Sun & Moon Act II: A Crown Divided

by cursedchords

Chapter 19: Cherries

“Of course the stars draw the eye when the rest of the sky is black. But even their brilliance does not illuminate the night.”

- Ancient Unicorn Proverb

Her new uniform was waiting in the scrivener’s room when Celestia came in the next morning. Admittedly, it was a plain thing compared to the embroidered coats that Gala and Fastidious wore, but it fit perfectly over her shoulders, and its bright red hue set a nice contrast to her white coat, or at least so Celestia thought. It was a clean, bright, new piece of clothing though, and that alone made it by far the most valuable thing that she had ever owned. With a little more work and determination, she hoped that it wouldn’t be the last.

For a few weeks more afterward, the time did continue to fly by. Every morning she would arrive with the rest of her group, leaving them behind while she went to the manor to get back to the books. There was always a new stack of invoices and receipts waiting to be catalogued, usually sales and purchases to keep the manor stocked but occasionally accumulated payrolls and inventory reports too. Even with just a look through the past years’ records, Celestia could get a sense as to why Fastidious wasn’t pleased with the operation. Especially once Quill’s creativity had been corrected, this year’s harvest was decidedly behind the average pace, and work stoppages were the main cause. In her current role she didn’t have much of an opportunity to help with that though. An opportunity to make her recommendations would present itself eventually, and Celestia knew that she would have to be ready.

About three weeks after she had first been hired on, there came a knock at her door in the late morning. Celestia was fully expecting it to be one of the kitchen-mares around to deliver the day’s lunch, but instead it was Gala’s waxed moustache that greeted her. The old earth pony had on an even fancier suit than normal today, the collar of his starched shirt coming right up to his chin.

“Good morning, Celestia,” he said cheerfully as soon as she opened the door. “We usually have a staff meeting each month, and this time it’s today. Don’t worry about lunch. We’ll have it together in the meeting room.”

“Naturally,” she agreed, joining him out in the hall. Gala led her on at his usual brisk trot.

“We do expect you to say a word or two about how things are faring,” Gala said as they walked. “Nothing too detailed, just a little overview of the month.”

Celestia nodded, going over the numbers in her head to make sure that she had them all straight. “I’m afraid that it’s going to be just about what everypony is expecting. Unless somepony else has some great news for us, that is.”

Gala grunted. “Screw is supposed to outline his plan to streamline repair operations today. With our luck, all of the presses will break down while he’s giving the presentation. Honestly, I’ve started to wonder if you’re not the only new staff member that we ought to be bringing on.”

“Well, I suppose that we’ll have to see what he has to say.”

In the time that they spent talking as they walked to and from the orchard each morning and evening, Trinity and Capstan had both said that they thought Screw was an incompetent mechanic at best, but Celestia wasn’t about to let herself get more embroiled in office politics than she already was. She was here to make things run smoother, not to make personal enemies.

To that, Gala just grunted again. Perhaps Trinity and Capstan weren’t alone in their assessment of the mechanic.

As the pair crossed through the lobby and were about to turn deeper into the house, a sudden shadow crossed over the light that was filtering through the big front windows, followed immediately by a sharp pounding on the front door. Gala paused, his eyebrows shooting up.

“Interesting,” he mused, glancing for a moment back at the door as if wondering if he should answer it himself. “Celestia, please wait here for a moment. I should see what this is.”

His request notwithstanding, Celestia couldn’t resist taking a few steps that way herself as the old pony made his way up to the entrance. When he opened the door, she recognized two of the senior guards standing there, their embroidered tabards rippling in the breeze. Between them though, they were holding a scared-looking green unicorn by the shoulders.

“Well, Curt?” Gala demanded, addressing the guard on the left, who bore an additional bar on the front of his tabard, and seemed to be the one in charge.

“We found him amongst Screw’s supplies,” Curt answered, his partner giving an affirmative nod. “He only came in two days ago, and didn’t have a good enough excuse. We think he might be Resistance.”

Gala took another step forward, studying the prisoner intently. From behind, Celestia couldn’t see the look on his face, but from the way the unicorn on the step averted his eyes, she could guess that Gala wasn’t being friendly.

“No,” the master of the estate said at length. “Too clean, and far too amateurish from the sounds of it. The Resistance does a better job of hiding. This one is a spy. House Carnelian, by the looks of him. He has his father’s eyes.”

With a hoof he beckoned the two guards into the house. “Take him down to the cellar. I have a meeting now, but I’ll get to him after that. We’ll find out what he has to say.”

The two of them gave him a quick salute, but before they could go, the prisoner spoke up. “You think I’ll talk?” he shouted, his voice rather shrill in the open space of the hall. “I’ve trained for this. House Carnelian answers to nopony!” The outburst earned him a cuff across the neck from Curt.

In answer, Gala grinned coolly. He reached over and cradled the unicorn’s chin in one of his hooves, forcing their eyes to meet. “I’m sure these two gentlecolts were nice enough to ask you civilly up to now,” he said, his voice much lower than usual, and its grandfatherly charm replaced with a coldness that even Celestia felt. “Rest assured, I don’t have their patience, and I can be very persuasive when I’m of a mind to be. I have cracked tougher nuts than you to put in my breakfast cereal.”

Stepping away, the old pony waved the two guards off. “Curt!” he called after them. “Light a fire on the hearth, and clean off the tools. I’ll get right into things after the meeting.” Once he had received nods of affirmation, he waited until the guards and their prisoner had disappeared down the hall before turning back to Celestia.

“Hmph! Sorry you had to see that,” he said. “But it is always good to catch one of them.”

“Indeed,” Celestia replied, a bit nervous. Once again she was unsure of exactly how she ought to be reacting, given the implication of what had been about to happen to that poor unicorn. But he was a representative of a rival House, and thus an enemy of Fastidious and Gala, so maybe she shouldn’t feel so sorry for him. “Perhaps things will improve with him gone.”

“I sincerely doubt it, though it is always nice to hope so.” Chuckling whimsically, Gala was right back to the genial tone and bright smile he had worn before the interruption. “You heard Curt. This one only came in a few days ago. But it’s good to know that our guards are diligent and watchful.”

Seeing how he was taking the whole thing in stride, Celestia tried to push the incident out of her mind. She did still have the staff meeting and her accounts to worry about after all. Curt and Gala could deal with prisoners and spies.

Only a dozen steps from the main hall they stopped by a large set of double doors, and behind them Celestia saw a very long room with a very long table down its centre. At the far end of the table, Fastidious was already seated, his mane combed neatly off to the side, and his usual gleaming apple brooch on prominent display across his chest. At the moment, he was looking over a whole array of parchments which were spread out in front of him on the table, seemingly so engrossed as to be unaware of the rest of the room.

The other point in the chamber that drew Celestia’s attention was another long table on the near wall, upon which a sumptuous buffet spread was laid out: a mound of steaming bread, a thick wheel of white cheese, little sheaves of hay stacked up into a pyramid, and of course several great pitchers of clear apple juice. There was even a basket of cherries for dessert.

By now Celestia had gotten somewhat used to the occasional sweet that Rosy was able to make with the sugar that she brought home, but this was on a completely different level. It was all that Celestia could do not to gather up a whole basket herself for everypony else back home. But that would be an unseemly display of course. She would have to content herself with hiding a few extra cherries for Luna later.

With her plate full Celestia scanned the table, wondering where to sit. Gala had taken a spot right next to his son, and for a moment she considered sitting on his other side, but then she saw a small metal stand that had been set up in front of one of the chairs. Engraved into it were the words “Celestia, Scrivener”. And so naturally she sat right there.

The seat was about halfway down the table, which meant that she couldn’t hear whatever Fastidious and Gala were discussing, but at least she had a good view of the doors as the rest of the staff started to arrive.

First in was a tall green unicorn who Celestia had never seen before, sporting a shiny monocle over his right eye and a blood-red cape to match the Lord’s, only not quite so richly embroidered. The seat that he took identified him as Pure Fruit, the family’s court liaison. Following him in a few minutes were Soft Touch, the earth pony head of the cleaning staff, Curt Words, the lead guard that she had seen earlier, and Heavy Heart, the head foremare of the orchard. There were also a dozen or so less important functionaries, each one ending up farther down the table than where Celestia sat.

Screw came in last, flying through the meeting room’s doors at a quick clip. The blue pegasus breathed a sigh of relief on seeing the whole group assembled there, then flicked a bead of sweat out of his eyes and headed over to the food table, which by now was mostly empty.

Once the mechanic had found his seat, sliding in one spot above Celestia’s own, Fastidious rose at the head of the table. Clearing his throat, the young Lord spoke up. “It’s good to see you all. Today we are finished with the first month of the harvest season, which means that we should be about a quarter of the way through the harvest. Of course, as I’m sure that we all realize, we are quite a bit behind that schedule.” He paused, leaving an uncomfortable silence for a few moments, then continued. “Hopefully, today we can have some constructive ideas on how to get things back on track. We still have three months left to work with after all.” With a small smile, Fastidious sat back down.

Beside him, Gala rustled his own stack of parchment. “We’ll start with the usual accounting report. Celestia?”

Every pony at the table swiveled their eyes in her direction as one, as if they were all just marionettes at the control of a single puppet master. With a deep breath, she got to her hooves. The room had been huge when Gala had led her in here, but suddenly under the effect of all of those stares, it seemed smaller even than her dark office. Even Screw, who was still wolfing down his lunch, managed to spare a dour glance in her direction. In spite of the glass of apple juice she had drank from only moments earlier, she suddenly found her throat bone-dry.

“Um… as the Lord has said, the estate is functioning about two weeks behind in terms of its operating income,” she began, thinking quickly of the details from the ledgers back in her study. Taking a few notes to future meetings seemed now like it would be a great idea. Gala did nod once and made a mark on his parchment at that one sentence, but everypony else was still looking at her expectantly.

“Our operating reserves currently stand at about thirty-two hundred tri-coins, which is enough to meet normal expenditures for about a month more. And the inventory of product is low, as thankfully we’ve been able to move most of our harvest quickly, thanks in no small part to Mister Fruit.” The unicorn across the table tipped his monocle appreciatively at her. Celestia felt like she should conclude with some nice wrap-up, but that seemed like everything of substance that she had to say. “That’s… ah, that’s about it,” she finished.

“Thank you,” Gala stated, making a few more marks. “Speaking of you, Mister Fruit, how does the outreach go?”

Celestia hurriedly returned to her seat as Fruit rose to deliver his own report. She reached for the glass of apple juice right away, and its divine wetness washed away the itch in her throat. She was going to have to get better at maintaining her poise if she wanted any respect in this assemblage. But at least for the time-being it seemed as though nothing more was required of her.

Fruit delivered his report with aplomb, and he was followed swiftly by Curt’s security report, and Heart’s labour update. Finally, Gala turned to Screw, who had finished up with his lunch and managed to surreptitiously work his mane back into a presentable order.

“Mister Screw,” Gala said, eying him carefully, “We are all well-aware that equipment failures have been the key cause of the delays in the harvest. As head mechanic, how do you propose that we address the issue?”

Screw rose from his seat, and indeed a few feet more than that as his wings fluttered him up into a gentle hover. “Honestly, my Lord, the thing that we really need to fix our troubles is more mechanical staff. It’s not reasonable for me to keep this whole place running all on my own.”

“With all due respect,” Fastidious cut in, “you’ve handled the responsibility well for the past three years, all on your own, as you said. What’s different now?”

“The equipment is aging,” Screw replied, quickly as if he had known the question was coming. “If a press gets fixed enough, it’s never as good as it was new. Things start to break down more often. I suppose that we could also fix the problem by getting brand-new equipment in, but not on short notice. Some fresh apprentices are the only way that we’ll improve things this season.”

“I hope that you’d be willing to help with that,” Heavy Heart put in. “It’s easy enough to find unskilled labour to pick the apples, but competent mechanics are another story.”

Despite this setback, Screw smiled. “I know a few ponies. As does Mister Fruit. It won’t be cheap to bring them in on short notice, but in the long run you’ll surely notice the difference.”

He gave Fastidious a look, and after a moment’s thought the Lord nodded. “How soon can your friends get in here?”

Celestia tapped her glass lightly on the table to get the room’s attention. “If I may?” Screw turned to offer her a cross glare, but Fastidious nodded. Once again she felt the weight of the room’s attention as she rose, but she also knew that this was the chance she’d been waiting for. “Taking on more skilled staff would be a considerable drain on our finances. If we could avoid it, that would be preferable.”

Screw crossed his forelegs in front of his chest, less than happy with the suggestion. “Well, I’d prefer it too, Miss Celestia, but I already said this is the only way things are going to get better. How does not finishing the harvest look on our balance sheets?”

“I beg to differ, actually,” she replied, respectfully, or at least so she hoped. This was her chance to get Fastidious’s attention and prove her worth, but if she could do it without stepping on Screw too much, she would prefer that too. “In fact, I think that with the proper rearrangement of our assets, we can reach the target productivity even without bringing in any extra staff.”

More than a few eyebrows rose around the table, Fastidious’s included, though Screw was still nonplussed. “I wasn’t aware that the Lord had so broadened your responsibilities, Miss Scrivener. Perhaps you should study the books a few more months before making any further suggestions, hm?”

“My salary is on the line just as much as yours, Mister Screw,” she returned, leveling a serious glare his way. “I know it perhaps better than any of you. We’re not in major trouble yet, but at this rate we won’t be making it through the winter. So the responsibility of averting that falls to all of us.”

“Screw,” Gala said firmly from the head of the table, cutting off the mechanic as he was about to retort again. “Let her speak.” The old earth pony had a curious look in his eyes, at least not hostile. The mood around the rest of the table was a bit more uncertain, some ponies perhaps sharing Screw’s skepticism. But nopony challenged her further. Screw, meanwhile, stayed aloft just over Celestia’s shoulder, stormily glaring at her from the side.

This time, Celestia’s voice came to her a bit easier, since these were after all the words that she had practiced saying in her time in the accounting room.

“I’ve watched the actions of the orchard each day as I come in,” she began. “The distribution of the cider-pressing facilities is our biggest inefficiency. With presses spread out in the orchard, news of a break takes too long to get back to us, and the time required to transport parts to the remote locations is more wasted effort. Instead, if we consolidate all of our equipment in one central location, Mister Screw can oversee everything at once, and much quicker make good on lost time. It will allow easier quality control and more efficient tracking of inventories too.”

Across the table, Heavy Heart cleared her throat. “What about the extra time required to transport the picked product? The trek from the orchard’s corners to its centre wouldn’t be short. The distributed system keeps the workers picking more of the time, and carrying less.”

“Not when they spend an hour waiting in line for a broken press,” Celestia countered. “But even so, we can do that better too, by splitting our workforce according to their respective abilities. We already have the strongest working the presses, but instead of having everypony else be a picker, why not have dedicated transport ponies, pegasi most likely, to keep the presses sustained? That will mean more apples picked in the same time.”

Heart cocked her head to the side as she thought. “We don’t have the staff for an overhaul of that size either. So we’re hiring extra ponies either way.”

Celestia didn’t even have to look to see the grin materialize on Screw’s face. But she had an answer for that, too. “Unskilled labour, though, Miss Heart. Much less detrimental on the balance sheet. I project that we’ll only need a few dozen more to fill out our labour force under the new system, plus a few more temporarily to handle construction. Mister Curt?”

The security chief sat up straighter. “Yes?”

“How long do you think that it will take for us to pull in three dozen or so able-bodied workers from the city?”

He answered right away. “At least a few days, maybe a week, Miss Celestia.”

“Excellent.” She turned back to the head of the table, where Fastidious and Gala still looked thoughtful, and gave them a small self-assured smile. “An on-time harvest, my Lord, and without breaking the balance sheet.”

Fastidious nodded. “I agree. Mister Screw and Miss Heart can help you with the plans as soon as we’re finished here. Father, was there anything else on the schedule?”

“No,” Gala returned, making a few more notes at the base of his parchment. “The meeting then is adjourned.”

There was a chorus of grating sounds as the chairs were slid back from the conference table. Celestia glimpsed down at her seat, and quickly brought her apple juice up to her mouth for another sip, using the glass to hide her sigh of relief. She may have imagined herself saying those words a dozen times before, but nothing could have quite prepared her for the real thing. Now, time would tell if the Lord had been suitably impressed. Beside her, Screw settled back down onto the floor, his expression unreadable.

“Congratulations,” he said simply, before gathering up his things and briskly trotting out the door. She hoped that he would take it well. It had been unavoidable to make him look a bit foolish. But in the end the reforms would be best for everypony at the orchard, including him.

Hopefully he would see that after a moment’s contemplation, especially since the two of them were going to be working together for the implementation.

---

The rest of the day passed in a rapidfire pace of meetings and exchanges with Screw and Heart. Thankfully, the chief mechanic seemed to have thought better of his earlier hostility, as he raised only a few objections when Celestia went over the details of her plans for the central pressing building. Most of the details were going to be his responsibility, and Celestia found his suggestions predominantly constructive, which was good to know. Heart too seemed ready to oblige with the process.

By the end of the day, Celestia almost wanted to skip her way down to the larder. Tonight was going to be another special night at home. She couldn’t wait to see the look on Trinity’s face.

When she came in to collect her daily pay, though, Gala was there to greet her, the jocular twinkle back in his eyes, and also back in a more casual uniform. When she stepped forward to claim her pay, Gala raised his own hoof, and the pony at the door nodded before disappearing inside. “Something extra for you today,” the old earth pony said. “A small bonus for a task well-performed.”

Celestia eagerly nodded her thanks. “Thank you for hearing me out, sir.”

“Our ears are always open to good ideas,” he returned, “and we’ve been far too short of those lately. I’ll admit that I was starting to worry about the future of the operation myself.”

“Things will still take some time to improve. We won’t see the new efficiency impact on the balance sheet until a month or two down the line. But we can certainly hold on at the present pace until then.”

Gala nodded. “As expected.” A moment later, the servant re-emerged with Celestia’s pay, this time augmented with a whole basket of cherries, just like the ones that had been served at lunch. It actually added up to a little more than she could comfortably carry, but Gala merely gestured to the kitchen staff, and soon enough the two of them were walking towards the front door, with Celestia’s baggage being carried by a servant in the rear.

“I really do want to thank you for all of the opportunities that you and your son have given me,” Celestia said, turning to Gala with an admiring smile. “Hope is so hard to find in this world sometimes.”

Gala just shook his head. “Nonsense. There was no generosity to it, simply honest pay for honest work.”

The two of them reached the front door of the estate, and Gala opened it to reveal the grounds bathed in the golden light of the autumn dusk. The apples out in the distance shone like nuggets of gold hanging on the trees, and a breeze was blowing from the south, carrying the light scent of the Everfree River.

Celestia took a step off towards the gate of the complex, where she knew that her friends would be waiting for her at the end of the day, but behind her Gala let out a sharp whistle. In only a moment the estate coach had rolled up the circular drive, and one of the guards was holding the door for her while another was packing her bags into the rear.

“Come along, my dear,” Gala said, bounding up the steps with all the agility of a young colt. “Let us enjoy a gentler ride back to the city, shall we? It can get so very chilly up on the mountain.”

Celestia hesitated, her eyes darting back to the gate. The others would perhaps see her go by, and head back to Rosy’s on their own. And there would be plenty of time to update them on things over the rest of the evening. Plus, since she would surely make it back first, she could help Rosy make something out of the cherries, and give them another magical supper to celebrate. Her mind made up, Celestia carefully picked her way up the steps and into the coach.

The inside was padded in warm fabric and lacquered wood, the upholstery the same vibrant red as everything else that Fastidious owned. The guards outside latched the door for them, and then the coach coasted smoothly away from the door, its big wheels and soft suspension easily absorbing every bump in the drive. In a way, it almost felt like flying to be so swiftly moving along, though obviously rather close to the ground. Celestia resolved to enjoy it while she could, though clearly Gala had something else that he wanted to discuss, now that they were alone.

Gala drew the curtains of the coach open as soon as they had cleared the orchard’s gate, revealing the soft bluish-grey of Eridian’s twilight blanketing the world around them. Even moving by so swiftly as it was, it was impossible to ignore the emptiness of it all.

“Such dreadful countryside,” he remarked with a hint of revulsion. “Things must have been so much nicer before.”

There was no need to ask before what. “It is at least still pleasant on your property. Your family has preserved some of the beauty of old Equestria, and that is commendable, my Lord.”

He shook his head. “I appreciate the sentiment, yet we cannot ignore the reality of the world around us. We may like to draw these curtains and pretend that everything is friendly, but that won’t change the world we look at when we arrive at our destination, now will it?”

There was a depth in Gala’s voice that seemed off from its usual jocularity. Looking out of the window herself, Celestia felt that she knew what the old earth pony was thinking. Despite the vast distance between their births, at the end of the day they were naught but two ponies surviving in a dying world. Traitors Gala and Fastidious may be, but a choice like that surely hadn’t been made lightly.

“The world is what it is, my Lord. We can only deal with it.”

The coach crested a hill, and on the horizon Eridian appeared, towering like a giant over the dark countryside, its rings of broken buildings clutching at the side of the mountain to which the city clung. Up on its very top, right beneath the castle that the King called his own, there was a little light, just a pinprick in the vastness of the darkness. But it was something. Hope, maybe, if Celestia could convince herself that it was in reach. A better life, for her, for Luna, for Trinity and Rosy and all of the others.

Gala cleared his throat, pulling Celestia’s eyes back to the inside of the coach. “On the subject of reality, my son and I have a special favour to ask of you, Celestia.”

She nodded expectantly, eager for any opportunity. Another chance to take a step up in their graces, perhaps?

“The persistence of our shortfalls at the Rose et Blanc is possibly just the result of mismanagement, but now both of us believe it is more likely that we have a saboteur among the workers. One of those fools from the Resistance, most likely.” He sat back into his seat, offering her a serious, level look. “These improvements that you’ve suggested we make offer us an opportunity to ferret out the culprit, and we would like you, Celestia, to be our lead investigator in that regard.”

Celestia started before she could recover herself. As much of an opportunity as this was, it certainly wasn’t what she had been expecting. “Me? I’m sorry, my Lord, but as much as I’d agree with your reasoning, investigation isn’t really in my job description.”

“Ah, but you’ve got the eye for details,” he answered, sitting up straighter and speaking with clear confidence. “And as overseer of the construction effort, you’ll have unfettered access to the whole operation. Nothing should escape your notice.”

“But, I thought that Screw was going to oversee the construction?”

The coach lurched as it came under the gate and into Eridian’s main thoroughfare. Underneath the shadows of the city, the darkness in the coach became so complete that Celestia struck up a light with her horn.

“Not anymore, he’s not,” Gala said matter of factly. “We’ll find another position for him, but you’re leading the effort. We’ll find a way to manage the accounting work. And naturally there will be a commensurate increase in your compensation.”

He looked at her shrewdly, waiting for a response. Celestia almost told him that she needed some time to think, but in reality what choice was there for her to make? Flour and cherries were only the beginning of what Fastidious and Gala could offer her, after all.

Sunlight, safety, comfort. All of that would be within her grasp. It was almost a dream come true, except that she hadn’t ever dared to even dream of this future. Hope, suddenly, had swooped down in front of her face, and all that she had to do was reach out and embrace it. So she reached out a hoof, and took hold of Gala’s, shaking it firmly.

“I won’t let you down, my Lord.”