//------------------------------//
// Welcome to Maretreal! 
// Story: Waters: Equestrian Gangster (Original Version) 
// by King Genesis 
//------------------------------//



W's Perspective



Bedmaker.

I thought I was never going to hear that nickname coming out of someone else's mouth right here and right now. It's like one of those weird usernames you invented in your teenagehood and then, when you reread it one more time in your twenties and thirties, it embarrasses you.

I haven't used that nickname to identify myself since I was... I don't know, 17 or 18. It summarizes my crazy teenage years where I was just a stupid teenager, jacking off every day and whining like a baby in front of my bosses who turned out to be my metaphorical parents. I never talk about them. My parents... but that nickname always reminds me of them and those first years. My lost childhood. That's why I don't like it.

Bedmaker.

I lived in an orphanage in Manehattan for ten years. That place is now closed but everytime I pass near all of the memories invade me. I was only a child that used to mess around the place until one of the boys turned into our goofy leader: A douchebag that called himself The Entrepreneur... still such an idiotic nickname. He used to kick our booties and bully us and we even gave him all of our food. He also slept on my bed several times saying that mine was the warmest and leaving me apart. I had to sleep on the floor for the whole night and I didn't have the guts to say anything... until one day I snapped during midnight and took him out of my bed. I even said something I don't remember but my old friend Dream Raider used to say I told him some stupid thing. I think I said that was my bed and I made it... and the nickname was born. 

How can I remember that... after so long?





"Sir?"

Oh, I forgot. I am in a bathroom of Canterlot High right now with two kids waiting for my autograph... and I still haven't taken a piss. I look at them and I just want to be honest. "Why do you think I am that?" I ask with a smooth voice.

Snips answered. "Well, um... I don't know, uh... we thought that and..."

"I know you don't like talking about her." Snails now has the voice. "Um, to be honest, mister... Our previous boss told us about the mysterious bedmaker and you seem, to us, to be a match. She told us that he always wore a brown trenchcoat and had a challenging personality. Besides, she has a photo of the real Bedmaker... and you look like him." 

A photo of me? How? What? 

I have to get rid of it. They also told me that the owner of that photo is their previous boss. Previous boss? What do they mean?

"What do you mean with your previous boss?" I raise an eyebrow, crouching to get nearer their height. "Were you... working for somebody?"

Both of them look at each other. I think they don't know what I'm talking about. "Well, we were Sunset Shimmer's assistants," they say.

Sunset Shimmer? I don't recognize that name. I asked them who is she, and they told me that she used to be a really bad girl who regretted what she did and now she is good. I also asked them what she looked like, and they answered that she has "fire-styled hair" that makes her unique and is always wearing a leather jacket. "Where can I find her?" I ask. 

Just when Snips started talking another voice answered my question: "Right now she's in the cafeteria, along with her friends." I move my head and I see Trixie, that girl who walked away, crossing her arms. "And I don't know why my assistants call you the Bedmaker, but I'll let you know that the Great and Powerful Trixie is way better than you." 

"What?" is the first thing I say. "Didn't you walk away?"

"Trixie did..." she shakes her head. "... but Trixie never left. She is waiting for her assistants to stop this ridiculous show."

Her assistants? These two kids are now working for her? "Your assistants?"

"We've got to go, Snips and Snails," she says while frowning and turning her back on me. Both kids sigh and they look at me one last time.

"So..." says the taller one. "Are you the Bedmaker?"

I shake my head while biting my lower lip. "No. Can you leave, please? I need to pee. That's why I'm here."

"Come on," says Trixie. I look at her and she has one of those angry faces that makes you laugh. He shows anger... but also an innocence that confuses... and concerns me a bit. I know this girl speaking in the third person is not mentally stable. Both kids walk away but Snips stops to ask me something just when I look at the graceful toilet. He runs to me. 

"Why would you ask Sunset Shimmer for that picture, though?" he asks.

"SNIPS!" I hear from outside and the kid runs away again. I listen to his voice fading out while the magical sound of the yellow waterfall finally blesses me.

"Wait for me, Miss Trixie!" I hear from far away. 

This place is a mental hospital.





Once I finally write the epilogue of this bathroom story, I come out and see that Jack is next to me. Oh, man... when I will have my lonely moment of the day? "I've just arrived two or three seconds ago. How long have you been in that bathroom?" Then he raises a finger like a disappointed parent. "Don't tell me you were... touching yourself in a high school bathroom."

I am offended by that commentary. "Jack... that's disgusting," I tell him while shaking my head. "In a school? Why... why would you think I would do that?"

"Well, I was wondering why were you taking so long and I remembered that time when you were 16 and I found you in the car--"

No, I don't have to get reminded of that uncomfortable moment. "Stop," I tell him. "I don't want you to remind me that, OK? Didn't you see what just happened?"

He shakes his head. "I told you I have just arrived."

"Let me tell you, OK?" I put a hand over his shoulder and he looks at it.

"Did you wash your hands, at least?" he asks.

"Listen to me... I entered the bathroom and I found him again."

Now he is paying attention to me instead of my hand (Dirty hand). "Cattle Prod?" he says.

"Yes, he tried to mock me and I said no. I didn't do anything, he just laughed at me and left."

He sighs. "That is not good."

"I know, we have to get out of here but listen, there is more..."

He is surprised! "More?"

"Yes... two kids outside the bathroom were scared of him, and there was also this weird girl who referred herself as the Great and Powerful--"

"Go straight to the point, W."

Whoops. He didn't want to know the full story. "Well, these kids entered the bathroom after Cattle Prod left and asked me for an autograph."

He raises an eyebrow and sighs again. "That's it?"

"No, listen! There is more!"

"Why don't you go straight to the point? We are wasting our time. Abe wants to go now."

I approach his ear and whisper: "These kids recognized me. They said I was the Bedmaker. Remember that old nickname I had?"

He only shakes his head. "Yes," he whispers back.

"I lied, I told them I wasn't like that." I keep whispering to his ear as if we were lovers... lovers? "And then one of them told me that there was this girl with red and orange hair and a leather jacket that had a picture of a supposed me. He told me her name was Sunset Shimmer."

"I think she's right behind us."

I see that Jack slowly points a finger of his hand over my shoulder and I turn my back. She is not looking at us but at a locker in the hall. She has a leather jacket and red and orange hair. I can see that there is something written in black on that door: SUNSET'S LOCKER!

This is great news. Or horrible. I don't know. I get far from Jack and he shakes his head. "Listen," he says. "We've got to leave. Right now."

"What if she actually has a photo of me and we don't know?" I whisper to him. I am the one in trouble on this, not him. A photo of me that belongs to someone I don't know? No, thanks!

He is now getting angry and his face shows that. He grabs me by my shoulders and turns me around. "We've got to leave," he says. 

"But... wait... we have to know!" my voice is getting a bit louder. "What if she has that and she... I don't know, goes somewhere else with that?"

Well, it's too late, I'm afraid, because once I move my head to the right I can see that she's looking at us. Oh, oops! Are we trapped again? I look at Jack and then at her, and my mind slips when I try to come out with an alibi: "Mormons," I say, with a smile and stretching my hand. "Pleased to meet you."

"Hi, um... excuse me, sorry for interrupting but... I know who you are," she says to me with a smile while grabbing a green bag she has over her shoulder. "Me and my friends met a group of girls a long time ago and I remember once they talked about you with me. Just a couple of things but... one of them gifted me a picture of you with them when you were... much younger. I can see that you grew up."

I am completely lost and Jack takes a step behind. I only shake my head while putting a hand over my messed-up hair. "I... I don't even know who you are, I'm sorry..." A group of girls? Which? What is she saying? "Which... which group of girls are you talking about?"

"Don't you remember them?" she raises an eyebrow. "Sadly, they went through the wrong path and then they vanished after the infamous battle of the bands. The girl who gave me that photo talked about how you were learning to play the guitar and that you called yourself bedmaker because you wanted to be a private detective."

OK... things are getting a lot weirder. I never wanted to be a private detective, when did I say that? And which group of girls is she... oh... oh, no... did she say...? I blink twice and my head moves like a machine out of control. "Wait..." I say. "Did you say... battle of the bands?"

She chuckles and nods her head. "Yes, um... that night where... you know." She takes her phone out and I don't know what to do. Every time I look back, Jack is further from me. "Let me look for what I'm talking about on my cellphone."

I can't stop thinking about what she could do with her phone until I begin to remember things. I completely forgot about those girls... but when she said someone talked about how I was learning to play the guitar, images started raining in my head. It happened in the same year I got out of the orphanage. Well, got is not the perfect word here, but illegally adopted by Maretreal's gang due to being the son of a former mobster. At that time there was a gang war with a guy who controlled Fillydelphia and three women who worked for him helped my boss Eye Patch to destroy that dude's business.

Those three women were named... um... yeah, I remember! They were named Adagio Dazzle, Sonata Dusk, and Aria Blaze. "Oh, lord..." I whisper, without knowing that I am looking right at Sunset Shimmer. "I remember when... when Sonata taught me the basics..."

"I got it," she says and brings me back to reality. She shows me the picture I've been waiting for. There they are... the Dazzlings. That was the name that the old Fillydelphia guy used to say. Jack approaches me to see what is this all about and he sees the picture. Yep, that's me when I was 10 years old hugging an angry Adagio Dazzle with the brightest smile I've ever seen. And I understand why those two kids recognized me. My face in that picture... I almost haven't changed at all. I even have the same haircut... this is a joke. Jack takes a breath and closes his eyes. Now he's getting nearer. "I still have the picture because I kind of dig it, it's funny..." and he raises her shoulders. "And I mean, it's kind of weird to see you in person. In real life. The last time I talked about you was a year ago with Sonata, and she told me that you were working for the Maretreal Police Department so... wow."

Jack and I look at each other. Is she... Did she believe what Sonata told her? Why did she tell her that? I am no cop. I am no policeman but... at least she didn't say I am a gangster. I raise my shoulders. "Yeah, um..." I look at Jack and then at her. "It's a job. You see? A job is... uh, a job." What the hell did I just say?

"Um, by chance... don't you have one of the girls' phone numbers?" she asks. "I tried to call them because I've heard they were touring on Minnecolta or somewhere else but I... I don't have anything."

"I'm afraid that we neither," suddenly responds Jack while grabbing one of my arms. He's grabbing me as if he was holding a sword. "I'm afraid we'll have to go, miss. We were called by your principal for something else and... we need to leave. Goodbye."

"Yes, uh..." I nod my head. "We really... we need to go."

"Sure," she says. "Pleased to meet you, uh... bedmaker and... mister. Have a good day." Her sight changes a bit and we turn back once she does the same. However, she is still not finished. "Um..." I stop but Jack does not until he hears something else. "I don't know why are you here right now but... watch out for Cattle Prod."

The heads of us both turn around like spinners when we hear that. Jack stops walking and only nods his head. "Yes, miss," he says.

She crosses her arms. "Is that what you're looking into? Him?" 

I look at him and then at her again. Jack shakes his head and I do the same, like a clown. "Bye, miss."

We turn around and leave in silence without looking back.

It looks like this came out well but... there is something I don't like about her. It's just... I don't trust what she said at all. Besides, mormons? What the hell I was thinking about?





"What took you so long?" is the first thing I hear when I see Abe lying against his car trunk, crossing his arms. 

Jack only waves his hand to him. "Long, long and stupid story," he says and I nod my head, agreeing with him.

"Why? Don't you tell me that you found him jacking---"

"Oh, come on!" I shout while opening the car door. "I'm not 16 anymore! I don't do that... here! On these places! It's gross!" I close the door while laying on the backseat. Why do they think I am capable of doing that? In public? In a school? In freaking Canterlot?

I can hear Abe's voice when he opens the car door at the same time Jack does it on his side. "Then what happened?" asks the grandpa.

Jack sits on the passenger seat and shakes his head. "Firstly, W went to the bathroom and found Cattle Prod one more time."

"Uh, come on," he says while turning on the car. "What is he? A fucking magnet?"

"He only warned W one more time about his uncle and left. Then..."

"Then what?"

"Then nothing," I say. "Just... stupid stuff. Two kids thought I was someone else and wanted an autograph and then another girl thought the same and..."

"... and that's it?" Abe is looking at me through the rearview mirror. Oh, he's trapping me. "Is there something else?"

"Well, if you want to know... one of the Dazzlers saved my ass once again."

Jack rewrites what I said. "You mean the Dazzlings, W."

"The Dazzlings?" Abe turns around and looks at me, shaking his head. "But... what? We haven't seen them for... I don't know, ten years? They were working for that guy on Fillydelphia... what was his name?"

"Ash Ton," says Jack, and Abe nudges his seat.

"Ash Ton... I totally forgot it... and can you tell me why and how did they save your ass?"

"Well..." I try to relax and I fasten my seatbelt (because real gangsters fasten their seatbelts) on the backseat. "Do you want me to tell you that on our way home?"

Now I am the one who is looking at him through the rearview mirror... and his eyes do show something else too. "Actually," he says. "We are still not going home."

Wait... what? Why? "Really, why?" I ask. Jack also looks at Abe.

"Eye Patch called." 

Oh, lord. 

He's back. My boss... he went on holiday to that magical world filled with horses.

Abe grabs the wheel and finally says: "He wants us to pick him up in Klugetown."







Eye Patch's perspective



I finally returned from the other side. 

Instead of using the Canterlot mirror, I decided to return using a magical device invented by my now new assistant, Calculated Risk, which I haven't understood completely yet. He's a clever guy, and I also wanted him to help me with those elements of harmony we've been talking to so, he's in my world now, trying to have human behavior.

Oh, I found out that I didn't present myself, how stupid. My name is Eye Patch. 

I'm the boss of the Maretreal Group, or Gang, or Family... you call it as you want. I'm the city's man. People know me, and I even got my name, because I lost my left eye in an ambush against my father a long time ago and I put on an eye patch, something that makes me a recognizable man. That's why I'm not someone who is outside his safe place all the time.

I'm now in Klugetown because that magical device Risk invented left us here. Besides, he has said it is now broken. Oh, and this town? It is the worst place to get in through a portal, but I don't complain because I need to talk to the one who controls almost everything in this place, Garbage Mouth. That guy, you know, had such an awful childhood that I used to scare my old protégé, W, when he was eleven years old with his story. I also remember one of his best tales: the one where he killed five men biting them to death. How do you kill a man by biting him to death? No idea.

Calculated Risk is frightened because of this place and I agree with him. If you want to survive inside Klugetown, you have to destroy your rivals and when I say destroy, I mean literally.

"Where are we going, Mr Eye Patch?" asks Calculated Risk to me. His voice is trembling.

"Welcome to Klugetown, Risk," I only say. "Be careful and don't get lost, no one knows where you will end up if you take the wrong path."

He looks at me, confused. He's trying not to crawl like a pony and look like an idiot. "So this is the human world..." He says. "A very disturbing one, isn't it?." 

"Indeed, it is!" says a raspy, ruined voice. I know those vocal chords are unique in Equestria: They are Garbage Mouth's. He appears with his unique worn-out tuxedo, golden teeth to hide his decays, and also a little bit of make-up to hide his devastating face ruined by drugs. "Oh, good lord!" he shouts. "Is this real? The son of the Iron Man has returned!" 

"Don't be too joyful, Mouth," a normal behavior from Klugetown citizens. "I came here by accident... and, now that I'm here, I need to tell you that I gave your boy Snowblind another chance and he sucks so bad at doing his job it makes me sick."

Garbage Mouth laughs out loud while clapping his hands. "I always knew that kid was a gift for all of us." Then, he looks at Calculated Risk hiding behind my back. "Oh, don't tell me you have another protégé sucking your dick every night."

"What?" he says, and I only put a finger on my lips while looking at him. I'm doing all the work here.

"No," I say. "His name is Calculated Risk and he's helping me on a project that I have in my mind."

"Calculated what? That name's too fuckin' long!" I agree with Mouth this time. "Can I call you Larry? Larry's a better name!" he says. Calculated Risk nods his head, frightened. "Besides, I also need to tell you something... Big Baby asked me for you like six times... in two days."

Oh, coming back means having the old same problems again. Big Baby. I wish I hadn't remembered that disgusting man again. The father of Canterlot's Gang. "Why would he want me? Did he miss me?"

"He was talking about a deal... I don't know what, I don't know why and I don't care."

"Well," I tell him with a smile. "Thanks for your time, Mouth." 

He leaves without saying anything and jumping like a monkey with his tuxedo filled with dirt. Then, I look at Risk, now known as Larry. "Not all human beings are like him, trust me." If you want me to be honest, I wish I could destroy Garbage Mouth and control this entire town like my father did in the past. Mouth did ruin Klugetown.

Minutes later, I heard a car in the distance. A car I recognize stops right in front of us. Risk gets scared for a moment until I laugh when I see three of my most loyal employers get out of it. Abe Flanks, Jack, and my boy W. The first one who does something is the younger one, who runs and hugs me. "THE MAN IS BACK!" he shouts. "YES! The patch man is back, baby!"

Jack and Abe greet me and also Risk, who presents himself as Mr Larry Risk.

"Patch, well... did you find something new from the other side of the mirror?" asks Jack to me. Then Larry starts talking to them about the Elements of Harmony and their holders and mentions that they may change per dimension. 

When he finishes, Abe asks me what I want to do with the elements. It's still a private project on my mind. "I won't say anything by now," I tell them. "I'm still trying to figure out what can we do but I promise I will tell you that next week."

"Is this related to that speech the President gave last year?" Jack asks again.

I only nod my head. I don't need to say anything about it.  "So," Now I want to be informed. "What happened here? Garbage Mouth has just told me that Big Baby wanted to see me."

Jack and Abe look at each other. "He visited Rusty Wrench's car store last week while I was hanging out there," says Jack. How strange for Big Baby to come out of his stupid cave. "He was talking about a deal you did and came out wrong according to what his crazy mind told him... I think he is talking about what we wanted to settle with the Dark Spikes who work for him on Scorpan Street." 

That is not important for me right now but may be in a few days. I think I know what he's referring to. "I'll talk to him later. Any piece of news from you two and the kid?"

"Well... in fact," Now everybody, including Risk who hasn't said anything after the explanation, is looking at W. "Yeah. Today I went through more things than in the past five years."

Woah. Interesting news coming from W. "Why?" I ask.

W takes a breath and clears his throat. "OK, everything begins when---"

"Let me summarize it," says Jack, raising a hand. W closes his mouth and raises his shoulders. "Firstly we dealt with the Penknife Brothers' problem with Abe and... everything went wrong, like... bullshit wrong."

I don't like when Jack talks like that. "What happened?"

"We'll tell you later about that," now says Abe with a broken look in his eyes. "The most important thing you need to know is that we were in the middle of that and we hit our noses with a wall. We found out that there is a nephew of Bloodswan studying in Canterlot High."

Oh, that's bad. "Sharp Baton?" I ask, shocked.

"No. The other one, Cattle Prod," answers Jack. Oh, the youngest. Easier to avoid. That kid may not even know me. Sharp Baton does.

"Anyway," I say. "We should go back home. That stupid Snowblind and also Hoppy may be waiting for us."

"Don't be so rude with Snowblind," says W. "He's an idiot but... he's a good idiot."

"Don't defend him again, W," I tell him. "Please, turn on the car. I'll be waiting." Then I look at Risk who doesn't understand anything and I nudge his back with my elbow. "Welcome to Maretreal."






Jack's Perspective




4:40 p.m.



I came back. 

I'm now in my old Maretreal apartment located near Waldorf Valley where we have the special protection of Hoppy's men. Next to my apartment, it's W's. He always plays music loudly while playing video games. That's how a young gangster lives.

I'm still reading my father's notes about Equestrian Mafia because I'm an asshole. He died almost thirty years ago and I'm still doing this. Now I'm reading his last one before dying. That one is short but very sad and tragic at the same time.


1990.
This will be the first and only note I'll make this year.

My name is Epigraph, better known by my pseudonym Edinburgh Tyler, and I worked as a journalist for the Canterlot Daily. I started investigating the Equestrian Mafia in 1982, where I discovered a mountain of stories and people inside this atmosphere that I ended up writing about and sharing in this newspaper. Because of this, I get threatened every single day. I have lost count of the times I almost died because of gangs.

Now, a man called Howlman, who I think is the leader of Manehattan's Dark Club, is looking for me. He will kill me and all of my family. Jack, my son, if you read this, run. Run for your life.

- Tyler, E.

I read this card while I was in the kitchen. 

I wanted to save my father but he was already murdered by Howlman's men... and that's why I became what I am now. I am a gangster because of my dad, but then, my main objective of killing Howlman was delayed because of other favors and also Howlman's obsession with being hidden. I turned into what my father hated the most.

Suddenly, I heard someone knocking at the door. Is it Abe, Ron, Hoppy, W... 

Her? No, Jack, please! You've been thinking about her since we got into Canterlot High.  Fuck Crescent Bunny.

I open the door... it's Rarity. Her face is covered in black makeup. She's crying.

"Uh... Rarity? What, are you OK?"

She shakes her head and I let her in.