//------------------------------//
// Chapter 11 
// Story: The Blessing and the Curse 
// by Equestria Buck Yeah 
//------------------------------//

"How about you start from the beginning and go from there?" Matt suggested, folding his arms.  "A few days agooo..."

The stallion nervously cleared his throat.  He really didn't want to relive the first moments of the terrible tragedy that befell his great city, but he had little choice.  He and Manehattan needed help.  "Y-yes.  A few days ago, I was meeting with a high-ranking officer of a corporation whose headquarters is downtown on the – what was it? – forty-second floor of this particular office tower.  We were going over some paperwork, you know how it goes in the political world.  It was mid-morning, I think about ten o'clock or so.  While we were talking, we both moved over to the window and looked out over the city.  We were facing the south since that's where the boardroom is.  Suddenly, there was this...bizarre, whitish, yellowish light from what looked like was across the bay.  It was so wide that I couldn't even see how far out it went; it just seemed to go on forever."

Matt and Twilight shared a curious glance.  She had spoken with him about what had transpired when the panther took a swing at him, and he had told her what Tina said had occurred when she originally turned up.  At least they could be sure that Dark Horse was telling the truth if he was describing the same thing they've experienced before.  But what in the world could it be this time?  Matt had a short list of ideas, and he didn't like any of them.

The jittery mayor continued his story.  "I thought I was hallucinating at first or that the sunlight was reflecting strangely off the windows or something, but my associate saw the same thing.  It only lasted a few seconds but when it stopped, there were these...other buildings that weren't there before.  They were huge, and they just went on and on in either direction."  Dark Horse sighed deeply as his stomach began to knot.  "A, uh...a-a few minutes later, we saw below at ground level that the streets were suddenly flooding, like a river just came plowing through the city without warning.  When the water stopped coming, it must have been a floor or two high.  I-I can't imagine how many ponies drowned when it all happened."

Hearing the tale again left the Princesses visibly shaken, as it did Twilight and the others.  Even Matt wasn't prepared to hear such a grim story.  Unfortunately, he knew there was more.  Dark Horse hadn't explained yet why he was reminded of the human in the first place.

"I'm sorry," Matt said in a solemn, hushed tone.  "What happened next?"

"Well, after we stopped panicking, we ran up to the roof to see if we could get a better view of...whatever these other buildings were, maybe see if we could figure out where they came from or...something.  When we got up there, I could have sworn that I saw some movement at the top of the skyscrapers across the way, but my eyes aren't that good.  With everything that was going on, I knew I was going to need to ask Celestia and Luna for help but I wanted to show them exactly what had occurred.  If I simply told them what was happening, I didn't figure they'd believe me.  I mean, saying it now sounds crazy.

"Anyway, one of my bodyguards was a pegasus, so I had him race over to one of the newspapers nearby and get somepony with a good camera out there.  About fifteen minutes later, he and a camerapony returned.  I told the kid to fly over and see what he could find, snap a few shots and be careful about it.  If he saw anything unusual about any of the buildings, take a picture.  Maybe the Princesses would recognize something, right?"

The mayor turned to the Princesses and met Celestia's eyes.  She nodded and hovered a file folder she was keeping beside her throne that Dark Horse had given her earlier over to Matt.  He took it in his hand and sat down in the middle of the girls so they could get a good look as well.  The mayor crept over as Matt opened the folder and revealed the first of at least two dozen photographs.

Matt had been told of various big cities Equestria had before – Manehattan, Fillydelphia, Whinnyapolis – and the first several shots didn't show him anything significant; the pictures were of what appeared to be ordinary large buildings he'd expect to see in such places.  However, the clear shot of a section of a skyline made pause.  Something about it was remarkably familiar.  When it finally hit him, his eyes burst open and he very nearly forgot to breathe.

"Ohhh God..."

He cautiously sifted through a few more shots, coming across a towering spire sitting off-center in the picture and, in another photo, the top of another steeple with its two visible sides layered with several arches shrinking in size as they reached their peak.  Yet another photo spoke to him, this time with a single word:  Metlife.  The second half of the stack was littered with pictures containing what he was afraid to see the most – dozens upon dozens of people standing on the rooftops.  Most of them were dressed for business, some staring at the camera, some looking around trying to assess the situation, nearly every one confused and terrified.  The photos were clearly taken from a distance, but there was no mistaking their content.

Matt felt his own wave of terror creeping into his being, his heart ready to burst through his chest.  Applejack saw the fear in his eyes and took hold of his arm, trying to calm him, but she could feel him shivering to the bone.

"Now you see why I was reminded of you and your newspaper article," Dark Horse commented.  The folder began to slip from Matt's limp hand, but the mayor caught it and its contents before they fell to the floor, clutching it to his chest.  "After a few days, the waters finally began to subside enough for us to get a train out of the city.  My council agreed that I had to get here to Canterlot as soon as I could and inform the Princesses of the goings-on in the city, see if we could get some help.  Maybe see if they had any idea where a...where a whole other city may have come from."

The stallion shifted uncomfortably and glanced up at the Princesses.  So far, he had recanted his story for Matt and the others step by step.  All three knew what he was going to tell them next.  Though Dark Horse himself had no real idea exactly what he had been looking at when he finally managed to get out of the city limits, Celestia was able to inform him thanks to a recent visit to Ponyville.  She nodded glumly at him, and, taking in a deep breath, he continued.

"We got lucky that the bridge out of Manehattan didn't collapse thanks to all the extra water pounding on its support beams.  But once I was out of the city, I was able to get a good look at a few things that I couldn't see before as the train veered south."

"L-like what?"

"Well, from what I could tell, several of this city's blocks were sitting on land–"

"Wait, what?"

"Err, yes, maybe eight or nine blocks is my estimate, based on what I saw.  I doubt the numbers are accurate though, was just a guess."

Matt shook his head, growing increasingly baffled and terrified.  "That doesn't make any sense."

"Well, a city did just...appear.  I don't think any of it–"

"No no no, it's supposed to be an island," Matt clarified, staring at the floor as he tried to piece together the perplexing development.

A hoof found its way onto his shoulder, but the human didn't react.  "You know where this is, don't you?" Twilight asked.

"Yeah...it's called Manhattan."  Twilight and her friends shared a curious look.  Even the Princesses cocked their heads at the familiar-sounding name.  The coincidence wasn't lost on the human either.  "Guess it lends support to the notion we've talked about that our worlds have met before somehow."

"If it's true, I sincerely doubt it happened like it has been recently.  You know that I know practically everything about Equestrian history and I've never heard of anything like this happening before," the unicorn stated.

"Nor have we," Luna added.

"Wait, you mean you've dealt with something like this before?"

Biting her tongue, Twilight's eyes met with her mentor's.  Celestia nodded again.  There wasn't any reason to hide the truth from somepony who'd experienced more in a matter of hours than they had over the course of several days.

"Yes," she admitted to the mayor.  "The largest thing that we had been aware of appearing out of nowhere has been part of a shopping plaza, I think.  This is just...way more than we expected."

"Yeah, to say this is out of the ordinary is the understatement of the year," Dark Horse muttered before clearing his throat.  "Err, as I was saying, it looked like several blocks of the city had...I suppose you could say landed?...on the mainland.  From what I could see, there were a pair of bridges that had to have been sticking out from this new land mass in a southwesterly direction – at least it would be southwesterly if the bridges were a part of Manehattan.  I believe I saw a third one jutting out over the water further east of them in the distance.

"It was weird.  The bridges didn't look as if, say, a boat had collided with them and torn them apart.  It looked as if they were just...sliced, like a hot knife through butter.  The two that were close to each other came to an end over the land, and from my window, I saw...well, I'm not sure," the stallion said, pursing his lips.  Matt looked up at the dark blue pony, worried that he knew exactly what had been witnessed.  "There were these...they looked like metal things–"

"With black wheels crunched up into piles on the ground," Matt interjected.

The stallion paused, recalling a few bits and pieces.  He bit his lip as he went to answer.  "Yes, that's right.  I imagine there were probably more of those wheeled things that fell into the ocean if that was another bridge further away.  What are those?"

"They're like a motorized carriage we control from the seat."

"Oh."  Dark Horse's face went pale when he realized exactly what he saw.  "Oh my..."

"What is it?" Applejack asked.  Matt replied with a wordless gesture, mimicking the last few seconds of who knew how many peoples' lives with a single finger arcing down and hitting the floor.  A gasp or two escaped his friends as they all eventually pieced together what he was saying.  Some stood in shock; others mourned the tragic loss.

"How many did you see?"

The mayor's eyes shifted as he tried to remember the tally.  With a wince, he responded, "At least a few dozen.  Maybe more."

"And who knows how many are at the bottom of the river back home right now," Matt whispered.  His brow furrowed as another real – and unsettling – possibility occurred to him.  "You said that several blocks made landfall, right?"

"Err, yes, why?"

"Did you happen to see anything like abandoned cars...uh, vehicles...or see any people walking out of the city from there?"

Dark Horse tapped his chin and closed his eyes, sifting through his memories hard.  "I don't think so.  Granted, I didn't stick around to watch, but I'm really not sure.  It's possible that, if there are any authorities in this Manhattan place, they tried to prevent that from happening, but who can really say?  It's what I'd do in such a situation, at least."

"Pfff, yeah, they have a few of those," the human growled under his breath.

"As would I," Celestia added.  "Curious, just how many of your kind does this city hold anyway?"

It took a moment for him to respond but not because he didn't know the answer.  His bitten lip and refusal to make eye contact made the alicorn raise a concerned eyebrow.  As Matt's silence dragged, his six friends shifted their gazes at him one after the other, and he could feel the weight of their eyes bearing down on him.

"Uh...well, the entire city of New York is made up of several – oh, what are they called? – boroughs, I think it was."

"What do you mean 'the entire city'?" Applejack queried.  "You sayin' this Manhattan is a small part of something else?"

"...Yeah."

"H-how many people does the whole thing have in it?"

"Ohhh, uh...a-about eight million or so," he mumbled.

Nine mouths fell open in varying degrees of shock.  The photo folder slid out of Dark Horse's grasp and collapsed all over the floor.

"Eight...million?!  In a single city?!" Twilight eventually blurted.

He chewed on his lip again.  "Manhattan's only got a couple million of them I think, something like that."

"'Only'?!"

"Why?  H-how many does Manehattan have?"

"About six hundred and fifty thousand or so," Dark Horse muttered.  "It's one of the biggest city's in Equestria, but...nothing like that.  Jeez, if even ten, heck, five percent of the population of that place left the city, there's no telling what would happen!  They're probably all going out of their minds like the citizens of Manehattan are, and I don't think I need to tell anypony just how dangerous large numbers of ponies can get when they're panicking."

"Yeah, no kidding."  The throne room went eerily silent as the impact of Matt's bombshell trickled away.  While they stood frozen, the worried stallion realized his mess and snatched up the folder on the floor.  After collecting several pictures, the rest began to glow yellow and coalesced into a neat little pile.  The whispered hum of Celestia's magic was the only sound aside from the flapping of paper until the human spoke up again.  "Um...is there anything else?"

The politician stuffed the folder under his forelimb again, tighter this time.  "Err, yes, there is one last thing.  The day after this all originally happened, I saw this greyish cloud overtop this new place.  I didn't think anything of it at first, but the following day, it looked...a little larger.  I noticed when I was finally on the way here that it appeared even bigger.  I'm not really sure what to make of it."

"People were probably freaking out and burning things," Matt reasoned.

"Eh, I don't know.  I didn't see any smoke billowing from anywhere, so I don't believe it had to do with a fire.  Plus, it simply didn't look as if it would have been born from a fire anyway; it wasn't thick and black or anything like that."

"A stray raincloud?" Rainbow suggested.

"I've never seen one sit in one place, get bigger and bigger, and then never rain," Dark Horse retorted.  "I'm sorry, but I just don't have any answer."

The young man stared at the mayor, quickly replaying everything they had all discussed in his mind.  With a shake of his head, a snigger escaped his lips.  "Luna, can I ask how in the hell any of this can be considered good luck like you said?"

"We were actually discussing that before you arrived.  Dark Horse informed us of this peculiar 'cloud' earlier.  We too had difficulties as we tried to identify its source.  Such a thing did not seem to be present at or around any of the objects that any of us have had the opportunity to look over upon their arrival."  Luna spied Twilight with an inquisitive eyebrow raised, silently asking the young unicorn if the same was true for her.  She shrugged and shook her head, affirming the Princess' belief.  "Because of this, we believe that it may hold a clue to solving this problem plaguing Equestria."

"I suppose that's possible," Twilight muttered.  "It's true we never found anything either.  Even the live dog I told you about the other day didn't yield any results.  I was hoping to find something on a living creature if I had the opportunity to study one, but we got nothing out of it."

"What about that girl Tina I told you about?" Matt asked.  "Any word about her yet?"

"I'm afraid not," Celestia answered.  "We still have another day before the guards I sent out return anyway.  But, my sister is correct.  This could very well be the key to fixing this, or at least a good first step.  I suggest you return home tonight to get whatever supplies you feel you need, but we'll need you on the first train tomorrow morning."

The girls nodded and thanked the Princesses, as well as Dark Horse, for the information – as dire as it was.  Matt slowly got to his feet as the others turned to leave, but instead of making his way back to the train station, he turned back to the alicorns.

"Um, I'm honestly not sure if the train would be the best idea."

Applejack, Twilight and the rest spun back around, dumbfounded at the objection.  It wasn't often someone said no to the rulers of the land.

"We do need to make haste and it is the most efficient way," Celestia countered.  "Could you elaborate?"

"Well, you remember that tree you found down the street that was sticking out of that shop or whatever?  What if something like that appears on the train tracks somewhere in the middle of the night?  We probably wouldn't be able to get around it and then we'd be stuck walking for God knows how far," the young man explained.

The sisters looked at each other in thought with the younger tapping at her chin.  "He does make a fair point."

"Look at it this way too," he added, garnering their attention.  "We don't really know just yet if that cloud thing is the reason for what's happening or if it's a clue or anything.  Yeah, we're going to find that out, but even if the track is clear and we happen to be passing by another...whatever, we should still check it out and I doubt the engineer or the other passengers would appreciate the constant stops we may have to make – if they'd even let us.  The real problem could be on the way there and it'd be a lot harder for us to do anything about it."

"He does have that red vehicle," the elder recalled.  "How fast could you arrive in your...car, was it called?"

"Yeah.  How far away's Manehattan from Ponyville?"

"Four hundred and seven-point-three-two miles," Twilight replied.  Her ridiculously precise answer received several dry looks.  "He asked."

"Gotta get that point-three-two miles in there," he said with snark.

Matt hadn't driven around much since finding the Blazer; gasoline wasn't a luxury Equestria had.  Since it came to be in his possession, he hadn't bothered to read the owner's manual and check important things like the vehicle's gas mileage.  Still, if he remembered right, he had a little under three-quarters of a tank.

"Well, if I'm going to be driving mostly on grass and assuming no unnecessary stops, I could probably get there in...maybe half a day at the most.  If all of Equestria's roads were made of concrete, I could get there in, like, five hours, but that's not the case."  He pursed his lips.  "But even if I do make it, I wouldn't be able to drive back here.  Not enough fuel for a return trip.  Though if we're so close to Manehattan, we could just take the train back I suppose.  Or...steal a car if it came right down to it, provided we fail to send the city back."

The Princesses blinked in disbelief at his suggestion.  His friends could only frown in disappointment.  With a knowing smirk, he fired back, "Come on, how would it be any different than what I've done with the car I have now?  Really?"

"Because you said you'd return this one if the owners showed up," Rainbow Dash reminded him.

"And I'd be using the other one to get you home," Matt snapped.  "Trust me, with everything that's probably been going on up there, we want to get in and out of that place as discreetly and quickly as possible.  If that means I gotta steal a car to keep you safe, then so be it.  If we send the city back, then, yeah, we'll have no choice but to take the train back here."

"So, it's the possibility of speed versus the certainty of versatility," Celestia reiterated, narrowing her eyes as she mentally compared both ideas.

"And the fact that getting home may suck."

Two worthwhile prospects without an easy call to make.  The older alicorn turned and nodded for her sister to approach.  The pair privately discussed both sides of the coin for several minutes, their whispers inaudible to their subjects.  Finally, the leaders finished their talk and Luna addressed the group.

"This is indeed an important decision, and both sides do present a strong case.  We've decided since you are the ones who will be going tomorrow that you will make the choice.  We simply ask that you make your decision by the time you arrive back in Ponyville.  Once you've decided, send a letter to me informing my sister and I of what you wish to do.  I'll let her know when it is received, even if she's asleep."

Matt and the others pondered her words, one by one nodding in agreement.  Seemed like a reasonable plan.  Though, now there wasn't any time to waste talking about travel arrangements or learning further, ultimately unnecessary, details about two cities in crisis.  It was starting to get late and they were already there longer than originally anticipated.

"Alright, that sounds fine," the human said.  "I guess if there's nothing else, we'll head out then."

"It appears everything has been touched on, yes," Celestia agreed.  "Dark Horse, we thank you for informing us of this tragic event and I assure you we will do everything in our power to help."

"Us too," Twilight added.

"Thank you, your Highnesses.  If it's alright, I'd like to head back in the morning myself.  The city councilponies will want to hear about this."

"Very well.  Matt, girls, I wish you all safe travels.  Good luck."