The Weary Traveler

by The Psychopath

The farmer's toil

Everypony in the sloped, white cobbled streets of Canterlot shied away or fled from the metallic creature walking through the streets. Its 'elevator' hooves made it a confusing sight, as did its eyes. Anyone that got to close could see the microscopic pupils looking randomly in different directions, causing a plethora of disgust and fear. Every step creating a resounding 'tink' noise, and some of the more aggressive folk threw nasty looks or rocks at the metallic being, yet it did not react. It was looking all around, metaphorical sparkles in its eyes and a smile on its lips.

"I haven't seen this kind of life in millennia," he thought aloud. "It's so intricate." He placed his hooves upon a textile shop's outer brick wall. "And so well polished. What kind of artistic sculptry have they made here?" he mused joyfully.

His enjoyment was briefly interrupted by a familiar, grating female voice. "Chinch'k!" the voice cried out. "Boss Guy told me to go to you." She stomped down the descending hill and pushed away one of the rock throwers against a wall. "What are you doing?"

Chinch'k watched the aggressive behavior and shook his head. "Enjoying the artistic architecture of this city." He tapped the cobblestone road beneath his hoof and looked up to his comrade with a childlike sense of wonder. "Look! It's white! And it's extremely polished!" He looked back down and scraped it with his sharp hooves. "How does it remain smooth after such use? I don't sense any magic coming from it."

Scleretin rolled her eyes. "Yeah, and it's not covered in ash and soot." She looked to the horizon. "And I don't see giant warmachines of the Essence Conglomerate, the Sun Striders, or the Cracked Aristocracy stomping about, shooting each other down."

Chinch'k's mandibles twittered. "Is that a smile I see on your face?" he teased.

"No," Scleretin replied aggressively. "I just find comfort in a place where infighting isn't a common, every day thing."

"Soothing, isn't it?"

"Maybe..." The metal mare looked around and gritted her teeth. "What do we do about them?"

Chinch'k tilted his head and wiggled his mandibles. "What do you mean? We do nothing. That's what he said. Only self-defense."

"Tch." The mare wiped her mouth as though she drooled. "Fine. I don't want to deal with these softies anymore anyways." She sat on her haunches and wringed her hooves menacingly. "I just want to find a way to kill this Celestia." She snickered evily to herself but was stopped by a painful slap on the back of her head, causing her to faceplant into the ground and scare the other ponies around.

"None of that, Scleretin." Chinch'k clicked. "Now I know why he sent you away." He scratched the back of his head, created a painful screeching as his 'hoof' dragged along the metallic surface. "Let's go in there!" he shouted. The pony was pointed to a store selling tiny wooden statues. "I want to see this timeline's version of sculptures."

Scleretin stared at him, her mouth agape and eyes squinted. "Are you supposed to watch me or I you?" she asked.

"YES!" The stallion ran off to the store, scaring the ponies in his way.

The Weary Traveler stood outside the city of Canterlot alongside a contingent of royal guards, the alicorn sisters, and the elements of harmony, and Spike. He was throwing a flat, circular apparatus in the air and catching it with his tentacles in a rhythmic fashion.

"Orange farm pony," the traveler called out.

"Mah name's Applejack," the mare corrected. She bore a scorned expression and didn't hesitate to poke and prod the traveler in the chest. "Ah'd appreciate ya being a bit more polite. You may have 'em all scared, but y'all ain't got me bothered nohow!" she announced loudly to the stallion.

The visitor displayed no changes in either physical behavior or facial. "Noted." He stared Applejack directly into her eyes and casually tossed his apparatus on the floor. "This is why I called you, farm pony," he emphasized.

"Ah TOLD you, ah--Wow."

The mare started off angry, but her mood, while not changed towards the traveler, became drastically different. Twelve 'floors' of six domes on each appeared in front of everypony present. The domes were each spread out further than those below them, and each were separated more and more, creating gradually massive gaps between each dome. Everything was held up by large poles attached to what could be considered a facsimile of a clawed hand. Each pole also changes shape and form to adapt to the distance and angle needed.

Spike hesitantly approached the objects and passed a claw through them. With his worries subsided, he jumped through them several times and scratched his head in confusion. "What is this? It looks like what Princess Celestia would use to--"

"Yes yes. I'm aware of the magic of shapes," the traveler dismissed. "This is a hologram: A projection of light created by hundreds of microscopic bulbs emitting beams impacting each other in the air, creating intangible shapes."

"And what exacting is this s'posed ta be?" Applejack asked. Skepticism in her voice.

"A layered farm."

"A what?"

"It's a more...advanced stage." The traveler lifted the device and worked on a small screen along its rim, changing the display to only three floors. "It's a way to maximize farming efficiency for a surface. It was usually used within space stations in orbit for newly formed colony worlds." He looked to the side and hummed to himself. "Although that was a three dimensional environment. The spacing needed for this could be a problem, but, experimentation is the key to all progress."

Applejack looked at the display, her face distorting with every detail she found and deconstructed. "Judgin' by the form of the domes, ah reckon they're protected by some kinda shield, right?"

The traveler nodded. "A glass dome. Yes." He intercepted the farm pony's question with a quick answer. "Yes. They can retracted into the bowl itself. All per the farmer's discretion, of course."

"Ah see. And uh..." Applejack carried a dour, snarky expression. "How're we s'posed to replenish the soil? It ain't gon' turn itself over nor is it gonna get nitrogen levels balanced out, among other things."

The traveler snorted. "Like I said." He approached the mare and flicked dirt off her shoulder with his tentacle. "Everything is done at the discretion of the farmer." He started to slowly walk around the holographic display. "The farmers can use classic methods of hard work, use mainly the tech built into this, or both. The possibilities are..." He tilted his head briefly. "Well, not endless, but there are many."

Celestia was questionable about the whole thing and approached the stallion. Before she could speak, Luna butted in, surprising the alicorn and throwing her off-balance. "And what about the costs of such a thing? The infrastructure maintenance? How does one travel in it? It looks like it was made for pegasi." She narrowed her gaze at the stallion, as if interrogating him at a tribunal, all whilst clinging to her sister's legs.

"First prototype will be of astronomical costs, but I am here to supervise and reduce those costs by the same adjective. The maintenance will be performed by parties that have followed engineering studies in this field, creating additional jobs and future geniuses that will innovate in their field." He scratched his cheek with a tentacle before resuming, using another tentacle to point at the base of the structure and slowly follow up the poles to a dome. "These are not just structural holders, but also tunnels to transport both ponies and materials."

Luna scrunched her lip up. "I'm impressed," she said. "You thought of everything."

"Considering I'm not the one who invented them and merely improved upon the design, I suppose so."

Celestia was quite surprised at Luna's boldness and let it go on unhindered, both curious and glad at this sudden change in her usual, shy behavior. Unfortunately, where talk of tech and farming came as an interest to the local parties, it went unnoticed by the more...extravagant of pony society. Within what appeared as a humble house of Canterlot...well, as humble as one could get in the city of royalty, were seated several high-ranking nobles; Specifically those usually directly involved in royal affairs. The simple, clay-red stone exterior came as a massive contrast to the deep sea blue velvet carpets and table covers used as a decoration for the nobility to demonstrate their wealth.

Several bits of furniture, from exaggeratedly decorated shelves whose carvings depicted entire stories, to antique ovens and sowing machines and years long past, garnished the large room lit only by a single brazier dangling above the large table. The windows had been closed off by curtains and what used to be a place for nobility to share tales of their 'mundane' lives and show off their wealth had become a dark, depressing mire. Currently, only four ponies were present; each slumped in different postures.

One was an elderly figure, the color having long since left their mane and coat, but their overcoat, being a deep and vibrant orange, compensated for this. Their muzzle was crooked towards the left and their mane was a scraggly mess worsened still by a hoof resting within its confines.

"What do we do? This threatens the balance of everything," they spoke in a crackled and hushed tone.

A second one spoke up. His voice was just as meek and depressing as their comrade, and their eyes -One blue and the other yellow- had no sparkle or life to them. They wore no overcoat, keeping to their natural sea-green coat and pine-green mane. "I...No idea. I have nothing."

"You have nothing? You always came up with ideas to keep us afloat and prevent the lesser ponies from climbing the echelon of status!" the stallion complained. "Where's the world coming to if Caramel Corn can't come up with a tricky plan.

A third twirled a spoon in their now-cold cup of tea. They had a large, handlebar mustache adorning their lips, with a black coat contrasting poorly with their pale, fog blue coat and gray mane. "I don't even have the energy to use my magic...We were on our way to loosening the grip the princesses had on the decisions we took administratively in the country..." The stallion swiped their cup to the side angrily, shattering it to pieces and splashing the contents all over the walls and carpet. "And then that THING comes out of nowhere to ruin it all, providing so much power to the princesses that we have no way of retaliating!" They dropped their head back on the table with a painful thud, the growing pain gradually reaching their face and causing them to turn their face inwards and groan inaudibly.

The fourth, finally coming into play, rolled their eyes. They were also graying but hints of a shade of purple in their coat and streaks of yellow in their mane could still be made out. They were slouched backwards in their chair, very different from the other three, and displaying their lack of their left foreleg. "Burnberry, your anger just gave me an idea. " Their face turned to one of concern and disgust when they watched him writhe a little more. "Also, you're no longer that massive stallion that could destroy everything in his anger. Please remember and stop hurting yourself."

Caramel chuckled at his colleague's pain and leaned in. "Listen to Wind Harp. He knows what he's talking about. You're not spry anymore."

Burnberry rotated his head and glared at Corn. "Shut up," he growled.

"So what's your plan, Wind?" the first stallion asked.

"Well," Harp started. "This is a situation that we cannot confront directly. Instead of trying to fight them frontally, which we can't, we need to go around the sisters and attack their new source of power directly!" The stallion tapped the table.

The three others looked at each other worryingly.

"You're not suggesting we try to kill that weird thing?" the first stallion asked.

Corn sighed and let his eyes roll upwards briefly. "No, Cliff Pipes. He's suggesting that we try to make allies with the...thing." He trailed off and had an uncontrollable, brief spasm of sickness. "Gross."

"Partially. If we want him to side with us, we need to make him think that we still support the princesses, but that we're the best thing for Equestria's future. That way, not only are we assured to have an important part and replace the princesses whilst leaving them as simple icons, but we'll become the richest stallions in Equestria after filing patents for everything the traveler makes!" Wind Harp's smile appeared sinister to the other three, what with his creased lips and slanted, jagged eyes.

"I don't think he'll like that," Burnberry commented. "And I'm worried he might already know what we're up to."

Corn leaned against a hoof and took a deep breath. "Well, if he did, he would have already come to us and dissuaded it, so we're still potentially in the clear."

Cliff sat up and regained his composure. "Where should we start and how can I help forward the plan?"

Author's Note:

For those wondering why it took five months to update: Yes. I had...issues with MLP that have been partially resolved.

Incidentally, the issue with this story is that I had tons and tons of different pathways fly by my head while writing this and became overwhelmed with which one I wanted to use. I had initially chosen one where we skip several decades into the future where Equestria is a technological superpower, but that's boring, innit? What did society do? Where's the clamor for reform? (Where's my line firing?!) Incidentally, what would the higher placed members of society say to this change? What would the other countries say?

*twirls evil mustache*

Incidentally, while I'm rewriting both From man to mare and Lux Locus, I'm also writing another book (technically my fourth) called Lunar Necromancer featuring a character that sneaks into a massive underground city to become a lunar necromancer: Necromancers who have specific aspects of their powers enhanced by the state of the moon in the sky. No. Full Moon isn't a Mario power star upgrade. Unfortunately, by a few 'accidents', the main character ends up on the run from multiple parties when they just want to live in peace from then on.

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