> A Hoof In Time: Mafia Town > by Chocolate Swirls > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Prologue: A Hoof In Time! > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Inside of a ship, floating through space, were three pegasi. They had been sent out on a mission to retrieve a couple of time capsules from a distant planet, and all they had to do now, was return them to Cloud Nine. The trio were sleeping peacefully when suddenly; "Good morning, Sleepy flyers!" The clock above their beds let out a loud, static filled cry, startling the pegasi out of their beds. The blue pegasus was the first to recover and reassured his siblings, "Ugh... It's alright guys, It was just the stupid clock..." "Oh," replied the older pegasus as she put down her arms, and stretched her wings, "We really need to turn that thing down or move it somewhere else... Like above the ball pit!" A small 'No...!' could be heard from the bed next to younger pegasus. "Alright fine! Somewhere other than above the ball pit.", The red mare crossed her arms and glared slightly at the green pegasus. The young stallion groan slightly as he crawled out of bed, "It's not that! It's just that, I was having the best dream ever!" He pouted as his siblings stared on in disbelief. The older stallion shook his head as he chuckled, "What are we going to do with you Apple?" Apple Pie was about to give a rebuttal when he was interrupted by that clock again; "You are now five light years away from your home destination." The trio stared at the clock, then at each other. Apple Pie was the first to speak up, "I'm... gonna go check on the time capsules." He then trotted out of the room at a steady pace, leaving his two older siblings to decide what to do for now. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Apple Pie walked down the purple-colored hallway, yawning slightly as his wing absent-mindedly dragged along the wall, He stared out the window, rubbing the last signs of sleep out of his eyes, in awe at the infinite galaxy that spread out in all directions before him. Of course, they had already been out there for five years! But... Can you blame a guy for being amazed by the wonders of the universe? These thoughts would have gone on a bit longer, if he didn't suddenly stumble out of the space themed hall into the main area. He rubbed his head and gave the Vroomba that slowly drifted by a quick 'hello' tap. He chuckled as it did its little twirl in response to his touch. He loved being able to rub it in his older siblings faces, about having a closer bond with the vroomba than they did. Obviously, they would always shoot back that they wouldn't care if they were friends with a robot or not, But he knew they were just jealous. Before he went to check on the capsules, He noticed that the flappy pegasus game was still on.'Of course...', He thought as he trotted over rolling his eyes, 'Those two feather brains left the game on... again!". Just as he reached down to switch it off, something out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. It looked like something was floating toward the ship. He shrugged it off as a stray asteroid and proceeded to switch off the game. He then walked up the ramp towards the screen, and tapped it, which triggered it to turn on. The screen played a series of beeps before it finally showed their progress. The screen showed two clouds with the numbers four and nine on them, with the picture of their cutie marks inching closer to Cloud Nine. He stood back, happy that they would be home soon, but his happiness didn't last long. The sound of somepony or something tapping on glass cut through the air. He nervously turned to look at the huge windows and at first... nothing seems out of the ordinary. As the tapping continues, his eyes slowly drifted down to the small window that served as an entrance/exit. He let out a quiet yelp, as he duck down behind the golden railing. He took a deep breath and nervously peeked through the bars, he trembled as his fears were confirmed. At the window, was a strange creature, it had a strange glare on its face... like it was angry at nothing. After he recovered from his initial shock, he flew down towards the window as he called out to his siblings. "Strawberry? Diamond! There's something outside!", After he called his siblings, he flew down towards the windoor, and to add to his shock, before he was able to even touch the plush floor his siblings had already rushed up to the small door and were now waiting for his arrival. The trio stared at the creature as it stared back. After a few moments of awkward silence, Diamond was the first to speak up, "Uh... Why is it staring at us like that." The creature had ceased its knocking and continued to glare at the three. The three peagsi then started to jerk their bodies in various directions as the creature watched on. "I don't know.. But, It looks creepy...", Strawberry shuddered slightly, as she stared into the bright white eyes of the dimly lit creature. Apple Pie nervously asked, "Sh-should we... y'know open the door and let em' in?" He motioned to the strange, shadowed being. His fellow pegasi gave each other skeptical glances, before giving him a nod, but before Apple could reach the handle, the creature spoke up, shocking the siblings. "What is this? Flying boat?", The creature asked motioning up at the structure with a stern male voice, " All boats have to pay fee in Mafia Town, Even flying boats in space!", He said with authority. The last part didn't sound as intimidating though, "Mafia come in to collect." "Wait...", Diamond had asked, "It talks?!" Strawberry corrected him, "I-I think it's a he..." The trio stared on in horror as the creature grabbed the handle and proceeded to open the door. As he opened the door, the trio recovered from their shock just in time to jump up and grab the door handle and slam it back in place. Proud of their accomplishment they all started to high-hoof each other, Unaware that the creature had slowly backed up menacingly, before he suddenly outstretched his limb and dashed straight through the door. Strawberry was able to shield them the incoming glass, and they stared at the creature with looks ranging from annoyed to terrified. The creature hovered in the air for a couple seconds before it began to flail around. Diamond was about to question it's strange actions before it had been sucked away by a strong breeze that suddenly filled the main room of the ship. The siblings immediately tried grabbing anything within reach, but they had already been sucked out by the time the were able to grab anything. As they were floating around Apple noticed the vault had opened during all the chaos. The time capsules were now plummeting towards different planets in all directions. Diamond hadn't noticed until one of them narrowly missed his head, before crying out, "Oh come on!", before crossing his forelegs. The trio of siblings shared angry glances with each other as they continued to plummet down to Mafia Town. > Act 1: Welcome To Mafia Town! > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- The ride down was shorter than expected. The trio of pegasi glided down to what they suspected to be a small alleyway. Diamond opened his mouth to speak but was quickly interrupted by a Mafian, (Is that a thing?), that had harshly fallen into the alleyway with them. He seemed to have knocked himself unconscious. "Hey!", Diamond yelled, "That's the jerk that caused this mess!" He was about to go up and give him a peice of his mind when his little brother pulled on his tail. "Let... me... go!", He yelled whipping his head back, "I'll show this- this- whatever it is a thing or two about destruction of property destruction." "Yeah, as much as I want to teach it a lesson...", He shot it a glare," It's already knocked out." He motioned to the motionless body. "Besides we got more important things to worry about." Strawberry trotted up to them, fixing her beanie, "Apple Pie's right!", She turned and motioned at the opening of the alley. "We got a couple of time capsules to find!" She then turned and outstretched her hoof with a determined look on her face, " As long as we stick together, nothing should be impossible. So, what do ya say?", She wiggled her eyebrows as she nodded towards her outstretched hoof, " Forever flyers?" Diamond and Apple glanced at her hoof and then at each other. After a few moments of sharing looks, they smirked and placed their hooves on hers. After they did a silent countdown, they raised their hooves and yelled out; "Forever Flyers!" They then proceeded to burst out in a fit of giggles as they then rushed out of the alley. But, before they could even open their wings in shock, two Mafians,( Yeah, it's a thing now.), seemed to fall out of the sky. Strawberry was about to question the appearances of the two meat sacks when suddenly a smaller female version of the scale-less dragons landed on top of them and struck a heroic pose. As they gazed in amazement at the strange child, Diamon noticed that she had blonde hair, wore a bright red cape, and... 'No Way' He thought and shook his head before checking again. She had a moustache that matched the color of her hair. Unfortunately, though, she noticed the trio of colorful space beings, and quickly ran off. Apple, being the most curious of the three, of course, ran after her yelling, "Hey, wait come back!" Sighing his siblings took chase as Apple Pie ran after her. Apple Pie laid sprawled out on the concrete of a building ledge; he watched as the meat riding mafia member rolled right on past as if he wasn't on a crash course with the pegasus a few seconds ago. He laid like that for a few more minutes, taking in the bright blue sky, breathing in that... fishy smell? 'Oh look, Crash and Berry...', He thought silently, as he turned his head, he noticed the tiny dragon- thing, was staring at him with... was that glare? No... A determined stare? It took him a moment to realize why he was about to become a flat pie. Just as his siblings finally caught up with him, He took off again. As they watched him and the mustached thing, they couldn't help but sigh mentally, as they immediately took chase again. Apple followed the creature through a dark brick tunnel, it took most of his willpower to not throw up from the fish smell radiating off the stray piles throughout the tunnel. As he ran past two Mafians talking about some ball game they saw last night, he slowed down as his ears caught an interesting piece of the conversation. "Did Mafia know that little people can double-jump?", One of the mafians mentioned, "Mafia need to hit gym more." 'People... So that's what they are. ', Apple thought, 'I could give this 'double-jumping thing' a try...' He trotted out of the tunnel and watched as the girl double-jumped over to the other side of the grassy ledge and ran across it, and waited, staring right back at him. Just as he was about to try a double-jump, his siblings caught up to him. "A-Apple... for crying out loud, dude!", Strawberry panted, "I'm this close to passing out." "Just...Just let us catch our breath for a second...", Diamond said before he and Strawberry collapsed onto the brick floor. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Diamond woke up to the sound of ponies calling his name and being shaken awake. His eyes slowly fluttered open, and he was face to face with two blurry blobs, one was green, and the other was red. He wasn't sure if it was the slight dizziness he felt, the smell or if it was because they reminded him of Jello, but either one made him just a tiny bit nauseous. He took a couple minutes to rapidly blink his eyes, clearing up his vision, and almost immediately jumped back to find that he and his brother were so close they were practically kissing. "GAH!", was his immediate response, jumping back and landing on his flanks. After he collected himself, he managed to ask, "What... What happened." "We passed out from exhaustion.", Strawberry spoke up. "Ah...", The blue pegasus rubbed the back of his head while slowly nodding. Apple Pie cleared his throat, "Forget about that! Watched this...", He walked over to the opening of brick tunnel, spread his wings and hopped but before he hit the ground, he managed to flap his wings and gave himself a boost. He turned around, satisfied with his siblings amazed and surprised looks. He waved a hoof at himself before explaining, "This is what the people here call double jumping.", He paused as he recalled the mafia's' conversation, "But then again they're too f- big to actually do it." "Wait- What's a 'people'?", Diamond asked intrigued. "Maybe that's what the creatures here are called?", Strawberry whispered into Diamond's ear. Apple Pie simply rolled his eyes, "Come on! It's really easy to do! Just jump...", He walked them through it, and outstretched his wings to perform a double jump. "Then, just flap your wings and boom!" He managed to flap just in time before he crashed back down to earth. He patted the grass next to him. "Now you try." The two pegasi looked at each other and nodded. They crouched down, jumped, then waited till they were close enough and- The trio had just finished untangling themselves from the feather pile, and were now right on the hooded girl's tail, quite literally, they kept running ahead and would have to turn around because she would turn a corner behind them. Anyway, they continued to weave through the maze of buildings, and just as they rounded the corner, the girl jumped onto a sand sack and was carried into the clock tower towering before them. Just as they were about to try and fly up there, the girl peeked her head over the edge and yelled down at them. "Hey youu! Don't think I didn't see you stalking mee! Us kids,", She added,"or whatever you are... Should stick together! Not stalk one another!" Diamond couldn't help but ask the being, "Hey! Are you a people?!" His siblings rolled their eyes at the ridiculous question. It seemed the girl thought it was just as silly since she seemed to ignore him, much to his annoyance. "Mafia Town can be a really dangerous place if you know what I mean.", She warned the winged trio. Then an idea popped into her strangely mustached head. "Say... I'm creating a rebellion for... creatures... like us!" She appeared to have a joyful glint in her eyes, "So what do you say?", She climbed onto the ledge to sit over it, "Wanna join my... little rebellion?" She watched as the siblings gave her eager replies while their wings fluttered slightly. "Alrighty, just come on up!", She responded, motioning to the big red button over on the ledge next to them. The eager pegasi hurriedly jumped over to the button, and they shared a quick glance with each other before they all pressed the button down at the same time. As the button dimmed a plank lowered itself down right in front of the trio, and they all hopped on. After they hopped off the plank, the mustached girl looked at them suspiciously, "Say, are you three responsible for all the junk that fell out of the sky?", They all sheepishly nodded, "Yeah? Yikes... looks like you've got some cleaning up to do!" She moved to the other side of the tower and gazed down at the center of town. "Come here! I can show you were some of your junk landed!" Following her gaze, the pegasi gasped as they recognized the hourglass shaped object lodged inside the fountain. "Some of your junk landed inside the fountain, messed it up real good!" "Well, what are we waiting for? !", Diamond said his wings twitching with anticipation, "Let's grab it before one of the mafia do!" "Alright then! Forward Rebel Squad!", She yelled as the trio, temporarily turned squad, made their way down to the fountain. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The hooded girl was currently peeking around the corner of a building, watching as a mafia member, wielded with a pastel blue baseball bat, pick up the hourglass and started to examine it. She turned around to face the trio, "Alright, as long as you don't make eye contact, you should be fine." The three nodded and ran out from in-between the buildings, with Diamond being the fastest, he was able to reach the mafia first. He rushed up to him but was immediately pushed away. Taking a deep breath, he told the mafia as calmly as he could, "In case you couldn't tell, sir, that time piece belongs to me. So, if you would as to be so kind and fork it over, nopony- I mean creature gets hurt.", He finished the sentence with a warning snort, But the mafia seemed to ignore him, and proudly looked at his prize. 'Alright, I'm done playing nice.', He thought looking down at the baseball bat, 'You wanna play? Then let's play.', He grabbed the bat in one swift move and pointed it at the bigger creature menacingly. He didn't expect the mafia to run away, but that just made it more fun. He lifted it high in the air and cried out, "Down with the Mafia!" and ran into battle. He took a swipe at the mafia but missed, he tried to take another, then another! But failed. Frustrated, he jumped up and, to his brother and sister's surprise, performed a flying dive on the mafia. Turns out that was what managed the final hit. He dropped the hourglass and ran off blubbering like the big baby he was. His siblings ran up to him in amazement. "Wow, Diamond! That was amazing!", Apple said with stars in his eyes. "Yeah, that was the best thing I've seen since the Cloud Race!", Strawberry said, astounded. "Pssh, it was nothing!", As turned around, he noticed two extra baseball bats lying on the ground. "Hm, check this out guys," He presented the bats to the eager pegasi, one pastel red, and the other pastel green. ", He must've dropped them." The trio raised their new weapons in the air as the hourglass hovered around them before settling in the middle. The siblings let out varying yells of excitement as they glowed and were sent back to the ship.