Follows A Little Spark 10&11

>”Anon?”
>You and Celestia are once more on the balcony of her private library, as the sun begins to set.
>You’re sitting on the balcony, leaning against the arch connecting it to the tiny private library, almost finished with an accounting of the lives of the ‘Six Pillars.’
>Six seems to be a fairly significant number, culturally, for ponies.
>Celestia’s also sitting on the balcony, but she’s looking out across the city.
“What’s up?”
>“I haven’t been seeing you at breakfast, the last couple days.”
>She finally looks to you, smiling.
>”You used to eat on such a regular schedule even I thought it was strange, and I’m the one telling the sun when to rise.”
“Well, school and work will do that. Just sorta got into the habit of waking up at a certain time. With Princess Luna helping me, figured I’d try to stay up a little later. Her duties make scheduling hard outside our normal meetings.”
>She paws at the floor with a hoof, then looks back out across the city. “I never thought I’d miss how grumpy you are just after waking up.”
>After gauging the amount of daylight left, you close the book and stand up.
“Never heard that one before.”
>“It added an unpredictable element to a routine the palace staff has down to an artform. With you around, I don’t have to try to trip them up myself.”
>With the book in its place on a shelf, you look at her back. Her strange misty mane’s greens and blues clash with the sunset’s oranges and yellows.
“You do that to your staff?”
>She looks back at you over her side, her long neck craning around, and grins. “I have to keep my little ponies alert and prepared for the unexpected.”
“Not a bad policy.”
>She stands and walks over to you. “You never told me why you join me up here.”
>You have to stop and think back on the first time you did.
“You never dismissed me, that first day. You just got up and walked away. Figured I’d follow.”
>”Surely that’s not all.”
“Well, you come up here just to watch the city. You’re not the kind of per-, uh, pony to just do nothing. I’m guessing you come up here for some time to think. After being alone surrounded by a hundred ponies talking at you, thought maybe you might like some company with no ponies at all in silence.”
>Celestia smiles, then turns for the stairs down. “You’re a thoughtful one.”
>You wave the compliment off
“Eh, it gives me time to catch up on some reading.”
>Both of you make your way through the palace to the meeting room, for the daily royal shift change.
>On top of the usual ponies from the last several days, Celestia’s assistant Raven Inkwell shows her face again. She’s been gone the past week to some far-flung locale for her duties as archivist, retrieving some document you couldn’t even pretend to care about. Now that she’s back, the seating arrangement’s changed again, putting you a little further from Celestia’s side.
>Raven smiles at you and telekinetically pulls your chair out.
>Considering you’ve spent the last few days just shy of persona non grata, this comes as a bit of a shock.
>You note Prince Blueblood’s pointed look at her. Interesting.
>”Let us get right down to business,” Celestia says. “What will we do for Appleloosa?”

* * *

“That could have gone better.”
>Celestia comes around your side. “Your aggressive timetable was inspired.”
“Too bad that’s the only thing that worked. All my quantities were off.”
>”It was a useful starting point for a new plan.”
>You shrug, still looking at the ground as you stand outside the hall.
>Celestia smiles, almost apologetically. “I didn’t think you’d have everything on your first try. Your input was still very useful.”
“If I’m going to do this job, I need to do better.”
>Celestia tilts her head slightly. “Perhaps your standards are a little high.”
>You finally meet her gaze, fighting down a brief surge of irritation.
“All due respect, Princess, but that’s only a more polite phrasing of what I’ve been hearing for three days now.”
>She pulls her head back into that straight-necked posture you’ve come to associate with catching her off guard. “Is it, now?”
“Don’t you mind that, I have a plan.”
>She leans in again, a conspiratorial gleam in her eyes. “Do you, now?”
“Yeah, so don’t you worry your regal little head over it.”
>”I’ll take your word for it, Anon.” She grins, then turns to leave. “I’ll let you get to it, then.”
>As she walks away, Luna walks up on your other side. “What doth our sister speak to thee about?”
“Just a bit of mischief.”
>Luna frowns. “Our sister is quite adept at mischief.”
“Wish I had a bit of time to study under her, then.”
>“As thou speakest of time, Anon...”
>You turn to face her.
>She looks chagrined.
>”We are afraid we will not be able able to make our usual meeting. We are hosting guests, this night.”
“Ah, that’s fine. I got something to take care of anyway.”
>Luna shuffles in place. “Anon, dost thou know the great problem of thy schedule?”
“My, uh, what?”
>”As thou stayest awake to makest time to see us, thou losest time for us to visit thee in thy dreams.”
“I’m like two hallways down and a flight of stairs away. Come see me when I’m awake.”
>She shakes her head. “Affairs of state keepeth us busy.”
>You sigh and run a hand through your hair.
“You know what? That makes sense. Do you want me to go back?”
>“Not at all. We appreciate our discussions.” Her expression brightens “We both learn so much!”
>You chuckle at her enthusiasm.
“That’s true, yeah. I know I didn’t get to contribute much back there, but even that was thanks to your help.”
>”We enjoy our time with thee, Anon. We wish for more of it.”
“Maybe when this all settles down a bit. I did get tossed to the sharks, after all.”
>Luna frowns. “We are not sure what thou meanest by this.”
“Really? Of all the sayings we have in common, that’s one you don’t have?”
>”Perhaps it is just our circumstances.”
“You going to tell me about those sometime?”
>Luna takes a step back, a distant look in her eyes. “Sometime.” Then she snaps back to the here and now. “We must prepare for our guests. We wish you luck on that which thou needest attend to.”
>You give her a wave as she turns to depart, then make way for the wing of the palace containing the working spaces and supply areas.
>A guard is standing in the middle of that wing’s central hallway. He eyes you as you approach, but only speaks when you stop in front of him. “This wing is closed, Anon. Everypony’s gone home.”
>You look past him, down the hall. Sure enough, there is no activity.
“Can’t let me by anyway, just for a couple minutes?”
>”No.”
>You stare at him, expecting some snide remark.
>He holds your gaze, saying nothing further
“A’ight, good to know.”
>You shrug and turn to walk away, towards the stairs leading to your workshop.
>When you reach your personal retreat, Twilight’s looking over more plans on your desk. Her expression brightens when she notices you enter.
>”Oh, Anon! I think I figured out some ideal segment ratios here, after looking over some books on avian anatomy and gauging different likely object sizes. I was going to start running some numbers based on the equations you sent me, but...”
>She looks down at your phone, sitting on the corner of the table.
>”I wanted to test this thing’s calculator, but  can’t seem to use it.”
>You walk by her and pick it up thumbing the power button and unlocking the screen.
“The touchscreen will only work with my fingers, most likely. At least with any level of precision. I could probably eventually get the hands we’re making to work with it too, but for now just my fingers.”
>Her bright expression falters. “No ponies can use it?”
“Probably not. There’s a grid inside the screen forming an electrostatic field, and my finger interferes with that field in certain ways. That’s how the phone knows I’m touching it. I doubt your hooves have the right electrical properties for it, and your magic probably wont either, unless you learn how to manipulate electromagnetism directly.”
>You pause for a moment.
“Honestly that’s a bad idea, at least regarding the phone. It’s an extremely complex device, you might damage it. I might be able to set up a test rig for you to play with, if you ever suspect or discover magic can do that. A Van de Graaff generator should be enough.”
>”A whatnow?”
“Collects charge through a spinning belt. Real simple to make, big arcing sparks are very visually impressive. Useful if you need a ton of voltage, and quite safe to play with.”
>Twilight chews on this while you put your phone in your pocket, then head towards the far door that leads to your bedroom.
“I want to get a nap in, if you don’t mind. I just about pulled an all-nighter and I need to get up real late for something tonight.”
>”Hey, wait! What about m-” She screws her face up a moment- “What about our work?”
“I really do need to take care of something.”
>You stop at your door, then turn back to her.
“Tomorrow. I promise.”
>She looks down and paws at the floor. “I’ve been monopolizing your time lately, haven’t I?”
>You walk back over to her, and crouch in front of her. She’s too tall to be at eye-level here, but you didn’t want to look down at her like you normally do standing.
“Look, you’re the only one I can talk to about this stuff, and you’ve been a wonderful guide to society at a ground level, around here. My only complaint is that I don’t have more time to spare.”
>You reach out and ruffle Twilight’s mane. She leans into it a little, but you catch yourself and pull your hand away again.
>Why do you keep treating her like that? She’s royalty, and putting aside educational differences, probably smarter than you.
>It might have something to do with the fact she’s as cute as a four foot tall cat, while the other two alicorns you interact with regularly fall within normal human height ranges.
>You sigh and stand up again.
“I have three princesses and two jobs demanding my attention. I don’t need you to leave me alone, I need more time in a day.”
>”Sooo… do princesses demanding your attention have anything to do with what you’re doing later tonight?”
>You can’t help but bark out a laugh, loud enough to startle her. Turning back for your room, you wave a hand dismissively.
“As if any pony would be interested in me like that. The smith was probably right about that at least; I’m a freak to you.”
>”Don’t say tha-”
“Nah, it’s fine. I don’t hold any illusions otherwise. I’m resigned to my fate.”
>You reach the door, open it, and turn back to her again.
>She’s staring at you with a look of… incredulity?
“Seriously, thanks for looking past my weird appearance and habits, to work with me on all this. It’s been a nice taste of home, working on this stuff, and I’m glad I can do it with you. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
>She gives you that baffled stare for a few more seconds, then flashes a warm smile. “Yeah. I’ll see you then.”
>She turns to leave with that curious bouncing trot you’ve come to associate with her happiness.
>You make your way to your bed, strip down quickly, then collapse onto it. After fishing your phone out of your discarded pants, you set an alarm for midnight.
>You’ve got some snooping around to do.