Luna has opened a new frontier for Equestria: Her very own moon. Ponies from around the country have joined her on an adventure to create and sustain a colony on the moon.
Princess Luna has opened a new frontier for Equestria and all her citizens on her very own Moon! All are welcome: Those looking for a challenge; those needing a fresh start; those who don't quite fit in.
See across the vastness of the Oceanus Procellarum from the soon to be constructed Serenity Dome! Use your strength and sweat to bring forth a new crop of Lunar produce! Bring your knowledge and ingenuity to bear on the extreme environment of the moon! A place can be found for anypony willing to work together to further spread the glory of Equestria.
See the local recruiting offices in Canterlot, Manehattan, Seaddle, and Los Pegasus today for more details!
--Lunar Recruiting Services Poster; 5 years After Harmony
Luna, Princess of the Night, Regent of the Moon, and the younger Diarch of Equestria, stood on the balcony of her lavishly adorned private quarters in Canterlot Castle. The sun had begun its daily circuit, bathing the alicorn in its warming light. She yawned and rubbed her bloodshot eyes with her hoof. Another night gone; another night spent assuring the safety and security of Equestria's sleeping subjects; another night of extreme boredom. The truth of the matter was that Celestia was too good at what she did. Thousands of years of experience had made her ruthlessly efficient at squelching threats and wonderfully adept at raising the spirits of her subjects. That left little for Luna to do during her nightly vigils but trace the moon's progress across the night sky and reminisce of times long forgotten by everypony but her.
"Nopony remembers the consolidation," she said to herself, "nopony save her, and I doubt she gives it much thought." Memories of desperate days trying to hold together the fragile alliance of Unicorns, Pegasi, and Earth Ponies flooded her mind. Well over a thousand years had passed, but to her, it may as well have only been a few decades. They were frightening times, full of danger and desperation, but they were also exciting. Side by side, their flanks against the proverbial wall, the two Alicorn sisters fought off all manner of threats. From tyrannical Draconequises to rampaging hordes of Minotaurs, there was nothing they couldn't do together. Luna had loved it: Her life was filled with purpose and her subjects loved her for it. But so capable were the two sisters, that soon, Equestria was at peace. For the ponies of the newly peaceful land, night was no longer a time to be vigilant and put their faith in their Princess of the Night: It had become a time to retire to their beds to prepare for seemingly endless sunny days of fun with friends. Luna had... struggled... with the changes.
And now she felt it happening again. Those same feelings of inadequacy mixed with rage bubbled under her calm demeanor, threatening to plunge her back into the shadow she had only recently been freed from. She didn't want to hurt anypony; she certainly didn't want to be separated from her beloved sister or the many wonderful ponies who welcomed her wholeheartedly back into their lives. All she wanted was to feel useful and needed. She was one of the most powerful immortal beings in the known world, and she had spent most of the previous evening trading raunchy jokes with her night guard: It seemed like such a waste of her abilities.
The answer came to her in her dream: Her only dream. It was almost comical that the princess who could traverse the dreams of every pony in Equestria was stuck in the same dreamscape when she retired to her own bed each dawn. Upon closing her tired eyes, she was surrounded by visions of endless plains of grey dust interrupted only by the occasional crater or smooth rounded hilltop. A large sliver of the blue and white earth shone in the great darkness above, its radiance rivaling that of the sun. Luna remembered the vistas well: Her prison was nothing if not beautiful. It was a vain sentiment, as she basically was the moon for a thousand years; everything she had been was distributed across its breadth. Her consciousness stretched over its surface, inspecting ever deep crater and wide open lunar sea. After the first century, the serene unchanging nature of the lunar surface lulled the monster to sleep and left the princess inside to study her namesake in peace.
Luna blinked as she looked at herself in the bejeweled vanity. Her reflection nodded back in steely determination. She strode from her quarters into the wide hallways of Canter Castle, nodding to her guards as she passed. The two bat pony sentries rose their eyebrows at each other in confusion before falling in behind their mistress. "A thousand pardons most honored Nightbringer, but might I inquire as to your destination?" asked the older stallion.
"I seek council with my sister," replied Luna, "worry not Lieutenant Flügelnacht, I simply need to 'run something past' Tia, as they say nowadays. No need to prepare yourselves for sun exposure."
"We only wonder why you change your schedule," said the younger mare, "You tend to prefer to retire earlier in the morning."
"Thank you for letting me know what I prefer Guardspony Blossom," said Luna with a wry grin, "should I ever require a steward you shall be notified." The princess descended the large marble staircase and stopped at the entrance to the large throne room.
"The line is already forming for morning supplications," said the cream-coated unicorn mare as she examined a long scroll, "I will have the chefs bring you a light breakfast once you're settled in the throne." She adjusted the tight bun of her brown mane and used her magic to float the jeweled tiara towards the alicorn standing next to the gold filigreed mirror.
"Thank you Raven," said Celestia as she took her crown and placed it upon her thoroughly brushed mane, "is there any chance of getting some coffee before I head down?"
Raven's eyes widened in panic as she began stuttering. "Of c...course, y...your majesty," she said, "I can have some here in a few moments, but you will be behind your morning schedule. Perhaps if we..."
Celestia sighed and held out a hoof, forestalling her stewards frantic planning. "That's alright Raven," she said wearily, "just have the chefs bring some along with my breakfast." Raven took one last look at the princess. She knew how grumpy the alicorn could get when she went without a good meal. As the secretary dashed out of the room, the statuesque white alicorn took another look into her mirror and growled at the bags under her eyes. "These long summer days were starting to get to me," she thought to herself, "perhaps I have grown too comfortable with the extra sleep I've been getting in the few years since Luna's return."
It was no excuse for puffy eyes though. Long experience had taught her that even immortal rulers had to keep up their appearance. The great panic of 398 B.H. was caused by a chipped hoof. Celestia still remembered the wails of her subjects who worried their princess had been made mortal and the sun would soon fail to rise. Of course, today, the ponies of Equestria were far more enlightened than their ancestors had been, but old habits died hard, and Celestia reached for a tincture from a drawer beneath the vanity and gently dabbed it under her eyes. A wave of soothing coolness massaged away the irritation. Satisfied that she appeared as regal and timeless as ever, Celestia stepped out of her quarters and into the hallway.
"This cake of coffee must be why our sister's rear has grown so large in my absence," said Luna around a mouthful of crumbly confection. She took another sip of the bitter concoction and wrinkled her nose once again. "Though we would probably eat nothing but sweets if we were forced to drink naught but this acrid swill." Despite her derisive statements statements towards the beverage, Luna took another sip.
"Perhaps her majesty oughtn't have intercepted her sister's meal," said Flügelnacht.
"Nonsense," said Luna, "the maid said it was for the princess. Are we not a princess? Blossom, is there anything in our appearance or demeanor that indicates that we are not a princess?"
"No your highness," said the junior guardspony nervously. "Her majesty is most regal."
"See Flügelnacht?" taunted Luna before sticking her tongue out at the grizzled old bat pony knight. He simply looked towards the floor and shook his head in exasperation. "Ah, our Sister doth approach," she said, "Waylay her guards while we engage her in conversation." Before the guard could protest, she strode forward, unconsciously floating the mostly drained mug of coffee behind her.
Celestia furrowed her brow in confusion as Luna approached. "Sister," she said, "shouldn't you be asleep by now?" Luna usually peeked into Celestia's room as the solar regent woke just to chat or bid her a good day before retiring to her own rooms. This time of year, she usually respected her sister's longer hours and let her sleep as long as she could. Most of their time together was in the mid afternoon when Luna woke to begin her day.
"We have a matter to discuss," said Luna.
"Can it wait until tonight?" asked Celestia, "I promise we'll talk as long as you want then." The elder alicorn stifled a yawn as she walked past her sister and into the throne room.
Luna's face glowed red with outrage, which she quickly reined back in. "Sister, I must insist," she said after taking a deep breath, "'twill take but a moment." She turned her gaze on her guards and wordlessly shook her head at the gold armored ponies making to follow after the two sisters. Flügelnacht sighed, hung his head low and stepped in front of the larger of the two gold armored pegasi. "You see," she began as they walked across the long room, "we have had much time to think lately, and we have decided that our talents are not being properly utilized."
"Nice to see you," said Celestia to one of the many ponies standing in an orderly line. After shaking several proffered hooves, she glanced back at her sister. "Which talents might those be, Luna? Last time I checked, Equestria has little need for an expert basket weaver."
"Our baskets are sublime!" exclamined Luna, "and any peasant would be thrilled to have one."
"Citizens, Luna," said Celestia, "we've talked about this."
"Commoners, peasants, vassals," said Luna, "whatever thou deem them. Our point remains; we are a leader of ponies with nopony to lead save my small contingent of guards."
"Ponies don't need to be led anymore Luna," said Celestia after trading pleasantries with a pair of well dressed supplicants. "If you want to help more, then take on some of these more ceremonial duties." She began walking up the red carpet covered stairs towards the pair of high backed thrones at the rear wall of the throne room. "You could hold hearings at night," she said hopefully, "maybe cut this crowd in half?"
"But of course," said Luna sarcastically, "afterwards, we could visit the pantries and count the legumes."
"Luna," said Celestia with a hoof held to her forehead, "You asked how you could help. If you're bored, maybe it's time to drop the whole nocturnal thing?"
"T'would violate tradition," said a scandalized Luna, "Besides, wouldst thou be comfortable sleeping while thy work with the sun is but starting?"
"That's different," said Celestia, "the sun requires my attention constantly. Would that I could simply raise it and lower it and call it a day." She saw the indignant expression on her sister's face and immediately regretted her words. "Luna I didn't mean..." She gathered herself and leaned into Luna's side. "We both know there's more to what we each do with the celestial bodies," she whispered conspiratorially, "but the fact remains that the moon will take care of the moon. If you're feeling restless, then join me in the day for a few weeks. I could certainly use the company."
"Your majesties?" said Raven softly from behind Celestia's throne, "would you like to begin supplications?" She held a pocketwatch in one hoof and a detailed checklist in her magical aura.
"Of course Raven," said Celestia, "have the maids arrived with my breakfast yet? I'm desperate for my morning coffee."
Luna stopped mid sip and quickly hid the solar sigil branded mug behind her. "We haven't seen them," she said nonchalantly. Screwing back up her courage she reasserted herself. "Besides, all this frippery distracts us from our purpose."
"Then spit it out Lulu," said Celestia, frustration dripping from her words.
"We wish to return to the moon," said Luna.
"The moon?" asked Celestia.
"Yes," replied Luna.
"The airless, lifeless rock you usher around the earth?" asked Celestia. She rubbed her temples with her hooves.
"'Tis far more than that," barked Luna angrily, "and thou knowest it to be so. Would'st thou call thy sun a mere ball of burning gas?"
"No," replied Celestia with a raised voice, "but I certainly wouldn't want to go back there."
"The difference is, ponies could survive on our moon," said Luna proudly, "with enough courage and cleverness, we could open a new frontier for anypony in Equestria looking for adventure!" She swept her hoof across the throne room full of ponies. "Not everypony is content waiting in lines to present their petty problems to their infinitely patient rulers. Surely thou art aware of the tedious nature of ruling such an orderly, peaceful country?"
"Aware of it?" asked Celestia, "I revel in it!" She stomped her hooves onto the floor and stood above her sister. "Why would I exile more of my little ponies to the same horrible prison I sent you to when we have finally created a realm worthy of them? Do you know what that did to our past subjects? You have to know what it did to me!"
"Our moon is not a horrible prison," growled Luna, "tis a beautiful land just waiting to be tamed."
"I forbid it," said Celestia, her voice punctuating the brief as if to say that nothing more would be said on the matter.
"Thou darest?" screamed an incensed Luna, "We are a royal princess of Equestria. We shall do what we will, and there is nothing thou can do to stop us!"
Celestia took a step backwards. "By the gods," she gasped, "you sound like her again!"
Luna stepped forward and placed her muzzle mere inches from her sisters. "I forgive you for that," she said for only Celestia to hear, "but for all your talk of love and forgiveness, you still think of me as that monster." Luna carefully descended the stairs backwards, maintaining an icy glare on her sister. "We shall be away for a fortnight," she said loudly, "we must find ponies who feel as we do, and who can believe in us as thou cannot." At the bottom of the staircase, she spun around imperiously and marched past the stunned onlookers. She stopped briefly by the stained glass window depicting her release by Twilight Sparkle and the five other Elements of Harmony. With a rueful shake of her head she continued to the large double doors and collected her guards.
"Gather the others," she said to the trailing bat ponies, "We march at moonrise."
It was an absolutely beautiful late afternoon, thought the mare to herself. She watched on and smiled as the little unicorn filly ran through the clumps of wildflowers, sending butterflies flying in her wake. The sun hung low in the western sky, bathing the hillside she sat upon with a soft orange light. The pegasus mare exhaled loudly through her nostrils and stretched her wings out before falling backwards into the blanket covered cushion of grass and flowers. Despite the still present sun, the moon dominated the sky above her. Larger and brighter than she had ever seen it before, it seemed to pulsate with light.
"Mommy?" asked the filly as she came to a sudden stop next to the prone pegasus.
"Hmm?" mumbled the mare, her eyes still fixed on the moon above. It was somehow even bigger and more lustrous than only moments before.
"Why can't I go with you?" asked the filly, "I can help you like I do when school is out!"
The mare's trance was broken and she turned her head to look at her daughter. "I told you sweetie," she said, "this is a different kind of job. It's a long haul and very far away. I don't want you to miss any of your schoolwork or time with your friends." She reached up with a hoof and lightly tapped the young pony's nose. "It's only for a season, and when I get back I'll have all sorts of stories to tell you about all the ponies I meet." She saw the frown on her daughter's muzzle and suffered through another guilt attack on her conscience. "Come on now," she said with a false smirk, "you're always telling me how much fun you have with your Auntie Carrot Top." A small grin fought its way onto the filly's muzzle. "That's my girl," she said, "now why don't you go pick some flowers to bring to her while I clean up our picnic. I think I saw some pretty daisies on the other side of the hill."
The bright smile returned to the filly's face as she darted across the hilltop and began searching for the perfect specimens to bring back to Carrot Top's farm. The mare rolled over to her side and began gathering the remnants of their early dinner. "Why dost thou hide thy intentions?" asked a voice from behind.
"I don't want her to worry," said the mare, "and no filly needs to know that her mother lost her job and can't find another."
"She would be right to be worried," said the faint voice, "this trip thou hast planned is fraught with peril."
"Doesn't matter," said the mare, "She has to go to magic school. I can't teach her, and I can't keep imposing on Princess Twilight, no matter what she says. This is the only way I can earn enough for tuition." The mare gave the blanket one last fold and placed it in the panniers sitting on the ground. Her brow furrowed and she turned towards the voice. "Why am I telling you this?" she asked before looking at the empty air behind her. She spun around twice and sat back on her haunches.
"Thou hast courage," said the voice from above her, "if only we still had the same fire within us." The mare looked up at the too-large moon, its radiance pulsing in time with the whispering voice. "Find another way my little pony," it said, "our realm is not for thee."
The mare stared at the moon, her gaze transfixed on the pearly white orb. "It's so close," she mumbled as she reached out her hoof.
"Miss?" asked a concerned voice, "Hello?"
The mare opened her eyes and blinked several times, cringing at the pain it caused her. The starry void outside the window she faced was interrupted only by the bright moon, as large, if not larger, as it had been in her now fading dream. Her reflection in the glass came into focus. A blond maned, grey coated mare gazed back at her with unremarkable, but well rested yellow eyes. She looked around in confusion at the metallic grey interior of the Prosperity Ascension. The few other passengers reluctantly and awkwardly dined on fresh produce, their hooves occasionally grasping for a wayward slice apple or stray carrot. She looked at the crewmare and gave her a sheepish grin. "Sorry about that, I must have drifted away for a while there." She reached into her mind, trying to remember what the dream had been about, but failed.
The uniformed mare laughed and reached down to the floor. With a flick of her hoof, the small door swung free on concealed hinges. She pulled a small vacuum sealed bag of produce before closing the door. "Happens to me all the time," she said while opening the bag and placing it in the netting next to the window, "and I've been making this run three times a month for the last two years. You look out the windows, and the next thing you know, the captain is shaking you awake wondering where his coffee is."
The mare reached into the restrained bag and fetched one of the large pale yellow apples that had become all the rage in Equestria. "What's it like up there?" she asked, "I mean, I've read the brochures and I've seen the pictures, but I haven't found anypony with firsthoof experience." She took a bite from the large apple, sending spherical droplets of juice floating in front of her muzzle. She waved her free hoof trying to corral the hovering beads of liquid to her mouth and only succeeded in losing control of the apple, sending it hovering out of reach..
"Well, we only get to see the port," said the earth pony crewmare as she reached into her satchel and produced a thick cloth towel. "There're a few locals in the mess hall we chat with while the engines are recharged and cargo is loaded. They seem happy enough, if a little quiet." She waved the towel through the air, expertly capturing the wayward apple juice and placed the partially eaten apple back into the mare's hooves. "You're not the first pony to ask me that question either," she said. "I don't think they're being mysterious on purpose. They came here because they wanted a fresh start, so they mostly keep to themselves."
"What about ponies like us?" asked the pegasus, gesturing around the cabin with a hoof, "I'm just here to do a job. Surely you've talked to some ponies like me on their way back home."
"Nope," she replied, "The Glory of Equestria handles return trips. We just deliver new arrivals and return with cargo." She saw the pegasus' brow furrow and laid a hoof on her shoulder. "You'll do fine," she said, "I have to say, you've adapted to the gravity better than most." She pointed over at a bulky earth pony stallion holding a moistened rag to his forehead.
"It takes an awful lot to make me nauseous," said the pegasus mare, "this is nothing."
"Well, if you need anything, don't hesitate to ask," said the helpful earth pony mare, "I'm Crewmare First Class Aurora Glow, but everypony just calls me Aura."
The pegasus reached out her hoof and shook the crewmare's. "Nice to meet you Aura," she said, "I'm Ditzy Doo, but my friends call me Derpy."
"No you didn't," said Derpy, her laughs echoing through the small cabin and unintentionally annoying the spacesick passengers
"My hoof to Luna," said Aurora, moving a hoof from her soft green coated chest to the air above her, "I'm usually not that touchy about what anypony thinks about my job, but I'm nopony's servant, even if he is a prince on an official visit." She squeezed the pouch of mixed fruit juice and teased the floating spheres of red liquid into a large globule in front of her before slurping it up noisily. "The captain had my back though, and the royal ass spent the rest of the trip restrained in his acceleration couch. 'A necessary precaution against space madness,' he called it."
"Space madness?" asked Derpy.
"Oh it's just a catch all term we use for ponies who can't quite accept it up here," said Aurora before grinning deviously, "or somepony who makes our job difficult." She handed the pouch to Derpy and looked on expectantly. "Come on, don't give up."
Derpy nodded and carefully squeezed the remaining juice from the pouch, mimicking the crewmare's motions. "I can see why you love your job," she said as she played with wobbly liquid orbs, "I wish I could claim ground madness on some of the ponies on my old route." She reached out and gently coaxed the juice sphere towards her muzzle. The result was messy but more successful than her previous attempts as evident by the red stained towel floating beside the acceleration bed they hovered above. "A package crosses halfway across the country, but it's obviously the local mailmare's fault that your fabrics are a day late." Derpy rubbed her muzzle into the towel and pushed it back into the netting by the window.
"Better," said Aurora, "so why's a mailmare headed to the moon?"
Derpy looked out the window and shrugged. She reached into her hoofmade mailbag and pulled out a picture album. "My daughter Dinky needs to go to magic school," she said, "and the recruiters made an offer I couldn't refuse." She passed the album to the crewmare.
"Awww," cooed Aurora as she flipped through the pages of photos of a smiling light violet, bordering on grey unicorn filly, "I guess anypony would go to the moon and back for that little cutie."
Derpy smiled at the praise. "She's had some tutoring under Princess Twilight," she said proudly, "but I can't ask her to take her on as a full time student, not with everything she has to do."
"Adorable and smart enough to get the Princess of Harmony's attention," marveled Aurora, "you must be so proud." She reached the end of the album and handed it back to the pegasus. "I guess she's staying with her daddy while you're up here?" she asked without thinking.
"Nah," said Derpy casually, "no such creature. She's staying with a friend."
"Oh," said Aurora with a wince, "I'm sorry, I didn't think..."
"Don't worry about it," said Derpy, "I sure don't." She slipped the album back into her satchel and secured it in the netting. "It's only for a few months, and I'll make enough to pay her way through the first few years of magic school, with enough left over to hold me over while I find proper work."
"Wow," said Aurora, "maybe I'm in the wrong business."
"At least you know what your business is," replied Derpy, "I have no idea why, but they're desperate for Pegasi up there. They said it had something to do with the Lunar produce that everypony's so crazy about. I'm hoping it's just pushing around clouds."
"That makes sense," said Aurora, "we don't have many pegasi passengers... don't know why."
Derpy stretched her wings and gave them a few careful flaps. Her last attempt and the subsequent unintended head butt to the ceiling had taught her to use caution when using her wings. "It's the enclosed spaces," she said, "I have a few friends who would be climbing the walls after the first day aboard this ship."
"You seem remarkably calm," said Aurora, "comfortable even."
Derpy shrugged and folded her wings back to her sides. "Flying was never my strong suit," she said, "half of my days were spent in the sorting room of the Ponyville Post Office. Compared to that sardine can, this ship is as open as Cloudsdale on a sunny day."
A beep from Aurora's ankle interrupted the two mares' conversation. The crewmare raised her hoof and pressed her nose against the flashing metallic bracelet. "Go for Aura," she said. Derpy heard the faint sound of the other side of the conversation from Aurora's earpiece and busied herself by looking out the window to avoid eavesdropping. "Sure thing Cap," she said into the bracelet, "I'll be right up." She grabbed one of the hoof-holds attached to the ceiling and pulled herself into the narrow aisle between beds. "Duty calls," she said to Derpy, "It's been fun talking with you Ditzy. Everypony's usually too grumpy from the nausea to really enjoy a good conversation."
"It's been fun Miss Glow" said Derpy, "It's nice to take my mind off the whole 'not knowing what I'm walking into' thing."
"I told you," said Aurora, "my friends call me Aura."
"Okay, Aura it is," said Derpy, "as long as you call me Derpy."
A burst of static from the cabin's hidden loudspeakers jolted Derpy out of a deep slumber. "All crew prepare for lunar orbital insertion," said the disembodied voice of the captain, "Passengers return to the acceleration beds and fasten your safety harnesses. Crewmare Glow, secure the cabin."
With an audible *whoosh* the narrow door at the rear of the cabin slid open. "Alright everypony," said Aurora as she floated down the narrow aisle between rows of small elevated beds, "make sure you've stowed any personal effects in the webbing provided." She made her way from passenger to passenger, checking each pony's harness and placing the occasional item in the netting beneath the beds. "We'll be orienting the ship for a prolonged retrograde burn," she said, "it won't be as severe as launch, but you wouldn't want to be loose when it happens." She pulled herself to the bed next to Derpy's and smiled at the pegasus as she strapped herself in. "It will take about an hour and a half to complete an orbit," she said, "but we ask that you remain secured in your acceleration beds in case of correction burns. I will remain here if anypony requires assistance." She raised her hoof to her muzzle and pressed on of the gems of her comm bracelet with her free hoof. "Cabin secured Captain," she said, her voice amplified by the speakers in the cabin.
"Roger that," said the stallion through the intercom, "Crewcolt Lifter, is the hold secured?"
"Aye, Cap'n," said a deep male voice, "Cargo is held fast."
"Copy that," said the captain, "burn in thirty seconds." A steady thrumming sound from behind the passenger cabin announced the activation of the the ship's magically powered propulsion system. Soon, the ship twisted around its yaw axis until the engines were pointed in the opposite direction and ready for a retrograde burn.
Derpy looked outside the large window above her and saw that the moon's surface dominated her view. "It's so close," she mumbled.
"We're about 60 leagues above the surface," said Aurora, "somewhere over the left side of the moon, as you'd call it on the ground." She twisted the bracelet on her ankle and pressed a dull purple gem. In unison, the acceleration beds tilted forwards until everypony faced the front of the cabin. "The view will only get better." As if they were punctuating her statement, the engines roared to life, causing the entire ship to vibrate. Several tense minutes passed as the ship shook and steadily decelerated into a stable lunar orbit.
Over the next hour, Derpy chatted with Aurora and stared out the glass at the lunar surface. Even at their altitude, large craters were easily distinguishable from the grey plains of dust. "What's that?" she asked, pointing at an odd, obviously pony-made structure. From their current altitude, it looked little more than a shining metallic cylinder with a large cube on one end.
"I don't know what they're called," said Aurora, but keep your eyes on it." After a few minutes, an soft green aura surrounded the cube. "There are several of them at various spots along the equator," said Aurora. The aura suddenly erupted from the cube and coursed down the length of the cylinder. A dust storm followed the aura's progress until it reached the end of the tube. Derpy squinted and tried to make sense of what she had just witnessed. "We're too far away," said Aurora, "but that magic just propelled a large container towards the Earth."
"Why?" asked Derpy.
"Well how do you think all those lunar products get back to Equestria?" asked Aurora.
"You said that you guys take cargo back..." said Derpy, a little ashamed at her ignorance.
"Oh..." said Aurora, "Well, we do, but I guess most ponies don't know just how much the moon sends back to Equestria. Every day, dozens of those containers are captured by ferries in orbit above the earth. They maneuver them to a space elevator where they are brought down to the ground." She smiled as she stretched her hooves behind her head. "I can't tell you how much more fun these long trips are," she said, "A year of moving those containers around was starting to wear thin." Sighing luxuriously, she turned towards Derpy and continued. "We bring back empty containers and leave with fragile items they wouldn't want to send via Slingshot. At least that's what we think: They're not exactly chatty at the port." Derpy furrowed her brow and cringed at the pain radiating down the left side of her face.
"I'm fine," said the pegasus as Aurora began unbuckling herself to check on her, "just a mild headache."
"Are you sure?" said the concerned crewmare, "There're some motion sickness pills in the medkit."
"I wish you had seen one of my more spectacular crashes," said Derpy, "I was shocked by a stray storm cloud, sent into a complete tailspin, and crashed through the largest oak tree in town. I had two muffins on my way down the stairs."
"Stairs?" asked Aurora.
"The biggest oak tree in Ponyville is Princess Twilight's home," said Derpy, "the morale of the story is that Derpy doesn't get nauseous, and princesses have the best muffins." The engines roared for several seconds, eliciting groans from several of the passengers. "Lightweights," she said as the cabin finished shaking. She looked up in confusion as the craft rolled over and her view of the moon was replaced with the starry backdrop of space.
"I guess I'll have to take your word for it," said Aurora, "looks like the captain's prepared for final descent. Let me know if your head is still hurting. I'll grab you a few aspirin when we touch down."
"Now I don't even get to see where I'll be spending the next few months?" groaned Derpy.
"Don't go all grumpy on me," said Aurora as she fiddled with her bracelet, "It's one of the first stages of space madness." A screen slid down from the ceiling at the front of the cabin. It flickered to life and displayed a blurred lunar landscape as seen from the rear of the ship. "Hold on," said the earth pony mare. As she depressed the flat silver links of her bracelet, the view came into focus and tilted upwards. "There we are," she said loudly, "Selene: Princess Luna's shining city on the moon."
Derpy's gasp joined the chorus of exclamations from the assorted ponies. She agreed with Aurora's brief description: Shining was the only way one could describe Selene at first glance. Grey metal rose from the dusty lunar surface, but whereas the soil was dull and grey, the structures of the city caught the light of the earth and sun and shone like a beacon. It was laid out like a giant wagon wheel, with the spokes made of silvered steel tubes with long ovals of glass at regular interval. In between the spokes rose a bizarre mix of geometric shapes of metal and glass. A monolithic truncated pyramid with assorted antennae and dishes on the flat top sat next to a spire with an onion dome, nearly indistinguishable from one she'd seen in Canterlot. Tall cylinders of steel rose from the ground and towered over smaller delicate latticework clad glass structures. The only unifying element of the seemingly chaotically laid out city was the silvery metal material utilized in every edifice.
Derpy took it all in a single glance, but what truly drew her gaze was a massive semi-hemispheric geodesic dome at the center of the city. The framework of triangular glass panels, each easily as tall as a respectably sized Ponyville cottage, covered at least a square mile of lunar soil. Blinking red lights dotted the dome at regular intervals, as if it were some massive Hearth's Warming Eve ornament. Derpy was sure there was something grand inside, but at this distance, she could only guess. "They built this in three years?" she asked incredulously, her eyes still locked onto the monitor.
"They're still building," said Aurora, "A new building seems to have popped up every time we arrive. The captain says it used to just be the central dome."
"And I'll be working there..." said Derpy, her voice trailing off.
"Maybe," said Aurora, "who knows. It's an awfully big place now, and you haven't even seen the smaller domes scattered around the surface. Selene is the only city, but there are several outposts we fly over." She adjusted the ship's aft camera and brought into focus a large complex of structures on the outer edge of the southernmost "spoke" of the city. A large flat circular platform sat a short distance from several large buildings constructed of the ubiquitous silvery metal. Bright red lights, set in a cross pattern, blinked from the edge of the platform to the center where a stylized onyx black crescent moon was embossed into the surface. Aurora reached into her satchel and pulled out a scrap of paper and a quill, made of all things, metal. "Here," she said, handing the note to Derpy, "if you feel like talking to somepony, this is how you can get in touch with me."
Derpy unfolded the paper and squinted at the seemingly random collection of numbers and characters. "I've seen tons of addresses in my day," she said, "but I think I'll need some help with this one."
Aurora chuckled and retrieved what appeared to be a thin piece of glass from her bag. "They assigned one of these to us on our first trip out," she said, "it's some sort of magical book." She swiped her hoof over the surface and held the device up so Derpy could see the lists of names and similar random series of letters, numbers, and symbols. "These are mostly my crewmates," she said, touching one of the names with the tip of her hoof. "Hey Pathfinder; what's our eta?"
"Look out a damn window Aura," came a gruff female voice, "I'm a little busy here."
"See," said Aurora happily. "It does more of course, but I won't spoil it for you." She tucked the pane of glass away in her satchel just as the engines throttled back up, forcing everypony into the padding of their acceleration beds.
Derpy looked back to the monitor as the circular platform came closer and closer. The camera followed the center of the landing platform until the ship was directly above it. A bright, yellow spotlight in the shape of Celestia's solar sigil switched on, illuminating much of the platform. A loud clunk and whirring sound emanated from below their hooves as the descent engines controlled their slow drop to the lunar surface. The spotlight occasionally became misaligned with crescent moon at the center of the landing zone, but was soon corrected by small maneuvering jets. The sun shaped light steadily shrunk until it covered the very center of the platform. The picture on the monitor was briefly covered with swirling eddies of dust as the Prosperity Ascension touched down. The cabin shook as the craft's landing struts flexed and absorbed the majority of the impact. The monitor remained on, showing only a brilliant yellow sun with a dark black crescent moon superimposed upon it.
"Welcome to Selene," said Aurora to the passengers, "A reminder: Local time is matched to Canterlot Standard Time, which is just a few minutes after noon." She unbuckled herself from the acceleration bed next to Derpy's and flung her satchel over withers. "Feel free to remove your harness and walk around" she said while walking up the aisle with slow deliberate steps. Derpy quickly pulled the buckles and straps from her body and tried to fall to her hooves only to find the world seemingly moving at slow motion. "Careful though," said Aurora, "gravity is much weaker here than on the Earth." Derpy took a few testing steps before nodding and reaching behind her seat to grab her saddle bags.
Derpy walked to the other side of the cabin and looked out the observation window at the complex of silver buildings. She squinted her eyes, ignoring the sharp pain, and spotted the silhouettes of ponies through many of the glass windows. She ignored the protesting grunts and groans of the space sick ponies in the cabin and focused on the slowly telescoping large metal tube moving towards the ship from the nearest building. She silently watched as the cylinder came in contact with the port side of the now grounded craft. The sound of whirring motors and clamps engaging signaled the final connections being made. The lights of the Prosperity Ascension dimmed and then immediately brightened as it began receiving energy from the port's umbilical connections.
"I hope everypony had a pleasant trip," said the stallion from the just opened flight deck door. The flat stares he received from the miserable collection of ponies drew a choked off laugh from the bearded unicorn stallion. "Ahem... well," he said, "I'm sure Crewmare Glow can provide some pharmaceutical relief to anypony who needs it. Aurora, the harbormaster will meet you at the normal place."
"Yes sir, Captain," she said as he returned to the flight deck. "Everypony follow me." She walked through the still open cabin door and operated a mechanical latch on a panel inside the small vestibule between the flight deck and the passenger cabin. Clicks and clanks echoed between the primary and secondary hulls as unseen mechanisms opened the outer hatch. A large portion of the bulkhead swung open from an unseen hinge along the ceiling. Air rushed out of the cabin, sending manes fluttering in the artificial breeze. Standing next to Aurora, Derpy was the first to see the long well lit corridor connecting the ship to the port. Aurora stepped into the walkway and looked over her shoulder at the hesitant pegasus mare. "It's only a few months, right?" she asked. "Come on, think of it as an adventure."
Derpy unceremoniously jumped off the small ledge, forgetting for a moment that, here, her small jump would become a giant leap. Flying through the air, out of control, was a state of being that she had become intimate with, and she knew how it always ended. Unconsciously, her wings flared out and gave a swift flap. Derpy squeezed her eyes shut and prepared for her normal crash landing. "One second and, you're already making a fool of yourself," she thought, "Well done Derpy."
"Well those were some impressive moves," said Aurora, "are you sure this is your first time here?"
Derpy opened her eyes and found herself on all four hooves, her wings still extended to their full span. "Hmm," she said, "I... um... I guess I'm just excited." She followed Aurora as she led the assembled group through the airlock in a comical line of hopping ponies. The boarding tube exited into a large terminal bustling with activity. Everywhere she looked, Derpy saw ponies carrying out whatever it was that Moon Ponies did. Several stout looking earth pony stallions hauled impossibly large boxes towards the high tech gangplank. A cluster of unicorns stood around a strange looking globe set atop a spire two ponylength's tall, their magic funneling into the glowing orb. She looked towards the ceiling but saw no pegasi. Aurora led them through the room, weaving around the working ponies, and giving wide berth to the unicorns and their magics.
"Here we are," said Aurora, pointing to a large set of black tinted glass doors, "Selene customs." She held open the door and counted as her charges filed into the smaller room one at a time. "Seven, eight, nine..." she said before turning back around and spotting Derpy still staring at the bustling port. "It's a lot to take in, I know, but you really need to check in with customs." She walked in front of the pegasus and used her body to steer her towards the door. "Once you get through customs we can have some lunch and talk," said Aurora.
"Okay," said Derpy as she let herself be herded into the office.
"On behalf of Princess Luna, let me be the first to officially welcome you to the Moon," said the unicorn stallion holding out a hoof, "I'm Tally Mark, head of customs and new arrival orientation."
Derpy reached across the desk in the small office and shook the proffered hoof. "Nice to meet you Mr. Mark," she said, "I'm Ditzy Doo."
"Oh I know," said the stallion as he adjusted his expertly tailored jacket and tie, "You're the first Pegasus we've been able to get up here in months." He pulled out another of the strange glass devices and began swiping his hoof across it. "Let me tell you," he said, "It's hard enough finding pegasi willing to come up here, but finding somepony able to pass the strict physical is even harder." He turned around in his swiveling chair and picked up a thin zippered satchel before spinning back to face Derpy. "But when I saw that The Rainbow Dash herself had certified your fitness exams, well, I couldn't believe my eyes."
Derpy nervously wiped her brow, hoping her flop sweat wouldn't be noticed. "Well, Rainbow might have exaggerated a bit," she said, "She said I barely passed." Her left eye twitched, as if trying to give her away.
"Nonsense," said Tally Mark, "her effusive praise was the only recommendation we needed to fast track your application. Nopony else's appraisal of your abilities would best that of a national hero and Wonderbolt." He set the small bag on the desk in front of her and motioned for her to open it. "There's actually a bit of a tussle over who gets to keep the letter she sent. Everypony wants that mare's autograph." Derpy opened the satchel and pulled out one of the glass panes similar to the one Aurora had shown her. "This is a FlimCo Super Magic Info Tablet 7000," said Tally, "I'm contractually obligated to call it that. Everypony calls them slates."
"A crewmare from the ship showed me hers," said Derpy as she experimentally poked the device with a hoof, "It seems very useful."
"All business on the moon is done on these," he said, "you'll pick it up quickly." He took a look at the clock above the door and stood. "Lets get you through the quarantine and I'll personally show you to your quarters in the Serenity Dome."
"Quarantine?" asked Derpy.
"We're very particular about what comes into our environment," said Tally Mark, "A stray bird; an insect; even a tiny bit of pollen could alter our biome in ways we could never predict." He led Derpy through a second door at the back of his small office and down a long white hallway. "The first few seasons of crops suffered until we figured that out," he said. "The decontamination room will take care of anything that we don't want interfering with the colony." Derpy followed him through a thick door that opened on its own accord when they approached. "Take a seat here," said the unicorn, gesturing to steel contraption that resembled a medieval torture device more than a chair. Her wings slipped through holes in the back of the platform and remained unfolded as she rested her appendages on four leg rests. "I'll be on the other side of the glass with our technicians." He continued helping her into the uncomfortable device and spun it around until it faced a glass wall behind which several unicorns in lab coats smiled and waved.
"Is it going to hurt?" asked Derpy as Tally Mark affixed metal restraints around her waist and hooves.
"Not at all," he said, "In fact, several ponies complain that it tickles too much." A knock from the glass wall drew their attention to one of the unicorns on the other side. "They're ready to start," he said, "just relax and we'll have you out of here and on your way in a few minutes."
As the door slid shut behind him, Derpy turned her gaze towards the ceiling and the bizarre opaque globe suspended from the ceiling in a metal wire harness. A thick pastel tinted mist swirled inside the sphere, its color shifting every few seconds. The blare of a claxon could be heard from the hallway as a steadily increasing buzz of magic filled the room. Derpy's eyes shifted back and forth from the device on the ceiling and the window behind which the unicorns worked their magic.
"Alright Miss Doo," said an unfamiliar voice, "First, we're going to remove any stray particles you may have inadvertently brought with you. It might get a little windy, but don't worry, you're perfectly safe." Vents on the ceiling and floor slid open in unison. Loud rhythmic whooshing sounds slowly accelerated as a small draft soon became a full-on gale. "Lift your head for a moment, Miss Doo," said the voice over the roaring wind. Derpy complied and soon her mane whipped out from beneath her head, swirling towards the ceiling. The chair slowly tilted forwards and backwards and rotated from side to side, exposing her wings and tail to the full force of the artificial windstorm. After a minute, the fans finally throttled down and the chair returned to its original position. "Everything alright in there?" asked the voice.
"Yes," said Derpy while trying to blow a few stray strands of mane from her eyes, "it's nowhere near as bad as tornado duty." She didn't add that she had only been invited to assist in creating the colossal water spout once before a rather memorable crash removed her from future consideration.
"I knew it wouldn't be a problem for somepony with your credentials," said Tally Mark, "I told that haughty pegasus that she couldn't possibly know every great flyer in Equestria. What? Yes, yes, by all means continue."
"One last procedure Miss Doo," said one of the unicorn technicians, "Just remain perfectly still while the device above you begins scanning for stray dweomers that might interfere with lunar infrastructure."
"... 'kay," said Derpy, unsure what the bespectacled mare was talking about. "Not sure what that is" she thought to herself, "I really hope somepony helps with the lingo." A loud clunking sound above her drew her attention to the globe of swirling smoke suspended above her head. A deep droning hum at the very limit of her hearing began emanating from the device, sounding not unlike the purring of a large cat. Simultaneously, a weak blue light began filling the globe, bathing the roiling haze in its soft radiance.
"Give me twenty more microjewels," said a voice through the speaker, "Something's pushing the scanner out of alignment."
Derpy moved her eyes towards the window and the ponies beyond. The two unicorn technicians had the look that those of their race had when working on very difficult spells. Each gritted their teeth and furrowed their brows as they seemed to feed their magic into the consoles before them. Derpy found it odd that neither of their magical auras matched the robin's egg blue light emitted by the device they operated, but once again decided it was something beyond her current, admittedly poor, understanding of magic. Tally Mark stood behind the two, his eyebrow raised in a puzzled expression. A sudden change in the light from above her drew her gaze back to the humming sphere. A magenta glow had replaced the calming blue and was flickering as its brightness intensified with each flash.
"Unidentified Dweomer detected," shouted a voice from the loudspeaker, "beginning dispel procedures."
Derpy began lifting her head to get a better look at the ponies in the control room. "Don't move!" shouted Tally Mark. For a split second, she froze in place, either because she was intimidated by the stern command, or terrified of the device above her head. It seemed to be trying to shake itself to pieces inside its housing and the light from inside was too bright to stare at. "That's it," said the unicorn stallion, "now carefully place your head back down." Derpy complied and said a silent prayer to eternal princesses for whatever was happening to come to an end.
"Do it," said Tally Mark to the other two unicorns. They nodded and focused their attention and magic on the devices in front of them.
A beam of magenta energy shot from the bottom of the globe and struck the restrained pegasus in the eyes. Her entire field of vision went white and, for the briefest of moments, the constant dull pain she had felt since visiting Princess Twilight a few days earlier disappeared. Before she could sigh in relief, or wonder why the machine had seemingly gone haywire, a wave of agony washed over the helpless pegasus. She screamed as if her blood was molten fire in her veins. "STOP IT!" she shrieked as she thrashed against her restraints. The blinding pain had the mare nearly insensate as the onslaught of magical energy continued unabated. She did, however, hear a demanding, angry, male voice and terrified pleas from another.
"Just a few seconds more," said an exhausted sounding unicorn, "we've almost got it."
A final pulse of magenta energy surrounded Derpy's head in an aura before the globe of light finally went silent and returned to its docile state. The poor pegasus, however, was still screaming in agony. To Derpy, eons passed before she heard the the sounds of a door sliding open and hooves clattering on the metallic floor. "Get her out of those restraints," said Tally Mark in an annoyed tone. She felt the shackles fall from her hooves and immediately reached for her head. Her hooves pressed against her face trying to somehow lessen the feeling that something was ripping her eyes from their sockets.
"What did you do?!" barked Tally angrily, "so help me, her majesty will hear of this if she's damaged."
"We didn't do anything!" protested the unicorn mare, "we just feed in the instructions and provide the power, the Dispeller does the rest. That was no simple enchantment it removed to have drawn so much power."
Derpy tuned out the accusations and recriminations and wordlessly sobbed into her hooves as the pain slowly ebbed away. Minutes passed before she felt somepony gently pulling her forelegs away from her head. She slowly opened her eyes and saw three concerned faces looking back. Tally Mark sighed in disappointment before turning around. "You two are in so much trouble," he said as he walked out the door, "Clean her up and bring her back to my office."
The two unicorns helped the shaky pegasus back to her hooves and supported her as they made their way to a small washroom. "We're so sorry Miss Doo," said the bespectacled unicorn mare, "nothing like this has ever happened. I promise you we'll find a way to fix this."
Derpy walked to the long row of washbasins and turned on a faucet. "It's not that bad now" she said while running her hooves under the cold water and splashing it onto her face, "just a slight headache. Don't beat yourselves up over it."
"That's fair," said the stallion, "sarcasm is the least we deserve after maiming you."
"Sarcasm?" asked Derpy, "seriously guys, I'm fine." She raised her head and looked into the mirror that spanned the wall in front of the sinks. The familiar wall-eyed pegasus looked back and mirrored her crestfallen expression. The shock of the painful experience, and her lifetime of acclimation to her disorder had made it so that she hardly noticed when half of her vision didn't return. After all, two days of "normal" sight, no matter how memorably painful they were, could never replace two decades plus of experience. "Let's go back to Mr. Mark's office," she said with a sigh, "I think I owe you all an explanation and an apology." The two unicorns looked at each other in confusion and followed as the pegasus slowly walked out of the washroom.
"I just don't know how it all went wrong," said Derpy with her head laying flat on the table, "The princess's spell never hurt like that when she removed it. It was always just a tingling and them my eyes went back to normal. If anything, it felt great compared to how much it hurt to have that spell correcting my vision"
"Why would Princess Twilight put such a painful spell on you?" asked Aurora between bites of a fruit salad, "and why would you agree to it for that matter? Isn't she famous for her magical disasters?."
"She had been working on it ever since she started tutoring Dinky," said Derpy. "I was willing to humor the princess for Dinky's sake. The first few tries were fairly horrific, but she got it to a point where it was bearable for a short duration." She raised her head from the table for the first time since she sat down next to the friendly crewmare, and her only friend for a quarter of a million miles. "Of course she'd never have agreed to keep the spell up this long," she said, "Twilight always insisted on removing it within an hour of casting it. I should probably find a way to tell her that I'm alright: She's probably worried sick by now."
"I'll get word to her next time I'm down the well," said Aurora, "but that still doesn't explain why you would go through all that pain to get here."
Derpy hung her head in shame and stared at the untouched plate of sliced apples, pears, grapes, and strawberries. "I lost my job a few months ago," she said morosely, "one too many lost letters; one too many crashes on what they consider and easy route." She took a bite of what should have been some of the most flavorful fruit in existence, but to her, it might as well have tasted like ash. "The weather patrol wanted nothing to do with me, even with Rainbow Dash acting on my behalf," she said, "and the moving service I worked for laughed in my face when I showed up at their door."
"So you went to the moon for work?" asked Aurora incredulously, "surely there was something closer; say in the Griffin lands?"
"No one who could pay enough for me to get Dinky into magic school for the next three years," said Derpy, "and for only a season's work too." She pushed the plate of food away and cradled her head with her forelegs on the table. "It was worth the pain," she said, "I know they'd never take me if they saw my eyes. I had heard that they turned away somepony for having a missing pinion feather."
"I know you're trying to do your best for your daughter, Derpy," said Aurora, "but they have to be discerning in who they allow to work here." She reached across the table and rubbed the side of the pegasus's hoof. "If somepony makes a mistake out here, the results can be catastrophic. I don't mean to say that you can't do the work, or that you're somehow not as good as anypony else here, but I can see why they would turn you down."
"I know," she said, "but I just thought that as long as I could keep my head down and do what they asked, I could make it the three months with no pony the wiser."
"Well," said Aurora, "at least this all happened now. I'm sure the captain won't mind a passenger for the return flight home."
"They won't let me leave," said Derpy, "in fact, they're still keeping me on."
"Really?" asked the surprised earthpony mare, "that's... very kind of them."
"Kind nothing," said Derpy, "Tally Mark told me to my face that he'd have put me in a cell had they not spent all the bits to get me here in the first place. I'm to work in a 'non-critical facility' until my term is up." She shuddered as she remembered the smile on the stallion's face as he informed her of their decision: She could only describe it as mocking. "They're actually going to keep me at the same pay level for some reason. I signed an amended contract and everything."
"Well then," said Aurora, "no harm then. You still get the bits you need, and you get to work on something that's probably easier and less stressful."
"I just can't help but think that something is off about this whole place" said Derpy, remembering the sense of unease she had felt since making up her mind to come to Selene. "It all seems to good to be true." She pulled out the slate from her satchel and placed it flat on the table in front of her.
"Don't look a gift horse in the mouth," said Aurora as she retrieved her slate, "there're too many ponies here for them to worry about one perfectly capable pegasus. Like I said on the Ascension: I don't think I've seen anypony adjust to this environment better than you have." She moved her hoof over the device and reached over to do the same with Derpy's. "I'll bet that you surprise them all." She surreptitiously reached into Derpy's satchel and retrieved her photo album.
"There's a first time for anything I suppose," said Derpy. "I'm supposed to head over to that big door over there in a few minutes." Without lifting her head, she pointed across the mess hall at a large circular bulkhead where the port was connected to one of the long spokes that connected the various buildings in the lunar colony. "They'll take me to a place called Sin Station where Mr. Mark's secretary is going to meet me."
"Sin?" asked Aurora as she continued working on Derpy's slate, "now that sounds ominous."
"Tally said it was a Sumareian name for their moon god," said Derpy, "totally coincidental, of course."
"Weird," said Aurora as she finished and pushed the slate back under Derpy's gaze. "Here, something to smile at whenever you need it." Derpy looked down at the slate and the smiling face of her daughter. It slowly faded away and was replaced with another photo of the the mother and daughter covered in muffin dough and laughing. The slideshow continued on the background of the screen, eventually drawing out the smile Aurora was hoping for.
"Thank you so much, Aura," said Derpy, reaching across and wrapping her forelegs around the mare's shoulders. "I hope you can meet her when I get back home. I know she'd love to meet a honest to goodness spacepony."
Aurora returned the hug and laughed, momentarily ignoring the beeping and buzzing coming from her bracer. "And I'd love to meet a princess-trained unicorn," she said before releasing the pegasus and standing. "Now you need to get a move on. Time stops for nopony." She stood and walked around the table. "I've got my contact info in your slate," she said, "and I've placed the manual on the front page, right there. Just touch it and give it a read through when you have some spare time." She grabbed her own belongings and looked outside the large glass walls separating the large open port from the vacuum outside, seeing the cargo bay doors of the Prosperity Ascension closing and the last of the empty containers being ferried away on one of the odd trackless lunar trains. "Stay in touch Derpy," she said with a wink, "I want to hear some actual stories about what goes on here next time we talk."
"Count on it, Aura" said Derpy, "have a safe flight back!" She stood and waved to the earth pony mare as Aurora spoke into her bracer and tried to wave back. Once the crewmare was through the boarding tube and out of sight, Derpy took a deep breath and steadily paced towards the transportation hub at the far end of the port. Passing the various port workers going about their duties, she tried to ignore the feeling that eyes were following her as she began what she hoped would be the last leg of her long journey. Her mind seemed to rebel at her every attempt to stay focused on the large doors along the back wall of the complex. Her head swiveled at every strange contraption; every pony seemingly jumping higher than any had a right to; every window to the barren moonscape outside.
"Slate please," said a bored sounding monotone voice. Derpy blinked and looked away from another cluster of unicorns gathered around another strange orb. "You do have a slate don't you?" asked the unicorn stallion again.
"Oh sorry," said Derpy as she reached into her satchel with a wing and produced the device.
His eyebrow arched as he pressed his hoof against the document labeled Transfer Orders: Ditzy Doo. "Ooookay," he said while handing the tablet back to Derpy, "Well, the bad news is that Sin Station is a bit of a long trip. The good news is that you won't need to change Zoom Tubes anywhere."
"Zoom Tubes?" she asked, "is that like a train?"
"In the same way a train is like a wagon," said the unicorn. He sighed before staring forward and reciting the litany that he had been forced to give to every damned newcomer for the last year. "The Zoom-Tube™ is a revolutionary advance in the transportation of both equines and their associated cargo across great distances at speeds unheard of," he stated in a monotone, unenthusiastic tone, "FlimCo invites you to skim across the moon through our FlimCo Zoom-Tubes™ in our fantastic FlimCo FlimSkimmers™."
"Okay," said Derpy, more confused now than before asking.
"Sorry," said the stallion, "they make me say it. The tubes run through Selene and to some of the further off stations, like Sin. You can get all the way across Selene in ten minutes."
"So how long will it take to get to Sin Station?" asked Derpy.
"Three hours, give or take," said the attendant, "I hope you have something kill time with." Before she could respond, the large bulkheads began sliding to the side with a low bass rumble. A slight breeze poured into the tube from the port facility. From further down the long tube, she saw a rapidly approaching object. She took a few hesitant steps away from the attendant as it careened towards the now fully open circular portal. He didn't flinch and passively stood by the low railing in front of what appeared to be a small staircase to nowhere. A strong blue magical aura winked into existence around the object as it hurtled towards the port. Without a sound or vibration, the vehicle swiftly decelerated and came to a precise stop directly in front of the pair of waiting ponies.
As she examined the strange vehicle, Derpy decided that the stallion was correct: Calling this thing a train would be woefully inadequate. It looked like a piece of modern art she'd seen when visiting Manehattan as a youth. A teardrop shaped cabin large enough to fit around a dozen ponies and their assorted cargo comprised the bulk of the skimmer. Spars extended from the top and bottom of the cabin to a large ring that just managed to fit inside the Zoom Tube. She watched as it slowly rotated until it's blunt end was pointing back into the tube. She couldn't imagine how this thing was supposed to actually move. It lacked wheels; it had nothing like the big balloons on the few airships she had seen, yet somehow it seemed to float in the air, with the gleaming white outer ring mere inches away from the tube's metallic walls.
"You're the last newcomer to leave," said the stallion as he led her up the stairs, "so it looks like you'll have the whole Skimmer to yourself." He pressed his hoof to the side of the vehicle and a gull-winged door opened revealing a comfortable interior with padded benches and plenty of room to walk around. The stallion escorted her inside and took her on a quick tour. "Like I said," he began, "it's going to be a long trip. There's a lavatory over here, and a water dispenser here." After getting her settled in a seat, he walked to the door and pressed his own slate into a rectangular receptacle in the wall. "That should do it," he said after removing his tablet, "This 'TL' person will meet you at Sin Station, so just enjoy the ride." He stepped outside and door and reached up to close it.
"Wait!" said Derpy, "Aren't you going to drive this thing?"
"It's all automated," he said, "All traffic is controlled from the Princess's command center inside the Serenity Dome. Just sit back and kick up your hooves." He pulled down on the door and sealed it with a twist of his hoof. Derpy heard several clicks followed by a hiss of air. The stallion gave a wave and walked back down the stairs.
Derpy stared pensively through the windows that ringed the teardrop shaped vehicle as it slowly began gliding forward. Behind the skimmer, the large bulkhead doors slid into place, their massive bulk creating a large clunking sound which caused the vehicle to shake despite it not being in contact with the ground. Vents opened along the the length of the tube's floor and the sound of hissing air preceded a slow acceleration forwards. Derpy gripped the sides of her seat and looked out the side of the passenger compartment. The narrow ring that surrounded the vehicle glowed with a sparkling supernatural blue light that steadily increased in intensity as the skimmer picked up speed.
It wasn't long before she was traveling faster than she had ever thought possible. Even though the windows on the Zoom Tubes were regularly spaced out, at her current speed they appeared to provided a long unbroken view of the skyline of Selene as it zipped past. Nearby small buildings disappeared in a flash while those in the distance steadily crawled across her vision. Windows along the top of the tube allowed her to see the central dome that the vehicle sped towards. The attendant back on the port was true to his word, and it was less than five minutes before the dome completely dominated the sky. She felt the skimmer decelerate and wondered if she'd be able to get a view of whatever was inside that monolithic hemisphere of glass and steel. Blurred shapes of towering structures higher than any in the rest of the colony slowly gained focus as the vehicle approached and came to a stop in the middle of the Zoom Tube.
"Please remain seated while this skimmer is rerouted," chimed an artificial sounding voice over hidden loudspeakers.
Derpy, realizing that she had unconsciously moved to the front windows, quickly trotted back to where she had originally been seated and looked on in frustration as the vehicle rotated ninety degrees. Two more of the massive steel blast doors on the skimmer's left and right slid into place with the loud clang of metal against metal. The door in front opened, revealing the slowly curving path of a circular Zoom Tube that ran along the circumference of the massive dome. The vehicle slightly jerked as it once more accelerated to slightly slower, but still break neck speed. Derpy looked out the left windows, completely mesmerized by the shadowy mega-structures that lay hidden behind the glass walls. It was only a few minutes later when the Skimmer again rotated and left the inner tube for another long straight avenue headed towards the outer perimeter of the colony. Soon, the exotic gleaming structures of Selene gave way to the pristine landscape of the moon. With no way to look at the receding city behind her, Derpy pulled her hind legs underneath her and watched the surreal scenery of the lunar surface fly past.
Derpy reclined on the hillside, bathing herself in the warm sunlight while Dinky played nearby. The filly had found an excitable squirrel and was busy playing a game of hide and seek with the critter. Derpy furrowed her eyebrows in confusion and rubbed her hoof over her forehead. "Deja Vu," she thought to herself while standing to stretch her limbs.
"We warned thee," whispered a voice from behind her, "but it appears our warning has been for naught." Derpy spun around to see a faint wisp of blueish light floating at the apex of the hill. Discarding any apprehension due to a faint feeling of familiarity, she cautiously approached the sparkling mote of energy. "You must listen to us very closely, for there isn't much time," said the disembodied voice.
"I know you," said Derpy as she trudged up the hill. Her hoof slipped in the loose soil, nearly sending her tumbling down the extremely steep hill. She looked down at her hooves at the grey, powder-like, dirt and ignored it, choosing to focus instead on the steadily dimming orb of blue light above.
The whispering voice began cutting in and out. Strange crackling sounds filled the space between words. "-you do. Our control over thy dreamscape wavers this-" The wisp began flashing, losing a bit of its radiance with each passing second. "-my student," it tried to say before being interrupted by a long burst of static, "-anyone, especially our visage. Everypony must be-" Derpy scrambled up the seemingly endless hillside until she finally crested the peak and looked out across the expanse of the lunar surface. "-isolated, but it finds ways-" As the pegasus came closer, the entity grew dimmer and dimmer. "-must be separated from control-"
"I don't understand," said Derpy as she lifted a hoof to probe the ball of energy, "who are you and what do you want from me?" Upon touching the apparition, a growing awareness that she was in a dream filled her mind. At the realization, bright light began filling the edges of her vision.
"-collapsing, but heed our warning," said the voice, seemingly trying to muster whatever energy it had left, "Trust nopony save our student." The wisp of blue light winked out of existence just as a Derpy's vision went white.
"Thank you for choosing the FlimCo Zoom-Tube™ network," said the loud recorded mare's voice. "We realize you have few choices in lunar travel, and we're proud to serve everypony at her majesty's request. This message will repeat until all passengers have exited the vehicle. Welcome to Sin Station, the last stop on the FlimCo Western Zoom-Tube™ line. Please gather your belongings and exit the Skimmer through the opened exit. Thank you for choosing the-"
Derpy slowly cracked open her eyelids and pulled her head away from the window she had been resting against for the last two hours. She smacked her lips a couple of times and yawned loudly before swiveling her head around in idle confusion. The droning voice around her finally registered and she hopped to her hooves. After quickly draping her heavy, bulging, panniers over her back, the pegasus cantered across the vehicle's cabin and through the open gull-wing door. As she exited into a narrow, windowless corridor, the Skimmer resealed itself and began rotating. Derpy watched the vehicle until a large blast door slid into place between the corridor and the Zoom-Tube. She turned and looked down the long hallway. Gone was the sterile bright white lights of the port in Selene. In their place were periodically flickering dingy yellow lights in dusty glass globes held in place with rusted metal brackets. The hallway she slowly walked down had a run down look she had not seen anywhere else on her brief time on the moon. Patches of rust, and dents lined the walls along with whitewashed graffiti.
At the end of the corridor was a massive door that appeared more at home in a bank vault. When it failed to swing open for her as every other door had, Derpy tried in vain to push or pull the iron slab open. She looked around in confusion before finding the small intercom next to a faded placard that read, "Press and hold to request access." She pressed the large red button and spoke into the device. "Umm, hello?" she asked tentatively, "Mr. Mark said I was supposed to come here. I'm supposed to meet his secretary here: I'm Ditzy Doo." She removed her hoof and looked back at the door when a muffled metallic thump rang out from the other side. As the heavy blast door slowly swung inwards, air pressure from inside the station slammed it shut again. Derpy stepped back and gave a tentative knock at the metal slab.
Again it slowly swung open. "A little help?" growled a mare's voice from the other side. Derpy pressed her forehooves to the door and pushed while the pony on the other side pulled. After a few seconds of exertion the door finally opened, blasting Derpy with stale, iron scented air and sending her stumbling back into the hallway. She wrinkled her nose as she stumbled back to her hooves. "Sorry about that," said the mare as she tapped the side of the door with a hoof, "the servos need replacing and the mic on the other side is on the fritz." Derpy examined the unicorn mare and took a few steps backwards. The azure coat; the pale blue, almost silver mane; the proud bearing. Derpy knew this mare: Every Ponyvillian knew The Great and Powerful Trixie. Aside from Princess Twilight, few ponies had wreaked more havoc in the small hamlet than Trixie Lulamoon. The princess had said that Trixie's days of megalomania were behind her, and had even welcomed into her tree home on several occasions, but Derpy, like most of the town, was slow to trust somepony who had acted with such malice.
"Well?" asked Trixie over her shoulder, "In or out. Trixie has other things to take care of today." Derpy trotted through the entry just ahead of Trixie slamming it shut. She turned a large wheel shaped handle several times before turning to the pegasus. "Welcome to Sin," said Trixie, "Trixie is the administrator of the workers here. She is nopony's secretary, and if she was, it would not be for that spiteful slimeball." She turned from the door and looked at her newest resident from behind. "Trixie doesn't get it though," she said while walking circles around Derpy, "what's wrong with you? What's the catch?"
"Um..." mumbled Derpy. She was quite intimidated. The unicorn had yet to look her in the eyes, and seemed to regard her with casual disdain.
"Trixie sees two healthy wings and a strong back, and you're definitely better fed than anypony else here," said Trixie, "Tell Trixie, has Tally Mark finally tired of tormenting Trixie?"
Derpy looked at the unicorn mare in confusion. She looked beyond the familiar features and saw the pony for what she was. Emaciated might have been too strong a word to apply to the infamous magician, but not by much. Her face was thin and gaunt, and dominated by her large sunken eyes. The faint outline of ribs lined her chest and her hip bones bulged from her sides. "Well," Derpy began, ready to explain her strabismus.
"Trixie is kidding," interrupted the unicorn, genuine happiness starting to replace the sullen surliness. "Trixie knows Tally is still the same jerk he's always been. Maybe he's just run out of ways to make Trixie's life a living hell, or maybe you're here to take Trixie's job. Either way, follow Trixie, she'll show you what she can." Without waiting for a response, the unicorn trotted past Derpy and towards another of the large doors in the small room. "This is the airlock," she explained, "Since you'll be our only Pegasus, your EBA suit will be housed here in one of the lockers." She stepped to the side wall and operated a latch, revealing a small locker containing a bulky fabric suit and a hard full helmet molded into the shape of a pony's head. This particular suit was obviously meant for a unicorn, as a pointy cone of some clear hard material sat atop the helmet.
"I wasn't given one of those," said Derpy, pointing at the suit.
"You wouldn't have," said Trixie as she closed the locker, "The asses in Selene would never send us a new suit, especially after sending a pegasus." She gave the wheel on the door a slight turn before releasing it. The whir of hidden motors took over and the door slowly opened on its own. "Watch your step," said Trixie, "the condensers are struggling to keep up lately, the floor can get a little wet."
Derpy looked down as she crossed the doorway. The floor, comprised of well worn scuffed iron tiles, was indeed wet with droplets of water, which also explained the layer of rust covering everything. The room was basically a large cube with four exits on each wall. At each corner, a spiral metal stairway led up to a metal walkway where one could look down at the raised platform at the center of the room. "This is the assembly hall," explained Trixie, "It really isn't used for much except when somepony wants to make themselves seem like they're a big shot." She muttered something under her breath at seeing a large collection of ponies gathered around a central dais. "Case in point." Trixie led Derpy around the perimeter of the room giving the excited assembly a wide berth.
"-and I'm telling you," said the unicorn stallion on the dais, "every apple, every carrot, every potato that goes down the well is one taken out of our collective mouth. It's the Earthbound that take our food. I'm sure their precious princesses just love to horde our food. It's all the rage on Equestria from what I hear. They take and take and take, and we get nothing in return. We don't need them. Why would her majesty bring us here if not to escape the abuses of her sister. Let us petition our princess to cease all shipments to the surface."
"What wouldja know about potatoes?" asked the Earth pony mare standing opposite him on the raised platform, "I grew enough of 'em in the hydro bays in one season to feed Selene for a year. They'd hafta fire the Slingshots non-stop just to get my taters down the well. I'm telling ya, despite our troubles in Sin, with all the stations, there ain't a reason any Loonie should be going to sleep on an empty stomach." Several of the ponies on one side of the platform agreed with loud grunts. "We send our food down the tubes, and what we get back ain't near enough. Somepony in Selene is living high off our hard work, and I say we keep what's ours. I ain't gonna say, who, but we all know Luna ain't exactly hard up for a good meal. No more quota shipments until we've got enough to feed us all for the week: That's what I say."
"Don't mind them," said Trixie as the rounded the first corner of the large open room. Shouts from above them drew both ponies' attention. A second crowd leaned over railings hooting and hollering at the two arguing ponies. "Some ponies would rather argue about problem than actually do something about it."
"Is it true?" asked Derpy, "about the food I mean?"
"We live on the freaking moon," said Trixie, "the fact that we're growing crops at all is a Celestial miracle. Sure, we may have a few lean meals here and there, but that doesn't mean we need to act like a bunch of foals fighting over the last cookie in the jar." She led Derpy to the door on the northern side of the room and motioned for the pegasus to walk ahead. "The infirmary is to the south," she said while stepping into the long rust covered hallway, "Security is to the east, don't make them angry. They don't answer to Trixie, and she can't help you if you get on their bad side."
"So Mr. Mark was wasn't exactly clear on what my job would be," said Derpy as their hoofsteps rang out in the cramped metal tunnel. "I get the impression that it's only something a pegasus could do."
Trixie stopped midway through the tunnel and held a hoof to a vent on the wall. "This is one of the air recyclers," said Trixie. She pointed her horn at the slotted vent and probed inside with her magic. "They're supposed to scrub the air clean and remove excess moisture." The pink glow around her horn winked out as she took a step backwards. The unicorn reared up and slammed a hoof against the wall just above the vent. The humming sound of an unseen machine coming back to life gave Trixie reason to briefly smile.
"I'm not really a handymare," said Derpy as she followed Trixie down the remaining half of the the tunnel.
"Trixie has a few capable technicians," said Trixie, "but that would be a waste of your abilities." She pressed the button on the next bulkhead and waited as it swung open. "This is why you're here," she said while stepping through the doorway and into a warm spring day in the countryside. Derpy followed and gawked at the landscape before her.
The small cramped tunnel she had just exited would have made her cozy cottage back in Equestria seem like a palace, but the scale of the room she entered was staggering. Her eyes were immediately drawn to the black sky above. Much like the Serenity Dome in Selene, Sin Station's dome was made of interlocking triangles of glass suspended in a metal frame. Derpy was no good at judging distances, but she figured that the top of the dome was around a thousand feet off the ground. Sunlight streamed through the clear glass and onto the most diverse farm she had ever seen. Directly to her left, she saw several peach trees, their boughs heavy with fruit, but as she followed Trixie down a path, acres of strawberry bushes thrived on the dark brown soil. These few examples of nature's bounty were overwhelmed by acres of dead and dying plants.
"Sin has a few functions," said Trixie, "food production is probably our most important." She pointed at a field of wilted corn stalks and continued. "Obviously, we're not doing so great at that, but Trixie won't take the blame! It's not Trixie's fault that magical weather control is not possible for such a limited area!"
"There aren't any clouds," said Derpy as she tried to recall what little experience she had with the weather patrol.
"That's what Trixie is saying!" said the miffed unicorn. "After Daybreeze was taken away, we had to improvise. At first, Trixie pulled everypony she could off of non-critical work to water the fields by hoof. It was inefficient, but missing our quota wasn't an option." She angled into a field of withered grape vines and kicked a heavy iron pipe full of small punctures. "One of Trixie's engineers scavenged what he could to make a few irrigation pipes to keep some of the more important crops going. The other technicians followed suit. Of course with all these ponies keeping the agridome viable, other tasks went undone."
"The air thingy back in the hallway?" asked Derpy.
"Exactly," said Trixie, "Without regular maintenance, the condensers failed, leaving water uncollected and pooling onto Trixie's once pristine floors." She kicked at a grey rock and sent it skittering across the well worn path they walked down. "Trixie doesn't mean to pressure you, but the sooner we can get you up there pushing clouds, the sooner Trixie can get workers fixing what needs fixing, and the sooner Trixie can get this place livable once again."
"I guess I can handle that," said Derpy. "It's what I was hoping for acutally." She walked beside Trixie in silence as they passed more depressingly sickly plants. A few minutes later, they had crossed the farmland and another bulkhead opened on the side of the dome. The more she had thought on it, the more she was bothered by what Trixie said had happened without a pegasus to help the ponies of Sin Station. "Why wouldn't the princess send help?" she asked after stepping into another long rust red hallway.
"Who knows what goes through the mind of a princess?" asked Trixie with a hint of anger in her voice. "She doesn't deign to speak with us poor farmers. Trixie sends her requests to any number of ponies like Tally Mark, but rarely gets more than a scolding for wasting their 'valuable' time." Derpy read the unicorn's increasingly sour mood and decided against telling her that had it not been for her condition, she wouldn't have been sent to Sin in the first place.
"We're heading underground now," said Trixie as they walked down a ramp, "Everypony's living quarters are down here, mostly in the dormitories. You, luckily, get your own room." As they moved down the wide descending hallway, Derpy saw several side passages which opened into large chambers with rows of bunk beds. Surly looking ponies, mostly large earth pony stallions with grey dust covering them mane to tail, passed the two of them and headed into a one of the barracks. Several muttered rather rude comments, obviously aimed at Trixie, and obviously meant to be heard.
"Second shift must be over in the mines," said Trixie, "yet another group Trixie had to take workers from to keep the dome alive. Trixie doesn't blame them for being angry. It's hard enough work when they're fully staffed. Trixie tries to explain that food is more important than ore, but then again, they have to make quota as well, and that means extra shifts." The floor eventually leveled out and Trixie pointed out a side passage labeled 'Weather Team.' She led Derpy into the smaller hallway and stopped at a rust pitted iron door. "This will be your space," she said while opening the door by manually turning an iron wheel.
Derpy followed her into a rather spartan room. With two ponies inside, it felt extremely cramped. There was a bed and a dresser, both made of dull grey metal, but thankfully free of rust. Her pegasi instincts cried out at the low ceiling and tight quarters, but Derpy just shrugged it off and placed her full saddle bags onto the bed. "The restroom is where?" she asked.
"Follow Trixie," said Trixie as she stepped back into the hallway. Trixie led Derpy one door down to a large room full of shower and toilet stalls. "Facilities here are generally communal by team," she explained, "but as Trixie is talking to the entire Weather Team, it's all yours." She waited in the hallway as Derpy examined her new environs. After a few minutes the pegasus emerged from her room. "Satisfied?" asked Trixie of the smiling mare.
"Very much so," replied Derpy, happy to have the weight of her panniers off of her back. "What's next?"
"Trixie has an ops meeting in a few minutes," said the unicorn, "the other team leads will want to be meeting their savior."
Flam Flash peered through his magnifying glass at the damaged magical diverter on the table. The corrosion on the contacts was likely just the symptom of a deeper problem with the unit, but still, it had to be thoroughly cleaned. He levitated a bottle of solvent along with a felt tipped probe and set to work clearing the rust from the two golden leads. The yammering voices surrounding him distracted the unicorn, causing his control of the tool to waver slightly. He paused and looked at the others from the corner of his eye.
"I don't think I've seen Trixie that happy in months," said Felina, "did she say anything to any of you?" The dark-grey coated unicorn mare's head barely peaked over the average sized table. Flam always admired the mare for not having developed a complex due to her petite stature. Their spheres of influence often overlapped, and Flam was glad for her consistently upbeat attitude, even if he couldn't share it.
"Nay," grunted Digger, "the &#$!ing sheila bounded about like a *&%^ing rabbit before running out the door." He took a deep drink from a battered canteen and belched loudly. "Maybe her precious @#$!ing princess is finally pulling her outta this hell hole." The bulky earth pony stallion would be considered by most to be a fat, loud-mouthed, drunk, and Flam would agree with the description. His brown coat, covered with flecks of grey and black rock, bulged out at the sides from his considerable bulk. He was, however, dependable when it mattered, and was as important as any other pony in the room. He also kept the mining corp from rioting, which was enough for Flam and many others to overlook his obvious flaws.
"Little chance of that," said Amber, "a few things can't be unsaid, and I think Trixie said 'em all." The turquoise colored earth pony mare was dirtier than usual, which was saying something when it came to Sin's head of Agriculture. Aside from these biweekly meetings, Flam's interactions with her were limited to begging the mare to keep her precious soil out of his machinery. Had he more time and resources, he'd have made some sort of clean room for the mare and her farm hands to disinfect after a day working the fields. Plans for a magelectrically charged sweeper to pull dust and a minimally water intensive spray to remove mud began forming in his mind.
"Trixie said what now?" asked Trixie as she entered into the relatively clutter free operations center.
Flam looked up briefly from his work as their nominal leader entered the well lit room. She exuded confidence, even when she looked as sorry as she did the last few months. They all had gone without, even Digger, but Trixie appeared to make going hungry into a competition. He cringed as Trixie dropped her slate on the display table he had spent months renovating and maintaining. He flared his horn and lifted the device along with Digger's dirty hooves and Amber's muddy sun hat off of his masterpiece, depositing each on the rust free floor. This room was his last line of defense against the chaos of dirt, dust, mud and rust outside.
"Trixie @#&!ing well said that Trixie would be here twenty !@#%ing minutes ago," said Digger. "I told my mates I'd be back in time for the shift change. @&!% me, but I'm gonna take !@#$ for being late."
Trixie rolled her eyes at the and waved towards the door behind her. "Trixie profusely apologizes, you fat cider-sack," growled the unicorn, "Did Trixie not say this would be important? Ms. Doo, come show this rock-brained idiot that you were worth the wait!"
Flam blew into the power inverter to remove a particularly large collection of dust, which he quickly surrounded in a magic aura. He reached down, pulled out a pair of tweezers and reached inside to grab a small pebble that didn't want to come loose. Satisfied that the obstructions were clear, he compressed the dirt and rocks into a small pebble and deposited it into a sealed wastebasket. Whoops and cheers from the other ponies in the room went unnoticed by the unicorn stallion as he examined the intricate magical circuits of the device which diverted power all over the moon. He fed a small spark of magic into the machine and watched for the small flash that would indicate a short. Sure enough, his sharp eyes picked out the fault. He reached into his tool-pouch for enough magiflux to solder the break.
"Flam!" shouted Trixie into his ear, "I would think you'd at least be as excited as Digger."
"Hmm?" asked the still focused Flam. He looked up and saw the grey-coated pegasus surrounded by the other three team leaders. "Oh, a new pegasus is it?"
"That's right!" exclaimed Trixie with a satisfied grin across her muzzle, "Trixie promised she'd get us somepony."
"What's wrong with her?" he asked.
"Nothing," said Trixie, "look at those strong wings. I'd say she's healthier than anypony in Sin."
"What's wrong with her eyes Trixie?" asked Flam as he set down the diverter and flipped his magnification monocle off of his right eye. He circled around the table and examined their last best hope to keep Sin Station operational.
Trixie followed him and for the first time looked the pegasus straight in the eyes. It had been a bad habit she carried from her days as a showpony. The audience was supposed to look at her in all her glory, not the other way around. But now, she wondered how she had missed the obvious ocular imperfection. She hadn't even noticed the exuberance of the others waning as she was talking to Flam.
Derpy felt the energy drain the room as quickly as it arrived and correctly diagnosed the cause. She recognized the look the others gave her as one that everypony did when noticing her eyes for the first time. Pity, mixed with apprehension and awkwardness dominated their faces. Trixie, however, saw her and simply collapsed in front of the table, her forehead resting on the smooth cool glass. Derpy pushed past the impossibly large earth pony and knelt beside the crestfallen unicorn. "I was going to tell you Ms. Lulamoon, honest."
Trixie responded by beginning to repetitively raise and drop her head on the display. "Luna damn you, Tally Mark," she said before turning back to the table and dropping her head onto its smooth glass surface once more.
"Lulamoon?" snorted Digger with a laugh. Amber's hoof jabbing the fat earth pony in the ribs shut him up.
Derpy reached out and held the mare's head with her forehooves. "I can do this," she said, "I promise you I can do this."
"That's what Daybreeze said," muttered Trixie before shaking loose from Derpy's grasp and grounding her head once more into the table.
Derpy woke with a start as the sound of hooves banging against a metal door echoed through her small room. She rolled to her haunches and noticed that her blanket was bunched up at the foot of her small bed. “Must have been some dream,” she thought to herself. Another round of knocks, this time louder, drew her attention to the door.
“Out ya come lass,” shouted a boisterous male voice, “I don't have all @&!#ing morning”
The high pitched beep that interrupted the stallion’s words shook Derpy fully awake. She groped along the right side of her bed until she found the small bedside table and the lamp that sat upon it. With a click the room was bathed in a harsh white light. The pegasus stretched out her wings as she hopped down from the bed and slowly fell to the floor. Smiling again at the novelty of Lunar gravity, she crossed the space between the bed and the door with two long bounds. She flipped the lock and twisted the small wheel attached to her side of the metal bulkhead before pulling it open.
“About bloody time,” said the porcine pony, “I was about to go ta Trixie and say ya chickened out.”
Derpy gave the odd earth pony a sidelong glance before turning and grabbing a small towel from the top of the dresser where she left it the night before. “I had a busy day yesterday,” said Derpy, “Give me a few minutes to freshen up and I’ll be right there. The same room as yesterday?”
“Oh no,” replied the stallion, “We don’t !%$ around in Sin darlin’. We’ll be in the dome: It’s time to work.”
Trixie looked up from her slate as Digger stepped back into the dome. She looked back down at the monotonous paperless paperwork as he waddled is way back towards her and the others. “Is she coming?” she asked when his hoofsteps stopped beside her.
“She’s &!%#ing awake,” he replied, “but with those $#@!ed up eyes of hers, she’s just as soon to trot down a mineshaft as make it here in one piece.”
Trixie put the finishing touches on the following week’s work schedule and angrily tapped a hoof against the glass to save and close the document. “She made it here from Selene,” she said, “Trixie thinks she can make it down the hallway.” She heard the stallion grunt and loudly drop to the ground on his haunches. “Flam, Felina,” she said, “Are you going to be ready for her?”
The two unicorns seemed to ignore her as they huddled around a mass of cloth and ceramic plates. "The left shin guard needs to be trimmed by another three quarters of a centimeter at the ankle," said Flam, "but I believe you've got the withers properly fitted."
Felina nodded and directed the small rotary tool in her magical grasp. It let out a high pitched whine as it began slicing through the bottom of the magically fused ceramic plate. White dust blew from the cutting tool and impacted on a shimmering green pane of magical glass. "Thank you Flammy," said Felina with a sheepish grin, "I always seem to forget that part." She continued shaving down the plate while the blushing stallion kept his shield between the petite mare and the onslaught of dust. "
Trixie rolled her eyes and looked out over the withering remains of the once verdant agridome. "Amber," she asked, "are you sure we can afford the water?"
"Not much of a choice at this point Trix," said the sturdy turquoise mare, "I figure we've got about a month left before the Lunar Authority decides to pay us a visit." She dug a hoof into the dry dirt at her hooves and pulled out the desiccated remains of a root system. She removed a bit of water from a small canteen and carefully dripped it onto the parched plant. She placed it back into the ground and covered it with dirt which she sparingly watered as well. In an impressive display, the subtle magical power that earth ponies possessed brought forth a small green shoot from the ground. "My folks don't need much to get things right again," she said, "just time. Like you said, we just need to free up some hooves to get Felina's ponies back to work and Digger's folks back in the mines."
"So we fail now rather than later?" said Trixie, "is that what you're saying?"
"Give her a chance Trixie," said Amber, "worst case, we end up with another pony to carry a bucket."
"You obviously lack Trixie's imagination," said Trixie, "Trixie can see many more worse outcomes." She looked back to her slate and the never ending list of menial tasks she had to take care of before she could crawl back into her bed. "It took DB three months to be of any use to anypony," she said, "this is pointless..." She trailed off as the pegasus mare stepped out of the hatch and into the wide open agridome.
"I'm sorry Ms. Lulamoon," said Derpy as she quickly trotted over in front of her, "I'm not quite used to waking up without the sun, but I promise it won't happen again." She ran a hoof through her unkempt mane and tried to puzzle out why the assembled team leaders began giggling and laughing out loud.
"Oh ho!" exclaimed Digger, "It's Ms. Lulamoon is it!" The rotund stallion slapped Trixie on the back and received a glare from the annoyed unicorn. "Beggin' your pardon mistress Lulamoon," he mocked in a formal accent, "but we're all awaiting your demonstration, mistress Lulamoon. I shan't be delayed from my day's endeavors much longer mistress Lulamoon."
Trixie's horn sparked to life as she lifted the bulky earth pony in her shimmering pink magical aura. "You," she said pointing to Derpy, "follow Trixie." She lifted Digger a few horselengths into the air before letting him slowly fall back to the ground with a soft thud. She stalked back towards the door leading to the living quarters and leaned against the dome wall, facing away from the gaggle of giggling ponies. Derpy tentatively stepped in front of the unicorn and dropped her head low to avoid her icy gaze.
"I swear I'll do better Ms. Lulamoon, I wanted to-" began Derpy before an azure blue hoof silenced her.
"You know Trixie," said Trixie, "you knew of Trixie before you arrived here."
Derpy shied away and gave a timid nod of her head. "Yes ma'am," she said, "is that a problem?"
"Where did you see Trixie?" asked the unicorn who already deduced the answer based on the pegasus' nervousness around her.
"Ponyville," replied Derpy.
Trixie sighed and placed a hoof to her forehead. "Which time?" she asked.
"All three," replied Derpy.
Trixie winced and dropped her hoof back to the ground. "Look," she said tiredly, "Trixie is trying to leave that part of her life behind her. Trixie did some things she wasn't proud of, and she apologized... to... ugh... Princess... Twilight Sparkle." She practically spat out the alicorn's title. "If Trixie did something to you personally, she profusely apologizes and will gladly make restitution in private," she said. "But Trixie must ask that you stop using her surname. Trixie is trying to make a new start, and if the wrong ponies were to hear that name, they may decide to learn more. They may discover the silly boastful unicorn... or worse."
"Okay," said Derpy, "but Twilight made sure that everypony in town knew that you weren't yourself and that you apologized to her."
"How very magnanimous of her," growled Trixie, "but it matters not. Trixie simply asks that you do your best and refrain from mentioning Trixie's surname and her past." She waited for Derpy's nod before turning back to the others. "Now," she said, "we need to get on with the task at hoof."
As they walked, side by side, back to the collection of team leaders, an argument reached their ears. "-can't leave it well enough alone. can you? It's like you have to be an ass," said Amber as she poured a bucket of water into a large opening in the wall.
"Hey," barked Digger, "My uncle's an ass. That's #@&!ing racist, that is!"
"You know how I meant it," replied Amber, "now please, would you grab a bucket and help me?" She pointed to the collection of water filled buckets. She saw Trixie and Derpy and smiled wide. "We're just about ready," she said, "just suit up and we'll start!"
Trixie nodded and walked by the bulky miner, slowly tracking him with her head and giving him an angry glare as she passed. She led the pegasus to the two unicorns still huddled over their work. "Flam," she said, "time's up, let's go. Ms. Doo needs to get ready."
The unicorn ignored Trixie and continued to stare at Felina as she ground away at the plating. Felina looked up at Trixie and Derpy and stopped supplying magic to her tool. "Flammy," she said while tapping on the stallion's shoulder, "I think you need to check on the generator."
"Hmm?" said Flam as he lowered his magical shield. He shook his head and snapped out of his reverie. "Oh, of course," he said, "Yes, I should. The heating coils could use another calibration."
Felina smiled as the stallion trotted to the wall where Amber was depositing another bucket and swung open a hidden panel. She turned back to see an impatient Trixie shaking her head in exasperation. She quickly lifted the mass of fabric and ceramic plating and passed it towards Derpy. "Flam has a good eye for detail, so it should fit well enough" she said as she pulled the zipper down the chest of the suit, "but let me know if it's too tight anywhere, or if one of the plates is pinching you."
Derpy saw that the item was clearly some sort of clothing. Taking it in her hooves, she was surprised at the lightness of it. She quickly found the rear leg holes and slipped her hooves into them one at a time. She pressed her head through the neck hole and then pulled the front sleeves over her forehooves. She yanked at the single heavy zipper running up the length of the suit and soon had it pulled all the way up to her neck. She turned her head and looked down her back at the twin holes where her wings poked out. They were padded with a velvety smooth fabric the likes of which Derpy had never felt before.
"Walk around a bit first," said Felina after receiving a nod from Trixie.
Derpy took a few careful steps along the ground. The bottom of the suits' hooves were reinforced with a flexible rubber which made her feel as if she were slightly too tall, but aside from that, it was almost like wearing a second skin. "It's so light," she said in surprise, "and comfortable. You'd think it would be hotter than this."
"Somepony at Hecate Station discovered this marvelous spider that produces this amazing silk when raised on the moon," said Felina, "it's incredibly light, and remarkably resistant to temperature extremes. It's been treated to be air tight as well." The petite unicorn reached into her panniers and produced a small headset complete with a microphone. "This will let you stay in contact with us while you're in flight," she said while slipping the earphones into place.
"Amber," shouted Trixie to the earth pony who was dumping one last bucket of water into the collector on the wall, "she's ready."
"Okay," said Amber after making sure everypony else was waiting by the edge of the dome, "I can't pretend to tell you how to fly, but I can tell you it won't be anything like flying in Equestria." She led Ditzy to a well cleared plot of land in between rows of drooping pomegranate trees. "Daybreeze, our previous weather stallion, took months to get to a point where he could handle his duties," she said. "He said it was like flying with too-large wings, while dizzy, and upside down."
The pegasus nodded and experimentally flapped her wings, lifting her a full meter off the ground. "I'll try my best," she said, "but I don't have months."
"Neither do we," replied Amber, "but let's see what you can do, and we'll go from there. We don't need you to be perfect, just good enough." She trotted back to the cluster of waiting ponies and spoke through her headset. "Alright, when you're ready, try to take off," said Amber as she tried to ignore the chattering ponies behind her. Trying to be the practical level-headed farmer among a trio of magically gifted unicorns and a particularly loathsome earth pony miner could be an exhausting job, but the chaotic alternative just couldn't be tolerated.
"A flask of my best apple brandy says she face plants into the #%@ing glass," said Digger.
"Based on the distinct lack of lunar rotation and the associated forces involved, I would wager her flight ends in the dirt over yonder," said Flam, pointing towards a patch of tangled squash bushes, "as for stakes, I would suggest a round of maintenance on your still."
"Shut up," said Amber while covering her mic with her hoof, "do you two not get that if she can't get the hang of this quickly, we're as good as done?" Digger glared back at her, but for once kept his mouth closed while Flam had enough of a conscience to at least look chastised. "Ms. Doo," said Amber into the headset, "we're all ready, just try and keep to this side of the dome."
"Alright," said Derpy as she hopped into the air, taking full advantage of the light gravity. At the apex of her jump, she gave her wings a heavy synchronized flap, propelling herself much higher than she had planned. She tried to correct her trajectory but soon found herself spinning head first through the air, two stories above the ground.
"Okay, keep calm," said Amber in a worried, but still reassuring tone, "remember, you'll fall slower, so you have plenty of time to level out." To her and everypony's surprise, the blond pegasus quickly reoriented herself into an awkward, but stable flight path. Each flap of her wings lifted her higher into the air, causing the mare to pull her wings back and slowly drop back down. It looked from the ground as if she was bouncing across the sky. Assuming that Ditzy's success was a momentary fluke, Amber kept herself from gleefully shouting into the microphone. "Good," she said, "now just try to turn back towards us." She choked back a gasp as the pegasus went into a dizzying series of barrel roles after trying a sharp bank.
"The glass!" shouted Digger, "aim for the @*%!ing glass!"
Amber ignored him and prepared to calm a panicky pegasus. To her surprise, all she heard from her earphones was a completely calm voice humming an unfamiliar song. From the ground, Amber couldn't see what she did, but the flying mare slowly arrested her roll and was again level. "Okay," she said, "now you're just showing off."
"This is fun!" said Ditzy, her voice muffled by the air rushing past her microphone.
"Take a few laps," said Amber, "we're going to try something a little more practical." She looked over her shoulder and held her hoof over her microphone. "Flam," she said, "give me something soft, but not too volatile." The stallion nodded and began manipulating a set of dials and levers inside the small hidden compartment in the wall. The clanking of pistons and grinding of gears could be heard from the concealed machinery behind the high dull grey wall that ringed the agridome. Amber watched nervously as tendrils of white vapor began rising from the top of the wall, where it slightly fogged the glass panels that made up the majority of the dome. She had been afraid to mention to Trixie the state of disuse she and Flam had found the cloud generators in. Her overly serious boss and friend had been despondent enough after the previous afternoon's roller coaster of hope and despair. A late, awkward night of watching Flam talk to himself while pulling out, cleaning, and replacing parts was worth it to see the large cumulus cloud that took shape above their heads.
"Woooooooooooooooooooooo!" shouted a rapidly approaching voice.
Amber looked up in time to see Ditzy's legs stretch out as she rammed herself into the fluffy cloud, disappearing into its white folds. A small "eep," escaped her lip before the pegasus' head poked out of the bottom of the cloud, her wall eyes sparkling in amusement as she pursed her lips and puffed out a small tuft of cloud.
"This has to be the softest cloud I've ever been in," said Ditzy wonderingly.
"The cloud density is significantly lower," said Flam, the only unphased pony on the ground. "Combined with your apparent proclivity to lunar flight, this should allow you to provide the agridome's necessary hydration unaided."
"I don't...I can't..." sputtered Amber as the pegasus pulled herself through the bottom of the cloud and floated to the ground, occasionally giving her wings a barely perceptible flutter to slow herself down. "You said you weren't that good a flyer!" she exclaimed while trotting over and throwing a hoof around Ditzy's withers, "what do you call that?!"
"I don't know!" exclaimed the pegasus who appeared as surprised as anypony, "sure, it's a bit awkward at first, but I kind of like it."
"Well color me surprised," said Amber, "Daybreeze spent his first month cussing and losing his lunch all over the south field. I still think that's why the strawberries never quite took off." A pink magical field lifted Amber's hoof from around Ditzy's neck. The farmer looked over at the serious faced unicorn as she approached.
"Well done Ditzy," said Trixie, "Trixie doesn't know how you can adapt so easily, but it matters not. Amber, keep working with her. Determine how soon Ms. Doo can start pushing water and report back to Trixie." She spun on the rest of her lieutenants and pointed a hoof at the door to the living quarters. "You three head to ops," she said in her most commanding tone, "Trixie needs your help getting the ponies of Sin back to work." Without a word and almost in unison Digger, Flam and Felina spun on their hooves and trotted back towards the long hallway that led down under the lunar surface.
"She's pretty focused huh?" asked Ditzy as she and Amber watched Trixie follow after the others.
"As long as I've known her Ms. Doo," said Amber.
"Please," said the pegasus, "all my friends call me Derpy."
"Derpy it is," said Amber, "It's just great to have somepony to work with again. Don't get me wrong, the field hooves do everything I ask of them, but I got so used to working with DB that being the sole head honcho in the dome has me a bit run down." She took a last glace at Trixie as she disappeared behind the thick rusting bulkhead and looked back towards Derpy. "So," she said, "Lulamoon, huh? Any other dirt about our mysterious unicorn leader?"
"Oh!" said Derpy, a little taken aback, "well that's what Mr. Mark called her when he assigned me. Honestly, I don't know anything else about her."
Amber got the feeling that the pegasus knew more than she was letting on, but decided to let it go. "Probably doesn't wan't to alienate anypony." she thought to herself. She looked over the pitiful remains of her once verdant garden and decided it probably wasn't worth worrying about what one pony knew about another. "Okay," she said to Derpy, "let's see if you can move as well with a cloud as you do on your own."
Derpy smiled and pitched her wings up and down in anticipation. "I think you'll find that moving cargo is a specialty of mine." Amber covered her muzzle with a hoof as the pegasus leaped into the air, stirring up a cloud of the fine dust that was once fertile loam. It only took her a few minutes before she had discarded any worries and doubts and was running after the pegasus as she soared in the perpetually black skies of the agridome.
"Trixie thinks you should focus on the water reclamation systems for the time being," said Trixie, pointing at the projected display of pipes and pumps on the table in front of her, "Sin is in little danger of losing oxygen, but water is still at a premium." She looked across at the unicorn stallion as he stroked his mustache for the hundred and seventh time since they had begun their marathon planning session. If she had an ounce more magical energy left in her reserves she'd have grabbed it with her pink aura and-
"The systems are too integrated Trixie," said Felina, "We might as well do both at the same time." The diminutive mare tapped her slate and the large display on the table shifted to show the long list of names they had been building for the last few hours. "If you give us enough hooves to scrub the corrosion out of the condensers, we can have the work done in three weeks tops." She looked warily at Digger who sat directly across the table from her. "I don't see any way around it," she said, "we need the miners to meet us after their shift. It's as easy as running a brush through a pipe; I'm sure they can handle it."
"I'm so glad you think my idiot #@%!ing morons can handle your miracles of modern magic," said Digger, "but Celestia damn it mare, my lads and lasses are near the breaking point as it is, and you have no idea what the LA will do to us if we miss another ore quota.."
"The same thing they'll do to Amber's workers if we miss a produce quota," interrupted Trixie, "at least with Flam and Felina's plan we end up with a chance at more food and cleaner air."
"Trixie," said Digger in an exasperated tone, "you remember what they did the last time..."
Trixie looked away from the large Earth pony's gaze and nodded. "Trixie still hasn't given up on him Digger," she said, "but she accepts your point." She dragged her hoof along the virtual keyboard in front of her. A large number of the names changed color from silver to red. Digger nodded in satisfaction.
"It will be close," said Flam, "very little room for error."
Felina reached behind the stallion and rubbed his back gently. "It's fair in a way," she said tiredly. Flam nodded and idly ran his hoof over his slate.
"None of this is fair," he said with a sigh. The four ponies each nodded in silence.
Trixie placed her slate in the small slot in the tabletop in front of her. She waited as the list in front of them seemed to be sucked into the device. "Trixie will make an announcement tomorrow morning," she said, "do what you can with your crews to assure them. Remind them that this is for the good of everypony."
"They know," said Flam, "but that won't stop the complaining."
Before Trixie could respond Amber threw the door open and strode in. The mare was covered mane to tail in a thin layer of dirt, but looked ecstatic nonetheless. She reached into the threadbare panniers on her back and produced a thick glass bottle of dark red liquid. "I knew I was right to save this," she said happily before producing several fluted wine glasses, "the finest selection from my family's vineyards." She pushed the magnum towards Felina and smiled as she gave the flabbergasted unicorn a happy nod.
"Trixie takes it the training went well?" asked Trixie with a raised eyebrow.
"Training?" asked Amber jovially, "that mare is twice the flyer Daybreeze was." She looked at the wincing unicorn and immediately lost her smile. "Sisters, I'm sorry Trixie," said Amber. She looked down at the floor and kicked her hoof at a patch of rust. "I'm just so excited for everypony."
"Trixie understands," said the unicorn, "It is good news. How soon until she can start watering the fields?"
"An hour ago," said Amber, her enthusiasm returning with a vengeance. "Trixie, she just saved the cucumbers and eggplants. I haven't checked a few other sectors, but the entire northeast quarter of the dome got a nice downpour." Amber stepped up to the table and manipulated it with the tip of her free hoof. A diagram of the agridome with labels for all of the crops was displayed on its surface. She identified the sectors that Ditzy managed to cover in their few hours of work. "Give us a couple of weeks and we'll meet quota. Give us a month and we'll have enough for a feast in the assembly hall," said Amber proudly.
"Where is our savior then?" asked Felina, who had momentarily broken her staring contest with the bottle of aged wine, "I feel as if we all owe her an apology after our doubts yesterday."
"She worked up quite the lather up there," said Amber, "and got a bit drenched working some of the rain out of that cloud. She'll be here soon though; I assured her that no pony can resist the Waves family wines, especially not a fifty year old vintage. Felina, get with the pourin'." The pint-sized unicorn again snapped out of her trance and, with the utmost care, embraced the large bottle with a dusky blue aura. The cork liberated itself from the neck of the glass container with a short *pop* and the heady aroma of fine aged wine soon wafted to the nostrils of the assembled group of ponies. With all the care of a mother cradling her foals, Felina poured a modest amount of the beverage into each glass, making sure not to spill a single drop. "Let it breathe," said Amber as Felina levitated the glasses in front of each of them, "while we wait for Derpy, tell me what ya'll have come up with."
"Derpy?" asked Digger in confusion, "What kind of &!$#ing name is that?"
"Her name," said Amber testily, "or the name she prefers. Or wouldja prefer we all go by our given names? Wouldja like that 'Digger'?"
"Derpy it is!" said Digger excitedly, "a right perfect name!" He nervously looked around the table, his flop sweat apparent to all.
Trixie rolled her eyes and looked at her slate. "Trixie hates to ruin your good mood, but it's only fair that the majority of the burden for the next month fall on the agricultural crew," she said, "A few miners will help Felina's unicorns clean the condensers, but, well, after the last... incident ...we all decided it was only fair to expose a different group to the consequences of a missed quota."
Amber Waves wrinkled her nose, pulled her hoof over her muzzle and down across her chin. "Fine," she said, nodding to Digger, "Fair's fair, but I don't intend to give the LA a reason to come down on us." The door to the ops room opened and the grey coated pegasus stepped in, a towel draped around her neck. Trixie hadn't noticed before, but the pegasus mare's gait was far more natural than any other newly arrived pony. The awkward bouncing that characterized new arrivals was replaced with an almost graceful saunter that took most many months to achieve. "Here's the mare of the hour," exclaimed Amber, "I was just telling these negative nags that you single hoofedly saved our hides. Here Derpy, you, above all, deserve this." She carefully pushed the glass of wine across the table to the empty place formerly occupied by Daybreeze.
Trixie fumed silently as the pegasus timidly took her place and lifted the wineglass in her hoof. "I don't know if really warrant all this attention," she said, "but I'll do whatever I can for you all in the time I'm here." She raised the cup into the air and then lowered it back to her muzzle before taking a sip. The rest of the team leaders took a pull from their glasses.
"Phew!" said Digger as he drained his serving in a single gulp, "Amber, I take back anything bad I ever said about ya. Any pony who makes spirits so divine is alright in my book."
"Why thankya, Peashoot!" said Amber as she sipped from her glass, "maybe I'll share some of our family secrets if you can keep your temper under wraps for longer than a few minutes." The mention of the stallion's given name caused his eyes to quiver, but he maintained a rein on his anger. He laughed out loud and pushed his glass back towards Felina. Amber smiled and looked back at Derpy. "So Derpy was tellin' me that she signed up to make some bits for her daughter back down the well."
Derpy smiled and set her glass down. "Dinky," she said proudly. "She's going to Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns."
Trixie raised her brow and nodded appreciatively. "Not a small achievement," she said, a wistful smile across her muzzle, "and not cheap either." Old feelings of regret and resentment threatened to bubble up from where she had buried them, but Trixie reminded herself that there were far more recent grievances to be concerned about.
Derpy nodded in commiseration and sighed. "To be honest," she said, "I had no chance of paying for tuition had the recruiters not accepted me. Ten thousand bits for a season's work! It's as if the sister's blessed me themselves!"
Trixie winced and the festive atmosphere took a sudden turn for the gloomy. Digger, Felina, Flam and Trixe each looked at each other nervously. Trixie placed a hoof to her forehead and rubbed the base of her horn. "Ms. Doo," she said cautiously, "how long do you think you'll be here?"
Derpy furrowed her brow and looked around the table apprehensively. "Well," she said, "three months, give or take a few weeks." She observed the flinches around the display and waved her hooves. "I know it depends on the exact arrival of the next season, but that's okay."
"Derpy," said Amber, "Lunar seasons are different. We're just into our second summer. Lunar seasons last as long as Princess Luna decrees."
"What?" asked the flabbergasted pegasus, "but, the seasons... how... why?
Trixie waved a hoof to cut off Amber and continued. "You've been caught in a common trap," she said, "one it seems every other new pegasus is caught in." She swiped a hoof over the display bringing up a diagram of the moon moving in orbit around the Earth. "You see," she said pointing at the grey rock they inhabited, "we are tidally locked to the Earth. There is only a negligible axis tilt; no deviation in the path we take. There is no climate to dictate the beginning or end of a season. The amount of sun and earthlight we receive fluctuates during the month, but remains constant. The season is as long as we... as Luna determines it to be. There is no winter; Autumns are very brief; Summers and Springs are extremely long."
Derpy looked in panicked confusion at the table surface and back at Trixie. "That can't be right," she said, "How long is this summer supposed to last?"
Trixie looked to Flam and shrugged. "Two year based on my estimates," said Flam, "my brother had other ideas, but we disagreed on the exact parameters of her highness's decisions. Average soil depletion and fixed nitrogen levels informed my calculations, market forces and price per volume, his." He sipped his wine as if nothing had happened. "I estimate that this will be a twenty seven Equestrian Month summer."
Trixie saw the look of hopelessness that flashed across their new colleague's muzzle and glanced over at Amber. Imperceptible movements conveyed meaning as the two conversed inaudibly. "It's still a handsome sum for that amount of time," said Amber, who reached over and patted the pegasus between the wings, "and you can help so many of us in the meanwhile."
"I can't be away from my muffin for that long!" exclaimed Derpy.
"The contracts are bloody ironclad," said Digger, "I heard of a pegasus stallion at Artemis who tried to break contract and was jailed below Serenity for a year." He downed another glass of wine and pushed his glass back across the table. "Didn't get paid of course."
Amber flashed an irritated glare at Digger and hugged the stunned pegasus. "Don't worry about the bits," she said, "the Lunar Authority is as good as its word. Your gal will get the bits if that's what needs to happen." She slid the glass back towards the pegasus' hoof and pushed it into her grasp. "There's no point getting upset," said the earth pony, "we'll do what we can to make you comfortable, but all you can do at this point is send word to your family and wait for your trip back down the well. I'm sure Trixie can fill out the necessary forms for you." Trixie nodded numbly while staring at the wall blankly and took a small sip from her own glass.
Derpy numbly raised the glass to her lips and took a deep gulp. What should have been an explosion of flavor on her palate might as well had been stale tap water. She stared at the still rotating virtual model of the moon as it made another circuit around the Earth.
"What's with the beeping?!" asked Derpy, her words slurred to the point where the earth pony almost asked her to repeat herself.
"Oh, the !&#%ing beeps?" said the earth pony stallion before barking in laughter. "You can thank Trixie for that! I know I might use a few naughty words now and then, but ol' Trix thought it was 'unbecoming' a pony of my position, so she used that weird Unicorn magic to curse me."
"Curse?" asked Derpy as she shied away from the stallion.
"Yeah!" he said almost proudly, "every time I swear, her magic drowns it out with a beep and gives me a nice little jolt!" He inhaled deeply and stared defiantly at Trixie. "&#!@ #@! @#% #@%@ing mother #@#$er!" His head shook almost imperceptibly as the torrent of short, high pitched tones ensued. "Better than a shot of Ida's best vodka!" he said happily, "Thanks Ms. %$#@!&*^!" As the last long beep left his muzzle, his mocking grin slid into an angry scowl. "It's still up here, ya witch!" shouted the rotund stallion as he rapped his hoof against his head. Derpy laughed at the toothy, cheshire grin the unicorn returned.
"So how long does everypony have left?" asked Derpy.
Digger looked at her askew. "Well," he said, "we're all lifers here, for various reasons." He snuck a sip from his ever present flask and exhaled sharply. "I wager I've smashed rock in just about every mine in Equestria," he said, a hint of pride in his voice. "Gold, silver, iron, copper, even crystal: I've pulled it all outta the ground. So I got a wee bit hostile with the big shots; it's not as if I #@!$ing hit 'em; not that hard anyway." He chuckled and smiled at the pegasus. "So I came up here, where I get to be the boss. I was doing pretty good at Artemis Station: No missed quotas, no accidents worth mentioning. I have no &@!%ing idea why they sent me to Sin."
He pointed at Amber, who was busy explaining something to Trixie at the far corner of the room. "Amber's been at Sin longer than any of us. I think she was sent here straight off the boat, back in the good old days," he said. "Says she's the youngest of twelve brothers and sisters." He laughed and pounded the glass tabletop with his hoof. "Imagine that," he guffawed, "being so low on the pecking order that you have to go to the #@%ing moon to show off your skills."
Digger nodded towards the small unicorn mare who sat alone. Felina's eyes were closed but the serene smile plastered to her muzzle and the wineglass held under her nose in her magical aura indicated that she was awake. "Felina Scass... Sass... $%@, I forget her last name, but she's one of our newer additions," he said, "she doesn't talk about what she did down the well, but I figure she must've been some Canterlot big shot: Always so polite; so proper; and she has some right pretty dresses."
He nodded at the other stallion in the room. "Flam Flash," he said warily, "he's been through just about every #$!&ing station. Word has it he was here before Serenity had its dome. His brother's still there, of course."
"Brother?" asked Derpy as she looked at the unicorn stallion. He had spent the last hour slowly taking apart some unknown device. He seemed familiar to her, but she just couldn't place the stallion's face.
"Flim Flash," said Digger, "Richest &#@!er on the moon. You rode one of his Zoom Tubes to get here. You have one of his slates. #!@%, most of the food you saved today is headed to his processing plant in Serenity." He looked back at Flam who was staring through a monocle at a small circuit board. "I guess smarts don't run in the family," he said before reconsidering his words, "I take it back, Flam's plenty smart if he's got a do-dad to fiddle with. Nopony else has managed to keep my mess of a still running as well as he has."
Digger turned an icy stare at Trixie and dropped his voice so only Derpy could hear. "That one's been here since the beginning," he said in a half awed, half annoyed tone. "If you've been here long enough, and kept your ear to the ground, you've heard the rumors." Digger glanced at Derpy who looked back with curious eyes. "Look," he said cautiously, "you didn't hear it from me, but she was in the first group that Princess Luna brought here, which is weird, because according to the official histories, Luna came with only a few personal guards and enough materials to build the first shelters."
"Wow," muttered Derpy, "what does she say about it?"
"Nothing of course," replied Digger, "but what you should ask is that if it's true, why is she here now?"
"What do you mean?" asked Derpy.
"C'mon love," said Digger, "you came through the port. You saw the Serenity Dome. How does Sin compare?" Derpy's silence answered the question for him. "You don't end up at Sin unless you've pissed off the wrong #@!%ing pony." Digger leaned in even closer and whispered behind a hoof. "We all know she was mighty chummy with the Princess," he said, "and Amber says they had some massive &!@$ing row. That's what got ol' Trixie sent here." The wall-eyed mare looked to the floor and sighed. "You get it now," said Digger, "welcome to the Station of the Damned."
Derpy looked down drowsily at the small bowl of dry toasted oats that sat in front of her. She looked across the table at Digger as he sank his muzzle directly into the meager offerings. To her left and right sat dozens of unfamiliar ponies starting out a new day on the moon as if it were just another day. "How long until I find this to be a normal way to start the day," she thought to herself before glumly remembering the shock of the previous afternoon. "I guess I'll be here long enough for it to happen to me too." She ate a spoonful of the paltry breakfast and washed it down with a small sip of the carefully measured cup of water she was allotted. The oats were so lightly honeyed, they may as well have been plain, and the water tasted of the rust that permeated everything in the station.
"Here," said Digger as he reached across the table. He tipped his flask on his side and poured a shot of weak apple brandy into her bowl. "It helps," he said with a grin as Derpy stirred the liquor into her oats, "if only to add some #$@!ing flavor."
Derpy nodded in thanks and continued eating. The stallion had been waiting at her door when she woke, and offered to escort her to the assembly hall, which doubled as the mess hall. Rows of long benches and tables lined the floor of the large open room. By the time she and Digger had arrived, they were completely full of ponies in various stages of eating. Several chatted among themselves, their meals finished, but made no effort to leave. A few of the burlier stallions and mares sat around them. Digger introduced them as fellow miners. Each had the heavy muscles of ponies who spent their days slamming their hooves against rock. Several could give her pal Bulk Biceps a run for his money, Derpy observed.
"So what's the plan for today chief?" asked a sandy coated mare.
"Good news for once Tawny," replied Digger, "but I'll wait until Trixie has her say. Say, is Land Slide still hobbled?"
"He was still limping pretty heavily yesterday," said Tawny, "I was gonna leave him on crushing duty and exempt him from any extra shifts." Digger nodded and tapped on his slate.
"Attention everypony," said Trixie from the raised dais at the center of the room, "We have a few announcements before the day begins." Derpy and the ponies on the benches facing away from the unicorn turned around and looked up at her. "Trixie is happy to report that Sin Station finally has Weather Pony again!" she said with genuine excitement. A roaring cheer echoed through the crowd as half the ponies erupted from their seats and jumped up and down in excitement. "Settle down, settle down," said the Unicorn, "Trixie understands your excitement, but there is much to do before we can truly celebrate." Trixie placed a hoof over her eye brow to shade her eyes from the bright fluorescent lights that lined the walls and swept her gaze across the crowd. She zeroed in on Derpy and waved her up.
The pegasus meekly stood and walked down the narrow aisles. As she passed, the ponies of Sin stomped their hooves in applause while others patted her on the back. Navigating the maze of long benches and tables to the dais proved difficult, and assisted by the increasingly loud chant of, "Fly. Fly. Fly. Fly," she spread her wings and carefully flapped her way to the raised platform. Landing next to Trixie, she timidly waved to the ecstatic throng.
"All right, all right," said Trixie motioning a hoof up and down, "Trixie knows everypony is excited to see Ms. Doo fly, but we must be realistic. We have even more to do, now that she is here." The remaining applause died out, and grumbles began to waft from the crowd. Derpy watched from the raised platform as Digger barked out a few choice oaths at several of the malcontents, or she imagined he did: The loud beeps cut through the crowd noise with ease. Across the room, Amber moved between the narrow aisle between benches and calmly talked down groups of angry ponies. "Trixie has a new duty schedule for the next week," she said, "your team leaders will have the specifics, but Trixie has decided that all miners attached to the agridome will return to the mines at Digger's discretion." The porcine stallion nodded in satisfaction as several of his workers excitedly clapped him on the back.
"How are we supposed to meet quota?" shouted an earth pony behind the two standing on the dais. Trixie turned to see a wall of angry faces.
"That's what I'm here for," shouted Derpy, sensing the hostility emanating from what she assumed were the bulk of the agricultural workers. "Trixie and Amber showed me what I need to do, and I'm confident that I can handle most of the watering myself." Doubtful faces looked back at her, but nopony gave voice to their skepticism.
"Amber Waves herself will testify to Ms. Doo's abilities," said Trixie, "and Trixie is sure a few of you saw the fruit of her first flight on your walk from the habitation wing." She saw the nods and pressed her case. "As for making quota," she said, "Trixie believes that with fewer of you breaking your backs hauling buckets of water, and instead tending to and aiding in the growth of the crops, making quota will be easier than it has been in months."
"And what about us?" shouted a unicorn mare, "can we finally get back to keeping this place from rusting from the inside out?"
"Head Engineer Flash and Maintenance Chief Scassinatore will select a team to begin retrofitting and repairing key systems," said Trixie, "but we will need most of the maintenance crew to continue their work in the agridome." Magically propelled lumpy oatmeal splattered against Trixie's hastily conjured translucent pink shield. "It's only until Ms. Doo can get up to speed," she said.
"And it's only fair!" bellowed Digger, "how much did missing the ore quota cost you brainiacs?"
"Again," said Trixie, "It's not for long. Trixie believes that-" She was interrupted by the cacophony of high pitched tones from all around the room. Derpy's head whipped around as the beeps silenced the crowds. "Not now..." she heard Trixie mutter. With a resigned sigh, the unicorn reached into her small saddle pouch and removed her slate. Derpy looked around the room as most, if not all of the assembled crowd produced their devices. With an embarrassed grin, she sidled next to Trixie and looked over the mare's shoulder at the flickering screen.
The Princess of the Night looked exactly Derpy remembered, which, of course, was to be expected of an immortal being. She had seen the princess a few times in the past: Her Nightmare Night appearances in Ponyville had become a regular treat for everypony in town, even more than the candy that had dominated the holiday prior to her return. She sat upon a throne of polished silver with royal purple throw cushions. It was set in an empty room with walls of glass and a floor of the blackest stone Derpy had ever seen. Behind her stretched an endless expanse of grey below a star pocked sky.
"Good morning, faithful ponies of the moon," she said happily, "It has been weeks since we have last spoken with all of you, and for this we apologize, but rest assured, we have not been idle."
Trixie snorted in derision, but remained fixated on the slate. "That's what Trixie worries about," muttered the unicorn.
"In the coming months, we have many grand undertakings planned," proclaimed Luna. She stood and gracefully dipped her head. A magical apparition appeared behind her in unison with the dark blue glow around her horn. It depicted ponies engaged in various athletic activities under a black sky. Spectral earth ponies sprinted around a red clay track while pegasi soared above in an aerial track marked off with clouds. Groups of unicorns hurled javelins across the ground track's infield using their magic. "We shall hold our very own Lunar Games to celebrate the newfound athletic and magical prowess of our most skilled citizens," she said proudly. "Every station shall pull together their champions and send them to Selene to test their mettle in a grand competition for the ages!"
"She has got to be kidding," said Trixie as an angry scowl on her muzzle deepened by the second.
"Of course, to bring such a momentous dream to life, we must work even harder," said Luna as she let the magical simulacrum disappear. "We have a stadium to erect; Zoom Tubes to build; and guests to welcome to our fair realm. The Lunar Authority informs me that ore quotas will need to be increased by twenty percent, and food quotas by twenty five." The collective gasp from around the assembly hall was immediately silenced when the princess continued. "In addition," she said, "Each station will need to produce an extra ten gigajewels of magical energy over the course of the month."
"Of course we do," spat Trixie, "how else could we power all these useless facilities."
"As always, our most pressing need is your steadfast unity," said Luna, "for only, together, in harmony, can we achieve that which others say is impossible. While those who try to dissuade us wallow in their comfortable status quo, we reach to the heavens and say, 'No! We want more!'" The princess raised a black lacquered boot into the air. "Fear not my little ponies," she said determinedly, "We and our champions shall not let them stop us. They know who they are, and they shall not succeed in their plans to diminish our glory."
The field of pink energy levitating the slate began to flicker. Derpy looked at Trixie in time to see the mare's eyes roll back into her head. As the slate crashed the floor and shattered, Derpy wrapped her hooves around Trixie in time to keep her from falling off the edge of the platform. From the remaining slates all around the room, Derpy could hear the Princess continue in a stern and regal tone. "We will show them," she said, "we will show them the power of Lunar Harmony." For the shortest of moments, the only thing that could be heard was the steady thrum of air circulating from the vents. Then came the shouting.
"Quick," said Amber, pointing at Trixie's bed, "put her here."
The dash across the agridome was quick enough, and Digger seemed unencumbered by the unconscious unicorn draped across his back. Derpy, who had flown ahead and opened the doors leading down into the living quarters, leaned over the bed in the cramped bedroom. "Shouldn't we take her to the infirmary?" she asked for the seventh time, "I know she mentioned an infirmary."
"Are you a &@#$ing doctor now too?" asked Digger, "because that would just be #@%!ing amazing!"
"Sin hasn't had a doctor in years," explained Amber as she pulled a threadbare, star embroidered, blanket over Trixie. The farm pony placed an ear to the unicorn's chest and flipped up her eyelids. "She's just exhausted," said Amber, "I've seen this in enough of my farmhooves to know it when I see it." She turned around and stepped out into the hallway. "Digger, I need you to help me bring some food and water in," she said, "I doubt she's eaten in days. Derpy, please stay with her, we'll be right back." The stallion nodded and followed without complaint.
Unsure of what to do, Derpy closed the door and looked around the unicorn's room. Compared to her unadorned, spartan, module, Trixie had apparently filled hers with every manner of ornamentation and curio. Show posters depicting the daring exploits of "The Great and Powerful Trixie" papered the walls. She walked around the bed to the shelves fastened to the wall, their surfaces crowded with framed pictures. Derpy picked up one at the end and examined it. Trixie stood on her rear hooves, her forelegs thrown over the withers of two stern looking Bat ponies wearing purple lacquered armor. The unicorn smiled and winked at the camera. Behind the three stood Luna, her hoof held up to her muzzle, as if trying to hold back a laugh. Derpy placed the frame back on the shelf and turned back to check on the unconscious mare.
Seeing her chest move up and down beneath the blanket, Derpy continued nervously pacing around the room. By the door hung two familiar items from hooks drilled into the wall. Derpy, deciding she'd never have another chance, picked up the hat and cloak and swiftly donned them. She stepped in front of a nearly ceiling high standing mirror in the corner and held the corner of the cape across her muzzle so only her eyes peaked out. "Behold, the Great and Powerful Ditzy!" she said before making faux crowd noises and throwing the cape behind her.
"Put those back," came a weak voice from the bed, "purple is not your color."
"Trixie!" said Derpy. She blushed and quickly hung the costume back up on the wall. "How are you feeling? Are you hungry? Thirsty? Digger and Amber are getting food and water right now! Is there anything I can do?!"
"Just try and keep your voice down," said Trixie, "Trixie's head is ringing. What happened?"
"You fainted after Princess Luna's announcements," replied Derpy, "Everypony was going a little crazy, so Amber had us bring you back to your room." She saw the worry build up in the unicorn's eyes and held her hoof against her chest to keep her in bed. "Don't worry," she said, "Flam and Felina are keeping everypony calm for the time being."
"The best laid plans go to waste," sighed Trixie. She ran a hoof down the side of her face and chuckled mirthlessly. "Trixie doesn't think she's ever had the right moment to say that until now."
"Trixie," asked Derpy, "what's happened here? It's not like the posters and movies back home."
"Movies, huh?" asked Trixie, "Trixie supposes Princess Luna was in these movies?" Derpy nodded, eliciting a snort of laughter from Trixie. "That was Trixie's idea you know," she said. "We had trouble convincing the first settlers to come up. Luna didn't trust the camera: She said it was 'a foalish imitation of illusion magic.' Trixie supposes she's gotten over that."
"They said you came here with the Princess," said Derpy, "that you had some sort of argument."
Trixie dropped her head back onto her pillow and stared at the ceiling. "It wasn't supposed to be like this," she said flatly, "and that's what Trixie told Luna." Derpy thought she saw anger slide across the unicorn's face, but stayed silent. "Tell Trixie, Ms. Doo," asked Trixie, "do you remember when Twilight Sparkle and her friends tricked Trixie into abandoning the Alicorn Amulet?"
"Yes," said Derpy, "most of Ponyville was there: You kind of made us watch."
"Well, Trixie had to have an audience," said Trixie, "it's not every day that one gets to humiliate their rival. Plus, the amulet makes a pony do crazy things." She rolled over onto her side and slowly pushed herself up to a sitting position, her rear legs hanging off the edge of the bed. "Trixie really did change after that," she said, "sure, Trixie was always the greatest and most powerful unicorn to grace Equestria with her presence, but for all that, she was still thoroughly humbled by a few mares in a backwater town." She hung her head and let her long silvery hair hang down over her face. "Trixie wandered around," she said, "she tried to be nice; she tried to find friends, but it's not as easy as Sparkle makes it seem. Trixie was close to giving up on the whole endeavor, but that's when she found her greatest friend and mentor."
"Princess Luna?" asked Derpy. Her gaze momentarily flashed back to the framed picture on the shelf.
Trixie nodded and used a hoof to push aside her hair. "She helped Trixie realize something about herself, and everypony else," said Trixie, "about what really matters, and what Trixie really wants. At that point Trixie truly feels that she began to understand Sparkle's Magic of Friendship. So, Trixie followed the Princess here; she made her friends dreams her own, and it was... wonderful." The wistful smile on her muzzle quickly disappeared behind the stern mask that Derpy had fixed in her mind as the 'default Trixie.' "So, tell Trixie, Ms. Doo," she said, "what does one do when somepony throws that friendship back in one's face?"
Derpy awkwardly shifted on her hooves before she realized that the unicorn wasn't asking rhetorically. She stammered for a few moments before the door to the room opened. In spilled Amber, Digger, Felina, and Flam, each bearing buckets, blankets, and food. "Get your rear back in that bed!" shouted Amber. She tossed a bunch of slightly wilted celery onto the nightstand and forced Trixie back under her blanket. "We need to sort some things out," she said, "but you're not leaving this room until we're all certain you've had some rest and a decent meal."
Trixie furrowed her brow, but found she didn't have the strength to sit back up, let alone shake free of the sturdy earth pony mare's grasp. "Fine," she said grumpily, "but Trixie wants to know what's happening out there."
"Here," said Amber, tearing off a stalk of celery and pushing it towards Trixie's face, "you eat; we'll talk." The unicorn snatched the produce out of Amber's hoof and took a quick bite. "Good," said Amber as she sat on the edge of the bed, "Now, Flam and Felina talked down most of the crowd, but there were some ruffled feathers, if Derpy would pardon the expression."
"It was all Madame Scassinatore's doing," said Flam, "a few well aimed smiles and platitudes, and most everypony was on their way to their assigned duties."
"Flam exaggerates," said Felina, "nopony ever wants to yell at a mare of my stature, but he's right, everything is relatively calm for the time being. The security door remained closed..." She placed a bucket of water on the floor and filled a dented tin cup . She passed it to Amber and sat at the foot of the bed. "We need to figure out how to meet these new quotas."
"This is more than just a simple quota," said Amber as she forced the cup into Trixie's hooves, "this is like demanding a pound of flesh."
"What if we start food rationing?" asked Trixie.
"And we all end up like you," growled Digger, "ya can't buck ore on an empty stomach Trix." He leaned against the door frame and took a bite of a sickly carrot. "We might get lucky," he said with his mouth full, "maybe. We might hit a vein of Chlorargyrite; we might be able to buck it out in time to meet quota. That's a lot of #@%$ing mights and maybes."
"How about I give you a definite 'cannot'," said Flam. "We cannot produce an additional ten gigajewels. It's a magical impossibility with the unicorns we have now." He sniffed at the air and looked at Trixie with a raised eyebrow. The mare rolled her eyes and grunted as the stallion moved the large stand mirror out of the corner with his green magical aura. "Ah," he said, "the true culprit of our mare's sorry state."
Derpy looked over Flam's shoulder at the dull opaque globe set on a small spire. She took a step back as he flared his own magic and dipped his head at the orb. Sparkling green motes of magic leached from his horn and began swirling into the surface of the sphere. "Yeouch," he hissed, "and you've got the gradient set extremely high." He lifted his head back up and released his magic. "I don't think Felina or I need to tell you how dangerous it is to abuse a collector," he said, "so I will simply ask why you felt a need to drain yourself in this manner."
"We were within a half of a megajewel of coming short last month," said Trixie, "Trixie has been fudging the collection totals so the workers could better assist Amber with the agridome. Trixie is strong enough to make up any shortfall."
"Clearly," said Felina sarcastically. The tiny mare hopped off the side of the bed and squeezed herself into the corner behind the collector device. Derpy heard a click and Felina reappeared with the end of a cable half a hoof thick. "This is going back into inventory," she said, "and I will be handling collector totals for the time being."
Trixie waved her hoof dismissively. "It doesn't matter," she said, "Flam is right. Even if we strapped every unicorn in Sin next to a collector and ran them to their very limits, we would still fall short. We need someway to lower the amount of magic we use." She slipped her hooves behind her head and stared at the ceiling. "Okay," she said, batting away a slice of apple being offered by Amber, "let's assume that Digger gets lucky and has one of his better months."
The stallion shrugged and said, "I've had better months at Artemis. It's possible."
"Good," said Trixie, "we'll keep our agreed upon shifts, so you'll have plenty of help to maximize your chances. Follow that ridiculously sized nose of yours." She looked up at Amber and gave her a weak smile. "And let's assume you've been conservative in your estimates of how much Ms. Doo can achieve in the agridome."
"We farmers are a pessimistic lot," said Amber with a shrug, "I didn't want to get anypony's hopes up, but I was figuring we'd have enough left over after quota for a station wide banquet."
"Okay," said Trixie, "so maybe we hold off on the banquet and thin out the oatmeal a bit. That's two of three quotas met, with a little luck." She shook her head from side to side, mentally tabulating crop yields and water usage.
"And what of us?" asked Flam, "The Authority's ire will fall upon us unicorns alone if we don't provide the extra ten gigajewels."
"We could return the power Selene sends us," said Trixie.
"I think suffocation will negatively effect our crop and ore outputs," said Flam dryly.
What about your little side project?" asked Trixie.
"How many times do I have to tell you this. It's not a project, Trixie," he said, "it's a scam. I had only toyed around with it to win bets from simple rubes while we were on the road." He yanked at his shaggy mustache and shook his head from side to side. "I won more black eyes than bits," he said glumly. "You know I'm not an idea-pony. If anything, I'm a glorified repairpony." A hoof cuffed him on the back of the head, causing the stallion to whip around in surprise. He had to angle his gaze back down towards the floor at a very angry looking unicorn mare who had just hopped off of an upturned bucket.
"Now stop it," said Felina harshly, "I'll not have any friend of mine speak less of themselves. I do not know of this project, but if you would dismiss it out of hoof without considering it, then you do yourself a disservice and make fools of all of us who believe in you."
"I was a mailmare up until a couple of months ago," interrupted Derpy. The heads of everypony in the room turned to face the pegasus. "I wasn't even that good a mailmare, to be honest" she said, "and an even worse flyer." She stepped in between Flam and Felina and smiled at each in turn. "But it turns out I was just a bad flyer in Equestria," she said, "Here, if I'm to believe Amber, I'm the Lunar equivalent of a Wonderbolt."
"It's true," said Amber, "she's a natural."
Derpy fought off her blush and continued. "If I can be an ace flyer," she said to Flam, "who's to say that you can't be a brilliant inventor?"
Flam looked around at the expectant eyes of everypony before sighing and dropping his shoulders. "I'll try," he said, "but I make no promises. I need some ore: Don't worry Digger, a mere drop in the bucket compared to what you'll need to make quota. I'll need Felina's help retrofitting a few systems as well."
"You'll have it," said Felina. "Now, we've all got work to do, let's let Trixie get some rest."
Derpy hung back and let the others leave. "Doesn't that feel better Flammy," she heard Felina say on her way out, "making plans, taking charge: Like a whole new stallion."
Amber piled the various sad vegetables on Trixie's nightstand and stood up from the bed. She pressed a hoof against the unicorn's forehead once more before nodding in satisfaction. "We'll be in the agridome all morning," she said, "do not leave this room." She punctuated the order by poking the unicorn's nose with her hoof. "Derpy, I'll warm up the cloud generator," she said over her shoulder on her way out the door, "suit up and we'll get to work."
"I guess I should get going then," said Derpy, "I hope you feel better Trixie."
"Ms. Doo, Trixie thanks you," said Trixie to the retreating pegasus, "for helping her calm everypony down in the assembly hall. Trixie knows you didn't have to speak up like that. They're a pretty grumpy bunch to begin with, and with all of our issues, well, Trixie can't really blame them for being as angry as they are."
"Happy to help," said Derpy, "besides, who throws oatmeal? I know several of them were probably raised in barns, but that's no excuse." Succeeding at drawing a smile from the unicorn helped brighten Derpy's morning as well. She began to walk from the room before a nagging thought in the back of her mind stopped her in her tracks. "Trixie," she said from the doorway, "about what you were asking me before..." Trixie's eyebrow raised as the pegasus hesitated. "I think that if you were willing to go this far for a pony who you considered a friend then there's no way you should give up on that friendship, no matter how far they might push you away."
"Trixie will consider your words," said Trixie, "Thank you Ms. Doo."
Derpy carefully nudged the enormous grey cloud away from the dome's shining glass wall. Every pegasus learned at an early age that care had to be taken when moving clouds: "Push a cloud with little thought and chase a cloud that can't be caught," went the old filly rhyme. Derpy was quickly finding that one had to be even more deliberate with them on the moon. A tad too much strength behind a push, and the rainmaker would fly off course and into the wall, pin-balling around the dome in a comical fashion. She darted over the top of the cloud and stayed ahead while it delivered its payload of rain across the brown and yellow fields below.
"That cloud's looking a little light," said Amber through Derpy's earpiece, "and I think we've reached our water limit for today. Bring it on home and we'll go get some grub and check up on Trixie."
Derpy reached her hoof to her ear and depressed the small button on the earpiece. "I can squeeze a little more out of it," said Derpy, "go on ahead and I'll meet you there in a few minutes."
"All right," said Amber, "don't take too long, we're going into a dark cycle soon. Good work today Derpy; we might just turn this place around." From her lofty heights Derpy watched the earth pony mare disappear down into the tunnel on the northern side of the agridome.
After a day spent carefully steering the clouds across the dome in a carefully organized manner, Derpy was beginning to understand why Rainbow Dash preferred the fast life. Down there, she moved from crash to crash, picking herself and dusting herself off and subconsciously becoming slightly more hesitant to push herself. Here though, all of her baser pegasus instincts seemed to come alive again. Amber had been right, she noticed, the cloud was almost dry. With a gentle counter flap, she slowed it down to a near stop and hovered in place as the cloud lazily drifted across the northern fields. She reached up, pulled her earpiece from her ear, and let it rest on her neck. Unsupervised in the dome for the first time, Derpy took a chance and launched herself towards the glass ceiling with a mighty flap of her wings. No amount of the previous day's careful, precise flying could compare to the exhilaration Derpy felt as she cut loose and soared as high as she would be allowed in Sin.
She closed her eyes and savored the feeling of the air rushing past her face. Higher and higher she climbed, ignoring the steadily decreasing temperature and focusing on the feeling of total freedom that swept over her body. "I really needed this," she said to herself. She exhaled heavily and opened her eyes in time to see the rapidly approaching dome apex. She furiously flailed her wings, succeeding in slowing her ascent enough so that her collision with the circular silver metal plate at the top of the dome was only mildly bone jarring. The pegasus chuckled and enjoyed the slow freefall as the moon gently pulled her back towards the ground. She placed her forehooves behind her head and hummed to herself as she fell back first. Deciding not to tempt fate, she spun herself around and flared her wings to return to a level flight path. Seeing her wayward cloud floating over the northern side of the dome, Derpy stuck her tongue out of the side of her mouth and propelled herself towards her fluffy white target. She tucked her wings into her side and slammed into the side of the cloud with a small explosion of cloud-stuff. Moments later her head emerged from the top of the cloud and she exhaled a bit of cloud from her puffed cheeks. She relaxed in the cumulus' silky embrace and drifted along with the cloud a few dozen feet over the ground.
"You sure she's gone?" muttered a voice from below, "she knows Digger: I want no part of him and his goons."
"Relax," said another male voice, "I watched her go into her quarters myself. We're in the clear."
Derpy furrowed her brow and wriggled her body through the cloud until she found the bottom. She poked her head out and looked down at the group of four ponies milling about by the entrance to the living quarters. Each wore a grey bandana tied around their muzzles and a dark grey cloak over their backs. One bore a horn, while the remaining three appeared to be earth ponies.
"You two take care of the poison," said the unicorn, "We'll finish leaving the calling card."
At the mention of poison, Derpy's ears perked up. She watched as two of the earth ponies, one stallion and one mare, took possession of a pair of large white canisters. They slung them over their shoulders using the attached straps and began creeping towards the nearby row of summer squash bushes.
Having spent the last day nourishing the plants they approached, Derpy decided instantly that she would rather not hear them mentioned in the same breath as poison. She kicked her legs, dissolving a small portion of the cloud around her, and plummeted towards the ground. The pair of skulking earth ponies had no warning as she landed between them. "I don't think you're supposed to be here," said Derpy before biting at the strap holding one of the canisters to its owner. Before the stunned earth pony mare's partner could react, Derpy reared up and slammed her forehooves into her neck, dropping the mare to the muddy ground below. She spit the ripped canvas strap from between her teeth and kicked the canister away from the unconscious mare.
"You idiots forgot the pegasus," grunted the unicorn mare as she dropped the bucket of red paint, spilling some onto her hooves. She nodded at the two remaining earth pony stallions and took a menacing step towards Derpy. " Hold on, boys," said the unicorn from behind her mask, " I think we might be having a slight misunderstanding." A ruddy red magical aura pulled the mask from the mare's face, revealing a smiling, brown coated face. "Ms. Doo, isn't it?" asked the mare. "Of course it is, the wings give you away, and if they didn't, the eyes surely would."
Derpy started backing away as the two stallions started circling around her. "I don't want any trouble," she said, "so why don't you guys just trot on back to wherever you came from and we'll forget this whole thing ever happened."
"What if you didn't forget about it," said the mare, "Just hear me out. We want the same thing: More food for the ponies of Sin Station."
"I don't want anypony poisoned!" exclaimed Derpy.
"Neither do we," said the unicorn, "this poison works on plants, not ponies." She pointed at the metal wall next to the hatch leading into the habitation wing. "Think about it," she said, "would we advertise ourselves if we intended on poisoning anypony?"
Derpy squinted at the wall, bringing the message painted on it into quasi-focus. In large red letters was written, "OUR LABOR, OUR MAGIC, OUR FOOD. THE TRUE LOONIES." Derpy looked back at the mare and the two stallions now slowly surrounding her. "So you're ruining food so that we can have more food?" she asked with a deadpanned stare.
"Put simply; yes." said the unicorn. "The Lunar Authority is bleeding us dry. Every month every station has to send more and more of their harvest back to Selene, never to be seen again; whatever we have in excess is all we get to eat. When they come and find that Sin has missed it's quota again, everypony here will see the true face of the Authority."
"Look," said Derpy, "I've only been here a few days, and I won't pretend to know anything about what you're talking about. All I know for sure is that there are hungry ponies here, and you're trying to kill their only means of feeding themselves."
"What if I told you this is what Princess Luna wants?" asked the unicorn.
"I'd call you a liar," said Luna.
"We do know what the princess wants!" shouted one of the masked stallions, "and soon the you, the Lunar Authority, and the all other traitors will know too!"
"Easy," hissed the unicorn, "keep your voice down."
"No!" shouted the other stallion, "We're done with this one, Veil." In unison, the two stallions charged at Derpy. She extended her wings out and prepared to jump into the air, but as she began to flap, a red magical field clamped down on her left wing. She made a panicked glance at the unicorn and saw the mare's eyes clamped shut with a grimace on her muzzle. The two stallions, now a few strides away, lowered their heads to tackle the bound pegasus. She stood on her rear hooves and flapped her free wing, pirouetting to the side just in time to avoid the charging stallions. The sickening crunch of skull meeting skull caused her to wince in commiseration, though the slight soreness from bending her pinned wing tempered her sympathy for her assailants.
"Morons," said the unicorn mare as she sauntered over to one of the writhing stallions and kicked him in the flank. "Ms. Doo, I apologize for them, but I'm afraid they've forced us to play our hoof earlier than we would have wished. For what it's worth, I truly am sorry, but there is one other way I can assure that Sin misses its quota."
Derpy felt her wing begin to unnaturally fold back on itself. She gasped in pain as the lightweight bones began bending under the magical pressure. Her voice left her as the blinding agony threatened to drag her to unconsciousness. Before all of her senses fled her, she thought she heard somepony shouting.
Amber Waves stepped into her room and dropped her woven straw sun hat onto the top of her dresser. Her aching hooves wanted to be in bed, but her rumbling stomach had decided that a meal, no matter how sparse, was the first priority. She reached into the top drawer and pulled out a long antique brush. She gave her hooves a brief reprieve and sat on her bed as she dragged the stiff bristled brush through her coat. She had always criticized the dainty ponies who constantly bemoaned the loss of regular showers, but after the long day of stress, panic, and hard work, she decided that she wanted nothing more than to lay in a warm bath with a plate of sliced fruit and a glass of rosé. She discarded her daydream and enjoyed the small comfort of the brush massaging her tired muscles as it simultaneously pulled the dust from her coat.
She woke from her reverie when she heard nearby voices. She looked around in confusion for a few seconds: The walls between quarters were so thick that she shouldn't have been able to hear her neighbors. A different voice drew her attention to the headset hanging around her neck. Realizing that she forgot to remove it, she set the brush aside and stood to place the device inside her upturned hat. Out of curiosity, she put the earpiece up to the side of her head.
Hearing Derpy's voice was unsurprising as she was one of the only ponies with a matching headset. Amber made a mental note to remind the pegasus to switch off the headset so as not to drain its magical charge. Felina had already lectured her enough about saving every tenth of a microjewel. She was about to switch her own unit off when the word "poison" carried through the link. She slipped the headset back onto her ears and was back in the hallway, galloping towards the agridome. She had always suspected that somepony was sabotaging her crops, but with the lack of water, workers, and time, she had no way of proving why certain plants were floundering when they should have thrived.
She didn't want to suspect Derpy. She actually liked the mare, and her suspicions were months old, but her arrival and natural skills seemed far too providential. She reached the bulkhead door leading in to the agridome and hesitated. She growled and pressed the glowing purple button on the call box before opening the hatch.
"-am sorry, but there is one other way I can assure that Sin misses its quota." said an unfamiliar unicorn mare. Amber shook her head in confusion at the bizarre scene before her. Three ponies were splayed out a few dozen meters into the dome, two of them lying in a tangled heap. A unicorn stood between herself and Derpy. The pegasus stood, or more aptly, hung from her wing and was wordlessly choking in pain.
"Let her go!" bellowed Amber reflexively. She threw herself in the direction of the unicorn. The mare turned her head in time to see a pair of strong hooves flying towards her head. Amber struck dirt and cursed as the unicorn rolled to the side. Amber lashed out again, rearing up on her aft legs and smashing her forehooves towards the prone unicorn.
The unicorn adroitly dodged each stomp, rolling herself along the ground until she was able to place Derpy between Amber and herself. "One more step and she'll never fly again," said the mare. She intensified the glow around her horn, eliciting a gasp of pain from Derpy. Amber lowered herself to all four hooves and wordlessly snarled at the unicorn. "Now here's what's going to happen," said the unicorn, "you are going to help me carry these three to the Zoom Tube."
"Then what?" said Amber, "you come back and dump more herbicide on my plants?"
"I doubt you'll be as lax in your security," said the unicorn, "but the damage has been done. Now get a cart or something to put these idiots in."
Amber narrowed her eyes and pointed at a small equipment wagon sitting in front of a row of asparagus. "Walk in front of me," she said, "and don't you dare hurt her."
"That's up to you," said the unicorn mare, "now get to work, I want to be out of here before anypony shows up." She pushed a hoof against Derpy's flank and kept a magical hold of her wing as they slowly walked towards the waiting wagon.
Amber watched the pegasus carefully for signs that the unicorn was twisting her wing further. When they reached the wagon, she reluctantly harnessed herself and began pulling it back towards the unconscious and immobile earth ponies. "So what is this," she asked as she loaded the first stallion, easily hauling into the wagon with a single hoof, "some foalish grudge?"
"She wants us to miss quota," groaned Derpy, "something about getting everypony mad at that Authority thing you guys keep talking about."
"Celestia damn it mare," said Amber, "we want more of the food too, but we can't just stop sending food to Selene. Setting aside the fact that there are ponies that need to eat there, where do you think all the seeds and a good portion of our water and power come from?" She laid the unconscious mare atop her two injured comrades and nodded for the unicorn to begin walking across the agridome.
"Such a small grasp of the big picture," said the unicorn, "but what can be expected from a station full of cast-offs and rejects? You think we don't care about Selene, our crowning achievement?" The mare laughed and pushed Derpy forward with a hoof. "True Loonies know where the cause of all of our troubles spring from, and it isn't the moon."
"Says the moon pony trying to cripple my friend and poison my crops," muttered Amber. She looked across the long straight path that bisected the agridome and smiled seeing the opposite door open. She continued pulling the cart in silence, save for the moaning from the earth pony stallions rattling in the back. As they reached the middle of the dome and the small, unused fountain at the center, she saw a rustling in the dense corn stalks she had managed to coax back to life earlier in the day. "Do you think you'll really get away with this?" she asked aloud, "I've seen your face; we've got your herbicide; you're traveling using the Zoom Tubes. It won't take much to track you down. If you let go of Derpy right now and surrender yourself, I can promise that we will treat you fairly. Sin may be full of rejects, but we know how to treat each other."
"Oh please! Can I really stay in this dirty, rusting dump?" said the mocking mare, "yeah, I'll pass. Don't worry about me, Diaphanous Veil isn't so easily caught."
"Halt!" shouted an amplified artificial sounding voice.
"Shit," muttered Diaphanous, staring daggers at Amber, "you Luna-damned traitor." The unicorn whispered something into Derpy's ear before releasing her magical hold on the pegasus' wing and shoving her at the earth pony. With a flourish of her cloak, she charged her magic and disappeared. Like a mirage fading away in the desert, her form shimmered and was simply no longer there.
Amber grabbed onto Derpy as she stumbled towards her and helped the pegasus regain her balance just as the purple and grey armored guards emerged from both sides of the path. "Don't speak unless they ask you something," she whispered to Derpy. She stood still as five of the six figures surrounded the cart and looked outwards, scanning the area for trouble. She was glad they were here, but seeing them never failed to intimidate Amber. Shiny ceramic plating covered the guards, each segment seemingly custom tailored to precisely interlock, but never touch. The full helmets made each guard indistinguishable from the next, but it was when they spoke with those strange synthetic, androgynous, voices that Amber felt as if she weren't talking to another pony, but rather, an equine golem with no personality or emotion.
"Seven Seven, do have visual contact with the suspect?" said the sixth guard as it approached Amber and Derpy.
"Negative Seven One," replied a unicorn guard, its horn protruding from its helmet, "enhanced visual scans reveal nothing: Zoom Tube lockdown recommended."
"Proceed," replied the first guard. The unicorn guard another guard began galloping towards the southern side of the agridome. The head guard reached into the cart and nudged each of the earth ponies in turn, eliciting grunts or groans from each. "Waves, Amber: Head of agriculture, Sin Station. State the events leading up to our intervention."
Amber swallowed and began telling the guard about leaving her radio on and returning in time to literally catch the unicorn mare red hooved. "She was going to break Derpy's wing," she said, "so I held back and did what she said. I did my best to slow her down to give you time to find us."
"Doo, Ditzy: Weather Control, Sin Station. Is this description of events accurate?" asked the guard in its monotone artificial voice.
"Yes... um, yes," said Derpy unsure whether to call the guard sir or ma'am, "I was finishing up with my last cloud and overheard them talking about poisoning the plants. I stopped the earth ponies, but that unicorn grabbed my wing with her magic. She said her name was Diaphanous Veil."
"Her name is known," said the guard after a brief moment of silence. It raised its head into the air and stood statue-still for several moments. Amber held a hoof to Derpy's mouth before she tried to fill the awkward silence. She looked back at the pegasus and shook her head. Amber looked around at the remaining guards who had also gone into a similar stance. A minute later, the questioning guard turned back to Amber without warning. "Your version of events is accepted," it said, "The earth ponies will be apprehended and transferred to Selene for questioning and punishment. Seven Six and Seven Five, escort Waves and Doo to the habitation wing and retrieve any evidence." Two of the guards broke away from the group and began ushering Derpy and Amber back towards the other side of the dome.
Amber took a last look at the cart and watched as the remaining guard hitched itself to the wagon and began pulling it towards the assembly hall and the security offices beyond. "Thanks," said Derpy from her side, "I don't know what she would have done had you not shown up when you did."
"I should be thanking you: You took down three of them yourself," said Amber. "Celestia knows how long they've been killing my plants. Sisters alive... they might have been doing this for months!" She wondered what Trixie would think of all of it, but decided that she and the exhausted unicorn needed their rest first. She picked a few pears on their way through the agridome, tossing them into the pockets of Derpy's flight suit. She pointed out the two white canisters laying on the ground and thanked the guards for their assistance.
"Your gratitude is unnecessary," said one as the other strapped the containers to its back, "remain vigilant Amber Waves." It and its partner turned and galloped back across the dome, their hoofsteps perfectly synchronized.
"What are they?" asked Derpy when the retreating guards were out of earshot.
Amber shrugged, "The police? The army? I've been here for a while, and I don't think I could give you a decent answer. They started showing up a few years ago. I've never seen them outside of their compound without being called, and I've never seen them without their armor." She looked at Derpy's frightened face and made herself discard her own fear. "As long as you're with us, you have nothing to fear from them," she said, "just help me like you did today and we'll have no trouble from the LA guards."
Derpy nodded and flexed her wings tentatively. "These 'True Loonies,'" she said, "should we be afraid of them?"
"I'm afraid of anypony who thinks that intentionally breaking somepony's wing is a good idea," said Amber, "speaking of which, how is your wing?"
As they cantered down the long hallway towards their rooms, Derpy carefully unfolded her wings and gave them a series of slow gentle flaps. "It's a little sore," she said, "but I've had worse falling out of my bed. I'll be fine for tomorrow."
"Alright," said Amber, her relief palpable, "well, aside from the drama at breakfast and the ugliness tonight; did you have a good first full day of work?"
"Oh yeah, it was an absolute blast" said Derpy with an exaggerated roll of her eyes, "I thought I was being overpaid, but now I'm starting to understand why."
Amber chuckled and playfully bumped the pegasus' flank with her own. "You're worth every bit, dear," she said, "but don't worry, tomorrow will be better."
"If you say so," said Derpy as she turned to her room.
"Your Highness," said Corporal Moonburn, "the others... they are starting to wonder if you've changed your mind." The raised right eyebrow of the patiently waiting alicorn caused the bat winged stallion to sit back on his haunches and raise his hooves in protestation. "Not that I would dare question her majesty's determination," he said, "the Night Guard simply wonders why we flew in a dead sprint from Trottingham to this small hamlet, only to wait along the road outside for several days. The wingless in particular are quite curious: They are still nursing sore hooves."
"Tis Ponyville, my faithful guard," said Luna, "You would do well to remember this place. It is where we first returned from our exile, after all." She shifted on the thick cloak that had been laid out for her as a blanket and looked down the empty country lane once more. "Prithee, inform thy comrades that we have certainly not lost sight of our mission," she said, "We believe that today might be a great step on our journey: We had to be at this place; we simply misjudged the time." The creak of a well worn wood axle caused her ears to perk up. "Go now," she said to the stallion, "and do not disturb us or our visitor. Do make sure Sir Flügelnacht has taken his rest. Tis poor for morale for the command of our Night Guard to collapse in exhaustion."
Moonburn rose a hoof to his brow and flipped down his tinted glasses before flapping his leathery wings. Luna rose to her hooves and flexed her own wings to shake off any dust or stray leaves that might have found their way in between her feathers. She watched the guard's dark blue tail disappear over the tree tops and focused her gaze on the road. The princess of the night apprehensively milled about on her hooves, trying hard to fight the butterflies fluttering in her stomach. Predicting actions from dreams wasn't an exact science, and she didn't exactly have anypony to compare notes with. She was reasonably certain the mare would take this route; her dream-self was fairly open about her plan. She was extremely open about her past exploits, and it fit with what Luna had learned in her few days of covert research in Canterlot.
She half expected to see another farmer hauling a cart of dirty vegetables to market. After the first drawn out conversation with a particularly adoring subject, she had taken to wearing a plain cloak over her back, wings, and head while waiting. She lifted the cloak from the ground and donned it before standing placidly by the side of the well worn road. She watched from under her hood as a heavy covered wagon, pulled by a garishly dressed unicorn, ambled down the lane. Luna waited until the unicorn and cart were within a few dozen meters and took a series of exaggerated limping steps into the middle of the road.
"Ho there!" she called out while waving her unadorned forehoof in the air, "Might we parlay with thee?" The unicorn mare had little choice but to pull up short, lest she run directly into the tall stranger. A bright pink magical aura lifted the harness from beneath the mare's billowing purple cloak before she removed her matching pointed hat.
"Trixie has little choice," said the young mare, "Though she would have gladly stopped anyway. Are you badly injured? Trixie could see you limping from down the road."
"Alas," said Luna, trying to keep her voice as low in volume as possible, "We do seem to have twisted our ankle in a most unnatural manner. Wouldst thou offer us a ride to yonder hamlet? We have an acquaintance that could help us back onto our hooves."
Trixie reached behind her and patted the small padded ledge built on to the front of the wagon. "Of course," said Trixie, "The Great and Benevolent Trixie is always willing to help those in need. Here, let Trixie help you into place." The unicorn mare tightly closed her eyes and braced her hooves as she surrounded the hobbled mare with her magic. Luna subtly shivered as she was lifted up and onto the padded bench. She hadn't been lifted by somepony else's magic in several years; at least a thousand. Lifting an fully grown alicorn princess was no small feat. Trixie quickly harnessed herself and began pulling the now heavier cart.
"Her magic is quite strong," thought Luna, "If we had been released from our exile a few short years earlier, perhaps t'would have be her to complete Starswirl's work." She had engaged in too many hypothetical musings over the past few months to follow that particular line of thought. She instead began trying to determine if the unicorn's intentions were as muddled as they were in her dreams. "We did not expect to be rescued by a celebrity," she said, "might we inquire whether or not you intend to perform in Ponyville again?"
Trixie blushed slightly and nearly stumbled over a half buried rock. "Trixie doesn't intend to perform per se," she said, "Trixie thinks the citizens of Ponyville have had enough of The Great and Powerful Trixie to last them a lifetime."
"Oh it wasn't so bad," said Luna, "Ursa attacks used to be a common occurrence in our day, and thou art not the first unicorn to fall prey to the corrupting influence of the Alicorn Amulet.
"Trixie still thinks most Ponyvillians think otherwise," said Trixie. "She thinks most view her as a troublemaker. To be honest, Trixie is rather worried that they will take a single look at her and run Trixie out of town. Part of Trixie thinks they would be right to."
"Then why woulds't thou return and incur the wrath of those you've wronged?" asked Luna.
"Trixie is going to show them all that she has changed," said Trixie, "Trixie has found and studied the Magic of Friendship, and after she shows Sparkle and her friends, she will show all the ponies she inadvertently wronged. Then nopony will doubt that Trixie truly is the greatest and most powerful unicorn and friend in all of Equestria."
The fervor in the unicorn's voice worried Luna. She had studied Trixie's dreams enough over the past few weeks to know that she was flamboyant, the mare talked in the third pony in her dreams, for Faust's sake, but she was starting to think she may have misjudged the unicorn. Putting her worries aside, Luna proceeded with her plan. "So Miss Trixie," she said, "how does one become a traveling showmare?"
"Trixie didn't become a showpony," said Trixie, the cadence of a performer entering her voice, "Trixie was born to be a showpony." She smiled widely as she launched into her favorite story of them all. "Trixie was born on a Monday morning in Trottingham's oldest hospital." Luna smirked and reclined with her hooves behind her head as she watched the scenery crawl by.
"-but of course Trixie turned down the offer," continued Trixie, "Trixie can't be shackled down inside a stuffy school. No, Trixie's destiny was out there, on the roads and byways of Equestria and beyond!"
"We do hate to interrupt you," said Luna, "but Ponyville lies just around the bend."
"Aww," said Trixie, "Trixie didn't even get through her elementary schooling."
"'Tis truly a shame," said Luna as she rolled her eyes, "but thy plans must surely take precedence. Anypony with such pressing business with Twilight Sparkle shouldn't waste their time entertaining simple ponies such as us."
"Trixie doesn't think it was a waste," said Trixie as she slowly pulled the wagon to a stop and looked at her hooded passenger. "The road does get... monotonous. It's good to have somepony to talk to."
"Or talk at?" asked Luna with a chuckle.
Trixie blushed and smiled back. "Sorry," she said sheepishly, "Trixie always talks to herself when she travels. At least she looks a little less crazy with a passenger."
"Well, we were simply enthralled by your tale," said Luna sincerely, "perhaps we can hear more someday." She looked at the cozy hamlet spread out in the small valley below them. "Might I accompany you to the central square?" she asked.
"Trixie could take you to a doctor if you would like," said Trixie, "it's really no trouble."
"Oh, our leg isn't so bad," said Luna, "you go meet with our favorite librarian and we shall make our way to our friend's home on our own."
"If you're sure," said Trixie hesitantly. She began pulling the wagon into the town, giving the few ponies they passed an obviously rehearsed greeting and wave. Luna recognized the trepidation on the faces of the townsponies they passed and her heart went out to the unicorn. It had taken months for those nervous stares aimed her way to fade away, and even longer for her to suppress the shame that they elicited. Trixie didn't seem to notice their glares, or chose not to. Their pace remained steady, and soon, the wagon pulled up next to the large multi-tiered town hall. Trixie parked it well away from the main entrance and removed the harness from her back. She turned to help Luna from the bench, but found that the tall cloaked mare had already found her way to the ground. She realized something and looked at the ground in embarrassment. "Trixie didn't even get your name," she said in an uncharacteristically bashful tone.
"Tis Selene," said Luna warmly, "and think nothing of it. We understand what it must be like when everypony knows your name." Her wings ached from their confines beneath the heavy cloak, so Luna decided to cut their farewell short. "Many thanks again," she said with a formal bow, "good luck with your non-performance."
"Thanks," said Trixie as she stretched her back and made sure her cloak and hat were free of dirt and dust, "but Trixie doesn't need luck. With the Magic of Friendship, she will charm Twilight Sparkle and make her into a true friend."
"We don't think you can just make-" began Luna before she was cut off by appearance of Trixie's pink magical aura. It surrounded the unicorn's head and concentrated around her eyes. Something about the spell tickled her memory. "What was that?" she blurted out.
"The Magic of Friendship of course," said Trixie while starting to walk across the plaza towards a towering lone oak tree. "Trixie thanks you for the company again Ms. Selene!" Without looking back, the showmare trotted towards the library, her head held high.
Luna waited until the unicorn was nearly to the tree before jumping into the sky. She took a wide circle around the plaza and approached the Golden Oaks Library from the other direction. She landed in the upper boughs of the tree and made her way along the large branches, careful to keep from rustling them too much. She slowly pushed aside a large bunch of leaves and twigs and looked down at the entryway just in time to see the unicorn come to a stop in front of the large red door. A few moments passed, and Trixie knocked on the door once more, this time with a bit more force.
"You don't have to knock," said the young dragon as he opened the door, "this is the public lib...rar...y." From Luna's perch, the young drake appeared to sway on his stubby little legs. "Tr...Trixie?" asked Spike before jumping forwards and wrapping his arms around the unicorn's neck. A confused, bordering on mortified expression flashed across Trixie's muzzle as the dragon stepped back and waved her in. "Twilight!" he yelled into the dwelling, "Trixie's finally back!" He grabbed the mare by the forehoof and pulled her inside, slamming the door shut behind them.
Luna hopped across two larger branches until she was just above of one of the circular windows that looked down into the library's main floor. She wrapped her legs around a thick bough and swung underneath it. Upside down, the alicorn peered through the glass and spotted two confused ponies and one excited drake. Ever so gently, Luna pulled the window open with her magic.
"-did this happen?" shouted Trixie, "and why wasn't Trixie informed!?"
"A few months ago," said Twilight calmly, "it was in all the papers."
"Trixie doesn't read newspapers," she said, "not since they claim to have revealed Trixie's secrets." The unicorn paced around Twilight, poking and prodding the alicorn's newly sprouted wings. "Filthy muckrakers," she spat, "all of them."
"Trixie," said Twilight with a hoof to her forehead, "is there something I can do for you?"
"No," said Trixie, "Trixie is here to show you how much she learned about the Magic of Friendship." With a final jab at the alicorn's wing, she stepped in front of Twilight and gazed into her eyes. "So is Trixie doing it right?" she asked, "is the spell working?"
"What spell?" asked Twilight, "Trixie, are you feeling alright?"
"Ooh, ooh," interrupted Spike as he jumped in between the two mares, "can I get you some water Trixie? Or maybe you want a hoof massage? Maybe a snack? Twilight can you loan me a few bits to go get a box of cookies for Trixie, I wasted my allowance on flowers for what's-her-name? Hey, do you want to go see a movie Trixie? I think the new Khan Mane flick is playing at the Bijou."
"Spike, calm down," said Twilight, "you're supposed to be helping me with my letters remember?"
"Whatever," muttered the dragon, "we can do that anytime. C'mon Trixie, let's go!"
"See," crowed Trixie, "Trixie's friendship is so powerful, she can befriend the cold-blooded." She shook the tiny claws from her hoof and stood next to Twilight. With a winning grin, she wrapped her right foreleg around Twilight's withers and squeezed. "So, new best friend," said Trixie, "shall we go find all of your friends and make them my friends?"
"Trixie, I'm happy to see you again," said Twilight as she peeled Trixie's hoof from around her neck, "truly I am, but I've got several letters to draft and send to Princess Celestia." She looked at Spike and pulled him over to her side with her magic. The drake struggled to reach for Trixie's hanging mane.
"So you don't wish to be Trixie's friend then," asked Trixie doubtfully, "you don't want to do whatever Trixie wants to do?"
"Yes," said Twilight quickly, "I mean, no, I would love to be your friend, but I'm very busy right now. Maybe some other time-"
"Trixie doesn't get it," mumbled the unicorn as she walked towards the front door. Luna watched as Twilight lifted a hoof to call out to her, but was too late as Trixie exited the Library. The younger alicorn turned her attention to the dragon desperately trying to crawl after the departed mare.
Luna climbed back her previous position and looked down on the perplexed showmare. "It doesn't make sense," she heard Trixie say, "Trixie cast the spell just like it said. Why won't she be my friend? Maybe Trixie needs to recast it." With another flash of pink light, Trixie's magic suffused her eyes. She turned and looked out across the plaza. "Ah, yes," she said, "she's one of Sparkle's friends!" Luna followed Trixie's gaze to the bouncing pink earth pony across the avenue.
"Tis a most peculiar spell," mumbled Luna to herself as she watched Trixie gallop across the plaza. "Phaw, our memory has been rubbish since our return." She took one last look at her fellow alicorn and her struggles with her young ward before dropping out of the tree and onto the ground. She tried her best to blend into the crowd, but found it hard, as tall as she was. She hunched down and followed an apple cart being pulled by a large red stallion.
"-course I'm your friend!" barked an excited voice, "I'm your bestest friend in all of Equestria. No, in all the world! No, in all of the universe!" Luna peeked around the corner of the produce cart. The pink one had draped herself across Trixie's back as if she were a pair of saddlebags; a pair of loud, hyperactive saddlebags.
"She can't be your friend," said a grumpy, yellow coated mare, "she's my best friend!" The aquamarine unicorn next to her jerked her head back in surprise.
"Trixie can be everypony's friend," said Trixie as she looked into the adoring faces of the ponies who began crowding around her. She carefully pried an over enthusiastic foal off of her leg and backed away from the gathering crowd. Luna collided with the back of the suddenly stopped cart. The stallion had thrown off his yoke and was pushing his way through the crowd towards Trixie. She shook her head and waited for the momentary double vision to fade. When she looked back to the crowd, smiling faces were replaced with angry glares and snarling muzzles. Pony stared down pony, who, moments before, had been enjoying a stroll on a beautiful sunny day. Luna recognized the situation as a veritable powder keg.
The first spark was magical in nature. A half eaten hay-burger was magically propelled into the face of a bickering earth pony mare. The shove she gave the unicorn was light, but pushed him back into the flank of a large stallion who fell forward onto yet another unsuspecting pony. The crowd began ebbing and flowing chaotically as bouts of shouting turned into shoving matches.
"The Great and Powerful Trixie demands you stop this squabbling!" shouted Trixie, her voice barely audible over the din. Luna caught sight of the mare as she pushed her way into the crowd. Trixie had been backed up to the entrance of a small alley between a hay warehouse and a sporting goods emporium, the pink ball of bubbly energy still hanging over her back. "Stop that!" shouted Trixie to a pegasus trying to lift her off the ground in his hooves.
Luna found herself buffeted and spun around by the surging crowd and briefly considered throwing back her cloak and revealing herself with the full force of the Canterlot Royal Voice. However, when the crowd around her began thinning, she looked back towards where she had last seen Trixie in time to see an impressive display of magical aptitude. Large bales of hay were lifted from an open loading bay door and stacked on top of each other in front of the alley, providing cover for the unicorn's apparent escape. As Trixie disappeared from view, several nets and ropes flew from out of an open window of the other storefront, tangling the wings of several of the pursuing pegasi. Several unicorn and earth ponies tried to remove the impromptu barricade, only to find their way blocked by even more bales.
Luna immediately ran towards another alley, wondering why the other ponies had not had the same obvious idea. So single minded were they in their pursuit, that they seemed to have lost all common sense. She emerged from the other alley and looked across a deserted street. No sign of the mare's passing was visible. "Mayhaps my machinations have gone too far," she thought to herself, "perhaps Trixie's have as well." The disguised alicorn took one last look down the boulevard that led out the north side of town and began trotting back towards the Library."
"What is wrong with you!" shouted Twilight as she held on to her assistant's tail with her magic.
"What's wrong with me?" asked Spike, "What's wrong with you! Trixie is like my best friend ever and you won't even let me go find her so we can hang out together!"
"Friend?!" exclaimed Twilight, "She rolled you into a ball and bounced you against the ground! I'm glad you can forgive her, but aren't you taking it a bit far?"
"Ahem," said Luna loudly as she cleared her throat, "Problems, Twilight Sparkle?" Twilight's magical grip on Spike's tail momentarily wavered. The dragon hit the ground running, and dashed towards Luna and the front door behind her. The Princess of the Night pulled back her hood and gathered her magic into her long dark blue horn. The drake was surrounded in her dusky aura and gently lifted from the ground, his legs still furiously kicking.
"Princess Luna!" exclaimed Twilight, "what are you... I mean... I didn't expect... that is..." Twilight stammered for a few seconds more before slightly bowing her head. "It's wonderful to see you."
"Thou hast heard tales of my outburst in court," said Luna, her unshakable deadpan stare aimed squarely at the youngest alicorn.
"The princess is so worried," said Twilight. She closed the distance between them and gave the elder princess a quick hug around the neck. "I'm sure if you just went back and talked with her-"
"I said what needed to be said," interrupted Luna, "and you can assure Tia that I bear no hostility towards her. If you would know the truth, I was truly at fault. Tis not my sister's fault that I found myself possessed by a lethargic spirit of boredom. I fear that if I return to that castle I will lose whatever momentum I've gained in the last few weeks." Remembering the problem at hoof, she shook her head while passing the still flailing dragon onto Twilight's back. A long scarf hanging on the coat rack made for a comfortable, yet effective bond that covered the drake from head to tail.
"Quit squirming," said Twilight over her shoulder to her muffled passenger. "So Luna, why, if I may ask, are you here?"
"I am not quite ready for my plans to be made public," said Luna, "but 'twould not be an egregious risk to tell you that I am looking for somepony to take under my wing; somepony who can help me in my new venture."
"I'm flattered," said Twilight, "but I don't think I could leave Ponyville, or set aside my royal duties. Twilight flinched when she realized what her response implied and nervously waved her hoof back and forth in front of her face. "Not that I think that you are abandoning your duties," she said in a panic, "I mean, Princess Celestia says you're still moving the moon each morning."
Luna laughed under her breath. "Be easy Twilight," she said while slowly walking away from the front door, "your loyalty to my sister and your subjects is commendable, and I would never cause tension between thee and thy mentor. I had my eye on another magical prodigy." She walked through the library with Twilight following close behind. She entered the small study Twilight maintained for her own studies and sat down on a small pile of delicately embroidered pillows.
Twilight, still troubled by Spike's odd behavior, placed him next to her desk and surrounded him with her magic. "Well, Ponyville has a few unicorns of some considerable talent," she said, "I've made sure young Dinky Doo has a place at the School for Gifted Unicorns, and Miss Scratch's way with sound based magic is unrivaled."
"She's not from Ponyville," said Luna.
Twilight froze mid-spell. The scanning spell around Spike collapsed in a shower of lavender sparkles. "You're here for Trixie aren't you?" asked Twilight.
"Excellent deduction as usual," said Luna. "Yes, this Trixie Lulamoon should make an ideal student and assistant." Spike nodded furiously in agreement.
"Well," said Twilight, quite taken aback, "you just missed her." She turned back to Spike and began scanning him again. "Trixie is certainly talented," she said, "but she's a little hard to work with. She's had her problems making friends around here."
"You are referring to the Alicorn Amulet incident?" asked Luna, "How that horrific thing managed to survive to this age is a mystery to us."
"She apologized to me for that," said Twilight, "but didn't stick around long enough to apologize to anypony around town. Beyond that, her boasting had something to do with an Ursa Minor attack a year prior." A quill on the desk dipped itself into ink and began scribbling on a blank piece of parchment. "I just want you to understand the challenge you're taking on." Twilight flared her horn and aimed it at the bound dragon. The violet ray that struck Spike quickly surrounded him in a magical aura. Twilight used her hooves to unwind the scarf that wrapped around his pudgy body.
"As I said: A challenge is just what I'm looking for," said Luna.
"Well her enchantment certainly did a number on Spike," said Twilight. "I suppose I should be glad this spell was so easily undone. Maybe her visits don't necessarily have to end in disaster. So is Trixie still your favorite pony in all the world?"
"Not so much," said the confused Dragon as he finished pulling the scarf from where Luna had tied it to his tail, "what is she up to this time?"
Twilight examined her hastily scrawled notes and found some meaning in the seemingly random arrangement of letters, numbers and symbols. She had tried to explain her shorthand to Luna once, but the elder alicorn found it impossible to follow the fabricated language. She was ashamed that she felt the sting of jealousy at the younger pony's magical prowess, but reminded herself that Twilight Sparkle was the first pony in eons to create new magic. Magic was part of her as sure as the Moon was part of Luna.
"This spell," asked Luna warily, "what exactly was it?"
"It looks like a variation on the 'Need-it-Want-it' spell," said Twilight with a blush, "there are some slight alterations though." She moved the quill over the parchment and underlined several blocks of text and took a few more notes in her perfectly maintained margins.
"Twilight?" asked Spike.
"Hold on Spike," replied Twilight, "there's something odd about the way this spell attached itself to you."
Luna's ears pricked up and began to pick up what the Dragon's more acute senses had detected: A faint but steadily increasing rumbling sound. She rose from the cushions and walked towards one of the windows. "Twilight Sparkle," she asked, "what would happen if one ensorcelled one's own self with this spell?"
"Well it shouldn't be possible," said Twilight, "the spell can only be cast on inanimate objects."
"Humor us," said Luna.
"Well, anypony who saw the caster would become enraptured with him or her," said Twilight, "Being with the caster would be their heart's true desire. They would disregard anything else they were supposed to be doing and would instead seek-"
"Much like young Spike's yearning for Trixie Lulamoon?" interrupted Luna. She looked back down and rolled her eyes as the young drake reached for the window latch.
Twilight, distracted from her parchment, finally noticed the loud rumbling. She stood and walked next to Luna at the window. Her jaw dropped at the sight of Trixie running for her life from a stampede of Ponyvillians. The unicorn desperately flung spells back at the crowd. Magical oil slicks materialized from nowhere, tripping up the unicorns and earth ponies, while powerful conjured gusts of wind sent Pegasi tumbling out of the air. "Spike, go fetch 'Failsafes and Fallbacks,'" she said, "that should have the counter-spell Celestia used last time." When the dragon didn't move, she looked down and groaned in frustration. Luna had managed to restrain him again with the scarf before he could open the latch to the window. "Why can't she just drop in and say hi," asked Twilight to herself. "Is it too much to ask for a nice picnic, or a milkshake with friends?" She galloped out of her study and raced through the front door. She took a wide stance and planted her hooves into the hard packed soil in front of library.
Luna carefully donned her cloak and hood and placed Spike on her back. She sauntered out of the study and made her way out of the front door. She stood behind a large sign and watched as Twilight literally worked her magic.
Ponyville's resident princess squeezed her eyes shut and carefully crafted a barrier spell. A curtain of shimmering lavender light began rising from the ground in a circle around the tree. Luna whistled appreciatively as the wall of magic began to form a hemispheric dome around the entire oak tree. She made a mental note to ask Twilight Sparkle about her family's ability with these wonderful shield spells.
"Sparkle, wait!" shouted Trixie desperately, "Trixie would have your help!" Luna judged that there was no way the unicorn would make it to the tree before it was enveloped in the sparkling shield. Her estimate was proven correct when the unicorn pulled up at the edge of the barrier. She nervously looked over her shoulder. The stampede of ponies hot on her heels was streaming onto Ponyville's main plaza. "Let Trixie inside!" she shouted as she pounded on the outside of the dome, "they won't leave Trixie alone!"
Luna remained behind the large placard and watched as Twilight casually walked to the edge of the dome opposite from Trixie. "Just answer me this Trixie," said Twilight, "Why?"
"Why?!" exclaimed Trixie, "Why does it matter!? Let Trixie in Sparkle, they'll be here any second. That rainbow haired one is fast!"
"Is this because I'm a princess now?" asked Twilight calmly, "Is this petty jealousy?"
"Jealous!" sputtered Trixie in outrage, "Trixie didn't even know about your... transformation. Please Sparkle, let Trixie in now, they're almost here!" The showmare desperately battered her magic against the lavender dome, succeeding only in creating a shower of multicolored sparks.
"Yes they are," said Twilight. She brought her foreleg up and casually inspected her hoof. "I've seen firsthoof what ponies will do under the influence of a variation of this particular spell," she said, "I wouldn't want to be pony of their tender affections." She pursed her lips, blew a bit of dirt from her hoof and waited expectantly for Trixie's reply.
Trixie looked back and forth between the mob and Twilight. "Trixie just thought she could show Twilight Sparkle that she had changed," she shouted, "Trixie is learning the magic of friendship. She thought Twilight Sparkle would appreciate that." Twilight gave her head a nearly imperceptible shake and flared her magic. A small hole opened in the dome through which Trixie quickly entered. "Trixie thanks you," she said after exhaling deeply, "she has no idea what went wrong with the spell."
Twilight wrapped Trixie's ear in her magic and began pulling the showmare into the library. "That's three times now Trixie," she growled, "three times you've shown up out of the blue and turned Ponyville upside down. You're up there with Discord right now, and he's an immortal spirit of Chaos. What's your excuse?" The cloaked form of princess Luna followed some distance behind the two younger mares, softly closing the door behind her after one last glimpse at the crowd of ponies now beating their hooves at the barrier.
"Oww! Release Trixie!" exclaimed the unicorn, "The Great and Powerful Trixie doesn't deserve this abuse." Twilight acceded to her demand and deposited the unicorn in one of the piles of cushions on the library's main floor. "Trixie thought that Twilight Sparkle was above such brutish physicality," said Trixie as she rubbed her ear. Under Twilight's withering gaze, many ponies would have flinched, but Trixie simply returned a defiant stare of her own.
Before she could unleash her righteous fury upon Trixie, Twilight felt a hoof gently rest upon her withers. "We believe thou hast more pressing matters," said Luna from beneath her deep hood. "The ponies outside must be your first priority." Twilight looked out the window and back at the obstinate unicorn. "We shall parlay with Trixie," said Luna as she nudged the younger alicorn towards the door.
"You didn't say that your friend in Ponyville was Twilight Sparkle," groused Trixie after the front door slammed shut.
Luna turned back to Trixie and gently placed the still squirming dragon next to her. Spike immediately wriggled his way to Trixie's side like an inchworm and gazed adoringly at the unicorn. "We travel in the same circles," said Luna as she lowered her hood, "other than our sister, Twilight is the closest we have to kin." She removed the plain cloak from her back and folded it neatly before sitting next to the stunned unicorn.
"I...I...I," stuttered Trixie before stopping to collect herself. "Trixie doesn't understand. Why ask Trixie for a ride? You have wings! Why didn't you just fly here? Um...your highness."
Luna snorted in amusement. "Interesting," she said aloud, "your first question isn't about our motives, rather, it is a critique of our mode of transport."
Trixie indignantly glared at the princess. While her mind was racing over the question of how she attracted the attention of one of Equestria's immortal princesses, her ego stepped in as it always did, and took control. "Trixie assumes you were drawn to the stories of Trixie's grand exploits and unforgettable displays of magical prowess."
"Ah, and so our purpose is easily divined," said Luna with a smirk. She ignored the flashing lights streaming through the windows of the library and stared intently into the young unicorn's eyes. "You are aware of our charge to safeguard the dreams of ponykind?" she asked solemnly. Trixie nodded slowly, her head still buzzing with confusion. "We stumbled upon thee and thy dreamscape quite by chance," said Luna, "we must admit that we rarely see such... animated... dreams. Truly such action and danger usually belong in a dream's dark twin, but 'twas obvious that thou hast enjoyed thyself." Luna smiled and raised her eyebrow. "Especially the part where you saved Twilight Sparkle from the marauding owlbears," she said with a mischievous grin.
"The Great and Powerful Trixie would obviously have great and powerful dreams," said Trixie, "Trixie supposes you wish her to apologize to Sparkle for treating her so roughly in her dreams? Well forget it. Trixie is free to dream what she wishes." She folded her forelegs and turned her head to face away from the alicorn, her eyes closed and lips drawn tightly in a petulant frown.
"T'would be quite unfair for us to demand repentance," said the scandalized alicorn, "Dreams are where all of our desires manifest themselves: Some are baser than others. We heard from thy own mouth that you had learned the importance of asking for forgiveness, and the joy that comes from being forgiven."
"Joy might be a bit too strong a word," said Trixie softly.
"Very well," said Luna, "satisfaction then. We know not what motivates thy drive for fame and power, but we know whom you compare yourself to. Had we not seen how you converse with her, we would say she was your idol."
"Idol!" shouted Trixie as she stood to her hooves suddenly. She flared the magic in her horn and surrounded several bookshelves and tables with her sparkling pink aura. The furniture rose into the air and twirled around without dropping a single tome. "If Trixie had half the opportunity Twilight Sparkle had, she would been the undisputed champion of magic."
"We seriously doubt it," said a thoroughly unimpressed Luna, "Twilight is better than you."
"Trixie begs your pardon?" asked the unicorn, her right eye twitching.
"Twilight. Sparkle. Is. Better. Than. You," said Luna. Each punctuated word visibly shook the younger unicorn. "She exceeds thee in most matters from what we can tell. 'Tis fortunate for us that it was Twilight that our sister groomed to face us upon our return," she said, "All of Equestria would be shrouded in eternal night otherwise."
"Well fine then," said Trixie, "if you're done insulting Trixie, than she will be on her way. Trixie would ask you to give Twilight her regards, but you would probably tell her that Trixie was madly in love with her." A deep blue aura surrounded the mare before she could storm off and forced her back to her haunches.
"'Tis not insulting to point out somepony's superior," said Luna, "We frequently point out our guards' deficiencies compared to their officers, if only to give them an example of how to better themselves. We imagine Twilight Sparkle herself was compared unfavorably to many of her predecessors. To be told that somepony is better than you is not to be told that they will always be better than you."
Trixie struggled against the alicorn's magic while simultaneously trying to keep the bound young dragonling at bay. "You would know wouldn't you," she spat, "Everypony knows Celestia outshines you in every regard."
"In most, yes," replied Luna, calmly refusing to take the unicorn's bait. "We could say she had advantages and opportunities we did not: Age, beauty, and ponies who were awake to appreciate her. Yes, we could and did focus on perceived inequities, but where did that lead us?" She saw the glint of gold binding on an ancient brown covered tome and pulled it from its pedestal. She flipped through the pages and stopped on a particularly terrifying depiction of Nightmare Moon. The white of the wicked mare's sharpened teeth seemed to glow in contrast to her coal black coat. "This is where that path led me," she said, "Thrall to my basest emotions and willing to inflict grievous harm upon my family, friends, and all the innocent ponies of Equestria." She still felt shame for her actions, and a single tear worked its way down her cheek.
Trixie's gaze glanced towards the open book and back at the slightly shaken alicorn. She ceased her struggling and waited for Luna to continue. Minutes passed before the magical aura around her dissipated leaving the unicorn to slump forward slightly. Luna lowered the book to the ground and said nothing as she examined several of the pages. "So what would you have Trixie do?" asked a subdued Trixie. "What is it about Sparkle that makes her so much better than Trixie in your opinion?" She lowered the furniture back into place and began twisting her hat in her hooves as she did when she was nervous. "Trixie thought it was her friends, so she found the magic of friendship for herself."
Luna wiped the dampness from her cheeks and smiled. "Friendship is not something one can find on one's own," she said with a chuckle, "and tis not as simple as casting a spell." The alicorn rose to her hooves and looked at the window. Twilight stood talking with the other elements of harmony, gesturing at the tree wildly as the crowd of ponies went back to their daily routines. "We have a proposal for you, Trixie Lulamoon," said Luna, "let us call it a chance to better thyself." When the front door opened and Twilight walked through, her face a thunderhead of anger, Luna smiled and knelt to face the unicorn. "We're sure Twilight will have words for you first though," she said with amusement, "If you wish to hear our offer, we will wait at your cart." Before turning to leave she leaned in and whispered in the young unicorn's ear, "Remember the joy of forgiveness."
"Princess Luna?" asked Twilight cautiously.
"She is all yours Twilight Sparkle," said Luna, "We believe you have a spell to counter and lesson to teach our would be apprentice." The devious grin that split the younger alicorn's face caused Luna to laugh to herself as she exited the library and made her way to the large covered wagon.
Derpy rubbed the towel over her still damp grey coat. A shower had been just what she needed to start a new day, especially after the unpleasantness of the previous evening. The water had been less than crystal clear due to the ever present rust and there was far too little of it, but still, it was a cathartic experience. She sat atop her bed on her haunches, with her slate sitting in front of her. She fanned her wings out and let them air dry while carefully tapping out a letter on the device.
My Little Muffin,
Your mommy really messed up this time. Don't worry, I'm perfectly safe, in fact I'm doing really great at my new job. The problem is that mommy didn't pay close enough attention when they were telling me how long I would be away. I know I promised I would be back by the end of the summer, but it looks like it might be longer; much longer. I'm still going to write to you every day, and I'm doing everything I can to get back home as soon as I can.
The truth is, mommy lied to you-
Derpy dragged the tip of her hoof over the slate and tried as best she could to sugar coat the depressing truth of the situation. Writing to Carrot Top had been infinitely easier than doing so to her daughter. She knew her former sister-in-law would have no problem taking care of Dinky: She adored the filly, even if her rotten brother could care less. Derpy eased her hoof from the surface of the slate before she shattered the screen. After a few deep breaths to ease her anger, she continued with her letter.
Amber slammed the door to Trixie's quarters behind her, stuck her hoof into her open muzzle and muffled an extended scream. She heard the unicorn's dresser opening along with other sounds associated with a pony getting ready for a busy day. "Whoever said that honesty is the best policy is full of it," she said to herself as she began heading for the dome. She absolutely abhorred the idea of Trixie confronting the garrison alone, but damn her, she was right. Finding and neutralizing any lingering herbicide had to be done, and those prisoners knew how. She passed the ops center and poked her head into the open door.
"Morning sunshine," said Digger, "ain't it a beautiful @#!&ing day in paradise?" The bulky stallion lounged in a high backed seat and nursed a small bottle of orange juice that she hoped was only diluted with the usual copious amount of water, and not the rocket fuel he distilled from the scraps he somehow got his hooves on.
"Yeah, yeah," muttered Amber as she swept past him. She picked up her slate from where she had tossed it the previous afternoon and deposited it into her beaten up old canvas saddlebag. "Look Digger," she said, "something happened in the dome last night, and the LA guards got involved."
"The True Loony bull&#!@?" he asked, "I saw Felina working her magic on the wall. Poor @%&!ing thing said there ain't nothing that's gonna take that stuff off. Last I saw she was getting a few grinding tools."
"Yeah well, the paint was the least of it," said Amber, "I've got a favor to ask you, and the answer to whatever vulgar suggestion you're about to make is a solid no." The portly stallion grinned and shrugged his shoulders. "Trixie should be here any minute," she said, "I know you're supervising the later shifts, but I need you to go with her to the garrison and make sure she doesn't do anything foolish. You know how she gets around guards."
"You know how I get around those &#!holes too," said Digger with a dark scowl.
"Yeah," replied Amber, "and I'm betting you can control yourself if it means getting your hooves on one of these." She reached her muzzle into her pannier and produced another bottle of wine. "You know how much weight they let us bring up with us," she said, "so you can imagine how little of this I have left." The truth was, she actually had another half a case of her and her mother's favorite vintage, but he didn't need to know that. "All ya have to do is stand there, look imposing, and make sure Trixie doesn't do anything that might make things worse for everypony."
Digger reached across the display table and pulled the bottle to himself. "Fine," he said, "but if she lets loose, you know there's nothing I can bloody well do about it."
"Honestly Digg," replied Amber, "I don't think she's capable of much more than a spark or two. She wants answers, though, and I guess I do too. I just wish she would wait a day or two." Amber had already argued the point with Trixie for half an hour and decided that having Digger there was better than nothing, if only marginally so. "Let me know when you're done," she said while patting him on the shoulder, "and you'll get your reward." She swept the bottle out of his reach and back into her saddlebag. With a wink to the stallion, she trotted out of the operations center and made her way down the long hallway that led to the land she had vowed to make productive.
Sin Station was beginning to wake up, she thought to herself as she watched ponies getting back to the jobs they knew best. Amber smiled and nodded at a miner who she had been supervising just a few days earlier. The poor stallion had been completely out of his element in the fields and struggled with the most basic of chores: Amber wasn't quite sure how anypony, especially an earth pony, could mess up a simple watering detail. The renewed vigor in the stallion's gait and heavy mining shoes draped over his withers was all Amber needed to see to deduce that he had been reassigned to the mines. Unicorns that had been magically pumping water into the makeshift irrigation pipes they had built were now busy tinkering with something in the walls. Magical sparks arced from their work, filling the air with smell of ozone. Things were finally starting to get back to normal.
Amber emerged into the sunlight and looked proudly at the small slice of the moon she had made into a working farm. Her workers were already busy fanning out to the various troublespots she had identified on the map she sent to their slates. Through their feedback and her own surveys, Amber had grown a sort of second sense when it came to her dome, and she knew that it was in better shape now than at any point in the last few months. Turning to the cloud generator, she saw the reason why.
"Hey there Ace," she said to the pegasus, "ready to get to it?"
Derpy looked up from her slate and nodded while placing the device back into her satchel. She hung the pack on a small hook sunk into the side of the dome wall and walked over to the waiting earth pony. "You bet," she said while zipping up her flight suit, "I was just writing a few letters." She flexed her wings and did a few light stretches before jumping into the air.
"Whoa there," said Amber into her headset, "you're awfully eager today. You know nopony would've minded had you slept in after last night."
"Scadwid," replied Derpy over the magical link.
Amber arched an eyebrow in confusion and tapped the small black box her headset was connected to. "Sorry what was that?" she asked, "there must have been some interference on the line."
"S.C.A.D.W.I.D," said Derpy, pronouncing each letter, "Stop crying and deal with it dummy. A little piece of advice from Grampy Doo." She came to a bouncing hover a dozen meters above Amber. "It's my motto I guess," she said, "it reminds me to keep moving forward; to not dwell on setbacks I can't control, although I'm starting to think it's not the best of advice. I said the same thing to myself when I decided to head up here in the first place."
Amber walked the short distance to the cloud generator and began turning the release valve, allowing water to start rushing to the heating coils. "I dunno," said Amber, "I wish it'd happened differently, but you're really saving our flanks here. Maybe add something about taking some time to think through your decision?" The hiss of vapor entering into the magical heart of the generator made quite the clamor, forcing Amber to clamp her hooves over her ears and the earpieces. "At any rate, if I were you, I sure as hell would be itchin' to be as useless as possible after the heap of compost that's been dumped on you in the last couple of days."
"Don't tempt me," laughed Derpy as she began gathering the slowly expanding cloud. As the concentrated cloud vapor poured out of the vents in the dome wall, she flew tight circles around the growing white mass, forcing it into a quasi-sphere. "So where do we start?" she asked.
"Hit the northeast sector with a light drizzle to start," said Amber, "the greens soaked up everything you gave them yesterday, but they still look stunted." She pulled out her slate and swiped her hoof across her large map of the dome. "Try to save most of this first cloud for the tomatoes," she said, "they won't survive the week otherwise."
With the last wisp of cloud-stuff trickling out of the generator, Derpy placed herself between the cloud and glass dome panel and planted her forehooves into the soft, forgiving surface of the heavy rain-maker. With as delicate a touch as possible, she began forcing the cloud forward, careful not to push so hard that she sank into the wet, spongy interior. "So what are the chances I can go visit Selene at some point?" she asked as she drifted across the dome, "I really didn't get to see much of the city at all on my way here."
"Well, I was thinking you could use a break," said Amber, "so I planned the next couple of days watering schedule as aggressively as possible. If you can give me a couple of late days, we can knock off early on Sunday." Amber double checked her schedule and nodded in satisfaction. "If you don't mind, I'd love to accompany you to the city," she said, "I've got a little competition with my brother, and I've gotta send him some photos and yield figures."
"Sure," said Derpy, "I could definitely use somepony to show me around. Which brother?"
"5th oldest," replied Amber, "Barley Brew has always been a bit of a braggart. Baby sis has to put him in his place."
"Celestia alive, how do you keep them all straight," asked Derpy.
"You wanna hear the song again?" asked Amber with a snort of laughter, "you practically begged me to stop last time."
"No!" shouted Derpy through the link, "My ears still hurt from before."
"You should hear the family reunion chorus," joked Amber, "let's just say that my musical ability is inherited."
The morning sped by as the two mares chatted and traded gibes. Amber worked well with Daybreeze, but the stallion had been so keenly focused on keeping from going into a tailspin, that he was hardly the best conversationalist. It was refreshing to use the com link for something other than periodic course corrections and cloud size checks. The only downside was that Amber found herself slacking on her field health assessments. It was during a frenzied check of the slowly recovering southwestern quadrant that she noticed Trixie and Digger walking back from the garrison. Rather, she saw Trixie storming her way across the field while Digger strutted down the central path with a cocky grin plastered across his muzzle. She recorded the drastically improved size of the pea pods on her slate and galloped to catch up with the pair of ponies before they disappeared into the habitation wing.
"The gall!" shouted Trixie, "the unmitigated gall of that jackbooted thug! He was lucky Trixie was so tired!"
"C'mon Trix," laughed Digger, "So you got big leagued by a @!#%ing helmet head. I thought you could handle some #@!% talk better than that."
"What did you do?!" asked Amber incredulously, "I begged you Trixie, I got down on my knees and begged you!"
"Trixie merely demanded her right to question the bastards that tried to take the food from her ponies' mouths," growled the unicorn, "and when they refused, Trixie provided incentives for them to change their minds... repeatedly."
"She made them sneeze so hard they pissed their...suit...thingies!" laughed Digger. "They were stomping around and all you could hear was *squish* *squish* *squish*!" The stallion slapped the unamused unicorn on the back and continued in a fit of laughter. "The big'n almost made a move, but yours truly persuaded him otherwise. Amber, if you had told me I could have seen that, I'd have gone without your little 'incentive.'"
"We don't need this Trixie," warned Amber, "not when we're just getting everything back to normal."
"Normal!" sputtered the unicorn, "Normal?!" She stopped in her tracks and wheeled around on Amber and Digger. "Have you forgotten what 'normal' is? Trixie knows you love digging in your dirt and rocks, but that isn't why we're here."
"We're here because we pissed off somepony," grumbled Digger.
"Here, you oaf!" shouted Trixie, repeatedly stomping her hoof on the ground, "on the moon! We didn't come all this way for... for... this!" She poked a half full bushel of peas her hoof and levitated a few of the pods into the air in front of her. "If we wanted to spend our days growing these, we could have just stayed back in Equestria," she said while shaking the beans out of their pods.
"We have to eat Trixie," said Amber calmly, "and that means somepony has to grow the food."
"Trixie knows that," she spat back, "but can you honestly tell Trixie that this is how you would cultivate the lunar soil? Trixie remembers something about somepony's dream of a Lunar Vineyard."
"It's still happening," countered Amber. Trixie had a way of getting under her skin, and when you grew up with a dozen siblings, bickering becomes second nature. She knew that if she started trading barbs with the frustrated unicorn, both of them would end up angry at the other. "But some of us have responsibilities that have to come first," she said, trying her best to temper her anger.
"Oh really?" asked Trixie. "If you are referring to those shriveled vines you've been ignoring, Trixie has seriously overestimated your green hoof." She spiked the remains the pea pods into the ground and began skulking back towards her office. "She lied to Trixie," muttered the unicorn, "great adventure, Trixie's flank. Trixie would probably be world famous by now, had she stayed in Equestria."
"Fine," shouted Amber to the retreating unicorn, "you win. Of course I didn't think this is how I'd spend my time up here." She reached down and gently retrieved the remains of Trixie's tantrum. "They told me I could try and produce wines nopony had ever tasted," she said. "Earthlight Wine, Trixie: Grapes grown during the long dark periods when the sun is hidden behind the earth. I even had a few barrels ready to cold ferment, before we had to start rationing it out as funny tasting grape juice." She dug out a divot in the soil with her hoof, pressed the peas into the fertile loam and covered them back up. A sprinkle of water from her canteen and some gentle massaging of the small bump in the ground resulted in a small green shoot pushing its way out of the soil. The calmness she felt when using her races' unique way with plants washed over her body, allowing her to remember the happy day of honest work and conversation with Derpy. "So yeah," she yelled, "I'm disappointed too, but you know what?" She waited until the unicorn stopped and looked back at her expectantly. "SCADWID," she said with a Cheshire grin.
Amber reached to her comm unit and pressed the transmit button with her hoof. "Hey Derpy," she said, "once you're done with the carrots, see if you can squeeze a few drops over the southwest, sector seven, I'll be here waving you in." She spun around and began trotting towards the mostly brown southwestern fields. "You're right Trixie!" she shouted excitedly, "it's time to get things back to abnormal!"
"Please Flam, allow me to carry something," said Felina as the stallion placed yet another tool in his chrome covered toolbox, "I feel ever so useless right now." She reached for the harness to the cart in which they had piled several of the large flat panels Flam had been working on for the last two days. She had wanted to stay in the workshop to see what he had been tinkering with, but her maintenance crews needed every horn and hoof they could get, and her expertise with the magical systems that kept Sin habitable was in high demand. She began slipping the harness's collar over the wide neck ring of her crimson colored extra-biome suit and was wiggling the girth into place when the harness began loosening under the influence of a green magical aura.
"You shouldn't have to suffer for my crazy idea," said the stallion as he tried to lift the black faux-leather straps over Felina's head.
"Now, Now, Flammy," she said while flaring her own magic into her horn, "you asked for my help, so I really must insist you leave this burden to me." She reached out to the harness with her own magic and felt it wrapping around the stallions as they each grabbed at the tack. She worked with unicorns every day, and knew well the feedback that magical conjunction induced. Waves of apathy, anger and regret washed over the petite mare, causing her to wince and nearly lose control of her magic.
The stallion seemed to have a similar reaction and for a moment, the harness hung halfway on and halfway off of the mare. Felina took advantage and added her slight physical strength to her magical might and yanked the tack back into place. "How about this," said Felina as she held the harness in place, "allow me this trivial task, and I shall allow you to accompany me and carry my tools on one of my shifts."
"Fine," said Flam as he released his grip on the harness. He turned away from Felina to grab their helmets. He floated the larger of the two over his head and lowered it carefully over his horn. He twisted the headpiece until a click and the hiss of air let him know a secure seal had been established. He floated Felina's smaller helmet and turned to place it over her head. He carefully, almost reverently pushed her raven black and white highlighted tresses inside the wide neck of her suit and slid the helmet into place. He turned back to his workbench to make one last check for anything he might have forgotten to pack. A hoof on his shoulder drew his attention back towards the mare. Her lips were moving but he couldn't hear anything. He leaned forward and touched the perfectly clear flat crystal face plate of his helmet into Felina's.
"-hear you, can you hear me?" she asked.
"I can now," he said. "Sorry, I should have mentioned that earlier. I had to cannibalize most of the comm units to get enough magical flow diverters to get the cloud generator in working condition for Ms. Doo. The only ones left working are in her and Amber's employ."
"So we have to touch helmets to talk?" asked Felina.
"I'm afraid so," replied Flam.
The mare smiled and winked at him. "How intimate," she said. "So, shall we head out?"
"After you," said Flam, his cheeks matching his mustache in color.
Felina pulled away from his helmet, strolled over to the wagon and attached the guide poles to the harness. She gave the heavily laden cart a test pull and instantly regretted her earlier stubbornness. Considering the weak gravity they operated in she imagined that pulling the cart would be a simple task. "What did he put in here?" she asked herself. With a bit of struggle, and some helpful pushes at the back of the cart from Flam, she was able to pull the wagon across the long room and into the engineering workshop's large airlock.
She waited for Flam to seal the small bay doors before reaching up with her magic and twisting a pair of large valve wheels. It took the small room several minutes to depressurize, during which she and Flam remained vigilant for any signs of leakage from their suits and helmets. A green bulb above the hatch began glowing with a steady pulsing light, indicating that the airlock had completely cycled. Flam disengaged the seals on each corner of the wall and engaged the small motor that swung the bulkhead open upwards from hinges along its upper edge. He moved back behind the wagon and soon, the two unicorns and their wagon emerged onto the western edge of the Oceanus Procellarum.
Even though she had spent the morning preparing herself, the vastness of the grey plain threatened to trigger a panic attack in the petite mare. She quickly looked down to the ground and focused on the rocky landscapes as it passed under her. Flam occasionally nudged the wagon slightly to the right or left until they were a about a kilometer clear of the airlock. When she felt the cart suddenly become more difficult to pull, she rose her head and looked back at the stallion as he held out his forehoof and motioned for her to stop. She followed his pointing hoof to an assortment of equipment and scaffolding sitting alone in the grey lunar dust a few meters away. Flam bounded around the cart and touched his helmet to hers.
"Let's leave the cart here," he said, "I don't want to risk shifting the soil too much, I spent an hour leveling the ground yesterday. Too much concentrated weight might throw the alignment off." Before he could turn around to begin unloading, Felina reached her hooves to his helmet and held it in place against his own.
"Flammy, dear," she said, "I think it's time you explain what we're doing out here."
"Oh, right," said the stallion, "well, Trixie was right, we'll never be able to generate enough magic to send back to Selene while we're using it to keep our own systems running; there just aren't enough of us unicorns. We need another way to power our basic systems, so that more of our gathered magic is diverted directly to Selene. Turn a negative draw into a positive feed."
"Yes, yes," said Felina, amused at the stallion's newfound enthusiasm, "you're not talking to Digger and his goons. I want details Flam."
"Oh," said Flam, "sorry Ms. Scassinatore. Trixie and the others usually just want everything in laypony terms. I do forget about your technical prowess sometimes." He raised his hoof to his face to tug on his mustache, but found the side of his helmet instead. The mare's giggle caused him to blush and clear his throat before continuing. "The 'side-project' Trixie mentioned was always more of a parlor trick. My brother and I would stop at small inns on the road and employ various scams to swindle the simple ponies out of their bits."
"Confidence ponies?" asked a surprised Felina, "I would never have guessed."
"Well, Flim was always the silver-tongued one misdirection is his forte," said Flam. "I myself was tasked with creating props to his specifications. That and the musical numbers." Felina saw a slight shake of his head within his helmet, as if he was trying to shoo away a sour thought. "Flim overheard a burly barkeep complaining that the candles he used to light his cellar had an unpleasant fragrance," continued Flam, "so Flim bet him that he could replace them with ample light without the use of fire, fireflies, or magic."
"I imagine the barkeep was skeptical," said Felina, "I've read of a few fish that can glow in the dark, but nothing bright enough to light a cellar."
"Skeptical and greedy," replied Flam, "Flim bet all the bits we had left, and more on top of that, that he could light that basement before the end of the day. So he comes back to the wagon which I, of course, was trying to make road worthy again. He tells me of his boast and tasks me with coming up with something while he works the bar for side bets."
"Your brother seems a bit full of himself," said Felina, "either that or he had considerable faith in your talents; not that he shouldn't have."
"It was how things worked between us back then," said Flam, "still is I suppose. He gives me a challenge, I think our way out of it. Need to fleece a few ponies out of their orchard? Automated Cider press machine cobbled out of old junkyard train parts. Need to fleece a small town out of their treasury? Cobble together an elevated train that runs on a single rail. I'm not particularly proud of what we did, especially as it usually blew up in our faces, but it was intellectually stimulating, to say the least."
"There's pride to be found in accomplishing difficult tasks," said Felina knowingly, "even less than reputable ones." Most ponies who came to the moon shared her practical views. Most citizens were after a new start for one reason or another, and it didn't really behoove anypony to act high and mighty.
Flam smiled weakly and nodded in agreement. "So Flam gives me an afternoon to accomplish the seemingly impossible," he said, "I spent the first hour racking my brain for other sources of illumination. I thought a magical battery would work, but if there were any other unicorns present, they would certainly have seen right through it." He sat back on his haunches, drawing Felina to hers, lest their helmets lose contact. "I crawled back under the wagon and began fixing the axle, " continued the stallion, "it was a hot day, and it was nice to be in the shade, and well... I fell asleep. The next thing I know, I'm waking up with a slight burning sensation in my flank."
"Oh really?" snickered Felina, "I hear they have medication for that." Flam rolled his eyes and pointed at the chrome covered toolbox he had brought with him. Felina picked it up with her magic and deposited it between them.
"This ridiculous thing is the only possession I brought with me to the moon," he said, "Flam gave it to me when we were colts. He paid for it with proceeds from our first successful grift." He fondly patted the top of the dented metal box and flipped open the pair of clasps that held it together. "By chance, the sunlight hit a dent on the open lid," he said, "which, also by chance, reflected the rays back at my sleeping form. Thanks to the parabolic shape of the indentation, the sunlight was focused on a small spot on my flank, creating a very intense heat."
"Oh," said Felina, "Mirrors! You must have set up some mirrors to catch the sun and reflect it down into the cellar! As long as you did it before the sun went down, it would win you the bet!"
The stallion blinked several times in confusion. "Hmm," he said, "I guess that would have been easier. No, I decided that I could attach a fan blade onto a small magical dynamo I carried around for night time shows, encased the entire assembly into a metal box, the bottom of which I filled with water. The mirrors I managed to procure, were used to concentrate the solar energy onto the box, heating the water into steam and using it to turn the fan. The dynamo, free from needing any magical impulse to spin its inner workings, generated magic-free energy, which I fed to a glow bulb by means of a long coil of insulated copper wire." He gasped, took a deep breath and looked expectantly at Felina.
"I guess that's one way to do it," said the mare. "Did it work? Did you win the bet?"
"Of course it worked, but the barkeep and the patrons thought using a magic dynamo was cheating," said Flam, "I tried to explain that no magic was actually being used, just a machine that could accept magic as an input, but they wouldn't accept that. It's a good thing I finished the wagon before inspiration struck. Flam had managed to get about thirty ponies to bet on the scheme, and it only ever takes one disgruntled pony to stir up a mob. It was on to the next town, with a pair of black eyes between us."
"So all of this..." said Felina, motioning her forehoof at the half-constructed array of mirrors.
"Is the very same idea," said Flam, "on a much larger scale. Placing the turbine in the vacuum has proven to be the most difficult obstacle, but a carefully calibrated condenser and sufficient insulation should do the trick, at least for this proof-of-concept prototype."
"So what do you need me to do," asked Felina, "just remember, I don't do windows."
"Well, as you can see, attaching these highly polished mirrors into place has taken up most of my time," said Flam, "If you can take over that task, I can focus on setting up the turbine. Truthfully, it's not particularly complicated; I feel guilty taking advantage of a unicorn of your intelligence and talents for something so trivial."
"Nonsense," said Felina, "If this is as important as I think it is, we need to give our very best, and that's me and you. I guess you can go back for Trixie, but I think I'm far easier to work with, and prettier too."
"Yes you are," mumbled Flam as he stared into her eyes. "I mean... yes, you are the best."
Felina smiled and stood to her hooves before helping the stallion up from the dusty grey ground. "Let's get to work," she said after placing her helmet next to his, "I would very much like to see this work." Flam agreed and pointed out to her the various tools and how each mirror was to be attached to the frame he had already constructed. For a pony her size, construction on this scale would have been difficult, but thanks to the light gravity, she was able to lift the large panels with ease, both with her magic, and with her small hooves.
"He was right," she said to herself as she held the first reflective panel into place, "this is pretty simple." Each panel was to be mounted onto the frame and aimed by simply adjusting the depth at which each corner bolt was tightened into the frame. The next few hours settled into a comfortable rhythm as Felina walked back and forth between the frame and the wagon. She even found that the open space didn't bother her as much as she feared it would: Not being able to communicate with anypony made it easy for her to concentrate her vision on the panels, or the ground.
She concentrated on attaching each panel and left the task of aiming the array to Flam. As she used the impact driver to screw the last bolt of the next to last panel into place, she looked over at the stallion. He was standing in the center of what had become a roughly hemispherical array of mirrors. The large black box he had been tinkering with now stood nearly three meters high. A black panel leaned against the side of the box and Flam himself was hoof deep in insulated tubing and copper wiring. Magical sparks flashed from inside the hidden machinery illuminating the grin plastered across his muzzle.
Felina laughed inside the silent confines of her helmet and began cantering back to the wagon for the final panel. She made the mistake of looking up from the ground and the endless void stared back at her: No walls, no ceiling, nothing but an empty grey plain stretching into the distance until it met the infinite black horizon. Conscious thought fled the mare as her eyes rolled back into her head.
Flam hoisted the access panel into place with his hooves and used his magic to screw in the fastening bolts tightly with his old rusty screwdriver. Without looking, he floated the tool back into the chrome box. He subconsciously tried to rub a foreleg across his brow, succeeding only in depositing some fine lunar dust onto his helmet. He took a few steps backwards and surveyed the nearly completed solar generator.
The jet black box that housed the turbine and condenser would have to be periodically cleaned, and the mirrors would need to have any stray dust removed on occasion, but all of that could be ironed out with subsequent models. For a proof-of-concept, he had to admit that it was an amazing job of scaling up his parlor trick. Looking into the curved wall of mirrors, he reminded himself that the most annoyingly time consuming job was still ahead of him: adjusting the mirrors so that they would reflect the suns energy on as small an area as possible.
It was while inspecting the mirrors that he saw the reflection of a red heap on the ground next to the wagon. For an instant, horrific images of what the vacuum could do to a pony flashed through his mind. He spun around and launched himself into an awkward set of bounding hops, kicking over his prized toolbox in his haste. He crashed down next to Felina in a spray of grey dust. She was slumped onto the ground face first, her helmet buried into the dirt. As gently as he could, Flam pulled the mare on to her side and exhaled the breath he had been holding when he saw the clear crystal face mask intact and uncracked.
He placed the side of his helmet against her chest and tried to listen for a pulse; for breathing; for anything. Hearing nothing, he carefully turned her helmet to his and pressed his facemask to hers. "Felina," he said, his voice cracking, "say something." He held himself there for several seconds before laying her back down and looking back towards the station in a panic. "No time to go for help," he said, "and no way to contact anypony." He stared down at the motionless mare and nodded as if accepting a challenge.
As the petite mare levitated from the ground, dust trapped in the folds of her suit cascaded to the ground. Flam, careful to keep her head stabilized, maneuvered the unconscious mare onto his back, her legs straddling his flank and her helmet laying on his withers. Bands of green magic latched onto her hooves and anchored her in place while the stallion began bounding across the lunar landscape. Between holding Felina in place and trying to keep himself from tripping over the moon rock littered ground, Flam struggled to keep a steady pace.
"I never should have said anything; never asked you for help," he said to himself between gasping breaths, "better to keep my mouth shut like always. Celestia knows I would deserve this, but not you; never you." The mare limply bounced on his back, her unconscious silence seemingly agreeing with and condemning Flam. "One comms unit," he moaned to himself, "all I had to do was cobble together one damn unit."
He had carefully chosen the site for his solar collector to maximize exposure to the sun, not for easy access. Even though Sin Station sat squarely in the middle of Procellarum, the greatest of all the lunar seas, Flam had still managed to find a relatively large hill upon which to work on his project. He nearly tripped several times trying to descend into a small valley that led to the northern side of the station and the airlock he so desperately needed to reach. With half his attention on keeping Felina from slipping off his back, and the other half absorbed in mental self-flagellation, it was a minor miracle that he found himself within a stone's throw of the workshop airlock door.
"Almost there, Felina," Flam said as he picked up his pace. He felt a twinge of pain in his right foreleg as it unexpectedly sunk into the soil farther than he was expecting. Wrenching it from the small sinkhole, he ignored the pain and continued his awkward sprint. He slowed as he reached the airlock and carefully maneuvered under the raised door, making sure not to clip his or Felina's head on the hanging metal bulkhead. He released his magical hold on the mare and used his magic to slam the door to the ground to begin the repressurization cycle. The hiss of rushing air slowly became audible, finally replacing the drumming of his heartbeat in his ears. He stared at the glowing red bulb, willing it to switch off and for its green companion to illuminate.
When the airlock finally finished its cycle, he slammed his forehoof against the hatch wheel, sending it spinning freely on its well maintained bearings. Flam pulled at the door with his magic and his free hoof, fighting against the slightly higher pressure of the airlock. The door swung open, sending a gust of wind into the workshop, scattering several sheets of parchment across the room. He carefully stepped over the threshold and carried Felina to his large assembly platform. Loose tools and equipment slid away and scattered onto the floor in a wave of green energy. He twisted his helmet loose from his suit and tossed it into a corner before gingerly depositing Felina's still motionless form onto the knee high platform. Flam climbed onto the table and knelt down on his haunches . With all the care he would give to his most sensitive equipment, he twisted her helmet loose and dropped it to the ground behind them. He leaned over and placed his ear to her muzzle.
"Thank the princesses," he whispered when he heard and felt the mare's short rapid breaths. He reached behind her neck and released the clasp that held the neck ring in place, splitting it in half to reveal the zipper that ran down the central seam of the suit. Flam began unzipping the long seam along her chest and belly. He had just freed her forelegs from the suit when the small hoof he held lashed out and kicked him in the eye. Flam staggered backwards and fell off the low table. He rolled over on the cold metallic floor and reached for his aching face.
"Felina," he said raising to his haunches, "what happened to-" He quickly shut his muzzle when he saw the mare staring back at him in terror. She backed off the table slowly and squeezed herself underneath the long workbench that ran along the length of the workshop. Her eyes darted back and forth across the room, and her breaths came in rapid, ragged gasps. "Easy now," said Flam. He lowered himself to his belly to fit underneath the bench and slowly crawled towards the panicking mare. "Everything's okay," he said, keeping his voice as low and calming as he could. Felina continued to retreat underneath the workbench until she was huddling in the corner, her back pressed against the walls and her forelegs wrapped around her chest.
"It's me," said Flam as he crawled within hoofs reach, "It's your friend Flam." He held his hoof out to her. As her eyes finally came to a focus on his hoof, she reached out a shaky forehoof and touched it to his.
"Flammy?" she asked, her voice cracking. Before he could answer she grabbed his hoof and pulled herself towards him. She wrapped herself in his front legs and buried her muzzle in his red and white striped mane. He could feel her still rapid breathing on the back of his neck.
"Come on," he said, trying to slide out from under the bench, "I think the prudent thing to do is to get you to the infirmary."
"No," said Felina. She squeezed tighter and hung onto the stallion, preventing him from standing.
"Felina, you went unconscious out there," said Flam, "you have to see a doctor."
"No I don't," she said quickly, "just... just let me stay like this for a few minutes, okay?"
"She doesn't appear to have any obvious injuries," thought Flam, "a few minutes probably won't alter any treatment she receives." He sighed and patted the back of the mare's head. "Alright," he said, "but can we talk? Would you at least let me know what happened?" He felt her head nod on his shoulder. She didn't speak immediately, but it bothered Flam little as her breathing started to slow down.
Felina turned her head so that her temple rested on Flam's shoulder and her eyes looked at the wall underneath the bench. "I don't handle open spaces very well," she said, "I won't bother you with the details, but sometimes, when all I can see is open spaces, I have horrible panic attacks. At their worst, they cause me to hyperventilate and pass out."
"We've been outside before," said Flam. "You and your team helped me replace the bulkheads on the garrison expansions last year."
She gave her head a slight shake. "It's all about concentration," she said. "If I can prepare myself for it, and make sure I don't lose my focus, I can hold the fear at bay. Something distracted me out there today, and I doubt you could find a better spot to get an eye full of nothing than that hill."
"Agoraphobia," said Flam. "I believe that's the scientific term. An irrational fear of open spaces. These things usually have a psychological cause. Would you like to talk about it?" He felt her grip tighten around his withers and thought that he might have overstepped his bounds.
"Maybe later," said Felina weakly, "I'll just say it's a very rational fear, and leave it at that for now." She snuggled her petite frame into him and smiled as the stallion stroked the back of her head with the side of his forehoof.
"Trixie is the most spectacular magician in all of ponykind! Her knowledge and wisdom are only matched by her grace and humil---zzzzzzzttttttkssshhhhhhhhhhhhht-"
Trixie groaned in frustration and shook the recorder, hoping to knock some sense into the malfunctioning device. It clicked and continued to produce static. Trixie stopped feeding her magic into the device and tossed it into her empty pack. She had spent the day making sure everypony had their marching orders for the next week, something she normally would have done towards the end of their abbreviated weekend. Nopony truly had much in the way of a day off, but Trixie and her managers did their best to rotate schedules so that a day or two of rest could be found every few weeks. There would be no rest for Trixie, and her busy day of preparing for an ill advised trip to the Lunar Authority Headquarters in Selene became slightly longer.
Trixie abandoned her packing and trotted out of her quarters towards the engineering workshop. Amber had told her about the increasingly happy mood around the station. Trixie had to admit, the change was striking: She hadn't even been spat at once during the course of the day. Marvel of marvels, even one of the burly miners respectfully nodded her head towards Trixie as she passed the delver's barracks. Were she the type, Trixie might have started whistling as she turned into the side passage that led to the workshop.
"Flam," she said as she strolled into the entrance of the long room, "Trixie's recorder is on the fritz again. Trixie needs the spare... By Celestia, what happened here?" Her gaze swept across the cluttered surfaces of the workshop benches but failed to spot the unicorn stallion. Gadgets and gizmos sat in a half disassembled state, their exotic innards exposed to the open air. "Trixie thought she had broken him of this sloppiness," she mumbled to herself while tip-hoofing around scattered nuts and bolts that were left on the floor. She spotted a seemingly pristine recorder hanging from a hook above the workbench and reached for it with her magic. After testing it to make sure it was functioning, she placed it in her pack and hung the damaged recorder in its place.
On her way out of the room, Trixie frowned and picked up a pair of helmets from the floor and set them on the low table. "Trixie is certain he knows how much work goes into one of these," she said, "next time he gets a piece of Trixie's mind." She was halfway to the hallway when the sleeve of a particularly dusty extra-biome suit slid out from underneath her hoof as she walked over it. Trixie grunted wordlessly as she began picking herself off the floor, making a mental note to show the stallion several of her more uncomfortable dweomers. The glint of silver underneath the workbench caught her eye, causing her to nearly flop back onto her stomach. One unicorn, half clad in a spacesuit, dozing under a bench in the workshop she could overlook, but two, chest to chest, their arms entwined, broke Trixie's brain. She shot up to her hooves and shuffled out of the laboratory and back down the hallway, cursing her rotten luck and all the damnable lessons in honesty that she had received the last few years.
Derpy held the slate at foreleg's length, trying to see the map in the most abstract way possible. The confusing tangle of dotted, dashed, solid, striped, and crosshatched lines bewildered the pegasus as she tried to make sense of the legend. She looked up, intending to ask Amber for some guidance. The other two mares were still going on about some bet they had made. Derpy, still quite intimidated by Trixie, decided try and decipher the arcane map on her own one more time.
"I dunno Trixie," said Amber, "I'd normally be the first to accept victory, but are you sure you saw what you think you saw?"
"Trixie isn't some naive filly," said the eponymous unicorn, "does she have to draw a diagram?"
"Maybe you just misread it is all," replied Amber, "I saw both of 'em in the mess this morning, each sitting as far from the other as they could manage. Plus there's that shiner on Flam's eye." Amber loaded the last package into the small cargo compartment on the Zoom Tube car and closed the cabin door. "Maybe they fell asleep after a long shift out in the grey," she said. "Heck, maybe Flam made a move, and maybe Felina let him know what she thought of 'em."
"Trixie knows what she saw," said the unicorn, "and she won't let you say Trixie tried to cheat you. When should Trixie schedule her day of... ugh... field work?" Derpy thought she saw Trixie shudder at the mention of manual labor.
"Well if you're gonna be all stubborn about it, let's make it the week after next," said Amber, "the newest load from Artemis' reclamation plant should be in by then."
"Stupid farmers and their stupid honesty," mumbled Trixie as she examined her slate, "at least it's not the rocks again." The car began its steady acceleration down the Tube, leaving the three mares alone in silence.
"Hey Amber," asked Derpy, seizing the lull in the conversation, "can you help me with this map?"
"Sure doll," said Amber, who hung her forelegs over the back of Derpy's seat, "anything in particular you wanna see while we're here?"
"I'm not sure," said Derpy, her eyes fixed on her map, "I guess the area around this place you're taking me first?"
"The LA Headquarters?" asked Amber, "It's not much more than apartments for the burrocrats and helmet heads to be honest." She pointed to the large square block on the western quarter of Selene. "I would think the Skypark would be more your speed," she said. "Imagine an enclosed glass bridge with flowers and hanging ferns crossing between two of those big skyscrapers."
"That could be fun," said Derpy doubtfully. Her hoof hovered over the pad hesitantly before landing on an area just off the main Zoom Tube line from the Lunar Authority complex. "What about this place," she asked, "The Silversun Strip?"
"Hmm," grunted Amber, "well, if your idea of a good time is a game of chance and some watered down cider, I guess Silversun is the place to be." She noticed the crestfallen look on the pegasus' face and waved a hoof in protest. "Don't let me ruin it for you though," she said, "It's still a nice enough place. I just don't really see the attraction of some of the shops there. Here, you just follow the auxiliary rolling road here and you'll be there in no time."
"Thanks," said Derpy, "how about that Skypark thing, it looks neat too."
"Absolutely," said Amber. She reached over Derpy's shoulder and began giving her a virtual tour of Selene. Derpy found herself quite amazed that the seemingly grounded Earth pony farmer was so enamored with the more artistic sights of the Lunar Capitol. Over the next few hours, she received descriptions and step-by-step directions to all of the more aesthetically pleasing sights Selene had to offer, along with a few art galleries that, she had to admit, sounded very interesting. She had found that Amber Waves had quite the talent for communication. Her voice had that confident tone said, "I'll never steer you wrong."
Trixie even chimed in and offered up a few suggestions, mostly focused on the best eateries that could be found around the city. "Can't hold it against them for having better food than us," she said in response to a question from Amber, "but yes, it's another inequity."
"There it is," said Derpy pointing out of the front window. The regular clear panels on Tube walls provided momentary views of Selene as it began to grow on the horizon. Derpy swallowed dryly and marveled at how something that had filled her with such awe only a few days earlier could now fill her heart with such dread now. "Do they even know?" she asked absently. "Do they even care what you ponies have had to deal with?"
"Hopefully," said Trixie, "and if they don't, Trixie is here to remind them."
Imposing. Trixie really couldn't imagine a more suitable term to describe the towering stone monolith that they approached. Each massive stone, hewn from moon itself, stood nearly twice her height and four times her length. Even with the gravity difference, Trixie marveled at the amount of magic and muscle it had taken to move so many into place. She shook her head ruefully at the fond memory of working together with the princess to move several of those foundation stones into place. "The Stone," as she and her mentor had called it, sat alone in a ward dominated by much smaller apartment buildings that followed the rest of the cities familiar silvered metal aesthetic. The entire section of Selene had grown around the massive building. The Stone rose from a perfectly square foundation and slightly tapered as it rose fifty meters above ground level. Even though it was towered over by the larger skyscrapers and absolutely dwarfed by the Serenity Dome, the monolithic building had a solidness to it that made everything else in Selene seem ethereal and wholly insignificant. It was always supposed to be the place where one would look and say, "If there is one safe place on the moon, it is here."
She left Amber and Derpy behind to take the informal tour of the main floor's correspondence distribution and employment centers. Her target was in the floors above. As the glass walled elevator lifted her high above the crowded atrium, Trixie reached into her panniers and switched on the recorder. There was no music. Trixie had fought for there to be elevator music. "Bad for unit discipline," muttered the unicorn, "feh. They sang plenty back in the day."
The glass box opened into a well lit, white walled hallway. Two of the ever-helmeted guards stood motionless at the far end, ebon lances held vertically before them. Trixie stepped off of the elevator and sauntered down the hallway, putting to use her well practiced haughty walk. Her hooves rang out against the bleached white stone floor. Before she was halfway to the pair of guards, their lances swung down, barring passage through the doorway.
"Lulamoon, Trixie: Facilitiy Admisitrator, Sin Station," said one of the guards in its artificially modulated voice. "State your business."
Trixie rolled her eyes and walked until her muzzle was inches from the crossed lances. "Trixie is here to speak to Moonburn," she said. "Trixie understands that he is in charge of the True Loonie Task Force." The two guards remain quiet and motionless. "Tell him that he owes Trixie a favor," she said to fill in the silence. Trixie knew they were relaying her messages. The helmet heads were infuriatingly rigid in their demeanor, but dealing with them was rather straight forward: They either helped you, or told you to move along. She took the continued silence as proof of the former and idly lifted a hoof to inspect it for small cracks.
The door slid into the wall revealing a lithe bat pony stallion. His species' dark grey coat and leathery wings were hidden underneath a short cut purple overcoat fastened at the chest with polished silver studs in the shape of crescent moons. Moonburn looked older, Trixie thought. His short, precisely cut dark blue mane was no longer the unkempt windswept mess it had been years earlier. He'd been a young officer when she first met him. Truthfully, he was the youngest officer, and as such was often made the bearer of bad news. The princess had many times exhibited an almost Pavlovian response to Moonburn's arrivals, equating his characteristically turned down dark flight goggles with bad news. Trixie had some amount of sympathy for the guard, and would frequently volunteer to relay bad tidings to her mentor.
He stuck his hoof underneath the crossed lances and lifted up. "Trixie!" he exclaimed, "how long has it been?" The guards raised their lances back to their previous positions and resumed their statuesque stances.
"A few years," said Trixie as she walked through the open doorway after Moonburn, "too many probably, not that Trixie had much of a choice in the matter."
Moonburn led her through the seemingly empty hallways of the upper floors. "You were always welcome Trixie," he replied, "nopony would have kept you from visiting." He stopped in the middle of a hallway and pressed his hoof against a pressure plate on the wall. A doorway slid open, revealing a modest office, roughly the size of Trixie's quarters back in Sin. A Ponykin stood in one corner, clothed head to tail in purple lacquered armor plates. "I suppose this isn't a social call," he said while sitting behind his faux wood desk. He left his dark goggles over his eyes, despite the softer lighting in his office.
"Not as such Corporal," said Trixie, "Trixie understands that you're the pony to see when it comes to the True Loonies."
"It's Inspector Lieutenant now actually," said Moonburn with an obvious lack of enthusiasm, "and yes, I get to chase after a bunch of nutcases who actually refer to themselves as lunatics." He unhooked several of the buttons of his coat and kicked his hooves onto the edge of his desk. "Is this about the two morons I have in lockup?"
"Why else would Trixie risk coming here?" asked Trixie rhetorically. "You obviously know what happened at Sin, so tell Trixie: What have they told you?"
"Not much," said Moonburn, "none of the Loonies we get our hooves on have much to say other than their usual ramblings. Nonsense about 'knowing the princess's true plan,' etcetera, etcetera." He pulled a folder out of a drawer and placed it on the desk. "They're cousins; third wave arrivals; hauled cargo along the rolling roads before the Zoom Tubes came online." He pushed the folder over to the unicorn who quickly levitated it in front of her face and studied it intently. Moonburn coughed violently for a few seconds, causing Trixie to look over the folder with a raised eyebrow. "You really shouldn't worry about these idiots Trix," he said while patting his chest with a hoof, "petty mischief and graffiti are hardly worth your time. They'll probably be released within a couple of days."
Trixie slammed the folder down on the desk and shoved it across the surface. "Mischief and graffiti?!" she shouted. "What kind of fly by night operation are you running here?"
"You do realize that means something completely different to my kind don't you?" he said with a grin.
The joke caused Trixie to lose control of the professional veneer she promised herself she would maintain while in Selene. She slammed her forehooves on the desk and used them to lift herself out of her seat. "I'm glad you find this so funny Burnie," she said, using the stallion's most hated pet name. "They dumped poison over Trixie's fields and assaulted Trixie's new pegasus! Your guards took Trixie's ponies' statements and the herbicide canisters that they were found with!"
Moonburn gathered the scattered pages of the incident report and scanned through them one more time. "There was nothing about that in here," he said, "just the usual vandalism complaint." He went into another fit of coughing and wheezing, falling out of his chair and leaning over on his desk. Trixie softened her glare and reached across the table to lay a hoof on the stallion's chest. "Just a tickle in my throat," he said, waving off her concern. "Look, I don't know what went wrong here, and I apologize for that. Let's head over to the holding cells and find out what we can." He wobbled on his legs as he walked around the desk. "I think a walk would do me some good anyway."
"We live to serve, your majesty," said Diaphanous Veil, "we will not fail you again."
"See to it that you do not, Veil," replied the disembodied voice, "I do not need to remind you how little room for error exists in my plan. Better tools can always be found." The purple line that stretched across the magical display pulsed in time with the princess's angry words. "And do you know what a proper tool does, Veil?" asked the princess. Before the unicorn could respond, the line stretching across the monitor turned into a bonfire of reds and oranges, jumping across the screen as the voice shouted. "A proper tool does what its owner tells it to do! Tell me Veil: Who owns you?"
Diaphanous Veil dropped to her stomach on the dusty floor and pressed her horn against the ground. "You do, my princess," she said, "mind and body."
"Do I?" boomed the voice. "Because it appears as if you think that you know how best to proceed. I told you to leave Lulamoon alone!"
"Your majesty, I just thought that one small push would leave Sin Station ready to revolt," said Veil, her voice wavering, "After the Authority used your likeness to announce the new quotas, I thought-"
"You do not get to think!" shouted the voice. "Listen well Diaphanous Veil. Those traitors and usurpers in the Authority depend on stupidity like yours to further grind all of my subjects beneath their hooves. Now you've led that damned unicorn right into their clutches."
"Trixie?" said Veil as she raised her head slightly, "she's nothing without you my liege. My men saw her collapse with their own eyes. She's a powerless leader of the most useless colony of ponies on your whole wide moon."
"You listen to me, you sniveling worm," growled the voice, "stay away from Lulamoon. As we speak, she is poking around The Stone, looking for answers; looking for you. You will avoid her like the ponypox. If I hear your name in the same sentence as hers, you shall envy her current position once I reclaim my throne."
"Yes your highness," said Veil, gritting her teeth in frustration. "As I said, I live to serve." It truly wasn't fair. Had those two idiots made sure that the pegasus wasn't in the dome, she would be receiving her mistress's praise in place of this tongue lashing. Sin would have been ripe for the picking. At the very least, it would have forced the Authority to show their true colors in a crackdown that would have rung out across the moon for its harshness. There had to be some way back into the princess's good graces. A knock at the cellar door drew Veil's attention from the flickering screen. She bit back a curse. She had left instructions with those idiots: She was not to be disturbed under any circumstance.
"You still are of some use to me Veil," said the disquietingly calm voice. "You will continue harassing the Authority. You will spread the word of revolution. You will remind everypony that the moon is mine, and only I can keep the Authority from wasting their hard earned food and goods on those parasitic Equestrians."
"Yes your highness," replied Veil. The princess's words pressed down on her head. As if the great alicorn had reached through from whatever lair she had hidden herself in and ground her hoof into the back of Veil's skull. Her horn bent painfully on the ground and her vision narrowed to dark tunnels. As quick as the pain had come on, it vanished. Veil raised her head and panted heavily as she inspected the now blank screen. More knocks, this time more insistent, drew the mare to her hooves and up the stone steps that led out of the cellar.
"What is it!" she shouted at the tuxedoed stallion perched above the camouflaged trap door.
"You have a visitor," he said nervously, "she asked for you by name."
"And you didn't tell her to beat it?" shouted Veil incredulously. Thoughts of Trixie leading a squad of Lunar Authority Troopers down on her head flashed through her mind. She used her magic to grab the skinny stallion by the lapel and slammed the side of his head down on a nearby roulette table. "I. Don't. Exist. Remember?"
"She said you told her to come find her here," protested the stallion, "she said she met you a few nights ago, in a field."
Diaphanous Veil stopped throttling the earth pony and took a step backwards. As he stood back up and rubbed his cheek with a hoof, she reached out and smoothed down the collar of his tuxedo. "Take her to my private booth," she said, "and bring a carafe of the finest cider we have." The stallion nodded quickly and nearly ran towards front door. Veil trotted through the Shoot The Moon Lounge, past the gambling tables and well apportioned bar. She nodded at several of the patrons and even managed to keep a sneer from appearing on her muzzle at the sight of a known LA functionary sitting at one of the dining tables. She ducked into her luxurious corner booth and pulled the thick curtains shut behind her. Wrapping her silk, flower print Kimono around her body with her magic, she quickly straightened her mane with her hooves. Satisfied that she didn't look like somepony who, moments before, had her face ground into the floor of a dusty cellar, Veil settled into the corner of her booth. A grey hoof poked in between the dark curtains and pulled them apart.
The wall-eyed pegasus warily stepped inside the booth and let the drapes close behind her. She looked half ready to bolt, especially when she looked Veil in the eyes. "Before you disappeared, you whispered to me that you could get me home," she said while sitting on the edge of the opposite bench. "How?"
"I have my ways Ms. Doo," said Veil, her muzzle turned up in a smile. A plan took form in her mind. One, that if executed properly, would have her firmly back in her mistress's good graces. "If you can be a useful asset to me, I can make just about anything happen."
"Don't you dare feed me that line of manure," shouted Moonburn at the taller of the two fully armored guards. "You were on duty: They were your prisoners." The two guards stood impassively, showing neither shame nor anger. "You were responsible for their safety as much as their incarceration. By The Princesses, how in Equestria did you two get posted to The Stone?"
Trixie ignored the various armored and uniformed ponies and focused on the two motionless earth pony stallions on the floor of the cell. They each huddled into a corner and stared back up at her with a rictus of terror. No wounds; no obvious injuries; not one drop of blood, yet Trixie stood above two undeniably dead ponies. She had inspected the bodies as closely as the two medics had after she and Moonburn walked in on the horrific scene. She imagined that she must appear quite cold, standing over two corpses without a look of shock or sadness on her face. The truth was, death wasn't as jarring as it had been when she first arrived on the moon. Accidents, even the most innocent and seemingly understandable ones, were magnified a hundredfold by the harsh environment they lived in.
While Moonburn continued to unleash his rage on the two hapless guards who were posted at the lone entrance into the cellblock, Trixie began examining the walls of the cell. For some reason, the Authority had placed holding cells on the outer walls of the building. Trixie looked for some sign that the thick, magically reinforced walls had been breached, if only temporarily. Finding no such indication made her even more uneasy: It meant that the danger was within walls. She stood back from the bleached white stone at the sound of approaching hoofsteps. "Trixie doesn't suppose they knew anything useful," she asked.
Moonburn stopped at her side and shook his head ruefully. "I'm surprised they knew what day it was," he replied, "there's a reason they're guarding holding cells that are almost never used."
"Incompetence or corruption," said Trixie, "and only the latter would help Trixie get the answers she needs."
"They were good guards," said Moonburn, "once upon a time." He reached down and lifted the blanket back over the face of one of the deceased. "It happens too much these days," he began, "quality recruits show promise. Then within a few months of taking the oath, they're little better than a saloon bouncer, barely good enough for sentry duty." He stood up from covering the other stallion and sighed. "What did that medic say?" he asked.
"Severe neural shock is the best they could guess," said Trixie, "it wasn't exposure, that much they could assure Trixie." She spun around and trotted out of the cell, passing the open bar doors. "Do you believe Trixie now," she asked of the stallion she assumed was following her. "Mischief and vandalism is the least of what these True Loonies are capable of, and you have to help Trixie find them."
"I'll admit that this is suspicious," said Moonburn, "but I don't know how much I can really help you." He trotted to catch up with her as she strode down the hallway back towards his office. "I was being straight with you about the Loonie incidents: There's nothing in there beyond graffiti and disturbing the peace." He stood at his door while Trixie walked around his desk and took his seat.
"There are two possibilities then," said Trixie as she swept Moonburn's personal effects off the side of his desk, "One: You are telling the truth. In which case, the brilliant and inquisitive Trixie will waste your time tracking down a bunch of ponies with a streak of civil disobedience, but maybe you don't have all the information, and we find something more." She grabbed a large marker from the floor with her magic and began scribbling a crude map of the city on the polished mahogany table. "Two: You're lying to Trixie, and you'll make up for it by helping her track down a cabal of violent thugs."
Moonburn stepped around the desk, over the shattered remains of his favorite coffee mug. "So why would I help you in any case?" he asked while grabbing his slate out of a drawer in his desk.
"Because you're as angry as Trixie is," she said, "angry at the Authority; angry at the princess; angry at what we've all come to. Trixie thinks you're tired of doing nothing about it."
"I'm an officer of the Lunar Authority," said Moonburn, "I don't get to just do something. There is a chain of command. There are procedures to-"
"You were Night Guard before this Authority nonsense started," interrupted Trixie, "before Luna lost her senses. Two ponies are dead Moonburn, and whoever did it wanted you in the dark." She finished sketching the zoom tube lines that led to the smaller colonies and wrote "Sin Station: Assault and crop poisoning," above the westernmost line.
Moonburn exhaled deeply and shook his head. "I knew this assignment was bogus," he said while switching on his slate. He swiped his hoof along its surface and browsed a list of citizen complaints. "I had my own security command you know," he said while picking up a marker, "I had most of my old squad under me, guarding the Slingshots." He began drawing small X's on the map of Selene, jotting down small notes next to each. "Then, out of the blue, they recall me here and say I'm in charge of these Loonies. Here, you work on the port, they were particularly active there." He set the slate on the table between himself and Trixie.
Trixie passed her marker to Moonburn and stood. "Trixie will get on that when she gets back," she said, "Trixie needs to let her companions know that she will be delayed."
"I'll come with," said Moonburn as he stood and buttoned up his waistcoat. "I have a feeling it's going to be a long night, and we'll need coffee."
"So didja have fun?" asked Amber as the skimmer pulled away from Selene. She sat next to the blonde pegasus and held one of the many packages in her lap.
"Not as much as you apparently," said Derpy, "I was afraid we'd have to make two trips." Derpy had arrived back at the Zoom Tube station just in time to see Amber carrying the last package off of a sturdy looking wagon and into the skimmer.
Amber chuckled and tapped the box sitting before her. "Sorry again," she said, "Mother tends to do everything in the extreme. I don't exactly ask for it."
"What did she send?" asked Derpy.
"What didn't she send," replied Amber with a look of exasperation across her face. "Work clothes, horseshoes, spades, shovels, wine, wine making supplies, and a lot more. I was only able to open a few of the shipments." Amber noticed the look of confusion on the pegasus' face and waited for the obvious question. When it didn't come she rolled her eyes and asked for her. "You're wondering how they could send so much, aren't you?" she asked.
"I didn't want to pry," said Derpy, "but I remember how much they were charging for additional weight." She looked around the skimmer at the dozens of packages sitting in the seats. "By the princesses," she gasped after doing the math in her head, "this is probably more than I'm to be paid for my whole season here."
Amber sighed and shook her head side to side. "My family does quite well for itself," she said, "most of them at any rate. Emerald Waves has the largest Pear orchard east of Canterlot; Rolling runs the largest ground based delivery service in Equestria; Barley has his celebrated microbrews. I could go on, but I think you get it. They're all rich, but they're all small potatoes next to Mother and Father."
"What do they do?" asked Derpy. She had heard of Barley Brew's seasonal ales, of course: Just about every bar carried them. Rolling Waves Delivery was all too well known to Derpy: They were the Equestrian Post Office's chief competitor, after all. The brown shirted delivery ponies could be seen in every city in the realm. Dinky refused to go to school unless she had an Emerald pear in her lunch sack. She couldn't imagine who could be wealthier than Rolling Waves.
"Mother runs the Waves family vineyard," replied Amber. "She inherited it from her mother, who inherited it from her mother, all the way back to the consolidation. They've provided the wines to the Princesses and the high nobility without interruption for nearly a thousand years. Mother teases father about that: She says he married her to be closer to the wine."
"Well, it has to be a perk," said Derpy with a grin.
"I could almost believe it had I not seen how they act around each other," said Amber, "the vineyard is one of the few things Father could never buy. He was the president of the Royal Charter Equestrian Bank." She saw the pegasus' jaw drop and rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah," she said in exasperation, "I'm the spoiled rotten daughter of the Ponopoly guy."
"Why in Tartarus are you here?!" shouted Derpy in an almost angry tone, "Princesses above... you must be worth millions of bits!"
"My parents are," corrected Amber, "and my brothers and sisters are to a lesser extent." She placed the box in the aisle and fixed Derpy with a challenging glare. "I'm the only one who wasn't a success by her twenty-first birthday," she said, pounding her chest with a hoof, "and it's not for any lack of trying. But it's not like I can keep mother from being worried, and I'm sure I can find ponies in Sin who have need of..." She looked into the box and shook her head in frustration. "A sun hat?" she said quizzically, "Really Mother, a sun hat?" She picked the box back up and set it in her lap. "Maybe I can make a planter out of it."
"I guess that's a lot of pressure to live up to," said Derpy. She went silent and left Amber alone with her thoughts. She really didn't really understand how having rich parents could have a downside.
"You never answered my question," said Amber, "did you enjoy your day in Selene? Was it anything like you were expecting?"
"Uh, yeah," said Derpy, "it was something else all right." She had left the Shoot the Moon Lounge fairly quickly. Diaphanous Veil didn't seem like the kind of pony you had an idle conversation with; she was all business, which suited Derpy just fine. She didn't exactly like the mare who, days earlier, was ready to cripple her or worse, but if it meant going home, Derpy could set that aside and do what the unicorn mare asked of her. She spent the rest of the day trying to put the meeting out of mind by distracting herself with the sights and sounds of Selene.
"Well, what did you like the best?" asked Amber, "I'm always curious as to what amazes newcomers."
"The Hanging Gardens were nice," said Derpy, "it was good to lose that black sky, if only for a few minutes." She had actually spent a few hours in under the canopy of ferns and palm trees. The ponies in the long triangular sectioned glass building all seemed to be enjoying the solitude and quiet the gardens provided. Through the rare breaks in the treetops, Derpy saw a pegasus pushing clouds across the length of the long room. So carefully crafted was the garden, that none of the rainfall found its way onto a lounging pony. The sound of rain falling from leaf to leaf lent the space an air of calmness; like sitting under an umbrella during a cooling summer shower.
"I thought for sure that the Skypark would have been more your speed," said Amber, "It has so much more space."
"It was okay," said Derpy, "I've never really felt the need to fly as much as other pegasi you might have known. I'm just as comfortable on the ground."
"Well, we're all glad you got the chance to relax," said Amber. "It's not fair to put all this pressure on you, especially after finding out about the length of the seasons. I just hope you know that you're more than a pair of wings for us to use."
"I..." began Derpy, before she looked away from the smiling mare and down at her hooves hanging over the seat. "You've all been kind to me," she said, "far kinder than I deserve."
"Nonsense," said Amber, "nopony deserves to be tricked like you were. I'm not of a mind with those Loonies, but the Lunar Authority is out of control. The fine print shenanigans; the draconian quota punishments; the overzealous guard corps: It's all gone to Tartarus, and it's like Luna let it happen. Thanks to you though, we can at least make things better in Sin." She reached over and patted Derpy on the withers.
Derpy inwardly cringed at the kind words. Veil's instructions flashed through her mind, along with the prospect of spending two years away from Dinky. "So can you help me with something?" she asked. After a nod and smile from Amber, Derpy steeled herself and began. "What exactly does Trixie do?" she asked, "I mean, I understand that she coordinates what you guys do, but that can't be it."
"Oh it's way more than that," said Amber. "If it were just that, she'd have her two ops meetings a day and then go to her room to do whatever it is she does to relax. No, her entire day is taken up with dealing with the other administrators."
"Others?" asked Derpy in confusion.
"From the other colonies," continued Amber. "Each of the seven outer colonies has an administrator, sort of like a mayor, but no colony is capable of completely supporting itself, at least they weren't originally."
"Why did they even make them then?" asked Derpy, "why isn't everypony in Selene?"
"They were, originally," said Amber, "but even though Selene had large supplies of ice and ore under the surface, it was pretty obvious that the number of ponies arriving would require even more. So each colony was placed near as many natural resources as possible."
"That doesn't seem fair to the ponies in the colonies," said Derpy, "it's as if they exist to keep Selene afloat."
"It isn't," replied Amber, "but the princess promised that they would have ultimate say in how much they sent and that they could trade amongst themselves. Trixie's predecessor once told me that being an administrator was like juggling seven balls at once. They have to balance the stuff they send to Selene versus the stuff they send to the Slingshot complex, while still making sure they have enough food, water, and power to keep everypony comfortable. Heck, every shipment back to Equestria is only launched by unanimous consent of the administrators. It's a big responsibility. The Authority's gone and mucked all that up though."
Derpy nodded, Veil had given her a much less detailed description, but then again, she had only been interested in the next part. Derpy licked her lips and fidgeted with a loose pinion feather. "So she manages all that from her slate?" she asked nonchalantly.
"Hah, no," said Amber, "They're useful little devices, but the administrators all have coded workstations in their quarters. Trixie doesn't really let anypony see it though, and you can hardly blame 'er."
"Yeah," said Derpy as she turned and looked out the side of the skimmer as it sped past the outskirts of Selene. "How long do you think she'll be gone?"
Amber reached over the pegasus' shoulder and gave her a light hug. "Aww, don't be worried about Trixie," said Amber, "I know she looked a bit worried, but trust me, if anypony can handle themselves up here, it's her. Plus, didja take a good gander at that bat winged fella with her?" The sturdy mare stamped a turquoise leg to the floor. "I wouldn't mind gettin' in danger with that piece of flank there to pull me out. Mmm, and those cat eyes..."
Derpy felt the mare shiver slightly through the foreleg still resting on her shoulder. "Aaaaamber!" she said, her voice full of embarrassment.
"What?" asked the earth pony mare, "I like a stallion in uniform."
Four days later...
Trixie had never been the most patient pony. Sure, she could focus on a task and see it to completion, even if it took a while, but that little voice in her head never shut up about it. The last few days had been like being back at the rock farm. True there were fewer blisters, but that didn't mean there was any less aggravation. She would have traded the uncomfortable sundress and wide-brimmed hat Moonburn had forced her to wear for a lifetime's worth of blisters.
"Anything?" asked Moonburn, his voice crackling over the short ranged magical communicators.
"Damn it Burnie, there wasn't anything the first thousand times, why would there be something on the thousand and first?" She instantly regretted snapping at stallion and sighed before setting the binoculars down next to the small mountain of disposable cups and rubbing the base of her horn. "Sorry Moonburn," she said, "Trixie needs to lay off the coffee."
"No worries," replied the stallion, "would you like to head back to my place?"
"Trixie supposes so," she said as she began gathering the remains of her day long stakeout. "It's too late to catch the Zoom Tube back to Sin anyway." After hanging the binoculars by their strap around her neck, she stood and stretched her stiff legs. The top floor of the building she had been in for the last day was not the most comfortable perch, but it did offer a nearly unobstructed view of one side of the Silversun Strip. Together with Moonburn's view from the opposite side of the district allowed them to see the comings and goings of everypony below. "Fat lot of good it did Trixie," the mare thought to herself, "two days wasted looking for a pony who's probably not even here." She was sure they had the Loonies dead to rights. The map on Moonburn's now ruined desktop clearly showed that this was the geographical center of Loonie vandalism reports in Selene, and with its nearby Zoom Tube terminus, The Silversun Strip provided easy access to the other colonies.
Trixie let loose one last heavy sigh and looked down dejectedly at the southern entrance to the district. "Is that..." mumbled Trixie while nearly strangling herself pulling the binoculars from around her neck. "Hey Burnie," she said into the communicator on her ankle, "Southern doors; outside of the road; in the tuxedo; is that who Trixie thinks it is?" She followed the bulky unicorn stallion as he stood on the steadily moving rolling-road.
"I'll be damned," replied Moonburn, "that's him alright. It might be a coincidence though."
"No way," said Trixie, "Trixie told you he was playing dumb. Trixie's going down there. Tell Trixie where he stops and come down to help." She knocked over the pile of cups and dropped the binoculars in her haste to reach the elevator. The kick of adrenaline had her heart beating faster than it had in months. She was sure it was Trouble Shooter, the same stallion who had denied any connection to the Loonies, despite Moonburn's reports to the contrary. He had claimed innocence and nearly came to blows with the bat pony when pressed. Moonburn had chalked it up to anti Authority sentiment, but Trixie thought that the stallion had protested a bit too vehemently. Still, even she doubted he would have led them to a gathering of Loonies: He was but one of a few dozen leads they had chased down. She jogged in place as the elevator made its descent to the ground floor.
"He stopped at a gambling parlor," said Moonburn as the elevator came to a torturously slow stop, "The Shoot the Moon Lounge; it's three buildings north of you. I'll meet you there."
Trixie sprinted out of the building, past the confused receptionist before responding. "Alright, Trixie has her sight on the doors," she said, "come on down." They had them now; thanks to the vacuum outside, buildings like this had no rear exits. The rolling roads exited directly into the entryways of each building which were surrounded on all sides by the vacuum. She ran down the conveyor belt walkway, dodging the occasional pony out for an evening of entertainment. Upon seeing the building, Trixie was slightly shocked that her quarry would meet in such a place. The strip's ubiquitous flashing neon signs festooned the outer silver walls of the Lounge, bathing the sides of the building and the immediate ground around it in sickening swirls of bright pink, yellow, and green light. She stepped into the narrow entry tube that led from the road to the front doors nervously stood in place. The sound of leathery wings flapping announced her partner's arrival. "Ready?" she asked.
He had traded his distinctive uniform for a white silk dress shirt and snug pinstripe grey vest. His dark flight goggles were traded for a pair of dark aviator shades. "Find a table; keep alert; I'll sit facing the door. Look like you're having a good time," said Moonburn before stepping forward and opening the door. He held it open with a hoof on the ground, and with a sweep of his other foreleg, invited Trixie to enter. "After you," he said with what Trixie considered a terribly unconvincing grin.
Trixie rolled her eyes and swept past the guard with the imperious stage walk she imagined she would have been famous for had she stayed in Equestria. The grand room of the establishment would have housed Sin's entire company of miners, she thought to herself. Instead of rusty bunks with dirt stained mattresses, there sat velvet upholstered booths and elegantly styled silver filigreed dining tables. A stage of actual wood stood at the opposite side of the room, complete with singing unicorn draped in sheer red silk. Her dulcet tones provided a comforting atmosphere, but didn't demand the patrons' attention.
Compared to the audaciously bright exterior, the inside of the lounge was a tapestry of soft yellow mood lighting and dark shadows that stretched between tables. Even the gambling tables were given just enough light to make their green felt surfaces legible. The sound of plastic chips clicking against each other provided an impromptu percussion section for the unicorn mare singing from the stage. Her horn glowed as she accompanied herself on the upright piano at stage right.
"Welcome to the Shoot the Moon Lounge," said a polite voice to Trixie's left. The petite mare in the black satin dress already had a pair of menus in her magical grip and a knowing smile on her muzzle. "Could I escort you two to one of our private booths?" she asked, "perhaps somewhere quiet and out of the way?"
Trixie sputtered for a moment before Moonburn stepped in. "Darling, would you prefer a secluded booth," he asked with a winning smile, "or perhaps an open table to watch the entertainment from?"
Trixie stopped grinding her molars long enough to reach out and point to one of the tables for two in the middle of the dining area. "That one would be... lovely," she said, "Tri... I mean, I would like to watch the show... uh... sweetness." She mentally scanned her repertoire of spells to find one that would place the stallion on the border of discomfort and pain. She followed the hostess to the central table and had just flared her horn to pull the plush chair out when Moonburn jumped to her side and slid it back for her. She returned his amused grin with a toothy smile that would have been more at home on a psychotic clown.
After their drink orders were taken and lines of sight established, Moonburn leaned across the small table and under the mare's wide brimmed hat. "I don't see him. There are two doors to the right and left of the stage," he said. "They likely lead to the kitchen. I'll keep an eye on the booths, but if he's in there we'll just have to wait him out."
Trixie nodded. "Trixie doesn't know how you can see with those on," she said while fixing her gaze on the stage. She reached over to grab his sunglasses. He batted her hoof away and sat back into his chair.
"I do well enough," he said while graciously accepting their drinks from a waiter. "Is there any way I can convince you to let me go get some backup?"
"After what happened in The Stone, you're lucky Trixie still trusts you," she growled. She picked up her chilled glass of sparkling mineral water and took a deep sip. "Let Trixie know if anypony approaches." She squeezed her eyes shut and concentrated on drawing her magic into her horn. Thanks to her hat, the light show her pink magical aura would have created was dulled to a small glow directly under the brim.
Moonburn was too busy turning his head to see if anypony was observing them to notice the light flicker out. When he looked back at Trixie, only his quick reflexes kept him from spitting a mouthful of water at the mare. Her right eye, seemingly filled with swirling white and grey vapors, stared lifelessly while her left eye stared back at him normally. "What the buck..." he muttered.
"Just cover for Trixie," said the unicorn, "this takes all of Trixie's concentration. Oh, and watch your hooves."
He was about to as what she meant when a tiny brown sphere materialized on the table between them. He raised an eyebrow in confusion and slowly brought his head closer to the magical anomaly when it began rolling around the table on its own volition. It stopped an inch away from the tip of the stallion's nose and gave the stallion quite a start when it winked at him. Inside the magical construct appeared to be an eye, complete with a pupil and iris. He looked back up at Trixie and shook his head in mock disgust. "That's really gross Trixie."
Trixie grinned as the ball rolled off the table and onto the floor. "Trixie will check by the stage." The spell had always given her headaches, literally. Rolling the sensor across the floor meant going on a dizzying ride with it. Combined with the stationary image her left eye provided, the whole experience usually left her nauseous and disoriented. As "she" rolled along the floor, carefully avoiding the occasional waiter or customer, she reached the line of gaming tables and the crowd of ponies surrounding them. She sent her sensor on a meandering path beneath their hooves, periodically stopping to examine each pony before moving on.
"Trixie," said Moonburn nervously.
Trixie had learned to tune out the stationary side of her vision when using the spell, but the familiar voice still threatened to ruin her focus. "Hush," replied the mare, "Trixie told you she needs to concentrate." A few more seconds of searching found what she was looking for. Tucked away in the corner next to the kitchen was a small opening in the wall through which servers ducked in and out of. She followed a tuxedoed earth pony balancing a tray of empty drinks though the threshold. She was initially discouraged upon seeing what seemed to be the servers station. The pony she followed deposited the used stemware into a large bin and picked up two large menus in his teeth before walking back out into the main area. Towards the end of the narrow corridor, she thought she saw him.
"Trixie," said Moonburn once more, "theres..."
She ignored his shaking hoof on her shoulder and rolled the sensor along the false wall, towards where she spotted the unicorn stallion. The corridor ended abruptly; there was no sign of her quarry. "Where, did he gmmmmph," she began muttering before she was silenced.
Trixie focused her vision back to her good eye and nearly lost control of the spell completely upon seeing Moonburn's muzzle pressed against her own. She prepared to slap the sense the stallion had somehow lost back into his lust addled skull. He grabbed her hoof at the apex of her swing and pinned it to her side. Now Trixie wasn't some inexperienced filly. She had spent her fair share of late night hours in taverns both bawdy and raucous, and had canoodled with the denizens therein. Added to that were years spent with Princess Luna, who, contrary to public knowledge, but obvious to common sense, was quite familiar with the things ponies did in the dark and in their dreams. The stiff lips and complete lack of tongue were obvious signs that Moonburn was definitely not into it.
He pulled away slight and moved his muzzle to her ear. "By the door," he whispered breathlessly, "tell me you remember those two."
Trixie closed her eyes and released her spell. Opening them again, she felt a familiar migraine begin to take hold. She shook it off and opened both eyes. Between the slight double vision, she saw the two stallions at the door. "Not possible," she whispered, "they were dead. Trixie checked their pulses herself. They. Were. Dead." But it clearly was possible, she thought to herself. Both stallions that had been splayed out on the holding cell floor were now standing by the door, clearly waiting for somepony.
"They know me Trixie," said Moonburn nervously, "I conducted their interrogations myself."
Trixie knew they had to put distance between themselves and the two impossible stallions. She glanced towards the stage and dance floor where a few couples swayed in each other's hooves. "Follow Trixie," said the mare as she stood. She grabbed his hoof with hers and pulled him towards the small dance floor in front of the stage. The singing mare had retreated to the piano and hummed while concentrating on playing a slow but intricate waltz. "Trixie assumes you remember the steps?" she asked while placing a hoof around Moonburn's withers.
"It's been a while," he said before stepping forward in time with the lilting melody, "but thanks to the commander, I doubt I could forget them even if I wanted to." The pair of ponies glided along the small dance floor, making a lazy circuit, that both allowed them to survey the room and avoid suspicion. "As nice as this is, we need a plan," said Moonburn, "did you see where the big guy went?"
Trixie looked back at the false wall and pulled the stallion close before whispering into his hear. "Behind the wall there," she said while shifting her weight to her rear hooves, bending backwards and letting him dip her. When he pulled her back to her forehooves, she spoke into his ear. "We need a distraction. Something to draw all the waiters out of there."
Moonburn nodded and craned his head around hers to peer at the crowded gambling tables. The roulette table in particular had a crush of ponies desperately trying to get in on the action. Each time the wheel came to a stop, somepony jumped up and down in excitement, causing the drinks on the edge of the table to shake. He leaned in and whispered in Trixie's ear. A small grin grew into a devilish smile across the mare's muzzle.
Sure Thing was having an abnormal run of bad luck. He never doubted that he'd make his bits back by the end of the night, luck was his special talent, but any chance of tipping the cute singer was quickly disappearing into the pockets of the House. The night had started with Blackjack, his game of choice, not just for the payout, but for the leisurely pace and typically pleasant conversation with the other players. However, after that pair of split tens that both busted on him, he swore off the game for the night. Craps had an element of strategy to them, but after losing a hot streak on a pair of snake eyes, he decided that it was time to let his supernatural luck do the heavy lifting and walked to the roulette table.
"That bad Sure Thing?" asked a unicorn mare in a black skirt and white button down shirt. She grinned at the earth pony as he squeezed in between two other players.
"Just a bump in the road Miss Dawn Break," he said, "You'll see."
"That confidence is going to get you in trouble one of these days Sure," she said, "but it's my job to take your money, not help you save it." She held out a hoof, sole side up, and waited for the stallion to put his money where his mouth was. A small bag of coins quickly found their way into her hoof and after counting it, she dropped several stacks of multicolored chips in front of him and deposited the bits into the lockbox under the table. "Alright mares and gentlecolts," she said, "place your bets, if you so wish."
Sure Thing examined the state of the board. These ponies were obviously here for the thrill, he thought to himself. Most had placed outside bets, those with a slightly less than 50% chance of winning. Obviously, one had to play the field, if they truly wanted to trust in their luck. He began dividing his stack of chips and placing a couple of smaller piles on lines where two numbers met or corners where four fields intersected. He saved his one last larger pile, what he called his "Destiny Bet," and waited for Dawn Break to begin the round.
"Here we go folks," she said, "Follow the little ball, and ask Luna for all the luck in the moon." She lifted the small faux ivory ball with her magic and reached out with her hoof to give the wheel a spin. When it was at an acceptable speed she rolled the ball onto the wheel counter to its rotation. It had taken Sure a few months to acclimate to the rather slow speed at which the roulette ball was thrown, but with lunar gravity being what it was, a single throw would have lasted minutes if proper Equestrian practices were followed.
As the ball made its way around Sure Thing held his Destiny Bet in his hoof and closed his eyes. The sound of cheering ponies faded away. The lovely waltz the singing mare played, as well as her sweet humming faded and he was left with the sound of the ball rolling against the surface of the wheel. In his self imposed sensory deprivation, he waited for the universe to tell him what to do. Nopony ever believed him when he tried to explain his luck, but he didn't need them to. His eyes snapped open and he dropped his chips onto the twenty-three square just as Dawn Break called out, "Rien ne va plus!"
Sure Thing gave a contented smile and waited as the ball lost its angular momentum and began clacking against the wheel's insets. He kept his cocky grin in place as the ball bounced over two numbers and landed squarely in the twenty-three slot. Between the nearly equal number of cheers and groans of the other gamblers, came a few scattered, "Wows!" No doubt from ponies who had seen his last second winning bet. A small clear plastic rake scooped the losing bets off the board, and small stacks of chips floated from Dawn Break's dealer bank and floated to the various winners. The hefty stack that made its way in front of Sure Thing was accompanied by a shake of the mare's head that said, "I don't know how you do it."
The next ten minutes were the reason he spent his nights in the Silversun Strip. Some say luck is contagious, but Sure Thing figured that luck was a massive boat. A ship so massive that other, smaller, ships were constantly getting stuck in its wake. The ponies around the table proved his hypothesis again and again by following his bets across the board. Each spin they raced to see who could join him on his mystery bet, and more times than not, join him in his victory celebrations. As the evening went on, he began pushing larger and larger piles onto the board, doubling, and soon tripling the number of bits he came in with. His luck was running wild, and the whole of the lounge was taking notice. Waiters and Waitresses stopped on their way to bringing orders to customers to watch the outcome of a spin. The red dressed singing mare took a small break to watch the excitement. Even a few of the chefs made their way from the kitchen to see the incredible run of good luck.
Sure Thing felt as if the entirety of creation was using him as a conduit through which it could bring luck into the world. So true was his fortune this night, that he decided, for the first time since he was a young colt, not to hedge his bets. As Dawn Break spun the ball onto the wheel, Sure felt the universe's call and pushed his entire pile of chips onto the green zero square. The other ponies held their breaths as the ball began wobbling on its trajectory. For Sure Thing, time slowed down to the point where everything moved in extreme slow motion. The dials on the slot machines across the room slowly spun revealing each image clearly as they passed. Beads of condensation slowly traveled down the snifter of chilled apple brandy sitting on the side of the game table. From the corner of his eye, the slight up and down motion of the brim of a mare's sun hat caught his attention. The stallion dancing with her had led them close the edge of the stage. He returned his gaze to the Roulette wheel and time sped up again as the ball began bouncing from slot to slot. In a fitting bit of theatrical suspense, the ball seemed more active than ever on this roll of the highest stakes. It was almost unnatural the way it caromed off of part of the wheel time after time. Finally, it lost momentum and headed right where he knew it would. Breaths were held and hooves were pressed to muzzles as the little white faux ivory ball landed in the green zero slot... and somehow, against all laws both physical and metaphysical, bounced out and into the slot labeled three.
After giving it one last nearly imperceptible jolt, Trixie released her control of the micro fine filament of magic she had spun into the Roulette Wheel. Moonburn had quickly ferreted out the small hatch at the end of the corridor that ran the length of the false wall. He lifted the foot open and waved for Trixie to head down the stairs.
She gave the stallion a determined nod and quickly, but quietly descended into the darkened cellar. Moonburn followed and had just closed the hatch behind him when the blood curdling "Noooooo!" made its way from the lounge's main hall. Trixie was quite proud of herself. The kind of magical control needed to influence those odds were nearly impossible. Trixie was sure that even Twilight Sparkle would have been proud; proud and jealous. Self congratulation would have to wait, however, as she had a poorly lit cellar to explore. A series of irregular steps descended into a room filled with several shelves running its length. The entire space was hewn from the very rock of the moon, and obviously had been constructed after the building above. It extended far beyond the building's footprint, having been expanded as the business above grew. The floor was far from smooth, with marks from digging tools scarring the exposed stone.
"... is an idiot," said the feminine voice, "the mistress cares not if he comes or goes, but the other; she is worrying. You're sure you weren't followed?"
Trixie immediately ducked low to the ground and slowly crept in between the nearest rows of floor to ceiling storage shelves. She looked behind at Moonburn and nodded her head towards the source of the conversation. He tapped his chest with his hoof and pointed towards the other side of the cellar before creeping out of site between rows of boxes, spare chairs, and tables. Trixie aimed herself down the shadow strewn corridor and took a first hesitant step.
"Gimme some credit Veil," said a second familiar voice, "I transferred at three Zoom Tube stations and took four rolling roads to get here. Plus, I'm pretty sure they were fishing for information. The LA goon got this sour look on his mug every time I told 'em to take a walk outside. But if ya don't trust me, I could always head home, but then I'd have to take the present I brought with me." Trixie carefully pushed a pair of empty carafes to the side and peered out at the pair of conversing ponies.
"You got it!" squealed the mare in excitement. She had her back to Trixie, but clearly took something from the stallion. What it was, Trixie couldn't discern. "Did you have any trouble?" asked the unknown mare.
"Not really," said the bulky unicorn, "everypony's so desperate for help meeting the new quotas that they put me on their maintenance team almost immediately. A few demonstrations of my abilities with locks and I was able to come and go as I pleased. Getting in and out of his room was a cinch."
"By the mistresses mane, I wish I had twenty more of you Trouble Shooter," said the mare.
"That's six right?" asked the stallion, "Sin will probably be cake compared to Apollo. I can be there tomorrow if I hurry." The mention of her station got Trixie's heart pumping.
"Not quite yet Trouble," said the mare, "I have somepony already working on that, and the mistress has forbidden any direct action against their administrator. Worry not though; if all goes to plan, we'll have our trump card in a matter of days."
"And the Lunar Authority and all of Equestria will bow before our princess once more," said the stallion, a hint of malice in his voice.
"That's all I need to hear," shouted a loud commanding voice. Trixie slapped a hoof to her face and stifled an annoyed groan. "By order of the Lunar Authority and on behalf of Her Royal Highness, Princess Luna, I place you both under arrest for treason against the realms of Equestria and the Moon."
The large stallion wheeled around and stared daggers at Moonburn as he emerged from behind a pile of empty metal storage boxes. "Arrest yourself stooge," he growled while adopting a defiant stance. His horn exuded a deep grey aura as he gathered magic to throw at the Inspector Lieutenant.
"No!" moaned the mare. "Not now!" She began turning around in circles. "I know you're here Deserter!" she shouted, "Oh yes, I know all about you Trixie. I know how you abandoned your princess. How you threw all of her generosity back into her face and chose yourself over everypony in Selene and beyond." She spat at the ground and gave an almost feral growl. "You've thrown in with them. But you won't catch me!"
Trixie saw the mare gather her magic and quickly reached into the pocket of her sundress. The mare began to shimmer and disappear from view. Trixie jumped out from behind the shelf and tossed a small bundle at the last place she had seen the mare's head. The tiny sack burst open on contact, spreading a cloud of glittering dust over everything in within a few meters. The mare coughed and wheezed loudly, and in tandem with the seemingly floating splotch of glitterdust, her attempt to disappear was effective ruined. Trixie dropped her wide brimmed hat to the ground and strode towards the mare, a cocky grin plastered on her muzzle.
Not waiting for an invitation, Moonburn lunged towards the stallion, using his wings to propel him at a frightening speed. Caught by surprise by the glittery explosion and appearance of Trixie, Trouble Shooter was quite unprepared for the seasoned night guard's onslaught. Two hooves caught the unicorn in his wide chest. He lowered his horn to zap the offending bat pony, but only managed to singe a threadbare tablecloth hanging on a shelf behind where Moonburn had previously been standing. The winged pony had already dropped to his knees and rolled to the side before latching onto the unicorn's right rear leg with a forehoof. A quick tug pulled Trouble Shooter off balance, and gave Moonburn all the opening he needed. With a flap of his leather wings, he pulled himself from the ground and quickly into the air, to the nearly 7 foot high ceiling. He twisted his body on the way up so that his hooves made contact with the rocky ceiling first. He pushed off and shot himself, like a pony seeking missile, at the unicorn's flailing form. He crashed into Trouble Shooter, sending both tumbling into a mostly empty shelving unit.
Diaphanous Veil tried to wipe the glitter from her eyes while backing away from the confident unicorn drawing closer to her. "You're not supposed to be here!" she moaned.
"Is that so?" asked Trixie as her pink magical aura gather around her horn. She scooped up the mare in her magical grasp, pulling the helpless mare to her until their noses nearly touched. "Where, pray tell, is Trixie supposed to be?"
"At my side, heeding my commands!" boomed an all too familiar voice. Trixie, not one to be easily surprised, left Diaphanous Veil hanging in the air and looked towards the source of the outburst. The antiquated Oscilloscope hanging on the wall roared to life, it's normally green waveform a bright red. "Release my servants and there may be a chance for you to escape this situation unharmed," said the disembodied voice.
Trixie looked over at Moonburn, who stood over the prone unicorn stallion. He shook his head from side to side. "Why?" she asked simply.
"Because you know that my power has no limits," boomed the voice. "I could end you and your comrade in so many ways. It would be nothing to me, really."
Trixie snorted in laughter. "Of course you could," said Trixie, "but Trixie was referring to your idiotic, and downright confusing association with these thugs and saboteurs. Why not use some of that unlimited power to simply crush the Lunar Authority if you hate it so much? And why, for that matter, do you suddenly despise the Authority, now, after all our arguments; after the solstice; after my 'reassignment'?" Trixie hadn't realized it, but she had subconsciously stepped forward with every question until she stood inches away from the antiquated, dusty device. Lights played across the screen as the voice remained silent. "So yeah," began Trixie, "Why?"
"I do not owe anypony an explanation," said the voice calmly, "least of all you. Other ways can be found. Goodbye Trixie Lulamoon." The waveform returned to a solid bar of green light.
"I'm sorry mistress!" moaned Diaphanous Veil, "Don't leave me your highness! I will do better!"
"Well that sure was a lot of bluster," said Moonburn. Before he could continue, a high pitched squeal from the oscilloscope forced both ponies to cover their ears. "I, uh, I don't like this Trixie!" he shouted as the high pitched noise intensified.
"Grab him!" shouted Trixie, "We need to get out of here!" She floated the unicorn mare in front of her as she ran back across the cellar to the small rock staircase that led up to the gambling lounge floor. She swung open the hatch, surprising a tuxedoed waiter and causing him to fling his tray at the wall. She tossed Veil through the threshold and had a hoof out of the cellar door when the roar and reverberations of an explosion deafened her. A shockwave of compressed air surged through the basement, slamming Trixie out of the hole and into into the wall. Black spots danced across her vision, and all the concentration needed to maintain her magic fled. She reached a hoof towards the retreating glitter covered unicorn mare, but found herself unable to rise to her hooves to give chase. Thoughts of pursuit faded when she felt a gale force wind rushing down the hatch, pulling her tail with it.
"Breach!" she shouted at the top of her lungs. She shakily rose to her hooves, ignoring a twinge of pain from one of her hips. Thoughts of homicidal princesses and shadowy secret societies fled her mind and years of instinct kicked in. She carefully tried to ease herself back down the stairs to assess the damage. The combination of the explosion and windy aftermath had turned the basement into a debris covered nightmare. An odd rising spire of detritus was reaching towards the ceiling and a meter wide hole in the rock. "Moonburn!" shouted Trixie, her voice nearly drowned out by the roar of rushing wind.
"Over...here," shouted the stallion in a pained voice. He and the apparently unconscious unicorn stallion were pinned beneath a pile of collapsed metal shelves.
"Trixie is on the way," she shouted, "Just hold on!" She pushed aside the lingering dizziness from the detonation and grabbed hold of her magic. The first spell she and Luna had created together came together easily, and a shimmering field of pink magic sealed the hole in the ceiling. The miniature mountain of junk stopped growing, individual pieces of junk began rolling from its steep slopes. She limped to the Moonburn's side and helped the stallion free himself.
He stood and looked over his shoulder at his wings. Several tears marred the thin membrane, seriously compromising his ability to fly. "That's going to sting in the morning," he said before bending over to pull Trouble Shooter out of the pile of debris. "Are you okay down here?" he asked, "somepony needs to go get some help, and I think it should be me."
Trixie sat on her haunches while keeping her attention on the sealed breach. "Trixie will wait here," she said, "just be careful. The mare got away from Trixie." Moonburn nodded and trotted up the stairs with the unconscious stallion across his back, leaving Trixie alone with her disturbed thoughts.
Sure Thing sat on his haunches outside the evacuated Shoot the Moon Lounge. He stared at the front door as armored guards exited and entered the damaged building. From behind him he could hear a member of the emergency maintenance squad chatting with a few of the waiters.
"The guards say it was a faulty magic diverter," he said, "must have been a big one to cause a hole that big. I don't want to alarm you folks, but if the explosion had been a couple of feet closer to the building, the entire rear wall might have been compromised. No amount of magic would have helped had that been the case. You folks were truly lucky." Sure Thing's uncontrolled outburst of laughter drew the paramedics to his side. Hooves patted his back and sympathetic voices tried to calm him down.
"Lucky!" exclaimed the gambler mirthfully, "I'm still lucky!"
"Why am I doing this again?" asked Twilight. The young alicorn held her crown in her magical grasp, a look of doubt creeping across her face.
"Your highness would certainly regret it if her crown was stolen," said the unicorn guard holding the metal box open for her. "Plus, I know you wouldn't want the hotel's management to worry about the safety of your most valuable possessions." He tilted the box towards her and grinned.
"Well we wouldn't want that," mumbled Twilight as she deposited the jewel tipped tiara into the container. She turned to the hoof wringing earth pony and put on her most serene princess face. "I would never question your rules in your establishment," she said, "but is there a reason for such extreme measures?"
"But of course your highness," said a the aged mare. She ushered the princess and her escort to the wall of safes and pointed to one with an open door. "The gathering of equestrian royalty must surely be made as safe as possible," she said, "both for your highness's persons and possessions, especially with the thief on the prowl."
"Oh yeah, I read something about that," said Twilight.
"Shocking!" said the guard, his voice dripping with sarcasm. He finished depositing items from their embroidered saddle bags into the box and carefully closed the lid. He lifted the lockbox into the safe and winced as Twilight pinched his flank with her magic.
The hotel manager turned a scandalized look between the princess and her guard before closing the safe door. She pulled down the steel barred door from the ceiling and used the key hanging from her neck to lock it in place. "Ahem..." she coughed before regaining her train of thought. "Yes ma'am," she said, "the infamous Specter of Manehattan. He, or she I suppose, robbed the Hooflyn Museum of Natural History last night. Word has it they made off with the Prancy Diamond." She held out a hoof and waited as the princess and her guard walked past her.
"Well I don't see what they would want with my crown," said Twilight. She helped the mare pull one of the two massive iron banded oak doors close as they reached the end of the small hallway. "It's just a series of highly opaque shaped amethysts inset in a rather light golden Tiara. My old one was much nicer."
"Princess ownership would make anything appreciate in value," mused the stallion guard, "we could probably turn a tidy profit on your used quills. Heck, we could probably afford a new castle on crumpled up parchment." He stepped to the side of the long corridor and allowed a trio of the hotel's security ponies to slide a heavy metal bar across the imposing double doors.
"Of course we're certain you could quite easily safeguard your own belongings," said the manager, "but why tempt fate? We have employed the latest advances in magical technology to create the most impenetrable vault in all of Manehattan, and that includes those at the Royal Charter Equestrian Bank." As they reached the end of the corridor, she turned and waved to the two ponies who remained back at the large doors. Each turned to one wall of the hallway and opened a small panel. They looked at each other and nodded before flipping a switch with their hooves. Twilight's ears pricked up as the hum of unseen machinery reverberated behind the walls. Shimmering golden barriers winked into existence every few meters, all the way up to the two security officers.
"Wow!" exclaimed Twilight, "Luna had asked me for some ideas, but I never thought she'd have working units already!" She walked to the nearest barrier and gingerly touched her hoof to its glowing yellow surface. The pulsating energy, already familiar to her as a master practitioner of the magical arts, caused the hair on her ankles to stand on end. Deciding that she had to see the inner workings of the systems, the princess aimed her horn at the nearest section of wall. Her lavender magical aura created a disk of energy that quickly became transparent, revealing the ductwork behind the thick stone wall.
"You promised not to use that spell anymore," mumbled her bodyguard.
"I did nothing of the sort," protested Twilight, "I promised I wouldn't make that mistake again. It's not like there's a bathroom on the other side." She ignored the soft burn of the blush in her cheeks and studied the conduits that apparently fed raw magic into the intricate magical field generators. She followed the elegant, almost artistic lattice of wires and insulation down the hallway, tuning out the concerned voices behind her. "Fascinating," she said to herself upon further study of a device that split the flow of magical power over the ceiling and to another generator on the other side of the hallway. "Somepony must supply the power from somewhere else," she said to herself, "more than one I assume." Wherever she turned her gaze, the transparent hole in the wall followed. It wasn't until she reached the large double doors, and the two flummoxed security guards standing beside it that she was pulled out of her reverie.
"You ask her," whispered one of the guards nervously as he pushed his colleague towards the princess.
"Um, y...your majesty?" he sputtered, "is there a problem with the system?"
Twilight looked up at the look of utter confusion on both ponies faces and turned around. She cringed at the sight of a series of Twilight shaped holes in each barrier. "No, no," she said waving her hooves in front of her, "I got a bit carried away. I'm sure it's just fine, see." She concentrated on the holes she had subconsciously made for herself and gave a sigh of relief as they collapsed, leaving each barrier whole and unbroken. She asked them to shut down the system to allow her to rejoin the manager and her guard on the other end of the hallway.
"I'm so embarrassed Princess Twilight," said the older mare, "perhaps you should keep your crown on your person while you stay with us."
"I should be the one to apologize," said Twilight. "I let myself go a bit too far when it comes to magic. I'm sure your vault is safer than any other place I could provide."
"But what if somepony does what you did?" asked the worried mare as she sat on her haunches, wringing her hooves. "What if the Specter finds a way in? I don't think I would ever forgive myself if your crown was taken on my watch."
Twilight tried to find a way to explain the complexity of the barrier bypass spell she had somehow cast while completely distracted. Somehow, saying, "I'm the greatest magician in the kingdom," seemed a bit too egotistical to her: Too Trixie-esque. Well, hopefully Trixie had toned down the boasting, thought Twilight. A few years on the moon, in the company of Princess Luna would surely have introduced some modesty into her friendly rival. As she was considering what to say, her guard jumped in for her.
"I really wouldn't worry about it ma'am," said the unicorn stallion, "She might be a bit oblivious sometimes, but nopony knows magic like Twilight. He smiled back at the alternating angry and blushing face of his charge. "Unless she's planning on robbing you herself, it'd take somepony extremely talented to get that crown."
Felina set the flawless diamond back on the pedestal and marveled as the light from the priceless chandelier caught each facet. Beams of multicolored light, split by the natural prism, played across her dark grey coat. The crack of thunder drew the young mare's gaze away from her gallery. Rain pelted the roof of her penthouse apartment as a late summer thunderstorm blew through the city that never sleeps.
The diminutive unicorn mare stood and walked to the thick velvet curtains covering the magnificent view of the Polo Grounds. A view that usually went wasted. Felina took a deep breath before peeking between the hanging purple drapes. Thankfully the visibility had been reduced to the point where only the lights on the roof of the building below her managed to cut through the dense curtain of rain. She stood at the window for several minutes, enjoying the sense of isolation the storm provided. She rather enjoyed the rain: She imagined most ponies in her line of work would.
She sauntered back to her gallery and took one last longing look at her treasures before sliding the cleverly disguised wall panel back into place and covering it with a cheap print of the Roana Lisa. It was truly a shame that she had to turn the Prancy Diamond over to the stallion in the morning. She didn't care if he called himself an art collector: A fence was still a fence, no matter how many fancy airs he put on. Bits had to be made, however, and the bits she made would keep her in the lifestyle she was owed for years to come.
Of course, money wasn't everything. Felina picked up the wrinkled copy of the Manehattan Times and reread the headline that had captured her attention in the day since her last job:
Equestrian Royal Conclave Convenes at Grand Mareiott
The annual meeting of Equestria's Princesses is scheduled to begin tomorrow morning with the ongoing construction of Princess Luna's elevator to space topping the agenda. Though it is unclear whether or not the Princess of the Night actually intends to make an appearance at this year's gathering, Hotel staff and security are preparing as if her arrival were imminent. Several floors of Manehattan's finest hotel have been dedicated to the comfort and safety of all four of the regal Alicorns, along with a sizable security force augmenting the squadrons of Royal Guards...
Felina's stopped reading and her eyes drifted to the large picture dominating the front page. It must have been from the last conclave, as only Celestia, Cadenza, and Sparkle were present. They stood, smiling, atop a balcony, waving at their subjects below. Felina cared not for their station, only the symbols that such standing came with: The crowns. Celestia's of course was the grandest. The gold alone must put such a strain on the ancient ruler's neck: Felina thought that somepony should relieve her of such a burden. The whimsical crown atop the Crystal Empress's head, though smaller, featured a seemingly one of a kind purple pearl. Then, of course, there was most underestimated of all the crowns. Felina's aesthetic senses and appraiser's eye told her it was the lesser of the three diadems, but her heart told her that it was the one that belonged in her gallery. The crown of a princess who came from the common ponies, one who, only a few years earlier, had been a unicorn just like her. It was proof positive that one could change their stars. She wanted it; she wanted it for the day she came back. Felina would show her all of the treasures she had gathered: The Ruby Heart of Istallia, the Mareharaja's scepter, the glittering headdress of the Lipizzaner Queens. She would show them to that mare, and she would know the mistake she made.
Felina had waited long enough. The rain gave her many options, and she had better things to do than admire a mere diamond. She stepped into her spacious bedroom and swung open the large antique Prench armoire. Now that had been a fun job; the Viscount's castle had such small windows. She swept the silk and satin gowns to the far sides of the built-in clothes rack and used her magic to unlock the hidden rear compartment. With a little pressure from her forehoof, the spring loaded plank swung open revealing the tools of her trade. Ropes, lock picks, pry bars, and dozens of devices wrapped in linen rags floated out of the hidden alcove and into her waiting panniers. A quick change of clothes later and she was on a taxi-wagon heading towards Lincolt square and the Grand Mareiott.
The streets were full even as the storm continued to drench Manehattan in a cooling downpour. Wagons queued up at each intersection, waiting for the signal ponies to allow them to cross. The stallion driving the taxi miserably allowed the rain to cascade over hat, pausing only occasionally when they were stopped to lean his head to the side and allow the rain to pour off of his flat billed cap. Rivulets of water flowed from this slightly extended wings that didn't seem to fold correctly. "Wait," thought Felina, "wings?" The cabbie was clearly a pegasus. She figured he had to have a story to lead him to such an odd line of work for his kind. Felina took pity on the stallion and used her magic to hold a newspaper over his head.
"Thank ya, ma'am," said the stallion, "these dang storms just sneak up on us. The bosses won't give us time to head back to the depot for rain gear."
"You really shouldn't let them treat you like that," said Felina, "demand what you're owed or quit. Anything less demeans you and your abilities." Surrendering to ones fate didn't appeal to the mare. Shielding the stallion from the storm was the lesser kindness, encouraging him to better himself was the greater.
The stallion, familiar only with silence or disdain from fancily dressed ponies such as her, quirked an eyebrow and nodded in understanding. "A few of the boys have been thinkin' maybe we should strike," he said over his shoulder while still keeping his eyes on the road, "just to get the bosses' attention. Maybe ask for a pay hike while we're at it."
"I suppose that's one way," she said, "but then again, you know the roads; you do the work. What do you need a boss for?"
"I know, right!" guffawed the stallion, "but, seriously, these wagons aren't cheap ma'am, more than a cabbie can afford at any rate." He turned onto Broadway and started galloping at a fast pace. "Some of the old fellas try to save enough, but find out they don't got the withers for the work no more, or they figure out they can't keep the darn things in workin' order. Those potholes in The Broncos crack more wheels than you'd believe."
Felina remained silent and watched the flashy signs zoom by as they passed the theater district. "Henny of the Hills is still playing," she thought to herself, "it was terribly overrated." The rain began letting up as they entered Lincolt Square, becoming a steady drizzle. She reached into her panniers for a few scraps of paper and began jotting down a note with a small charcoal pencil she always kept handy.
"Here we are ma'am," said the stallion as he pulled under the awning of the massive building. "The Grand Mareiott Hotel. Looks like they're pretty full up!" He pointed at the row of chariots and wagons parked under a covered lot. "Would ya like me to wait for ya in case they don't have any rooms?"
"That won't be necessary," said Felina as she stepped onto the damp walkway, "How much do I owe you?" The stallion grabbed a quill from inside his fare chest and scribbled into a book he had opened. As he distracted himself with his work, Felina floated a hefty bag from her panniers into the open lockbox.
"That'll be fifteen bits ma'am," he said with a smile. Felina passed him a smaller bag of jingling bits. The stallion felt the weight of the bag and held out a hoof. "Hold on ma'am, this is way too much," he said while opening the bag and shifting its contents around, "There must be fifty bits in here at least."
Felina flashed the pegasus stallion a smile and began walking backwards towards the entryway. "Do keep the change," she called out, "consider it a step towards that wagon of your own."
"Busy night?" asked the wizened old unicorn.
Star Bolt lifted the box with his night's fares onto the shelf built into the door of the property room. He smiled at the wrinkled clerk's face and pushed it through the window opening. "Ain't it always Old Bean?" he asked. He grabbed the clipboard Bean Counter passed through and recorded his clock out time. "Any chance I can hook up the rain gear tonight?" he asked, "You know, so I don't have to run through a wall of water tomorrow?"
"Sorry son," said the clerk as he took the cabbie's fare book from inside the chest. "Boss sez the pegasi are holding off the showers until the same time tomorrow. He don't want yous guys to tire yousselfs with all that junk hangin' on yer rides." He levitated a quill and began pulling bits out of the chest.
"We're gettin' mighty sick of this Bean," said Star Bolt, "we're big colts, we can handle a few more pounds if it means not catchin' our death in those squalls." He kicked the bottom of the door with a forehoof, causing the bits inside the chest to rattle. "You have to talk some sense into him," he said angrily, "he can't treat us like this."
The old unicorn rolled his eyes while he continued cashing out the pegasus. "Sure looks ta me like he can," grumbled Bean Counter. He read off a trip, counted out a number of bits equal to the route's fare, and deposited them into the slot on the top of the large safe at his side. He had become so adept at the process and the magical weight of a bit, he never even had to look into the lock box. He kept his face in the fare book and soldiered on. The clerk reached Star Bolt's final fare of the night and pulled fifteen bits from the chest. "It's always the same thing with you cabbies," he muttered while scratching his initials at the bottom of the page, "the boss gives yous a ride; it ain't enough. He gives yous the best routes in Equestria; yous bitch and moan. Princesses above, be grateful for once in yer lives." He pushed the lockbox back through the window followed by the stallion's fare book. Loose bits rattled inside the chest. "See, it even sounds like yous got some decent tips." The old unicorn sat at his desk and lifted a stained porcelain teacup to his lips. "Go buy yousself a poncho," he grumbled. Star Bolt growled and yanked the box off the shelf. It weighed surprisingly more than he was used to at the end of a shift. "Well?" asked Bean Counter, "yous wanna help wash the carts or something?"
"See you tomorrow Old Bean," replied the pegasus, before slinging the box onto his back and trotting out the door. He continued a dozen blocks towards his small one room apartment in Hooflyn before ducking under the awning outside a closed Istallion restaurant. He set the chest onto the ground and lifted the lid. He knew he'd have a nice haul, what with that nice little unicorn's generous tip at the end of the night. Sure, she'd been a little more opinionated than most fares, but it beat complete silence, or outright hostility. When he saw the sack, he thought it was something a fare had somehow accidentally dropped into the chest. Knowing he'd never be able to track down one of the three dozen or so ponies he pulled around, Star Bolt opened the sack, hoping to find a name or address. The light from the street lamps reflected off of gold and gems, momentarily dazzling the stallion's eyes. He clamped the bag shut with his hooves and looked around for anypony who may have been watching him. He looked back into the sack and shook it gently. A folded piece of parchment caught his attention. He lifted it out of the bag and read:
Perhaps you could be the boss now? Or maybe you'd just rather be doing something else. Just remember: Don't let anypony tell you your worth. We make our own way in this world, and the only roadblocks in our way are of our own creation. --F P.S. If you're not doing anything, I could use a ride in a few hours. The alley across the street from the hotel would be a nice place to wait; the one between the jeweler and the Lunar recruiters.
Star Bolt smiled and turned back towards the taxi depot.
Felina pulled the zipper all the way up to her neck and made sure the sneak suit's extra padding was in place over her hooves and knees. She paused momentarily as the sounds of hoofsteps echoed through the hotel's restroom. It had only taken her about half an hour to ferret out the location of the hotel's vault, along with a fair level of confidence that the crown was locked away for the night. As per usual, a little sparkling cider, and a friendly face got most anypony talking, especially star struck maids on their breaks.
The faucet turned on and then off, followed by the sound of the door closing. Felina stood on the back of the commode and removed the vent before pulling herself into the air vent. As she quietly and carefully pulled herself through the ducts, she lamented her clichéd plan. Obtaining the Prancy Diamond had been a month long masterpiece of infiltration, seduction, and subtle misdirection. Had she not desired the headlines, she could have left a fake stone and left everypony none the wiser. She simply did not have the time for anything of that complexity. Princess Twilight would be leaving soon, and Felina doubted she'd have a similar opportunity.
That's not to say that she was heading in blind. The lonely maintenance pony's blueprints showed these extra small air ducts, though that was all they showed. Thick black boxes covered what she assumed was the vault and the corridor that led to it. She continued dragging herself, one ponylength at a time. Several turns, and a close call with a curious mouse later, and the thief peeked through a vent at the long corridor that led to the vault. She smiled at the magical barriers; they were hardly an unexpected obstacle; a true professional kept up with the latest technologies after all. The two stallions guarding the door at the end of the hallway worried her more. She followed the maze of ductwork as it ran parallel to the corridor and cursed as it narrowed further, barring even her slight frame from going any further. She inched back to one of the floor level vents and furrowed her brow at the two bored looking guards standing a few feet away, beyond the last of the magical barriers.
"Okay," said one of the stallions, "Princess Twilight or Princess Luna."
"Hmmm," said the other, "well I guess Luna has that 'bad mare' reputation right now, but Twilight has that hot librarian thing going for her..."
Felina rolled her eyes and reached into her utility belt. With a spark from her horn, the small cutting torch flared to life. She slowly cut into the side of the air duct until she had outlined a hole large enough for her to peek her head through. The space behind the stone wall was dark, save for the glowing mechanism fed by several insulated wires. She whispered to herself as she fetched a length of copper wire and a spool of magiflux. "Bypass the alarm... solder the leads... looks like the magic is fed in parallel... no need to reroute that..." She tied a loop of rope around one of the wires and crawled back to the vent. She pulled two small pellets from her belt pouch and held it with her magic as she waited for her opportunity.
"Would you stop pacing?" asked one of the guards, "we've got hours before the day shift gets here." He sat on his haunches and leaned against the door and yawned. The other stuck out his tongue and continued marching back and forth.
Felina passed the small spherical capsules through the vent with her magic and waited until the pacing pony turned his back. With her hooves, she yanked at the rope, pulled the wire that fed magic to the device. As the shimmering curtain of energy dissipated, she flicked the two pellets at the faces of the two guards. She smiled in satisfaction as each guards head was covered in a cloud of orange gas. Before the two stallions slumped unconscious to the floor, Felina had already begun squeezing herself out of the vent. She pulled the guards to the side of the hallway and kicked open the door. She flared her magic and created small floating panels to step across: There was no sense worrying about pressure plate tripped alarms.
The two barred gates didn't worry the mare in the least. The hotel seemed to place much of their faith in the magical safeguards and around the clock guard presence. Picking the locks that held them in place was mere foals play for a pony who had broken out of a dozen locked rooms before she received her hazy shadowy cutie mark. As she lifted the final gate into the ceiling, the wall of safes beckoned.
She knew she didn't have time to crack the nearly two dozen safes. She placed her ear against one of the closest iron boxes and tapped it with a hoof. Like a pony picking out a watermelon at the market, she walked across the wall giving each safe a series of knocks before moving on to the next. When she reached the other end of the wall, she sat back on her haunches and held her chin with a forehoof. Thanks to her keenly honed sense of hearing, she could tell which safes had something in them, and which were empty. She had eliminated most of the possibilities, leaving only three. She picked one and placed her ear next to the numbered dial. After half an hour of listening for the barely audible *click* of the tumblers falling into place, she pulled the door open. A silvery metallic box sat alone inside.
"It's about the right weight," she breathlessly said to herself. She set it down on the floor in front of her and rubbed her hooves together. An ecstatic grin split her face as she slowly pulled the lid open. The click of the spring and the brown blur rapidly approaching her from the box was the last thing she saw before the world went pink.
"Maybe you need lessons?" asked Twilight as she stood from couch, "I think I have a book on massage therapy somewhere in the library." The knocking on the large oak door of the Royal Suite intensified. She brushed the mussed hair of her coat down as her guard trotted to the door and poked his head into the hallway.
Twilight supposed that the lovely morning had to end sometime, though she thought she still had an hour before being summoned to the large conference hall for her meeting with her fellow princesses. She walked into the room's opulent bathroom and used her magic to pull a brush through her bed-head afflicted mane. After a few moments, the sound of her bodyguard's unconstrained laughter echoed through the spacious suite. Twilight poked her head into the bedroom in time to see the unicorn stallion buckling on his purple lacquered breastplate. "What's so funny?" she asked.
"There's been an 'incident' in the vault," he said between giggles, "the manager is waiting for us in the lobby."
"Oh," said Twilight, "I did something to their new security system didn't I?" She sighed and hurriedly finished combing her mane. "I think I can fix it if they have a few tools." She led the guard out of the room and into the express elevator. He couldn't keep the look of mirth off of his muzzle the entire trip down. "I bet that you're loving this," she said flatly.
"Me!?" asked the stallion in faux outrage, "why, I am ever her highness's humble servant. To think that I could find entertainment in her misfortunes is just absurd!" The elevator car came to a stop and he held his hoof out. "After you," he said gesturing towards the nervous hotel manager. The aged mare stood up straight upon seeing the annoyed glare Twilight aimed at her guard.
"Your highness," she said with an extremely low bow, "First, let me personally apologize for disturbing you so early. I begged them to leave this until after the meeting, but the detectives insisted on it."
Twilight looked around at the lobby for the first time since her arrival the previous night. Uniformed ponies bearing the emblem of the Manehattan Police Department were everywhere. Several were talking with the hotel staff and taking notes on their clipboards. "What is this all about?" asked the alicorn.
The manager winced and began walking towards the vault room. "Well we don't know when, but when the day shift arrived to take their post, they found her."
"Her who?" asked Twilight.
"Better if you see it for yourself your majesty," said the manager, too mortified to explain what had happened. She led them down the hallway, past the two drowsy looking stallions from the night before. They averted their gaze from Twilight and continued giving statements to the police officers. When she opened the thick double doors, the manager stepped to the side and allowed the princess and her guard to proceed into the crowded vault. "Now your crown is fine...ish," said the older earth pony, "but our security was breached." She pointed to the pink blob surrounded by half a dozen snickering officers.
Twilight knelt and inspected the mess. She reached out a hoof and poked the stick goop. When it moved and grunted she jerked back and looked over her shoulder at her guard. "What did you do?" she asked accusingly.
"What!?" he asked, "was I supposed to ignore the fact that a notorious master thief was skulking around Manehattan?" He lifted the crown from the floor and tried to shake off some of the pink substance. "I took some extra precautions."
"Bubble Gum?" asked Twilight after sniffing her hoof.
"Pinkie Pie's Triple Sticky Bubble Gum Pie," said the guard proudly, "guaranteed to leave anypony a sticky mess."
Twilight shook her head in exasperation and began using her magic to pull away large globs of gum off of the thief. "I would apologize for my escort," she said to the hidden pony, "but to be fair, you were trying to steal my crown. Don't fidget, you'll just mash it further into your coat." She had perfected extracting ponies from Pinky Pie's sticky concoctions. She surrounded what she assumed was the thief's head with her magic and slowly pulled away the gum from around its face. The feminine face stared back at her defiantly. "Awfully young for this aren't you?"asked Twilight.
Felina narrowed her eyes and pulled her magic into her horn. "I'll show you young," growled the mare. She had spent the night trying desperately to pull away the gum, but she had only succeeded in further trapping herself: It was like pink quicksand.
"None of that now," said Twilight. She surrounded the filly's horn with her magic and suppressed whatever she had planned. "I'm quite impressed that you managed to disable those barriers," she said while continuing to extract the suspect. "It's a testament to your skills I suppose, but why would such an talented filly need to steal?"
"I. Am. Not. A. Filly!" shouted Felina. "I am the greatest thief in all of Equestria! I didn't need a princess to be my mentor! I didn't need anypony!" She struggled against Twilight's magical embrace.
Twilight pulled the largest bulk of gum from the shouting pony's midsection and turned to the manager. "Would you and the officers please give us some privacy," she asked, "I think the 'Specter' and I have a few things to discuss."
"Of course your majesty," said the older mare. She herded the protesting officers from the vault and closed the large double doors behind them.
"So why would you want my crown?" asked Twilight, "surely Celestia's would fetch many more bits."
"Because I wanted it," growled Felina, "and who's to say I wasn't going to take Sunbutt's as well?"
Twilight forced the scandalized expression from her face and gave the gum in the young mare's mane a harder tug than was necessary. "Well you do realize that's never happening now, don't you," she asked. "We are rather lenient in our justice, but your crimes surely will keep you locked up for years to come."
Felina glared at the princess, and tried to keep her distracted while reaching her newly freed hoof to her belt. "So?" she said, "I'll escape from whatever cage they put me in. I can get out of places just as easily as I can get into them."
"Hmm," said Twilight, "I suppose that's true. I mean, I doubt I could have broken into this vault." Twilight nodded to the hobbles on the floor and her guard lifted them with his magic. "It all just seems like such a waste of ability."
Felina smiled and snorted in laughter. "Oh believe me princess," she said, "nothing is going to waste." She pulled two of her gas pellets from her belt and tossed them at the princess and her guard.
"Ah, ah, ahhh," said Twilight as she caught both projectiles with her magic. She crushed them and contained the gas inside a sphere of force. "I recognized the post exposure symptoms of the Halothane gas you used on those poor guards," said Twilight. "Now if you're quite done, I'd like to propose something that might benefit you in the long term. A way to both use your abilities for the benefit of ponykind and serve out your sentence at the same time."
"It doesn't matter where you put me," said Felina, "like I said, there's no jail, no prison, no work camp on Earth that I can't escape from."
Twilight looked at her guard and smiled deviously. "I don't think I said anything about the Earth, did I?"
Star Bolt watched as the little unicorn was led out of the hotel in chains. He had spent the night patiently waiting in the alley across the street, leaving only for a quick bite to eat from the diner down the street. The hours of solitude gave him plenty of time to think about what to do with his unexpected windfall. It was too late for the surgery, but there were other ways for him to get back into the skies. He surely had enough for airship piloting lessons. Maybe he could sign up with one of the airlines and spend the rest of his days ferrying ponies across the skies in style.
Of course those dreams were appearing less and less likely as the unicorn was loaded into the back of a large covered wagon. He sunk back into the alley and wondered if the police would come for the sack of bits and jewels she had left him.
"Oh, hey there," said a friendly voice. Star Bolt looked up as a bat pony mare walked down the alley towards him. "Waiting for a passenger?" she asked.
Star Bolt looked behind him at the cab and shrugged. "Yeah," he said dejectedly, "but it looks like they won't show. I'll get this out of your way."
"Don't hurry on my account," she said while opening the door leading into the small lunar recruitment office. She took a look at him and his unkempt coat. "Say, you wouldn't want a change of scenery would you?" asked the lunar recruiter, "we're desperate for pegasi up there."
"I... I can't fly," said Star Bolt weakly flexing his useless wings, "not anymore."
"Oh, I'm so sorry," she said, "well, we'll take just about anypony you know! You could pull cargo carts just as easy as you do taxi wagons!" She held the door open and tilted her head towards the interior of the office. "You look like you could use a break at any rate."
Star Bolt unhooked himself from his harness and followed her inside. She set a pot of coffee to percolate and unlocked the front door before sitting at her desk. "Thank you ma'am," said Star Bolt, "but I really don't think the moon is for me."
"Then just enjoy a cup of coffee with me," she said, "Luna knows I could use the company. Nopony really shows up until after lunch." She picked up a few stray brochures from her desk and placed them into a revolving wire stand.
"What's that?" asked Star Lifter. He pointed at the small model on her desk. The strange vehicle was roughly cylindrical before tapering to a chisel like point on one side. Pods attached to what he assumed was the rear of the craft housed large nozzles.
"Hmm?" asked the mare, "Oh, that? It's a mock up of the Prosperity Ascension: One of the first magic powered space craft." She passed the model towards him and stood to go pour a few cups of coffee. "Or it will be once it's finished." Star Bolt held the model in his hooves and rotated it slowly. He blinked when the mare placed a cup of coffee on the table next to him.
Derpy shivered as she stood in the middle of the frozen lake. Her gaze wasn't fixed on the thin layer of ice suspending her over the icy water, nor was she paying the slightest attention to the nervous whickers and whinnies of the ponies beside her. No, she was staring at the small filly waving from the inviting lakeside beach. In contrast to the frigid lake and the ponies perched precariously on literal thin ice, the beach was sunny and inviting. Butterflies swirled around the young filly as she capered about the warm sand.
"They need you," whispered a voice at her side. "We... need you."
Derpy broke her gaze away from the filly and addressed the tall alicorn standing beside her. "She needs me more," she replied, "and she needed me first."
"Thou wouldst make a terrible thespian," said the alicorn. "Tis the eyes: we have seen thunderstorms calmer than thine eyes." The alicorn looked down at the thin ice and the spidering cracks marring its surface. "That thy dreamscape would manifest itself thusly is proof enough that you understand the danger that hovers over our subjects." The alicorn mare turned her head to look at the ponies nervously staying as still as possible, despite the shiver inducing cold. "You must help them," she said mournfully. "Nopony else can hear us, it must be you. Soon, even thine own dreams will be beyond our reach."
"I just want to go home," said Derpy as she took a hesitating step forwards. She blocked out the sound of ice splintering under her hooves.
"She will not allow it," said the alicorn, "not now, not when she is so close. Tis not too late. You can still stop this." She seemed to stare through Derpy; towards something beyond her, beyond what a mere mortal could see. "You must tell Trixie to evacuate," she said fearfully, "Even now our friend courts her own doom. " The alicorn dropped to her knees onto the brittle ice. "Please," she pled, "Tis not too late."
Derpy looked at the desperate faces of both the alicorn and the ponies huddled behind her. It had only been a few short weeks, but their faces were familiar to her. Amber with her perpetual aura of determination; Flam with his ever calculating stare; Digger trying to pretend that he didn't have a care in the world; Felina, her small stature belying her keen mind and keener senses; and Trixie. Trixie, who above all seemed the most aware of the danger they were all in.
She looked again at the filly frolicking in the sand. "I'm sorry," she said with a choked sob. The pegasus jumped into a gallop across the frozen lake, the concept of flying over the dangerously thin ice not at all passing through her mind. The horrifying sounds of screaming voices being cut off by the splash of water followed her as she ran towards the smiling filly. The ice in front of her erupted in an explosion of frost and spray.
"Mmmmmm - oh!" moaned Felina as she wiggled around on her back. "Taking advantage of a lady while her hooves are full," she said between giggles, "I thought so much more of you Flam Flash."
"I'm... I'm sorry," said a shy voice from above her.
Felina rolled her eyes as the waves of ticklish pleasure subsided. She sighed and held the dynamo base plate up with her magic. A few passes with the torque wrench later and the heavy iron plate was securely attached. She shimmied out from under the assembly platform, floating her tools behind her. "I'm only teasing you Flammy," she said to the hunched over stallion. She very deliberately stretched her back at a near impossible angle and planted her lips on his cheek. "That felt wonderful," she whispered.
Flam's cheeks slowly began to match his neatly groomed mustache. "Well you were on your hooves all day," said the stallion shyly, "and you still volunteered to help me with the Mark Two generators. A little hoof massage is a poor payment for your expertise."
"Well, half of a hoof massage is certainly too small a recompense," said Felina with a Cheshire grin. She spun her body around and presented her forehooves to the flustered stallion. He took them in his and began lightly squeezing the sides of her hooves, paying close to her lightly tufted fetlocks . Felina closed her eyes and took a series of deep calming breaths. "You know Flammy," she said, "we should have plenty of free time if these generators perform as well as your prototype has."
"Freedom from hours of transferring our magic to the grid would be nice," he said as he focused his pressure on her cannons and knees.
"How shall we ever pass the time?" asked Felina. It took a conscious effort not to draw her hoof up to her forehead to complete the melodramatic pose.
"I had some ideas about variable direction thrusters to add -," he said excitedly before cutting himself off. "You didn't mean work did you..."
"No, I most certainly did not," said Felina happily, "but it's wonderful to hear you excited about your ideas." She pulled a hoof free and reached up to stroke the side of his muzzle. "I've heard of so many lovely museums in Selene, but have had so little time to go and see them," she said, "and it's such a long ride to take alone." She felt the stallion's hooves tense up.
"S... Selene?" he mumbled, "I, um... I don't know if I can..."
"Come now," she said huskily, "we could stroll through the hanging gardens; maybe find a nice hidden alcove..." She squeezed his motionless hooves with hers and gave him her best sultry smile. Felina gave an inward cheer as he dumbly nodded without speaking.
"Hello?" asked a voice from near the lab's entrance. "Anypony home?"
Felina leaned up and placed a tender kiss on the stallion's cheek before pulling her hooves free and standing up from the oil stained metal floor. The grey pegasus standing in the doorway seemed quite nervous for some reason. "Hello Derpy," she called out as she walked across the long room, "has the cloud generator seized up again?" She levitated a toolbox from the workbench and was ready to follow her to the dome. "Let's get it working and get you back up there."
"No, no, it's working great," said Derpy nervously, "I'm on a short break. I was actually hoping somepony could help me with a locked door."
"Locked yourself out?" guffawed Felina, "we've all been there. A little more tired than usual this morning?" Derpy blushed and stifled a yawn. "I'll be right back Flammy," called Felina over her shoulder. She followed as the pegasus led her further into the living quarters. "We usually don't see many locked doors," said the petite mare, "there's usually not much worth locking up around here." Felina mirthlessly chuckled as she considered what she had just said. "I should know," she thought to herself.
She watched Derpy's head swing from side to side. "I don't even know what's behind it," said the pegasus mare. "Trixie didn't have any keys for it."
"So... why do you need to open it?" asked Felina in confusion.
Derpy stepped into the Weather team section of the habitation. "Well, um," she stammered, "I figured I might as well see what's here. There might be something to help me with the work. You know, flight manuals, or special equipment the other pegasi might have left behind." She continued down the short hallway until it dead ended in a obviously little used security door. The hinges had a fine patina of rust and a fine layer of dust covered the door wheel.
"Ah," said Felina, "good instincts. I think this is where Daybreeze kept his training equpiment. The poor dear needed wing braces after his first few crashes." She examined the rusting door, tapping the handle of a screwdriver on the rusting iron facade. Flakes of rust shook free from the surface. "These first generation security doors are pretty pathetic," she mumbled while prying open the not so cleverly concealed maintenance port. "Sure, they look big, thick, and impregnable, but all it takes is a little pressure in the right place, and..." She found the tumblers and used the flat bladed driver to force open the device. With a click, the door bolt retracted. Felina turned back to Derpy only to find the Pegasus awkwardly hovering over her shoulder and staring intently at her handiwork. She smiled awkwardly and used her magic to pull open the rusted door. "There you go," she said, "anything else I can do while I'm here?"
"Nope," replied Derpy, "that's everything I need."
The stallion sat silently and glared at Moonburn. His hooves were shackled together, the chain between the two cuffs running through a loop welded to the metal table he sat at. The slate ring around his horn glowed with dull grey aura as it suppressed his attempts at using his magic. Moonburn had just slammed his hooves on the opposite side of the table, hard enough to leave two large dents in the surface. "Aw, what's the matter you fascist son of a nag," taunted Trouble Shooter, "can't deal with a free pony giving you the business?"
"Be reasonable Trouble Shooter," said Moonburn in a low growl, "you're finished. You and your whole murderous cabal; it's time to come clean."
The sorrel coated unicorn began cackling at the stern faced bat pony. "If it was over, you wouldn't be so desperate to know what's up in my noggin." He continued laughing until he lost his breath. After a few deep gasps, he smirked at the Moonburn. "She got away, of course," he said matter-of-factly, "Veil was always quick on her hooves, and quicker with that amazing invisibility cloak of hers." He turned and looked directly at Trixie. She raised an eyebrow: The stallion was behind a one way mirror; he should have only seen a reflection of his ragged self.
Moonburn chuckled as he walked behind Trouble Shooter. "She's next door with Trixie," he said, putting up a rather decent poker face as far as Trixie could tell. "If you think I'm mad, you should see her. She's like a mother griffin when it comes to her friends, and from what I understand, Ms. Veil nearly crippled one of them."
The shackled stallion clapped his forehooves together. "Bravo," he said mockingly, "truly a masterful performance Inspector, but again, based on your desperation, I'm betting that the princess-betraying piece of manure is watching us right now. He stared directly into the mirror and winked. "How does it feel Deserter?" he asked. "Your mentor, the very goddess who trained you, has judged you and determined that your life is forfeit. What does that say about you?"
Trixie glared through the glass, and reached out to the intercom panel on the wall. "It says she is afraid," she said angrily, "and that she's will to dispose of two of her tools to get to Trixie. So the Great and Powerful Trixie supposes that it says that she's worth more than the both of you combined." She let her words sink and tapped the window three times.
"Ouch," said Moonburn as he patted the top of the fuming stallion's head. "Trixie always knew how to cut deep." He walked around the stallion back to the heavily reinforced door. "Don't go anywhere," he said, "I'm sure we have more questions for you."
Trixie waited for Moonburn to join her in the observation room and thoughtfully tapped her hoof to her chin. "It's all wrong," she said, "it makes no sense." She threw the Lunar Authority report on the "accident" at the Shoot the Moon lounge onto the table and fumed in silence.
"What do we do Trixie?" asked Moonburn.
Trixie sat motionless, lost in her thoughts. Her eyelids were closed in concentration.
"That was her," said Moonburn, "I know I was the youngest, but I know what Princess Luna sounds like. Why would she do any of this?"
"Trixie tried to warn everypony," replied Trixie, "but nopony did anything about it. Trixie was exiled, and everypony forgot about her. Well, almost everypony..." She shook her head ruefully and rested it on the table. "She's insane you know," mumbled the unicorn, "Paranoid, power-hungry, straight up crazy; take your pick." She stood and grabbed her saddle bags from the floor. "She has to be stopped," she said, the glint of determination in her eyes, "before she brings us all down with her."
"Just like that?" said Moonburn, "You're just going to waltz into the Serenity Dome and, what, depose the Princess of the Moon?"
"Well what else can Trixie do?" yelled the unicorn, "she's willing to hurt ponies... kill them even! Should Trixie request a meeting? Perhaps Trixie should circulate a petition? A 'Please Stop Killing Your Subjects, and Kindly Step Down From That Damned Throne' form for everypony to sign. Yes, Luna will certainly appreciate that. Good idea Burnie: Trixie has once again underestimated your intelligence."
"Princesses above... would you just drop the 'Trixie this' and 'Trixie that,'" he yelled. "Do you have any idea how irritating that is?" He held out his right forehoof motionless before waving it slowly from left to right. "I agree, she needs to be stopped," he said, "there's no excuse for what I've heard and seen. Pitting these Loonies against the Lunar Authority makes no sense, as we serve at her request." He grabbed Trixie's hoof with his and looked her in the eyes. "You have to think about what happens next," he said, "there needs to be a plan, something agreed upon by ponies other than us two. Not to mention the fact that you'll never get into the dome on your own."
"What do you propose?" asked Trixie.
"A united front," said Moonburn, "something to show her, and any of the guard who defend her, that this is more than an accusation from a disgruntled unicorn."
"Trixie is not disgruntled," said Trixie, "she is completely... gruntled."
"Well that's what it will look like to anypony at the Serenity Dome," replied Moonburn. "If we go there alone, I doubt either of us ever see another sunrise." He began walking back to his office, beckoning to Trixie to follow. "Talk to the other administrators," he said, "tell them what Luna has done. That, along with those quotas she's put on you outer colony ponies should be enough to convince them that something should be done."
"And what?" asked Trixie, "Luna will see it and just give up?"
"Probably not," replied Moonburn, "but I doubt any guard, Lunar Authority or otherwise, would deny entry to the seven administrators."
"So it's six random ponies and the Great and Powerful Trixie versus a goddess and whatever thralls she still maintains?" asked the unicorn.
"No," said Moonburn, "I'm going to take what we've learned directly to the Marshall. We will gather the guard and follow you in. If she doesn't see reason, then we'll have what we need to pull her off of the throne." He reached up to his collar and buttoned the top few buttons of his uniform coat. "Assuming we get that far, you seven will be in place to take the reins, so to speak."
Trixie paced back and forth across the length of the lieutenant's office. "You think the old stallion will help?" she asked doubtfully. "He didn't exactly help Trixie when she was exiled, and Trixie still doesn't forgive him for Daybreeze."
Moonburn reached out a hoof and halted the pacing mare. "He'll listen to me," said Moonburn, "like you said, we're still Night Guard. You just go gather the others and meet back here as soon as you can."
"You think Trixie should visit them in pony?" she asked, "Trixie could easily reach them all from her terminal in Sin."
"I think coups are best discussed face to face," said Moonburn, "we wouldn't want word of this getting to the princess before we're ready to act."
"True," said Trixie. She floated her panniers over her back and tightened the girth with her magic. "Trixie will go to Máni first," she said while walking towards the elevators. "If Trixie must collect all of her colleagues, she'd rather have Anvil on her side first."
The station's dingy yellow lighting had nearly completely been extinguished when Derpy emerged from her quarters. Between a hard day's work above the fields and the previous night's lack of sleep thanks to another disturbing dream she couldn't quite remember, it took all her concentration to keep from falling into a deep slumber. She hadn't even removed her flight suit, as its rather uncomfortable fitting kept her from drifting to sleep. She patted a pocket for the twelfth time that night and began creeping her way out of the weather crew quarters.
She had free access to the work schedule, so she knew there would be no late night mining shift. Everypony in Sin Station was probably asleep, leaving the pegasus mare alone in a nearly completely silent series of hallways. She took careful steps, glad that the flight suit padding kept her hooves from ringing out as she crept along the hard metal floor. It wasn't long before she was standing before the sturdy looking door that led into Trixie's sleeping quarters. After one last peek down both sides of the hallway, she reached into one of her flight suit's pockets and pulled out a long flat bladed screwdriver she "borrowed" from Flam's lab.
The dim lighting made finding what she was looking for difficult, but it only took Derpy a few moments to discover the camouflaged access panel. She worked the blade of the tool into a narrow groove and popped the compartment door open. She moved her head from side to side, trying to allow enough of the fading light into the inner workings of the door to allow her to find the mechanism she saw Felina bypass. After several tense minutes of trial and error, she heard a click, and the door pulled open on well oiled hinges.
The room beyond was much as she remembered it. Mementos from years of traveling and performing all over Equestria and beyond lined the walls and furniture. She closed the door behind her and began her search. Derpy silently peaked under the bed, even going so far as to lift the mattress from the bed frame. She only found dust bunnies and a knotted old scarf. She moved around the room, carefully pushing furniture away from the walls, pulling drawers out of their slots, and lifting rugs from the floor. It all seemed for naught, leaving the pegasus with dirty hooves and a dirtier conscience. She sat on the bed and held her forelegs to her aching head. She had hoped this part would be quick, that it would be easy, but after an hour of desperate searching, she found nothing. A part of her was glad for it; the same part that had been calling her a horrible, traitorous, no-good nag.
From between her hooves, she saw the familiar poster. Memories from her first encounter with Trixie flooded her mind:
"Was there ever any doubt?" asked the boastful unicorn as she turned her back to the audience. Derpy clapped her hooves together along with the rest of the audience. Sure, this Trixie was a bit of a braggart, but if Derpy had that kind of talent, she'd be inclined to boast too. The shifting weight on her back forced her to adjust her precarious hover.
"Wow!" shouted Dinky, "Did you see that mommy? She turned Miss Rarity's hair green! I didn't know magic could do that!"
"Now DInky," chided Derpy, "that wasn't a very nice thing for her to do. Remember what I told you about responsibility?"
"Yes mommy," said Dinky, "but still; Wow!" The filly bounced on her mother's back, unconcerned with the five meter drop to the ground. "Do you think I'll be able to do that with my magic?" she asked excitedly.
"Absolutely," answered Derpy, "If you work very hard. I bet The Great and Powerful Trixie studied very hard to be able to do so much with her magic."
"I'll practice every day!" shouted the filly before another salvo of fireworks exploded behind the stage, effectively silencing the star-struck filly.
Derpy returned to the present to find herself standing next to the poster with her hoof reaching out towards it. As it made contact with the thick parchment, she could tell there was something behind it. The pegasus carefully pulled the bottom of the poster away from the wall. The adhesive that had held it in place gave way easily, and she was staring at the very item she had been questing for. It was as Diaphanous Veil had described: A flat obsidian black panel, nearly half a pony in length. The unicorn had warned her not to touch the front of it, lest she activate it. Derpy reached into her flight suit and produced the small box that Veil had given her. As small as a deck of playing cards, it seemed about as magical as a lump of coal. Derpy carefully reached behind the panel and, with a light *thunk*b the device seemed to attach itself to the screen. Unfortunately, she had forgotten Veil's warning about the shock. The pegasus nearly jumped out of her flightsuit as a jolt of magical energy arced through her. Her wings shot up and spasmed before she removed her hoof and held it to her muzzle. She took a moment to shudder and fold her wings back down before pulling the poster back into place. Turning back to face the rest of the room, she began cleaning up the mess she made before exiting the room. She was quite thorough, and had her plumage not matched the grey floor so well, she might have seen the scattered feathers that had fallen out of her wings.
Before her exile, Trixie would have dreaded having to visit Máni Station. The source of nearly all of the fabled Lunar Steel, Máni was a place perpetually in the process of converting lunar ore into panels of gleaming silver metal or components for the vast array of magical devices that made life possible on the moon. The non-stop industry left the colony covered in soot and unbearably hot. She recalled one particularly unpleasant visit with the princess in which she was forced to tour the central foundry. Earth ponies may be used to such conditions, but Trixie doubted any unicorn had ever been as miserable as she had for those few hours. Luna, of course, seemed completely unphased by it, as if she could simply force herself to ignore the stifling heat and dirty air.
So it was incredibly surprising to Trixie, when she stepped out of the Zoom Tube station and took a deep breath of pristine scrubbed air. There wasn't the slightest hint of acrid smoke or tang of pulverized iron. The walls and floors even appeared to be free of the black soot stains that had plagued the station on her last visit. She approached a bulkhead and took a deep breath to clear her mind. She pushed it open and gaped at the sight before her.
Gone was the perpetual haze of industry, replace with a skyline of gleaming silver and stark black night. "Princesses above," she muttered, "they scrubbed the dome." She was so taken aback by the cleanliness, Trixie didn't notice the pair of guards flanking the other side of the bulkhead door.
"Lulamoon, Trixie: Administrator, Sin Station. Your arrival is unscheduled," barked an androgynous artificial sounding voice, "would you like us to alert Administrator Anvil to your presence?"
Trixie gave a start at the pair of guards and gathered herself before nodding. "Yes," she said, "Trixie wishes to visit Iron Anvil. We have much to discuss."
"The administrator is in his office," said the other guard in a seemingly identical tone, "Do you require and escort?"
"No," replied Trixie, "Trixie knows the way." Anypony would be able to find their way to Anvil's office. The Forge was one of the most impressive structures on the moon, and the wide boulevard that stretched from it to the transit station left no doubts as to where the leader of the colony spent most of his time. Trixie started a slow trot towards the towering smoke stacks of the massive factory. She marveled at each pristine silver building she passed. On her last visit each had been full of ponies working on small anvils, producing metalwork both mundane and extraordinary. "Where are the piles of slag?" she asked herself. Even in its earliest days, Máni had trouble disposing of the byproducts of its prolific factories and workshops. She recalled carts of smoldering waste metal in every alley, waiting to be sent out into the far reaches of the Oceanus Procellarum and dumped into large pits. They seemed to have been replaced by Lunar Authority guards, resplendent in grey segmented metal armor. Everywhere she looked, Trixie spied another spear or shield armed pony, guarding Celestia-knew what; the whole place appeared to be on holiday. The din of machinery and ponies galloping about to support the colony were gone, replaced by an eerie silence, one she only experienced when exploring the lunar surface outside the domes. Not even the pleasant memories of gallivanting upon the grey plains with her friends could shake the unease that gripped Trixie. Undeterred, the unicorn strode towards The Forge.
She waved off the twentieth guard to ask her, "would you like an escort to the Administrator's office," and pressed her hooves against the towering, five meter high steel door that led into the factory floor. The insides of the great metal works were as silent as the outside: It angered Trixie. Every pony in Sin was pushing themselves to exhaustion to meet quotas, and here, she had apparently stumbled upon a colony on a self imposed hiatus. She climbed a series of stairs that led to the upper levels of the towering foundry. Below her, on the factory floor, sat row after row of unattended machinery.
Trixie pushed the unease into the back of her mind and came to a stop before the large wooden double doors that lead to Iron Anvil's office. He had considered it a mark of his station to keep the only flammable building material in the colony so close to his base of operations. She ignored the questions from the four guards flanking the entrance and pushed open the twin doors with her magic.
"Anvil," she said loudly, "Trixie has terrible news."
The stallion sitting at the gleaming silver desk looked nothing like the sturdy earth pony she remembered fondly. Instead of a thick blacksmith's apron, he wore a tailored pin-striped suit, complete with silver cuff links that caught the light and reflected it in every direction. His maneless head, which he considered a badge of honor, earned from countless mishaps at the forge, was covered in a stylish black fedora, its brim pulled low to obscure his face.
"So nice to see you Trixie," he said calmly, "what could be so serious to bring you to my doors, and in such a lather."
Trixie recoiled in confusion at the stallion's even tone. Iron Anvil had been one of the most boisterous earth ponies she had ever met, and that was quite an accomplishment as she had experienced Pinkie Pie on multiple occasions. His raucous bellows were legend, yet here he sounded as restrained as a Trottingham unicorn at high tea. "Princess Luna has lost her mind," she said, not quite as adamantly as she had planned. "Trixie fears she means great harm to all the ponies of Selene and the Seven Colonies."
"I assume you have some proof to back this up?" asked the stallion. He idly tapped a forehoof on his wide desk. "You haven't exactly had the best of reputations over the last few years."
"Trixie would ask you to consider her words," she said, "and remember that she speaks as the Princess's protégé."
"Former protégé," corrected Anvil, "she did strip you of that title."
Trixie stifled a growl and began to explain the last week to the hulking earth pony. From her marginalization in Sin Station, to the attack on her fellow citizens, to the bombing in Selene, she laid out all of her fears to the first pony she hoped would help her rein in Luna. "Trixie believes she has... changed. Trixie knows not why. If we gather the other administrators and confront her, Trixie is confident we can keep her from bringing us all down with her."
Iron Anvil chuckled and tapped his heavily muscled forelegs again his desk. "You always were a fan of the theatrical," he said. "Fireworks and grand displays of magic: You always considered yourself above the practical concerns of us ground pounders."
"Trixie excuses you?" asked the confused mare.
"How could our Princess be anything but the benevolent goddess she has ever been?" asked the stallion, motioning his hooves towards the wide window behind his desk. "Do you not see the advances we have made here under her direct leadership?" He smiled at Trixie and continued without hesitation. "Gone are the choking vapors and staining soot," he said. "Nopony goes home exhausted and hungry. Nopony questions whether or not their labor has been adequately compensated. All are content."
"What are you talking about?" asked the confused mare. "Trixie hasn't seen a single indication that anypony has been working here at all."
"But Trixie," said Anvil, "you have surely seen my ponies at every corner. They wait patiently for our mistress to command us to go forth."
"No," whispered Trixie. She cursed to herself for disregarding the unnecessarily high number of guards lining the streets of Máni Station; far more than a standard detachment.
"Yes," said Anvil, reading the shock in her eyes. "You understand now. Princess Luna has freed us from our toil. We are the vanguard of her new society. One where we, the ponies of the Moon, reign over our earthbound lessers. One where every Lunar Pony serves her eternal majesty."
Trixie couldn't believe the fanatic ramblings emanating from this formerly level headed pony's mouth. She bent down, her chin nearly on the desk, and tried to talk sense into him, eye to eye. What she found barely qualified as eyes. Strange ribbons of silvery metal seemed to crisscross his face sinking into his cheeks and eyes; his iris and pupil free eyes. A malevolent purple glow, previously hidden by the hat, emanated from his vacant eyes and bathed the stallion's face in a frightening magical aura.
"What has she done to you," asked the terrified mare.
"She has freed us," said the stallion, "as she will soon free you."
Trixie heard the door behind her slam open. She pivoted and saw the four guards, each equipped with wicked barbed spears, bearing down upon her. "Trixie will make this right," she said to the stallion, "Trixie promises she will fix this..." As the stallion began cackling, she gripped his desk with her magic and hurled it at the quartet of armored guards. She didn't wait to see what kind of damage she did, instead opting to dash through the open doors. The stairs leading up to Anvil's office were crowded with armored guards, each staring at her through armored helmets. Trixie took a deep breath and vaulted over the metal guardrail. Time seemed to slow as she reached for the distant chains of a block and pulley hanging from the ceiling. Had she not been on the moon, she would have come well short, but she soon was holding on for dear life as the chain swung her over the factory floor.
"There is no running from Her truth!" shouted a voice from above. Any further words were drowned by the sound of heavy machinery coming to life. Trixie held on tightly as the chain jerked into motion. All around her, the machinery of The Forge was on the move. Ceiling mounted conveyors began carrying her along a winding path through the large factory floor. With one hoof wrapped around the heavy chain, Trixie waved defiantly at the burly Earth pony and his armored guards as she was carried away from the balcony.
Klaxons began blaring throughout the building; an earsplitting accompaniment to the roar of the blast furnaces and the relentless crash of the metal stampers. Trixie slid down the chain and landed on the floor just in time to avoid a column of flames spewing from one of the magically powered kilns. She dashed through a shower of sparks, towards the exit. Through gaps between large machinery, she saw the forms of guards pursuing her. Barbed javelins streaked in front of her, drawing sparks as the impacted against the floor and machinery. Trixie was forced to turn away from the entrance and deeper into the mechanical maelstrom of the Forge.
Trixie eyed the upper reaches of the factory. Between the rows of heavy crucibles progressing along the hanging tracks and the towering blast furnaces belching columns of flame sat a ramp leading outside of The Forge. "The ore chute!" muttered Trixie excitedly. She hopped onto a conveyor belt carrying large flat plates of lunar steel beaten flat by the massive metal stampers. Trixie ran along the moving conveyor, hurling herself heedlessly past the enormous masses of iron that smashed the still heated metal flat. She lifted one of the colossal metal walls in front of her just in time to deflect several spears hurled by the pursuing guards.
"There is no escape Lulamoon," spoke an earsplitting voice over the factory loudspeakers, "Her immortal will cannot be opposed. All will serve her."
Trixie cursed under her breath as more javelins impacted against her improvised shield. It was only a matter of time before the guards surrounded her. It was only due to sheer luck that there wasn't a unicorn or pegasus among them. Máni Station was always a place for Earth Ponies: Their strength and way with the metal drew them to the hard work required at The Forge. The sound of hoofsteps ringing against the metal floor alerted Trixie to the approaching guards. Knowing she had no time to hesitate, she looked above her at the crucibles and used her magic to tip several of the now heavily loaded containers on their side.
Newly molten Lunar steel rained from above, showering the immediate area in searing death. She tipped the metal plate over her, creating a slanted roof over herself. Her magical strength held steady as hundreds of pounds of the liquid metal slammed against her barrier. The air burned, searing Trixie's throat as she gulped deep breaths. Trixie hurled the metal bulkhead aside and hopped off of the assembly line. She avoided the puddles of boiling steel that kept the guards from rushing at her and used her magic to upend even more vats of liquid ore as she ran, leaving a trail of scorching slag in her wake. Yet, not a single yelp or shout of surprise followed in her wake.
She pressed on, jumping into a recently emptied crucible as it swooped low to the ground after depositing its payload into an extruder. The acrid smell of burning hoof and hair filled her nostrils. Trixie yelped in pain as her ankles smoldered. Spears clanged against the underside of the vessel as she spied the slowly approaching chute that led to the outside. She ignored the pain and climbed onto the side of the container and balanced precariously on the edge. She rode the crucible higher and higher until the sloping ramp was within jumping distance.
"You would truly rather burn than serve her majesty?" asked Anvil in an amused voice over the factory loudspeakers. "She did not exaggerate when she called you the greatest of all traitors."
"Better a traitor in her eyes, than one in Trixie's own!" shouted the unicorn. She hurled herself from her perch, latching her forehooves onto the edge of the ore chute. She dangled off the edge, struggling to pull herself up. Below her, a cadre of guards stared up at her, their helmeted heads motionless and silent. A javelin streaked past her flank, slicing a shallow gash along her left rear leg. A pair of guards were climbing up the ramp, their progress slowed as they ran against the path of the conveyor belt that carried the ore to the furnaces below. Trixie hissed in pain and finished climbing onto the ramp.
She lowered her horn at the encroaching guards and detonated a particularly flashy set of magical fireworks in front of their faces. Trixie didn't wait to see their reaction, instead opting to flee up the chute. The spear that flew wildly off the mark spoke to the effectiveness of her distraction. The pulverized ore littering her path kept her from making much progress towards the top of the slanted chute. Trixie created a magical barrier in front of her, using it to push the ore forwards. As she ran, a small hill of the iron laced rock began to form. Knowing she was also making the path easier for her pursuers, she hopped over the pile and repeated the process, creating several of the obstacles before reaching the apex of the ore chute.
Trixie reached the top of the ramp and pushed through the black rubber curtain that was draped over the narrow opening that led outside of The Forge. The chute angled back down towards the ground, widening as it approached the automated feeders below. "Oh come on!" she shouted when she saw the ring of guards surrounding the bottom of the ramp. She growled under her breath and snorted loudly from her nostrils before kicking herself into a gallop. She again erected her magical barrier in front of her, scooping up a pile of ore as she ran. The rolling mass of rocks grew larger and larger until it began to reach a critical mass. Like a massive wave approaching the ocean's shore, the top of the heap of ore curled over on itself, starting an avalanche that only grew larger as Trixie continued pushing her way forwards at breakneck speed.
The tsunami of ore broke against the guards below knocking them from their hooves and pinning them underneath hundreds of pounds of meticulously mined lunar steel. Several exposed hooves, their owners unseen below the mound of rocks, reached out for Trixie as she galloped across the debris. With nopony in sight ahead of her, the unicorn ran towards the transit station. Anvil apparently hadn't expected her to escape The Forge; the streets leading to the massive factory were empty. The edge of the dome grew closer and closer, each stride bringing Trixie closer to relative freedom.
A look over her shoulder revealed to Trixie the location of Máni's population. Rows of armored ponies charged after her, their hoofsteps seemingly synchronized. They were still several hundred feet away, she observed, giving her ample time to commandeer a skimmer and escape. She darted through the dome-wall mounted bulkhead and through the narrow hallway leading to the Zoom Tube terminus. She used her magic to pull the door ahead open. The sight of a skimmer waiting for her was enough to elicit a now rare "Luna be Praised!" from the unicorn. As she hopped through the open doorway, the flash of movement from the polished floor ahead prompted her to duck under the pair of thick hooves that rocketed through the air where her head would have been. She rolled through the doorway, leaving a red streak on the floor from the open wound on her flank.
"Stop running Trixie," said Iron Anvil. "Accept your fate and surrender to the will of our Mistress." He had lost his ridiculous hat and shed his tailored suit. The silvered lines crisscrossing his face glowed with a malevolent purple glow, extending down his thick neck and through his well muscled legs.
"Sure," said the unicorn as she gathered her magic. "Here, hold Trixie's things." She surrounded a metal bench from one of the walls and flung it at the hulking stallion. Iron Anvil reared up on his back hooves and held his forehooves in front of him. The bench slammed into him and bent around his heavily shod hooves. He swept the twisted piece of metal aside and, with a loud snarl, charged at Trixie. The unicorn made the mistake of trying to grab the stallion with her magic. His significant weight advantage meant that Trixie was pushed backwards as he stampeded towards her. Her breath was forced out of her chest as she was slammed into the wall. Gasping for air, Trixie fought to keep the stallion's wide hooves from crashing into her head. With the wall bracing her, she was just able to keep him at bay. It wasn't right, she thought in a panic, her magic should have been more than powerful enough to pick up and throw the stallion back across the room with ease, yet here he was, fighting her to a stalemate with nothing more than his own brute strength. He stood before her on his rear hooves, his two heavy forehooves straining to complete their wicked kick. Never one to fight fairly, Trixie delivered a rapid succession of sharp kicks to Anvil's stallionhood. He didn't even flinch; if anything, his hooves inched closer to Trixie's neck. The sound of more hooves rushing through the hallway leading to the station reminded Trixie of the army of guards still pursuing her.
She took a deep breath, lifted her hooves from the ground and released her magical hold on the stallion. She slid down the wall just before his hooves crashed into it. He had been pressing so hard against her magical grasp, that his head soon followed, leaving a heavy dent as it smashed against the thick steel bulkhead. Trixie pressed her rear hooves against the wall and pushed off with all her might. She slid on her back between the stallion's rear legs and rolled to her side. Anvil stumbled about as if he had downed his seventh hard apple cider, blood trickling down from his split scalp. Trixie dashed to the Skimmer and quickly punched in Sin Station on the vehicle's preprogrammed destination list. The door slid shut and the pod began moving.
The first of many armored guards began pouring through the station's bulkhead just as Trixie's Zoom Tube Skimmer cleared the heavy Tube bulkhead. She sighed in relief as the doors slammed shut behind the vehicle, sealing her off from the horde of ponies out for her head. Moments later she was heading back towards Sin Station with a mind full of worries and few answers to soothe them.
Trixie ignored Amber and the others. There just wasn't time to explain what had happened. She slammed her door in the tall turquoise earth pony's face and ripped the large poster from the wall. She placed her hoof against her administrator terminal and waited for the screen to flicker to life. Her hoof shook as she held it to the obsidian screen and tapped out her password to access the device's suite of communication applications. The risk had to be taken, the other administrators had to know of Iron Anvil's fall, and this was the quickest way.
Seven portraits appeared surrounding the centrally positioned likeness of Princess Luna. Trixie narrowed her eyes at the sight of the smiling alicorn's face. It had been over a year since she had last seen it in pony, and she had never glared at it with such hatred as she did at that moment. She had always assumed Luna was acting under some misunderstood idea of what was right for the ponies of the moon, but now... now she had surrendered to the realization the one pony she had trusted most in the world was trying to hurt her. Not only her, but every pony who stood between her and some insane plan she had for Selene and the Seven Colonies.
Trixie quickly tapped the smiling faces of the six administrators who hadn't tried to kill her yet. A text box appeared at the bottom of the screen along with a virtual keyboard. Trixie began typing:
Fellow Administrators,
The Princess has lost her mind. Trixie writes not only of the most recent outrageous demands for resources and magic, but of a series of attacks most heinous and unprecedented in the history Selene and the Colonies. Trixie and ponies under her protection have been assaulted no less than three times under direct order of Princess Luna. In the first, Sin Station was vandalized by ponies calling themselves 'Loonies,' but, by their own admission, under the direct orders of her majesty. The second, a business, full of innocent ponies, was bombed and subjected to the vacuum by direct action of Luna. Third, the entire population of Máni Station has been conscripted into an army of unknown purpose with Administrator Iron Anvil at their head. Trixie heard him claim fealty to Luna with her own ears.
Trixie understands the bad blood she has had with our immortal patron may impact her credibility. Any who doubt Trixie's words need only contact Inspector Lieutenant Moonburn at The Stone. He is a personal witness to the second incident, and will vouch for everything Trixie has written here so far. If there is any doubt in your minds as to the path that the princess has set us upon, Trixie urges you to help her.
To that end, Trixie suggests a gathering of us all at The Stone; all save Iron Anvil of course. Bring as many ponies as you trust and meet us there tomorrow at noon, Selene Time. There must be a reckoning. Luna must account for her actions and explain why she still deserves our allegiance. We must be prepared to defy her.
Trixie Lulamoon
Administrator : Sin Station
Trixie sighed heavily and pressed the send icon. Her plea on its way, Trixie stumbled to her bed and fell to her haunches. She closed her eyes and tried to wish her worries away. She took several deep breaths and tried to seek the void her mentor had always taught her to seek. The sound of hooves pounding against her door faded away and the world dissolved to blackness. Her breathing steadied and Trixie let all her earthly and moonly concerns drift away. Pinpoints of purple light in the ethereal distance drew her attention. Trixie's neck began twitching as they rapidly approached. Her perfect stillness turned into a gale of black wind. A pair of great, malevolent eyes stared at her from the void. Trixie's head jerked up and her eyes opened.
*clang* *clang* *clang*
Hooves rang out against her door, followed by the bellowing of Amber Waves. "I'm not going anywhere Trixie," she shouted, "You can't just run your bloody self across my fields after being gone for the better part of a week without explaining yourself!" She punctuated the sentence with another series of raps against the heavy door.
Trixie sighed and rose to her hooves. She would need Amber's help, among others, she thought. She walked to her door and used her hooves to turn the locking wheel and pushed. The familiar faces of the Sin Station Team leaders looked back at her, each a mix of confusion and concern. Trixie hung her head low and began walking between them. "Trixie thinks this is best explained in the ops center," she said while slipping past a glaring Digger.
"You're Celestia &#$!ing damn right it is!" spat the stallion as he turned and followed her.
"That's the long and short of it," said Trixie, "Trixie has sent a message to the other administrators. If they have any sense at all, we will meet at Selene tomorrow and head to the Serenity Dome to confront Luna."
"Just like that?" asked Flam, "You'll just saunter into the Princess's throne room and demand she explain why she tried to have you killed twice? I honestly thought you smarter than that Trixie." He looked at the other ponies gathered, hoping to see agreement in their faces.
"Not just Trixie," said the blue unicorn. "The others will come; they will add their voices to Trixie's. Moonburn should have the Marshall and his comrades in arms there as well. Trixie hopes so anyways..."
"It really sounds like she had a plan," said a worried Felina, "She converted Máni Station into an armed garrison. She had our loyalty until her recent... moodiness. Why would she need an army now?" The petite unicorn sipped a steaming cup of tea from a porcelain cup she had brought with her into the meeting. "Sometimes it's the obvious provocations that you need to ignore. They often mask somepony's true intentions."
"Like?" asked Trixie in confusion.
"I don't know," replied Felina, "Our Luna has always been mysterious. Can anypony here say they understand the mind of a goddess? Somepony who has spent a thousand years in complete solitude and despair?" She took another dainty sip from her beverage and placed the cup into its matching saucer. "Maybe you're right, and she's not entirely in her right mind," said Felina. "In that case, better to try to understand Discord."
"Whether or not she has a plan doesn't really matter," said Amber, "If Luna's gone off the deep end, we're all in serious trouble."
"You all speak as if you believe Trixie," said the unicorn in a forlorn voice. "Others have reminded Trixie how others see her. Trixie trusts the other administrators will hear her out, but past that..."
"!@#% Trixie," cursed Digger, "Ya have more right than most to hate her royal !@%#*ness, but yer always the first to cuff my ears when I speak against her." The stallion spat at the floor and poked Trixie's chest with a thick hoof. "If yer saying she's got to go, I know it's serious. I say we head out there with a few of my bigger lads and lasses; give her a talking to."
"Is it really that bad?" asked Derpy, "nopony was actually hurt right? Maybe if we just stay out of her way, everything will just calm down."
Trixie and the other four looked at her with mixed expressions of shock and disgust. "She exposed dozens of pony to vacuum," said Amber, "and look at Trixie's flank. Does that look like the work of somepony who can be reasoned with?" She pointed at the red stained bandage that sat across Trixie's cutie mark. "I know you're new here Derpy," said Amber, "but this isn't right. It wouldn't be right on the roughest streets of Manehattan." The chastised pegasus looked down at the floor underneath her stool. Trixie saw the same mix of confusion and fear in the pegasus's face that she had been fighting the entire weekend.
"Trixie would have agreed with you Ms. Doo," she said calmly, "Trixie has always thought that Luna had our well being at heart, no matter what she did to Trixie." She winced as Amber lifted the bandage to apply another stinging ointment to her wound. "But this has gone beyond Trixie," she said, "this threatens everypony who draws breath on the moon. Trixie owes it to them to confront her." She batted Amber's hoof away from her flank and reached over the table. "Trixie is under no illusions; this is dangerous. So to that end, she thinks it may be time for her to pass her title and passcodes on, so that Sin will have leadership should her absence prove... permanent." She swiped her hoof over the table's surface and revealed a list of their names. "I think everypony can agree that Amber would make an excellent administrator," she said while placing her hoof on the other mare's shoulder. "Trixie knows any of you would do an admirable job, of course, but Amber's been here so long, she knows just about everypony in Sin."
"Pass," said Amber.
"Excuse Trixie?" asked the unicorn. She glared at the turquoise coated earth pony.
"I can't very well run this place when I'm with you in Selene," she said. "Don't look at me like that. I'm not letting you go without somepony to watch your back." She looked over at the other two unicorns. "Besides," she said, "I think Flam is far more suited to the job."
Trixie's gaze swiveled to the wide eyed unicorn stallion. "Fine," she said, "as long as he can keep his attention on the job. Trixie is looking at you Felina."
The mare gave a coquettish smile and patted Flam on the withers. "No worries there," she said, "as much as I'd like to be Flammy's distraction, I can't very well leave you and Amber to face such danger alone."
Flam reached up and patted Felina's foreleg with his own. "I wouldn't be up for the job anyway," he said. "It's better for me to follow you, Trixie. You might need my expertise."
Trixie squinted at the pair and growled in exasperation. The room was silent for several moments as Trixie shook her head from side to side. A pony began whistling, abruptly cutting the silence with a jaunty tune. Trixie shuddered and turned to face the large stallion sitting in the corner of the room. "Digger," she asked grudgingly.
"Yes?" asked the stallion, his muzzle turned up in an amused grin.
Trixie ground her teeth together and glared at the miner. "Forget it," she said, "you're coming with us." She turned to the long pegasus in the room. "No offense Miss Doo," she said, "but Trixie doubt's you're ready to take over for her."
"Of course not!" the wall-eyed mare nearly shouted. "I'd just mess everything up. You should just stay in charge."
"Trixie guesses she has little choice," she said while surveying her friends. "Trixie would welcome your help as well Miss... Derpy."
The pegasus winced before nodding her assent. "You've all been so nice to me," she said, "I guess it'd be awful of me to say no."
The door to Trixie's room silently swung open into the deserted hallway for the second time in as many nights. Derpy slipped the screwdriver into her flight suit's pocket and carefully stepped into the darkened bedroom. Her breath caught in her chest when she heard the soft snores of the azure coated unicorn. Knowing Trixie would be here, and actually seeing her asleep in her bed were two different things.
She took another step into the room and slammed her eyes shut as her hoof kicked a dented metal plate across the floor. It skidded underneath the bed and clanged against the wall. Derpy held her breath and slowly opened one eye. Trixie remained motionless atop her bed. The pegasus slowly exhaled and tip-hoofed towards the exposed alcove and the terminal installed inside. Derpy looked worriedly at the poster that had formerly concealed the obsidian screen. Its tattered remains, along with several smashed picture frames littered the floor below her. She tore her gaze away from the destroyed keepsakes and focused on the task at hoof. She rubbed her hooves together to keep them from shaking before reaching behind the terminal. She grabbed Diaphanous Veil's device from its hiding place, receiving another shock for her troubles. As she smoothed the ruffled feathers of her wings, Derpy noticed a small pulsing purple light on the rear of the small silver box. A wave of relief washed over her entire being. Nearly giddy with the lifting of the weight of uncertainty that had followed her for the last week, she leaned against the wall. The flash of light that washed the room in a dull glow shocked her back to attention. The pegasus burglar turned to see her hoof resting against the now active screen.
"Wuh...?" mumbled Trixie.
Derpy dropped to her stomach and began crawling towards the still open door. The rustle of blankets and bedsprings creaking covered the sounds of her flight suit brushing against the floor. Not waiting to see if she had been seen, she crawled from Trixie's room and towards the dome.
"Wuh...?" mumbled Trixie as she woke from the first solid bit of sleep she had managed that night. She looked over at her active terminal and rolled out of her bed, wincing as her bandaged flank protested the movement. She padded over to her active terminal and wiped the weariness from her eyes. "Why the hay are you on?" she asked while holding her hoof to the scanner. The screen flashed and loaded her message box. The blinking white text caused her eyes to snap open from their half lidded state. "Have they finally responded to Trixie," she asked nopony. She brought her face closer to the screen and read:
ONE UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS ATTEMPT. 2:35am (20 seconds ago). IT IS RECOMMENDED THAT THIS TERMINAL'S PHYSICAL SECURITY BE REVIEWED.
Trixie head jerked back in confusion. She pressed her hoof against the scanner and watched as the screen dimmed and shut off after a few seconds. She turned to head back to bed and nearly fell as her hooves slipped on the smooth floor. Cursing herself for her emotional tantrum earlier, she looked down expecting to see a ripped photograph. She used her magic to create a dim mote of floating pink light at the tip or her horn. She reached her hoof down and came back up with a few grey feathers. Her mind slipped back to a few days earlier, the voice of Diaphanous Veil whispering in her mind:
"I have somepony already working on that, and the mistress has forbidden any direct action against their administrator. Worry not though; if all goes to plan, we'll have our trump card in a matter of days."
Trixie crushed the feathers in her hoof and turned to her opened door. She growled and burst out of her room, her face a visage of rage. Heedless of the pain in her flank and singed hooves, she galloped up the wide hallway towards the agridome. As she passed the miner's barracks, she saw the a figure nervously skulking towards the dome. Her winged form was silhouetted against the wall by the strips of light that ran along the floor. "Derpy!" she shouted angrily, "Not. Another. Step." The unicorn galloped on as she yelled, each long stride carrying her closer to the traitor. The Pegasus' entire body jumped and her head snapped around. Without a word, she broke into a gallop.
Trixie cursed under her breath and reached out with her magic. The pegasus was still far enough away, that, even had Trixie not been exhausted from her exploits earlier in the day, she would have been hard pressed to keep the pegasus from dashing out into the wide open domed farmland. Even The Great and Powerful Trixie's magic had its limits. Still, she chased after Derpy, seemingly gaining ground on the pegasus by the second. "Good thing her flightsuit seems to be slowing... her... down. Son of a...!"
Derpy flared her wings out and leaped into the air. With a mighty flap she took to the black skies and propelled herself much faster than any earthbound pony could keep up with. For the thousandth time, she regretted not taking Sparkle up on her teleportation spell classes. Knowing that there was only one place that Derpy would flee to, Trixie gritted her teeth and dashed towards the opposite side of the dome and the Zoom Tube station beyond.
It took her a couple of minutes to gallop across the well irrigated farmland. She dashed through the open bulkhead leading to Sin Station's assembly and mess halls tracking thick mud behind her with every step. A few long tables were tossed aside with her magic as she approached them. She vaulted onto the front of the familiar stage, ran across its polished surface, and leapt back to the ground, angling herself towards the hallway that led to the station's exit. Through the open bulkheads she saw the pegasus reaching into her flightsuit. A shimmering mirage began materializing in front of her. From Derpy's outstretched hoof floated a small silver box. The now visible unicorn grabbed it out of the air with a hoof and slipped it into the pocket of a silk cloak.
Trixie gave a wordless roar as she burst into the transit station. Her horn was afire with magic as she charged; bolts of pink energy arced from the unicorn to the floor below. Diaphanous Veil grinned smugly and lifted the pegasus in her magical grasp.
"What are you-" shouted Derpy before she was flung towards the charging unicorn.
Trixie tried to sidestep, to slow herself, to grab the pegasus with her own magic, but her reflexes proved insufficient as the pegasus slammed into her back-first. Trixie felt something in her midsection snap as they both crashed to the ground in a heap. She tried to suck air into her lungs, but nothing happened. Rolling onto her back,Trixe brought her hooves to her chest and pounded at it. After a few terrifying seconds, she gave a gasping wheeze and drew the sweetest, most painful breath of her life to that point. She shook the blackness and fading stars from her vision and looked up at the opposite side of the station where the doors of a Skimmer slid shut behind Diaphanous Veil. The cloaked unicorn raised a hoof and gave a mocking wave as the vehicle began pulling into the exit Tube.
Trixie found a strength she didn't know she had and pulled her battered body off the floor. She gnashed her teeth and threw herself at the departing capsule. Her horn came to life again, licking flames of pink magic hung in the air in front of her as she directed the entirety of her soul at the Skimmer in front of her. Diaphanous Veil took a worried step backwards as the vessel began to labor against the pull of Trixie's magic. Trixie's hooves dug furrows into the metal tiled flooring as she pulled against side of the Skimmer. She narrowed her eyes and directed a hateful gaze at the unicorn while the pod shuddered. The wide cracks that appeared on the side of the vehicle quickly propagated along its polished surface. A large section of the Skimmer where she had latched her spell tore away from the capsule. Trixie fell to the ground again, her horn now aching as much as the rest of her. The Skimmer quickly moved into the Tube and the large blast doors began to close behind it. Trixie jumped down onto the tracks and banged her hooves against the closing hatch. The last glimpse she had of Diaphanous Veil was the unicorn hastily donning an emergency pressure suit. She continued pounding at the blast doors for a minute, the foot-thick iron bulkheads a poor substitute for the smirking face she wished she was bludgeoning.
The faint sounds of sniffling made their way to Trixie's ears, reminding her of the bit of unfinished business lying on the floor of the Zoom Tube station. She rose to her hooves and scrambled onto the station platform, cursing as a sharp pain radiated through her chest. "Trixie hopes you're satisfied," she growled at the prone pegasus.
"I just want to go home," sobbed Derpy. "I just want to see my baby."
"So you decide to help ruin our home!?" barked Trixie. "What did you give that psychopath? What did she want from Trixie's room?" She stood above the Pegasus and stamped her hoof on the floor with each question, causing the crying mare to shake with every impact.
"S... something on your t... terminal," stuttered Derpy.
"Trixie guessed that already!" shouted the unicorn, "what did she take?!"
"I don't know!" cried Derpy. The pegasus buried her muzzle into her folded forehooves and wept.
Trixie towered over Derpy, her anger reaching a crescendo. "Trixie was told to only use her magic in defense of herself or others," she said coldly, "but if she finds out that you are holding back anything..." She grabbed for her magic, intent on giving the pegasus a small static shock, but nothing happened. She tried again, with similar results. A slight *tap* *tap* *tap* sound drew her gaze to the floor below her. She watched as droplets of blood fell from the tip of her nose down to the floor below. A familiar dizziness grabbed a hold of the unicorn, followed by a tunneling of her vision.
"This again?" she asked herself as she collapsed to the floor.
