//------------------------------//
// Welcome to Manasazi 
// Story: City in the Earth 
// by MindEdge 
//------------------------------//


Welcome to the Chasm

By MindEdge


“All right, I’ve got your passport, your transfer documents, and your parents permission slip. I don’t think you need that one. And it looks like it all checks out. Welcome to Manasazi Ms. Bluebell. Just have a seat right over there and I’m sure a member of the city guard will be with you shortly.”
The sandy colored mare at the desk handed Bluebell her papers back.
“Thank you miss…?”
“Hepualaha'ole.” Answered the secretary.
Bluebell gave a momentary blank stare.
“Ok, thanks. I’ll just… sit over there and wait.”
Bluebell levitated her documents into her saddlebag, and then walked over to the far side of the lobby to have a seat on one of the many cushions lining the floor. To her righ was a small table stacked with magazines, but after picking one up she realized that they were Manasazi magazines, and she had no hope in being able to read them. She then looked up towards a ticking clock. It said 6:30, good to know they still used the same numbers here. Besides a few potted plants and the earthen paint on the building walls, there was nothing to look at or do, so Bluebell decided to jest zone out for a bit.

The last few days had been tough on the small blue unicorn. Manasazi was a very long way from Canterlot, and there wasn’t a direct railroad between the two. Bluebell had to endure the Canterlot express, then a carriage trek though ferries forest, another train ride through about a million miles of bison territory, then multiple ferry rides through multiple oxbow lakes, then another train ride, which landed her in the town of New Cloppamore.
When she had arrived at New Cloppamore she could already tell she was in a new land, as the town was filled with bat ponies. She wasn’t sure exactly where to go for her ride to the capitol, so she approached the nearest train official and asked him where (and she had to re read the directions she was mailed to register what she was reading) the “Millipede Station” was. The stallion spoke in an almost indecipherable neighlic accent, and another pony was needed to translate his directions. She was told not to go to the millipede station, and instead take one of the many airlifts over to the Manasazi city outskirts. According to the translating mare, “Some of the millipedes have caught a cold, and won’t be back on their feet until next week”. Bluebell was starting to think ‘millipede station’ was not just a mistranslation.
The air balloon was the nicest mode of travel yet. That being said, she was far too afraid of heights to actually look out to the city as they approached it. Instead she took her time reflect on her many choices she had made that week. Choices like “why did I sign up for this?” or “I probably should have finished reading that transfer document before signing my name on it” and “I knew I should have double checked to make sure I brought my toothbrush”. 

“Is there a Bluebell of Canterlot here?”
Bluebell was instantly brought back to earth and shot her head to the left to see who had called for her. It was a bat pony, broadly built with wide shoulders and large hooves, and was garbed in a suit of purple armor. Bluebell was almost too scared to speak up to the pony guard. With his large frame and dark uniform, she found him to be too imposing to talk to. She didn’t have to worry about speaking up though, as the secretary did it for her.
“Ms. Bluebell is sitting right over there. All of her paperwork checks out so you’re free to take her away.”
Bluebell flinched when the guard turned to face her, but instantly calmed as he lifted a large, metal shod hoof and removed his helm. He had a pleasant smile and kind purple colored eyes. His coat was a dark blue and his mane was a dark, dusky gray with a few stripes of purple running through it. 
“Hey Bluebell, I’m Skytop. I’m here to take you back to the barracks.”
Bluebell found the stallion quite charming and handsome, and gladly shook his hoof when he offered it.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you officer Skytop, my name is Blue… well I guess you already know my name. Sorry.”
Bluebell blushed. She was always awkward when it came to introductions. But Skytop gave no mind to her blunder.
“There’s no need to be sorry. But if you’re ready to go I need you to hold on for a second, I need to uh, speak with the secretary.”
Bluebell stood and fastened her saddlebag as Skytop turned to walk to the mare at the desk. Bluebell heard them having a conversation, but they were speaking in a language bluebell wasn’t familiar with. Eventually Skytop came back to Bluebell, but now wearing a somewhat dejected looking expression on his face.
“Was everything all right? Is there something wrong with my paperwork?” Asked Bluebell. The last thing she wanted right now was to be deported over a misplaced check mark on her transfer papers.
Skytop looked to Bluebell, and immediately straightened his face out.
“Oh, that? Don’t worry that wasn’t about you, you’re paper work was fine. That back there was just me striking out. Anyway, ready to go?”
Bluebell nodded, as the stallion placed his helm back on his head.
“Then let’s go. Just stick close to me, it can be easy for a newcomer to get lost in this city.”
Bluebell took Skytop’s advice to heart as they exited the hall of immigration and entered the city outside.

The city of Manasazi was unlike any place she had ever seen. It was vast, easily rivaling the likes of Canterlot or Manehatten. It was built into a large canyon, a fissure in the earth that split the surrounding landscape. The opening alone looked at least a mile wide, and the way the jagged rock of the flanking cliffs closed in overhead gave the illusion of a great set of black teeth closing in on the city.
Having been born in Canterlot, Bluebell was used to its high marble towers and brightly painted roofs. Her home city as wide open and bright, as its location on the side of a high mountain insured there was little obscuring Celestia’s sunlight.
Manasazi felt like Canterlot’s antithesis. Manasazi was deep in the shell of the earth, and the surrounding stone gave a sense of claustrophobia. As one traveled down the cities mane roadway, the chasm became narrower, the cliffs blocking out more and more sunlight. The buildings here were made from black stone and dark terracotta bricks, and few reached higher than 3 stories. Many of the buildings were even built into the rock walls, somehow suspended by the stone of the sheer cliffs.
Skytop guided the little unicorn through the crowded city streets, and made frequent glances behind him to make sure he hadn’t lost her. Every time he looked back he saw her looking up at the surrounding cityscape, causing her to sometimes veer off course. Even though Bluebells constant sky gazing was slowing them down, he found it rather cute. 
“You all right back they’re Bluebell? If you want me to slow down just let me know.”
Bluebell was broken from her tourist driven trance.
“Sorry Mr. Skytop, its just that I’ve never been to a city with this kind of architecture before, or this kind of geology. This city is nothing like Canterlot.”
Skytop understood the little mares distraction. Almost everyone who visits Manasazi for the first time is enthralled by its strange scenery and buildings. Most ponies would never even think to build their town inside what was essentially a giant cave.
“Well don’t spend all your time looking at the buildings, you might miss some other things that are different from Canterlot too, like the citizens.
Bluebell didn’t quite understand at first what Skytop was talking about. She had already figured she would see a city full of bat ponies, she had read that much about Manasazi. It wasn’t until she gave the surrounding pedestrians a good look that she fully understood what Skytop was talking about. 
There were lots of bat ponies, but they weren’t the only ones walking the streets. There were also plenty of earth ponies, most of them having unusual splotching colorations on their coats, but bluebell didn’t think that was too unusual, Canterlot had a healthy dose of earth ponies as well. 
Then bluebell spotted something flying overhead, a griffon. Griffons were a rare sight in Canterlot as they usually visited Cloudsdale when they interacted with ponies at all. Were griffons more common here? Bluebell walked by a large woolen body hauling a heavy cart.
“Skytop”, Bluebell asked, “was that a buffalo?”
“Technically that was a bison, we get a few of them from out east. But look over there by the fruit stand.”
Bluebell looked to where Skytop was pointing, and saw a peculiar sight. Two stripped equines were talking to a wooly looking figure behind the stall. Bluebell had never seen a zebra in person before, nor had she seen a llama. Bluebell started looking around more.
Walking in a line at the other side of the street was a group of caribou being led by a pegasus. Standing high above the crowd was a tall giraffe wearing hundreds of red beads all down her neck. And under a tent, in front of what looked like a bank, was a short adolescent dragon talking to what Bluebell swore was a sea-pony half submerged in a large vase full of water.
But then Bluebell noticed something missing, something she didn’t quite catch at first.
“Where are all of the unicorns?” She asked. Canterlot had a population of at least 90% unicorns, and the fact that Bluebell couldn’t find one was very disturbing.
Skytop laughed, he was wondering when Bluebell would notice the lack of unicorns.
“It must be odd, huh? We actually have very few unicorns living in this city.”
“How few?” Bluebell asked.
“Less than ten.”
“Percent?”
“No, less then ten total.”
Bluebell was starting to feel very lonely all of the sudden, something Skytop picked up on.
“Don’t worry Bluebell, we get a few unicorn merchants that pass through the city every now and then.”
His words weren’t helping.

Skytop lead Bluebell down a path branching from the main road. It led to a block of very large, very thick, stone built structures. Skytop brought Bluebell to the largest of them, and pointed to it.
“Well, here we are, the grand hall of the Manasazi city guard.”
Bluebell looked up at the building Skytop was pointing to. It was a rather bare building, with no statues, pillars, or decorative flair to speak of. It was just a thick, blocky building, made of solid granite, and if Skytop hadn’t said what it was, bluebell would never have guessed it was a government building.
“Its… nice.” Said the little blue mare. 
Back at home the royal guard lived in one of the shiniest buildings in the city, with a lavish roof and marble stairs leading 50 feet up to the entrance. This building looked like the most unimpressive structure in town. Skytop was quite aware of this.
“Don’t worry, its not supposed to be nice looking. Here in Manasazi we like our government buildings like we like our coffee; strong, dark, and bitter to drink.”
Bluebell gave him a confused look.
“Yea, that simile sounded better in my head.”
As the duo entered the barracks, it was apparent that the inside was just as plain as the outside. The walls were unpainted, showing bare, smoothly carved stone. Bluebell could also see more guards walking about the place; most of who were wearing the same purple armor Skytop wore.
Eventually, Skytop found the door of their destination, and led Bluebell through it. The door opened into a lounge like area, in which stood three other bat ponies.
“Everyone, this is Bluebell, Bluebell, this is everyone.” Declared Skytop most unceremoniously.
One of the guards stepped forward to greet bluebell.
“Nice introduction Skytop, you could open an opera with that. My names Flintfeather, I’m the sachem of our group, welcome aboard.”
She was a yellow-coated mare, with long orange hair and sky blue eyes. She offered a hoof to Bluebell, who gladly took it in turn.
“I guess its my job to do the introductions then. This is Pathfinder.”
Flintfeather gestured to the pony to her left, who offered his hoof as well. He was coated dark green with a few splotched of a lighter green decorating it. He also had a ruddy shaded mane, as well as deep violet eyes. He didn’t speak, he just gave a small smile and shook Bluebells hoof. But there was something, off, about the hoof shake. It felt mechanical, like Bluebell was shaking hooves with a robot.
“And this is-” Flintfeather was cut off by a rather intense bat pony.
“Hey there lass, I’m Windcaller, and it’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”
Rather than waiting for Bluebell to take her hoof, the pale purple mare grabbed the unicorn’s hoof and shook it. She greeted Bluebell with the same neighlic accent she had heard in New Cloppamore, but only slightly more comprehensible.
“It’s nice to finally get a new member of our gang, even one as wee as yourself!”
Bluebell braced herself as she was assaulted by the energetic ponies enthusiasm. Luckily for her, Flintfeather’s yellow hoof pushed Bluebells “attacker” away before any damage could be done.
“You’ll have to excuse Windcaller’s behavior, she can be a bit of a ram sometimes.”
Windcaller gave a face that clearly conveyed her disdain for her sachems words.
“That only leaves Sequoia.” Flintfeather looked around the room for the other mare. “Where Is Sequoia anyway? She should have been back by now.”
“She’s right here.”
Bluebell turned around to greet the pony that had just entered the room.
“Sorry, after I turned in our reports Long-Count intercepted me to ask about the specifics of a railway trading contract that I had overseen. So I had to read the darn thing aloud to him and then try to expla- you know what it’s not important. Hey I’m Sequoia, it’s a pleasure to meet you Bluebell.”
The figure that stood before Bluebell sent a chill down her spine. The mare was tall, very tall, her long slender legs and long neck bringing her head quite comfortably above the others. She was Pitch black in coat, had a straw textured mane of lime green hair and blond highlights. At first Bluebell thought Sequoia was a unicorn as she could see a black horn protruding through her mane. But it was not the even spiral that Bluebell had, but a bladelike extension that resembled a shark fin more than it did a horn. Bluebell noticed that the scary looking mare was extending a hoof. She looked down at Sequoia’s arm and cringed when she saw it was riddled with large holes and cavities.
Bluebell just stared at the hoof in front of her. She couldn’t bring herself to take it, it was just too weird and too frightening to touch. Sequoia saw her hesitation, and withdrew the appendage.
“Its all right, I get it.” Sequoia said this with a smile on her face, but as Bluebell looked her in her large jade eyes, she knew she had offended her.
Flintfeather had seen this situation before, she had even been in Bluebells place years ago. Anyone who hadn’t met Sequoia when they were a child instinctively withdrew out of fear. She tried her best to salvage the situation.
“Well, now that were all introduced, why don’t we celebrate our new member with a trip to the Red Corn Diner, my treat.”
Bluebell heard a round of agreement from around the room. After all of the guards had disrobed, they made their way to the restaurant. 
As the group traveled down the city streets, Bluebell was made painfully aware of her short stature and poor build while walking next to her tall, athletic co-workers. Each one of them stood high over the diminutive unicorn, making her feel very vulnerable.  Bluebell looked up towards the sky, and noticed that they were going deeper into the chasm. The “teeth” of the cliffs flanking the city were beginning to close in, slowly blocking the sinking sun more and more as they traveled down the length of the road.

The Red Corn Diner had an interesting layout. Instead of being a large enclosed building like most restaurants, it was instead a small adobe structure that contained only a kitchen. This small building was then surrounded by rows of round wrought iron tables. In an enclosed city where space was at such a premium, it made sense to bluebell for a permanent structure to take up as little room as possible.
The group was greeted by an orange painted mare, who seated them at a table large enough for six and gave each of them a menu to look over. One look at her menu was all bluebell needed to give up on trying to decipher anything. like the magazines back in the hall of immigration, it was written in a language she had no means of reading.
“Do you need one of us to translate for you Bluebell?”
Bluebell looked to her right at Skytop.
“I think so, yes. I’m at a bit of a disadvantage here.” Bluebell was very glad that her new team was so compensating for her.
“Are ye’ sure it was wise to bring a unicorn from Cantrlot to Red Corn?” Windcaller asked Flintfeather. “The food here is a bit, ‘authentic’. Her foreign stomach might not be able to take the food.”
The yellow mare knew what her friend was talking about. The Red Corn Diner served real Ponondagan food, something the little unicorn might not take well too.
“Don’t worry Windcaller, well make sure Bluebell doesn’t order anything too ‘exotic’. Bluebell, why don’t we order you a nice loaf of cornbread?”
Bluebell gave her new boss a perplexed look.
“What’s cornbread?”
It took four full seconds for the rest of the table to realize that Bluebell was not, in fact, joking, which to them made the statement all the funnier. A wave of laughter erupted from the amused guards. Bluebell didn’t see what was so funny.
“We’re sorry bluebell”, said Flintfeather, “we didn’t know that they don’t have cornbread in Canterlot.”
“We have corn, we have bread, but I’ve never heard of cornbread.” Bluebell said in her defense.
When the Waitress returned, Sequoia gave her their orders. Or at least bluebell assumed she did. Sequoia and the waitress were conversing in yet another conversation in a language she didn’t understand. When the waitress left, Bluebell decided to address the situation.
“So how bad is it that I don’t know the cities language? Do I need to take a class or something? I don’t want you guys to constantly have to translate for me.”
Flintfeather had already planned for this eventuality when she was first told by the High Sachem that they would be given an “exchange student” from Canterlot. While many Manasazi citizens spoke Bluebells language, it would be beneficial for her to pick up one here as well.
“You’ll be happy to know that you don’t need to take any special classes. Skytop here is fluent in all of Manasazi’s main languages and has already agreed to tutor you in any of them you feel you need.”
“What do you mean by Manasazi’s ‘main languages’, are there more than one?” Bluebell was unaware that the city had more than one language, and the idea terrified her.
“Well of course”, said Skytop, “when you have a port city as large and diverse as this, your bound to have more than a few tongues flying around. Manasazi isn’t even the first language some of us learn, like Windcaller here. She didn’t know Manasazi until she was 12.”
“That’s right, I was born in Cloppamore, so I grew up speakin’ neighlic.”
Bluebell didn’t quite understand.
“Wait a minute, you’re not all Manasazi?”
“Well no”, said Sequoia, “not all ponies in Manasazi are ethnically Manasazi. Our ancestors come from all over the place.”
“But you all… Most of you have bat wings, where are you from if not from around here?”
“Skytop”, said Flintfeather, “you better field this one.”
Skytop sat up strait and cleared his throat so speak. He looked all too happy to be the one to explain things to Bluebell.
“A long time ago, this city was founded by the original Manasazi bat ponies. They found refuge within the Canyons high walls and deep crevices. Here they lived in relative isolation for thousands of years, but they eventually made contact with other civilizations from across the sea. The three major groups that immigrated to our grand city were the bat ponies from the islands of Mauna Haya, the earth ponies from Ponondaga, and more bat ponies from Neighrin. Flintfeather is Mauna Hayan, my dad is Manasazi, Pathfinder is half Manasazi and half Ponondagan, Windcaller is painfully Neighlic, and Sequoia is… complicated.”
Bluebell looked at the obsidian-coated pony, and wondered. What was she exactly? Sequoia saw the unicorn’s eyes, and decided to end her speculation.
“I think were forgetting just how far away bluebell lives from us. You’ve never seen a changeling, have you Bluebell?”
Bluebell shook her head meekly.

Their food came in good time, and bluebell wasn’t disappointed by what she got. In her mind, Bluebell pictured regular bread with corn in it, not the fluffy, golden colored loaf that was put before her. She looked for a knife to cut the bread with and spotted a large iron chopper sitting in the middle of the table. Not wanting to look out of place by using magic, she took the blade by its wooden handle and began to carve up her bread. Once she had finished segmenting her meal, she looked at what the others had ordered. Pathfinder had a bowl of a soupy mixture of corn, beans, and squash, Windcaller had ordered a plate of grilled tomatoes stuffed who-knows-what, and Flintfeather had a fruit salad.
Skytop and Sequoia had decided to split an order. Between them was essentially a pizza, except it didn’t have any cheese on it and the dough was made from cornbread. But the pizzas lack of chees wasn’t the weird thing, the weird thing was how the pizza was being split. Sequoia was cutting the pizza, but she wasn’t using a pizza-cutter or a chopper, she was using her hoof. Sequoia had flattened her left hoof into a cleaver like appendage, and was using it to separate the pizza into slices. This seriously freaked Bluebell out.
“So tell us about yourself Bluebell.”
Bluebell tore herself away from Sequoia’s hoof chopping to see that Flintfeather was asking her a question.
“Uhhh… what do you want to know?”
“Anything, what you do, what you like, your dreams are. Absolutely anything.”
“Well.” Bluebell thought for a while. “I just graduated from college, my favorite color is orange, I like to read, and I like to see plays. I’ve always dreamed of one day dying my mane, but my parents would never let me do it.”
“Why would you want to change your mane color?” Asked Windcaller through a maw full of food. Bluebell thought the answer was obvious.
“Because my naturally gray mane makes me look old.”
“Your mane doesn’t make you look old.” Assured Windcaller. “Its your glasses that make you look old.”
Buebell heard a not-so-quiet thump coming from under the table, followed by Windcaller wincing in pain.
“Your glasses look fine Bluebell.” Said Sequoia. “Windcaller here is just being a jerk.”
By the time they had all finished their food and Flintfeather had paid their bill (using paper money, Bluebell noticed) the sun had receded over the horizon. As the natural light diminished, rows of orange streetlights fired up to illuminate the dark city.
“Looks like its time for us to start heading home, Bluebell here looks about ready to nod off.” Said Flintfeather as she looked at the blue unicorns half closed eyes and slumped over stance. She had a pretty big day, and Flintfeather didn’t want her to start her first day in the city guard only half awake. “Skytop, you better take her to her hotel room.”
“On it Flintfeather. Come on Bluebell, I’m sure your ready to hit the straw after the day you just had.”
He was right. After all of the excitement from the trip, she was starting to crash. Skytop helped the little unicorn to her feet, and made sure she didn’t tip over as he began to slowly walk her home.
“Make sure to set her clock for her”, Flintfeather called out to him, “we don’t want her late for her first day.”
Skytop lead the drowsy unicorn through the still busy city streets, making sure she didn’t crash into anything from her constant listing. As she was part of a state sponsored foreign exchange program, the government was paying for Bluebell to stay at the High Hills Hotel. He checked her into the hotel, brought her into her room, and led her to the bed, as he was afraid she might just sleep where she fell. He set the clock on the nightstand for 4:30 in the morning, just like Flintfeather said, then exited the room.
Tomorrow was Bluebell’s first official day as a counter for the Manasazi city guard, and he was willing to make sure everything went well.