Canterlot: The Shining City.
Built on the side of Horn mountain in the middle of Equestria, anypony could see for miles if they looked out off the side. Some ponies say you can see all the way to Vanhoover if your eyes are good enough, or the Crystal Empire if you look north, or Manehatten if you look east. That changes from pony to pony, but the one city you can always see is Ponyville. Now known as the City of Pleasure.
Canterlot stood high above Ponyville, covering the outside and inside of Horn mountain, leaving barely a square inch of it bare. As technology and magic grew, it became possible to burrow inside the rock or transform it for pony usage. A massive furnace fills the inside, providing heat and light for those inside, and providing power to the entire grid of Canterlot.
Skyscrapers and commercial buildings jut out from the sides, where ponies work, play, live, and die. Computers, screens, and electronics cover nearly every surface, and an increasingly in-depth network keeps ponies on all sides of Equestria connected. A pony from Appleloosa down south can keep in contact with a friend in the Crystal Empire instantly, chatting back and forth as though they were next to each other.
The home of the two sisters had been moved to the very peak of Horn mountain, with the castle now occupied by the embodiment of chaos; Discord. He’d transformed it into a massive entertainment plaza, and spent his days entertaining anypony who could pay. The sisters themselves lived inside a tower on the peak. They, and a few pegasi and some unicorns were the only ones who could survive that altitude without help. It afforded them isolation in their immortal lives; something nopony who thought about it could blame them for. They oversaw the rising of the sun and moon as usual, but very rarely appeared in public.
It was probably for the best, as the city had grown far beyond the ability of a single monarch to rule over. Ponies were elected every few years and given jurisdiction over different sections of the massive city. One was in charge of the upper half of Canterlot, the second the lower half, and the third the interior of Horn mountain. They in turn had to delegate manufacture, justice, and all else required to run a city. Far too much for the two sisters to manage alone. They were still the rulers, and they could come down from on high whenever they wanted and have everypony obey them, but they never did.
Gear Grinder glared up at the aloof grey spires of the Sister's castle far above his home in Canterlot. The castle far above looked out of place as it was, framed by neon lights and advertisements for the latest horn and wing-growth pill. He flipped his visor down and the HUD popped up, telling him he was now four minutes late for his meeting at the subway station. He grunted and flicked his ears to control his computer. The cursor on the screen slid about, opening his favorite chat channel. The moment it opened, he smiled as his online friends greeted him.
“Shouldn’t you be at work, Spider?” His friend Chain Gang said.
Spider Web was the name he used online in all the games, chat rooms, and anything else. His friend Chain Gang likewise wasn’t named Chain Gang, but that’s what everypony called him. Gear Grinder didn’t know his real name. He didn’t know anypony’s real name on here and he liked it that way. Who you were in real life didn't matter.
Gear’s eyes flicked back and forth as he typed out his response. “I’ve been sent down to Ponyville today to fetch some materials. They expect it to take all day, so I don’t have to be anywhere immediately. My companion is gonna be upset, though.”
“Aw, damn! Ponyville? I’ve heard about that place. Is it true they cater to every fetish imaginable?” Another pony typed out. This fellow’s name was Ball Buster. He talked like somepony who hadn’t been very far from home in his life. Gear had always guessed the guy lived on the southern half of Equestria. Someplace like Appleloosa, which was still far behind in tech and news.
Gear chuckled quietly as he stepped out of his apartment. He swiped his keycard to lock the door and headed down the hall toward the elevator. He passed by several ponies lying about the hallway in various intoxicated states. He didn’t live in a very upscale part of Canterlot, so it was honestly a bit of a drug-house. Reason being was that there was an unspoken agreement that unicorns lived higher up the mountain, and earth ponies and pegasi lived lower.
Technology had worked to bridge that divide, but while technology allowed earth ponies and pegasi to gain some hoof-hold in being equal to the sheer power that some unicorns could wield, unicorns had worked to keep themselves ahead, combining magic and technology to create even stranger and unusual things only they could use.
Things like teleportation chambers that held a charge and used the unicorn’s own magic to function. The pony didn’t even need to know the spell, they just needed to allow the capsule to charge off your own horn, and then *poof!* there you were at your desired destination. An earth pony or a pegasus could use it if they were accompanied by a unicorn, but not otherwise. They still had to rely on public transportation like the subway or the sky-tram, or in the case of pegasi; their own wings.
Earth ponies got the worst of it, being unable to fly or use magic. Their strength was a boon, but more often than not, it was just an excuse for unicorns to pay them to do grunt work they didn’t want to do themselves.
Gears eyes typed out his response in the visor. “Yes, Balls.” (Everypony in the chat just called him Balls). “But there’s a price for everything, and it’s not always a price you should be willing to pay.”
Gear Grinder walked past an earth pony who was holding a smoking stick of some drug in his hoof. Well… it wasn’t a hoof, it was a prosthetic, but he only had one instead of the usual two. It looked like a horrifying metal claw-thing that had been attached to his leg in place of his hoof.
It wasn’t an unusual thing to see in the poorer areas. To help bridge the gap, some earth ponies and pegasi had relied on physical augments. For Gear Grinder, they were horrifying to look at. They weren’t a hoof, and having some spider-like appendage at the end of your leg was… unsettling for him.
When used, they worked like a griffin’s claw. It gave him digits to use so he could perform fine manipulation tasks that couldn’t be done with just a mouth. It gave him the opportunity to find employment outside of the typical drudge-work like moving, lifting, pushing, pulling, and trotting that most earth ponies in the city performed. This pony looked to have only been able to afford one augment, and was not doing so well for himself. He could probably still find work that was higher-paying than most earth ponies got, but not while he was addicted to some drug.
Pegasi were better off since they could manipulate the weather, but technology and magic still one-upped them there. Unicorns could manipulate the weather as well given enough magic, and they could walk on clouds if they knew the right spell, so with the advent of all this techmancy as the unicorns called it, pegasi were fighting them for jobs, and education and skill were the deciding factors. Competition was fierce, and had frequently resulted in murder or death.
Gear Grinder stepped out of the elevator and straight into the choked streets of Lower Canterlot. There was no lobby to his apartment, as it was just one of the vertical monoliths that covered the place. Ponies were everywhere here, and they all wanted a piece of the big Canterlot pie.
The smell of food and pollution wafted into his nose and he stopped to buy a kebab of falafel from his favourite food cart with a name he’d never been able to read. He just called it ‘Curry’s’ after the earth pony owner. The food was greasy, but it always smelled good and hadn’t killed him yet. From behind the counter, Curry nodded to Gear, and Gear nodded back.
They’d met many a time as Gear passed by on his way to work and bought a quick bite to eat. Curry had an exotic look to him, and Gear suspected he was probably from Saddle Arabia. Despite having met many times, and even having a few chats, the topic had never come up. Gear suspected he had come overseas hoping to make it big in Canterlot where all the ponies gathered, then Curry got here and discovered it wasn’t that easy if you weren’t a unicorn graduated from Celestia’s school. Having discovered that, he had just resorted to selling his ‘exotic’ foods to ponies who were interested or wanted a taste of home.
He made a decent living, judging by the decorations and defenses for his shop he’d set up, but it probably wasn’t everything he imagined it was going to be. Gear figured that it was a lot of hard work with very little reward. Gear had managed to get a job in the Horn Mountain Power Station.
Gear Grinder walked down the sidewalk of the narrow switchback road leading down from the apartments to the commercial district. For the area Gear lived, it was mostly alcohol, clothes, and a single inordinately expensive food mart. Hence why Gear usually bought food from Curry. He shopped elsewhere when he could.
Like today. He’d worn his largest set of saddle bags so that he could buy some things from Ponyville while he was down there. If he still had bits or room left over when he was done, he was going to stop by one of the supermarkets on his way back through Canterlot.
Right now, though, he needed to hurry. His visor told him he was now fifteen minutes late for his meeting. He broke into a trot, weaving in and out of the crowd as he wound his way down into the mountain to the subway station.
“Hey guys, going into the mountain. If I lose connection, you know what happened. I’ll be back online when the subway’s out,” Gear typed to the chat.
“No worries, Spider. There’s not much going on in here other than me kicking Balls’ flank at Equestrian Warriors,” Chain Gang said.
“Constantly spamming Dragon’s fireball attack is bullshit and you know it,” Ball Buster retorted.
“I can beat you with Steely Gaze if you’re gonna bitch about it,” Chain Gang said.
“Try it, then! Nopony can get through Thunderfury’s lightning wall without a projectile attack!” Ball Buster boasted.
“Gonna make you eat those words, Balls,”
The typing stopped as the two focused their attention on the game. It was a fighting game they frequently played together. Chain Gang was the best at it, but Spider, as Gear called himself online, was getting better. Living in such squalor as he did, his online gaming was the sole escape he had from the bleak existence he was living.
His job was hard, but it paid well, and if he continued living such a stark life outside of work, enjoying nothing but his online entertainment, he would eventually be able to afford an apartment in a better part of town. That was the goal, anyway.
He didn’t know if it would ever happen, but he was going to keep working, and he was going to keep trying. Things were steady for now. He had a good job, he had acceptable living conditions and there was a solid lock on his door. He had his goggles for the net, and they were probably the most expensive thing he owned, including his apartment’s rent. He didn’t have to look at the place he lived. He could just go to work, do what was needed, and come home.
Gear Grinder sighed as his goggles lost connection inside the tunnel and tilted them up onto his forehead. The train had to make its way down the interior of Horn mountain before it would exit into Ponyville. Wireless didn’t work in here unless you had one of those magic-powered antennae, but those were expensive. He couldn’t get one right now.
He waited on the platform until the train came along, and climbed on amidst dozens of other ponies. He couldn’t find a seat at this hour, so he stood, swaying in the aisle as the train hovered its way down the track through Inner Canterlot. He’d arrive at Ponyville Station soon, and then work would begin.