The Train ride to the Pronx was relatively uneventful, I see the many apartment complexes, skyscrapers and shopping malls that form the Manehattanite Skyline pass me by as the subway plows it’s way through the city. It’s a beautiful city, especially now that the sun’s slowly turning away from the horizon, bathing the city in a warm orange glow. A glow that was to be soon replaced by Luna’s moon.
I heard another ring from the announcer of the subway. Pronx Central Station it says, repeating the same announcement twice before the train continues it’s journey in relative silence. Within this rather awkward silent though. I managed to see who this Ocellus is, and the more I see her, the more of an enigma she becomes, or at least that's what I think.
She’s certainly a Changeling, no doubt about that. But everything in her physique feels off. Her normally dark coat is now bright blue, A pink mane-thingy flows throughout her head, turning into folded wings on her back, before ending in a weird wing-like tail on her rump. She’s also wearing some sort of shirt, a very roughed-up shirt I might add. Worn down and losing it’s once brilliant yellow colour, you can tell by the stains i her shirt that this is definitely used for work. One wonders if this is Ocellus’ only shirt.
The other organizers, compared to Ocellus that is, felt relatively unassuming. There’s a brown Earth Pony Stallion, a yellow coated Pegasus Mare, and another purple coated Pegasus Mare. All of them seemingly taking orders from Ocellus, now that I think of it. Ocellus might be the ‘general’ of this group, while the others act as her ‘lieutenants.’
Any further thoughts from myself were rudely interrupted when the scenery suddenly changed into a rapidly moving metal platform. A platform that slowly stopped, before the doors of the train opened up.
Pronx Central, this is the place.
We walked off of the train, and quickly exited the platform. From there, Ocellus took us into a rather unassuming apartment building. It looks like your regular tenement in Manehattan. A building of red bricks pockmarked by windows in a symmetrical fashion, the entrance of the building also seems rather unassuming, we passed through an elevator, and then trotted into an unassuming room as well. Numbered 508.
The moment Ocellus opened the door though, the dullness of the Pronx cityscape seemed to just disappear into thin air. The interior of this apartment block feels starkly different, I see bright colours, plants, multiple flags of organisations I’m not really familiar with, and it feels positively… bohemian.
Everyone had the same reaction as we entered in. A mixture of awe and surprise as we entered into the apartment proper, some of us, like a certain blue siren, started exploring the building in earnest, eyes giddy in anticipation. While the rest of us were busy still staring at the interior of the apartment block, looking mighty impressed at what Ocellus has done to the place.
We were so busy staring at the various trinkets at Ocellus’ house, we didn’t notice that she was approaching Tempest, she looked at her, her petite form in stark contrast to Tempest’s, and opened her mouth.
“Why did you do that?” She asked. “I never thought that an Equestrian General would protect a labour protest march. What’s your reasoning?”
Tempest was taken aback, trampling just a couple steps as she now saw Ocellus. Slowly though, she composed herself. And responded.
“I don’t feel like seeing protesters die in the streets of Manehattan. Is that reason enough?”
Somehow I have a feeling that Ocellus won’t accept such an explanation.
“Explain, please.”
“Well, what more do you want? I don’t like seeing people die. I swore loyalty to defend Equestria, and that means that I will protect even the most invisible and most negatively perceived citizens who work in Equestria, and that means you.”
The female Changeling approached Tempest, squinting her eyes. Seemingly quite distrustful of Tempest’s sudden actions. After what seemed like forever, she broke eye contact from tempest, relenting by the looks of it. “Fine, whatever. I’ve seen some pretty unbelievable things in my life. This isn’t the most unrealistic thing I’ve ever seen. Anyway, if you want to leave, you can. I’ve got a labour organisation to manage and-”
“Wait!”
All eyes then turned on me, from my group which seemed quite surprised by the tone, and the labour organizers which seemed surprised by the announcement itself.
“Let us help you get this labour thingy off the ground! I think that you’ve just made some good progress with those protests, but do you want to take this movement truly off the ground?”
Ocellus’ eyes seemed to squint at my proposal. I do agree, it must seemed quite bizarre from her perspective, hey, when some noponies suddenly offered assistance, you’d be naturally cautious about their help.
“What’s your name?” She asked.
“Sunset Shimmer.”
“Alright Sunset Shimmer. What’s in it for you? What do you want from this? Why suddenly come into our assistance 2 years down the line?”
2 years? Wow, that’s certainly unexpected. I never thought that this little labour movement has been going for 2 years, and judging by that crowd. It seems that this Ocellus is definitely a good organiser/ orator. My mind drifted back into the protests, I suspected that she is a potential element of honesty, but I gotta make sure.
“Ocellus, why do you organise?”
“What?”
“I said, why do you organise? What’s your motivation?”
The Changeling seemed to be taken aback by my question. “Well, have you seen the working conditions at the factories here? Do you notice how just how horrible our pay is? And just how hard those robber barons seemed to squeeze every bit of bits from our hooves and claws? It’s horrible!”
She pointed her hoof towards the flag. A flag of a Griffon, a pony, and a Changeling holding their appendages together, hoisting a simplified image of Equestria, with a black hammer in the middle of it. ‘Equestrian Labour Organisation’ it reads on top. ‘For the advancement of labour, harmony and prosperity’ it reads at the bottom.
“I created this flag during a particularly bad work day, my local factory had an incident where a pony got her hoof stuck on a piece of machinery. Work has to be stopped for a while, and emergency crews have to force the factory to stop operating due to the nature of the injury, the supervisor was understandably not happy about this, and fired the worker on the spot, just as she was being hoisted into an ambulance I might add. We all got angry, but he wouldn’t yield, so, on the second day after her firing, I hoisted this flag on top of the factory door. one thing lead to another, and then all of Manehattan’s factories were suddenly closed as workers abandon their jobs and strike.”
“The 7 month strike...” I heard Starlight Glimmer whisper. “Did you organise that? I’ve heard that the shock of the strike forced the bosses to immediately raise wages and lead to the first legislation on addressing workers rights in Manehattan.”
“Oh we did more than that.” Ocellus responded, a slight smile forming. “The strike also forced us to organize a lunch program to keep each striker from starving, lead to a realization of our power as a collective, and of course, pissed those fat cats living in the central city right out of their fancy penthouses. It puts us on the map.”
“That’s why I organise.” She finishes. “I was appalled by the lack of generosity by those rich ponies living in Manehattan central, appalled that they wouldn’t just pitch in, just give a few bits to improve factory conditions, maybe sick pay in case some of us got into a particularly bad accident or something, maybe even better pay to help us improve ourselves. We don’t demand much, but the sheer selfishness out of everypony I’ve met who owns these factories, it forced our hoof to organise.”
I nodded at Ocellus’ reasoning. “So you think the ponies living in this city isn’t generous enough?”
“Isn’t that obvious? Everywhere I look, everypony acts like bits and only bits are the thing that matters to them. Being generous? Being charitable? Being compassionate towards the ones who aren’t so lucky? Well, too bad! I can’t stand that. If I must compel these ponies to be more generous, then I’d do it in a place I know best, in the factory floor.”
I nodded at Ocellus’ reasoning. I thought that she is the element of Honesty, and there is still a possibility for that. But after that? Potential element of Generosity seems more apt to describe her.
“Yo Starlight!” Sonata’s voice shrieked, seemingly breaking the rather tense atmosphere of the apartment. “Do you know Ocellus’ apartment has. A. Television. Set! There’s TV now in Equestria!!!”
The Changeling looked at her, one of her eyebrows raised, and then turned back towards me. “Does she… always snoop around?”
“She’s Sonata. She’s going to do whatever she’s going to do. Don’t worry. I don’t think she’s harmful, maybe…”
After Sonata’s sudden outburst, we continued discussing about the possibility of us aiding them. Ocellus’ comrades don’t seem to be trusting of a bunch of Ponies (and Siren/ Seapony hybrid) suddenly offering help, and I do have to bend the truth of our mission here in a very roundabout way. Stating that we’re here from Canterlot, volunteers to further the cause of Harmony in other places. Thankfully they seemed to believe that, although Tempest must explain her reasoning to be here in such a complex manner. Weaving a story about regret for lives lost during the Changeling-Equestrian war, and how she wanted to make lives better or whatever.
Eventually, they all seemed convinced, but Ocellus signaled that she has to talk to the other organizers in private. Wanting to clear her head about our sudden offer. They all entered into a certain room, asked us not to snoop, and closed the door.
We hard a lot of muffled words being thrown around, some banging of the table, alright, a LOT of banging, and all of that lasted for 10 to 15 minutes. Eventually though, the chaos seemed to subside, and the door opened. Ocellus stepping out first. “Alright, you’re in, all of you. We meet tomorrow at noon to discuss further plans, I’ve got an idea on how we can compel a Robber Baron to improve the conditions of his factories. But we’ll discuss that tomorrow. It’s getting late and we all need our sleep.”
We all nodded and left after some further pleasantries. The bohemian atmosphere of Ocellus’ room shifting into the dullness of the apartment block, before shifting again into the positively noir atmosphere of Manehattan at night. I looked at a clock hanging near a square, 8:35 it reads. Jeez, have we talked for that long? Nevermind. We only need to find a good hotel, rest our heads, and then-
My thoughts were once again interrupted by a black car suddenly stopping right in front of us. From there, a bunch of ponies, some of them wielding wooden sticks, but some of them wearing guns, suddenly came out and surrounded us.
“Come with us, we don’t want no trouble ladies.” One of them said. “We know that you visited the ELO leader. And we just want a nice, friendly, talk.”
To be honest, I never thought this would happen. A visit with a potential element of generosity and then we got roped into a bunch of goons? Well, at least my first day in Manehattan is rather... eventful.
I started powering my horn. But that thought was suddenly interrupted with Tempest tapping my back.
“Don’t turn your head.” A voice came straight into my head. “But I don’t think that we have to fight these ponies, let’s see where they take us, hopefully we can glean some information about who their leader is, and hopefully put an end into their petty schemes.”
Ah, using a mind-talk spell. Alright, hopefully she’s set up a two-way street for this. Here goes nothing.
“You’re sure about this Tempest? Don’t you know a thing or two about foalnapping? And the thing about ‘second location’ and such stuff?”
“Yes, I know that very well. I’ve been trained, both in the Storm King and Equestrian militaries on how to handle such a situation, don’t worry too much Sunset. I will not let them kill you or do anything stupid.”
I powered down my horn, but my mind’s still unsure.
“Calm down Sunset.” Tempest telekinetically spoke. “I wouldn’t do this if I don’t know what I’m doing. I know every last nook and cranny of this city and its surrounding area. Calm down, and get onto the car, okay?”
Alright then. I really hope she has a good idea of what she’s doing. I powered down my horn and opened my mouth. “Alright, alright. Every-creature, get onto the car, I don’t want to shed any blood tonight.”
“What?!?” I heard both Starlight and Sonata exclaim. Yeah, I kinda expected this.
“You’re just going to let them take you?” Starlight asked. “C’mon! We can take on these chumps.”
“Yeah! what she said.” Sonata complemented. “I may have lost my gem, but I haven’t lived this long just because of luck. C’mon Sunset, we can take ‘em!”
“No, we’re not going to. fight them, just get in the car.”
There seems to be some murmur of confusion, but eventually, both Starlight and Sonata conceded and both of them entered the car, myself and Tempest also joining with them. The interior of the car inside smells like a ton of cigarettes and old age, and as the other ponies entered in, weapons and all, the first thing they did was put a bunch of magic suppression rings into mine’s, Tempest’s, and Starlight’s horns. Before putting all of us into a blindfold.
The car ride was relatively uneventful, a couple of stops, some yelling from the driver, and just some bright lights filling in our heads. I do wonder what Tempest’s game is from all of this, but it better be good. I don’t want ‘dying’ as part of my resume at this moment.
The car eventually stopped, and the mafia wannabes pushed us into walking with them. A door was opened, we walked in, and after some very generous pushes, and a bunch of more closed doors. We all stopped.
They pulled out our hoods, and all I see was a room filled with Gems, Gold, and all manner of luxuries. Porcelain from the Kirin lands, elaborate carvings from Zebrica, even some Griffon fine craftsmanship was present as well.
And in the center of it, a turned chair with a pony staring at a distance, staring at a scenery of a beautiful garden from a glass wall. An elaborate wooden table right in front of the turned chair.
“Well, I certainly didn’t expect the Rector of the School of Friendship, an Equestrian General, and a former student of Princess Celestia to come up and ruin my plans. But I certainly welcome to challenge.”
The chair turned, and I saw the face of a purple Earth Pony with a rather gaudy silver mane. ‘Mr Gladmane’ reads the plaque in front of his table.
“Now then, why don’t you all fine ladies take a seat. You too Seapony.” He ordered, the mafia ponies cocking up their gun. Understandable, we all took a seat. “Tie them up gentleponies!” He screamed further, and an array of ropes and cuffs bounded us into our seats.
Tempest. You better be smart about this.
“Mr Gladmane is it?” I asked. Trying to not piss him off unnecessarily. “I assume you own a factory in Manehattan?”
“Oh? Factories? Me? No no no! I own hotels, resorts, luxury penthouses. All of them filled with honorable and hard working ponies.” He boasted. “Honorable and hard working Ponies that are just about to delude themselves into unionizing.”
“Now, I don’t seem to notice all you three lovely ladies have been ‘round these parts of town for quite some time. But I can tell ya this, stay out of mine and my good friends’ business, and you’ll be on your merry way to a life filled without worries. How ‘bout that?”
Gears inside of me starts to turn, if this person is what I think he is, from his flashy suit to his gaudy room and up to his horribly styled mane. I think I can gather some nice info about his whole posse of ponies.
“So, who are your friends exactly?” I asked. “And why would you must go all this way to foalnap us like this?”
“Ah, lovely mare. Well, that is quite a story. But I suppose you’re going to spend all night in the basement thinking about that. I ain’t giving no secret ‘bout my business partners and esteemed guests here in Manehattan! Nice try though.”
I only rolled my eyes and sighed. Well, it’s a good try at the very least. “Take these lovely ladies to the cellar boys. And make sure that they have the best accommodations for such prominent individuals. I certainly wouldn’t like it if the war hero Tempest Shadow is treated badly.” He ordered, as the orderlies started gagging us and lifted us up. He came forward to me and smiled. “It’s certainly nice meeting you miss Shimmer, Tempest, Starlight, and Sonata. But I’m afraid I have to call it a day. We’ll see you tomorrow, and discuss further matters.”