• Published 4th Jul 2021
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Sisters of Willowbrook - Starscribe



After decades of preparation, an ancient cult finally manages to summon two of their dark gods into Equestria. Instead of almighty Alicorns, they arrive as a pair of helpless fillies. To get home, they'll have to play the part...

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Chapter 46: Bad Act

The next few days were a blur for Lilac.

Compared to her time dressing up and pretending to be something she wasn't, working in the engines was a much-needed relief. It wasn't that she had any particular training in the world—but this was Equestria, a land where everything was magical in nature. The same basic principles that applied to ordinary spellcraft would serve her just as well maintaining thaumaturgical devices.

Besides, it wasn't like Copper asked her to do any of it alone. He was far from Risk's brilliance, but he did have at least some level of education, enough to quote back to her whatever reference material there was on the task at hand.

Not enough to put that material into practice. He saw it all as far too abstract, rather than viewing each machine as part of a connected whole. It was exactly the kind of thing Saffron would have crushed out of her in their first few weeks of training.

It took her a little longer than that—she was ostensibly the one learning from Copper rather than teaching him. Even if she was the one who solved all the practical problems.

Not everything she did was some revolutionary innovation, or exploring some new aspect of the ship. There was plenty of grunt-work to do. There was lubricant to apply, tanks to refill. Copper wasn't on the bottom of the ship's command structure, so they never went as far as scrubbing toilets and washing windows.

Lilac wouldn't have minded if they were. She had spent years living with House Vale now, surrounded by ponies treating her like she was better than they were. There was something inherently relaxing about hard work. Even better when she didn't have to dress like a clown while doing it.

She still snuck away after supper each night, returning to her locked bedroom to sleep. Not so much because the thought of a crew hammock frightened her—she needed to be back in her bedroom in the morning when Keen Focus arrived.

"I'm standing just outside," she said, after two days. "You've been throwing quite the tantrum, Lilac Empathy. Have you had the time to reflect? Are you ready to apologize?"

She still had a mane full of grease, and a blank uniform-vest tucked under her bed. But even if she'd been sitting primly in makeup and a dress, Keen Focus would have a hard time selling her with a proposal like that. "I don't agree with you," she said flatly. "I don't think a pony's worth is measured in the utility she brings to her family. I'm not going to give up on my ambition because somepony else expects it."

"Then you need a few more days," Keen Focus said. "I will return tomorrow to consider this matter again. But you must realize, Lilac Empathy. I will not permit you to leave your quarters until you have come to accept your position. Your father will not allow you to continue living a lie. He has remained permissive with your presence in the household, but no longer."

She walked away. Lilac could practically see her smug expression, drowning in the self-satisfaction of her punishment. Let her imagine Lilac rolling on the floor, breaking slowly as she went without food.

As soon as she was sure the mare wouldn't be coming back, she propped her chair up against the door to keep it from opening, and clambered back out the vent. She knew where she was going this time, and didn't mind a little grease and dust. Where she'd be working all day, it would make no difference.

She couldn't sneak all the way to the barracks—there were too many eyes watching there anyway. But thanks to her time working with Copper the day before, she'd discovered several maintenance grates were loose all along the lower deck. All she had to do was find one with nopony around, then slip out.

Copper wasn't quite as eager to wake up at the crack of dawn as Keen Focus seemed to be. That meant it was easy to find him, and follow along for another day of anything but what Keen Focus wanted.

So things went for the next week. She argued stubbornly with Keen Focus in the morning, before joining Copper on the lower decks. It meant she got to poke her way around the Magna Vale from below, learning all kinds of interesting things about Equestrian airships, and not so much about how to perform.

After the first week, she started receiving meager rations through her door—barely edible crackers, and nowhere close to enough to be comfortable.

She didn't relent, insisting that she wouldn't play along no matter what Keen Focus wanted from her.

"You must realize this performance of yours will have consequences when we return to Willowbrook!" Keen said, after another few days. "You defy your father's will. You will find him a far less agreeable negotiator than I."

Let him. They think I'm a goddess, what can he do to me? But Keen Focus was clearly no member of the cult.

There was better news below decks. "Review just came in!" Copper exclaimed, when they were sitting together in a dingy corner of the mess hall that night. "My first set of gold marks!"

He turned over a half-slip of paper, showing a row of simple horseshoe prints. Two of them were in the "gold" column, with the rest in silver. "They might consider me for promotion at year's end if I can keep this up!"

The bowl of simple oatmeal porridge between them was hardly luxurious or filling, but it still felt like a feast. Now that she had a friend to share it with...

"That's all you," she lied. "You have the magical power, it's just your focus you need to work on. Keep practicing those exercises I taught you."

He nodded, though there was something strange about his expression. She caught him looking at her like that more and more. Sometimes the locals just didn't make sense. "Yeah, Lux. That's... I'll keep working on it. Celestia only knows how an earth pony colt learned so much magic. There's a few who understand machines that well, like Engineer Fixed Pulley. You're past all that."

He looked like he might say more, but someone stalked past them at that moment, and they fell silent.

This was one of the ship's officers, a mare named Horizon Line. As far as Lilac understood things, she was second in command. One of the few mares who ever came down to the lower deck. "You two! Copper, Lux—you look like you just crawled out of a grease trap."

Lilac did what she always did when ship's crew were around, and kept her head down, never making eye contact. The illusion was too simple to require concentration, but it also only went skin deep.

She'd met most of the officers before. If they looked too closely at her face, they might make a connection.

"Aye, ma'am. We were down in the drive-canal all day, resurfacing thaumic studs. We'll not report to duty with such dirty uniform—"

She clicked her tongue, stopping just beside them. "I'm sure you're attentive to your duties. The captain is making an inspection tonight, in preparation for our arrival at port tomorrow afternoon. You two had better be sparkling before that happens, or you'll have cause to regret. Understood?"

"Aye, ma'am!" they said, almost in unison. Lilac was a bit quicker about it than Copper.

"Go on then. Eat like you've got a purpose, then do what you have to." She turned, continuing down the mess hall. She gave similar reprimands to several other members of the lower crew.

Very little of it had anything to do with their actual work performance. It was all about appearance—she wanted them looking presentable for the captain.

"Looks like half the deck is already off to the showers," Copper muttered, as soon as their bowls were empty. "Guess we should too, before it gets any worse in there than it already is."

She rose to follow him. By now, just about everyone had seen her. But somepony so far down the ship's totem of authority attracted little attention. "Lux" kept his head down and never caused trouble for anypony. How else could he be aboard, if he wasn't part of the crew?

"It's that bad?"

He didn't answer until they were out into the corridor. He wasn't wrong—several ponies were already on their way, in various stages of undress. She wouldn't have a second thought about it all if it wasn't for the profoundly male smell.

There were several mares among the officers and crew of the upper levels, but almost none down here. Whatever that meant about other ships like this, it made her feel increasingly uncomfortable the closer they got to the showers.

"Yeah," he answered glumly. "We basically go in last. Water gets reused all day, and by then..." He sighed. "Sometimes it's better not to bother, unless we're in port. It's nice there."

"This is dumb." She yanked on his hoof, pulling him out of the corridor and into a little storage room. The shelves in here held crates and other things she couldn't identify, but none of that mattered. Behind some in the last row was a loose metal grate. "Come with me. We don't have to use the nasty group shower. The thought of... no thanks."

She found the grate, then held it open with one hoof. She gestured at the darkness beyond, expectant.

Copper's eyes shifted nervously to either side. He stared at the door, as though expecting Horizon to show up at any moment and catch them in the act. "Buck, are you sure? There's nowhere I can go I won't be noticed, Lux. I've worked all over the Magna Vale!"

She sighed again, reaching for him. "Copper, I have private quarters. We'll go straight in, you can use my bath. It's a fancy magical tub, hot water, any kind of soap you can imagine." She lowered her voice to a frustrated mutter. "I'm sure she'd take it away and have me living in filth if she could, but she'd have to rip out half the suite."

Copper's mouth fell open. "Really? And you just... crawl through there?"

She climbed up into the vent. "I've come through so many times it should be clean by now. You'll have to be careful getting out—maybe leave the clean uniforms here, so they don't get any slime on them from our trek down."

Finally he followed, stepping up into the vents. Copper was a little bigger than she was, and by nature of his horn he had to keep his head down most of the way. It was the position she least liked to be in, and she got him ahead of her the soonest chance she got. She kept her tail plenty long, and without anything like a braid to make it less useful for covering up. But even so...

"We never talk about who you really are, Lux," he whispered, as they reached the first climb. There weren't steps, but passages to mid-levels gave them somewhere to stick their hooves while they climbed.

"Because it doesn't matter," she replied, as dismissive as ever. "I'm somepony who doesn't care about your bits and just wants to keep their hooves busy. You just got gold marks, remember?"

He grunted unhappily, but didn't say anything else until they were up to her level. She covered her mouth with a hoof after that, gesturing nervously at the vents. It wouldn't be that strange to hear voices coming from the air-ducts, since they connected to all the other rooms. But if Keen Focus heard her talking to somepony...

They reached her vent after a few fearful moments sneaking down the hall. Without any sign of Keen Focus in her room, either. Probably off entertaining the captain again...

"Not sure how long we have until that inspection," she whispered. "But it should be plenty of time." She nudged the grate open, settling it up against the wall the way she always did.

Every time she returned, there was always that little part of herself that surged with terror, fearing her room would be torn apart, with signs that Keen Focus had come for her while she was out.

Not this time—the door was still blocked with her chair, the bed was still made from the morning, and her spare uniforms were still hidden away in her open wardrobe.

She shut the grate firmly behind herself, before gesturing for the open bathroom. "We have the executive treatment in here. I think one of the high officers gave me their room for the trip, so... it's almost as nice as back home. No recycled water, or anything else gross." She gestured to the open bathroom. "Go on, get cleaned up."

He didn't move. He'd only made it as far as the open wardrobe, before he stopped in place, mouth hanging open. "Lux... are you a mare?"

Author's Note:

Great little art by https://cosmalumi.carrd.co/ in this chapter!

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