What a wonderful world

by a touch of sparkles

Chapter 34: The decrepit brings saftey

Now in year eight, the class was being loaded onto some carriages. Some of them were being left behind, namely Fleur and another kid who had lost the right to trips. Sombra didn’t exactly fit in the closed off carriages and so he had to walk along the side, but at least he wasn’t chained to it. There were three in total to carry the class, Mrs Morning and the DT teacher. Hope sat in the one he was next to, with the little window open so they could talk.

As they went on, heading East towards billowing chimneys, the streets got thinner and dirtier, buildings were made out of brick and wood and very little was crystalised. The houses and shops were crooked and slouched onto each other and above the net of black cable fractured the sky. The crystal road was dull and chipped, the wheels of the carriages thumped into the odd pothole. They stopped at a circular crossroad.

“You’ll have to get off here, double pulls can’t get through from here” one of the stallions told them. The teachers unloaded all the students from the carriages in which Sombra could see would most definitely not fit through the roads. The roads, him and the others were so cramped between buildings, only the very top of the castle could be seen.

“What’s the way to the factory from here?” Mrs Morning asked.

“You’ll want to follow that road around and take a left when it splits, If you’re stuck follow the red cables to where they meet up. Also watch your umbrum lads hair and horn, the wires have been raised since but some still hang low in places”

“Oh alright then” they headed down the tight roads, sometimes pushing into buildings as slim cargo carriages came past. They walked past crumpled houses, none had gardens, and past shops which were slotted in between. Wooden posts held multitudes of cables, some had one red cable that split into fifty. On one cable joined to a house there was a lock of matted black hair which had been long glued on by rain.

They turned a corner and the road expanded and bent into a square in front of a giant brick building. There wasn’t so much a door as there was just a square hole with barred gates. By the sides there was the first signs of plants that didn’t consist of moss. Two hanging baskets overflowed with dangling leaves, the top was covered in a dome of flowers from the snowfield. “Mustang and co copper foundry” was cut out of oxidised copper. What was catching Sombra’s eyes however were rusted iron, vertical swirling letters, blending into the brick.

“the decrepit brings safety”

He was too distracted by them to notice the iron bars being opened by a large draft stallion. He looked down when Opal pecked him in the neck. The stallion was eye level with him at least, he also didn’t sparkle like every other pony, and he had no gemstones in his skin. He was largely neutral in colour, being dark brown with white socks and muzzle, along with thin black hair cut short.

“y’all the lot comin’ round the factory I’ll assume” he had a grit to his voice.

“yes” the DT teacher had a snark to her tone and an eyebrow raised, which wasn’t uncommon for her Sombra had learnt. Especially when it came to things she deemed obvious.

“all righ’ then you lot, you know what we make ‘ere?” he asked them.

“copper” one kid replied, they walked into the factory, passing through a wall of blazing heat.

“and ye’r alloys?”

“you do alloys” another kid asked.

“yes”

“brass”

“and?”

“bronze”

“exactly. The brass we make here is called alpha brass, it’s a seventy thir’y copper to zinc, makes it quite malleable even when cold…” he went on about the different properties of the brass and bronze, explaining the process of how they mix, melt and pour the metal into ingots. They pasted many giant ovens, closed with thick graphite hatches. Vents pasted in and out of them in a organised rows and then left through the side of the factory. The stallion continued explaining how the ovens heated the crucibles hidden inside. A normal sized stallion, who Sombra couldn’t tell if he was crystal or not based on most of his body being covered in heavy fabric, opened up one of the furnaces. Blazing golden light shone from inside, and the heat of the room quickly increased. The stallion turned to the group.

“This one’s ready boss”

“That’s the bronze righ’?”

“Yep” the boss motioned them around the furnace from a distance. The other stallion trotted of, returned with another and a rack full of moulds. The front of the oven was closed, the top was opened up to reveal the arm the crucible hung from. The two stallions climbed up short, steep stairs to manoeuvre the crucible up and down to the moulds. With one moving the mould table, the other on the wheel of the crucible, they poured the bronze into their ingot shapes. The class watched in varying degrees of amazement, some silent, others audibly, as the bronze splashed and shimmered. They were relatively small ingots, the boss had said they were six kilograms although from the distance Sombra couldn’t quite tell how big they were, but they appeared like they could fit comfortably in two of his hooves.

“these ones ‘ll go off to the coolin’ room, I can show ya’ll the ready ones” he lead them off further into the factory, where they were bought into a large room which was filled with stacks of ingots of all sizes, all different hues of coppery gold. The boss weaved between the stacks, and pulled of a much smaller ingot, he handed it to the students to pass around.

“these li’le ones go to the jewellery crafters, since down here we can’t afford the good gold, we imitate it instead” the ingot came around to Sombra and Hope, who lifted it in her magic. On its top was an indent saying, “Mustang & co., 70/30 Brass, 1kg”. in Hopes magic, it could pull of as gold, and yet if Sombra really looked at it, he could see it was ever so slightly duller. They handed it back.

They were lead around the storage, Sombra could just about see over the stacks, each organised by grade, metal and weight. They didn’t spend too long in there until they were taken back out again, then taken to another much larger room. Inside was a row of five giant cylindrical machines.

“These are the electric genera’ors, real new tech that we managed t’ get our hooves on from Can’erlot. I can’t show you the inside, but I can try to explain” he went through the process of how they boiled water with coal, then pressurising the steam and pumping it through the many turbines within. The mechanical rotation was converted electrical energy, and they supplied the factory.

“We use the electricity more for the ligh’s and ki’chen, which in the long run is much cheaper than oil lamps and more coal”

“But what about all that coal, surely that’s expensive” one kid pipped up, pointing to the giant crates piled up with lumps of coal.

“Well that pile can last us a good few months, but the cost of it is way overhauled by the amount of money we get from the entire empire paying us for power”

“You power the whole empire?” said another kid in surprise.

“Well yes, these five act’lly produce far t’ much power, so we make the ponies pay t’ use it, most goes to the cas’le, we get a pretty penny off them…when they pay it” the last comment was said away from them all. Most of them had lost interest with nothing glowing to look at, and they were taken out the back of the factory to a large courtyard to eat.

Compared to the rest of the factory, it was very green. Nestled between all the cramped houses and buildings, the courtyard contained small birch trees and the factory wall was covered in sprawling ivy. They sat at the benches and ate their lunches, and while Sombra didn’t initially notice Opal leaving his side, until he returned (somehow) carrying a bowl of nuts, seeds and fruit.

(“Where did you get those from?”)

(“Would you believe me if I told you I lived here for the last two hundred years”)

(“You didn’t tell me this entire time?”)

(“Look heat makes me drowsy alright and you are incredibly fluffy”) There was a brief silence between them

(“Why here? Why not the forest?”)

(“A, free food I don’t need to scavenge for, B simply seeing a Lumos if enough to keep some umbrum sane, so chilling around them didn’t seem to break the oath much”)

(“Oath?”)

(“I’ll explain it later, I don’t have good history with it”)

“Sombra” Mrs Morning called him, he turned to see her standing with the boss again. He left his lunch and walked over.

“He wants to talk with you, since you’re an umbrum-in a good way” she told him.

(“You can trust him”) Sombra nodded with a little caution and turned his attention to the boss.

“I got some stuff for ya” he followed the boss back into the factory and heavy air.

“I wasn’ expecting an umbrum in ya group to be fair, but since yer here I figured I’d just tell you yer welcome any time”

“Whys that?”

“’Cus this is the safest place in the whole empire for yer, if you didn’ gather by the front, oh and ya can call me Big J, dont question the lack of crea’ivity, big is the only description drafts seem to get”

Sombra was lead back into the storage room, and between all the stacks again. Big J rolled one to the side on its wheels, to reveal an extremely tall door, which was more a sheet of metal on hinges.

“We rescued alotta umbrum from the rich gits, we let em camp up here until they got strong enough to go home, then none of em did because they wanted to wait for the rest of their fam’ly”

“did they work here as well?”

“they got bored eventually so they helped out” they made their way up a makeshift staircase, and at the top Sombra could see a curtain made of copper strands, pulled back like a curtain.

They entered a large open room on a second floor Sombra hadn’t noticed. The floor was covered in hundreds of pillows, some appeared bought, others patch worked. There was electric lamps hanging from the ceiling, each with beaded pull cords. The blankets Sombra noticed, were leather, although visibly from different animals. The room was quite warm due to the ovens underneath, although it wasn’t intolerable.

“Say er, whats your sire’s name?” Big J asked Sombra, although it took him a moment to answer.

“…Vacio” saying his parents name was and felt very foreign on his tongue.

“Blue eyes”

“Yeah”

“that’s why yer name sounded familiar, s’actualy quite unfortunate” with the last bit under his breath, Big J trotted over and passed a few piles of pillows, over to one group, that had three blankets. Big J picked up a framed picture and gave it to him.

The picture was of his sire, most definitely. But then there was two others next to him. They appeared like young adults, at youngest late teens. They appeared practically identical to each other, and it was the hints of primary colour amongst the black and white that told him it was his sire, and the twins.

“…He’s gone now” Sombra wasn’t to sure about why that was the first thought that attributed itself to his sire.

“Yeah…I er…I was told…lis’en ya can come back later to talk ‘bout him yeah? Were sor’ of on a limit since you on a trip”

“…ok”

“keep the picture lad, so erm, one last place and yer can get back to ya friends”

“ok” they headed back down the stairs and back into the main factory again. They entered what was clearly a med bay, and not a fancy hospital one. It looked like the rest of the building with brick walls and a singular small window. But their was a row of beds and a row of cabinets, covered in quite a lot of bandages, some dirtier than others. Sombra could easily imagine many horrific burns happening. There were two crystal mares at the back.

“Oh hello” one almost jumped out of her seat upon seeing Sombra, the other with her hooves in the sink just waved. Sombra ended up with his cheeks being squished by one of the mares hooves. She then noticed the scares that laced his neck.

“What happened to your neck? I’ve not seen the chains do this”

“There was um, acid”

“You were Amore’s?!” the nurse said in shock.

“How are ya alive?”

“Dam protected me”

“That explains why Vacio never found ya then, yer were in the castle prison”

“Well, its healed…not the best, did you have bandages on?” the nurse asked.

“Yeah”

“Oh, we figured out after a while bandages prevent your white roses forming properly, they’re really on good to prevent bleeding on deep wounds” she told him, lightly stroking the fur on his neck, then she walked to his side, reached up and patted Opal on the head, who had already drifted off.

“You found your umbrum you were sensing then” she said to Opal, who nodded slowly and half asleep.

“You can come to us if you get injured okay, you’ll just have to sit through Cherry’s hugs. We’re in pretty much all the time, just come through that door” the other nurse spoke up from the sink, waving to the door at the end of the room.

“I’m not that bad” the two mares fell into a banter, and Sombra and Big J returned to the courtyard. Sombra put the picture of his sire and the twins in his bag.

“Where’d you go?” Hope asked him.

“He er…just wanted to talk with me”

“Oh, ok” the trip was pretty much over, and the class were sitting in the front of the factory waiting. They didn’t sit for too long, as they weren’t waiting for the carriages. But then Big J came out the gates with a tray. There was multiple stacks of tiny ingots tied together with string.

“I figured they migh’ want a li’le souvenir” he started handing out the little ingots. They were small two hundred gram bars of copper, brass and bronze.

“If ya keep the copper dry it should take years for it to start going green”

“They look like little painted chocolate bars” Hope said, having untied them and looking at them individually in her magic. She, and the rest of the class packed the ingots away into their bags as they stood up so the teachers could walk them back to the carriages.

“’ey Sombra” Big J called out to him when locking up the factory gates.

“Keep your head up lad, and remember, ya can come back any time” Sombra nodded and caught up to the group back to the carriages.

Author's Note:

i hate writing country accents.

Comments

[ARandomLonelyDude]

“You’ll want to follow that road around and take a left when it splits, If you’re stuck follow the red cables to where they meet up. Also watch your umbrum lads hair and horn, the wires have been raised since but some still hang low in places”

isnt him being umbrum a secret

[a touch of sparkles]

11405462
not total secret, it will hopefully start falling together later on, but the only people his existence/current home needs to be kept secret from is Amore and any with a similar mindset to her. but also this run down area of town is significantly more chill with umbrum which will also make sense more hopefully in the next few chapters. but in general, hiding someone who is pretty much an entirely different specie to the whole empire would be quite difficult, and i can't lock sombra away in his bedroom the whole time or else there would be no plot (which is coming i promise)