A Sunny and Gray Day
Ebony was in the kitchen browsing the cupboards, looking for something she could have for lunch in a little while, when she heard the distant sound of wingbeats. She glanced up to make sure the window was open, and nodded on seeing it was. "Never hurts to be prepared," she said to herself as she closed the cupboard---
Thump."Ow!"
"...But apparently I wasn't prepared enough!" she griped, turning and trotting into the master bedroom. She opened the window and pulled Gray inside. "The one day I remember to keep that open for you, you choose not to take it!"
"Sorry, dear," Gray apologized meekly. "I approached from the wrong angle and didn't see it. May I have a cold washcloth, please?"
...
"So what happened?" Ebony questioned her once they settled into the living room. "I thought you were going to spend the day watching what's-her-name."
"I was, but we got hit with a curveball," Gray answered. "You ever read about the Midnight Castle gang in the papers? Well, they broke into Sally's theater last night."
Ebony's ears turned down as this sunk in. She didn't like Salamandra very well due to her fondness for puppetry and bombastic presentations, but nopony deserved to have their home broken into. "Is she alright?"
"Far as I can tell. She was talking to Mr. Lede from the Minutes when I got there, and she was more annoyed by the mess in the lobby than anything else. Seems Leviathan was a bit busy doing some late-night bounty hunting: she caught the thieves before they could escape with anything."
"...What?"
Gray started to launch into a lengthy explanation, then thought better of it. "Abridged notes: Leviathan gave the thieves to the cops, Sally sent her to the station this morning to collect the bounty on them, I chased after her to give her a tour of Manehattan, and she bought a nice coat for protection's sake. I'll spare you the details until tomorrow's paper."
Ebony stared at her mother dumbly. "Huh," she uttered eloquently. "So if you were giving her a tour, why'd you come back here? I thought you were going to be out all day."
"Didn't have much choice," Gray admitted, removing her saddlebags with her free hoof. "I had to take Fairy back to the Pyre. After that little stunt with the sun, she refused to wake up for anything. So after that I went to buy a few things for myself and went home early."
"Little stunt---" Ebony gave a start as she realized something. "Wait, was that why it got so dark in here for a second?"
"The Princess was pranking somepony," Gray said as if that explained everything.
Ebony's mouth hung open. "Wha...! Mom, don't just say that so casually! She has to have higher class than that!"
Gray stretched a bit, then flopped onto her side with a thump. By coincidence Echo was stretched out in the same position on the back of the couch, albeit without a washcloth of his own. "Nothing like a bit of levity now and then to hearten somepony. Imagine that you have to work for 14 hours everyday. Wouldn't you get bored with the monotony from time to time?"
"Well yeah, but I'm just your average unicorn," Ebony protested, sitting down normally. "This is Equestria's ruler we're talking about here! She's supposed to be above those juvenille pranks!"
"Equestria's ruler she may be, but she's still a pony," Gray managed to say around a yawn. "A pony with her own thoughts and feelings. Even she wants some fun now and then, I'm sure. As long as she doesn't accidentally give anypony heart attacks with those 'little stunts', then what's the harm?"
A flicker of worry. "...Did anypony actually get heart attacks?"
"I'm sure the Manehattan Minutes would be all over it if they did. As for any cases outside the city, I couldn't tell you. I'll keep my ears to the ground, but I'm sure there aren't any problems. It isn't as if this is the first time she's done something like this."
"Don't you usually keep your ears to the ground anyway?" Ebony asked, eyebrow raised.
Gray worked out what her daughter was trying to say before rolling her eyes. "I mean in the sense that I'll listen for rumors and scuttlebutt. I don't sleep that much."
"Sixteen hours of sleep a day isn't sleeping that much?"
The pegasus snorted softly. "My daughter's a comedian," she grumbled good-naturedly. "Step closer so I can swat at you."
"That didn't work the first six times you tried that," Ebony said in refusal, eyes half-closed. "It's not going to work the seventh."
A chuckle. "I had to try. Anyway, the point I was trying to make is that you can have all the decorum and elegance in the world, but stress and exhaustion can still get the better of you. If you don't find some means of relaxing, it's very possible to work yourself to death. That's something a lot of ponies here struggle with: they focus so much on earning bits to the exclusion of everything else that they end up suffering burnout. It almost happened to me once or twice with the Police. It wasn't fun."
Ebony had heard her mother talk about her short-lived career with the Royal Police a few times, and the stories had never stopped enthralling her no matter how many times she heard them. She got the sense that this particular story didn't have anything happy about it, however, so she didn't press Gray for details. Instead, she asked: "What about the ma---...I mean, Leviathan? What was it about the Princess moving the sun that she had trouble coping with?"
"Well, assuming she wakes up and lets Buried Lede interview her," Gray said, shrugging as best as she could from her current position, "I guess we'll find out tomorrow. I got the gist of it earlier, but some extra context never hurts." Her tail twitched in mild irritation. "I wish your father and siblings didn't have to come back to this. I don't know whether Manehattan as a whole's going to like her, fear her, hate her, or just outright go gonzo. Whatever happens, we're going to be caught up in the storm."
"I don't suppose you could extend my grounding for a while more, could you?" Ebony joked weakly, her face unsure.
It didn't take a logical thought process to figure out what was on the young mare's mind. "I understand you're afraid of her, dear, but sooner or later you're going to end up crossing paths with her again. No matter how good a job I do, I can only delay that meeting, not prevent it. And the rest of the family doesn't share your fear, so they're probably going to end up wanting to meet her. No, my stance is the same: your grounding ends tomorrow night."
Really not looking forward to that appointment. "Double crud," she murmured weakly.
"Why double?"
"Bad dream last night," Ebony explained, shivering. "I was trotting through Bronclyn on a foggy day, and mannequins that looked like Leviathan were being tossed at me out of windows, and over fences..."
Gray's muzzle twisted in concern. "Okay, I'll admit that's disturbing. I didn't hear you scream at all this morning, so I'm guessing it ended on a better note?"
"Yeah, but it was kind of weird," Ebony stated. She was able to smile, but it only came off as bemused. "One of the mannequins broke a fence on the way over, and I used the post to defend myself. The last clear memory I have was me rampaging down the street with the post in my magic, spinning and twirling it like some sort of baton and smacking away anything that got too close. I still wouldn't call it a good dream since those things were still there, but it beats a full-on nightmare."
"So otherwise it would have been a 'triple crud', then?"
"Yeah."
Gray idly swatted at a few dust particles that hung in the air just out of her reach. "Well, just remember that this doesn't mean you can smash Leviathan with a two-by-four when you meet her, alright? I don't think she'd appreciate that."
Ebony refused to entertain that thought, moving to change the subject. "So anyway, what did you buy?"
"Some envelopes, extra inkwells and a few new quills." Gray sat up, smiling. "I have a pen pal now!"
"Huh." Ebony matched her smile, interested. "Any idea who it is?"
"Well, whoever wrote it called themselves 'Princess Celestia'..." What?! "...but that's obviously a pseudonym." ...Oh. "I mean, there's no reason the real Princess would want to write to kooky little ol' me. She's probably got tons of princess-y things to do instead. I'm guessing they just picked that name to show that the writer lives in Canterlot." Gray looked up at the ceiling. "I wonder if I should start calling myself Countess Coloratura? You know, just to show that I'm from Manehattan?"
"I'd rather you didn't," Ebony said following an annoyed sigh. "That leaves a bad impression of you. Sapphire Shores' music clearly rocks more than Coloratura's."
"Well, somepony likes the Countess's music," Gray pointed out. "Otherwise she wouldn't be such a hit."
"I'm not talking about this, Mom." Ebony got up as she spoke, her irritation hiding her desire to get back to what she'd been doing when Gray returned. "I'm going to figure out what to make for lunch. Want me to call you when it's ready?"
"Sure. Thank you, Ebony."
...
As Ebony returned to her business, Gray picked up her saddlebags and strolled into her room, kicking the door shut behind her. After setting aside her purchases she grabbed a legal-sized sheet of paper out of a small cabinet. Eager to get her thoughts across, she settled onto her bed, grasped a quill pen with her mouth and got down to the business of writing, using one of her horror novels as a flat surface.
All the while she counted herself thankful that both her daughter and her husband were such good cooks. The last time she tried baking cornbread, the superintendent had made her sign an affidavit promising that she would never do it again.
Fifteen minutes later...
...
There are days when I loathe being bogged down with work and desire nothing more than a break. Then there are days when I'm reminded that I really need to be careful what I ask for.
It had been relatively quiet in Canterlot that morning, at least from Princess Celestia's perspective. There had been a few ponies who had sought to meet with her over minor matters, but none had lingered for more than fifteen minutes. There had been an unexpected visit from the band who played at her garden parties, but that had just been to notify her that they'd found a replacement for their retiring cellist and would be taking her to meet the Princess at her earliest convenience. No emergencies had sprung up that her subjects weren't capable of dealing with themselves. Nopony tried to sneak 'minor' changes in legislature past her.
And nopony was blaring loud rock or metal music outside the palace gates. As much as she admitted that the racket had a certain appeal, there was a time and place for everything. The middle of the day, during the time when it was important that she maintain her decorum before her subjects and be the ruler that Equestria needed, was not it. My faithful student's brain would probably melt from sheer shock if she knew that I had all of Blin Jaggwar's albums, she thought, keeping her chuckle mental. Of course she probably doesn't know who they are, but I shouldn't take that chance.
Bored, Celestia surveyed the throne room. Nopony aside from herself and her guards were present at the moment, and she didn't have any scheduled appointments until after lunch. For a few moments she wondered whether she ought to summon Raven Inkwell from her duties for a game of cards; the secretary worked hard for her both here and in Ponyville, true, but she hadn't yet learned how to pace herself---
A long scroll materialized before her in a burst of green fire, and she sighed internally as it dropped to the floor. I guess that's out of the question now. I don't think I left anything out of this morning's lesson with Twilight, so it couldn't be from her or Spike. And the scroll is paper instead of papyrus. Which means... She took the scroll in her magic and unrolled it. Called it. She smiled, amused but touched, when she saw who had written it and what it contained.
"To: Princess Celestia
She didn't take that stunt of yours very well. Gaining firsthand knowledge of your control over the sun and hearing me refer to you as a 'flake' made her pass out. Wimp. To allow her to recover I had her brought back to a local theater, the Pyre of Fears, as that is her home base at present.
If I may make a suggestion, Your Highness? Brace yourself. Starting tomorrow, everything about who she is, why she's here, and what she can do is going to roll around Equestria. There's going to be no shortage of concern, possibly even panic from anypony who's only familiar with their own kind. She caught a group of notorious thieves last night who were trying to raid her temporary home, so she's in the good graces of the Manehattan Royal Police, but there's always going to be the truly paranoid. I suspect that if they decide that the Police aren't going to do anything about her, they will either take matters into their own hooves or send a vast multitude of demands to Canterlot insisting that you and the Guard take direct action. Maybe even both. We're nutty that way.
The resulting ruckus would cut into my precious beauty sleep. And no cracks from you about said beauty sleep taking a few months. I've already had to put up with similar comments from my daughter. Just because it's true doesn't make it any less annoying to hear about.
Anyway, now that I've replenished my ink, I can talk more about Leviathan. She visited the Royal Police station to collect the bounty for the thieves' capture, and I caught up with her there. I gave her a brief history lesson about Manehattan and answered a few related questions, from which arose her initial disbelief about your longevity and power. She bought more of this strange candy that she can safely eat (called 'Heartbreakers' for your future reference), and she booped my nose to wake me up from a nap. We had a spirited debate (not an argument) as to the state of her clothing. When we bought a coat to cover her wounds until she can heal on her own, she challenged the minotauress store-owner to an arm wrestling match to take place after her recovery. And she lent her helmet to a foal and let him play with it while waiting for his mother to retrieve him. Everything that happened after, you already know.
I'll continue to send you updates, though I can't promise that they'll be daily. There's no guarantee that anything new regarding Leviathan will surface with this much frequency, and the Manehattan Minutes will be filling in many of the gaps if they do their job right, which is why I won't be talking about Fairy's origins like I'd originally planned. In addition I only have one more full Dragon Fire Candle stashed away, and those are difficult to come by. I can't afford to use these willy-nilly. Finally, my daughter believes that I have a pen pal in Canterlot, and while it's not un-true she'll start asking questions I won't be able to answer if this keeps up.
Sincerely yours,
Gray Ghost
Humble Housewife
P.S. I sincerely hope that I'm the first pony to use the word "boop" in the proper context in a letter to the Crown. It just seemed too funny a word to pass up.
P.P.S. I wanted to sign this letter as 'Countess Coloratura', but my daughter didn't like that idea."
Celestia rolled up the letter and set it next to her on her throne for the moment. She closed her eyes, and in her memories she recalled a little monochromatic Cutie Mark-less filly breaking free from her classmates and charging up the dais, beaming up at her like there was nothing wrong with the world before the foal's teacher could catch her. That same foal later chasing sultan chickens in the gardens, which at the time seemed like a strange way of attaining her Mark (though Celestia wasn't complaining; she sometimes believed those things had it out for her).
Too, she recalled a young and energetic mare ten years later who wanted to do right by others, dedicating her life to Manehattan's Royal Police... and in a more secretive meeting, promising Celestia that she would serve S.M.I.L.E. as a field agent should she be required to do so. For curiosity's sake, the monarch asked Gray during that meeting why she acted the way she did as a foal. With a sad smile on the pegasus' face, she only said seven words in reply: "I don't know. It just seemed right." This confused Celestia, since as far as she could recall she had her outward emotions under complete control.
Regardless of her reasons, Gray would go on to be a massive help to the city well into young adulthood, helping to take a bite out of the city's then-high crime rate.
More memories, this time of a news story in the Minutes that was elaborated on by the Police: a hostage situation at the bridge leading out of Manehattan, and Gray tackling one of those responsible. While she succeeded in distracting the criminals long enough for the rest of her squad to move in and secure the hostages, she was thrown off the bridge with an injured wing in the ensuing scuffle. There were no other pegasi close by to catch her, and she just barely managed to create enough lift with her uninjured wing to keep from sustaining fatal injuries upon impact with the water.
By some miracle she was found safe, if soaked to the bone with salt water, but it was clear from an accompanying photo that she was thinking about something other than the hostages or her near-death experience. "I'm reconsidering my priorities," she was quoted as saying, though those who knew her said that this was a vast understatement: plain and simply put, she was in love with her rescuer.
Later, she requested to be discharged from the Police after she married, and once it was granted she disappeared off the grid entirely. Gray was still technically under S.M.I.L.E.'s jurisdiction, but somehow they were never able to find her. Her special talent, which she'd previously used to get the drop on those the Police were trying to catch, let her stay out of sight: if she didn't want to be found, then nopony short of a dedicated investigator would be able to track her down. They could talk to her husband, sure, but even without speaking to him directly, it didn't take long to determine that he was completely in the dark as to her more secretive life. After that, it was decided that somepony who was fiercely loyal to Equestria and S.M.I.L.E. and had no reason to turn against them was no threat, and the agency turned its attention to more important matters.
At times when there was nothing else occupying her mind over the next fifteen years, Celestia wondered what became of that little filly who had unintentionally cheered her up that day in the throne room. She'd come to terms a long time ago with the inevitability of outliving her friends and subjects, but that didn't mean that she had to enjoy it. So when Gray wrote to her out of the blue telling her of Leviathan's presence in Manehattan, "pleased" was another understatement: her mood was more joyful than anything else, though of course she did a fine job of suppressing it in light of the letter's connotations.
As for Leviathan herself, there was no question in Celestia's mind that the Reploid was a concern. Throughout the alicorn's long life, there was no entity like her in Equestria. For sure there were a number of bipedal races in the world, but how many could claim that they were fully mechanical, capable of independent thought, made for warfare and a complete stranger to the planet all in the same breath? She made it clear to Gray that Leviathan was to be watched, but at the same time let her know that an attempt would be made to find out where she came from and send her home, if such methods existed. If nothing else Leviathan seemed personable, if that note Gray included about her letting a foal play with her helmet was any proof.
Celestia was protective of Equestria, true, but she was not going to alienate an actual alien if alternatives were available. She shook her head ruefully. What was that term Shining Armor once used to describe himself? A 'nerd'? I think they're the ones most likely to go into a frenzy over Leviathan's presence. Beware, ye of the twenty-sided dice.
…
One of the guards looked at Celestia through his peripheral vision. She seems introspective over whatever was in that message. And serious. A message from one of her border guards, maybe?
After a short time the Princess produced a scroll, ink and quill and proceeded to write, keeping her stone-serious expression. Most likely a reply, informing whoever messaged her to keep their eyes open for intruders. I'm glad to know that she takes this whole 'ruling' thing seriously. He smiled and continued staring forward, satisfied with his duty. This is what I signed up for.
"To my little pony,
I agree. 'Boop' is a funny word.
I appreciate you warning me ahead of time about the consequences of Leviathan's existence and presence. Continue sending me updates as you see fit. For now, I will request a copy of the Minutes once tomorrow's edition arrives in Canterlot.
With your next update, please tell me more about what you have been up to these past years. Your letter last night was the first I had heard from you since you resigned your post, and I was beginning to wonder if you were alright.
Best wishes,
Princess Celestia"
When Ebony went to find her mother and inform her that lunch was ready, she found Gray snoring softly as she sunned herself on one of the fire escape's steps. She facehoofed. "You're embarrassing me, Mom."
The music links in this chapter lead to "Cat Blues", from the soundtrack of Cowboy Bebop, and "A Try With the Mist", from the Touhou fangame Sengoku Gensokyo.
While reading about Ebony's dream, it helps if you hum 'Docaty Mountain Railroad' to yourself.
When reading through Celestia's trope page, I noticed something amusing: it said that according to her voice actor, her favorite type of music was 80's metal. To-wit, I consider Blin Jaggwar to be the in-universe iteration of Def Leppard. 
No Leviathan this chapter, and next time we'll see what the local newspaper actually has to say about her. The chapter may or may not run a little long as a result, and as such may take me some extra time to work on.
Estimated Chapter Deadline: December 30, 2021
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So Leviathan's aware of isekai stories? I was not expecting that.
Heh Celestia listening to metal and loving it sounds appropriately funny. Otherwise nice chapter.
I remember the story where G1 Megan introduced Celestia to Motley Crue. She was a fan filly in private and Megan had photos of Celestia in a bit of a goth phase.
11081358
So, basically Megan was trying to kickstart her heart?
As long as Leviathan don't reflect the blue screen of death in her eyes then everything should be okay, soon or later her CPU will do something
Sun is moving... Ignore it
Pony is moving giant sun... Ignore it
The n power to move the sun... Ignore it
A pony have the power to move the sun... Ignore it
Leviathan CPU is currently out of working, please call technical assistance
Hmm... As a computer nerd, a lot of this makes sense... but I still find the common "finding out about magic makes processors go haywire" thing a bit funny/technically inaccurate. The process generally wouldn't have failed, it would have completed instantly with "Unknown energy form not previously observed, need more info"... Unless of course she was applying the fictitious info from her past, where I could see those errors cropping up, making it an "unlearn what you have learned" situation. Once she does that, rather than equating it to true magic, I imagine she shouldn't have all that much trouble at all.
I'll admit I don't tend to work with humanoid robots in my stories so much as intergalactic warships, but my Starliner stories- not the earlier Bolo ones, they were inexperienced- put such a sentient, multiple-mile-long machine (original) against magic, and have it just catalogue and study it scientifically... Not necessarily successfully, but a failed experiment is merely a failed experiment. I'd suggest the latest, Equine Starliner, but in order to keep it from Mary Sueing the machine is a little less 'sentient' and more 'hyper-advanced AI' in that story, and as such doesn't exactly care about magic despite logging and computing everything. That said, it does actually take it into account in the simulations it uses to predict the future...
Aside from that, it doesn't exactly help Fairy that nopony would ever think to mention that Celestia is the one-in-a-trillion powerful but benevolent ruler, which is why Reploid is having so much trouble comprehending her. Aside from how she's obviously subject to human preconceptions, not just thought processes, suggesting a very human framework for her mind, rather than the machine framework I would normally expect even from a sentient, human-like machine like her. I wonder how long it'll be before they meet? Assuming Reploid doesn't realize who she is right away, that could go down really interesting... or she could just go to standby again.
She mentioned in past chapters that she had to force overrides in her programming to keep it from failing... Couldn't she technically do that here, and just catalogue the info for later analysis? That'd allow her to retain function until she got somewhere safe to shut down, and I imagine if things keep shocking her like that, she'll start doing things like that herself, just in the name of not crashing to the ground so often.
But even after all that, I'm glad I found this story. Awesome work, and I look forward to reading more of it!
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Admittedly, a fair chunk of it is me going with what I thought made sense for her personality and filling in the gaps with something vaguely humorous. Everything she knows fits within the confines of her views of the universe. Of course the problem with that is that this isn't her universe anymore, so the rules will appear to be broken. Everything still does make sense; she's just not picking up on that yet.
To answer the question as to whether she could force an override in this particular situation like she'd done in the past, she most likely could. Thinking about the situation a bit more, I find myself wondering if the whole 'wanting to figure this out later' thing is just a partial excuse to get some more rest. She was up late dealing with those thieves and their immediate aftermath, after all.
At the moment, that's the best guess I have.
I don't think that I'd dwelled much on what you said here, and it's some definite food for thought. I appreciate your comments. >^_^<
Glad to see a fellow Cowboy Bebop fan on this site.
Edit: who's your favorite crewmember and why?
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I'd have to say it's a tossup between Jet and Ein. Ein because he's adorable (and intelligent), and Jet because of his levelheadedness and fondness for blues and jazz, two of my own favorite musical genres.
11089639
There is a channel called ReploidRevo on Youtube that delves into Canon Mega Man Lore and characters, such as:
X
Part 1(X Series)
Part 2(Zero Series)
Zero
Part 1(X Series)
Part 2(Zero Series)
History of Robotics in the Mega Man Franchise
1) Classic and Early X Era
2) Late X and Zero Eras
3) ZX and Legends Era
It's a lot a data, but it will give you a clear idea of what is intended for the canon. But it's ultimately up to you what you want to do with it, it's your story after all.
Boop!
This little prank was... Fun, but author, if you didn't make it so this single act had a GIGANTIC effect on Fairy I'm calling bullshit.
No sane creature just goes on with life after discovering the fate of a planet depends on the mood of a single creature.
If Fairy doesn't start to strengthen herself and try to create/find a way to limit Celestia's absurd power this will be a GIGANTIC plot hole.
11670522
Please save your criticism for after you've read the story, not before. Thank you.
I legitimately cant tell if she's bullshitting or just legitimately doesn't know that it IS Celestia at this point but either way it's hilarious
edit: well that's been answered but it's still funny tho
11670522
I'm agreeing with author here, a reasonable amount of caution is to be expected, sure, but I'd hope Levi's also smart enough to realise that if Celestia thought she was a threat (knowing that this being can MOVE THE SUN WITH SHEER WILLPOWER), she'd be atomised on the spot and , if she's been supposedly keeping it up for Millenia, she must obviously want to try and keep it in check, even if it's just because "Well shit all my stuff's here I don't want it to burn" or "I prefer verdant plains to Charred Wastelands, thanks" Plus Reploids control all sorts of Natural phenomena, iirc they were even starting shit with the moon around X8 so...