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// Powder Keg 
// Story: The other End of Balance 
// by Dostoron 
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It had been a few days since the orphanage raid now, you still couldn´t believe that the cops telling you about it weren`t exaggerating. 
The foals had been loaded onto carts and pulled away towards other cities entirely, some of the boys from Cloud Haven who had either reunited with their families outside Manehattan or were otherwise nearby remembered who they owed their freedom to and made sure to find them a better place to stay. 
Gleaming´s foals were sent to your own parents, you sent a letter along with them in which you tried explaining everything to them. 
Well, except for the part where you are actually the leader of the Rebels.
This had been a difficult decision, Gleaming was still needed here but her sons should be away from danger, and your parents couldn´t get involved further than knowing you were fine and fighting to stay that way, you couldn´t do that to them after everything that happened since you discovered your gift. 
Gleaming didn´t like it, but after a while she understood your point and she didn´t want them to be in danger either. The Foals themselves had been surprisingly brave.

With that mess sorted out and after an highly awkward talk with Hulk about Blitz´s foal you were currently nursing your jaw where he punched you, were you not his “little brother” he might´ve hit hard enough to kill you, and thinking about your next steps in general.

Apple Cobbler, true to his reputation, had of course sent everything as soon as he was in safety. This little media blitz, stirred the displeasedness of the population of Manehattan only further, a few broadcast stations even getting it into the Equestria news. As a result a few towns and cities started independent investigations and dug up a few things that Celestia wasn´t necessarily at fault for, but she was definitely responsible by not stopping them. 
Hearing that of course increased the tension between the regular cops and the royal guard and public protest was now every day, to the point where the Royal Guard broke them up.


“Hmm, Manehattan is a powder keg at this point, any day it could all escalate and end in chaos.”

“Exactly that is what I’m afraid of”, a voice spoke up, turning you found that it was Splicer and he wasn´t finished:”If it all goes off now there will be violence, retaliation and we will be black marked as terrorists for all eternity, we´ll lose all support and that will be the end of it for us. Not to mention with everything that´s happened you, me and everyone in the lead will be turned into a courtyard decoration for the castle.”

“What do you propose?” Splicer was never one to beat around the bush as you had learned and what he found out about the workings of a ponies body is always worth paying attention to, like the pressure points where any pony was weak, aside from the obvious spots on a stallion.

“You know what an aroma therapy is, yes? If we don´t calm the hotheads down now we´re left with either waiting for the fires to start and hope we don´t get burnt or we start the revolution right now and try our best to make an orderly takeover of the city. There is a small weather creation facility nearby to help ease the workload from Cloudsdale, a few simple, harmless relaxants in a shipment of morning fog and we´re good, the frayed nerves calm down, the people get a good night´s sleep and we get more time to prepare.”

“You want me to basically drug the entire city of New Yoke? Have you been sniffing your glowing bottles or something? If anyone catches wind of that we´re done for!”

“You don´t have to invite your admirer for this, we´ll have to be cautious of course, but in the end we´re not harming anyone and I don´t ask you to put in anything that makes dependant, believe me, the Chemicals I’m talking about aren´t even making you drowsy, they just dampen the anger a bit and relax you a bit, basically an inhalable chill pill.”

“So either I launch a dangerous mission into the weather plant to prevent a riot, I let it happen OR I initiate it and use it to take over.”

“Well, yes, I would of course accompany you there to make sure nothing goes wrong with the chemical, after dispersal it´s spread so thin that it couldn´t harm a mouse, but concentrated… That aside, if we don´t make sure to be as prepared as we can it will inevitably backfire on us. Ahem, of course that´s only my opinion. The ultimate decision is yours of course.”