It is said that the city of Manehattan was built over its own ruins when it burned down hundreds of years ago in a freak fire.
Most of that story is legend but a fraction of it lived on in one part of the city, the ghetto, the one part of the city that has never been rebuilt.
The stone ruins of buildings dwarfed next to the rest of the green baoblock city.
Within the ruins, Stanley was traversing across the silent littered streets.
It was nothing Stan had ever felt before, he knew this area was poor, he knew about all the crime and unhappiness present in this area but the streets… the ruins… it was all so… peaceful... what ever horrid unspeakable thing had happened here, it was long over.
Stan found it hard to admit it but it felt amazing, the soothing silence, not a soul around, the litter and lack of law liberated one’s mind, freeing them from all the restrictions in their lives, everything that which Stan had to do on that day, everything he couldn’t do, nothing of it mattered, the only thing that mattered was here and now, the cloudless sunlight shone at the building skeletons setting a high contrast of white glare next to the pitch black shadows.
The cold breeze from the shadows mapping pleasant Goosebumps across Stan’s body, the nature ran wild, hedges and shrubs spurting out of the stone brick soil and the grass carpeting patches of what were floors hundreds of years ago.
It was a pleasant walk, one that Stanley wished would never end.
But all good things come to an end.
Stan stood in front of a hollow factory, whatever signs of life that thing had were gone decades ago.
This is the place
“You sure?”
Yes, inside, but be careful just in case, she’s known for being feisty.
Stan heeded the warning and entered through a window hole and lowered himself as quietly as possible.
The broken glass on the floor crackled invitingly.
Stan instantly hid behind a bulk of generic dusty crates.
Do you see her?
Stan cautiously peeked out onto the main area, the building was just a hollow shell, no assembly machines were present, no nothing, whatever was in this building was long gone.
Far up ahead on the other end a black figure stood hunched away from Stan in front of the only thing that broke up the rough outline of the littered floor, a table.
“I see somepony”
Can you make out anything else?
“No, I’d have to get closer”
Get closer then.
Stan had to squeeze his brain juice for this one, there was almost no cover apart from an ancient crate here and there but that wasn’t going to happen, the crates were so old that the rusty nails had probably given way long before he was even born and the years’ worth of rays bombarding the wood through the windows had annihilated most of it leaving pages of the wood’s harder rings dried up and most likely more brittle than a ponyphone’s screen.
Alas, an idea had greeted Stanley’s mind, if he can’t get closer from within, he’ll have to get closer from the outside, after all one can’t see through walls.
Stanley turned back to whence he came from ready for the stealth mission.
She’s seen us!
Stan turned around as a black bullet had barely missed him and annihilated the wall where he was supposed to be a second ago.
Stan, shocked looked at the attacker who was now in the place of the wall
It was a changeling mare, her silhouette beautiful with a single unbroken line and her wings in an impeccable pristine condition (easily a fashion model’s) contrasting with her golden glowing retinas.
Stan was going to remember this moment for the rest of his life, the being, her body so gentle and beautiful, colliding with the sharp cutting glow of her retinas.
Left buck!
As soon as Stan saw the mare getting ready to strike, he knew what the voice was trying to say.
Stan instantly swayed to the right, his shoulder chipped by her blow.
“W-wai-“
Right upper!
Stan crouched.
Front, center!
Stan stepped back.
The mare stopped for a second, then she took off to the air with no friction whatsoever and stood motionless as a hummingbird for a moment.
She’s taunting you, probably has the advantage in the air.
“It’s not like I can fly, Look Lady! I’m here-“
But Stan couldn’t finish what he was going to say because the beauty had already swooped and like a falcon grabbed him and was soaring vertically upwards to the old rusty ceiling.
“Wait! No! I can’t fly!”
But she wasn’t stopping; they were getting much too close to the roof.
The Mare with all the momentum she had swung Stan right towards the roof that gave way with practically no force and Stanley for a few seconds saw the bright day sky until gravity started acting on the changeling, bringing him back down.
He fell right back through another portion of the roof a few feet away from where he came out of moments ago and was now falling to his death, the mare looking down on him coldly from below the roof.
FLY!
“I CAN’T!”
SHOW HER ME!
Adrenaline took over Stan’s body that grabbed the pendant and was swaying it to get the mare’s attention.
“THE PENDANT!”
Stan closed his eyes bracing for impact.
A second later, he felt what he thought was the impact.
Surprisingly, dying wasn’t that painful.
Stan opened his eyes, he was floating a few feet away from the floor, he was being held up by the mare herself who harshly let go of him and landed gracefully in his line of sight.
“You’re not him”
“Y-yes I am, see?”
Stan waved the pendant he was wearing in front of her
“The voi-“
Don’t.
“Why?”
Keep it secret, trust me.
“Because you’re not the one who lives in the flat I left the package at”
“Yes I am”
“You’re that tall handsome changeling from 835?”
Something in Stan clicked.
“Oh, you probably mean Wally from 835B… our mail always gets mixed up, you see you must’ve-”
But the mare was already in front of him trying to take the pendant off
Don’t let her take me!
“Give it!”
“No!”
“It’s not a toy!”
“I-I know that!”
“Just… give…”
“No!”
Tell her that you can use the pendant’s power
"I can use its power!" replied Stanley as he was desperately holding onto that thing
The mare stopped at once.
“You… can use its power?”
“Yeah”
But don’t tell her about me
“Huh?”
Just tell her that the power makes you… know stuff
“All right then, what is it?”
“Well… I know stuff”
“Just because you know about the pendant doesn’t mean that-“
Ask her to ask you a personal question
“No, I KNOW stuff, look ask me a question”
“All, right… what’s my name?”
Cynthia
“Cynthia”
“Well… just because you know my name doesn’t mean that’s a power”
She’s rude, feisty and has no womanly charms at all…
Stan parroted the voice without thinking
“You’re rude, feisty and have no womanly charms at all”
“WHAT!”
Stan’s face was met with Cynthia’s left hook and she was getting ready for the second round, clearly livid.
“YOU…”
…because she never had any friends so she doesn’t know how to act in front of others.
“You should have said that sooner!” Stan whispered angrily, massaging his right cheek.
“You creep up on me and you think you can just insult me like this?”
“You had no friends and because of that you don’t know how to act in front of others, that’s why you’re like that!”
Cynthia’s face changed.
“How… how did you know that? I never told anybody about this”
Stan pointed at his pendant once again.
“…”
Cynthia gasped, maybe he was the one who could use the pendant's power
“Are you all right?” asked Stan, Cynthia for once was being unnaturally quiet
“Fine, but don’t think that being the rightful owner of the item doesn’t make us a couple”
“Wha- a c-couple?”
“How much do you know?”
“I don’t know, It depends on how much I use the pendant-“
“-Item, but that’s not what I mean you dumbass, I mean can you fight?”
“Uuuhhh…”
“Well?”
We have to go, we don’t know when they might show up
“Yeah, you’re right?”
“Right about what?”
“About going, we need to go now, we don’t know when they might show up”
“Go where?”
“I don’t know”
“You don’t know…”
“Well I was tol- I mean I know that I was supposed to meet you and you were supposed to take me somewhere”
“You’re weird”
Nice save.
“Thanks”
“That wasn’t a compliment, I wasn’t being sarcastic”
“I wasn’t talking to you”
That wasn’t a compliment, I was being sarcastic.
“Who… we’re the only two here, who were you talking to?”
“Uhhh… myself, I sometimes talk to myself”
“…Aaaaaaaanywayy now that you’re here we should get going to my uncle, he’ll know what to do, he always does”
How in the hay are we going to get to Discord’s realm? You’re probably already wanted all across Equestria.
“Discord’s realm? Your uncle lives all the way in Discord’s realm?”
“Is that a problem?”
“Uuuhhh… you heard of the term keeping your head low?”
“Yeah…”
“And do you know the definition of irony?”
Cynthia squinted her eyes, this seemed suspicious
“what did you do”
“Well, I may or may not be wanted”
“WHAT”
“But don’t worry, the explosion wasn’t my fault”
“EXPLOSION?!?”
“They tried to blow me up, they nearly managed, see?”
Stan showed her the horrid state of his wings.
Cynthia gasped, she didn’t like this newbie but nopony deserved what had happened to his wings.
“it… it really hurts in case you’re wondering
“If you want to ever use those again we’ve got to get going NOW”
“And how are we going to do that without getting caught?”
Cynthia pointed at her golden glowing retinas.
“I have my ways”
Stanley wasn’t sure if he could trust her, but as he was going to soon find out, that was the least of his worries.