A Different Maestro Spectrum

by The REAL Mister Pkmn

Chapter The Sixteenth: The Double-Sided Play Begins

A few days later, all seemed normal. Maestro moved on to another town, this time Appaloosa. He set up his shop, and got to work. Although, halfway through his daily shift, he got a surprise visit from Princess Celestia. She stormed right up to his counter, and slammed her hoof down. “What is the meaning of this, Maestro? Why are ponies going around talking about a technological revolution? Did you have something to do with this?”

Maestro raised an eyebrow, and played it cool. “Me? Heh. You see one thing change… and you immediately jump to thinking that I’m behind it? Even if I was, there really wouldn’t be much that you could do about it. After all, I’m an icon. If I were to... say… be axed off… you’d find yourself dealing with a much worse problem than ponies talking about some revolution.” Maestro gave a shrug at her irritated look. “Besides. It’s about time that Equestria took a plunge into the future, if you ask me. Too cozy, too… easy. That’s what Equestria is now.”

Celestia huffed. “Of course you would support this malarkey.” She pointed a hoof at Maestro. “Don’t think that I’m not watching you, Maestro. You’re on thin ice. One wrong move…”

Maestro rolled his eyes. “Yeah, whatever. If you’re not here to buy something, then kindly remove yourself from my shop.”

Celestia looked around for a moment, then shook her head. “To think that a former student of mine would ever talk back to me like this…” She gave one last glare at Maestro. “Farewell, Maestro. Just know… You could’ve had a bright future.”

I smiled and waved. “And I still will! Good day!” The instant that she left and was out of sight, Maestro sighed. He looked to his customers. “Sorry that you had to see that. Celly’s a bit of a stick in the mud, if you couldn’t tell.”

Laughter roared through the shop, and Maestro smiled. His customers were warming to him, faster now than ever. His little gambit was paying off! It wasn’t much longer into his shift that he shut down for lunch. No sooner had he escorted the last customer out, that he saw a pony that had features all of silver outside of his door. A bit concerned, he opened it cautiously. “Are you who I think you are? One of dad’s Supervisors?”

He gave a nod and smile. “I see that you’re seeing the pattern, Observer Spectrum. Are you alone?”

Maestro poked back into the shop, and gave a look around. He came back to the door, and allowed the silver pony in. “Prism’s out doing grocery shopping, and no customers are around. What do you want to talk about?”

The pony paused as the door shut behind them, then spoke. “We have a problem. It’s about the ponies.”

Maestro raised an eyebrow. So they weren’t onto him? That was a relief, but the Supervisor’s tone was quite serious. “What’s wrong? I told you guys that an industrial revolution was imminent, and now they’re starting to show it. I don’t see a problem here, Supervisor Silver.”

At Maestro’s remembrance of his name, Silver raiser an eyebrow. He dismissed it, and proceeded to explain. “It’s too fast. Over a few nights, they’re jumping into having an automotive industry, among other things. Why is this happening, Spectrum? They should still be in the state that they were a few days back!”

At his anger, Maestro tried to explain without revealing his hand. “Well, maybe the ponies just felt ready to advance. By my research, they’ve been unnaturally stagnant for far too long. This is just progress catching up to them.”

Silver gave a sigh, and nodded reluctantly. “Perhaps you are right. But now we need to move up our time-table. And for that…” He turned to face Maestro. “For you cooperation in ditching the mare and complying thus far; I award you the position of Searcher Spectrum.”

Maestro inwardly winced. That’s right. He’d made it look like he’d broken off with Trixie in the view of his father’s surveillance. He could sense where it all was, perhaps his memory on the placements of the invisible cameras coming back. He also had to pay off some newspapers to not publish anything about his relationship with Trixie. Pricey, but it was worth it in order to pull this off. He made sure to keep a certain air about him though. “A Promotion? Why am I being made into a Searcher?”

Supervisor Siver sighed. “It seems that even though some things have returned to you, you have yet to retain knowledge of our situation back home. In other words, the reason that we sent you here.”

A raised eyebrow crept onto Maestro’s face. He vaguely remembered something of the sort, but he didn’t recall the details. He tried his best guess. “Some sort of crazy disease, right? One we need a cure for?”

A smile graced Supervisor Silver’s face. “Ah. So you remember that much.” His face fell. “If their industrialization is kicking off, we don’t have the luxury of wasted time, Searcher Spectrum. We need to find the source of the strange energy of this world that kills the disease when it comes in contact with it. We just need a large enough sample harvested so that we can study it, and then we can synthesize it. Then, we can leave this world alone.”

It was the first time that Maestro had heard of this, but it didn’t seem like the full truth. Despite this, he was walking a fine line now. He couldn’t mess this up. He nodded. “Where do I start?”

Silver pointed to a few locations on the map that Maestro kept on the wall. “Here. Here. Here. and here. Somewhere in the midst of those four points is the source. Find it, harvest part of it. And store it until we come to get you.”

Maestro gulped. It was a big thing, balancing this with what his plans were. He gave a nod. “Right. I’ll be seeing you, then.”

Supervisor Silver left, and Maestro exhaled. He soon saw a note appear in front of his face. It was from Trixie. It read:

“Maestro. Meet me at the abandoned diner. Ensure that you aren’t followed. <3 Trixie.”

He gave a small chuckle, and turned on the invisibility enchantment. He walked out for a while until he found the place that Trixie had mentioned. It was out of sight from the invisible cameras, so after going inside he powered off the invisibility. Trixie approached from the corner, and Maestro smiled as she hugged him tightly. “Hey, Trix. Sorry that we have to meet in private like this now. It’s a necessary evil until I figure out what Dad really wants.”

At the mention of that, Trixie pulled away with a concerned look on her face. “Maestro, are you sure that you can pull this off? Being the ‘perfect son’ in the sight of your father, and yet going behind his back to push the work forward?”

Maestro shrugged with a grin. “I sure hope so. At this point, I cannot ignore the gut feeling that I have.” He then explained. “Another Supervisor came today. Silver. He told me the ‘why’ of why I’m here… but I don’t think that he’s being honest with me. At least… maybe not completely.”

Trixie tilted her head. “So what did he ask of you to do now?”

He gave a sigh. “He wants me to search for the source of this world’s magic. Apparently, harvesting some of it to study it is supposed to help with whatever’s wrong back home. But… I think that’s only part of it. I think… they intend to know the weaknesses of it, possibly so they can subdue Equestria.” Trixie gasped at that ascertain, and Maestro held up a hoof. “I know. It’s a bold claim, but… I just can’t shake this feeling.”

Trixie grasped his hoof. “It’ll be alright. You can figure this out, Maestro. You can find a way to stop this!”

He smiled. “You always know what to say.” He gave her a quick peck on the lips. “I know that it’s been rough… but we’ll get through this. And when it’s all over… my race and yours will be friends… at least, that’s what I hope to achieve…”

Trixie gave a small nod. “If anyone can figure this mess out, it’s you. I’ll stick by you, no matter what happens.” She kissed him deeply for a little bit before pulling away. “I best be off. I’ve got a show in Hoffington.”

Maestro waved. “See you later, Trix. I best be getting ready for my trip. First stop… the place where we first met. The Everfree forest.”

Trixie waved back as she left the diner. “Good luck, sweetheart. You can do it.”

A firm nod came from Maestro as he went invisible again. He made his way back to his shop…

To Be Continued...

Author's Note:

Complications! Complications everywhere...