twilight nodded quickly. "Great, well there's one pony in charge of waking it up and putting it to rest. Celestia controls the sun! That's kind of a big deal, even to aquatic races I imagine."
Indigo nodded at that. "Without the sun, a lot of things in the ocean would die. First small things, then bigger things that ate the smaller things, then things that ate those things..." To say nothing of freezing over eventually, but he knew nothing of that. "She really moves that thing? It looks so far away..."
"It is!" Twilight clopped the floor with a snort. "She's also the ruler of Equestria, alongside her sister." She suddenly swallowed and re-summoned the letter, her eyes scanning furiously. "Who... is also coming." Twilight sank to her belly.
Spike gave her shoulder a soft patting. "It's alright. It's not like she has a quiz for you. You really are friends, Twilight. Why are you so upset?"
Twilight leveled a hoof at each of her guests. "They don't know how to address a princess, let alone have a discussion with one! What if Princess Celestia thinks I've been shirking my duties? What if she takes my crown and makes me go to royal kindergarten?"
Spike hiked a brow. "There is no such thing, and she wouldn't do that anyway. You're making a big deal about nothing."
Cherry carefully got the main arm of the grandfather clock into place and screwed it in before nodding at Twilight and Spike. "We'll be polite. They're nice ponies, right?"
"Being 'nice' is not enough." Twilight rose to her hooves. "That's it! I'll show you both how to act around them before they get here." She turned towards the dining room. "Let's go!"
Indigo and Spike began to follow, but Cherry was focused on her clock, at least until Twilight's magic wrapped around her and began hauling her along. "Wait! I'm almost done!"
She was dragged away by an uncaring Twilight and soon all four of them were in the dining room. Twilight set Cherry beside the table and Indigo wheeled himself to sit beside her obediently.
"Good." Twilight nodded. "Let's begin with how to set a table."
Spike hiked a brow. "I doubt the princesses are going to ask them to do that."
Twilight put a hoof to her chest and let out a slow breath as she extended it. "Right, but proper etiquette starts here." She trotted over to the table, her magic hovering over a set of plates and various forks, knives, and spoons and setting it in a pile. "Let's begin."
Indigo reached for some of the implements, poking them curiously. "What are these for?" He grasped the knife in his mouth and set it closer to himself. "I recognize this one, useful for getting into hard shells and things."
Twilight gave a nervous laugh, her mane frizzing all the more. "Yes, that's a knife. You use it for cutting harder parts of food into bite-sized portions. And this..."
Cherry raised a hoof. "Are we eating with your friends? Will there be cake? I bet she'll like that."
Indigo rubbed at his belly. "I'd like that... How does The Dry make such delicious things?"
Twang, another of Twilight's hair began sticking out at an odd angle. That wasn't working. "Alright, let's try something else. I'll pretend to be one of the princesses." She sat across from them at the table and cleared her throat. "So--"
Indigo smiled at Twilight. "Which of them are you? Are you the sun pony? How do you do that?"
Twang. "Her name is Celestia. Her sister is Luna. Please address them by their name, with 'Princess' in front."
Cherry nodded slowly. "Yes, um, Princess Twilight. May I finish putting my clock back together?"
Twilight let her head hit the table with a dull thunk as she heavied an exasperated sigh. "Go ahead..."
Cherry and Indigo went off together back to her work. Spike patted Twilight's defeated shoulder. "I'm sure they'll both like Cherry and Indigo. They're nice ponies. Besides, it can't be worse than when you left Celestia with Cranky of all ponies."
Twilight let out a choked sob and Spike gently comforted her as she wept.
Back in the other room, Cherry eagerly resumed putting the pieces into her slowly-mending machine. "Hey, Indie, how're the wheels working out?"
Indigo looked back at them and pulled himself forward and back as if testing them. "They seem to work pretty well. I think I'm faster with these than your fancy mechanical legs."
Cherry blinked at that. "What? But mine are much more advanced." She closed the hatch on the clock and wound it up. The clock began to tick softly, making Cherry beam with pride. "There's no way."
Indigo pointed to one of the mechanical hooves. "You can only move as fast as they move, and they don't move that fast. The wheels will move as fast as I pull them, and I can go pretty fast. We could have a race to prove it?"
Cherry frowned. "Fine, but whoever loses buys the other a cookie."
Indigo licked his lips with fond memories of Pinkie's baking prowess. "You're on. In fact, why don't we race to Sugarcube Corner? That way we can get the cookie right away."
They lined up besides one another and Cherry pointed at the clock. "When it rings, we go!"
Together, they waited, with only the ticking of the clock to interrupt the silence.
Tick tick tick... Dong! They took off as quickly as they could.
Cherry engaged her mechanical legs into trotting mode and made good time, but Indigo wasn't entirely wrong. She could only go exactly as fast as they went. Her face fell as her friend made early swift progress along the smooth floor of the castle and wheeled himself out with an excited cry.
She had a reprieve when they hit a rough patch of ground between the castle and the bakery. While she could easily step over bumps, his wheels loved getting stuck in furrows and ditches whenever they could, slowing him down severely as she made up for lost time. Unfortunately for her, the roads of Ponyville were flat, and he began to speed up the moment he made it past the rough ground and caught up with her all-too-quickly before bursting ahead of her with a whoop of victory.
The last she saw of him was his eagerly swaying tail until she came trotting up to the bakery to find him smugly grinning with victory. "See? Fancy doesn't always mean better."
Cherry stuck out her tongue. "Yeah yeah, you won this one, but you would have been so helpless in the forest."
"What's that?"
Cherry walked past him into the bakery. "I'll tell you all about it over that cookie I owe you."
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7222477 i will see about reading this, it means two chapters a day!
Twilight hates your commenters?
It certainly feels... off.
Not bad, just... different.
Pacing? Perhaps a guest author? Something is off from what I expect.
Help, THYPOS keeps getting to my work! Hwo do I tsop them?
Poor Twilight, nopony wants to blindly panic with her. Don't sea-ponies understand the importance of blind panic?
Please make it really funny for the next chapter. I want to see Twilight go crazy
7226705 I think in the ocean that would be a bad thing cause predators look for weakness. poor twilight
7226692
Poor Twilight, trying so hard to put on the perfect show. It won't matter as the seaponies do their thing. Besides, Celestia and Luna will be too happy to meet them. I mean, they're practically ambassadors for seaponies. Maybe the Princesses will have stories for them of meeting seaponies in Equestria's history? Oh! Can't wait for that.
... She went to Cranky's wedding.
And we know that Cranky is capable of being a polite person.
... Mostly I'm just cranky (ahahaha
) at the joke at the end of No Second Prances. It is not all that consistent with Celestia's attitude, nor is it consistent with the fact that these people at least slightly know each other.
Hmm...Twilight feels a little *too* neurotic in this. She would maybe be freaking out a little but for the most part she's past her Celestia anxiety. Mostly. (personally, I blame it on her having the power of four alicorns and being able to quantify Celestia, but that's just my headcanon)
7226762 are you sure she is soposed to have it because in the show the sirens did not but you could say it is because thy are sirens, maybe, idk but all that fur and mane would slow her down and not let her swim so fast
7226772 Sirens are fish. She is clearly more dolphin-based. Fish vs Mammal.
Beyond that? They're mythological critters, we get to make things up.
See food eat food
7226807 well in our mythology a siren is a evil mermaid. in one of your story that correlates to ever glow, you had one the sirens become and she was not a siren anymore.
Yes, wheels are mostly useful where there's flat places to roll. Everywhere else... Not so much.
Keep going! ;)
7226855
And they most certainly wouldn't help him going up hills or anything to do with stairs. Or, landsakes, ladders!
Does Twilight not remember how accepting Celestia is of the way ponies behave? I mean, didn't she enjoy Twilight and her friends messing up one of the Galloping Galas in the first season or something?
I'm not complaining, mind you.. I love seeing this story appear in the Featured Section; this fanfic is waaaaaaaaaay better than those cheap clopfics.
I just thought by now Twilight would know that Celestia is pretty comfortable with how ponies behave naturally, if that makes any sense.
Not that it matters really. I love this story and I am very glad it exists because it gives me a reason to keep coming back to this site. Well, this story and all of my friends here bring me back anyway. XD
Looking forward to the next chapter.
Im sure Cherry would have the idea of a cluster of three small wheels on the lessened spokes of a larger wheel to act as a cross between legs and wheels for climbing over tree roots.
You think Indigo will realise its a bad idea to go into the forest after the Timberwolf eats his wheels, or Zecora beats them off then hauls him on her staff like one of those drag litters?
7227216 When Twilight freaks out, it is rarely rational. Anxieties often aren't.
7227239 Yeah I understand your point. I just thought she'd have gotten over it by now, or at least improved upon it.
But like I said, it doesn't matter. I don't give a damn. I like reading your story because it's a welcoming fanfic to my eyes. A likable character, and a more originally created/developed one at that, good humor and a good read overall.
Just keep pumping out these chapters when you get chance. Take your time and enjoy the writing of your tale.
Also watch out in your comments, mate. I think people might start shipping Cherry and Indigo soon. XD
7227300 Every day is the plan. The only reason we didn't yesterday was due to a blog post poll asking folks what episode they wanted next.
You act like people aren't already.
7227180 and don't even get us started on the engineering challenge of swimming in one!
Though at that point it'd be just silly...
7227216 As a purveyor of perfidious porn pony plots (shivers with alliteration glee), I agree. A lot of clop that makes the featured box is just terrible. And don't get me started on 'anon' stories.
That said, just because a story has clop doesn't mean it doesn't have to have both kinds of plot, it is just a lot of writers get lazy and assume that having plot tapping means you don't have to tap out a plot.
No typos left that I could find.
*****
Twilight really should do some inner searching to work out why she's so nervous around Princess Celestia. At this point in her life there really should be no other princess besides Cadance that she should be more familiar and comfortable around.
Cherry will need to ask around to some of the earth ponies to see if one of them can teach her about cantering and galloping.
7227670 It's more of a mechanical limitation. She will never be faster than her legs. Wheels work differently. As shown, in places that aren't smooth, the legs win out big time. On smooth going, the wheels win.
7227681
Until Cherry invents caterpillar tracks aka tank treads.
7228002 I'm not sure how that would make you not as fast as your locomotion? Wheels are different because he can pull himself along faster and faster to a point, even faster than his hooves are moving, just like someone riding a skateboard, which is basically what he's doing. Mechanical legs, treads, or anything that provides its own power independent of the user is going to be as fast, or slow, as the power behind them.
7228009 Oh. No, I was agreeing with you and suggesting a way that would make Indie faster on nearly any terrain, bit I wasn't as clear as I could have been.
7226705
7226755
You do realise they're not seaponies, right? These are Hippocampi, seaponies are a lot different.
7228255
Treads are actually slower than wheels.
7227305 No. I act like someone who knows it is happening.
7227457 I just think a lot of clop here is bollocks. Enough said. There are those very very rare gems that have decent pacing and make me believe the characters deserve to be in a relationship with each other, but every other clopfic is a load of garbage.
But hilariously entertaining, admittedly. That's the only positive I'll give these things.
Now let's never speak of this again. I've gotten into trouble with other writers because of my views on clopfics...and because I've trolled on clopfics before. Tee hee hee!
Indeed.
7228909
Yes, you're correct, Twilight Sparkle.
7229143
I'll have you know my intellect is far above that of even Twilight Sparkle, and I find it quite insulting that you would compare me to her.
Jk. (Read it in a snobbish voice)
7227681 umm actually, you might be wrong on this one, from how i see it... it looks like that thing you use for a dog when its back legs are broken... right? so he is still limited by his top speed or his chest would plow into the ground
7228255 treads are nice for rough Terran but weels will be better, it would be cool it she makes herself a racing pod
7229209 Think skateboard. If you give a pull, then keep your hooves up, the momentum will keep the wheels moving. Now go ahead and keep pulling as fast as you can. With a nice smooth riding surface, you could go up to a speed faster than your pulling hooves are managing.
7229245 ya but you can't skate faster than a horses trot, that being said, he would only be on two weels and fall over, this is what im thinking upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4f/Dog_Wheelchair_-_Boxer_can_Walk_and_Play_Again%21.jpg/220px-Dog_Wheelchair_-_Boxer_can_Walk_and_Play_Again%21.jpg
This line made me smile. Though if you think about it, Spike has a very good record of bringing Twilight her mail.
I think he's onto something there.
bite-sized
7229245
Not really. His front legs are holding him up, so he can't pull them up without crashing. He would be strictly limited to the running speed of his front hooves. Skateboards are slower than running anyway, unless it's downhill.
7234924 Fixed.
Twilight really needs some help with her attitude towards Celestia which even Celestia herself finds problematic. I wonder if Discord is going to become involved in all of this.
Twilight, you've got problems. Simple as that.
"Princess" Mi amore Cadenza, is not something a normal pony would say every time they caressed her. Just Cadence.
"Princess" Celestia, is not as much a mouthful, but far too formal.
Especially for somepony you consider a second-mother figure. Which shows signs of a certain psychological form of addiction. Including Books.
This is probably one of the only times where I'm annoyed by correct characterization. Twilight being an idiot who doesn't treat her mentor, teacher, and friend like a living being and forcing everyone to act like she will kill you if you so much as look at her wrong is not out of character.