Pony of the Gears

by TheFoxern

4: Star Dreams

The walk home was quite enjoyable, Copper had to admit. Even though he was, to be honest, quite lost. He had tried to help out cleaning up the party, but Pinkie and Applejack had shooed him out, saying, “You're not allowed to clean up your own party." After an hour, he found himself staring up at the clock tower. The hands moved at the proper pace, which was good. He wondered how bad the clock actually was. After all, it was still working. Someone had to have maintained it, otherwise it would have stopped. You can't just keep winding it up and hope it's all fine. It needs care, someone who's willing to get inside and make sure things are in the proper place.

“Copper?” He blinked and looked back at Fluttershy, who was standing a ways away from him, a concerned look on her face.

“Ah, evening Fluttershy.” His gaze was drawn back up to the clock tower, staring at it. The party had ended hours ago.

“Uhm...how long have you been out here?” She moved cautiously towards him and sat down a few hooves away.

“A few hours.” It didn't feel right to lie to anypony anymore. Lying had been a second language to him at one point, now he hated even considering it.

“Why?” Her eyes did not leave him, though he did nothing but look at the tower.

“I was thinking...about the clock tower.” He looked at her and then at the tower. “It's in pretty bad shape.”

“It is?” She looked at the tower as well. “It's...always been there. I think it was one of the first buildings here in Ponyville...”

“That doesn't make sense.” She blinked and looked at him. “It couldn't be that old. It would have stopped. Broken down. Even the best clockwork can't run more than a few decades and it looks like it's been going for centuries. There's dust a whole hoof deep over everything.” He stood up so suddenly that Fluttershy flinched. “I have to know how it's still going.” He took a few steps forward and then stopped. He remembered the gloom inside. “Uhm...” He looked at Fluttershy. “Do you think I could borrow a lantern?”

~

It was just as dusty inside as it had been. He wormed his way inside after the lantern, pushing it to one side as he did. It offered a lot of light, though he noted not as much as Twilight's horn had. And the shadows looked more menacing. “Alright...” he mumbled, moving into the room and looking around. Fluttershy was making her way inside. “Uhm...you might want to wait outside. It could be dangerous in here.”

“O-oh. O-okay...” she said and merely laid down. In the dust.

Copper looked at her and then sighed. “Okay, come on.” He moved over to her and pulled her in and up onto her hooves.

She looked at him a moment and then kicked at the dust on the floor, coughing as it sprang up. “You weren't kidding about the dust....”

“Mhm. It's gonna take a long time to clean this place up.” He picked up the lantern in his mouth and walked the edge of the room. “Keep to the walls...less chance of something falling on you...” He noticed she was staring at the large gear embedded in the floor.

“Like...that...” She stared and simply whimpered.

“Yes. I think that was up there.” He gestured up into the dark with his wing. “I'm sure this place had several floors at one point...that's how most are designed. Most of them are designed like that...though I don't see anything up there...but it's very dark...” He paused at a pile of dust that was larger than the rest. “Aha.”

Fluttershy pulled her gaze from the gear, looking at him. “What? Did you find something?”

The lantern was set to the side, as he kicked dust away, coughing. He reached down and pulled a plank out from under the dust, setting it against the wall. “Well, this used to be where the staircase was...” He stared up into the gloom. “And I think I can see where it continues... Not all of it fell.” He shifted debris around a moment and was slightly startled when Fluttershy spoke behind him.

“What are you doing?” He looked back at her, she was utterly silent and had barely disturbed any dust.

“Uhm...trying to see if I can get up to the stairs. Though it doesn't look like I will without rope...or a ladder.”

“I...uhm...” She kicked at the dust again, which made them both cough. “I could go get some rope...”

He smiled at her and nodded. “And maybe a broom or something?” he said, chuckling. “Might as well get this place a bit clean.” She nodded and quickly headed out the little door. He watched her go and figured out why she was so quiet. She had an odd way of moving when she was trying to move quickly. Most pegasus would simply fly, but she had this sort of skip step glide thing. It was faster than walking, slower than running and completely and utterly silent. He made a mental note of that.

His wing wasn't completely useless. He used it quite often when he was running. A hard flap could take the place of several steps, though it was usually too far off to one side. But it was good for making a corner and keeping speed. He gave his wing a few experimental flaps, which stirred up the dust and caused him another coughing fit. That gave him an idea and he began sweeping dust out of the door with his wing. It kind of disappointed him that he had not thought of it sooner. After about ten minutes, he had gotten a fair space cleared of dust. “Uhm... There's a big pile of dust out here...” came Fluttershy's voice.

“Oh.” He chuckled softly. “Sorry. Thought I'd get started without you.” There was a bit of shuffling and then a large bundle of rope was pushed in through the door, followed by another lantern. Then Fluttershy.

“I decided to grab another lantern while I was there...” she said softly, shifting it slightly. She gave him a slight smile, now the room was quite bright with two lights on either side of the room.

“Good thinking,” he said, returning the smile. “Do you think you could fly up, with the rope?”

“U-uhm...” She kicked slightly out the ground and Copper felt a bit of delight that there was no dust to kick up. “I can't lift you...”

He blinked and shook his head. “Oh, there won’t be any need for that. I can climb a rope. Just kind of loop it around something sturdy and feed the other end down. So it kind of just goes up and over something.”

She nodded slightly. “Alright...” She took one end of the rope and flew up almost into the darkness, although it wasn't as dark up there now. Copper could see the staircase now. It looked like that part of the stairs had been very sturdy for some reason, he'd have to figure out why when he got up there.

He spent his time looping the other end of the rope and putting it around under his shoulders. When the other end came down far enough for him to reach, he called out, “Ok, Fluttershy. That's good. I can do it from here.” It had been a technique he had tried out once or twice. The first time he ended up hurting himself, but he had gotten it the second time. He started pulling the rope down, until he felt the pressure under his arms. Then it was all a matter of gripping the rope with a mixture of mouth and hooves and then flapping his wing to gain height. It took a long time and he was tired by the time he crawled up onto the bottom step which, much to his relief, did not break.

Fluttershy was sitting on a small dust covered landing and smiled at him. She had gone down and gotten the other lantern while he had worked his way up. “That was...kinda funny,” she said, obviously trying not to laugh.

“Yeah, it's funny looking. But it gets me up here.” He undid the rope and laid it on the step, before moving up to the landing. “And it's easier going down.” Then he noticed why the stairs where so sturdy here. They were part of the mechanism. Or, well, more accurately they were built on top of a part of the mechanism. He knew instinctively that it was the turner for the spring.

The both of them headed up the stairs, slowly and cautiously. Copper went first, he would feel better about a board snapping under his weight than hers. He also felt he could recover fast enough from it to not topple. “Wow...” Fluttershy breathed and Copper looked up. They were in the clock now. And Copper had to admit, it was impressive. Even as far as clocks go. It was elegantly simple and efficient. He had seen a few clock towers that simply used up space for the sake of taking it up. But it wasn’t the bare minimum either. Somepony had taken care to construct this. His mouth opened slightly to say something and then closed. “This is the inside of a clock?” she whispered, as if her voice would bring the whole thing to an end.

He shook his head slowly. “I've...I've never seen a clock this complex. This...this is more than a clock...” He moved out onto a large gear, which was large enough for him to stand on. He walked slowly in a circle to counteract the turning gear. “This is like...something I don't even understand...that happens to tell the time.” He peered into the gloom of the mechanisms, there were so many glinting pieces that he could not even begin to figure it out. He needed time and a lot more light.

“Should...should you be out there?” Fluttershy said, staying close to the wall and staring at him.

He hopped back over onto the stairs. “Probably not. But with what I've seen of this so far, I'm sure if a dozen ponies jumped up and down on it, it wouldn't do anything.” He began walking back up the stairs, a bit faster now. “And these are just the lower gears...” The farther they got up, the more there were. It got to the point where it was actually built around the stairs. Even into the wall. Then suddenly, there was almost nothing. “Here's the actual clock,” he said, walking over to it. The room was quite large and the inside of the clock faces were on each wall, each one having one slowly turning pole coming out from the center structure, which also turned slowly.

“Is all that down there...just for this?” Fluttershy asked as she moved towards it slowly.

“No...” Copper said slowly, moving up to it as well. “I don't think so... I mean it's possible...but only someone insane, or a complete geni-” He froze. Fluttershy saw it, too. In the center, was a sparkling cog and below it a spring which unsprung and then tightened again in a seemingly infinite way.

“What's that?” Fluttershy asked, not taking her eyes off of it. “It's beautiful...and...”

“Hypnotic...” he said slowly and took a deep breath. “That's what's keeping the whole thing going. The spring unwinding essentially causes the gear to twist, which causes others to twist and thus the clock works.”

Fluttershy shook her head as she noticed the hands of the clock. “Oh no. I'm late.” She moved to the stairs.

“Ah, wait.” He moved to the face of a clock and pulled open a panel. “You can go this way.”

She nodded and flew out. She was not a very fast flier, Copper noted. But at least she could fly. He shook his head, trying to dislodge that thought. Envy was not something that he should ever allow himself to feel. Even if he couldn't help it, he'd try his best to.

He closed the little door and sighed, closing his eyes. “What is this place...” he said as he turned around, looking at the cog again. As he stared, it seemed to glint more and more. He moved and sat a few hooves away from it and merely watched it. It was made of some kind of gem, he came to realize the more he stared at it. But who would carve a gem into a cog and where did they get a gem big enough to carve that size of a cog? It wasn't a very big cog, maybe the size of his hoof, but the gem would need to be a lot bigger than that. And then what kind of gem was it? It was a coppery color and he'd not seen a gem of that color before.

He wasn't sure how long he stared, but he got really tired. It had been a long day and he laid down. The sound of ticking was comforting. He wanted to know what this place was for. Who built it. Why did they build it. His eyes eventually closed.

~

His eyes snapped open, his heart was racing. He had fallen off the gear and was dangling over what felt a lot of space. To his right, he saw where the gears met and scrambled up, pounding his wings to get him up onto the gear, just before they met. His heart raced as he looked around. Gears were twisting and turning everywhere. “What...” He paused and then inhaled sharply. He was dreaming.

“Copper.” He spun around. And in front of him, was Luna.

He tried to calm his heart, it would not stop racing. “Princess,” he said and somehow couldn't keep the disdain from his voice. He hated dreams, it was so hard to be anything but yourself. “What do you want?”

Her expression looked almost hurt. “Copper...we merely wish to speak with you.”

“Yeah well you've had plenty of chances over a long time.” He turned around and walked to the end of the gear, looking over the edge.

“Please, Copper. If you will just listen...” She moved forward a few steps and a gear crashed down in front of her.

He turned around slowly, glaring at her. “Remember. My dream. My rules. I may not be able to hurt you, but I'm not going to allow you to get close to me.” Emotions. That's what he had to remember. You could do a lot in a dream if you control your emotions and he had a lot of them stored up. He sighed and shook his head. “But, fine. I'll hear what you have to say.”

She sat down and he did likewise, the gear melting away and mixing into the one they sat on. “We...” She hesitated, searching for the right words. “We are sorry,” she said, finding it quite lame.

“You tried to kill me. Several times.” He was staring at her, but he couldn't help feel sorry for her. Sighing and shaking his head, he continued. “I understand that you were...quite mad at the time.”

“We were furious...” Her gaze did not leave him and he could not help but feel slightly nervous under it. She was powerful after all. “But that did not give us the right to take it out on you.”

“No,” he said, looking at her. He still had nightmares about that night when Celestia had him visit her. It had not gone well and even with Celestia's powers protecting him, it still took him weeks to recover. Both physically and mentally. Mostly mentally.

“We are sorry...” She finally broke her gaze and Copper looked away as well. That gaze felt like it held you there.

Now that he had a chance, things were finally taking shape. This was his mind, he realized. The ground was built entirely of mechanics. Slowly twisting flowers dotted the landscape, but mostly it was the large copper trees that dominated the land. He noted how now they seemed to grow copper colored apples. That made him smile. “I...have a question for you.” After all, it couldn't hurt to ask.

She looked at him, but he refused to return the gaze, else he be locked in it again. “We will answer if we can.”

“In Ponyville...there's a clock tower... I'm actually there now and...” He shook his head. “It's the most amazing thing I've ever seen.”

She blinked, the sky was starting to take shape. Despite how bright everything was, it was midnight. “That thing is still there?”

He tore his gaze away from the stars and looked at her. “What do you mean still?”

“That...” She hesitated and then shook her head. “No, there's no harm in telling you... That was there before I and Celestia came to Equestria.”

“You mean before you took over?” he said, a little more harshly than he had intended.

There was a slight hesitation. “Yes. Before we took over.”

“But that makes even less sense.” He stomped his hoof onto the gear and it shuddered. “That would make it well over a thousand years old...”

“Thousands we would guess. It was old when we arrived. Somepony...we do not remember his name, would go to it and wind it once a week.” Her eyes did not leave him.

He sighed, staring up at the sky again. “It's the most complicated thing I have ever seen... It has this...this gem cog-” He froze, the word echoed oddly as he said it.

“Gem cog?” She titled her head to the side. The words did not echo when she said them.

“Yes...” he said slowly after a slight pause. “I've seen gears, or parts made from gems, but they're usually very small. And this one... I've never seen a gem this color. It shines, as if it has some kind of internal light.”

“Could it be magic?” Her tone sounded oddly hopeful.

Was she enjoying this conversation? “I...don't know. It could be possible. I'll have Twilight look at it once I get a new staircase in...”

“There was no staircase?” She arched an eyebrow at him.

"Yes and no. There's most of a staircase, but the bit at the start is missing.”

“But the rest of the stairs were intact? That sounds like it may have been on purpose...” She joined his gaze, to the sky filled with stars. And the moon with the figure of a the Mare emblazoned on it. She averted her gaze, looking at him.

“Sorry...” he said, staring at the moon. “It's how I always remember the moon...”

“It's...fine... It's hard to not find any pony who doesn't dream the moon like that...” Again she was staring at him. “We...we are truly sorry, Copper.”

He sighed and closed his eyes. “I know. I know you're sorry. And I'm sure if it could possibly make it better, you'd go on saying it forever and ever.” He smiled, the warmth of the party returning to him. “I am a forgiving pony. I forgave Gilda for taking my wing. I forgave Dash because she wanted me to... I forgave Lers for his ignorance. I forgave Safanad and Amira for their betrayal... I forgave Tashara for her lack of trust in me... I forgave Jeta for accidentally popping my bubble... And I've forgiven Celestia for making my life ridiculous and difficult.” He looked at her and smiled. “And I forgive you too. You had lost your mind to that power and Celestia understood that.”

“We...we know she did...” The sigh seemed to warp the air around her. Dreams were so odd.

“She sent me to assess your mental health...” he said as he closed his eyes, there really wasn't anything to hide from anyone anymore. “She knew you were going to come back and asked me to see if I could find out what you were planning, if anything.”

She nodded slowly. “We know... She explained it to us...”

Copper stared at the stars for a long time and then stretched his wings. He blinked and looked to his right. There it was. His wing. Or wait... No...it wasn't his wing. It was a wing. “What is...” He looked at Luna.

“We hope that that gives you inspiration.”

~

His eyes opened to a tapping, which he recognized as a hoof on glass. He looked over at one of the faces of the clock and there was Rainbow Dash. He went over and pulled open the little hatch in the face of the clock. “Yes?”

“We've been looking all over for you Copper. Stuff has been arriving all day for you at your house.” He blinked blearily at her. It was almost noon he saw, staring up at the clock face. “Come on.”

“I'll be right down!” he called and practically galloped down the stairs. The rope caught around his legs and he leaped into the open air. He caught rope in his hooves as he swung back. It gave his hooves a bit of a rope burn, but they slowed him down enough that he didn't hit the ground too hard. A little harder than he'd had liked though, his legs stung a little as he crawled out of the door and closed it behind him.

Dash was waiting for him. “What were you doing in there?” she asked, looking up at the tower.

“Uhh...sleeping,” he said, a tad sheepishly as they left. He trotted along the ground and she glided above him.

“Sleeping? Why were you sleeping in that musty old clock tower?” He was grateful that she knew the way back to his home. And he paid attention to the directions, so that he could get back to the clock tower.

“I was studying it and got tired. I-” he hesitated. “I couldn't remember where my house was.”

She looked at him and then laughed. “Well you'll get used to Ponyville eventually.” Ahead, he could see his home. And lots and lots of boxes, as well as several carts.

He slowed down a bit, looking at the stuff. That was all his stuff? All of it? He had collected a lot of things over his life he had to admit, but he had not expected this much. Walking past boxes, all with many, many travel notices of places they had been. His hoof traveled over one and he smiled a bit. It was filled with things that Horsh had given him. Tools mostly.

Twilight came around from behind a box. “Ah. There you are Copper,” she said, looking around at all the stuff. “You sure have a lot...”

He laughed softly and gave a shrug. “Honestly I didn't realize it. Just picked things up during my travels, ya know? Princess Celestia said I should send anything that I wanted to keep to her and she'd take care of it...” He spotted a large trunk and quickly moved over to it. It was devoid of any stickers. “Oh am I glad to see this.” He pushed the trunk open. It was full of what looked like pieces of mechanical...things. It looked like a mess.

“Is everything alright?” Twilight asked as she moved towards him, looking inside the mess of a box.

“Oh yes. I was just worried that Celestia would not send this stuff to me.” He lifted out an odd sort of hoof glove looking thing. It had several copper colored rings on it.

“What's that?” Looking closer at it.

“This is a shocker. It...well, when you have it on you sort of flick out the prongs and charge it by swinging it in a circle. Weights inside drive the rings around in circles and it stores up a charge.” He put it back into the box. “I plan to scrap it... What I'm looking for is... Aha!” He pulled out a large book.

“And you would...hit ponies with it?” She was staring at the shocker.

He blinked and then nodded slowly. “Ponies. Griffons. Diamond dogs... Even a dragon. It's not-” He hesitated. “It paralyzes a pony, griffon or diamond dog.” He closed the trunk and put the book on top of it.

“And the dragon?” She moved to the side, unable to help herself when it came to books.

“It just pissed him off.” He laughed, opening the book at random. Every page was absolutely full of pictures and scrawled mouth-writing. She couldn't make out any of it, except the numbers. “It's in short hand. Kinda wouldn't make sense to anypony, unless you knew a lot of mechanical things.”

“Did...you write this?” she asked, looking up at him and down at the book again.

“Most of it,” he said as he turned pages quickly, trying to find a blank one.

Twilight caught glimpses of many things. Clocks. Trains. Carts. Some sort of cannon. Different little things that she could only guess the use of. Then there was an odd looking ship. He paused at it and stared. “What's that?” she said, leaning to get a better look.

“Horsh was helping me with it. It's supposed to be a small airship. Capable of being flown by one or two ponies.” He shifted his wing slightly and shook his head. “It wasn't going to work. We couldn't figure out how to make it small enough. Best we could do was a five pony team. And it wasn't very fast, or maneuverable.”

He turned the page and there appeared to be a dozen pages ripped out. She looked at him. “What happened here?”

He paused before he pulled a pencil from the spine of the book. “Frustration mostly. Me and Horsh had a sort of...falling out... I wanted to make it smaller... He said five was good enough and that I should stop trying to be so selfish...” He sighed and closed his eyes.

“Oh...” she mumbled, watching as he quickly wrote something down. All she could make out was the word dream, before the book shut.

“But that was a long time ago. Right now, I think it's time to get everything inside, before it rains or something...” He put the book back into the chest and began pushing it.

“Oh I spoke with Dash this morning, there's no rain scheduled for today. Nice day, all day.” Her horn glowed and many of the boxes began to rise. “Here, I'll help out.”

He chuckled and nodded. “Thank you. It would take forever by myself.”

“My pleasure,” she said and things began drifting inside.

It took all day, as Copper had a lot of stuff and they found out rather quickly, not very much in the point of tables, counters, or shelves. They had to go out and purchase them. Now that he had his money, he felt good about paying for new things. He bought a sofa from Quills and Sofas, which was an odd, very odd, combination in his opinion. But he bought some quills as well, so he guessed that it was a smart business move. They got shelves and tables from some other stores and spent the rest of the day unpacking. It was nice to look back at all the things he had. All of it was his.

“What's this?” Twilight said, raising a large glass bubble, with odd looking coral in it. “Coral?”

“Ah.” He walked over to her, smiling a bit. “Got that when I was Aquis. Given to me by a seapony named Jeta.”

Twilight stared and her gaze slowly turned to him. “Seapony? Aquis? Aquis is that sunken city, isn’t it?”

“Continent.” Copper corrected, looking at the coral. “It was an entire continent that sunk. Not a very big one, but a continent none the less.”

“And you...went there?” The staring was starting to bother him now, it was odd to have her staring at him like that. “To Aquis?”

“Yeah. It was the first big job Princess Celestia sent me on. Before then it was nothing but little squabbles...but there was a sort of...civil war...or civil debate, going on in Aquis and she sent me there to try and calm things down... The coral actually glows quite bright in the dark. It's what they use as lights down there. Essentially, she gave me a lamp.”

Twilight's gaze slowly drew from Copper to the lamp. “What was it like down there?”

He gave a slight shrug. “It was interesting. Quite fun in fact. As long as you didn't mind all the Shoo Bee Doo...”

“... Shoe bee do?” She set the lamp down on a table, it surprisingly, didn't roll. “What does a shoe bee do?”

“No no. Shoo Bee Doo. It's a sort of...song I guess you could call it? It was amusing at first, but after a few days it started driving me mad...”

“What...did they look like?” She walked around the coral, as if it where possible to see a seapony inside.

“Uh... Similar to ponies. Rather than front hooves though, they kind of have these...long flippers and at their waist it's sorta like their legs smoosh together and there's a large fin on the end. I suppose they're kinda hard to describe...but damn are they fast...”

“How fast are they?”

~

“Excuse me could I just-” and another one gone. “Damn it. How am I supposed to negotiate anything when no one will talk to me...” He half walked, half swam down the road. The magic bubble around his head kinda distorted things at a distance, but for the most part he could see just fine. He had not brought anything but it with him, sure there were a few weights on his legs to keep him down here, but other than that, he had nothing. “Hrm...” He was testing out propulsion methods using his wing and so far they had been fairly successful in his opinion, if by successful he meant that he hadn't crashed into that many things. Sure he knocked over a lamp and some other things, but he was getting the hang of it.

But it was getting annoying how every single seapony swam away from him. He was sure that Celestia had sent some sort of message to them about sending him. So where was the seaponies to greet him? That's how it had been in the past when he came to negotiations. There was always somepony there to meet him and help him get where he was going. But here, everyone swam away. Until one swam into him. She spoke in a very bubbly voice, “Ah! I'm sorry.” He looked up at the teal seapony. She was all teal. Her mane was a lighter teal and her eyes were darker. “I...uhm...” She hesitated and moved side to side.

“I'm Copper Feather.” He hazarded. When she didn't swim away, he continued. “I was sent here by Princess Celestia to undersea- Er, oversee the negotiations.”

She blinked, looking at him. “You're the diplomat?” The sheer amount of shock in her voice almost hurt. “We have been looking all over for you!” She turned and began swimming, fairly slowly so that Copper could just barely keep up.

“Yes, cus there's some other pony down here with four legs...” he said, frowning at the seaponies back.

“I'm sorry, we got mixed up on the location of where you were being dropped down. Once you start getting close to the surface, everything just looks so...similar...” She stopped for a moment, staring blankly and then smiled. “My name's Jeta.”

“Well it's good that someone isn't running- er...swimming away from me.” He was trying to use his wing to catch up a bit more to her.

“Oh yeah that tends to happen... We're not used to ponies.” She turned a corner, quite sharply.

He managed to use his wing like a rudder and made the turn and was fairly shocked at what he saw. It was a huge building, the biggest he'd seen so far in the city, on par with Celestia's castle. It was a palace, immense in size and far more intricate, with towers stretching off at odd angles, although they may simply be falling over. He quickly moved forward to try and catch up with Jeta. “Slow down please. I'm nowhere near as fast as you underwater.”

“Oh?” She looked back and did slow down. “Sorry. We're almost late.”

“Mhm,” he said, trying to move as fast as possible. It was very tiring.

Then he started to hear something in the distance, coming from the palace. It started off quiet, but it got louder. Shoo-bee-doo-shoop-shoop-bee-doo. He looked at Jeta, she was humming along. He heard something along the lines of, “Washed up on the rocks.” Followed by Shoo-bee-doo-shoop-shoop-bee-doo.

They were all singing. All of them. “Uhm...so what is everypony singing?” he asked, hoping that he would not regret getting the answer.

“It's our song,” she snapped, slightly glaring at him.

He put up his hooves. “Okay okay. I was just asking, that's all...” She glared at him and then turned around, swimming towards the palace.

“There's nothing wrong with our song,” she said, suddenly quite defensively.

“Okay. I didn't say anything bad about it... I just thought it was interesting how everypony is in harmony and knows the lines...” The music was coming from everywhere now.

“You and your...land ponies are always making fun of our song. Saying it's a bad song.” She seemed quite annoyed now.

“I didn't say anything bad about it. I've never heard it before...” He was looking from side to side, there were suddenly a lot of seaponies. “Am I not allowed to find a new song interesting?”

She glared at him and then sighed slightly. “No...” None of the seaponies were paying him any attention now. “I guess you can...”

The meeting was, without a doubt, boring. There was a lot of talking about seapony rights, what to do about rising toxicity levels, the lack of suitable housing and the volcano. That got his attention. Apparently there was a volcano that had been erupting near the city. Though by near the city, they meant really, really far away. Their sense of distance was kind of odd. If they could swim to it in a few hours, it was close. And considering they swam faster than any pony he had ever seen run, or fly, a lot of things were close.

And all the time, there was that song. Over and over again.

After about three hours, they finally addressed Copper. “And what are your ideas Mr. Feather? You have the floor.” The gray seapony was looking at him.

Copper hesitated. “On which subject, if I may ask?” he said cautiously. It would not be wise to admit he had not been paying attention.

“Why all of them. As the diplomat for Canterlot, you opinion is highly valued.” There was a slight sarcastic tone to the seaponies voice that annoyed Copper a bit.

“Well, I don't see any problems with the current state of the rights of seaponies. It sounds like you treat citizens quite fairly compared to other places.” There seemed to be a general murmur of agreement. “As for toxicity levels...has the cause been found as of yet?”

There was silence for almost a whole minute, before a seapony spoke. “I fail to see how that's any concern of yours-”

Jeta cut him off. “He has a point,” she said, slapping her fin down on the table. Copper had found out that she was a diplomat from one of the outer regions of Aquis. “I'm sure he's not the only pony who noticed that while you were discussing the matter, you failed to give cause.” She was also very emotional.

“Jeta, please calm down. There is no need to get so upset over-”

“There is more than enough need to be upset. Seaponies are getting sick and dying.” She slapped her fin down again. “What is the cause, councilor? Or do you not know?”

“We are...investigating still,” the councilor managed; it was hard to talk when Jeta gave that look. Copper made a note of that look, it could be useful.

“Meaning you don't know...” Copper placed his elbows on the table and placed his hooves together. “Or...you do know and you're afraid to admit it.” He took note at how many of them suddenly looked nervous.

“Do not make those groundless accusations in my chambers!” the councilor bellowed, or, more accurately bubbled. Copper noticed that seaponys’ speech tended to contain bubbles when they were excited or upset.

“Accusations? I'm merely pointing out the facts.” He stared straight at the councilor, daring him to protest. “You're either telling the truth, lying, or not giving all the facts.” He could feel every eye on him. “Which is it councilor?”

There was a heavy silence as Copper stared. “Who do you think you are to speak to him like that?” said a red and pink seapony.

Copper shifted his gaze to her and the way she froze, told him that he had gotten the look right. “Rosmara please do not speak out of turn. The councilor gave me the floor and I have it until I relinquish it. As is the rule.”

And he held it for several minutes, daring the room to argue. In those minutes, not a single pony spoke. Not the councilor, not Rosmara or the seapony who had interjected earlier. Not even Jeta seemed to want to break the silence, though Copper felt it was more to see what the councilor would do, rather than a wish to remain quiet. “You may have the floor, councilor.”

The room exhaled. “M-meeting adjourned...” he said quickly and then rushed from the room.

As did every other seapony. Except Jeta. “That was brilliant!” she exclaimed, grinning at him. “I'd never seen him so scared! Oh Copper, you are amazing.” She rushed up and hugged him, nuzzling her cheek against his.

Pop.

~

“Fast enough, that Dash would have a hard time keeping up,” he said, still unpacking. The sun was going down when Twilight left. Everything was out of its box, except the things that were boxes, or supposed to be in them. Now it felt like home and it looked like a home. There were so many different items, each with its own story. Some stories intermingled of course, but all the items were unique. “And now...” He moved to a desk, beside him the coral orb sat. Smiling, he tapped gently on the glass and it began to glow brightly, filling the room with with light. And then, he made plans.

Author's Note:

((Chapter editing assistance by Amneiger.))

Oh hey, so this is a thing.... I really need to pay more attention more often... ANYWAYS. Chapter 4. Kinda over several places with this one... Also, mother bucking seaponies! I wonder if I'm ganna get any dislikes just cus of that... OH WELL.

I like seaponies. Shoo Bee Doo.

Comments

[Fancies himself a lurker]

First story where seaponies are mentioned in more detail than "might be a myth." neat how old is this OC?

[Razzy]

Shoo Bee Doo~

I wonder how many species the princesses subjugated when taking over.