//------------------------------// // Up against a wall // Story: My Little Pony: Amor Esta Magica // by WarThunderBrony //------------------------------// It was really all very mysterious, I thought, as I slowly trudged my way out of the forest. So many years had gone by, and I was already 33 and still had not yet found out what the heck had happened to Papa. Si, I know Mama had told me lots of stories about Papa being unfaithful and all that, but now I was beginning to suspect that something was not exactly very right somewhere. Firstly, why would Papa be unfaithful to Mama, who as far as I know would not hurt a fly? Secondly, which biological father in his right mind would not have bothered to even visit his own son, even if living so far away? No, there was something desperately wrong here. But for now, I thought it best to safeguard my own life first – especially since I knew that I had just escaped from the army illegally, and that by this time the local Ministry of Defense would surely be after me. So when I came to the first village outside the forest, I could already make out that there was a price on my head – apparently, signs had been posted randomly on walls in this village; people had been asked to “call 999 immediately” if they saw Alberto Garcia, for a reward not exceeding 5000 quetzals, by order of the law. Amazing indeed, it was. I knew I had to hide. So I went to secretly change out of my uniform into plain clothes, hiding under some barrels in the streets; and then I carefully blended in with the crowd – thankfully I did not look anything like I did in the picture that they had put in those signs. Nobody seemed to notice me, and furthermore, I was not in my army uniform now. This village was the very same village that I had grown up in as a kid. It was in the outskirts of La Paz, the capital of and largest city in our country. I took out my mobile phone and gave Mama a call, hoping she’d remember me. “Hola?” came Mama’s voice. “Hola? Mama?” I said. “Caramba! Alberto mio!” cried Mama. “Donde estava?” “Don’t worry, Mama, I’m back in our village,” I said. “Don’t worry? Come back quickly!” cried Mama. I could sense the urgency in her voice. Thankfully I knew my way around the village pretty well, despite not having lived here for more than 6 years now. When I got home, nothing much had changed. Mama herself was there to greet me. “Que pasa, Alberto? Do you know that there’s a price on your head?” she cried. “Si,” I answered, “but I don’t know why.” “There have been guerrilla attacks recently in our area, so much so that our army had to be called into action,” said Mama. “Are you sure you weren’t involved?” “No, Mama,” I said, truthfully. “Bueno,” said Mama, wiping her eyes. “As long as you’re safe, I’m happy. Donde esta Donita?” “Wherever she may be, I hope she’s safe,” I said, starting to cry. I knew I really missed her. “What about your job in the Canaries? Why did you resign?” Mama asked me. “My ex-boss was really a jerk of jerks,” I said, telling Mama the truth. “A definitive muchacho, that Francisco Perez. He tried all ways and means to make life difficult for me. I almost died a few times on the job. You tell me, how would anyone in their right mind be able to take such stress?” “And so, because of that, you resigned?” cried Mama, starting to get worked up. “Not only that,” I said, trying to hide the Bel Mundo case as much as I possibly could. “I intend to sue him for oppressive work conditions.” “You are saying… you intend to sue Francisco Perez?!” cried Mama; and now I noted the shrill note of alarm in her voice. I took a deep breath before I replied. “Si,” I said. Mama was stupefied beyond words. “Alberto, don’t you dare!” she cried. “Francisco Perez is a very rich billionaire who owns numerous assets! Any lawsuit from him and you are sure to be up against a wall, pronto! Do you want that to happen?!” “Mama, I am no longer a nino,” I said. “I know what I am doing. I know he is being oppressive to all his workers. I have every right to sue him if I want to.” Mama said nothing in reply, but slammed her newspapers on her straw couch and stormed out of the hacienda, clearly in tears. I gazed on after her, completely dumbfounded -- it was strange why she would get so worked up over the very mention of the name of Francisco Perez.... * * * HUASCAR LEÓN: Alberto Garcia’s mysterious disappearance from the barracks took us all completely by surprise. Even our centurion was unable to verify as to what exactly had happened. In fact, he was already accusing Garcia of being a traitor to our nation, merely because Garcia had apparently deserted the army during a period of terror like the one we were currently facing from Cuban guerrillas. Centurion Carlos came to us and gave us an order to split up into a few teams to go and search for Garcia. He said, “Whichever team finds Recruit Alberto Garcia first and delivers him to our hands, that team will be richly rewarded 5000 quetzals, and the team leader will be promoted to an optione.” I admit that in the 6 months we'd known each other, Alberto Garcia and I have not always been on good terms. My one aim of finding him, at the time, was to show that I am not half as bad as I may have seemed. Sure, I may dislike him; but because I’m not half as inhumane as some people are, I thought that the least I could do under the circumstances was to find him and – no, not deliver him into the hands of the army – to bring him to safety and then kill him, to get my vengeance. At least that was what I thought at the time, not having known Garcia that well then. And so I called together my platoon. The soldiers were clearly a little scared; most found his disappearance that night “miraculous”, and some more superstitious among them thought that Recruit Alberto Garcia was probably a spirit of some sort who had come to haunt them. But I reassured them, saying, “Do not fear, gentlemen! This mission is ours to call our own! The road ahead may be a little rough, but do not let that pull you down! We have an objective at the end to accomplish! We may see beasts of every genre, We might be tortured by the trees. The rain and snow may fall, the Andes gales may blow But we will still have peace. All kinds of troubles may surround us, In every color, shape and size. But don’t feel left behind, Garcia’s whom we’ll find, We’ll give him a surprise! How sweet vendetta is for us, mis amigos, When you and I can be sus testigos; No habla que pasa, no habla que dirar, There ain’t nobody gonna stop us goin’ far! When we take arms up in a war, mis amigos; There ain’t no turnin’ back, par el mundo; No habla que pasa, no habla que dirar, Cuando aqui esta! My men somehow got high upon hearing those words that they all began joining hands and dancing. Juan, one of our legionaries whose voice somehow resembled Garcia’s, started singing: When calypso rhythm starts to play, Dance with me, make me sway! Like the lazy ocean hugs the shore, Hold me close, sway me more! Like a flower bending in the breeze, Dance with me, sway with ease! When you dance you have a way with me, Stay with me, sway with me! Other dancers may be on the floor, I’ve got eyes here to see only you; Only you have that magic technique, When we sway, I grow weak! I can hear the sound of violins, Long before it begins. Make me thrill as only you know how, Swing me smooth, sway me now! “All right! Basta! Playtime is over now!” I ordered. “Platoon, FALL IN!” “Caramba, Huascar! We’re having so much fun and you want to stop us!” cried another soldier. “Enough! One more word and I shoot!” I said, taking out my revolver. “Platoon, FALL IN!” Everybody dropped their guns and fell into line. “Dari kiri, cepat, ja-LAN!” I shouted. And we began marching out to search for Alberto Garcia. * * * RAINBOW DASH: I’d always felt great pity for our human friend Alberto Garcia. From the time Twilight Sparkle and I first saw him, we already knew he was having lots of emotional problems, mainly stemming from countless negative experiences he’d had since young. When we got back to Equestria, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna called a meeting in their palace with myself, Twilight, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Applejack, Rarity, Big McIntosh, and Derpy Hooves. Spike the dragon was also sitting in with us, as our secretary. “This is some sort of a most unusual case,” Princess Luna remarked. “My sister here has told me to ask you guys to regularly check on this Garcia guy, this poor construction worker from Bolivia who speaks mainly in Spanish. How has he been lately?” “Well,” said Twilight, “it seems that he is a little skeptical about our sincerity in helping him; however, we are aware that his girlfriend is one of our Pegasister followers, and has been encouraging him in his low moments.” “And his low moments are getting increasingly apparent,” I added. “Last I saw him, he was apparently causing some major shitstorm in the army; don’t know why though.” “Indeed,” said Princess Celestia. “I already had a word with him that time. Did he explicitly badmouth us to anyone?” “No,” I said. “At least not that I can recall.” “If you ask me,” said Twilight, “I think Alberto Garcia is not so much a demon in human flesh as he is a poor soul who suffers from lack of true unconditional love. From what Dashie and I have gathered till now, we can see that he is pretty much a very unhappy man.” “Allow me to cut you there,” interrupted Big McIntosh. We all grew silent. Big Mac rarely spoke, but whenever he did, he certainly had very good reasons to do so. “Alberto probably lacks something psychologically, judging from the way you guys have described his behavior,” said Big Mac, looking really serious. “Do you not realise that he has been engaging in lots of strenuous activity?” “How do you know that?” asked Rarity. “He is a construction worker, isn’t he?” asked Big Mac. “Then how come Dashie just mentioned that suddenly he went to join the army? Two extremely strenuous jobs – only meant for mature men, do you realise that? If you put two and two together, I detect that he most probably lacks paternal love.” “He’s not that old,” said Twilight. “I’m sure he definitely still lives with his parents, though he is already considered engaged.” "All the same," I put in, "I think it's best that we continue to observe his every move, and intervene whenever we can. He may continue to not believe us, but our main goal here is one thing -- to get him back on the right track. He cannot go on like this forever." "Easy to say," said Princess Luna, frowning. "But how can we put that into practical action?" "I've got an idea," suddenly blurted Pinkie Pie. All our eyes were on her all of a sudden. "Alberto should be back in Bolivia by now," Pinkie went on. "He is currently embroiled in running away from the Bolivian People's Army. His recent resignation from All Lee Construction Enterprises also has somehow caused a rift between him and his mother, don't know why exactly though. Right now, his mother has left home, and Alberto is also trying to find a way to legally fight against his ex-boss, who is believed to have been the cause of his resignation. My guess is that sooner or later, he will be caught by the army staff again and sent back to camp to do some hard labor as punishment, along the well-known Yungas Road. And..... that is where YOU come into the picture!" she cried, pointing at me and Derpy Hooves. "Why us?" cried Derpy. "You'll see when it happens," smiled Pinkie, giving Derpy and me a wink... * * * MAMA LUISA: After leaving home that day, I knew something had to be done to save my son. I couldn't believe he was actually fighting against .... Francisco Juan Perez, of all people. That muchacho would surely have done our whole family in if I had not left home to speak with Francisco personally. So I drove all the way in my old van to Sucre, where the headquarters of All Lee Enterprises was located. Perez Manor was indeed a huge mansion. I stepped out of my van and entered the gate, which by some chance was ajar. I walked slowly up to the door and rang the doorbell. An elder butler answered. "Si, senorita, what can I do for you?" he asked. "I'd like to speak with Senor Perez, por favor," I requested politely. "It's regarding something extremely personal." "May I know who you are to him?" asked the butler. "I am... an ex-staff of his," I said. "My name is Luisa Garcia." "Senor Perez is not around now, senorita," said the butler, his face suddenly growing cold. "Can you give him a call for me then?" I asked, hoping to somehow someway get to Francisco. "Sorry senorita, we do not provide such services. If you do not leave now, I'm afraid we'll have to call the policia," said the butler. I knew he meant business when he said that, so I turned to go. Just as I was running out the front gate, I saw a huge Mercedes limousine driving in. I knew immediately that was Francisco Perez driven by his chauffeur. But before I could run up to his limousine, it stopped halfway through the gate, and Perez stepped out. He saw me, and he saw the butler behind me. "What's going on?" he demanded. "This loca dona here is making trouble for us, senor," said the butler. "Just call the policia." "No," said Perez. "I'll handle her myself." Then he turned to me. "So how may I help you?" he asked, giving me a look I'll never forget. "Senor, I'm Luisa, your former dishwasher," I said. "My son Alberto also worked with you for a period of time. He's also your son. Please do not harm him, por favor!" "That's what I mean, senor!" interrupted the butler. "This lady is totally loca! Call the mental hospital!" "SILENCIO!" Perez shouted at his butler, then he turned back to me. "Muy bien," he said, softly but sternly. "We will close one eye this time and pretend we didn't hire your son. Don't ever come back and give us trouble again. Now go." It was such a relief for me to know that somehow Francisco Perez had relented. I just had to drive home to scold my son.... * * * ALBERTO: I was busy gathering information against Francisco Juan Perez, merely by searching up on the internet. Our hacienda may well have been poor and modest, but Mama and I could certainly get by with a cheap PC and a simple Wi-Fi connection. I had just seen a lawyer recently and he'd told me, "Senor Garcia, what you need is evidence. Just find the evidence against Senor Perez, and you can't go wrong." Hence I was now searching up online for information on Perez, seeing how prestigious he was. Sadly, only one site truly had the information I needed -- and it was not explicitly listed on Google; I found it only after searching through links of various websites. I found out that he was a very interesting character. For starters, he was a womaniser, who loved going to pubs and singing karaoke with the showgirls. He also was a very unscrupulous character, who would often resort to underhand means to getting what he wanted -- indeed this was what had made him the billionaire he was at the time. Interestingly, Perez was already a grandfather; he had two children, it seems -- the daughter was a successful reporter, while the son was believed to be deceased, allegedly drowned in a freak accident while on holiday with his mother, according to one site. Perez had brought his daughter up singlehandedly, and later on he re-married a rich mestizo businesswoman named Angela Guzman. This Angela Guzman, it seems, was the widow of Lee Tsung-Tow, an extremely rich Taiwanese who had settled in the once-poor town of Estrela del Mar in Argentina and started All Lee Enterprises together with her, but died of cancer at the absurdly young age of 45 while half-way on a million-dollar project. While in Estrela del Mar, Lee had a son by Angela, whose name was Benedicto Lee-Guzman; now 22 years old, Benedicto, known popularly as "Benz" because of his obsession with Mercedes Benz cars (of which he owned at least 5!), now served as the General Manager of All Lee Enterprises, second only to Perez, the CEO. He was, in all sincerity, the youngest ever General Manager I'd known. Indeed, during my short stint in All Lee Enterprises, while I had not come into personal contact with him (me being directly under Perez at the time), I could already see how much influence Benz Guzman had over all the staff in All Lee, corruption and all. In fact, needless to say that Perez had officially adopted Benz as his godson at the Cathedral in Estrela del Mar. Apparently, Benz Guzman's best friend, Justino Diaz, a fat, balding Colombian from Dunedain, had also been taken under Perez's wing, and was serving as the Service Operations Manager of All Lee, and third in line of power after Perez and Benz Guzman. I collated all that information and more also, whatever I could find on the Internet, and printed it out. I hoped to show it to the lawyer the following day; indeed, I'd made an appointment. Whoever had accurately predicted as to what was about to happen that night must have been sent from G-d above. Mama came home in a towering rage and happened to see me printing stuff out. "Alberto!" she shouted, shaking me out of my reverie. "Come here!" "What is it now?!" I demanded, turning around in great anger and astonishment. "Listen to me Alberto, you are under the influence of the Devil!" Mama cried. "Do you want me to go to the church and get the priest to come here and sprinkle you with holy water?!" "Mama, have you gone loco in the coco or something?!" I cried. "This is something I have to do, and you will not stop me from doing it! Justice MUST be served!" Mama was not one bit convinced. "Give it to me!" she shrieked, grabbing the documents in my arm. I resisted her with the best possible effort, trying my hardest not to end up tearing the documents. All too soon, a shout was heard from the door. "Luisa Garcia!" shouted a male voice. We turned around and saw two gangsters with jackknives in their hands. "If you want anything, talk to me!" I said to them. "Leave my Mama alone!" "No way!" shouted one of the gangsters. "She owes us at least 70,000 quetzals!" I knew that these were clearly loansharks. I picked up the phone, about to dial the police; but Mama stopped me. "No son!" she cried. But it was too late; by this time the two gangsters were entering our hacienda. Mama and I tried to stop them. We were successful, but in the end Mama accidentally killed both gangsters with an old sword which was our family heirloom that had been kept in our family's possession since the time of Mama's grandparents. Scared beyond words, Mama begged me what to do. I knew we had no choice but to hide the truth. We buried the bodies of the two loansharks in our small garden and said a few rosaries for their souls. Suddenly I remembered my printouts. To my horror I discovered that, in the ensuing scuffle with those loansharks, the printouts had been torn to shreds. Our laptop had also been smashed, and I could not remember the URL of the website which I'd visited.