//------------------------------// // Chapter 3: Exploration // Story: The Neon Bat Pony // by DeffBwade //------------------------------// Having now found a city, the duo proceed to explore in an effort to get some help. Unfortunately, things don’t go quite as planned. "Holy crap," the pony thought as walked through the streets, Willow following him close behind. The city was even more colorful and big up close. Everywhere he looked there was some sort of light. Whether it'd be the lights from one of the numerous street lamps, the sign for one of the numerous places still open, or a fire barrel that a homeless looking pony was using to stay warm. ...That last one kind of depressed the nameless pony. As he continued, he ran into what he believed to be a news stands with its shutters currently closed. Makes sense that it was closed as it was still night time. Curious as to what activities has recently gone down, he walked up to the stand and picked up one of the newspapers that were hanging outside. The first thing the pony saw was the name of the newspaper in big letters. "Baltimare Sun," he read. He figured that the 'Sun' part was supposed to have a similar use as the common newspaper names 'Times' and 'Gazette,' while the former word is meant to be the name of this city, "Well, now I have a name as to where I am. Although I can't help but think that the name 'Baltimare' is meant to be some sort of pun." The news was nothing special. It was your typical, everyday news such as games that some sports team played in, what the weather is going to be, stores that either opening or going out of business, and some random crap about politics that the pony really didn't care about. "Boring. Boring. Even more boring. Boring…..Hmm?," he mumbled as he scrolled through the pages before he read something that caught his attention. According to the article, something big happened happened in a city called Canterlot only three days ago, "Changeling invasion in Canterlot thwarted? Princess Cadence and Captain Shining Armor officially married? Interesting,” he read, “But what's a changeling? And who is this Princess Cadence and Captain Shining Armor? And congratulations to the two of them," he asked before he shrugged as he put the newspaper back, "Oh well. Questions to answer at a later time, I suppose." He turned and proceeded to walk away. Maybe he should head to this Canterlot place to get help for his amnesia. After all, if a wedding between a princess and a captain occurred there, then that place must have some importance to it. Perhaps it’s the capital of wherever the hell he was? Whatever the case, the nameless pony decided that, no, he figured that he should just find a hospital and get some help there. It was for two reasons. 1) He had no idea where and how far Canterlot was, and 2) even if he did, he didn’t have any money for transportation if needed. And there was no way that he was just going to walk there. “Hey Willow? Do you know where the nearest hospital is?” he asked, “I figured that who better to help with my amnesia than the medical professionals themselves?” Sadly, the bird’s response was a shaking of the head and an apologetic chirp. “Meh. Don’t worry about it,” the pony shrugged before he stopped in his tracks as he noticed a building up ahead that seemed to be sparking with activity, “Oh perfect.” Based on the huge size of the building, a burly looking stallion near the door letting other ponies in or sending them away, and loud music playing, it seemed to be some kind of nightclub. Although the fact that there was a big, colorful, and flashing sign that said “Neon Nightclub” was a huge giveaway. The pony decided to approach what he assumed to be the bouncer. He will admit that the stallion seemed intimidating. Bald, sunglasses, goatee, muscular. Definitely not a pony to mess with. “Excuse me?” he asked. “Name?” the bouncer asked in a stereotypical deep voice. “Um no, actually I was wondering if—“ “Then beat it,” the bouncer interrupted. “…What?” the pony asked. “You heard me. Beat it and go do your business somewhere else,” he responded. “…Okay, but can you at least tell me—“ “I’m only gonna say this one last time!” the bouncer yelled with a stomp of his hooves, “Beat it, vampony!” “Alright! Alright! Jeez!” the pony said as he stepped back, before he turned an started to walk away. Once he was quite a ways away, he mumbled, “Asshole.” “Jeez. Did his wife divorce him or something?” he thought as he continued to walk down the street, ”Also…’vampony?’ Was that meant to be some kind of insult?” Now that he thought about it, while that bouncer seemed to be the same species as him, there were quite a few differing features. The bouncer lacked fangs, wings, and tufts of fur on the ears. He couldn’t tell if the bouncer’s eyes were slitted like his due to the sun glasses, but he could only assume so. Perhaps he wasn’t a different species, but rather a different…sun-species? “Ugh! So many questions that need to be answered,” he thought in frustration. He was so deep in thought that he didn’t notice Willow was flying back to him with a satisfied expression on his face after taking care of some…business. “Grr. Stupid bucking birds,” the bouncer grumbled angrily in the bathroom as he continued to try to scrub the gunk off of his head. The pony stopped in his tracks as his stomach started to grumble, “Crap, I’m hungry.” He then heard Willow’s tiny belly start to grumble as well. “Well, at least I’m not the only one,” he sighed, “And to add some salt to the wound, I’m also broke. Don’t suppose you have any money on you?” Willow shook his head again, causing the pony to sigh once again. “Double crap,” he mumbled, “Well I’ve got nothing. Any ideas on how we can fill our stomachs?” Willow nodded his head this time. Whenever he visited Baltimare, and there weren’t any nice ponies to feed him or unsuspecting ponies to…borrow from, there was still one last option, and it always got him fed. “Oh really? What is it?” “Yeah…I don’t think I’m desperate enough to eat from the garbage,” the pony grimaced in slight disgust as he stared at the trash can lying in an alley with a couple of flies buzzing around it, “Seriously Willow. Whatever is in there is in the trash for a reason. Because it’s trash! What if there’s some disgusting mush filled with maggots a-and ants…” Willow only proceeded to ignore the pony’s ramblings and lift the trash lid off with his beak. “Okay, I feel like you’re not listening to me,” the pony said as Willow carried the lid to the ground. The little birds then flew up and perched on the rim of the trash can. He peered inside to see what treasures awaited them and…jackpot! “Hmm?” the pony asked as Willow started to flap his wings and chirp, as if he was gesturing to him that he found something of interest, “What? What did you find?” The pony walked up to the trash can and looked inside it to see a pizza box with an almost floral-like design with the words “Blossom’s Pizzeria” printed on it. “It’s a pizza box,” he stated the obvious, “What? Are we gonna eat the box?“ Deciding to humor his little birdy friend, he picked up the box and was about to take a bite out of it…before he heard something shifting inside as he moved it around. Curious, and a little scared that it was going to be a rat that he finds, he opened the box and was surprised to see a little under a half of a plain cheese pizza. Besides a little bit of ants crawling around it, it seemed to be in good condition. “Oh crap. I take back what I said about not being desperate. I don’t even care about the ants. Extra protein,” he said with a smile, “We split it? 50/50?” Willow nodded in agreement. The pony then placed the pizza box on the ground before sitting down on his haunches, his back against the wall. He gently used his hooves to tear the pizza in half, making sure that they’re about the same size. He then picked up his half while sliding the other closer to Willow. “To living in poverty?” he questionably cheered, to which Willow gave him a deadpan stare, “Yeah, I probably shouldn’t do that.” He then took a bite, with Willow starting to peck at it. “Hmm,” he said as he chewed, “Tastes a bit funky, but I’m guessing that’s due to it being from the trash. Other than that, not bad.” “Well well well. What do we have here?” The duo turned to the voice and saw a trio of ponies approaching them from the shadows of the alley. The first thing he noticed was that they each looked different from each other. The one in front of the group, clearly the leader, looked similar to that asshole of a bouncer (no racism intended). He had light blue fur, a brown short mane and tail, brown eyes, and a symbol of a chain on his flanks. The second one’s most prominent feature were the bird-like wings on his back. He had white fur, a black mohawk, a spiked black tail, orange eyes, and what seemed to be a symbol of a metal guitar. The third one had some sort of horn on his forehead. He had green fur, a messy light violet mane that completely covered his eyes, an even more messy tail, and a symbol of a skull. The way they appeared out of the shadows immediately sent red flags to the nameless pony. He didn’t want to be stereotypical or anything, but they looked to be a group of troublesome punks. “A bat pony lost in the city. How…interesting,” the white one with the wings said. “Can I help you three with anything?” the nameless pony asked as he slowly started to get up. “You can actually,” the blue responded. “Yeah! Yeah! You can help us!” the green one with the horn snickered. “We’ve never seen a bat pony here in Baltimare before. You must be new here,” the blue said with a chuckle. “Bat pony? First vampony, now bat pony? What’s next? Night crawler pony?” “Yes. I am,” the nameless pony said. He wanted to see where this was going, but he was ready to run if the situation arises. “Well, allow us to introduce ourselves. The name’s Chains,” the blue one said. “I’m Metal,” the white one said. “And I’m Skull. Hi!” the green one said with a wave. “Heh. Pretty hardcore names you’ve got there,” the pony pretended to chuckle as he started to back away slowly, while Willow started to float away as well, “Well, it was nice meeting you guys, but I’m afraid I’ve got somewhere I need to be—“ The pony stopped in his tracks as he felt a tug on his hooves. As if something was holding them in place. He looked down and saw some sort of light purple aura around his hooves and Willow, who was as still as a statue in the air. “I’m sorry, but I’m afraid you’re not going anywhere,” he heard Chains apologetically, yet smugly at the same time. “Yeah! My magic has caused you to stay in that place…where you are!” Skull said giddily. The pony looked back up and saw that his horn was surrounded by an aura that was the same color as the one around his hooves. “What the heck is this OP crap?!” he thought as he tried to struggle out, “Hey! Let me go!” “Oh we will,” Chains said, “But not before you give us all of your bits.” “M-my what?” the pony asked as he continued to struggle. “You know. Your money! Your moola!” Metal yelled. “But I don’t have any money,” he said as he lessened his struggles. “Quit lying!” Metal yelled again. “I’m not lying,” the pony said as he stopped struggling completely. “You so are—“ “Dude! You found me sitting in an alleyway…in the middle of the night…eating a pizza that literally came from the trash! I think it’s pretty clear that I don’t have any money or literally anything of value for you to steal!” Silence hung between the two parties for a few seconds before Chains finally broke it. “What about that necklace?” he pointed out. The pony looked down at the stone necklace that hung around his neck. “I mean…I don’t know if it has any value or anything—“ “Oh I’m taking that necklace even if I have to pry it off your beaten body!” Metal yelled before he spread his wings and started to fly at the pony. “Gah!” the pony yelped as he shut his eyes in preparation for the strike. He mentally punched himself for deciding to wait and see what happens. He should’ve just ran when he had the cha— CLANG The pony flinched at the loud clanging noise that occurred right in front of him. Not feeling any injury, he curiously peeked his eye open and saw the trash can lid coated in a magenta red aura and floating a few feet in front of him. Metal fell to the ground after impacting the lid completely unconscious, with a bloody nose and a couple of teeth missing. “Jeez. Can’t a mare get some sleep these days?” a feminine voice complained behind the nameless pony. He turned around and saw another pony with a horn. Based on her voice and her frame, it was likely she was a female. She had crimson fur, a short, light pink mane and tail, both with noticeable grey streaks, magenta red eyes with crow’s feet, and a symbol of a cherry blossom on her flanks. “Hey lady! Who do you think you are—?!” Chains yelled before the trash can lid was suddenly launched at him, impacting his head and knocking him out. “Woah! I best get out of he—!” Skull yelled as he turned and ran…straight into a fire escape ladder. It rang with a loud clang as he fell to the ground. The telekinetic hold on the duo immediately vanished, causing the nameless pony to nearly trip on his hooves and Willow to almost fall to the ground before he readjusted his flight balance. The duo turned to look back at the mare. “Pfft. Troublesome brats,” the mare scoffed before she wrinkled her nose in disgust as she noticed the pizza right at the pony’s hooves, “Ew. You know that’s been in the trash, right?”