Mirroring Skies

Equine, equine, your rider awaits

Follow his lead through the path of the dusk

The nether white spot marks where he starts

Mirroring Skies

By Japko

Intro: Storm

A dark-green stallion swept a drop of sweat off his forehead and looked up to the sky. It was another day of another summer spent doing the exact same thing. The same work he had been doing all his life as far as his memory reached. His immortal, worn out straw hat didn’t help much against the scorching sun. Dear Celestia, is it really necessary to turn up the heat so much?

He reached for a bottle of water, deciding to take a break. He threw his rake to the ground and slowly stepped towards the shadow of an old, branchy oak, where he sat heavily on the ground and let out a long sigh. The oak was the real landmark of his farm. It was an extremely old tree, which he carefully groomed every spring. Just like his father before him, and his father before him, and probably a few generations back as well. The beloved arbor remembered more members of his family than he was able to name himself. And nopony could blame him for that. The Oat Family was so huge that it was really hard to remember the whole current generation, spread all over Equestria. They would need a solid team of chroniclers before they could even dream of creating a moderately detailed family tree. The past was just the past and… well, those crops weren’t going to farm themselves. Chronicles and history,books in general, were for those who had nothing better to do with their time. Oatwisp had a lot of work ahead of him. He sighed again and scratched his head under the hat.

Grasshoppers were much louder in the sweltering heat of the summer afternoon. Oatwisp had wondered many times if it was the sun that dried those insects’ wings, or whatever it was they played with, that made the sound that so intensive. In most instances he didn’t notice them. It was so deeply connected to the general summer landscape that it was easy to ignore. But once in a while he tried to remind himself of their existence, so he could once again get lost in their thousand-piece symphony.

The stallion picked a dry straw and put it in his mouth. Then, grabbing his old rake and cursing his old bones, he moved again towards the burning heat of the sun and his silver fiefs, which covered most of his farm like spilled mercury.

Several lizards ran away from under his hooves as he walked through the thick grass. The sun ruthlessly roasted his neck, and the air felt heavy and hard to breathe. After half an hour of work, Oatwisp realized he was so tired that he could barely move his limbs. He fell on his haunches and tried to fan himself with his hat. It didn’t help much.

“Dad?” A young colt’s voice felt so unnatural in the scene that Oatwisp almost jumped out of surprise.

“Dear Celestia, Freckle!” the stallion exclaimed, grasping his heart. “You startled me.”

“Couldn’t you hear me coming?” The boy raised his eyebrow. “Mom says you shouldn’t be out, exposed to such strong sunlight, and that you should get back home. It’s not healthy to toil in such heat.”

“I think I’ll get back soon. But I want to at least finish this part here.”

“As you wish, daddy. But I can tell you right now that before you’re done with the first half, you’re gonna be drenched to the skin.”

“What do you mean? It’s so hot I can barely move.” Oatwisp put his hat back on.

“Look to the west,” the colt said, pointing his hoof at the horizon. “A storm is coming.”

* * *

“Hurry up, Dashie! This is taking forever!” A pink pony energetically wagged her hooves.

“I’ll be there in a minute, geez…” A voice from behind a shrubbery sounded a little annoyed. “It’s not like you guys need me anyway, and we have one more lap to perform. No excuses!”

“There is no hurry, Pinkie,” said Twilight Sparkle, petting Winona who panted happily in the heat of the summer afternoon.

It was the weekly get-together with pets that they all attended every Saturday. The day was so sunny and serene that they followed Pinkie’s advice to turn it into a small party. For the occasion, the pink pony had dug up an old blown-up pool, which she had supposedly bought a few years earlier on her trip to Fillydelphia. Rarity took care of daiquiris, and now all the girls were relaxing in the cool water and sipping on their drinks as their pets played together by the trees nearby.

All except Rainbow Dash. She insisted that the weekly meetings would also be a nice motivation for Tank to do some exercise. Her ambition was to make him the fastest tortoise in all of Equestria, and Tank was enthusiastic about the idea as well. As silly as it sounded at first, after a few months he had made enormous progress. He was a lot faster and more agile than before. He had toughened up and become much more self-confident. Rainbow Dash had once again proven that being a good coach was one of her greatest talents.

However, even with that, some aspects of the tortoise nature of her pet just couldn’t be dealt with. He had aspirations for being the fastest tortoise ever, but he was still a tortoise. Tank’s running sessions always needed some time. Surprisingly enough, it wasn’t Dash who tended to lose patience because of those long trainings.

“Umm…” Fluttershy started hesitantly. “I’m sorry, Rainbow Dash, but don’t you think you should give him a break today? I mean, it’s such a lovely afternoon, and, you know, since he is a reptile, he could really use some soaking in the sunlight… I mean, if that’s not interfering with your plans… a lot.”

“Maybe you’re right,” the colorful pegasus mused. “You heard her buddy, do you want to have a break? All right then!” She patted Tank a few times on his crust. “No more workout for today. Off you go, have some fun with your friends.”

Without notice, a rainbow-colored trail shot up from behind the bushes, made a few loops in the air, and, with a loud “Geronimo!”, landed in the center of the pool, splashing water all around. Winona, who was still sitting near Twilight, barely escaped the wave with a swift jump.

“Rainbow Dash, why would you do that!” Rarity complained. “You ruined our drinks!”

“Mine’s jus’ fine.” Applejack shrugged and drank the whole glass with one gulp.

“Don’t worry, girls. I’ll go and bring some more,” the yellow pegasus offered, wringing her mane.

“I don’t think there will be need for that, Fluttershy,” Twilight muttered, looking to the west. “A storm is coming.”

* * *

“I must admit, sister, you were right.” Princess Celestia put her sunglasses on. “Practically nopony is willing to attend the court on a day like this.”

The dark blue alicorn only smiled in response.

Some could have said that the heat was unbearable. But in the Canterlot Gardens the summer sun was just another factor adding up to the beautiful picture.

The ice cold water from the mountain springs merrily trickled between pebbles in narrow, twisted streams, flowing under tiny bridges, splashing around small islands with bonsai trees and colorful flowers. Specially tamed exotic birds flew between branches of willows and elms, chirping cheerfully. Somewhere away, a hive of bees worked around their nest. The private royal garden dazzled with peace and quiet.

It had been a long time since the two god sisters had last let themselves just sit back and relax.

It was just after the annual Summer Sun Celebration. It had, as always, been a tough holiday to organize. It needed a lot of work, but there was at least one bright side of it. The subjects treated the whole celebration as seriously as the princesses themselves, and it meant that everything that had to be done was usually complete already before the eve. And that led to a simple outcome: there wasn’t much royal work to be done for the next few days. For at least half a week most ponies didn’t have many reasons to keep the court busy. The extreme heat of the day was discouraging them even more, apparently. For the first time in many months, the princesses had the whole afternoon for themselves.

Princess Celestia placed her lounger on the ground and lay down with a long sigh. “I am going to enjoy every single second of this wonderful day…”

Luna once again didn’t say anything, handing her a wide glass that was frosted by a special cooling spell. The sun princess gratefully took the glass and put a tiny umbrella inside.

Suddenly, Celestia sat up and took off her sunglasses. “Did you hear that?” she asked, craning her neck.

“Hear what?” The moon princess didn’t even budge.

“That quiet rumble. It sounded like… oh, shoot.”

“Something’s wrong?” Luna lifted herself a bit, concerned with her sister’s tone.

“Yes, sort of.” Princess Celestia nodded. “I’m afraid we are going to spend today indoors after all. A storm is coming.”

You worthless piece of junk, why won’t you work!

Yes, yes… almost there… Aw crap!

Wha-huh? Oh, yes, yes, we are open. Please take a seat. I’ll be there in a minute, just when I’m done with this little… You tin bastard!

Okay! Okay… Hello, and welcome to Cornerstone Electronics. My name is Cornerstone, but friends call me just Stone. And since you’re already my friend, you can call me whatever you want. What’s your name?

Ah, I see. Nice to meet you then. So, what brings you to my workshop this time?

Ooh, this thing doesn’t look good. Can it even move in such a sorry state? Heh, if you ask me, it’s quite impressive.

Sure I can, there ain’t a piece of machine or electronics in this junkyard of a so-called city I couldn’t handle. Although, to be honest, in this particular case I would rather recommend exchanging it for a better working model I’ve got in my storeroom.

Sentimental value, huh? Okay, as I said, I can take care of it. But you know, just like any other service, I can’t do it for free. Do you have anything you can pay me with?

Yeah, I’ve been meaning to ask… you’re not from here, are you. And the fact that you want to pay me with money suggests that you haven’t been for more than a couple of hours either. Am I right? Of course I’m right. So yeah, I don’t accept money, sorry.

Why? Oh, I know that it is technically still in use, but that’s kind of a gamble that I am not willing to take. And believe me, finding anypony that wants to play with money is getting harder day after day. One day the payment you’re offering me could buy you – theoretically – a monthly supply of canned food, while on the next day you might as well throw it at pigeons, hoping it would knock them out or something. With no banks or other institutions to control the value of money it's all up to the Glows, and they're driving that one to the ground. This system holds no water, but it looks like they are slowly starting to understand the nonsense of this whole mess. Hopefully. There are still some ponies who believe that they can exchange bits for goods outside the city – and by the fact that you have some with you I can tell they’re not complete idiots after all – but I’m not one of them. So no, I will not accept this kind of payment.

Well then, show me what you’ve got.

This one looks nice… Oh, what does this thing do?

Really? Then I can definitely do the repairs for this.

Haha, okay. I can see you weren’t born yesterday. You can choose something from the store that evens the deal.

Yeah… no, that would be way too much. I’m not stupid either, you know.

I know it is. But… Eh, you know what, you’re good. Okay, fine. Deal, because I like the way you smile. Yes, believe me or not, there are still some ponies that know the value of a smile.

So let’s get to work. Could you pass me that screwdriver?

Stop! What the hay are you doing? Leave it!

Good heavens, girl, you could use some introduction to this city’s dos and don’ts. You haven’t prepared yourself in the slightest, have you. You know nothing about how this society works, what you can do and what you can’t, do you?

Yes, of course any use of magic is strictly forbidden. How in the world did you not know even that?

I know you’re not from here, but you don’t just simply walk into Zone Two without any basic knowledge about this place. There is no room for carelessness here.

No, I don’t mind if you look at me when I’m working. I am not one of those ponies who have a problem with others looking at their hooves. Most of the things I repair here are too precious for their owners to leave me alone with them. But I gotta tell you that this is going to take hours. If you don’t have anything to do with your time, that’s your problem.

I don’t know. And before you ask: no, you can’t walk around and touch my stuff.

What? A story? Look, darling, you don’t need a story. You need a survival guide. I don’t know how the world is out there where you came from, but I’m pretty sure this city is nothing like those you’ve visited in your life before. By the way, if you use magic, does that mean there are no regulations out there yet?

Interesting. Still, these are the kinds of things you have to know before you can even start dreaming of surviving here.

You’re pretty self-confident, but don’t get cocky. This place doesn’t forgive or offer second chances. One false step and you’re a memory.

Ha, hell if I know. Of course a typical lack of street wisdom will simply get you killed in some shaded alley, but by performing things like flying or magic you could end up much worse.

What? Darn, girl, of course no one can fly either! What are you thinking? Have you seen any pegasi flying here? Dear Celestia…

Do I believe in Celestia? Haha, no I don’t. I just use her name for, you know, exclamations and stuff. Yes I know who she is – the supposed goddess of the sun – but I don’t believe in any deities. If you want to have a religious debate, you’re talking to the wrong pony.

Sure I know what the folks say. But the folks are always saying stuff. Do they really expect me to believe that there is actually some higher being controlling the sky? And, what’s more, that the goddess used to walk on this world like any other pony? Ha, according to the legends I know, there was more than just that sun princess. There were two of them: Celestia, moving the sun around, and Luna, bringing out something called the moon during some strange periods of time called nights, when the sun was hidden beyond the horizon. Why would anyone even want to do that? Why hide the sun? Why even move it anywhere? It’s just fine where it hangs, and it will hang there forever, whether we like it or not. And no silly superstitions can change it.

Yes, I know. I like to listen to those legends, even if I don’t believe them in the slightest.

Story, story, why do you insist on it so much?

Do I? My dear, I assure you that you couldn’t find a better story around no matter how hard you tried. This ain’t a short one, but we have the time, right?

Okay, where do I start… As a matter of fact, the beginning is not that different from how we met a while ago. And it begins in the exact same place. Mind if I smoke?