Golden Age

Chapter 1:

Equestria, 2053 AD.

“The university archives is one of the most important historical archives in Equestria,” explained Head-Starter. She was a sophomore Pegasus pony, with a pink coat and a teal mane and tail. Her large yet feminine muscles and cutie mark of a blue flag marked her as an athlete, yet her speech indicative of a scholarly mare. More importantly, she was the female room advisor of Scinfaxi Hall.

Star Charmer sat on the couch of the RA’s dorm, furnished with a nice twin-sized bed, two windows serving as gateways for the orange twilight to fill the room, a large desk along the freshly painted walls with a small television, and a glass computer monitor with blue holographic keys shimmering on the wooden desk face.  “If it’s so important, then why was the door just left wide open? I saw Mr. De Lis do all thirteen locks!” she said as she tucked her hooves underneath her chest and stomach, settling into the soft leather blob of the couch as it conformed to her physique.

Head-Starter settled on her haunches, head cocked sideways as she scratched between her wings with a hoof. “I’m not sure, really. I know it’s magically sealed too, and the last pony to unlock the door was ex-professor Starrynight Beard during my freshman orientation.”

Star Charmer leaned her head forward in curiosity. Could this “Starrynight” be the pony who opened the door earlier today? Clearly if he’s an ex-professor he wasn’t supposed to have been in there, and a lock like that would’ve taken a great deal of time and skill to work open, and to do it silently in a hall which echoed sound? He had to be some kind of expert.

“Is he like, a lock-smith? An arcane-master?”

“No. He’s a drunk.”

She raised an eyebrow, reading the serious expression on Head-Starter’s face as she looked directly into the Unicorn’s eyes. “A drunk?”

“A drunk. He opened the door drunk.”

Her face contorted in disbelief and confusion, turning her head to the side as to glance at the RA. “How--?”

“Don’t ask, there’s a lot of weird things about Starry, but I have a feeling it wasn’t him who opened the archives,” said Head-Starter, standing up and pulling out the swivel chair from her desk, reaching her head into the saddle-bag which lay on the floor leaning against the desk, producing a notebook and textbook. “I wouldn’t worry about it if I were you, they’ll find who opened it, punish them, and we’ll go on.” She gave the contemplative Unicorn a reassuring smile. “I promise that you won’t get in trouble.”

Star Charmer untucked her front hooves, readjusting her position, letting her spine comfortably droop ever so slightly into the lush and enveloping cushion. “I know that, but... why’re the archives off-limits, even to professors?”

The RA merely shrugged, plucking a feather from her wing with her teeth. She carefully rested it on a holographic tablet next to the keyboard causing the transparent monitor to light up with a background of a stadium with mares in uniform holding flags, a text-bar in the middle of the screen.

“It’s mostly for government officials, only the Chancellor and Provost have keys to the vault. There’s nothing really special, just records on old wars. I hear they mostly put things in there nowadays than taking things out.” The Pegasus tapped away at her keyboard, icons and images coming to life on the screen, stopping only to open a notebook covered in lead-markings.

“But, there was a book with an essay in it. It was written by Twilight Sparkle.”

The clicking stopped, and it was the RA’s turn to be surprised. “What?”

She merely nodded, sitting up on the couch, front hooves sinking into the material. “Twilight Sparkle. It was just sitting right in the entry, on top of a big pile of books.”

The older mare sat back in her chair, spinning towards her Unicorn counterpart. “That’s... wow. What’d it say?”

Star Charmer arched her back forward, producing a pop from her spine, she then stood up off the no longer comfortable couch. “It was short, she mainly just talked about the first technological era, and culture.”

“Still, that’s-- and it was right out in the open?”

The mare nodded. She recalled standing in the entry to the infamous university archives, a beam of sunlight paving a clear path directly to a stack of old books. Gilded spines binding pages yellowed with age trapped between cardboard and leather covers, held together by rudimentary string and paste.

“You didn’t tell Mr. De Lis, did you?”

“No, I didn’t even think of doing that.”

Head-Start gave the freshman a rewarding smile, like that of a teacher placating a young student. “Thanks for telling me about this, Charmer,” she turned to her computer monitor, typing on the keyboard, “I’ve gotta get this essay done, though. Tell me if anything else happens or if you’ve got any more questions, okay?”

“Done.” replied the Unicorn as she made her way to the door, opening the flimsy metal-covered door with her magic and shutting it behind her, hearing an electronic lock automatically slide into place behind her.

Just then another Unicorn mare, this one with a pink mane and white coat, slender, and the cutie mark of three golden coins bounded up to Star Charmer. Her magenta eyes glimmered with a wild smile on her face, “Hey, Charmer! What’s up?”

Charmer gave the mare a forced smile; not out of dislike, but merely a lack of motivation. She wanted to focus on the vault, but what else was she to do? “Hey, Rauna. Not much, just wanted to see if Head-Start knew what was going on with the wireless connection, it’s been kinda buggy.”

The young mare’s countenance shifted immediately into concern “Oh, well hopefully it gets better soon, I need to do that paper for Professor Neighvid!”

The orange mare lifted an eyebrow, giving out a light laugh. She definitely had an interesting roommate. “Rauna, you know that paper’s due in two weeks, right? And he prefers Professor Hooves.”

The smile quickly reignited on Rauna’s face as she jumped forward in front of roommate. “But he’s so hot! He should be an actor, or a movie star! Actually, no, that’d make it harder... harder to get to him!”

“He’s thirty-seven.”

Her roommate giggled nervously, raising a timid hoof inches above the ground. “So? Hey, are you coming to the café for dinner? The food here’s so much better than I thought! I’m still amazed after all this time here that they kept it so good, I thought they were just making it good the first week so that we wouldn’t all be going off campus for meals, but--”

“Rauna!” The other mare stopped, cut off, eyes wide with surprise and mouth clenched shut, Charmer laughed, “I get it but I won’t be there tonight, I’m heading out. I’ll be meeting up with an old friend of mine.”

The white Unicorn smiled, looking over at Charmer’s cutie mark, a mere set of six blue stars. “Can I come with? You said you’d tell me how you got your cutie mark tonight.”

“It’s downtown,” Charmer began, “I’m not sure it’d be safe for you to go, I know my way around most of Canterlot.”

The look on Rauna’s face dropped, “Oh, okay. Tomorrow night, then?”

“Sure.”

Rauna then stood on her hind legs, smiling as she excitedly clapped her hooves together holding back a squee.

. . .

If you have ever been in a rainforest, then you should know what it feels like to be in downtown Canterlot: dark, cramped, and the slight anticipation of something coming out and killing you. This portion of the city was the oldest, though centuries of conflict and disasters had destroyed most of the old buildings. As a result of its conception being a time well before automobiles, the streets were small and crowded, the original cobblestone now cracked, rocky, and uneven, some stones jutting out of the streets, and some missing altogether.

Star Charmer stared up into the night sky, forced into tunnel vision from gargantuan skyscrapers. Somewhere, thousands of feet above her and on the other side of the rock pinnacle the city was based on, her friends were enjoying a nice warm meal together in a spacious cafeteria. The golden lights above her were like the many tiny points of light seen from underneath the rainforest canopy.

Though unlike the forest, this was a place of waste and desolation. In the shorter and older buildings of brick and stone were projects storing hundreds of ponies each surviving off of the state's benefits, and in the alleyways between these  buildings were small campfires for all the displaced ponies she did not want to think about. Somewhere in the distance she could hear a siren wailing and dogs barking. The sound of shattered glass followed by a foal’s cry and a couple yelling sounded from above her. Picking up her pace, she made her way to the corner.

Above her loomed a holographic sign on a street post, the words “Hayseed Boulevard” flickering on and off as the sign struggled to hold the image long enough for ponies to see. She nervously trotted down the street, holding her limbs close together. At the other end, a pair of Earth pony stallions gathered around a fire pouring out of a rusty oil drum. They turned to her, smiling.

As she made her way to the street corner, the two stallions had trotted up to her. They were both large and muscular, one with a short-cut brown mane and cheap orange sunglasses, the other with a torn up plaid shirt, a pistol holstered in his belt. The short-maned stallion took a stance in front of Charmer.

“Heya.”

She gave a nervous smile, slowly stepping back, keeping her distance. “Can I help you with anything?” Suddenly she’d bumped into the more muscular stallion wearing the plaid shirt, he gave an even broader smile, looking down at the young mare.

“Oh yes, yes you can, miss.”

From the corner of her eye, she saw the short maned stallion lunge in, beneath the poorly tinted glasses wide bloodshot eyes. He was fast, in the fraction of a second getting closer until all of a sudden he was lost in a bright white flash.

The next thing Star Charmer saw as her vision returned was the lunging Earth pony stumbling into his friend, both stallions now ten feet away from her, yet they had not moved from the same block of pavement.

“What the fuck is this!?” Shouted the sunglass-sporting Earth pony as his larger counterpart drew his pistol, fitting it onto his hoof, taking aim at the Unicorn staring like a deer caught in headlights.

“You fuckin’ horns!” Shouted the Earth pony, ready to fire. Suddenly, in a streak of grey the pony was brought to the ground; a shorter stallion stood on top of him. He had a long black mane combed back, his mouth edged by a short black beard and mustache. Most of his brown coat was covered in a long grey trench-coat, wings hidden beneath slits on the back of the coat. The flannel-wearing Earth pony lay in fear as his friend, unarmed, frantically ran down the street.

The stallion on top spoke in a deep but somewhat raspy voice. “Get out of here. I don’t wan to see you on this block again. Do you understand me?”

“Y-you got it!” breathed the Earth pony as the Pegasus looming above him grabbed his pistol, pocketing it.

“You aren’t hurting anypony else tonight.” The Pegasus backed away, letting the Earth pony stand and retreat. He turned to Star Charmer, revealing small golden eyes. “Young mares shouldn’t be out downtown at this hour.”

“Is that you, Cloud Runner?” asked Charmer as she approached the familiar stallion, who was a few inches taller than her.

He readjusted his coat, brushing the dirt off his sleeves, “For the most part. My apartment’s not far from here. You’re lucky I showed up when I did, I didn’t think you’d come.”

. . .

Star Charmer laid down on a long leather couch --a real couch-- staring up at the motionless ceiling fan and the specks of dust floating in the beam of light which poured in from the large windows. The light was unnatural, yet despite the fact that it was nearly midnight, it felt as though it were only early in the evening as the golden city light illuminated most of the apartment living room. On the coffee table lay papers and magazines, a dissected clock, and an electronic tablet. The sound of a news reporter on a large seventy-inch television screen against a brick wall as the smell of Neighjese food filled her senses.

The reporter was a smiling petit mare, with a white coat and stylish blond mane, a smooth and attractive yet tight and formal voice “As of last night, the High Council has deployed another twenty-five hundred foot-soldiers into Saddle Arabia, a key territory of the Crystal Empire. Prime Minister Watchful Eye continues to urge the queen of the empire to surrender, yet she says that the empire will fight to the last pony.’ ”

The microwave beeped catching Charmer’s attention as she turned to the kitchen, her view obscured by a counter dividing the living room from the kitchen. She returned her gaze to the ceiling, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath. You made it this far with him, just be straight to the point and don’t bring anything up.

To her surprise, she felt a metal object poke her shoulder. Looking up, she saw Cloud Runner standing above her, still wearing his trench-coat, two steamy bowls of noodles and two small plates of egg rolls sitting on the table. She looked down at his hoof, but could barely see behind the large cuffs of his coat. He gave her a friendly smile.

“Startled, Ms. Charmer?”

She sat up, confused and curious, sitting awkwardly upright in a way some ponies do. Apparently one professor was well known for this. “What’d you poke me with?”

The stallion merely pushed himself upwards so that he was only standing on his hind legs, the light from the windows falling on him. The coat slid off revealing a silver arm grafted onto his right side, and two cybernetic prostheses as his hind legs. He stretched his wings showing a left wing of natural brown feathers, while his right was a shiny bronze composed of thin metallic panels layered on top of one another substituting feathers. Underneath his wing and up to his flank, chest, and underside were weaves of black metal taking the shape of muscles. He fell to his front hooves, standing on all fours, giving a blank stare as he calmly sat down on the other couch, reaching for a set of chopsticks jutting from the bowl.

The mare on the couch on the other hand, was breathless, she slid away from him in shock, looking up and down at his limbs. Sudden realization hit her and she got off the couch, trotting over to his side, inspecting the faux limbs. “What happened to you? Wait, don’t tell me, it was--”

He cut her off, coldly. “Yes. The war. It was an artillery shell. That’s why I came back here so quickly, how I went from soldier to a goddamn private investigator so quickly.”

She nervously raised a hoof, facing the floor as she looked for the words to say “I’m sorry, Cloud.”

“Glad you care” he coldly spat at her, putting down the chopsticks. “Oh wait, you never contacted me when I announced my return.” He stood up, pointing at her with a steel hoof “In fact, you don’t speak to me for three whole years, and now you come back only because you need my help.”

Masking her surprise with retaliation, she took a step forward, fixing her bangs with a slight flick of her head, peering into his golden eyes, tiny strands of light over the irises. His eyes, too, were synthetic. “That was years ago, Cloud, we were in high school. After you graduated, I moved on, I didn’t want to reopen old wounds, you-- you...”

His gaze didn’t falter as he waited for her to finish. What had happened to him? Last they had met, he was shy, apologetic, hell, he practically worshipped her. Now things were different. Now he, for once, had the upper hand.

“I what, Charmer?”

“You were a reminder.” She took a breath, stepping back, keeping a cool stance as metal, veinless eyes dug into her, focusing and refocusing. “I wanted to leave everything from then behind, and I don’t think that needs explanation for the time being. I’m sorry for what I did, I really am, and I’m sorry this had to happen to you.”

The stallion took a breath, clearing his throat. “I didn’t respond to your message saying you needed my help, but you got to me through my website.” He sat back down in his couch, reaching again for the chopsticks. Charmer cautiously did the same, returning to her seat. “So you need my help with an investigation?”

Charmer leaned forward, sitting upright. “Yes. You’ve heard of the Canterlot University archives, right?”

“Yeah, number two on the most secure facilities in Equestria. And it’s hardly a secret that the vault’s magically locked, despite the ban on all magical devices,” he leaned back in his chair, picking up an egg roll. Opening his mouth, Charmer had caught a glimpse of a shiny silver set of teeth. “Why does that concern me?”

Charmer swallowed a mouthful of noodles, a remark which she had expected the stallion seated adjacent to her to comment upon, as was his old sense of humor. “Somebody broke in today, and we don’t know who.”

“Does the administration know it happened?”

“Yes.”

“Then they’ll find out.” He told her.

The mare merely smiled at her friend. He recognized that smile, the same smile which had entailed many schemes and revelations from what seemed to be a long, long time ago.

Some things really do never change, he thought to himself. He wasn’t sure if anything had changed about the mare before him, and that could mean a number of things. “But you don’t want me to investigate that, because you know the University’s going to get Mililocal involved.”

“Mililocal” was one of many establishments which the government owned. It was the domestic branch of military, which served as the police force. Cloud Runner had been given the option to join mililocal after his return from deployment, though he had never responded to the proposal.

The mare sat closer to the edge of her chair, smiling playfully at her old friend watching him attempt to restrain his enthusiasm. Just like old times she thought to herself. “Exactly. I want you to help me get back into the vault.”

Giving in, the corners of his lips perked into a smile. “You really haven’t changed at all, Ms. Charmer.”