A Loveless Tundra

by Dworthy

10: Access Denied

Thorax slowly opened his eyes, not yet awake enough to remember what happened. He looked around, his senses slowly sharpening. The cavern, though it had icy walls on one side, looked a lot like the snow caverns he was more used to.

Of course, that thought led him to the foxes, and he finally remembered the last couple of days. The hope he had felt just before he lost consciousness seemed so misplaced now, and he lowered his head to the ground again.

Not wanting to see the uncannily familiar setting, he closed his eyes and focused on his recent experiences to try and get an idea of what to do next. Although, it was hard to come up with a reason to do anything at this point, getting kicked out everywhere he went.

---

He got a reason eventually, hunger. He had not fed since Sombra attacked, and however long he spent rigid in that cave (he eventually decided to take it as two days) was enough for his digestive system to send a small box of formal complaints to his brain.

He flew out of the cave through the tunnel he came, figuring that find an actual exit would take too much time an energy. Outside, it was fairly bright and sunny, which wasn't that unusual compared to how the temperature was now noticeably above freezing. There were even birds flying in the sky, likely coming here now that it was warmer and the lands held promise of soon-to-come nourishment. Less encouraging was how the Crystal Empire was still the only beacon of love visible, so no choice but to head there for a meal.

After a few minutes of learning the wonders of walking through half-melted snow, he gave up, flew into the air again, and took on one of the birds' form. While more energy intensive overall, a lighter body had an easier time with flight, and it was usually faster than travel on the ground.

The trip was uneventful. While he was spotted many, many times, the crystal ponies (plus the occasional Equestrian guard) were just idly watching the birds soar overhead. It took him a while to find a part of the sky that very few were watching so that he could get close to the castle and dive to his target.

The thought of feeding off of living creatures always left a bad taste in his mouth, so an inanimate object was much easier to do it from. It also helped that the Heart itself had more stored emotional energy than the rest of the Empire combined (based on how it hurt to look at with his emotional sense), and unlike any living being, it was purely positive as well. It was literally perfect for providing a changeling food.

Even better was how there were no guards in the vicinity, letting him feed with little chance of being disturbed. He hovered in front of it and began to pull a small stream of energy. Even at a tiny size, it was so densely packed that he made up for his impromptu fast in a second.

That was all the time he got. The Crystal Heart emitted small, translucent square of love that slowly shoved him away from it before harmlessly dissipating in the sunlight. Confused, he started to fly back to it, then stopped when the Heart released yet another square. This time, it was much faster, giving him no time to react. He didn't need to, as it collapsed around him, so thin it was almost invisible, barely enough substance for him to feel it.

That was almost certainly a warning shot, and Thorax flew away to perch on a nearby house. His first plan was a bust; while he could definitely sustain himself off the Heart without noticeably draining its reserves, it was built to defend itself.

He did have two other plans for survival, though, so he just had to figure out which one to implement.

---

Here he was, a few days later, perched on the windowsill of a restaurant and feeding off the love of a couple sitting inside. It was filling, it was delicious, and he felt empty inside as he did it.

He wanted to do something else. As far as he could tell, the foxes (moreso the little ones than Vix) willingly gave him their affections, which he passively absorbed for energy. However, unlike the stories of infiltrations that he heard about, he was himself, not pretending to be someling he wasn't. So, if he could make a friend like he always wanted to that would also accept him for what he was, he'd be set. Assuming no one would give him away.

He was so afraid of that happening that he ended up dropping that idea for another one. This was the safe, conservative plan, where he'd act mostly like an infiltrator and snatch something to eat whenever he can. Instead of taking on the shape of a random pony, he'd stick with a local bird for now. While the Crystal Empire was a city, there couldn't be that many that lived in there, which made it hard to long-term a character with no history. He could pick an Equestrian pony to imitate instead, but what Equestrian that isn't affiliated with the guard would want to move here?

---

Sunburst sneezed and wrapped his cloak tighter around him as a chill wind blew over the train platform. His nose never liked sudden temperature changes, and while some of Canterlot's early summer heat that stuck around inside the train kept it comfortable for most ponies (his favorite cloak was a little warm for that), it made the tundra feel even colder. It also didn't help that it was colder than it usually was at this time of the year, with there still being snow in the area.

Nasal annoyances aside, he was finally here. Finally he could start again, leaving behind that legacy of dropping out of Celestia's School For Gifted Unicorns*. As an added bonus, he also 'accidentally' left off where he was moving to in his latest letter to his mother, so he won't be bothered for a long, long while.

*It was hard for a dropout to make a living in Canterlot. This was not because a lack of available jobs, but because employers wrongly assumed that he failed due to lacking intelligence and lowballed salaries to the point where he would not be able to pay for rent, let alone food. Lack of connections made the situation even worse due to having nopony of importance to vouch for him. Luckily, there's a job any desperate stallion can do, and it pays well, too, thanks to the efforts of the Servant's Union that since its inception had broadened its scope to represent all service workers in the city. It's just not the kind of job that should be mentioned in polite company, or worse, within earshot of his mother.

Even better, he actually owned a place here instead of renting an apartment, and it was so astoundingly cheap that he could easily afford it with the nest egg he built up over the years and still have enough left over to not need a job for three years**. He could spend as much time as he wanted studying magic. If he got lucky, he might even find a low-cost way to cast spells, which would finally make him as employable as the average unicorn.

**The Crystal Empire, as an independent realm, minted its own coin, an engraved disc of stained glass. As these were so easy for the crystal ponies to make, they never suffered from a currency shortage and even helped to alleviate such issues within their sister nation of Equestria. They also made for a convenient fractional bit, as many exchanges at the time were simply not valuable enough to be made in even a single bit. As these times were literally a couple years ago for the crystal ponies, they expected such to still be the case, with bits worth many times more. The Equestrians thought the opposite: they never had the crystal artisanship that the Empire possessed, and assumed the coins were works of art worth many bits. This was eventually noticed and fixed with official exchange rates within two weeks, but not before Sunburst's purchase was completed.

Still, he couldn't do that until his personal library (along with he himself) arrived at his new home. He was planning on renting a cart for that and the rest of his luggage, but it turned out that hiring the full draft-pony service cost only two bits, less than any of his books except for the foal's bedtime stories he kept as a keepsake. That was kept inside the luggage; no need for anypony else to know about it, after all.

The pony pulling the cart was a very young crystal mare who looked like she had just finished her last growth spurt. Her body was a translucent sky blue while her mane shaded everything behind it pink, it was that clear. Her Cutie Mark was a contraption of some kind made of wood, and her name was Ballistic Clarity, though she preferred to go by Ballista.

Conversation was awkward, to say the least. This had nothing to do with him having problems talking to girls (leave off the last two words for the correct version), nor with how she spoke late Middle Ponish (knowing Olde Ponish made it even easier to understand). Instead, the two regularly made incorrect assumptions, with her assuming he was a lord of some kind old enough to be her father, and he assumed that she was well-educated noblepony's foal on punishment pulling carts. this lead to several denials, some awkward laughter, and strained silence.

While he was used to quietly minding his own business, the draft-pony was not. "Well, milord, this certainly is quite the stack of books. Are you studying to become a great wizard away from prying eyes?"

He groaned. "Could you please stop calling me that? It makes me feel like somepony I'm not, older and more important than me."

She studied his goatee for a moment. "Anypony with that kind of facial hair must be old. Everyone from the Empire with it had seen at least fifty summers, if not more."

This made him bring a hoof to his face before looking at her with an annoyed expression. "I'm only nineteen. I'm older than you, yes, but not by that much!"

She gave a haughty sniff. "Well, if you must know, I am as old as Sombra's Curse upon these lands. The fourteen years prior are but mere trivialities."

He rolled his eyes. At least that was settled now. "To answer your question, I do plan on studying magic. I'm hoping to discover ways to lower the cost of spells so that I can finally start casting them."

After seeing his mood lower a bit, she tried to give him an encouraging smile. "Brighten up a bit. If I had so much as a bit's weight in magic, I'd be able to position gears in an instant."

Sunburst quickly glanced at Ballista's mark. "What is your cutie mark, anyway? I've never seen a ballista or catapult quite like it."

She smirked. "That is a trebuchet, a new weapon the engineers were designing a few years back. It should be an antique by now, the idea of it." She shrugged, and added, "My interests are in mechanics, not just weapons of war. This job just affords me to tinker to my heart's content."

He hummed in interest but didn't say anything.

Taking it as a signal to keep going, she asked, "May I ask what your cutie mark is? I mean no insult, for I do not know if the stallion of the future hides it from public view."

Ignoring the second part in the hopes it was just an innocent question, he lit his horn and floated a transparent illusion depicting it. "As you can see, it's a sun with rays. I at first thought it meant I would become a prodigy at magic, but, well, here I am."

The topic being exhausted meant that the awkward silence had returned in full force. Sunburst didn't really mind it; he was used to ignoring uncomfortable situations.

It seems Ballista wasn't, as she then asked, "Do you how those trains work?"

He gave her a confused look. "What makes you think I know how a locomotive functions?"

She glanced at the cartload she was pulling, three quarters of it being books. "It is apparent that you are a scholar, and unless the Equestrian State prefers to keep it a secret, it would not surprise me if you were to read on it from passing interest." She then muttered, "And every other newcomer only knows the name if they bother to honor my request with a reply."

He had to admit the point, as he had a sudden interest in trains when he was eleven that vanished just as quickly after a week. "I don't know the details, but burning coal heats water into steam, which applies a hefty amount of pressure. This pressure is used to power a mechanism that causes the wheels to turn as it escapes into the air. There's also safety valves to keep the pressure from getting too high, because when it does, the steam can rip the boiler and the engine apart in an explosion. That's about all I can remember."

"And what of the iron struts they roll on?"

"The rails are there to make sure the train goes where it should. With how fast they can go, and how hard they are to steer, they can do a lot of damage before finally stopping. I think they also help to save on fuel by reducing friction."

Ballista fell into silent contemplation, with the only sounds the two made being their hoofsteps, their breathing, and the squeaking of the cart wheels. After looking at the ground a few times, she said, "If one were to embed the rails into the road and ensured that the train were to drive at a safe speed, perhaps a brisk trot, it would make convenient transport for ponies and cargo alike."

Sunburst looked at her in genuine surprise. "I can't think of any city that's tried that. It-it might actually work extremely well, so long as several safety measures are put into place; after all, city streets are a completely different matter than mountain ridges nopony ever walks on."

She smiled and replied, "Perhaps we can make Empire a land of the future in but a few years. Either way, we have arrived." The two stopped and looked at Sunburst's new home. Outside of the crystal architecture, a hallmark of the Crystal Empire, the most striking feature is the roof draping over the dwelling like a giant wizard's hat. "Quite a fitting home for a wizard."

"I'm not much of a wizard," he grumbled as he helped her unload his belongings from the cart.

"Mayhaps not, but you seem quite the scholar in the mystic arts." She paused as she turned a crank in her head. "I do believe that 'Scholar Sunburst' sounds quite pleasing to the ears."

He mulled it over in his head. "Yeah, I guess it does."

it wasn't long before they were finished. Ballista hitched herself to the cart again and waved to Sunburst, saying, "'Til we meet again, Scholar Sunburst. I must return to my work."

He nodded and waved back, replying, "Until then," then turned to sorting the books he brought into shelves. A few minutes later, he had finished, and he surveyed his work with a grin. Now, nothing will bother him in his studies.

His stomach grumbled loudly as if in response to that thought.

Well, almost nothing.

Author's Note:

The last two thirds of the chapter could have been separated out, but I really wanted a strong Gilligan Cut, so... hi Sunburst.

OC's in this story are basically made up at the point where I need them, though I usually take some thinking time to hammer down who they are and what they'll do for the grand total of one scene in which they exist. Originally, Ballista was supposed to be an old coot who was worried about trains taking his hauling job, but then I remembered the librarian was rather similar to that, so I jumped in the opposite direction. However, I still wanted to have that conversation about trains, so now we got a pony who might've become a DaVinci analogue in her own time but instead invents trams and makes them common in the Crystal Empire after a decade or two.

Anyway, with the situation in the Crystal Empire and Thorax's life stable once again, Act 2 is over, and Act 3 begins.

Comments

[origami]

Possible Sunburst/Thorax friendship?

[Dworthy]

11931035
Well, I'm sticking as close to show canon as I can, so A. Thorax doesn't have anyone he considers friends after at least a year passes (given that Flurry Heart needs to be born) and B. Sunburst can't recognize Thorax's true form on sight, both based on Thorax's debut episode. Anything else is fair game, though, including loopholes in those limitations.