//------------------------------// // Chapter 4: Life in the Deep City // Story: My Little Pony, Friendship is Magic: Heart of Friendship // by ShadowDurza //------------------------------// “Psst… There they are… the quadrupeds...” I’ve heard of horsefeathers, but this is ridiculous…” “Do you think any part of them can be used to make glue…?” “I heard that some of them can use magic… I wonder if the horns let them read minds and fry brains…?” “Ugh… Don’t they have any sense of decency…? All those colors are just gaudy… And not to mention the fact that they’re naked…!”     The ponies anxiously traversed through Core Metro's Industrial Sector. In Applejack's words, they stood out more than "An autumn leaf in a spring pickle jar at the summer sun celebration." Normally, Rarity liked standing out, but even she felt the burn of the gazes surrounding her, which was enough to suppress a fashion freak-out from witnessing their dull jumpsuits, goggles, and bright yellow helmets.     When they entered past the city gates, Harvey decided that they should hide in the gatehouse until he could go through the proper channels to get the word out and avoid starting a panic. While they waited, the Guses decided to show them a simple educational movie about Core Metro's civilization. From what they could tell, the city is divided into five districts structured as rings. The Industrial District processes any incoming resources from the cavern, and are sent to the Market District to be distributed throughout the city through several trading companies and innumerable wholesalers and retailers. The gross revenue is sent to the Financial District to be placed in banks, invested, assessed, and eventually distributed to employee salary. The Party District is where most of the population go every once in a while to renew themselves, increasing the effectiveness of their magic. The Grand District is where numerous high-profile individuals live to avoid potential threats from any unsavory characters. Each District is governed by an Director, and all the Directors are governed by the Central Administration where the High Director and their numerous Secretaries oversee Core Metro as a whole. Twilight noticed several inconsistencies, such as parts where it sounded like they were about to lead up to something important but abruptly cut off.     The Guses left on their vacation to a resort, saying that they’re confident in the Ponies’ ability to make friends. Before returning to the gates, Harvey said that they should eventually receive a message to allow them permission to meet with the Sector’s Director, but it may take a while to go through the bureaucratic process.     Pinkie’s stomach growled. “All this public scrutiny is making me hungry!” Rainbow Dash nodded. “Agreed. I could use some fuel for the tank, and maybe something to help with the wing.” Twilight gulped and stepped forward. “Um… Excuse me. Can somepony tell us where you go to get some food around here?” The crowd of humans surrounding them just stared. Some of them looked at one another, some of them whispered to each other. Finally, a tall human slowly raised their arm and pointed down an adjacent road. The ponies looked in the direction and spotted a row of neon signs, one of them saying Eat at Joe’s! Twilight turned back to the human, smiled, and nodded. “Thank you, sir!” The ponies turned and trotted down the road towards the sign. Meanwhile, the humans stared at them until they were out of sight before continuing on their way.     The ponies entered the establishment. Every other patron stopped to look at them and the music silenced with the sound of a record scratching. The Ponies slowly trotted up to an empty booth in the corner. Pinkie tried to give everyone she glanced at a big smile. Fluttershy meanwhile, tried to avoid eye contact entirely, at one point by covering her face with her wings.     Once they took their seats, a server glided over to them without a glance, unfurling a notepad. “What’ll it be? Need a menu?” Rarity flipped her mane back. “Do we have the pleasure of addressing Mr. Joe?” The server didn’t give her a glance. “Joe’s dead. The owner-chef is Jim, his son. I’m Jim’s son Jake. I work here so I don’t have to bust my back in a factory. Need some menus?” Pinkie bobbed her head up and down. “Well, why don’t you change the sign then?” Jake scoffed. “In this economy? Wouldn’t bet on it, sister! Say, why are you asking so many-” Jake raised his head and stopped short when he saw his customers. Pinkie waved her hoof. Rarity fluttered her eyelids. Fluttershy bend down below the table. Rainbow Dash flapped her wings. Applejack winked. And Twilight just smiled.     “You’re the- ponies? What do you even eat?”  Twilight tipped her head and gestured with her hoof. “Oh… grasses, hay, assorted oats and grains, fruits and vegetables, sweets and pastries.” Pinkie bent towards Jake. “And Rocks! If they’re available!” Rainbow Dash quickly shook her head and mouthed No…  “Well, how about I start you off with some salads and dinner rolls. So… how do you intend to pay?” Applejack placed her saddlebag onto the table. “You take bits?” “What are bits? Only credits can pay for things! If you don’t have real money, then you can get- Wait. What’s that?”     Jake reached out and took one of the bits that fell out from the saddlebag. He held it in his fingers, carefully inspecting it. “Is… Is this real gold?” Applejack raised an eyebrow in confusion. “It’s a bit. Money. What else would it be?” As Jake marveled at the meager coin, its glint got another patron from across the restaurant in the eye. They glanced over and their mouth fell open at what they saw. They nudged the one they shared their table with and pointed at the ponies. Soon, the oblivious ponies were at the center of attention in the restaurant, caught in a sea of mutters.     Jake gulped and gripped the bit in his palm. “I’ll… just put your order in and my dad can start tossing the salad. I’ll also see what we have out for dessert today.” Jake walked off behind the bar and to the kitchen. Slowing his pace occasionally to gawk at the bit in his hand. Applejack looked at her friends. “All that fuss over one little bit? And he just took one for all of us.” Rainbow Dash was about to respond, but she refocused her attention as she felt a light tugging on her splinted wing.     She turned her head to see an old, hunched-over woman with a shaking hand extended. “Pardon me, dear. If it’s not too much trouble, I could fix up that little ouchy… for a pittance.” “Oh! Um… go ahead…” Rainbow Dash bent her wing down to the old lady’s level. She raised her hand as it became enveloped in a blue light that undulated like a fluid. She lightly touched the injured wing and it began to glow in a way that resembled sunlight passing through the surface of water. Rainbow Dash herself felt as if her wing were immersed in a bath at the spa.     After the woman removed her hand and the glows faded, Rainbow Dash did a few practice flaps. She gripped the bandages in her teeth and pulled them off. She rolled her wing in its socket, extended and retracted it, and made a small breeze. “Huh! Feels great! Didn’t know magic could do something like that!” She gave a playful glance at Twilight, who grinned and rolled her eyes.     “Anyway, thanks a bunch!” The woman raised her open, shaking hand once again with a smile, gesturing in a beckoning fashion. “Oh, right.” Rainbow Dash bent towards the saddlebag and gripped three bits in her teeth before flinging them onto the woman’s palm.     The woman rolled them around with her finger before closing her grip on them. Then, her hand stopped shaking as she stood straight up. She walked into the middle of the restaurant, drew out a rag from her pocket, and flung it onto the floor. “From now on, youse’ slobs can clean up your own messes! When little Jimbo leaves his greasy cave, tell him I’m gonna spend the rest of my days living it up in the Party District, howsever little I have! Oh, and that he’s not half the cook his ‘pa was!” The old woman gave a haughty laugh and strided out the door.     The other patrons watched her go out, then redirected their attention back to the ponies, who attempted to avoid eye contact. They were almost relieved when Jake came back carrying a platter of leafy greens and biscuits on plates. He passed them around nervously. “Um… we don’t have enough credits in the register or safe to give you enough change for that gold coin. If you’d give us a day or two, we could get it exchanged at the bank.” Twilight looked at Applejack, who shrugged. She turned back to Jake. “We’d like you to keep it, maybe use the difference to pay for the other’s meals.” Jake’s eyes widened and he turned back to the greater restaurant. “Hey everyone! Dinner’s on the ponies!” On that note, everyone cheered. “Hey wait! Has anyone seen Misty? Someone made a mess out of booth six again!” On that other note, the cheers quickly died and everyone turned their full attention back to their meals.     The ponies decided to use this opportunity to finally dig in. Applejack leaned into her plate and took the first bite out of her salad. As she chewed, she got a weird look on her face. After swallowing, she turned back to Jake. “What… kind of farm was this lettuce grown at?” Jake turned back to the ponies with a confused look on his face. “Let us what? That’s kidneywort, most of our daily dose of vitamins and minerals come from that stuff.” Pinkie Pie, who decided to sample the dinner rolls first, struggled to swallow and roughly coughed. “How coarse is the flour you use to bake these? Do you grind the wheat yourself?” “What’s wheat? We only use one hundred percent pure grade-A starch moss. Now about what we have for dessert…” “Uh, no! That’s alright! This stuff really makes us lose our… hunger! Really foul- filling! It’s really filling!” Jake rolled his eyes. “Whatever. Just let me know if you need a beverage or something.”     After Jake flipped his notepad up and walked to a newly seated table, the Ponies looked at one another and slowly pushed their meals away. Applejack turned to Twilight. “Honestly, something’s telling me that this city might need us more than we thought.” Pinkie pie was starting to look a little green. “Especially in the culinary department! Who uses moss to bake bread? And I don’t even want to think about what they had for dessert.” Rarity glanced around the restaurant, met with waving hands and raised glasses. “On the bright side, it seems we’ve made a good number of friends very quickly.” Twilight frowned. “It’s a start, but I’m not sure if friendships made through wealth are worth having.” Fluttershy peaked out from her hiding place. “Well… it is a good way to get some attention. Um… the right kind I mean.” Rainbow Dash held up her hoof to gesture. “Well if you ask me… Huh?” Rainbow Dash paused as she felt a strange yet subtle disturbance in the air. Somehow, her flyer’s instincts kicked in and her senses accelerated, causing her to perceive everything moving in slow motion, finding that she could neither move nor breathe in this state. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted something moving towards her at regular speed. She used all of her concentration to move her eyes to get a better look at it. A shorter human with dark red hair, gray eyes, and freckles wearing a skin-tight tracksuit causally strided up to the table, grabbed Applejack’s saddlebag, and slung it over his shoulder. As he turned, he appeared to notice Rainbow Dash, who gave her all to make a scowling face at him. The human just winked, flashed what Rainbow Dash remembered to be a peace sign at her, and grinned, revealing a gap in his front teeth.     When the human walked out of the restaurant, Rainbow Dash’s senses went back to normal and everything started moving at a regular pace. She shook her head in confusion. Applejack raised an eyebrow at her. “Ask you what Rainbow- HEY! WHAT HAPPENED TO BY BAGS?”  Rainbow dash shot upwards into the air. “Thief! We’ve been robbed!” This caused an intense commotion among the patrons. Everyone hurriedly checked their pockets to see if everything was still there. From out of the kitchen burst out the cook holding two big glowing hot knives. “Someone said thief! Where are they? I’ll chop ‘em up and serve them for tomorrow's special!” Jake took notice and dashed right up to him, turning him around and guiding him back to the kitchen. “Okay Dad, we wouldn’t want you to say or do anything incriminating would we? Why don’t you head back in the kitchen and fry something or use the pressure cooker to calm your nerves.”     After making sure the cook was back in the kitchen, Jake went over to the ponies and flipped his notepad. “Okay, there’s no need to cause a scene. If you’ll give me a description, I’ll file a case with the Central Forces and you should get your stuff back in no time. What kind of magic did they use, and did they have any distinctive characteristics?” Twilight turned to Rainbow Dash. “Why were you the only one to see them, Rainbow?” Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and crossed her hooves. “Well, they were moving fast. Like way fast! It took all I had just to see them!” Jake looked up from his notepad. “Wait. That can only be…” Jake paused and coughed. “Okay, I’ve got good news and bad news. The good news is that I know of this guy. Trace, the only human whose magic can let him move so fast that he can appear invisible.” Applejack frowned. “Okay, what’s the bad news?”  “Uh… the bad news is… that nobody’s ever been able to catch him. So your stuff is probably… gone for good.” Rainbow Dash flew up even higher and tensed her body with a determined look on her face. “Maybe nobody can catch him, but maybe somepony can!” Rainbow Dash flew out the restaurant’s doors in a rainbow-colored blur, scattering silverware and napkins in her tailwind. Jake turned back to the ponies. “Um… are you sure she’ll be okay out there on her own? I mean, this sector has tons of unsavory characters.” Applejack leaned her hoof on the table. “Don’t worry ‘hun. Rainbow can handle herself well in any kind of trouble.” All the ponies around expressed their approval. Jake shrugged. “Whatever. I’ll get you some boxes for your food.” Jake walked back to the kitchen before any of the ponies could work up the nerve to refuse. “Seriously, has anybody seen hide or hair of Misty? Someone’s gotta clean this mess up!”