The Age of Steam: Rise of the Earth Ponies

The breeze is whistling around the purple mare’s horn.  She lays there, her mane covering the moist grass she rested her head on, just staring at the stars above her gazing at the phenomenon’s above her head, only barely understanding the most simple of them. Her eyes scanned the sky, searching through the various constellations, some known to her and others unknown, as she murmed the names of those she could recall from time to time. She looks to the side for a moment, a city in the far distance with only a few lights visible in the dark of the night. She could see the trails of smoke rising from the chimneys, drawing lines in the sky. Yet she doesn´t know why she is here, lying in moist grass beneath her.

Suddenly the soil beneath her shakes, she gasps looking around as the floor tears open and she falls down into the darkness bellow. Her mind urges her to scream at the top of her lungs, but something wouldn´t let her do this; maybe her curiosity, or something else, made her turn around to face her destination.

A bright blue light greets her as she falls through a hole in the ceiling. What is forming in front of her defies anything she currently knows: a city built under the ground illuminated by a tower in the middle, made of brass, metal and steel. It just stands there proud and tall in that cave, as if mocking the best architects of Canterlot. She did not stop falling but, it feels like time is slowing down for the purple mare. Thousands of hoof steps can heard filling the cavern as she spots the citizens. All of them like ants walking through the streets, as she comes closer to the cavern’s bottom something seems off.

The citizens, something was wrong with them but she could not tell what. It wasn’t the way they walked or their clothing. They seemed normal until she realized none of them had horns or wings. Her eyes widened as she saw the town of earth ponies: those out of the old stories. The town was bigger than any she had ever seen. Finally she looks down at the approaching floor. With a loud scream she put her hoofs in front of her face, covering it and closing her eyes.

With a loud thud the mare lands on the floor covered in her blankets. She quickly poked her head out looking around. She was in her own room, covered in sweat from the nightmare. Peeking at the clock next to a picture of her family she knew that the five minutes of sleep she had left wouldn´t help her. While standing up she levitated the blanket onto her bed before she goes to her private restroom, talking to herself as the trotted. “Come on Twilight that was just a nightmare. A stupid old nightmare of old filly stories passed down by generations. There are no earth ponies.”

After her little pep talk she opens the faucet splashing some cold water over her face. After that, she dries herself before brushing her mane. Whistling a happy tune she finishes her mane and grabs her saddle bags leaving her room. Living in Canterlot castle has its advantages: breakfast with royalty, no pesky noises from the outside and no need to walk long distances.

A white mare crosses her path standing in front of her. "Oh, Twilight, darling, how are you? It may be a tad early for most to be awake this early, but for you, I am quite willing to make an exception."

“Oh. Good morning, Rarity, I am doing quite well, what about you?”

“Why I am fine, my dear, nothing to complain about except, well you know, having to wake up so early. I am not a Pegasus after all. It is their habit, not ours; well except for you, of course, with your royal duties and such.”

“You´ll get used to it after some time. And besides I don´t need so many candles to read my books.”

She smiles and both of the mares begin to walk down the hallway towards the conference room. Rarity smiles while opening the door for Twilight as both enter the round room. Luna sits at the end of the table smiling at the mares who sat down at the opposite end of the table to face her. The moon princess sits there looking at Rarity, pondering for a moment who she was.

“Thou art…  Rarity, correct? The mare who performs the duty of decoration for the celebration?” The white unicorn blushes slightly and nods in agreement. “Would thou care to show us thy plans, subject?”

“What? Oh... of course, just a moment they are... here.” Rarity opens her saddlebags and levitates a few scrolls and figurines out, placing them on the table. She opens the scrolls and places them corner to corner before putting the figurines on display. “As you can see, your majesty, I´ve taken my task with the utmost degree of importance, and planned every detail of the big parade. Room for the attendees, parade staff, guards. I also wrote some suggestions for the pegasus fly master.”

The alicorn studied the map and position of the figurines, thinking of, for just a moment, how the festivities would happen. How the ponies will cheer and holler, smile and drink, watch and feast. This would truly be a memorable day in the history of Equestria: exactly one thousand years of peace. One thousand years ago they arrived, she and her sister, to this land. Finding the two tribes, the pegasy and unicorns. She stares into the void for a moment, before a strain of purple cut her vision. Twilight spoke.

“Uhm, Princess Luna? Is everything… alright?”

“Hmm? Oh, of course, we… thought for a moment. It seems thou hast even planned the route of our guards, Miss Rarity?”

“Yes, my princess, as you can see on these plans over… there” The white unicorn magically moved one of the parchments closer to the princess. “I´ve planned out the movement, I even assured that the guards will have no problem patrolling. As you can see, your majesty, I planned in a network of clean paths behind and through the crowds where some decoration will be placed. Through this the guards can extract any hurt ponies.”

“Well done, subject. With such planning the parade shall be magnificent. However, we do not comprehend one of thy works.” She held up one of the sheets showing a crude drawing of Rarity with the words best sister written beneath it. Rarity blushes deeply.

“My… sister must have drawn this and placed inside of my saddlebags. My apologies, princess.”

“It pleases us.” the princess responded. A squeaky and shrill voice comes from under the table “REALLY?” followed by a thud.

Whilst Rarity was still blushing, unable to move, Twilight lowers her head under the table and lights her horn to look around. She makes out a small white pony with pink and purple hair rubbing her forehead. She quickly runs out and towards Rarity hugging her right hoof.

“Did you hear it Rarity? The princess likes MY picture!”

“Well yes, but why is YOUR picture between MY plans?”

“I wanted to surprise you.” Twilight snickered as she sat idly, observing the situation and thinking again about her dream. Could it mean something or not? She finally took a hold of herself and responded.

“She most certainly did, Rarity didn’t she?” Rarity sighed and nodded in agreement before the young filly ran towards the balcony. The princess spoke again.

“Doth we have more items to discuss, or shall we copy thy plans so our sister may view them in Cloudsdale?”

“Well, thank you, princess, for allowing me to write them for you.”

Luna turned her head towards Twilight, who still seemed to be lost in her thoughts. She even leaned forward and rested her head on her hoof. She almost could hear the clicking of her thoughts.

“Twilight, what dost thou think about these plans?”

She snapped again out of it quickly lowering her hoof in slight shock. “Oh ohm…they are well thought-out and quite good…I think.”

“Something occupies thy mind,  subject? Art thou used to be around our sister rather than us?”

“Oh, of course not, it is… nothing. I just slept bad.”

Before Luna could even open her mouth to speak to the slightly dazzled Twilight, a shrill voice once more was heard, this time however from the outside. The three mares turned their heads towards the balcony door before the silly filly rushed half inside waving them to come outside. Rarity gritted her teeth in mild anger and stood up walking to her younger sister, before Twilight followed them both. As she walked through the door she saw the sky of the early morning over Canterlot, a chill breeze lay in the air blowing gently over them as she noticed Sweetiebelle sitting on a stool next to a telescope.

“Big sister you have to watch through it! I aligned it right. Look, you can see Ponyville, the forest and even Dodge city.”

“And why, my younger sister, would I care for this?”

“They celebrate everywhere, and here we can see all the major towns. It’s like being at all of the parades at the same time.”

“Will you stop when I look through it?” The little filly nodded as Rarity twisted her eyes sighing before lowering herself to the telescope taking a peak.

“I can´t see anything.”

“One sec sis, I have to turn the valve to compensate the tan ankle.”

“Oh, quit it with your fancy mathematics and go on with it.” She smiled and quickly turned the valve before Rarity responded with a loud gasp.

“I can´t believe that they will let such… atrocious carts participate in the parade.”

She continued to grumble and her sister kept talking with her. Twilight walked over to the railing, leaning a bit over it and she looked over the city and its surrounding planes. She ponders for a moment before she notices a blue hoof on her shoulder.

“Twilight Sparkle, it was truly nothing that thou hath been pondering? Too many guards, or the way carts travel?”

“No, nothing with the parade it´s…I had a weird dream.”

“We all hath strange dreams; we know, for we art their guard.”

“Yes, but it was… really weird. Not as weird as a normal dream. It felt so real and I was honestly scared of what I saw. There were no monsters, no gruesome scenes, it was… something else. I was scared because I could not understand how, yet it seemed to work. “

“Many dreams doth not make sense if thou treat them normally. But what did thine eyes see?”

“A town made of brass and iron with a bright light in the middle pumping like a heart, but as cold as the night. And their citizens...”

“Thy dream could mean nothing, or everything. Do not worry, first we shall celebrate; afterwards, we may worry about thy dream.”

They both stood there for moment before looking over the railing and down at the preparing towns as the sun slowly rose, coloring the sky in a deep orange.