Twilight watched Applebloom leave Partyville with a deep scowl on her face; the little bitch could die for all Twilight cared, it’d be several less headaches to deal with. Maybe the bow-wearing stain would die long before she even got to the Warehouse, before Panhandlershot even. No Applebloom, no Whisperer, none of the recent bullshit anymore. Twilight would grab Spike and Pinkie and the three of them would go deeper into the city to…
Well not live in Panhandlershot, the less time spent there the better, really, for almost every party involved. Maybe they could live in Frontline… no, too many people. Groundhill was loud, Night Juncture was filled with prostitutes, Canarily was just plain disgusting, Longtrench was overrun by bandits a few years ago...
Twilight considered if there were really any good districts. It was almost like all of them had a singular glaring problem that made life there horrible in some way, at least as far as she was concerned. She was sure somebody didn’t mind mounds of garbage, or rednecks, or blocks upon blocks of mindless morons. It wasn’t Twilight though.
Realizing she was about to start spiraling into her issues again, Twilight shook herself out of her thoughts. Looking back up she saw Applebloom was past the district line heading downtown. The disgruntled unicorn looked around Applebloom, seeing the empty series of ruins once known by the name Pyrmidia.
It was one of the five things bordering Partyville. The first was the forest and farmlands to the west; the outside of the city. Nothing chilled people more than the thought of going outside of St. Orangeberg, not without some serious protection magic.
Northwest was Ashton, a poor backwards place that really had no idea what it was doing as a whole, but had some crafty con artists.
To the north and almost barely making any contact with Partyville was a cramped series of tiny alleyways, rooftops, walkways, and apartment buildings. No one really had a name for the place, mainly due to it constantly changing its official name.
Southeast of that was what might have once been a nice place - Twilight had no idea - but it’d been an abandoned set of ruins and decaying infrastructure for years. What few people that still lived there weren’t doing well. They were basically squatters that ignored the rumours of the bog monster.
Finally there was what laid to the southeast of Partyville, a university town by the name of Sideo Breach. It was likely the nicest place out of the bunch, at least as far as Twilight was concerned, but then she actually knew the least about it. The ponies there liked to keep as disconnected from Partyville as possible, so the information kiosk Applebloom’s unicorn friend liked to hang out at had next to nothing on the place. The only information Twilight could gather was that it was named after a failed expansion into the outer forest in the past.
And - Twilight amended as she saw the welcome sign - for being completely full of themselves. ‘Welcome to Sideo Breach, don’t touch anything’ it read; below was a digital readout displaying their population: 3207.
Squinting her eyes at the likelihood of moronic bullshit she assumed she’d come across, Twilight passed the sign and entered the district. The first thing that struck her was how well kept everything was. The streets looked newly paved, the hedges were green and cut at perfect angles, and the trees lining the street were tall and healthy-looking.
Her first impression was that it looked like Partyville but richer. It left a bittersweet distaste in her mouth. Sweet for the stuck up nature of ponies with money, and bitter for the beauty of the way they kept themselves. She stood on a residential street and there wasn’t litter, no stupid kids out and about, and no blank stares from braindead ponies walking around or the ghosts trying to act that way.
“And once again I’m surprised to find anywhere in St. Orangeberg that actually looks like it’d be nice to live in.” Twilight considered as she walked further down the street. An expensive looking cart drove leisurely past with a pompous looking pony behind the wheel. “And it’s got an annoying issue, so it’s not too good to be true.”
---
Twilight reached an intersection and saw three coffee shops, each on their own corner; the fourth corner contained a new age salad bar of some kind. She looked inside from across the street and saw several stuck up hipsters eating what looked like foreign vegetables: The kind you couldn’t grow in St. Orangeberg. Not that Twilight was anywhere close to an expert on veg, food was food – she regularly ate weeds growing in her reading spot.
Noticing that some of the ponies walking by were giving Twilight looks, she forced her eyes directly forward and ignored everyone else around her. She was looking for an expert in clone-related studies and nothing else, she wasn’t window shopping, she wasn’t admiring the scenery, she didn’t belong and she wouldn’t be there long.
“I’m unimportant, don’t look at me, don’t talk to me, leave me alone.”
---
It wasn’t until the third street after the salad place that Twilight finally raised her head again, unfocusing in the hopes of taking in what was around her. She immediately regretted that decision when she realized she was in front of some kind of large stadium or another. Hundreds of ponies were dressed up in overly colourful and ridiculous looking outfits.
Ponies didn’t wear clothes, it was stupid, they already had colourful fur on them. Twilight liked her coat, not only did it keep her warm in the winter, it was also a good shade of purple, a nice background colour that told most ponies to ignore her or fuck off. The only clothing she’d ever worn was a hat. Once. And even that was only because Trixie was torturing her that day.
But no, almost every pony around her was wearing stupid-looking, over-the-top garbage. A black and white dress with frills, some kind of faux action get up, a demented looking wizard robe. And just far too many pairs of catfolk ears, the hell were any of them even doing?
“…which didn’t even get resolved until later that episode.” Twilight overheard as two stallions older than her by several years conversing about something.
“By best girl.” A blue unicorn off-handedly mentioned in response.
The white pegasus with him snorted, Twilight noted that they were walking the same direction as her, so she wasn’t allowed to escape their conversation. “Please, Lost Moon is such a wet noodle, I prefer my tsuns with a little kick, you know?”
“You would, I bet you like Sun Sweeper.”
“Obviously!” the pegasus shouted, “she’d kick my ass and step on me.”
The fuck were these idiots talking about? Were these seriously some of the people that lived here? The ghosts in Partyville never talked about… the fuck was a ‘soon’? Twilight needed to get away from these fucking wierdos before she caught whatever they had. She turned left and crossed the street that instant, glad no carts were coming through.
“Hey,” one of them shouted at her, “where are you going? I was just about to get your number.”
Oh holy fuck they thought they were worth her time. Twilight did everything she could to not break into a sprint and draw attention to herself. Thankfully the viral infections wearing dresses didn’t follow her, but she still needed a plan. Apparently the biggest problem with Sideo Breach wasn’t the rich assholes, it was the freaks wearing costumes and talking about... were they fictional characters?
A shiver ran down her spine; not even the violent psychopaths back home made her that uncomfortable. Whatever they were, they weren’t clone experts, and Twilight continued walking down the sidewalk at as brisk a pace as she felt she could get away with. She didn’t think she’d get attacked - they didn’t hold themselves like predators or gang members - but you could never be too careful; Twilight kept a dismissal spell on standby.
---
“You’re look like you’re lost,” Twilight heard a voice to her left. She was trying her best to avoid as much as she could, especially in what appeared to be Sideo Breach's laboratory neighbourhood. Who knew what scientists were capable of? They probably wanted to dissect her in a cold emotionless room to figure out what it takes to become a Hunter.
Twilight shuddered at the memory of meeting the only Hunter with a medical degree.
“Thank you, but I’m perfectly fine, please ignore me,” She dismissed to the stallion. He was a tall red guy with a smirk. The look in his eyes immediately raised multiple red flags for Twilight. “Who actually wants to genuinely help people?” He clearly wanted to sleep with her, kill her, or both.
When he raised his eyebrow, Twilight eyed a nearby recycling bin; it was plastic, but she was certain she could bludgeon this guy to death with it. “How can I ignore such an impressive scowl?”
Fuck. He was one of those guys.
“If you share your name,” He offered, “I’ll help you find what you’re looking for.” Twilight was seriously debating scoffing and walking away, but the people in Sideo were intelligent, if nothing else, and that meant she couldn’t make the same mistakes she made in Partyville.
Twilight made sure her voice was steady and gave no indication of any emotion. “Ignition, I’m looking for an expert on clones.”
The guy deflated at the request. Good, he shouldn’t have been talking to her to begin with. “Well Ignition, if you’re looking for local crackpot, you can find her down Causation Street. Lab 62.”
Instead of thanking the creep, Twilight turned and walked away. The less time she spent in Sideo Breach the better, it wasn’t even that stressful, it just made her exceedingly uncomfortable.
“It’s a few blocks south of here. You should avoid her though, she’s obsessed with peixies!”